The Equalizer - The People Aren't Ready - Review: "Play Nice"

I made a few assumptions about this episode when I saw the previews. Those assumptions were completely wrong. (Love when that happens.)

NYPD finally has their vigilante in custody. But it was not Mallory who got the credit. Robyn arrested herself!

Client:  A man wants Robyn protect his son from himself.

Robyn’s client is Carlos Ramos, the grandfather of a young man, Luis, waiting for his trial date while, essentially, serving time in prison. The stress of the situation drives Luis to attempt suicide.

Luis’s father, Hector, is so angry that Carlos is worried Hector will do something he can’t walk away from.

Last week Mallory came to the annoyingly wise conclusion that to catch his prey, he should follow Dante.

Robyn is concerned that Hector might be a threat to the District Attorney, which obligates Robyn to warn her. She chooses to pass the information on to the authorities through Dante.

When he sees Dante rush out of the office, Mallory follows him. He sees Robyn talking to Dante and moves in.

Robyn spots Mallory moving in and orders Dante to handcuff her. (Man, I wish I were capable of that kind of swift analytical thinking.)

In Mallory’s defense the move doesn’t fool him, but there is nothing he can really do about it.

Once Robyn was in custody, both the DA and Mallory attempted to intimidate her into giving up her name and Hector’s.

Robyn has gone up against warlords. New York City has yet to offer up anything that makes her nervous. It was fun watching them try.

It was pretty clear, even before Mel and Harry broke into that room, that Hector was being set up to take the fall.

More interesting was what happened when DA Grafton was brought into the “killing room”.

Robyn, Mel, Harry, and Dante disrupted the plan so much that ADA Ellis, the guy Dante punched out prior to the pilot, was forced to out himself as being involved with a mob called the Bridgetown Clique.

I really did’t think Ellis was capable of getting his hands dirty, even it it meant saving his own life.

I didn’t expect them to hand the gun to Hector. When Hector refused to shoot DA Grafton, I thought Ellis was going to be forced to fire the gun.

Judging from the expression on Grafton’s face, she did not expect it either. The biggest surprise of the episode was Grafton being a human being.

I wasn’t surprised that she let Robyn go. It also made sense that she would thank Hector by ensuring Luis was released.

I was surprised that I believed her when she promised to look into other similar cases.

I like the way this show looks at current events.

These writers do a good job of presenting an issue without breaking the storytelling by preaching.

They presented this real current issue in our society, then focused the story on Robyn’s mission. Nicely done.

Client:  Kisha, Robyn’s cellmate.

Robyn didn’t waste her time staring at the walls.

Kisha, a young woman sharing Robyn’s cell, greeted Robyn by trying to prove she was the toughest person in the room. She very quickly learned that she was not.

Robyn’s heart is big. When she overheard Kisha telling her lawyer that jail time was preferable to court-ordered therapy, she stepped in.

Robyn convinced Kisha to go into therapy and promised to be there if she ever needed anything.

It’s not the first time that Robyn’s mentioned that someone stepped in to help her, when she was young. I don’t think this is the last time we’ll see Robyn paying that debt forward.

Family Life:  Vi and Delilah deal with the knowledge of Robyn’s arrest.

I was really happy with they way they handed Vi and Delilah’s reaction to Robyn’s arrest.

Delilah was very much a teenager as she tried to finagle a way to get a $1500.00 cellphone.

So it was really nice to see her react to the information that Robyn was in jail with a bit of maturity.

Asking Robyn to let them know how they can help, if she’s ever in real trouble, seemed perfectly reasonable to me. Of course the first thought there is leaving them a way to find Bishop’s phone number. Although, I hope that never happens.

As I said I enjoyed this episode more than I expected to, after watching the teaser last week. Not to wish her ill but I do hope we get to see Kisha again. I really liked the actress.

What did you guys think of the episode?