The Equalizer - Eye for an Eye - Review

Client:  Robyn, Harry, and Mel are attacked.

I have never liked the ‘start in the middle of an episode followed by an umpteen’ hours earlier reset opening of any show. Personally, I think it's lazy writing. I thought it was a particularly bad decision for this episode.

If they had started the episode at the scene where Robyn is working on her Dad's car, the unexpected attack would have had a much stronger impact.

They blew the opportunity to catch the audience completely off guard, forcing us to stay in our seats through the commercial lest we miss one moment of figuring out what was going to happen next.

That decision was just so frustrating.

Regardless of my frustration, I was all in for finding out what was going on.

Thank you Harry for listening to your wife and getting some backup before heading out to surveil that white van.

After watching Dante walk into so many dangerous situations without backup, it was refreshing to see someone exhibit some common sense.

It didn't keep Harry out of danger, but it was the smart thing to do.

As exhibited by the fact that a bad guy was waiting for them.

Had it just been Harry, he definitely would have been taken at that moment.

Harry also illustrated why you shouldn't carry a gun if you don't know how to handle a gun. He lost that thing pretty quickly.

In different circumstances, it would have been really quick for a bad guy to get Harry’s gun and shoot him with it.

Stoned Dante was fairly entertaining.

Is there hope for us getting to see the romance blossom between Robyn and Dante? A date maybe?

The only real problem I had with this story was having Michelle blame Robyn for what happened at the end of that mission.

There wasn't enough cause there for me to believe that she would go to these extremes to exact revenge against Robyn.

Against Bishop, maybe, but I wasn't really convinced that she'd blame Robyn.

Robyn was her peer on that mission. She held no responsibility for any of the decisions made on that mission.

Why would Robyn be expected to know, after the building was hit ("flattened") by a missile, that anyone would believe someone was still alive inside.

The logic just didn't hold up for me and it was distracting.

I think the logic of the episode would have worked if Bishop were still on the canvas. He was the man in charge. His relationship with Robyn was special and well known.

A plan to hurt Bishop by torturing and killing Robyn (and even Mel, Harry and Dante by extension) would make a lot more sense.

But attacking a peer? It just didn't work as well as I wanted it to.

Family Life:  Vi and Delilah find themselves in a hostage situation.

The best thing about the hostage story was the fact that Delilah implemented one of her mother's lessons and did it well.

I think her more experienced mother would have left more quickly.

Let's face it, Robyn would have disarmed the guy before he had a chance to pull his weapon.

It seemed as though Delilah questioned her reading of Drake's body language, and it caused her to hesitate a little too long. Completely understandable.

The setup to this sequence worked really well for me.

But I could have done without Vi's hostage negotiation segment. It didn't really bother me, I just didn’t really care.

Overall it was a pretty satisfying episode and a decent season finale. Not as much of an edge of your seat cliffhanger as last season, but I did poke my lip out when I realized it was a cliffhanger.

It's been a mixed season for me. Unfortunately, the ratio of mediocre episodes to really good episodes put a damper on the season, but this was a satisfying way to head into the break.

What did you think of the episode? The Season?