About Last Night…THE GREAT NORTH, LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME, CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION, and More

Let’s talk about Thursday night’s TV!

BOB’S BURGERS: Oh my God, the sweat conspiracy was insane, but also kind of perfect. It was exactly the kind of weird rabbit hole kids might stumble down.

TRANSPLANT: Well, I truly didn’t expect Bash and Mags to end up so thoroughly back in each other’s orbit this soon in the season…

FAMILY GUY: Well…I’m shocked this episode got away with as much as it did. It’s often toed the line, obviously, but networks seem so nervous around anything sexual. And…

THE GREAT NORTH: I know he got too comfortable with the interactive theater, but I felt so bad for Beef’s lingering trauma. I’m glad he was at least able to get over his fears and realize he was stepping on his daughter’s toes.

(I know it was wrong, but I laughed at Wolf and Honeybee helping Moon scam people with the door-to-door jerky sales. At least they were creative!)



LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: It was absolutely fascinating watching Elliot deal with his loyalty, time, and attention being split in this episode. And, again, as much as I love and miss Bell and Reyes, some of it only worked because they weren’t here.

First of all, poor Bernie. It’s wild the Stabler family has never had any conversations about what comes next, because, uh, yeah. She’s in her 90s. She has medical conditions. It’s not fun, but it’s necessary.

But I loved that we had Kathleen, Elliot, and Randall there—the three (family) caretakers for Bernie, in very different mindsets, and with different approaches. Notably, Kathleen telling Elliot about the book she was reading about preparing for the loss of a loved one was beautifully tragic and spoke so much to the character and what she/the family has been through. Obviously, Kathleen has survived the death of her mom, but that loss was sudden, tragic, and something she had to cope with in the aftermath. (Not to mention dealing with her brother and father being back in town, a madman targeting her family, etc.)

Elliot and Randall lost their father in a similar fashion—at least unexpectedly, though by different circumstances. We don’t know what happened to the mysteriously missing sibling (or if they’ve been retconned out of existence), but as far as we know, this is the first close person in the Stabler family who will be dying with some element of warning. It’s a different kind of grief/loss process when you know it’s coming, for better or worse. Clearly, these men are not prepared for it. I love that Kathleen is being proactive and trying to help her dad so they don’t all find themselves blindsided with grief again.

As this was going on, Elliot was also trying to work, too. While he was pretty amenable when he was told to leave work or the hospital, him not having Bell and Reyes also meant he could get away with a bit more. Bell would have had her eye on him constantly, might have literally driven him home because she knows and cares about him. (Not to mention, she would have been texting Randall.) Tanner and Vargas deferred a bit more to him. (Heck, the bomb squad captain acknowledged that despite their rank differences, he was there because he trusted Elliot.)

But that also made it interesting watching this new, open, vulnerable mindset that Elliot has undertaken this season co-exist with the man who rushed into de-arming a bomb because he couldn’t lose another person. It’s so important Elliot is able to be open with his feelings—acknowledging and thanking Randall for what he’s done for Bernie, trying to actively listen to Kathleen as she was talking to him about Bernie—but being that emotionally raw can be a hazard on the job*. Elliot mentioned compartmentalizing to his therapist earlier in the season, and it feels like finding that actual balance is the key for him going forward. There’s a difference between compartmentalizing and burying; so frequently in his life, he’s done the latter while calling it the former. So he needs to get used to a lot. But, man, it remains so nice to see Elliot be so open with the people he loves.



And we got Kathleen telling Elliot how proud she was to be his daughter! That always would have hit so hard—as someone who has extensively covered “Swing” over the past few years, I get emotional every time I think about how far Elliot/Kathleen and Elliot/Bernie have come since then—but it meant so much more this year when Eli has been actively rejecting his father at every turn. No, Elliot is/was not perfect (who is?), but he would do anything for his children. It’s so sad how shocked he seemed by Kathleen’s sentiment; it speaks to how infrequently he gets any kind of positive reinforcement from his family at this point. It also feels like she’s the only one of his kids who actually sees him. But what a gift to have Chris Meloni and Allison Siko together, to have the weight of their decades on-screen together even in the smallest of moments.

Of course, things are only going to get worse for the Stabler family. “Know that I love you”…Joey, what are you doing? Even if you’re okay with dying, think about your mother?! At least let Elliot try to help you.

A few other thoughts…

• *For as much as I still don’t want to talk about the tremors, I am relieved(-ish) that this episode seemed to confirm it was emotional versus physical. (Stop getting TBIs, Elliot.) It’s still a danger, it’s still seriously concerning, a la his PTSD in season 1, but that is at least something that can hopefully be fixed.
• “What’re you talking about, glaring?” – Elliot Stabler, while literally glaring.
• I’m sorry, Joe Jr. being born in 1989 was always a bit messy/illogical when it was mentioned last season. But now Bernie is 92? I have questions.
• If Elliot Stabler had a dollar for every time he was near an explosion, he could buy another piece of jewelry for a certain NYPD captain.
• I laughed out loud at the look of panic on Vargas’ face. (Bell is gonna kick Elliot’s ass when she gets back, by the way.)
• At this point, Elliot should tell every single person he knows that if they get a message from him summoning them to the hospital, they should check in with him first. (Relatedly, did anyone get a season 1 finale/Wheatley tricking Olivia vibes the second that voicemail played? Sigh. Poor Tanner.)
• Relatedly: I also really liked Tanner and hope they can find a way to incorporate her into the show going forward.
• It is so funny that Elliot and Randall love to play the “least favorite” son game with each other, even in the middle of trauma and stress. So real, so cute.
• “I savor every moment with you.” (This is how I feel about you, OC.)

CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION: Well, we knew JJ wasn’t going to stay away from work, but I thought the show—and the team—handled her return very well. It was so heartening to see Prentiss and Garcia step up in their own ways (both of which were helpful to JJ!) to show how thoroughly they would be there for her.

But. Yeah. JJ is not okay. The end? Her smile? I’m terrified. 

Honestly, I was really impressed with the case before the final twist. Organ theft is always deeply disturbing, but the dual motives of the partners made things interestingly messy: One was trying to save his daughter, while the other was in it for the money. And because they had different priorities, it felt clear something was going to break at some point…and it could have feasibly been either.

And I felt absolutely awful for Ariel when she realized what her father had done in her name. Not only did she have to contend with the guilt of what he had done, but she literally could not escape it—the proof/evidence was on her body. I don’t blame her for killing him and it’s absolutely awful she ended up dying, too.

But, man, the Tyler of it all was unexpectedly fantastic. Him carrying out Ariel, who had been trapped inside, to get some fresh air/see the sky before she died was heartbreaking. And the scene on the plane in the aftermath as he was trying to deal with his guilt and Prentiss made it clear there was no good answer/solution to the problem was just fantastic. Fantastic leadership, fantastic acting, fantastic writing.



LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION: I have really loved seeing Breanna get to shine this season. She was so fun in this episode, as she had to deal with the malicious polycule. Also, that retreat is my hell. (And that’s even before we get to Parker’s shenanigans to scare them.)

Which shows did you watch last night?

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