Post by Patcat on Aug 19, 2010 8:14:44 GMT -5
Will air August 23, at 3am(EST) on the Bravo Network. First aired December 4, 2005. Ninth episode of Season Five.
Written by Diana Son and Rene Balcer. Directed by Marisol Torres.
Guest Actors:
Jennifer Van Dyck as Dr. Katrina Pynchon
D.J. Qualls as Robbie Boatman (Mr. Qualls received a lot of praise for his performance in the original discussion about this episode. He’s an accomplished actor with an interesting background. See www.imdb.com/name/nm0702809/ or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Qualls for more about him.)
Synopsis: The death of a computer programmer working on identification software leads Goren and Eames to another programmer and his troubled psychiatrist.
Quotes:
Kevin (to Robbie): Anybody tell you we’re off on Saturday?”
Goren: “At Fort Bragg, she trained soldiers to withstand psychological torture, now she’s expected to do the opposite at Gitmo.” Eames: “Teaching them to dish it out.”
Eames: “Neat trick, answering your email eight hours before you read it.”
Goren: “Yea, police work. Look, we doubt people, we challenge them, we assume the worst about them. Somehow it usually leads us to the truth, but this time it walked us right into a paranoid fantasy.”
Goren: “You know, you can help us out, we’re in over our heads with all this hi-tech stuff.” Eames: “He’s not kidding. Until six months ago, we had rotary phones.”
Eames (about Robbie): “He got me nervous.” Goren “Not half as nervous as he was.”
Pynchon: “We are fighting terrorists.” Goren: “With terror. “What does that make me?” Is that…is that what you ask yourself.”
Eames: “If he’s a murderer, somebody’s teaching him how not to act like one.”
Deakins: “I hear psychotic, I think murder.”
Goren: “He was here. This is where Robby spent his vacation.” Eames: “Well, it’s got one thing going for it. It’s secluded.”
Goren (about Fort Bragg program): “The people who would know wouldn’t tell us.”
Goren (listening to babies’ crying on CD): “It’s one of Dr. Pynchon’s CDs.” Deakins: “Used for what, birth control?”
Eames: “Everybody told us he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Torture changed him.” Goren: “Evil changes everybody.”
Queries:
I recommend a glance at the original discussion of this episode. I especially urge a look at the discussion of Goren’s character by Trisha and Sienna. Many people found this a confusing episode, with several thinking it needed more time, and that Dr. Pynchon broke too easily in the final aria. Others were troubled by snafus and inconsistencies. But a lot of people liked the scene where Bobby places an enormous amount of sugar in Alex’s coffee.
How did Robby move a 300 pound soda machine?
How long was Robby stalking Adrian?
What the heck was Adrian doing?
Who messed with Kevin’s door? Why?
How long can a psychotic break last?
Is this a case where only Goren, with his study of psychology and history of being in the military, could have solved the case?
Both Goren and Eames have experienced what I think could be considered torture. Has it changed them? If so, how?
What is Robby guilty of? Will/can he survive? Should he be in prison?
Was anything really wrong with Robby before his sister convinced him to see Dr. Pynchon?
Does Pynchon go out of her way to antagonize Goren? Is she another character who thinks she’s too smart for the detectives?
Is Robby’s sister to blame for anything?
Is there any basis for Dr. Pynchon to think her torture methods can help anyone? How guilty is she? Was she a victim as well? Is she, to use a blunt analogy, a good Nazi who’s trying not to be a good Nazi?
Did Goren go through a program like the one at Fort Bragg? Is this a program all soldiers go through? (I’d appreciate Techguy and any other military veteran’s perspective on all of this.)
Carver suggests that Goren and Eames use methods on suspects similar to those Dr. Pynchon uses on Robbie. They say they don’t, but do they?
Comments: Like many of those who posted in the original discussion, I was confused by this episode’s sudden leaps from the possibility of industrial espionage as the motivation and all the technical gobbly-gook to Robby. I just didn’t understand how all of that worked, and how Robby played into it. And I’m not sure how someone of Robbie’s size could push a vending machine so that it fell down the subway stairs. But I did understand and feel for Robby, a result of DJ Qualls’ wonderful performance. I wonder why his sister thought he needed help. He had a job he seemed to like and was good at, but then I didn’t have to live with him every day. I hoped for a great confrontation between Goren and Dr. Pynchon, and never got it. In the end, she seemed as weak and terrified as Robby, and I found that a very unsatisfactory ending.
In the end, I found this episode a mixed bag. What I liked, I liked a lot—including that sugar in the coffee scene, and the presentation of the moral quandaries involved in the interrogation of terrorism suspects. The rest, not so much. There were a lot of nice touches—Goren climbing all over stuff, Goren using his knife. I particularly liked the way Goren and Eames presented a unified front to Deakins and Carver. And there was Goren’s compassion for Robby when he gently told the young man that everything would be all right.
Offered, as always, for your comments and observations.
Patcat
Written by Diana Son and Rene Balcer. Directed by Marisol Torres.
Guest Actors:
Jennifer Van Dyck as Dr. Katrina Pynchon
D.J. Qualls as Robbie Boatman (Mr. Qualls received a lot of praise for his performance in the original discussion about this episode. He’s an accomplished actor with an interesting background. See www.imdb.com/name/nm0702809/ or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Qualls for more about him.)
Synopsis: The death of a computer programmer working on identification software leads Goren and Eames to another programmer and his troubled psychiatrist.
Quotes:
Kevin (to Robbie): Anybody tell you we’re off on Saturday?”
Goren: “At Fort Bragg, she trained soldiers to withstand psychological torture, now she’s expected to do the opposite at Gitmo.” Eames: “Teaching them to dish it out.”
Eames: “Neat trick, answering your email eight hours before you read it.”
Goren: “Yea, police work. Look, we doubt people, we challenge them, we assume the worst about them. Somehow it usually leads us to the truth, but this time it walked us right into a paranoid fantasy.”
Goren: “You know, you can help us out, we’re in over our heads with all this hi-tech stuff.” Eames: “He’s not kidding. Until six months ago, we had rotary phones.”
Eames (about Robbie): “He got me nervous.” Goren “Not half as nervous as he was.”
Pynchon: “We are fighting terrorists.” Goren: “With terror. “What does that make me?” Is that…is that what you ask yourself.”
Eames: “If he’s a murderer, somebody’s teaching him how not to act like one.”
Deakins: “I hear psychotic, I think murder.”
Goren: “He was here. This is where Robby spent his vacation.” Eames: “Well, it’s got one thing going for it. It’s secluded.”
Goren (about Fort Bragg program): “The people who would know wouldn’t tell us.”
Goren (listening to babies’ crying on CD): “It’s one of Dr. Pynchon’s CDs.” Deakins: “Used for what, birth control?”
Eames: “Everybody told us he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Torture changed him.” Goren: “Evil changes everybody.”
Queries:
I recommend a glance at the original discussion of this episode. I especially urge a look at the discussion of Goren’s character by Trisha and Sienna. Many people found this a confusing episode, with several thinking it needed more time, and that Dr. Pynchon broke too easily in the final aria. Others were troubled by snafus and inconsistencies. But a lot of people liked the scene where Bobby places an enormous amount of sugar in Alex’s coffee.
How did Robby move a 300 pound soda machine?
How long was Robby stalking Adrian?
What the heck was Adrian doing?
Who messed with Kevin’s door? Why?
How long can a psychotic break last?
Is this a case where only Goren, with his study of psychology and history of being in the military, could have solved the case?
Both Goren and Eames have experienced what I think could be considered torture. Has it changed them? If so, how?
What is Robby guilty of? Will/can he survive? Should he be in prison?
Was anything really wrong with Robby before his sister convinced him to see Dr. Pynchon?
Does Pynchon go out of her way to antagonize Goren? Is she another character who thinks she’s too smart for the detectives?
Is Robby’s sister to blame for anything?
Is there any basis for Dr. Pynchon to think her torture methods can help anyone? How guilty is she? Was she a victim as well? Is she, to use a blunt analogy, a good Nazi who’s trying not to be a good Nazi?
Did Goren go through a program like the one at Fort Bragg? Is this a program all soldiers go through? (I’d appreciate Techguy and any other military veteran’s perspective on all of this.)
Carver suggests that Goren and Eames use methods on suspects similar to those Dr. Pynchon uses on Robbie. They say they don’t, but do they?
Comments: Like many of those who posted in the original discussion, I was confused by this episode’s sudden leaps from the possibility of industrial espionage as the motivation and all the technical gobbly-gook to Robby. I just didn’t understand how all of that worked, and how Robby played into it. And I’m not sure how someone of Robbie’s size could push a vending machine so that it fell down the subway stairs. But I did understand and feel for Robby, a result of DJ Qualls’ wonderful performance. I wonder why his sister thought he needed help. He had a job he seemed to like and was good at, but then I didn’t have to live with him every day. I hoped for a great confrontation between Goren and Dr. Pynchon, and never got it. In the end, she seemed as weak and terrified as Robby, and I found that a very unsatisfactory ending.
In the end, I found this episode a mixed bag. What I liked, I liked a lot—including that sugar in the coffee scene, and the presentation of the moral quandaries involved in the interrogation of terrorism suspects. The rest, not so much. There were a lot of nice touches—Goren climbing all over stuff, Goren using his knife. I particularly liked the way Goren and Eames presented a unified front to Deakins and Carver. And there was Goren’s compassion for Robby when he gently told the young man that everything would be all right.
Offered, as always, for your comments and observations.
Patcat