Sentinel recaps: 3x06 and 3x07
Jul. 1st, 2007 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zelempaIn this installment, I become obsessed with Blair's sideburns. (HEY. THEY STARTED IT.)
3x06 Vendetta
A woman leads a team of thieves breaking into a high-rise.
Jim and Blair stalk down the street to the truck, arguing. "I'm not in the mood for one your touchy-feely lectures," Jim snaps. "Look, just because the DA's not going to press charges, do not take it out on me!" Blair yells back. Apparently Jim is upset because he eyewitnessed a woman being robbed, but his testimonial will never be accepted because it relies on his super-senses. As he pulls out of a parking spot, he nearly runs a couple of cars off the road. Still angry, he accuses the other cars of going too fast.
One of the wronged drivers follows Jim, yelling and honking his horn. Blair notes that Jim's senses seemed to be suppressed because of his anger, and wants to study further. Jim is not interested. The wronged driver now gets out of his car and comes up to bang on the window and yell, scaring Blair. Jim gets out and puts the guy against the hood and makes fun of his cologne ("It's imported!" shouts the guy) and the guy continues ranting and threatening a harrassment suit. He also calls Blair a wannabe hippie. "Hey, man," says Blair. Did I mention that Blair has pointy sideburns this week? Because he does. They're kind of silly. Jim and Wronged Driver are still yelling at each other when Simon calls Jim's cell to inform him about the high-rise theft.
As Jim and Blair are driving away, Wronged Driver--whose name is Freeman, so I'm just going to call him that--gets Jim's license number. (For those of you playing at home, it's 804 GDT.) We follow Freeman back to his apartment where he has finds a notice to vacate and a message from his psychiatrist on his phone, imploring him to come back to counseling. Freeman mutters that "nobody really cares" and "you're all the same" and takes a gun and shoots the notebook with Jim's name and license number. Great, our bad guy has debilitating psychological problems. This makes him much less fun to root against.
Freeman hacks into the motor vehicle registry site using some kind of program that gives him the password ("intersection") and finds out Jim's address. FYI, you can all send your love notes to:
James J. Ellison
852 Prospect Ave
Cascade, WA 98765
Note the lack of an apartment number. I would surmise that Jim, like Blair, gives out the station as his address to impress girls (and/or DMV employees), but it becomes plot-important that this is actually Jim's correct address, so. Maybe there is only one apartment? But then why do Jim and Blair have to get there by elevator? God, show, you only had to make up one little address--one! both of the main characters live in the same apartment!--and you couldn't get that right!
No, come back, show, I love you. I'm sorry.
Jim investigates the broken-into safe while Blair despairs for humanity to Simon.
BLAIR: As an anthropologist, I have to wonder what it is about our culture that breeds these type of criminals.
SIMON: I think it's the money.
Jim finds a partial print. Blair continues to have silly sideburns.
Elevator to Jim and Blair's numberless apartment. Jim sniffs the air while Blair theorizes about lack of control and need to vent frustrations as a cause of crime, complying with Jim's request to see the bottom of his shoes without slowing his motormouth. Blair can't find the key he leaves above the door, and Jim gives him his. They find a giant pile of horse manure in their living room.
At the station, Simon laughs at them and gives them a lead, an Australian jeweler. They go to question him and Blair gets distracted by his aboriginal jewelery. When they emerge, they find Jim's car about to be towed: someone reported it stolen. Jim spots Freeman's car down the street and gets the license number.
After learning about Freeman from his own legal access to the registry, Jim bitches about him to Simon at the station.
SIMON: Did you provoke this guy?
JIM: I got a little ticked off...
BLAIR: Yeah, well you've been getting a little too ticked off, too easily lately.
JIM: Was I talking to you?!
BLAIR (wide-eyed enthusiasm): See, that it's right there!
The conversation is sidetracked when Simon gets a call identifying the partial print Jim found as the jeweler's.
Somehow the jeweler's information leads to a chance for Jim to pose undercover as a Texan safe expert. Blair and his silly sideburns excitedly push the idea to Simon, explaining how Jim's Sentinel abilities will allow him to crack safes, and Simon finally relents. Alone with Jim, Blair admits to misgivings, since the gang will kill Jim if they find out he's a plant. Jim tells him not to worry. Then he notices they're being trailed by Freeman. He swerves off the road as Blair cries "What are you, nuts?", gets out, and hauls Freeman out of his car to yell at him. Blair has to drag him away.
Adorable scene where Jim is trying to learn a Texas accent by watching episode after episode of Bonanza ("Did you know each of the sons had a different mother?") and Blair rants "Lorne Green is about as old west as William Shatner, which is fitting, since they're both CANADIAN, JIM." Then he puts on a cute Texan lilt.
Jim meets Melanie, the woman thief from the beginning, and the rest of the thieves. Jim's accent is pretty awful, and he seems to be confusing "Southern" with "flamer." He keeps doing these weird hand motions. He proves himself by unlocking a safe.
At the station, everyone thanks Jim for buying them expensive watches. Oh no! Freeman maxed out Jim's credit! Blair tells Simon that, as an ex-hacker, Freeman does have the expertise. "What else did you two find out?" asks Simon thinly, and OH MY GOD WHY DID WE NOT SEE JIM & BLAIR RESEARCH PARTY FUN. Jim receives a letter: Freeman has filed a restraining order.
Freeman is in the lobby of the thieves' favorite hotel, and he and Jim exchange some more words before Jim goes to meet with Melanie. He is expecting business, but it turns out that Melanie, like all the beautiful women on this show, just wants a chance at Jim's junk. Jim reacts, as he always does, by feigning ignorance and then outright resisting. "My wife wouldn't understand, you see," he exlains finally, as his cell phone rings.
BLAIR [on the phone]: Hi Jim, it's me.
JIM: Hi honey!
BLAIR: Huh?
[Melanie strokes Jim's face, winks, and leaves.]
BLAIR: Jim... yo, Jim.
JIM: Yeah, sugar.
Alone, Jim explains the situation and asks Blair to have Simon pick up Freeman. Blair promises. "Now, you be careful." "Yeah. Thanks for calling. I love you too. Bye-bye," says Jim as Melanie returns.
Out in front, Melanie steals a kiss, and Jim wipes his mouth. On her way home, Melanie is almost run down by Freeman. He gets out of his car and apologizes and flirts. They end up at Make-Out Point.
Caper time! Simon organizes a SWAT team as Jim helps the thieves bust into a safe. But during the heist Freeman, who has followed Melanie, informs her that Jim is a cop. Blair and Simon, watching with binoculars, are alarmed when the thieves walk Jim out with a gun to his back. To Blair's alarm, Simon orders the sharpshooters to go. The resulting confusion allows Jim to get the upper hand. As the thieves are busted, Jim goes after Freeman.
Blair catches up with Jim just as he loses sight of Freeman and finally does a guide task, telling him to use his sense of smell. Freeman has accidentally made the incredibly strategic move of going into the sewer. Blair's encouragement allows Jim to isolate Freeman's cologne even there. There is a climactic scene where Jim has to prevent Freeman from firing a gun in the sewer, and then catches his arm right before he falls into a rushing river of some kind. Freeman dangles for awhile, with Blair repeating "You cannot let him go!" to Jim, until Jim finally hauls him up. Blair contributes by clinging to Jim's arm unhelpfully.
30SwB in the truck. "You all right?" Jim admits there was a moment where he was willing to let Freeman die. "Yeah, I know," says Blair softly. Blair generalizes about stress and anger and TODAY'S SOCIETY some more. "From now on," says Jim, PSA-ishly but slightly nonsensically, "I'm paying attention." It's kind of more of a "...huh" lead-in to the goofy end music/greenscreen/THE SENTINEL than we're used to.
Best moments: Blair making fun of Jim's Bonanza marathon and then being adorable; Jim greeting Blair on the phone with "Hi honey!" Even as a ruse, it's just what the doctor ordered.
3x07 Fool Me Twice
A man is stabbed in the street. Later, Jim and Blair interview a witness who heard the man's dying words, which were something like "Benet shouldn't come here." Blair suggests that's Genevieve Benet, some kind of peace dignitary from the fictional country of St. Germaine (god, I hope it's fictional, or I'll look like an idiot) who's coming for the Amnesty International conference. Oh my GOD, Blair's sideburns are getting POINTIER. I cannot handle it.
While Jim, Blair and Simon are reviewing some evidence, including a pin Jim found at the scene, Genevieve Benet bursts in and yells at them for giving her an armed escort. Simon apologizes, calling her Dr. Benet. Genevieve can't identify the dead man or the pin. Blair asks her out, respectlessly calling her Miss Benet. She's snippy at first but then agrees to get something to eat with him.
The president of St. Germaine, Lemecc, whom Blair described as a thug who stole the last election, plots to kill Benet and make it look like a terrorist attack so he can justify his policies or something. He tells a mercenary to get him a missile. For some reason he feels he needs a giant missile to take out a medium-sized lady.
Jim makes coffee and quizzes Blair about his activities last night (talking to Genevieve for hours). He asks if Blair got her to accept police protection, and Blair says "My interest in her is not about that." "Oh really?" says Jim, sounding for all the world like his next words are going involve the phrase "j'accuse!" in some way. "Well, what is it about, Chief, huh?" Blair enthusiastically describes her "moral certainty" and how he could listen to her talk for hours. Jim doesn't trust her. Blair thinks he's wrong. Jim gets out of the conversation with the old "What's that smell? ... Oh, it's gone."
Blair and Genevieve bond, and then Blair carefully re-asks if she knew the dead guy. She says she didn't. "Okay," Blair accepts. Later, at Make-Out Point, she thanks him for helping her forget all the demands on her, for awhile. Blair kisses her, but after a moment she pulls away: "I can't do this. I can't let myself get involved. It has nothing to do you, Blair." What she doesn't say is it has everything to do with those ridiculous points on the sides of his face, but really, how can it not? (I promised myself I would stop complaining about the sideburns, but it's hard when other characters on screen are just going around taking Blair seriously, as though they are not even there!) Blair puts on a smile and says "No big deal."
Responding to a call about a break-in in Genevieve's hotel, Jim finds a suspicious guy on the hotel roof. He jumps off rather than be caught. Later Jim tells Simon what he's found out--the jumper is one of Lemecc's personal hitmen. What was he after, Genevieve or something she had??
Genevieve stands in front of what appears to be a giant barrel which says "RCMP." She meets with the dead guy's mother, Clarice, who gives her an envelope.
Jim and Simon put pressure on Blair to put pressure on Genevieve, so he goes to her hotel room and begs her not to go to the ceremony. She refuses to be bullied by Lemecc. Blair protests, "Two people are dead, and we don't even know who one of them is!" Genevieve finally provides Dead Guy 1's name. She knew him. Blair rubs his face wearily.
Genevieve shows him the contents of the envelope: photographs taken by refugees showing the real conditions in Lemecc's St. Germaine. She thinks when she shows the photographs at her speech, the US will withdraw its trade agreements and that will topple Lemecc's regime (aw!) Blair worries about her safety, but understands the importance of her task.
Meanwhile, Jim is involved in a subplot about a crooked cop and the whereabouts of the famed missile. It's not really clear what the deal is. He gets hit over the head at one point, though. And he lets a criminal who helps him go.
Okay, I went back and checked 3x05, and Blair's sideburns were slightly pointy. Not enough to cause alarm, but definitely trending. It is a steady progression. Of ridiculousness.
So Genevieve is getting ready to give her speech and there's a guy with a missile trained on the site. Oh, I see. Genevieve lights ceremonial torch, and the heat-seeking missile is supposed to go toward it. But we've seen this shot of the gunman about to squeeze the trigger about eleven times, and it hasn't happened yet. Oh, there it goes. Jim figures out what's going on using his super...speedy... brain? Sense? and shoots a random offshore gas tank thing in order to create a new target for the missile. Thus he minimized casualties but destroys lots of property and lets us see a big explosion. Jim spots the gunman and takes off after him in his helicopter which he has.
At the world's most exciting torch-lighting ceremony, Lemecc gives Genevieve a gun and tells her to shoot him now if she can. She holds it to him for a really long time while reporters who can't believe their luck snap photos. Blair gently talks her out of pulling the trigger and then takes away the gun. But her reputation for professionalism and high-roadiness is still totally shot (ha! ha!)
Jim confronts the gunman, but gets a faceful of car door. The criminal that Jim let go arrives in time to save him. Then he lets Jim arrest him. Well, that's nice.
Blair bids Genevieve goodbye. "If you're ever up in Cascade again, I'm one hell of a tour guide." "You're much more than that," she says, which is sweet, I think, because he IS a guide-and-yet-more. She kisses him under his ridiculous facial point. He sadly watches her go. No 30SwJ.
What I would have liked to see: Regular characters interacting with each other. I mean, obviously Jim/Blair, but I also would have accepted more Jim and Simon or something. Blair episodes are marginally better than Jim episodes, but either one is totally boring compared to Blair-and-Jim episodes. Even leaving slashiness aside (but really, why would you), the best dialogue, the most jokes, and the nicest moments are always between Jim and Blair, and if they're not in the same room we don't get any of that.
ETA some TS links:
Becky's Sentinel episode transcripts is a useful resource for me since with the fan going and the AVI quality I can't always make out every line (particularly Jim's muttered jokes, which are often surprisingly good).
Also, I've been reading some other ep reviews (only for ones I have already reviewed!). LilyK also hates Blair's "evil sideburns." Of Girl Next Door, she writes, "Blair is all gung-ho to make his seduction dinner. I hope he burns everything." HA.
3x06 Vendetta
A woman leads a team of thieves breaking into a high-rise.
Jim and Blair stalk down the street to the truck, arguing. "I'm not in the mood for one your touchy-feely lectures," Jim snaps. "Look, just because the DA's not going to press charges, do not take it out on me!" Blair yells back. Apparently Jim is upset because he eyewitnessed a woman being robbed, but his testimonial will never be accepted because it relies on his super-senses. As he pulls out of a parking spot, he nearly runs a couple of cars off the road. Still angry, he accuses the other cars of going too fast.
One of the wronged drivers follows Jim, yelling and honking his horn. Blair notes that Jim's senses seemed to be suppressed because of his anger, and wants to study further. Jim is not interested. The wronged driver now gets out of his car and comes up to bang on the window and yell, scaring Blair. Jim gets out and puts the guy against the hood and makes fun of his cologne ("It's imported!" shouts the guy) and the guy continues ranting and threatening a harrassment suit. He also calls Blair a wannabe hippie. "Hey, man," says Blair. Did I mention that Blair has pointy sideburns this week? Because he does. They're kind of silly. Jim and Wronged Driver are still yelling at each other when Simon calls Jim's cell to inform him about the high-rise theft.
As Jim and Blair are driving away, Wronged Driver--whose name is Freeman, so I'm just going to call him that--gets Jim's license number. (For those of you playing at home, it's 804 GDT.) We follow Freeman back to his apartment where he has finds a notice to vacate and a message from his psychiatrist on his phone, imploring him to come back to counseling. Freeman mutters that "nobody really cares" and "you're all the same" and takes a gun and shoots the notebook with Jim's name and license number. Great, our bad guy has debilitating psychological problems. This makes him much less fun to root against.
Freeman hacks into the motor vehicle registry site using some kind of program that gives him the password ("intersection") and finds out Jim's address. FYI, you can all send your love notes to:
James J. Ellison
852 Prospect Ave
Cascade, WA 98765
Note the lack of an apartment number. I would surmise that Jim, like Blair, gives out the station as his address to impress girls (and/or DMV employees), but it becomes plot-important that this is actually Jim's correct address, so. Maybe there is only one apartment? But then why do Jim and Blair have to get there by elevator? God, show, you only had to make up one little address--one! both of the main characters live in the same apartment!--and you couldn't get that right!
No, come back, show, I love you. I'm sorry.
Jim investigates the broken-into safe while Blair despairs for humanity to Simon.
BLAIR: As an anthropologist, I have to wonder what it is about our culture that breeds these type of criminals.
SIMON: I think it's the money.
Jim finds a partial print. Blair continues to have silly sideburns.
Elevator to Jim and Blair's numberless apartment. Jim sniffs the air while Blair theorizes about lack of control and need to vent frustrations as a cause of crime, complying with Jim's request to see the bottom of his shoes without slowing his motormouth. Blair can't find the key he leaves above the door, and Jim gives him his. They find a giant pile of horse manure in their living room.
At the station, Simon laughs at them and gives them a lead, an Australian jeweler. They go to question him and Blair gets distracted by his aboriginal jewelery. When they emerge, they find Jim's car about to be towed: someone reported it stolen. Jim spots Freeman's car down the street and gets the license number.
After learning about Freeman from his own legal access to the registry, Jim bitches about him to Simon at the station.
SIMON: Did you provoke this guy?
JIM: I got a little ticked off...
BLAIR: Yeah, well you've been getting a little too ticked off, too easily lately.
JIM: Was I talking to you?!
BLAIR (wide-eyed enthusiasm): See, that it's right there!
The conversation is sidetracked when Simon gets a call identifying the partial print Jim found as the jeweler's.
Somehow the jeweler's information leads to a chance for Jim to pose undercover as a Texan safe expert. Blair and his silly sideburns excitedly push the idea to Simon, explaining how Jim's Sentinel abilities will allow him to crack safes, and Simon finally relents. Alone with Jim, Blair admits to misgivings, since the gang will kill Jim if they find out he's a plant. Jim tells him not to worry. Then he notices they're being trailed by Freeman. He swerves off the road as Blair cries "What are you, nuts?", gets out, and hauls Freeman out of his car to yell at him. Blair has to drag him away.
Adorable scene where Jim is trying to learn a Texas accent by watching episode after episode of Bonanza ("Did you know each of the sons had a different mother?") and Blair rants "Lorne Green is about as old west as William Shatner, which is fitting, since they're both CANADIAN, JIM." Then he puts on a cute Texan lilt.
Jim meets Melanie, the woman thief from the beginning, and the rest of the thieves. Jim's accent is pretty awful, and he seems to be confusing "Southern" with "flamer." He keeps doing these weird hand motions. He proves himself by unlocking a safe.
At the station, everyone thanks Jim for buying them expensive watches. Oh no! Freeman maxed out Jim's credit! Blair tells Simon that, as an ex-hacker, Freeman does have the expertise. "What else did you two find out?" asks Simon thinly, and OH MY GOD WHY DID WE NOT SEE JIM & BLAIR RESEARCH PARTY FUN. Jim receives a letter: Freeman has filed a restraining order.
Freeman is in the lobby of the thieves' favorite hotel, and he and Jim exchange some more words before Jim goes to meet with Melanie. He is expecting business, but it turns out that Melanie, like all the beautiful women on this show, just wants a chance at Jim's junk. Jim reacts, as he always does, by feigning ignorance and then outright resisting. "My wife wouldn't understand, you see," he exlains finally, as his cell phone rings.
BLAIR [on the phone]: Hi Jim, it's me.
JIM: Hi honey!
BLAIR: Huh?
[Melanie strokes Jim's face, winks, and leaves.]
BLAIR: Jim... yo, Jim.
JIM: Yeah, sugar.
Alone, Jim explains the situation and asks Blair to have Simon pick up Freeman. Blair promises. "Now, you be careful." "Yeah. Thanks for calling. I love you too. Bye-bye," says Jim as Melanie returns.
Out in front, Melanie steals a kiss, and Jim wipes his mouth. On her way home, Melanie is almost run down by Freeman. He gets out of his car and apologizes and flirts. They end up at Make-Out Point.
Caper time! Simon organizes a SWAT team as Jim helps the thieves bust into a safe. But during the heist Freeman, who has followed Melanie, informs her that Jim is a cop. Blair and Simon, watching with binoculars, are alarmed when the thieves walk Jim out with a gun to his back. To Blair's alarm, Simon orders the sharpshooters to go. The resulting confusion allows Jim to get the upper hand. As the thieves are busted, Jim goes after Freeman.
Blair catches up with Jim just as he loses sight of Freeman and finally does a guide task, telling him to use his sense of smell. Freeman has accidentally made the incredibly strategic move of going into the sewer. Blair's encouragement allows Jim to isolate Freeman's cologne even there. There is a climactic scene where Jim has to prevent Freeman from firing a gun in the sewer, and then catches his arm right before he falls into a rushing river of some kind. Freeman dangles for awhile, with Blair repeating "You cannot let him go!" to Jim, until Jim finally hauls him up. Blair contributes by clinging to Jim's arm unhelpfully.
30SwB in the truck. "You all right?" Jim admits there was a moment where he was willing to let Freeman die. "Yeah, I know," says Blair softly. Blair generalizes about stress and anger and TODAY'S SOCIETY some more. "From now on," says Jim, PSA-ishly but slightly nonsensically, "I'm paying attention." It's kind of more of a "...huh" lead-in to the goofy end music/greenscreen/THE SENTINEL than we're used to.
Best moments: Blair making fun of Jim's Bonanza marathon and then being adorable; Jim greeting Blair on the phone with "Hi honey!" Even as a ruse, it's just what the doctor ordered.
3x07 Fool Me Twice
A man is stabbed in the street. Later, Jim and Blair interview a witness who heard the man's dying words, which were something like "Benet shouldn't come here." Blair suggests that's Genevieve Benet, some kind of peace dignitary from the fictional country of St. Germaine (god, I hope it's fictional, or I'll look like an idiot) who's coming for the Amnesty International conference. Oh my GOD, Blair's sideburns are getting POINTIER. I cannot handle it.
While Jim, Blair and Simon are reviewing some evidence, including a pin Jim found at the scene, Genevieve Benet bursts in and yells at them for giving her an armed escort. Simon apologizes, calling her Dr. Benet. Genevieve can't identify the dead man or the pin. Blair asks her out, respectlessly calling her Miss Benet. She's snippy at first but then agrees to get something to eat with him.
The president of St. Germaine, Lemecc, whom Blair described as a thug who stole the last election, plots to kill Benet and make it look like a terrorist attack so he can justify his policies or something. He tells a mercenary to get him a missile. For some reason he feels he needs a giant missile to take out a medium-sized lady.
Jim makes coffee and quizzes Blair about his activities last night (talking to Genevieve for hours). He asks if Blair got her to accept police protection, and Blair says "My interest in her is not about that." "Oh really?" says Jim, sounding for all the world like his next words are going involve the phrase "j'accuse!" in some way. "Well, what is it about, Chief, huh?" Blair enthusiastically describes her "moral certainty" and how he could listen to her talk for hours. Jim doesn't trust her. Blair thinks he's wrong. Jim gets out of the conversation with the old "What's that smell? ... Oh, it's gone."
Blair and Genevieve bond, and then Blair carefully re-asks if she knew the dead guy. She says she didn't. "Okay," Blair accepts. Later, at Make-Out Point, she thanks him for helping her forget all the demands on her, for awhile. Blair kisses her, but after a moment she pulls away: "I can't do this. I can't let myself get involved. It has nothing to do you, Blair." What she doesn't say is it has everything to do with those ridiculous points on the sides of his face, but really, how can it not? (I promised myself I would stop complaining about the sideburns, but it's hard when other characters on screen are just going around taking Blair seriously, as though they are not even there!) Blair puts on a smile and says "No big deal."
Responding to a call about a break-in in Genevieve's hotel, Jim finds a suspicious guy on the hotel roof. He jumps off rather than be caught. Later Jim tells Simon what he's found out--the jumper is one of Lemecc's personal hitmen. What was he after, Genevieve or something she had??
Genevieve stands in front of what appears to be a giant barrel which says "RCMP." She meets with the dead guy's mother, Clarice, who gives her an envelope.
Jim and Simon put pressure on Blair to put pressure on Genevieve, so he goes to her hotel room and begs her not to go to the ceremony. She refuses to be bullied by Lemecc. Blair protests, "Two people are dead, and we don't even know who one of them is!" Genevieve finally provides Dead Guy 1's name. She knew him. Blair rubs his face wearily.
Genevieve shows him the contents of the envelope: photographs taken by refugees showing the real conditions in Lemecc's St. Germaine. She thinks when she shows the photographs at her speech, the US will withdraw its trade agreements and that will topple Lemecc's regime (aw!) Blair worries about her safety, but understands the importance of her task.
Meanwhile, Jim is involved in a subplot about a crooked cop and the whereabouts of the famed missile. It's not really clear what the deal is. He gets hit over the head at one point, though. And he lets a criminal who helps him go.
Okay, I went back and checked 3x05, and Blair's sideburns were slightly pointy. Not enough to cause alarm, but definitely trending. It is a steady progression. Of ridiculousness.
So Genevieve is getting ready to give her speech and there's a guy with a missile trained on the site. Oh, I see. Genevieve lights ceremonial torch, and the heat-seeking missile is supposed to go toward it. But we've seen this shot of the gunman about to squeeze the trigger about eleven times, and it hasn't happened yet. Oh, there it goes. Jim figures out what's going on using his super...speedy... brain? Sense? and shoots a random offshore gas tank thing in order to create a new target for the missile. Thus he minimized casualties but destroys lots of property and lets us see a big explosion. Jim spots the gunman and takes off after him in his helicopter which he has.
At the world's most exciting torch-lighting ceremony, Lemecc gives Genevieve a gun and tells her to shoot him now if she can. She holds it to him for a really long time while reporters who can't believe their luck snap photos. Blair gently talks her out of pulling the trigger and then takes away the gun. But her reputation for professionalism and high-roadiness is still totally shot (ha! ha!)
Jim confronts the gunman, but gets a faceful of car door. The criminal that Jim let go arrives in time to save him. Then he lets Jim arrest him. Well, that's nice.
Blair bids Genevieve goodbye. "If you're ever up in Cascade again, I'm one hell of a tour guide." "You're much more than that," she says, which is sweet, I think, because he IS a guide-and-yet-more. She kisses him under his ridiculous facial point. He sadly watches her go. No 30SwJ.
What I would have liked to see: Regular characters interacting with each other. I mean, obviously Jim/Blair, but I also would have accepted more Jim and Simon or something. Blair episodes are marginally better than Jim episodes, but either one is totally boring compared to Blair-and-Jim episodes. Even leaving slashiness aside (but really, why would you), the best dialogue, the most jokes, and the nicest moments are always between Jim and Blair, and if they're not in the same room we don't get any of that.
ETA some TS links:
Becky's Sentinel episode transcripts is a useful resource for me since with the fan going and the AVI quality I can't always make out every line (particularly Jim's muttered jokes, which are often surprisingly good).
Also, I've been reading some other ep reviews (only for ones I have already reviewed!). LilyK also hates Blair's "evil sideburns." Of Girl Next Door, she writes, "Blair is all gung-ho to make his seduction dinner. I hope he burns everything." HA.