Monk season 6

One of those shows that are ok to watch the first time, even funny or enjoyable, but that are not so for long. The more you watch it, the more the characters sort of lose their appeal because one (me) starts to focus more on those things that are annoying.

1- Mr Monk and his biggest fan

Marci has put on a fan site about Monk ( I remember her, she was a crazy fan of that actor that killed his wife and then she became obsessed with Monk). Her neighbour is killed and she wants Monk’s help.

At a bachelor’s auction for charity, after the captain and Randy it was Monk’s turn and Marci bids 800$ to have him :p  There’s a restraining order against her but now he has to go to her place. She has her house full of his pictures, and paintings she made. She kept everything he threw away and is even wearing his pants. 

The woman who bid on Randy did it because her son wants to be a policeman and she wants Randy to keep Sam with him for the six hours she won, but Sam doesn’t look interested, he wanted it like six months before but not now: “who wants to be a cop, you don’t make any money and everybody hates you”. 

The captain’s girlfriend bid 2000$ for him.

Marci names many of his cases with the episodes titles, she tells him she’d work for free and he actually considered replacing Natalie for a moment, and she leaves him alone with her to see how it is like to work with someone as obsessive as he is :p She gives him clue-hugs :p He solves the case, Marci was right, her neighbour killed his wife, not her dog. Marci is so loud he hears them and goes after them with a gun, but luckily the captain solved the case too and calls Natalie and Randy to go save him. She’s now cured from her obsession and mails to him the stuff she had of him :p

2- Mr Monk and the rapper

The theme song sang rapper-style for the occasion :p

Snoop Dog plays Murderous, a rapper that comes to Monk’s house after a rap star is killed with a bomb. He did a son about how he wanted to kill him, and he hires Monk. His men are called Mr Assassin and Silent killer :p  Natalie’s feelings are hurt because Monk thinks secretary and assistant are the same thing, and she thinks he doesn’t respect her. 

Monk thinks he did it, just because his name is murderous. Natalie’s hunch is that he’s innocent and Monk laughs at her. She has a hunch on who did it too, and he laughs again. The captain goes with Monk when he wants to get out of his contract, but once there he starts crying and ends up being his head of security. He wants to run away but finally Natalie gets through to him and Snoop sings the “here’s what happened” part :p Extralarge’s manager wanted to kill his partner but didn’t set the clock right and killed him instead.

Snoop tells Monk he’s lucky to have Natalie.

3- Mr Monk and the naked man

A young woman is found dead on a beach for nudists. There are nudists everywhere and the captain, Randy and Natalie try to attract all his attention so he wouldn’t see them :p  but then he sees a witness all nude and Monk goes all… well, Monk-y. He hates nudists and wants that man to be guilty. Monk sneaks into the nudist’s house at night (why does he even have a closet if he has no clothes to put in it?) Monk is so angry at him, so full of hate, calling him a pervert, he tries his best to break his alibi, but he was in jail! so no luck there. “He’s a nudist, they are not like us” :/

Why do they try to reason with Monk? I know he’s a friend and a good person, all in all, but in a moment like this they should just sedate him!  The captain finally intervenes, because the cops should defend all citizens, not only those they like. He tells him: “I’ve spent a lot of time, too much of my time, trying to keep bigotry and racism out of this department” - Monk: “I’m not a bigot” - “well, I don’t know what else to call it Monk. You wanna put this guy in jail for the rest of his life because he made you uncomfortable!” and he sends him home to figure out why he’s so upset.

Talking to Dr Kroger, Monk remembers when he was born, he was naked and the doctor hit him and made him cry… but he didn’t know what memory it was. Now that he can think straight, he realises what happened. The Vicky girl’s roommate kept a secret on the real conditions of a rich man’s health investing against him so that she’d be rich when he died. Vicky found out and she killed her. The nudist helped save the rich man’s life so he bought him and his friends a little island… He hugs Monk while naked and I suppose Natalie will have to save him because he starts walking and won’t stop and risks drowning…

Randy can’t use his ipod or other stuff like that.

4- Mr Monk and the bad girlfriend

Linda and the captain are videochatting and planning to go to Hawaii together. Her old partner is killed in front of witnesses in a house he was showing. Monk starts suspecting Linda after talking to her, so they talk to Randy. Natalie borrows a motorbike and Monk goes with her to check if Linda could have done it, but as fast as she goes the time is not even close and they’re both happy: “I’ve never been happier to be wrong”, only, a moment later he finds something that brings him back to suspecting her. It’s very hard for them both to tell the captain, and when they do he laughs at first and then gets angry and won’t even consider it. He loves Linda. “I’m 51 years old, she’s the last chance I have”, poor captain. 

Linda catches Monk in her house and she tries to seduce him but of course she’s wasting her time. She then tells the captain that Monk touched her and blackmailed her into sleeping with him… which makes him suspicious because he knows Monk! When Monk explains what happened, he’s heartbroken. The captain takes Randy along on his vacation, and then he throws a ring in the water. I suppose he wanted to propose to her :’(

5- Mr Monk and the birds and the bees

A man shoots a man and his own wife, to make it look like a burglar killed his wife and he shot him in self defence. 

Julie has a boyfriend Natalie knows about, Tim, but another kid, Clay, school sport star, shows interest in her. Natalie doesn’t like this, with good reasons. She’s almost 16, and fights with her mom wanting to live her life, and go out with Clay. Natalie has Monk talk to her. 

Clay was hired by a woman to take Julie away from Tim. This time it’s up to Julie to do the ‘here’s what happened’ to explain everything to Tim. When he had his picture taken with Julie, the murderer and the dead guy were right there behind them, proof that they knew each other. The guy throws the proof in the water but Tim, who is on the swim team, retrieves it. He’s back with Julie now.

6- Mr Monk and the buried treasure

Monk goes crazy when he sees a new watch on Dr Kroger, one that Harold gave him. The doc is also having troubles with his son Troi. Troy and two friends find a dead man who they think buried stolen money and also find a treasure map and go to Monk for help in deciphering it. So they have to spend time with three teenagers, while Troy drives them all in his car with loud music playing. The captain works the case of the dead man not knowing about the map. The kids told Monk it was a school project, and Monk acts all mysterious and proud of himself with Dr Kroger… Next day they talk about the case with the captain and Monk understands :p and he goes to Troy alone, to try to keep him out of it. The two of them get sort of buried alive in his car and Monk goes crazy. Natalie calls the captain and goes looking for him. They save them, and Dr Kroger thanks him because now Troy says he wants to go to college.

7- Mr Monk and the daredevil

Monk’s rivalry with Harold is becoming more annoying than funny. After falling down a building and surviving Harold is believed to be the ‘Frisco fly’, a man doing incredible stuns around. Many people saw him fall, but Monk can’t believe it because Harold was always very afraid of heights. Harold says he’s cured. Monk’s afraid of 312 things, and Natalie wants him to try and get over some of them (like the milk one) but he can’t. He feels lower than ever because Harold was the only one he thought was worse than him, so Natalie and Dr Kroger stand suicide watch, but finally Randy uncovers the real Frisco fly. Harold’s cousin planned to kill him because their uncle’s dying and he doesn’t want to share the inheritance. Natalie runs to the roof to stop him from killing him for good, and Monk ran to help her :) Good Monk. 

Harold kept lying because his son was proud of him now, no more ashamed. The real Fly died in a car accident.

8- Mr Monk and the wrong man

Monk testifies at the parole hearing of Max, a man he arrested 14 years ago, but new dna results make it look like he made a mistake and put in jail the wrong man. He’s devastated by knowing he sent an innocent man to jail for 14 years. He tells him he’s sorry and even asks Natalie to make out with him! He’s impossible. Max is not so innocent after all, though, we see him killing a man.

Monk stops Max’s ex-wife from remarrying, telling her he’s a good man, and convinces her and she goes back to him. The witness that saw Max 14 years ago has a perfect memory and talks to Monk, and they realise Max really did it, but he had an accomplice. Then Monk stops Sherry’s wedding again when she wants to marry Max again.

So luckily her other fiancee comes back and I guess she’ll marry him like she should have.

They get Max arrested for killing his accomplice.

9- Mr Monk is up all night

Monk is upset because he didn’t find his usual barber Sebastian and feels his hair uneven now. Natalie convinces him to move on, but then he bumps into a woman, and he chases after her, not knowing why, but he loses her. He can’t sleep for days thinking about her. He gos for a walk late at night and finds her driving a taxi. While chasing after her on foot, he hears people fighting and witnesses a drug dealer shooting an undercover cop (Tim Kang) and then drive away (and he does nothing!) He runs to a phone booth but when the captain arrives there is no body and no sign there ever was a fight there. He meets a con-man at a bar who steals his money and wallet, then waits for Maria (the taxidriver) to end her turn and sees again that ‘cop’ that he saw being shot. Once he’s waiting again at the train, he sees that man’s body, definitely dead.

Three people had put a con on a rare coins dealer to rob him, and when he found out he killed one and tried to kill the other two but is stopped. 

At the end, the mystery of Maria is solved: She had a cornea transplant the day Trudy died (12-14-97). She has Trudy’s eyes. Now Monk can finally sleep. Nice ep, touching end, lovely.

10- Mr Monk and the man who shot Santa Claus

Monk is very upset, more than usual, because it’s almost Christmas and it’s ten years since Trudy died. Monk shoots a man dressed as Santa Claus, giving away stuffed animals, and Monk shoots him. Monk’s lawyer is the guy he met on that street, that highway or something, of some episodes ago. Monk says it was Santa’s gun and he defended himself. He goes on a tv show to say his side of the story, and starts by saying to all the children watching that there is no such thing as Santa Claus.

It was obviously a diversion, the man dressed as Santa was the diversion for some man stealing a precious diamond from the McMillan museum. Monk fights Santa again in front of a lot of people, and retrieves the diamond. Only this time it wasn’t a joyful one, but a nasty, knife-holding one. 

Natalie and Julie try to get him into the Christmas spirit. You know, he said that Trudy loved Christmas very much, so that’s what he should think of! Well, positive thinking is not very Monk, I know.

11- Mr Monk joins a cult

Monk’s big surprise for Natalie is that he wants her to buy a beeper so he can beep her when she’s away… she’s not happy.

Monk takes the case of a daughter murdered. He was so upset thinking of the parents weeping and begging, he accepted the case before they even spoke a word. The girl was part of a cult, and Natalie wants to go in undercover, but they find out she has a family and don’t want her, so Monk steps in and goes with them instead…

Monk starts liking it there very quickly, and even tells the cult leader: “I can’t leave… I was working on the case… I love it here… please just please” and the father ‘lets him stay’. He gives them his money, but then the captain and Natalie take him away by force. They try to talk to him, make him see reason, but he’s off, doesn’t eat, chants, wipes his mouth on his sleeve, repeats “t wasn’t him”, protecting the Father. Only the doctor can get through to him, with Trudy. It turns out the Father really didn’t do it, the murderer is the guy who accused him in the first place, he did it to hide from his wife that he had been with a prostitute. Monk had Natalie call the bank to stop the check he gave them, then told the members of the cult that Father is not the Eternal one they believe him to be but he’s been secretly treated by a doctor for a long time.

12- Mr Monk goes to the bank

Monk’s bank is robbed, and his safe deposit box opened. Monk goes to work there as a security guard to investigate and find who stole Trudy’s bracelet! 

(He hands out money of his own wallet to make the figures neat :/ and then he shows such a short sleeve with Natalie! so unfair…)

They almost die locked in the vault, but it all ends well :p

(Randy plays statue, he’s such a little child :/ )

13- Mr Monk and the three Julies

A woman called Julie Teeger is murdered. Then another with the same name, and both times Natalie is so crazy worried she jumps into the captain’s new car and drives away, kind of destroying it in the process. Julie is now under surveillance, and guess what? Julie’s all “I’m a prisoner” and “it’s not fair”, about wanting to go out and take her driver test. 

There was no serial killer out to get all the Julie Teegers of the world, just an unfaithful husband who fought and killed his wife and the other Julia who witnessed the fight (because of mail delivered to the wrong Julia). At the end, Jule passes and gets a car. Natalie was not happy :p

14- Mr Monk paints his masterpiece

Two bodies in the same junkyard in two days. 

Dr Kroger tells Monk to get a hobby. He takes up painting because Natalie paid for the material, but I can’t imagine what she was thinking, it’s like she never met him :/  Soon he gets convinced he’s a great artist and puts Natalie’s house upside down, after a guy buys all his paintings (just to retrieve the canvases of course). Finally the captain suggests collecting stamps! That’s something that might work… or maybe not…

15- Mr Monk is on the run: part 1

The captain finds evidence that the man who killed Trudy is back, and calls Monk. When he finds out where to find him he tells no one and goes there alone, with his gun. He gets arrested for his murder and sent to prison (bail 1million$) and he escapes during transport. He goes to Natalie’s home, and she helps him get free of the cuffs and gives him Mitch’s uniform to wear. He starts investigating on his own. It looks like the captain arranged a meeting with Monk, they had a confrontation, the captain shot him twice and Monk fell in the water…

16- Mr Monk is on the run: part 2

Obviously he’s not dead, that goes without saying. They just let everybody believe he is. Natalie is destroyed and can’t forgive the captain. Monk goes to Nevada and when he solves a case, Natalie finds out he’s alive and goes straight to him, with the dirty sheriff following her. How stupid, I can’t believe it.

They find out that sheriff Rollins is on Dale the Whale’s payroll and they plan to assassinate a governor, so the new one will let him out of jail. Natalie and Monk go there and tell everything to a man in uniform who turns out to be Italian and doesn’t understand a word (‘from Amalfi, Italy, our sister city, welcome Police auxiliary’ is written on a banner), and the guy might actually really be Italian :p

Monk saves the governor and the captain and Randy arrest the sheriff. They also find letters that someone ordered that Frank to kill Trudy, someone he called ‘the judge’.

The closer season 3

1- Homewrecker

The squad needs to document everything correctly at a crime scene for the court. A family killed in their house, parents and a young girl brutally stabbed to death. The son is found alive. (Flynn identifies himself as Andrew Flynn Phd, and for a second I thought: a doctor :p but of course it must be Priority homicide divisison :p ). There's a financial crisis so Pope is telling Brenda he has to make cuts, and send someone from her team to counter-terrorism, but she doesn't want to. Provenza of course is worried he'll be forced into retirement. Fritz and Brenda fight because she doesn't want to go looking for a bigger house with him and in the house they're living in there is no place for his stuff which is all in the garage, plus she's always asking him to do something for her adn at work they're calling him 'agent Johnson'. :p    Brenda yells at the kid at the hospital until he shouts "I wish I was dead" so she can justify a "suicide watch" over him. Taylor suggests 'sharing' Gabriel between them, because after all she has already three lieutenants and there's no chance for him to get promoted where he is. The murdered guy, Kevin Wallace, had another family under another name and his other son confronted him and killed him, his other wife and his other daughter. Gabriel hands Pope a good burocratic solution to the money problem, while Brenda goes back to her house where Fritz has brought in all his stuff and she can barely walk around because it's so full :p and she finally agrees to go looking for a bigger place.

2- Grave doubts

Brenda is mad because Fritz answered the phone when her father called ( :p he is a saint with her, sometimes I really don't know how he can stand her :p).  A decomposed body is found at a garbage dumping site, a man who went missing in 92 and had Provenza's business card on him. It was a kid who had something to tell him regarding a case, but was killed first. The boy's brother has changed and is now running for office. Brenda has troubles investigating because father Jack is an important, respected figure in the neighbourhood. Father Jack and the boy's brother have been helping the community and Gabriel has an angry talk with Brenda because he doesn't want them arrested, sending a message that it doesn't matter if you change, but as always Brenda only cares about her case. She doesn't care about politics or anything besides her case. Back then, they were all gang members, drug users and dealers. When his brother attacked him, they struggled and he killed him, so she arrests him. Brenda is going crazy because her dad sent her a letter and she's scared. She finally apologises to Fritz and then reads her letter where there's nothing bad written.

3- Saving face

Flynn speaks at Ray, an old partner's funeral. They were partners for seven and a half years. When the casket falls down and opens, a woman's body comes out of it too. Brenda did, in Pope's words, "shut down a church and a funeral home, you arrested a bride" while Taylor's laughing under his moustaches. :lol:  Actually the bride attacked Brenda! and since the attack was filmed: "you've just become the most downloaded fully clothed woman on the internet" :lol  Taylor can't stop laughing, he's funny :lol   The funeral parlor's owner is played by Robert Picardo. Brenda goes to a plastic surgeon to find out who Jane Doe is, and he thinks she's a client and says "it's your mouth, isn't it? I think the problem might just be your lipstick... it's making your mouth look huge" :lol:  I always thought so :p   She's upset and questions her choice of lipstick and even asks Fritz "do you like my lips?" :p   Brenda finds pictures of the bride before and after the plastic surgery, so they agree to public apology and to not sue Brenda and the department.

4- Ruby

A little girl, Ruby Williams, 8yo, is missing. They bring in a suspect, a sex offender, after the dogs smell her in his van. Brenda can't get thru to him and he lawyers up. Gabriel talks to him and hits him, and the guy Roger tells him she's in the park. They find her dead. When Brenda sees Roger's face she sends Gabriel home. Daniels comes to her house pleading Gabriel's case, and tells her that Taylor cares for Gabriel and that sometimes he finds ways to deal with situations like that. Taylor puts him in a cell with other prisoners who don't like child molesters (later says to Pope: "there was no safe place to put this guy") and beat him up. He's so hurt and scared he only wants to talk to Brenda now (she's back to that dark lipstick... :/ ) She manages to get a confession from him, both for Ruby and for other two girls that were never found. Gabriel's problem is not solved yet, because in a trial he'll have to testify, but that night he's found in his cell where he hanged himself. Still, he gets suspended, because Brenda reported him and talked to Pope, along with Taylor and they handled it privately, without calling Internal Affairs.

5- The round file

An old man claims he poisoned seven people. Gabriel is back. When Brenda finds out that they were really poisoned, he withdraws his confession and says elderly people are killed at the "summervile senior living" and he's right. Fritz and Brenda found a house they liked, but the old woman didn't really want to sell, she just wanted company :p

6- Dumb luck

A man is strangled in a parking lot, and when they all arrive Brenda is lying down at the other side of the car. Flynn says: "she's right over there, I'd recognise those legs anywhere" :p  She's feeling unwell. Taylor's division has too many cases so he asked them to help out. Pope wants her squad to go to a training thing that will give him money, or she'll have to lose a member to counter-terrorism, and then she cries: "why do you keep threatening me with that? and when I'm sick too!" :p such a little crying voice too :p  Brenda's at the doctor's waiting room, five minutes and she's going crazy already, then she leaves.  Dead Glen was having an affair with stupid Tiffany, and she paid an equally stupid man to kill her husband but he killed the wrong guy because of a days mixup. 

7- Four to eight

Brenda sees a doctor and takes some tests, she still doesn't feel well and sweats a lot. Fritz now has the flu, but Brenda insists she has nothing, it's just stress :/  Two gang members are killed, and everyone's worried it might be the start of a gang war. It turns out they were killed by the uncle worried that they set a terrible example on his son Miguel, but he was wrong. Miguel wanted to become a gang member, but when he was alive his cousin Jessie prevented him from joining the gang and as soon as Jessie was dead that's the very first thing Miguel did.

8- Manhunt

After eight years (since 1998) a serial killer seems back. Right there in the doctor's office Fritz goes down on one knee "I've arrived at that point where I can't imagine life without you and let me just say I love you more than anything else in the world. Brenda, will you marry me?" She accepts, "we found each other" it was a nice scene :)  Two women are dead, the second was the wife of a Dda. He will kill a third. Brenda goes to talk to a victim's ex husband and he's the killer and attacks her, and she's scared but reaches her gun and shoots him three times, dead, saving the life of Melinda, his designated third victim. 

9- Blindsided

After a psychological evaluation, Lapd psychologist writes to Pope: "deputy chief Johnson is not fit for full investigative duty. She is exhausted, disconnected, distracted and in denial of deep emotional issues" so Pope gives her something else to do :/  Drive around with a reporter, but they get shot in their car and both reporter and cameraman are hit.  Brenda's parents come to visit and Fritz is left alone with them. She comes home covered in blood, with two armed guys standing guard. Gabriel and Brenda are witnesses now and Andy has to interview Brenda :p  Poor Flynn. Provenza has Gabriel, so now everyone knows he's been dating Daniels for a year. Twenty or more shots were fired at them, and yet she only remembered five. Provenza should be in charge of this case, but of course she takes the lead. The reporter was the real target. She's very upset she can't investigate officially, and doesn't know what to do with her free time, so she keeps working anyway. She steps alone into an elevator with the shooter and yelled at him until she got him to confess. At dinner, Brenda tells her parents she's engaged to Fritz :) Good. And I loved this last bit from dad Clay: "you do hug, don't you? I mean you have a cat" - "that's not my cat" - "it is now son, and you'd better make that cat very happy"  :p lovely.

10- Culture shock

Provenza to Tao: "you don't speak Chinese?" - "No, I don't, I'm four generations American" - "Well, you always sound fluent when we order takeout"  :p   Brenda is back on active duty, and kind of relieved when called in to work, since her parents are still here :p  They go to see her at work too :p  Fritz is tired of being left alone with them  :p  So, she sends them both on a Chinese tour of the city while she keeps investigating :/ Fritz: "I thought I knew how little shame you had, now I see there's a level below", and "I'm kind of impressed" and he goes with her to help her. The squad is pissed about Gabriel and Daniels dating :/  Brenda doesn't stop working even when she's out with them and Clay says to everyone about the wedding :) The doctor tells Brenda she has some kind of syndrome and recommends she gives up sweets and candies... lol, her parents look at each other and she's shocked and absolutely refuses, so they reverse to an 'ovarian drilling' whatever that is.  Case: she says she understands what's going on without calling an interpreter, but I don't. A Chinese girl is murdered. An American man was using her, having sex with her in exchange for money and favors, not letting her go. Her husband and his father... what did they do? Who killed her? I don't understand Chinese (yet), can somebody tell me what was going on here?

11- Lovers leap

Brenda already had her surgery but is still in pain. An accountant from Homeland Security is dead, and Brenda asks Fritz to get her information, not listening to what he has to say, so he does, and the whole Fbi gets involved, kind of taking over. That Maggie was having an affair with Pope, until six months before, while he was still married. How Pope talks about Maggie, she sounds a lot like Brenda: relentless, stubborn, always right.  Brenda's mad at Fritz, of course, because she is just like that.  Brenda breaks Maggie's computer to pieces when she finds it, before giving it to Fritz to give to the Fbi, to protect Pope :/

12- Til death do us part: part 1

A divorce lawyer is killed.  Fritz threw away her stash of candies at home because the doctor said "no more sugar" :p  We see the trial of the man she arrested, because she didn't get a confession.  Trying to get a new insurance policy, combining it with Fritz's, Brenda finds out with Pope's 'help', that Fritz had two DUIs, and she's surprised because Fritz doesn't drink...  After a good news on the case, Brenda throws away the candy bar she just bought because she doesn't need it anymore because she's happy now, which really pisses me off, all these scenes where they throw away food are reproachable :/  Brenda is so sure that Dr Schafer killed Oliver Henry, but the dog's hair she found is not admitted in court and she has no other physical evidence, but since the defence lawyer insisted, instead of saying no she talks about the dog's hair and the judge now allows it, but then the mysterious alibi man they were sure didn't exist shows up. End of the first part.

13- Til death do us part: part 2

Everyone on the news is talking about Brenda's case, and Fritz just assumes that's what's upsetting her and insists she talks about it, but when she does it's not what he thought, it's about the two DUIs: "do you have a drinking problem?". He joined AA and doesn't drink now but she's really mad that he never told her: "I wanna know why you withheld this information from me" and now has doubts about marrying him.  Flynn couldn't find the mysterious alibi man Topper Barnes because his real first name is Eugene and defence never told them that.  When they talk again Brenda is still angry that he lied and he replies, finally, "you have a lot of nerve Brenda, calling me a liar, a lot of nerve" - "what's that supposed to mean?" - "it means it's funny being accused of being dishonest by someone who lies all the time". Yes, finally. Tell her Fritz, because she doesn't even realise you know, she never stops to think about what she does. To her parents, a lot, to Pope about work, to Fritz too, every time she says she'll do something and never does: look for a house, put hers on the market and a lot more...  "I get busy, that's all" is her excuse. He shouts, a very tough emotional scene, saying how patient he's been with her, and hurt that she would question everything they have for something like that, and leaves.  Brenda never stops thinking she had the right guy and finds the proof she needs when she understands that his wife helped him, actually did the killing for money, because the honest lawyer found out and wanted to report to the police that the doctor was dealing drugs. She convinces the wife to testify against him.  They'll both go to jail but one day she'll get out.   While celebrating, Brenda learns that Flynn was an alcoholic too, ten years sober now. When she gets home, she makes up with Fritz.

14- Next of kin: part 1

It's almost Christmas and Fritz and Brenda show the house to a couple and have to decorate it with a light-up tree. Provenza was out with his grandson apparently, when they're called in by Pope to take over Taylor's case, after he made no progress after eleven months. Bank robberies, guards killed. They pick up a boy and Brenda starts her interview by talking to him about their Georgian accents :)  The couple makes a good offer and she signs the deal in exchange for Fritz going with her to Atlanta :) They go to visit her parents so the poor couple stays home instead of spending the holidays in Florida. The man she's looking for is in jail there and she goes there to get him but the sheriff refuses, until Fritz steps in with his Fbi badge and he gets to talk to the guy. Not for long because Brenda bailed him out so she could arrest him outside  *rollingeyes    Brenda's dad is obviously disappointed, and she keeps lying to them. In the morning Flynn and Provenza come to take the guy to La, allowing her to stay there with her parents - not that she seems so happy about it, she just felt she had to stay.  At the airport the guy Wesley shouts he has a bomb so they can't fly to La and go back to Brenda's parents. Clay gives them his Rv but "the only person allowed to drive my rv is... Willy Rae" :p  So they all go on a four-day drive. End first part.  Brenda didn't know she was on speaker and had words not exactly nice regarding Taylor and his detective...

15- Next of kin: part 2

Wesley insists, begs Brenda to let him talk to his brother, but she won't let him, and when he tries to escape she tells him that his brother has been shot dead. He's destroyed, mom and dad are sad for him, Provenza doubts that was such a good idea, but she's all for doing whatever will make Wesley talk (why not letting him talk to Grady then?)  She even makes him drink, knowing very well that he has a drinking problem. The pain and the alcohol lead him to talk, but worst of all Brenda ever did, in my opinion, is that when Wesley asked why did they kill Brady she said "maybe they were mad at you because you ran away", making him feel responsible... He's not an innocent kid, this Wesley, but this... she went too far. As soon as they get to their 'office', Provenza tells her "you've got the boy's confession, I think he would be even more cooperative if he knew that his little brother was alive" but she doesn't listen, I think she's just being stubborn. She hands Wesley over to Taylor to have him wired and taken to the scene, and nobody there understand from his words or the look on his face that he's saying goodbye :/   Willy Rae doesn't like it that she lied about Grady, she says it was worth it to put two murderers away and Willy Rae says "worth? worth putting Wesley through four days of hell, making him feel responsible for the death of the one person he loved more than anyone else in the world?". Brenda is so stubborn, and tells her that she feels horrible but she'd do it all over again. Still, Wesley figured out some things and guessed Grady was alive, and left a message for Brenda saying that now he has to protect Grady because now the other two guys will be angry, and at the next robbery Wesley shoots them before being stopped by our squad. While he was raising his hands though, one of the armed guards came out of the van and shot him twice, dead.  The Johnson family takes Grady out on Christmas day, and Clay tells Brenda to keep telling Grady that Wesley is working undercover for a while. Wesley was right, she is lucky to have her parents.

Hannibal season 3

missing episode:

1, 2, 4,12,13

ep 6, 9, 11 miss the ending.

3 - Secondo

Dr Bedelia tells Hannibal he will be caught but she’s not concerned about herself because she knows her way out of it too…

Will goes to Lithuania, looks around Hannibal’s home. There’s Micha Lecter’s grave there.

Hannibal dines with prof. Sogliato and Bedelia, wile all of a sudden he sticks an icepick into his head! She’s shocked and he simply sits down saying “I may have been impulsive” as his only excuse. She takes it off and he tells her that technically she killed him.

Jack tells an Italian cop that he’s not there for the monster, he’s there for Will.

At Lecter’s home Will finds a man kept behind bars, in a cell, and a woman with a rifle who tells him she’s never treat an animal like that. She keeps him there because Hannibal told her that the man killed Micha and ate her. She asks Will why he’s looking for Hannibal: “I’ve never known myself as well as I know myself when I’m with him”. 

Bedelia asks Hannibal why he can’t go home, what happened to him there. “Nothing happened to me, I happened” and she asks him “how did your sister taste?”

Will frees the prisoner, but he goes back and tries to kill her, so she kills him. She tells Will she’ll help him find Hannibal now because she has no more reason to stay there.

Hannibal tells Bedelia he forgave his sister (and we know how it went) so she says “if past behaviour is an indicator of future behaviour, there is only one way you will forgive Will Graham”

“I have to eat him”

5 - Contorno

Alana has found out where Bedelia shops for Hannibal, buying tartufi bianchi. 

The Japanese woman Chiyoh tells Will “if you don’t kill him you are afraid you are going to become him” - “yes”. She tells him she knows Hannibal is in Florence, then throws him off the train.

Inspector Pazzi questions Hannibal about “his predecessor” and about prof. Sogliato, then he calls someone using a payphone asking for a reward for his whereabouts. Pazzi tries to collect Hannibal’s fingerprints to get the reward, but Hannibal kills him, of course. When Hannibal cuts him open and hangs him out the palace, Jack sees him, goes in and they fight. Jack beats him badly but then Hannibal walks away (I understand the anger, but how did Jack think of fighting with bare hands after last time?(

6 - Dolce

Bedelia washes Hannibal’s blood and patches him up, then packs his bags and says he’ll go alone and she’ll stay and also that she knows he’ll eat her one day, “but not today”.

Chiyoh meets Bedelia at her house, right before Jack and Will go see her. She lives there as Lidia Fell, wife of doctor Fell.

Instead of running, Hannibal is at the Uffizi drawing Botticelli with Will and Bedelia’s faces, when Will walks in to talk to him. They talk and walk out together, when the woman shoots Will in the shoulder before he can stab Hannibal. Hannibal tells him that she has always been very protective of him, before drugging him…

Alana has sex with Margot.

7 - Digestivo

The bounty hunters come to take Hannibal and Will away, then Chiyoh kills the two of them who were about to cut Jack open and asks him where they’ll take Hannibal. Maryland, Mason’s farm. Mason tells them he plans to wear Will’s face while eating Hannibal. Will bites a bit of the cook’s face off. Alana tells Hannibal that she wanted to protect Will from him but that now he’s the only one that can save him, makes him promise and then frees him. Hannibal tells her to take some of his hair so when Margo will kill Mason she’ll be able to blame it on him. 

Margo and Alana find that Mason had put her uterus into a pig and he died.

Hannibal kills the cook, saves Will and takes him away in his arms, while Chiyoh covers for him…

Alana tells Mason that Hannibal escaped, but before that he took his sperm for them, so there will be an heir and Margo won’t lose everything, then they kill him together. Finally Chiyoh and Hannibal meet and he asks her if she’ll watch over him and she says she will. He admits to her that he ate Mischa, but tells her he didn’t kill her. 

When he wakes up in his home, Will says “I miss my dogs but I’m not gonna find you, I’m not going to look for you, I don’t wanna know where you are or what you do, I don’t want to think about you anymore” and “I don’t have your appetite. Goodbye Hannibal” so Hannibal walks out and away. When Jack arrives Will says that he’s not here, but then Hannibal walks towards them, hands in the air: “I’m here Jack, you finally caught the Chesapeake ripper”. He surrenders! He really couldn’t have Will forget about him or totally ignoring him, could he?

“I want you to know exactly where I am, and where you can always find me.” This scene was great.

8 - The great red dragon

Three years later. Alana talks to Hannibal: “you’re officially insane” - “do you still prefer beer to wine?” - “I stopped drinking beer when I found out what you were putting in mine” - “who.”

He avoided an execution because he was declared insane. Chilton talks with Hannibal of another killer that he calls “the tooth fairy”, who kills entire families in their homes. Alana has his job now it seems, and tells Chilton “we lied. you wrote a book of lies”, and he tells her “I will be cautious” :p yeah, right.

Will lives with Molly and Walter and he doesn’t want to work for Jack anymore, but Jack goes to him anyway. Will tells her “if I go I’ll be different when I get back” - “I won’t”

Hannibal writes to Will advising him not to go, and including a piece of newspaper about the killings, so of course he goes, and also visits Hannibal to talk about it, like Hannibal probably knew he would.

9 - …and the woman clothed with the sun

Will asks Hannibal’s help and Hannibal tells him “you are family, Will”. We see back when Abigail asked Hannibal how many had he killed and if he’ll kill her, and we see Hannibal staging her death: taking her blood and throwing it around with her as if she’d been stabbed (that was before he killed her for real though?)

Alana tells Will she’s still with Margo and that she herself carried the baby, a son, the heir. 

Alana tells Hannibal she knows what he’s afraid of: indignity, and threatens him with it. 

Freddie called Hannibal and Will “murder husbands”.

The fairy/dragon thinks he’s disfigured. He meets a blind woman.

10 - …and the woman clothed in sun

Fairy/dragon calls Hannibal pretending to be his lawyer, and tells him he knew he’d understand, and that he’s becoming the big red dragon.

Bedelia gives a lecture about Hannibal and her “journey to damnation” that “began when I was swallowed by the beasts”.

Dragon has the blind girl touch a tiger. He’s still worried she might touch his face and understand what he is, but then she kisses him and they go all the way.

We see the guy “there’s something wrong with doctor Lecter” and “he did something to me.” (Zachary Quinto)

Molly is Will’s wife. 

Hannibal referred him to her, because “you’re just as twisted as he is” He didn’t attack her, he choked by himself… so what did she do? why did she say she killed him?what was all that fists in throat stuff?

Dragon and Will go to see Blake’s dragon painting, and when he attacks him Will understands it’s him.

11 - …and the beast from the sea

Hannibal manipulates Dragon into killing Will’s family. He starts watching them and record the and poisons the dogs. When Will speaks to Hannibal he says “they’re not my family Will, and I’m not letting them die, you are”.

Molly hears him coming and tries to run away, saving her son, but she gets hit. Now Alana and Jack know that Hannibal has been talking to Dragon and want him to help.

Dragon tells the girl he can’t be with her because he’s afraid he might hurt her, so she tells him to leave. He calls Hannibal.

Law and Order Special Victims Unit season 17

In progress. 

eps missing:

1, 2, 3, 4, 6

5 - Community policing

A family is assaulted, the wife and their 12yo daughter are raped. They start a manhunt, they think they found the right guy and the police shoot him: Terence Reynolds. The boy dies, and he was not the rapist. Barba wants to pursue the cops who emptied their guns on Terence. He was shot 35 times. Liv and all the cops are on the detectives side, but Barba goes against them anyway. Liv keeps saying that they followed police procedures.

Declan meets Rollins, back from a long mission, and she admits that he is the father.

7 - Patrimonial burden

At her virtue-ball, a 13yo gir faints, it turns out she’s three months pregnant. They suspect the cameraman who follows them around for their show, and the girl’s older brother, but then they point to the family’s priest. The family agreed to him marrying the girl, not knowing he’s really the father. Mom is beyond shocked when she learns the truth, and he’s arrested. He’ll plead guilty. There’s talk of Barba, but he’s not in this episode.

Dodds is still adjusting to the team. Rollins is taken to the hospital, after 8 and a half months she was still working. She needs to stay there and Carisi is good at comforting her. 

8 - Melancholy pursuit

Noah is almost 2. Liv loses him at the part and freaks out, but she finds him. 

A young girl goes missing and then is found dead and Dodds is troubled by it. The Me helps with a partial dna match, like a half-brother, and they start a long search, because apparently this Ray guy left sons everywhere, and his wife never knew.Ultimately they find the right one.

9 - Depravity standard

A man confessed to Benson to kidnapping a child and having killed others. He agrees to plead guilty but then in front of the judge he says that he's innocent, that Barba and Benson were yelling at him, that she put words in his mouth, so there will be a trial. They don't have enough evidence for the murders but the mother of the kidnapped child refuses to make him testify.

Carisi is going to law school and asks Barba to let him be his shadow in court.

Wong testifies for the defence. Rollins is in the hospital, Finn stays with her.

After six days the jury has no verdict. They reach a deal of eight years but then the defence lawyer learned that the jury reached a deadlock and pulled back. It's a mistrial, but Wyatt's mother says that after speaking to her husband and son they have decided to go to trial. 

It ends with: complications with Rollins pregnancy.

10 - Catfishing teacher

(No Barba, this ep’s counsellor is Robert Sean Leonard) 

Carisi and Rollins with the baby. She’s on maternity leave and he’s really good with the baby. 

A female teacher has sex with students, and a 15 yo boy is now missing. He is found in the wrestling coach cabin, in his bed. A young man who was once in his team refuses to testify but then kidnaps the coach and tortures him to get a confession. When they go to him, he dies on his way to the hospital. The guy will now be tried for murder.

11 - Townhouse incident

Liv's babysitter is worried about a woman. When Liv checks it out she ends up in a bad situation. Two guys and a woman are terrorising a family and beating up the husband to get money, but they don't have it at home. The daughter is raped. Lucy goes to Carisi and they get worried and go check. Roxie's brother Ralph is sent to the bank with the wife, and gets caught there. Liv calls Tucker to handle the negotiation. Barba shows up to talk to Ralph, not even looking at Tucker. Dodds and another cop get in in their underwear to get the husband out. Liv tells Roxie to surrender, and when she goes out to check the car for Joe, she's too scared to go back in and knees down surrendering. Liv tells Joe to put a gun to her head and he'll be safe. They walk out together and she convinces him that he only needs her, so the kids run to safety. Now alone with him, she manages to hit him so a sniper can kill him. Liv thanks Tucker and they take her away.

12 - A misunderstanding

Liv talks to her psychiatrist again. Rollins takes her baby child to the station. Rita comes to Liv with a case: she's representing the victim, this time, a 15yo girl who went to a party with an 18yo boy and was raped. The boy seems really surprised. Buchanan represents him, which means it'll get ugly, I'm sure. Barba is lovely and funny :)

The case is weak, the parents are fighting more than the kids. Barba tries to make a minor deal for misconduct. Rita helps him with the girl's parents, but the boy's family refuses. Liv talks to Barba, tells him he did a good job, that the world needs new rules on sexual conduct for teenagers. The verdict is: not guilty on attempted rape, but guilty on the sexual misconduct. Both the kids are sorry but the families keep fighting.

13 - Forty-one witnesses

Rollins is back from maternity leave. 

A drug addict girl is raped in a courtyard, lots of windows looking down at the place but nobody did anything or came forward. Nobody saw anything... but a girl who saw the three guys exit a café with her made a video, so they know their faces. They find them, but the evidence in trial is not conclusive. The victim doesn't remember, and nobody actually saw the rape. Carisi understands that a guy, struggling with alcoholism, lied to him. He's a friend of the girl, but when he saw it he froze and got drunk instead of calling 911. Now he makes amends by testifying, but he shows up drunk. Despite that, he is a good witness, and to prove his credibility, his memory, Barba tries making him repeat the question that were just asked and also describe the jury with his eyes closed. He convinces the jury. Liv is impressed :)

At the end, we see Liv drink red wine at home, alone... she drinks a lot, doesn't she?

14 - Nationwide manhunt

Greg Yates want to talk to Rollins in exchange for names of unidentified victims. He asks to be transferred to Dr Rudnick block, but when Liv and Barba go to see him he's nowhere to be found. He escaped with the doctor, Carl Rudnick. Already two men have been killed. Rudnick had help from the same redhead woman that helped William Lewis escape! Lindsay and another one from Chicago PD come to help. Yates is on a killing spree, Rudnick is found badly injured. Dodds is shot and Lindsay goes after Yates alone. 

15 - Collateral damages

Using a girl still at the police academy but looking a lot younger as bait, they arrest an ex boxe champion. To avoid jail, he helps them take down other people who watch and distribute child pornography videos. They are shocked when they see that one of these people is Deputy Commissioner Hank. His wife Pippa never suspected a thing.

(I liked this actress, she's good)

He tries to find a way to come out clean, but there isn't one. At the end, he'll plead guilty. 

There is Barba in this episode, yes.

16 - Star-struck victims

A girl says that famous actor Bobby D'Amico and his friend raped her, but Dodds senior is friends wiwth Bobby and doesn't believe her, and Barba doesn't have enough evidence. She's a vlogger, and she posts online the whole story. She changes it a bit, keeps the video online saying her 'followers' want to know, she kept dancing like nothing happened after the rape... she's definitely not a credible witness. At the trial, Buchanan makes it look like she lied to have more views... Barba has a big strategy to try and trap them but Buchanan knows he's winning so he doesn't call them to testify. Barba is defeated. The verdict is not guilty.

I like Barba :)

Rollins went undercover without authorization, not knowing yet the two guys had already lawyered up, so her video of them attempting to rape her was not allowed in court. At the end, it's shown on the news.

Liv thinks Rollins leaked it out, but it was Dodds Jr.

17 - Manhattan transfer

A tip leads Svu to bust a party where underage girls are trafficked, raped, given to other men. The place was full with important people: judges, lawyers, rich people, and also two cops who claimed to be undercover and a nun who infiltrated to save the girls. Sister Nina tells Liv that those cops were raping girls. Since all the girls come from the same school, Tucker goes to talk to his cousin Eugene who is a priest there. Right after that their witness Cara is killed and Nina becomes paranoid and terrified when she sees Liv with Eugene's cousin, and goes away.

Tucker confronts Eugene, so later the Church's monsignore goes to Barba to make charges against Tucker, claiming that he knew and was an active part of a girls trafficking thing. When Barba talks to Liv, she defends Tucker: "you're wrong about him!" Barba is confused, Svu and Tucker were never friends, as far as he knew: "he went after each and every one of you" but Liv strongly defends him: "he had to be relentless". Barba understands, asks her if they are involved: "don't ask me that" and he's hurt that she never told him: "we're done talking". 

He has to start an investigation on Tucker and the episode ends with Liv removed from her job, and young Dodds temporarily on her place.

Why does Liv like the macho-type so much? Elliott, Cassidy, Tucker... she sounded proud when she yelled at Barba that Tucker almost bit Eugene's head off...

18 - Unholiest alliance

The dirty cops and the priests, they all implicate Tucker. Nina runs away scared but is found, raped and killed. A girl saw it all and was almost Od'ed, but survived and told her story. It seems like there's nothing to be done. The team sort of blackmails the judge found at that party into procuring them warrants for the priests finances, and they discover that Eugene had a kinky relationship with a young man, and that Monsignor knew about it: that's what he used to blackmail Eugene into procuring them vulnerable girls. 

Carisi is a catholic and makes a last attempt to appeal to Eugene's belief. He gets thru to him and Eugene tells them when they can find all the paper-trail on the traffic. The monsignor, a bishop and at least one priest, Nina's murderer, were raping girls, blackmailing them into silence and pimping them out to powerful people who would use their influence to favour their church. With that evidence, they now have a good case. They get everyone but the bishop, protected by the Church and sent far away. Tucker and Liv have their job back.

19 - Sheltered outcasts

Carisi goes undercover at a sex offenders shelter. Three women are raped, and the shelter therapist who cared about them is killed. They find one rapist, but not the second one, the murderer. By chance, the victim and a guy's lawyer are at the station at the same time, and she recognises his voice. The lawyer knew that they would get the blame, but they get him.

Carisi got beaten by a victim's father. He is also upset by the way those guys life is ruined after they are put on the list... just a curiosity, there is no list for murderers or thieves who get out of jail, why is that the only list given to the public is that of sex offenders? (with an almost criminal lack of details, I'd add.)

No Barba in this one.

20 - Fashionable crimes

Carisi takes pictures of Olivia and Amanda with their kids: lovely.

A photographer (Fisher Stevens) rapes a girl while his assistant Maura took pictures. He's the bad brother of a famous fashion designer. He did the same to many other girls, but nobody would testify against Alvin because he's powerful and they'd never work again.

Her boyfriend is very jealous and manipulative and he convinces her not to testify. In exchange, he got money from the rich brother. 

The first suspect is the boyfriend, but it was his brother that killed him, tired of cleaning up his messes. When he confesses under pressure, his wife confesses too trying to protect him. 

Liv goes home to see Noah and Munch who was babysitting him. "Turns out there's more to life than Svu". With Noah now Liv knows that too.

21 - Assaulting reality

Liv and Tucker are at a bar asking for the tv to be turned off: "who actually watches this show?"... well, Rollins with popcorns while Carisi handles the baby girl.

It's 'Heart's desire', where a man chooses a girl. Melanie is shown a clip of her 'having sex' when she cries that she'd never do that, and "did Ryan rape me?"

Rollins brings the case to Liv, and they investigate. The executive producers fill them with lies and misdirections. Jeffrey and Regina Prince blame it all on Lizzy, if Graham raped Melanie. They filmed it all, and aired a special making it look like they were the heroes who uncovered the truth; Liv and Barba have Lizzy bugged before talking to the Princes. There will be no trial, Graham pleads guilty and will make a deal.

22 - Intersecting lives

Carisi passed the bar, Dodds will join terrorism next week. Fin's son has a case for him. The boy and his boyfriend will have a son.

A prison warden rapes girls in prison, constantly. Inside and outside the prison. They make up a cover to investigate Ryker's. They have the other girls raped by Munson out of prison, but they don't want to testify against him, he has power over them. 

(A girl calls Rollins : Elsa :p )

They're too afraid, and with reason. Munson is arrested and after the arraignment Barba calls Liv and Dodds: "I'll need you to walk me out of here"

Outside, a guy threatens him. He acts cool: "right here in front of these people?" and "here's my home address, you come by any time you want" bus as soon as the guy walks away he's all shaken up and tells Liv. "This is just the beginning" are his last words.

23 - Heartfelt passages

That same guy threatens Barba again and he wants him arrested. Barba tells Carisi and Rollins he's been getting threats all year, after the case of the three cops who shot Terence Reynolds. As the one she can trust, Rollins calls Benson, but she has her hands full:

Now that Gary Munson's wife has done some texts, she believes it and wants a divorce, and asks Liv's help because she's scared. They throw a 'good luck party' for Dodds at the station when she calls Liv and Dodds goes with her. Liv takes the children outside, Dodds is inside when Munson pulls his gun out and takes his wife hostage. Munson only wants her but Dodds can't leave because he'll kill her. 

When they hear a gunshot, they burst in, Dodds has been shot. At the hospital, it seems he might recover, his dad speaks to him and also his fiancee Alice, but he needs emergency surgery again, he doesn't really make it. His heart's still beating but he's gone neurologically. They all attend his funeral, Barba too.

Benson tells them of that video that Dodds leaked out. Carisi tells Barba they're looking for that guy and he says: "I'm not worried, not in here", then after he'll pick him at a line up: "he looks smaller in there".

He was paid 250$ every time he talked to Barba, who says "250, that's it? I should be offended"

Carisi is still thinking about being a DA. "There's a opening in Brooklyn" but of course he can't leave now.

"How's Liv doing?" - "She's taking it hard"

Liv talks to the doctor again.

Tucker tells her he requested transfer to hostage negotiation, he's leaving Iab. "We have a good thing going here, the three of us" - "yeah, we do"

Tucker asks her to go to Paris, they kiss and walk away with Noah.