The Americans 1.10

Only You

The search for the killers of FBI agent Chris Amador is on.Stan tries shaking down Nina for information about Amador's death but she doesn't know anything. She asks him about the death of Vlad. He lies to her and tells her he doesn't know anything about it, even though he's the one who killed him.

The FBI locates the vehicle in which Amador was transported after he was stabbed. They know it's the vehicle because they find his ring in the trunk. It was delivered to a scrapyard. The owner of the scrapyard claims to know nothing until Stan roughs him up. It isn't long before the scrapyard owner finds a familiar face in a book of mug shots. The face he finds belongs to the guy that Beeman and Amador chased in Philadephia but lost in 1.03 (Gregory). They locate the guy shake him down. He acts tough at first but eventually gives up Gregory's name.

Philip and Elizabeth are still separated. There's a little bit of drama surrounding their marital issues but most of their time in this episode is spent trying to convince Gregory to go along with their plan to get him out of the country. The KGB gives him two options: move to Moscow or death. They force his hand by planting evidence in his apartment linking him to the murder of Amador. He wants to move to Los Angeles and hopes he can disappear there. That option isn't on the table.

Philip has orders to kill Gregory if he won't go. Gregory acknowledges his situation but he doesn't want to move to Moscow. He wants to go out on his own terms. Philip is reluctant to let him do so but Elizabeth seems to talk him into it. Gregory gets into a gun fight with the Metropolitan Police Department and is killed.

On the whole I thought this was a decent episode, much better than the previous one. It wasn't good enough to sway my feelings on the show as a whole.

Fargo 2.10

Palindrome

This the final episode of the season and this story. The episode get quieter as it progresses and does not build to a climax the way the finale to the first season did. It is a double episode in a way. The first part of the episode deals with the aftermath of the previous episode. The second part wraps things up and hints at connections to the prior season of the show.

Cowboy Bebop 1.05

Ballad of Fallen Angels

Faye walks into a trap set for Spike. It is a bounty for someone that Spike knows, someone who is already dead. Spike acts as if he isn't interested but he does some digging around. He talks to an old friend, Anastasia, who thought he was dead.

Faye's captor, Vicious, makes her call Spike and Jet. Spike answers the call but says it isn't for her sake. He seems to be ready to try and settle some old scores, or at least that's my read of the situation. He goes to the church where Vicious and his gang are holding Faye. Spike takes on the whole gang. He gets shot up pretty good, falls out of a stained glass window from very high up, but he survives.

There are lots of flashback scenes as Spike is slowly falling to the ground. I can't piece it all together other than that Spike and Vicious knew each other before Spike met Jet. There's a woman he knew back then. I think they might have been romantically linked.

Is Vicious dead? It looked like there was a big explosion in the church after Spike fell out of the stained glass window. I'm not sure how Spike could have possibly survived that fall so it probably isn't unreasonable to suppose that Vicious might also have survived.

I like the character moments between Spike and Jet and Faye. They are usually quick but its nice to see how they try to act aloof, especially Jet and Faye, but then show their tender sides.

Atypical 1.06

The D-Train to Bone Town

Paige wants Sam to take her to the dance. She tries enticing him by telling him that her parents will be out of town that weekend. She invites him to come over after the dance. Sam doesn't get it. Zahid has to explain to him what Paige is hinting at.

Elsa has sex with Nick, again. She does some pot with him and inadvertently tells the mother of one of Casey's friends about Clayton Prep, while she is still high.

Casey gets frozen out by her friends on the track team. They know that there's a good chance she will be leaving soon for Clayton Prep.

Doug helps Julia out. She injured her ankle at home. He insists on taking her to the ER. They talk about him not telling his coworker about Sam's autism.

Still don't love this show. It's good but not the home run I would like it to be. I'm wondering when the hammer is going to drop on Elsa. I'm guessing her affair with Nick is going to get revealed but I'm not sure how.

The funniest scene had to be the conversation that Sam and another teen had about baseball and sex. A close second would be the the condom buying scene.

Samurai Jack 3.03

XXIX: Couple on a Train

Jack is pursued on to a train by Ezerkiel Clench and his wife Josephine. They are bounty hunters looking to strike it rich by turning in Jack. Most of the episode takes place on a train.

I didn't recall much in the way of details about this episode but I do recall Ezekiel and Josephine. I think in my mind I got this episode conflated with 2.11 (Jack Is Naked) which also had a lengthy scene that takes place on a train.

This is what I think of as a lesser episode of this show. The visuals are great but there's a little too much in the way of clunky dialogue for my taste.

Black Panther (2018)

I listened to and read a few reviews that were very light on spoilers but I avoided spoilers and podcasts that went in to spoilers about this movie as much as I could before seeing it tonight.

Fargo 2.09

The Castle

The episode opens with narration over a visual of a book: The History of Crime in the Mid-West. The narrator returns several times during the episode to point certain things out. I didn't recognize the voice. It sounded familiar but I couldn't pinpoint who it was until a good half-hour after I finished watching the episode. The primary job of the narrator seems to have been to try and explain things about Hanzee. This is supposed to be a true story. Not much is known about Hanzee or his motivations. He served the Gerhardts faithfully for a couple decades but then, starting last episode, he starts to turn on them.