Hi everyone!
Welcome to my dorky little review of last night’s Separation Anxiety. As always there are huge honkin’ spoilers in here for that episode, and I have not read any other comments yet. So if we said the same thing, it’s just that pesky great minds thinking alike again thing. :-)
Overall:
Little by little all the characters are getting backstories and being fleshed out. And for the first time we get an episode that doesn’t revolve around Darien, giving Paul Ben-Victor a chance to do more then be snarky or paranoid. Not all of our questions on Hobbes are answered, but then again when has IM ever given us all the answers? Something tells me whatever it is that made the ex-wife leave was the same thing that forced Hobbes out of the Marines, out of the FBI and stuck at the Agency.
The Good:
-I don’t think anyone was surprised that Hobbes was so untactfull with the cop. You think, as a law enforcement officer, he would know better...and yet that’s our Hobbes!
-During the first commercial break, I was snickering over the idea that Darien might have to go and get Hobbes out of jail. And sure enough, there’s our favorite former thief trying to look like he’s supposed to be on that side of the law!
-"Are you a friend of his?" Darien’s answer of "Yea" is a little to quick to let his "actually we just work together" explanation cover it up.
-"Send Bobby my love...and tell him I never want to see him again."
-People apparently have an easy time forgetting what Darien’s former job was. First we get Kevin in the Pilot saying a thief would never have access to the gland, now Hobbes with "A pond doesn’t change it’s scum." talk.
-I talked last week about how in the Agency, the Official is like the father and Hobbes and Darien are the kids. Well this week we get Dad chewing out his son for disobeying him. Later on Dad even tries to ground him!
-Anyone get a bad feeling, after seeing the promo’s for this episode and knowing someone gets shot, and then watching Hobbes and Darien pass by the window with the huge rifle sight?
-If Darien is that picky about where he eats being sanitary, then I’d hate to have seen him trying to eat anything in prison!
-More role reversal in that great scene in the dive, where Hobbes is all gung ho to go get the sailors while Darien is trying to stop him.
-It’s kinda funny, especially after Darien’s comment "Let me tell you something, I am not a toy!"...considering he has two roles in the episode: overhear conversations and be the go-between for Hobbes and his ex. No not a toy, just a pawn...
-Anyone else waiting for Darien to squirt Hobbes with that ketsup bottle?
-Gotta love Eberts and Charlie watching the soap opera...especially with the punchline "That bitch!" Oh LOL! Yea right they were watching CNN.
-So you’d think after Eberts brings up what the guns really are, helping convince the Official to go after Brock, that Hobbes would be happy with him. But the two of them snip at each other something nasty! And the detest on both their faces...something is going on with those two...
-...and it just might be Eberts being jealous that Hobbes gets to go on these exciting missions. I asked the question recently about why Eberts is there, and I think now after his little "Can I go?" on the mission that he wanted to be an agent. He tried and found himself stuck behind a desk for some reason...perhaps because he has all this wonderful information packed away in his brain to be called up whenever the Official wants it!
-Hobbes has an office...with a huge honkin’ map with push-pin markers, a picture of Bill Clinton, some nice picture on the far wall, a plant or two, and its rather big!...hey I wonder if Darien has an office?
-Autographed menu from Legoland? LOL...uh, WHO autographed it?
-So as the ex. is giving Hobbes back all those...uh...precious memories, watch
everyone’s face. The ex is getting more and more angry, Hobbes is getting more
and more embarrassed and distraught, and Darien is looking more and more uncomfy.
-Hobbes’ flying leap to take down Brock just rocked!
-"We messed it up. Let us make it right."
-Gotta love the scene with Hobbes trying to get Darien to get the ex to talk to him. Not only is their conversation in the van funny, but then when Darien has to shout back and forth for the two...reminded me of when two people won’t talk to each other, so they ask a third to relay what they say.
-"I think I could convince the Official to take the gland out of my head quicker."
-Heartwrenching Moment of the Week: Hobbes finds his ex. getting her wedding dress fitted. His face is such a mixture of happy memories, admiring how beautiful she looks, and pain that it’s not for him anymore.
-Gotta love a man in uniform. Or in this case, three men in uniform. Can’t complain about that wardrobe! :-)
-Great scene between Brock and Hobbes comparing notes over the same girl. Obviously the ex’s stories about Hobbes let Brock have some respect for him before this whole fiasco, since the two are able to come to some sort of reconciliation after all the crap Hobbes pulled in the past few days.
-So when "Mr." White finally pulls the guns on the trio and is going to kill them, its kind of interesting to see the different reactions they have. Brock is almost calm and prepared, Hobbes gets a bit jumpy and starts talking real fast, and poor Darien looks freaked out and very scared. Of course at the time Brock and Hobbes were still just standing there, Darien had been grabbed and had a gun right under his jaw and another in his side.
-So the only quote we get this episode is Hobbes giving us a Chinese Proverb: you save a man’s life and he is your responsibility forever. Now there’s a happy thought, Hobbes forced to protect the husband of his ex. for the rest of his life!
-Once again Hobbes turns on the charm with the doctor just trying to help him!
-No I don’t want to know where Darien learned to wrap up bullet wounds.
-The last five minutes are great, between Darien trying to get Hobbes to let go of his ex, and then Hobbes finally saying goodbye to the ex after being thanked. Aww...
The Bad:
-This was NOT an IM episode. You know why? There was NO superintelligent quote at the beginning, there was only ONE line of voice over, and only ONE crap in the whole episode! I guess since this episode centered on Hobbes it makes sense that the things associated with Darien would be gone...but STILL!
-Why was Hobbes driving so erratically at the beginning? If it was to try and stop his ex so he really could talk to her, why didn’t he pull over when she did the first time?
-You think if they had time to get correct uniforms in the right sizes for Hobbes and Darien, that someone would have noticed the "unregulation haircut" and grabbed a pair of scissors.
-No wonder "Mr." White picked up on the ruse quickly...when Hobbes shows up and the three have the very obvious conversation about what’s in the truck, and will they need help unloading it, it was rather clear the double meaning behind it all.
-It was probably just a plot device to get the cool shot of Darien going invisible to avoid the heat seeking bullets, but when Darien broke away and ran down the warehouse why didn’t the other men with guns fire? They had clear shots!
The Crap Count:
"I’m surprised the two of your aren’t kicking the crap out of each other." -Darien, to Hobbes and Brock
The Nitpicky:
-Why is Hobbes using binoculars to spy on his ex who is only about 30 feet away?
-Did Hobbes know that Darien was going to stop Brock from punching him? He made no move to block the punch. If that’s true...HOW did he know? Did he see Darien go invisible?
-So I’ve been gripping about the Gas Attendant Jacket for the last few episodes now. And for the most part Darien’s wardrobe was excellent this week...expect now he has this bright yellow thing with "Randy" on the front. Why is he wearing Randy’s jacket?! :-)
-OK forgive me but I have to say it. So it was Mr. White, in the warehouse, with the gun. *snicker*
-Why did the ex. leave Hobbes in the first place?
-"You’re a good man Bobby." ...anyone else think of Charlie Brown when she said that? "Your a good man Bobby Hobbes!"
"You OK?"
"Yea, for the first time in a while now."
-Darien and Hobbes
