Category: Directed by Carl Seaton

The Equalizer (2021) s02e16 – Vox Populi

Right up until the ending, which resolves Tory Kittles’s recent professional turmoil story arc–two racist white cops kidnapped him and tortured him because they thought he was just a mouthy Black guy, not a Black cop—this episode’s one of the best “Equalizer” episodes.

It’s also something of a “gimme” episode, just because of the structure. Lorraine Toussaint is on a jury where the evidence doesn’t make sense, and it certainly seems like the cops are railroading a Black defendant (RJ Brown). Brown’s accused of raping and murdering a white woman. The episode comes real close to talking about systematic racism (especially for CBS), and there are numerous “gotcha” moments where the white jurors catch themselves being a little racist. It’s always unintentional and without actual malice, but the moments are there. Toussaint’s great and rarely gets enough to do on the show, so having her be the de facto client this episode is excellent.

Of course, Toussaint doesn’t know Queen Latifah’s investigating the case. Latifah knows Toussaint’s not happy with the evidence or the prosecutor’s case; Latifah tells sidekicks Adam Goldberg and Liza Lapira (neither of whom gets much to do) Toussaint wouldn’t have complained if she didn’t want Latifah to do something. Still, it’s never actually made clear Toussaint had that motive. So while Latifah’s trying to figure out if Brown did it, Toussaint’s playing 12 Angry Men with the other jurors.

Sam Pearson, James Adam Lim, Rosa Arredondo, and John Bedford Lloyd are prominent other jurors. Pearson and Lim are more sympathetic to Toussaint; Arredondo and Lloyd are the most antithetic. Lloyd’s better playing the whole jerk than the conflicted one, but Toussaint keeps their exchanges rolling even when his resolve starts slipping.

Kittles helps Latifah out with the investigation, seemingly setting him up for one future plot arc only to flush it for another incredibly problematic one. At least he’s not leaving the show. And hopefully, he and Latifah get to keep being cute together going forward. But it’s a letdown, especially after all the time the episode spends setting him up for something else.

Laya DeLeon Hayes has a mostly offscreen subplot about Latifah feeling bad Hayes has to lie about her mom being “The Equalizer” (to her dad, Latifah’s ex-husband). Unfortunately, given the show seemed to be setting the ex up as a permanent foil, the arc plays reductive. Similar to Kittles’s whole thing.

Nitpicking about future plotlines and multi-episode arcs aside, it’s a strong episode. It’s a Toussaint one. How could it not be?

Batwoman (2019) s01e05 – Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale

This episode has no awesome Batwoman action. The only Batwoman action scene is not very good, in fact. It’s all that stealthy Batman Begins type action as Batwoman breaks into estranged sister and supervillain Alice’s base and takes her prisoner, presumably leaving all the thugs unconscious… even though they then wake up and start attacking the dad.

While Ruby Rose doesn’t emote a lot, not even when she finds out she’s been duped or made a terrible decision or really not thought out her plans, which should be a bad thing but somehow isn’t. Like the aloof quality makes all Rose is processing—finding out long dead sister is alive and supervillain, becoming Batwoman, dating life, whatever—seem a lot more reasonable. Because the way the show is handling Rose and Rachel Skarsten (as the supervillain sister) is actually fairly impressive. It helps Skarsten’s good, but the plotting of the reveals and the character development is solid stuff. The show doesn’t shy away from the big twist, instead going further than just embracing it and making it the whole show. “Batwoman” is about Rose and Skarsten. The Bat-branding is adornment.

Also good this episode is step-sister Nicole Kang freaking out after she finds out her mom, shady defense contractor Elizabeth Anweis, did something really shady and hurtful. Kang ends up hanging out with Camrus Johnson (while looking for Rose) for much of the episode, annoying him in the most amusing ways. Kang’s the show’s best actor and Johnson’s good at the humor so it’s really fun to see them together. Especially since the other B plot is Meagan Tandy and Dougray Scott trying to find Rose and Skarsten.

Saying Tandy and Scott are utterly charmless is about the most complimentary observation one could make based on this episode. Mostly because they’re so terribly miscast.

But it’s a surprisingly solid episode. Like, impressively so. It proves it doesn’t need good Batwoman action scenes to succeed, not when it knows how to leverage Skarsten and Kang.