I decided to recap the season finale before catching up on episode 9 of this season. Even though I think it shows the same fragmentation between Alicia’s storylines and those of the lawyers who were once her colleagues, Diane and Cary, it was a pretty great episode—and, I hope, it will be pivotal for Alicia’s character.
We open with the longest “Previously”s known to man which, as kht rightly complained last week, hammers the “Banana Joe’s” reveal into our heads so hard I now have a concussion. Last week, Allison says Banana Joe’s has the best daiquiris. Carrie sees the bar Banana Joe’s in a picture of Ahmed. She hears Allison say Banana Joe’s has the best daiquiris in voiceover, in case we didn’t just hear it one goddamn minute ago. Okay, okay, Banana Joe’s is important. WE GET IT NOW.
I will start by saying I did not have high hopes for this episode. I mean, it’s like going into a Gilmore Girls episode that is named “All About Digger.” Or an Affair episode named “All About Noah.” Like, is my entire recap just going to be, “Shut up, Allison”?
And this turned out to be a fairly boring episode, but learning more about Allison was actually useful and enjoyable.
TV has been a bit too topical lately, hasn’t it? This was another episode that I wasn’t sure it would be a great idea to recap, after the tragedy at Planned Parenthood. In case any of our readers haven’t been entirely deadened to mass shootings and might find reminders of that event upsetting, please consider this a warning, and an apology if it seems tactless.
Surreptitious cell-phone video makes a second appearance this season. A woman is shown on a shaky phone-cam video eating frozen yogurt and talking casually about “harvesting” a “product.” The product, it eventually becomes clear, is specifically parts. Fetus parts. For the price of $100. Ethan, showing the video to Diane, is up on his high horse about this, but Diane argues that it’s for “preserving, packaging and delivering,” not selling, baby parts, and that the video is just propaganda. Ethan argues that Americans only support abortion if they don’t have to face the facts about it. Then they have this mystifying exchange:
Diane: The majority of Americans only support anything if they don’t have to face the fact of it! How the hamburger ended up on their plate…
Ethan: Except this has a face. It’s not an appendix. It’s a human being.
Um… What exactly does Ethan think a hamburger is? A grilled appendix on a bun?
Well, it’s been a busy couple weeks for all of us at Adversion. Our recaps may have fallen behind, but rest assured, we are committed to parsing every single second of our favorite shows for sexism, hidden meanings, and opportunities to make fun of Scarlett.
After the events of this past weekend, it seems a little strange, and frivolous even, to recap a soap opera about CIA agents chasing down terrorists in Europe. I thought for awhile about what to write here—but in the end, this seems like the wrong venue to say anything other than that our thoughts are with the people of Paris and Beirut.
Because the episode wasn’t particularly violent or scary, I am comfortable posting about it today, with the side note that this recap will attempt (as we always try to attempt) to highlight any ways in which this episode might encourage assumptions that we should instead be questioning. And with that, on to the recap.
In this episode, everyone learns a nice little lesson about not hiring people without doing a background check.
Alicia and Lucca’s newest client takes a polygraph.
I like to think that this is the face of, “Sure, Carrie. Take my sister’s medical supplies to treat the smoldering hitman. I’ll just be waiting right here when you get back.”
At the end of the last recap, I joked that the answer to Alicia’s question was such a cliffhanger, because the answer was so obvious. And sure enough, when this episode opens, without much discussion or drama, Alicia and Lucca are partners.
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