Kate and Ben go off to Tahoe to investigate a non-murder and explore their “smoldering sexual tension.” I realize there are people who love this triangle thing they’re pushing this season — I am not one of them. I saw Ben mostly acting like a douche or looking like a sad puppy, but neither of those states are ones I find particularly appealing in men, so I’m a little confused as to what Kate’s supposed to see in him. She’s not a school girl, and she looks like Sarah Shahi, so I’m pretty sure Kate has had guys show interest in her before. This is not new to her, and yet the implication of this season seems to be that Kate should be so overwhelmed by his interest in her that she has some obligation to return it. Yes, he’s not as big of a jerk as he was in the beginning and character growth is nice (something that all the characters could use, since his is coming mostly at their expense), but being less of a jerk doesn’t mean he deserves a cookie in the shape of Kate. Sometimes I feel like Ben is the writers’ Mary Sue that they shoved in: he fits the classic definition of taking over the narrative, and the heroine is supposed to automatically fall for him because he’s there. Longing looks, curiously symbolic dreams and valentine rocks (seriously?) only go so far to fill in the gap.
In non-triangular matters, the Tahoe case seemed needlessly complicated and rested rather too heavily on Kate’s instincts for sniffing out the innocent. None of the guest stars or their characters stood out as particularly memorable, though that could be because Kate was going to be right so I didn’t pay much attention to the jurisdictional bickering. But at least the case was something unusual. Also they got to film some lovely scenery on location, though I probably watch too many Vancouver-filmed shows when I wondered whether they were going to find Emma’s tree from Once Upon a Time.
In the half of the episode I liked better, District Attorney Davidson (Esai Morales, Caprica) was doing his slimy best to sandbag Justin with a loser case, but Justin and Lauren made a formidable team. It was satisfying to watch Justin beat Davidson at his own game. Also satisfying was finally getting to see Justin trying a case, at least for a scene, and having the gloves come off between them. Justin better beat him in the election. As a small complaint, I wish the show would figure out that a prosecutor will always have more trial experience than a civil attorney, especially one at Justin’s level and presumptive years in office, and he certainly should have known how the jury was going to take his witness problem himself. But I’ll take that in exchange for Lauren being fabulous, because more Lauren is always better.
Speaking of real life compared to the show, the wheels of justice in San Francisco are truly amazing, doing jury selection, trial and verdict all while Ben and Kate are in Tahoe. Justin should win the election just for how quickly he disposed of that. Though he already had my vote for walking around in a towel.
Next week, it’s the penultimate episode of the season! It’s hard to believe it’s almost over.
Clacked by Liz Tamura 
on Jun 02, 2012 @ 09:23 EST5EDT
