My Own Worst Enemy: Down Rio Way

You know what? This was a very nicely done episode of television. I wasn't a huge fan of the last episode "High Crimes and Turducken" due to the fact that my patience with Henry is waning. And to be truthful, it was Henry's reaction to his son's new fix-er-up car during "Down Rio Way" that lost most of the points here. Edward approved of his son buying the busted up Camaro, and at this point, Henry should be used to things happening concerning his family while he's, you know, Edward. There are decisions that need to be made that require Henry, and well, Edward just has to do his best. At this point, in this fantastical story, Henry is over-reacting. And that's something that, considering his circumstances, I didn't think I'd ever be writing.

This episode was strong because, at this point in the now-cancelled series, it steered way clear of the things that have been slightly annoying me. It actually had a great storyline concerning Raymond and Mary. Mavis tells Raymond to go home to Mary, as himself, and deal with an apparent hit-and-run that she might have committed. I think there's just a part of me that still enjoys seeing someone that was meant to look like a shlub "office-drone" character act like a completely badass. When Raymond actually finds out that Mary didn't hit someone, but instead suffered from traumatic stress due to robbery at an intersection, he goes to get her wedding rings back and tries and make things right for Tom. It was definitely the most satisfying thing about this chapter.

The stuff with Tromboll and Edward was nice too. I've been waiting for James Cromwell to have more to do here. And while I'm still not convinced that Edward is as "valuable" as they say he is – seeing Tromboll use Edward's parent's death to get Edward to kill off a "retiring" agent named Firefly was terrific. It reminded me a bit of Memento, where John Pantaliano's cop character kept using Leonard's burning desire to avenge his wife. Edward's been lied to a hell of a lot with regards to his parents death. First by Tromboll, in a flashback, when Edward was young and he was conned into joining Janus. Then he was conned into almost killing a KGB agent who he thought was responsible. Finally when Tromboll told him that the real culprit in the death of the Albrights was down in Rio, I thought to myself "why would he be telling the truth at this point?" And, as it turned out, he wasn't. And then he kills John Heard at the end. Man, I hadn't seen Heard in anything for a while, so I was surprised to see that he was only in two scenes as the mysterious bench-sitting pigeon feeder.

Of course, when it comes down to the actual killing of the man thought to be his parent's murderer, Edward is inconveniently...Henry. And Henry's failure to shoot the man in the hospital, while he looked upon his own newly born grandson, was a great scene. And Henry's shame over not avenging Edward's parents was, finally, a great and real emotion from Henry that I could relate to. At this point, I'm just hoping that the show ends on a somewhat satisfying note. The last episode is next and I don't see Henry or Edward getting "fixed" or any giant mysteries getting solved. Alas, we live in a time when networks do not profit a dime from DVR or Tivo viewings. Watching a show on the internet won't save it. Only live viewings at the scheduled time of broadcast from a TV hooked up to an assigned Nielson Box will make a show live on, and that's not how any of us truly live.