S06.E13: By Any Means Part Four 2018.01.09

[kilda]

possibly something they were planning to do if they had more time?

[CheshireCat]

3 hours ago, kilda said:

possibly something they were planning to do if they had more time?

Duff had plenty of time. 13 episodes, in fact. If he had spent less time on plotting his revenge on TNT he might have gotten around to it ;-)

[Bastet]

This deleted scene is ... well, I'm really not sure what to think of it.  The Wes and Cami stuff (that I still can't believe was ever created in the first place; did anyone really think viewers were sitting there captivated by the flirtation between two new characters as the show was coming to an end?!) is annoying as ever, but it's nice seeing Sykes over it.

And it's nice that Julio and Amy know Provenza's story is fishy as hell, but Buzz's camera seems to be on from the way he's holding it, so why on earth are they having the conversation when it'll be recorded?!  And, ultimately, having it mentioned that FID is going to be suspicious, and for the reasons we the audience were complaining about, but Provenza still being cleared, quickly, and without any mention of it being a grueling investigation, isn't any better than the scene never being included to begin with.

If you're wondering what Deleted Scene #1 is, it's the one mentioned previously, Kendall's amusing retreat when he finds out there may be a bomb in the room:

[shapeshifter]

Thanks for posting these, @Bastet. Watching them is much more satisfying than anything I have read since the finale.

[kilda]

I second the thanks for posting those.  The Kendall scene is cute and I wish they'd have left it in so he'd have been in the finale.  Plus Tao cracks me up.  "We know what killed him.  I shot him.  Oh, and there may be a bomb in here."

The scene on the boat - it's annoying watching the designated Young Pretty People flirt, and I can't imagine why they thought anyone in the audience cared.  But seeing that Amy apparently finds them as annoying as I do kind makes up for it.  I was rolling my eyes right along with her!

[Raja]

1 hour ago, kilda said:

I second the thanks for posting those.  The Kendall scene is cute and I wish they'd have left it in so he'd have been in the finale.  Plus Tao cracks me up.  "We know what killed him.  I shot him.  Oh, and there may be a bomb in here."

The scene on the boat - it's annoying watching the designated Young Pretty People flirt, and I can't imagine why they thought anyone in the audience cared.  But seeing that Amy apparently finds them as annoying as I do kind makes up for it.  I was rolling my eyes right along with her!

I  understand he killed a child molester instead  of a spouse killer and was still in combat mode but I  remember his more real seeming reaction to the last time he killed in the line of duty

[Xeliou66]

Yeah Tao was much more shaken the last time he shot somebody, this time he was so focused on finding Stroh he didn’t have time to process it. Again if the show devoted more time to the main characters maybe we could see this.

It’s a shame they cut the Kendall scene, I love Kendall, he’s the unsung hero of the show, it’s a shame he never got an episode to shine in more than 1 scene, we never even learned his first name. He should’ve been with everyone else at the end, they had Morales and Hobbs standing there, why not Kendall.

I’m still pissed that the main cast who have been so loved for years got shoved to the background in the final season while Rusty and Stroh took center stage.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Xeliou66.

[Bastet]

On 1/27/2018 at 2:37 PM, Xeliou66 said:

I’m still pissed that the main cast who have been so loved for years got shoved to the background in the final season while Rusty and Stroh took center stage.

This is bothering me anew lately.  A friend gave me season seven of The Closer on DVD for Christmas (getting me started on adding the Sharon Raydor years of that show to my Major Crimes collection), so I've been re-watching Brenda's Stroh obsession play out.  I like that she finally stops letting it affect so much of her life, and always liked the parallel when Stroh escapes and Rusty and Sharon both ultimately let it go, too -- he's gone, he has no reason to come back, and while no one loves the idea of a serial rapist and murderer on the loose, spending their days worrying about him only harms them.  To me, the Stroh storyline wrapped up there.

To make the final episodes about Rusty vs. Stroh would have been bad enough with Sharon alive and well.  To kill her off so Rusty could do something he wouldn't do with her around just makes it all the more worse.  The show was about the squad, but in the end it's about Rusty and Stroh?  To the point we get an episode filled with Stroh backstory.  We know more about him than we do Mike Tao! 

I really think James Duff regarding Rusty as his Mini-Me skewed his perspective.  Also at play is that his original intention was to bring Brenda back in the end, and the most logical reason for that would be something to do with the Stroh case.  He just set off down the Stroh path in his mind and never properly examined the wisdom or repercussions of that choice under the circumstances, so that when he went to write the final season, that's what came out.