{ Numb3rs, 3x02, Two Daughters. }

[delga]

Play-by-play. Explicit spoilers, Megan-love, Don-meta, and reams of rambling. Yeah, baby. (Warning: this ain't going to make sense and is somewhat shallow, somewhat pretentious. It helps if you have a grasp of poetry if only because once I get excited, I am incapable of talking like a normal person.)

Colby's reaction is priceless all the way through these opening scenes because he is the guy not in the know. "I can't believe she didn't tell me." Whilst I'm all for shipping Colby and Megan in tight circumstances, this is how they work best, a sort of brother and sister tag-team where they needle each other, and Colby's annoyed because he isn't in on the gossip. Maybe a little hurt? Don's reaction is also love: "what's with Megan?" In fact I loved his reaction up until the moment when he yells, all 'she's got Megan ohnoes!' which is the point at which Morrow stopped being able to carry the dialogue. he's not that great with the dramatics. (See when they find Megan and his dialogue just goes into this stupid and unnecessary tone of exposition. GAH.)

That entire scene between Megan and Crystal was amazing. Diane Farr's voice takes on this New York twang that I adore, and her entire countenance in those scenes made my year.

"You're smart enough to know what you're doing, what I wanna know is why."

"Cos you really think they're going to negotiate with you. No, you don't, you're not stupid, and I don't believe you're crazy either." BEST. EYE-TOSS. EVER. Megan backstory! I can't quite trust all of it because Megan is aiming to persuade Crystal to open up and trust her, but there's truth in there, too. I especially love the conclusion to the scene. No, Crystal is not stupid, and Megan doesn't treat her that way. She just confesses her ulterior motive - Crystal is less likely to kill her if she knows more about her because she's more likely to identify with her.

Do I even need to mention that Larry is so much love?

Don's decision to jump to "torture", turning his back on Edgerton, the repercussions of that. (Colby!) I love that Buck knew that Edgerton was more of a threat than Don; the subtle understanding between alpha male and fighter. Charlie's coherence was the first time I was proud of him, to be honest. So truthful. Be more like that, more often, and I might be happier.

The well-choreographed swat raid was fabulous. I've missed that.

Charlie and the game analogy which I'm actually beginning to become fond of (although I'm surprised no-one was annoyed that he was talking about playing a game with Megan's life). "Crystal Hoyle, really, she wants more than one thing."

I LOVE MEGAN REEVES SO MUCH. I even love Crystal Hoyle. "No, I ran away because I was a B plus student [who'd] never kissed a boy." The delivery of that line is perfect. "All of a sudden he couldn't leave his wife." Beautiful. Shame she wasn't better in Big Apple. [Please, no stories about Megan having a baby someplace, or being a crackwhore. I couldn't deal].

Don looks so tired outside the interrogation room. David has matured so much. And now watch as Don comes into play. Determination, anger, frustration - being driven towards a single point. In a way I worry about this personal drive as seen from Don. Since when was he the emotional one, and since when was David the cool and collected one? I mean, yeah, okay, David has grown to the point where he's no longer the rookie, but Don just keeps steering further and further away from being the unbiased, unwavering federal agent. I guess that makes sense, too, in a way. I've always thought of Don as before his mother's death and after his mother's death, and the post-mortem Don is no longer cold and focused just on his job, he's expanding away from that, becoming much more emotional, building relationships and ties. So. OK. I sort of get the behaviour now that I've rationalised it, but I still like the Don that was able to be composed and somewhat detached. (Yes, yes, Megan is one of his own and yet I still feel that those tinges of desperation would not show through if this was Don two to three years ago). OH GOD, 'SUE ME'? wtf?? He is flipping out.

I like this, the confessional. "I'm doing things I wouldn't have done before." So true, and I like that the writers have acknowledged this. It makes me feel better (as a self-confessed Don-lover) that they're aware of the evolution and it's not just a poor plot ploy.

"You're not responsible."
"No, that's exactly what I am [...] Charlie, I don't care about your laws, alright? I don't care about your theories or your algorithms..."

OH WOW. OK, excuse the ever-present Don meta, of which there will apparently always be more, but seriously? WOW. This is the Don I envisioned in the period of his life just before he leaves home, and also just before the pilot (where he doesn't quite understand Charlie; remember, when we meet them, The Brothers Eppes are still awkward around the edges. The first season is about repairing wounds that were inflicted before we meet them_. The math is not enough for Don, and to some extent, however much Charlie helps him, it will never be enough. The reason? Not pure frustration or incomprehension but because at the end of the day numbers do not equal people. Sure, you can find your patterns in behaviour, you can assign numeration to character traits, you can try to quantify behaviour, but it will never really be accurate. And this is the point of difference: Charlie sees the world in numbers, and Don sees numbers in the world. For him the human element has to take precedence because you can't completely enumerate it. Numbers may be everywhere but that's only one level of interpretation.

"Let me guess, we're the faster boat."

Again, I am enamoured of Charlie because he isn't taking it personally when Don rants at him, needing to burst his own frustration. Charlie takes the words and goes with it, brings up an analogy. He keeps trying, and he gives his brother leeway because (I like to think) he's his brother and maybe he feels like he owes him this much. Alan says that Charlie is always striving to restore Don's faith in him and that's true here, too, I think, because Don doesn't believe in the math, and Charlie wants him to. Charlie wants to revitalise his brother. That's very special. [Shallow: Edgerton's sideway glance at Colby during Charlie's diatribe? LOVE. Also, Colby's quietness. "Charlie, this isn't the open ocean, this is the city."]
OMG. "Just nod your head and wait for the punchline." LOVE!

"That's an explanation, that's not an excuse."

OH GOD. Again, Diane Farr has won this entire double episode. I am so in love with this entire dual play between Megan and Crystal. "You gonna take her on the road with you, robbing liquor stores? She is old enough to be Buck's sister, she's the same age you were when you left home! Is that why you're gonna do this? You're gonna make your child live through all the mistakes you made?" Just wonderful. So heartfelt, so true to the character. I could watch this scene over and over - as indeed I have, trying to transcribe those lines, heh.

"I thought you were trying to stay alive."
"I just, I want you to think this through."

So tired. So tired of where she is, and what is happening. So frustrated by being tied up, frustrated by being unable to get through to Crystal - by being annoyed at her and most of all, by sympathising with her. Megan is still on Crystal's side to an extent because in trying to bond with her, she mixes truths with (what I'm assuming are) lies. Megan feels for Crystal, she pities her, she sympathises and she empathises. She plays that tiredness so well in that moment when she has to come down a gear. Well, hey, come on. The homicidal Bonnie has a gun to her.

Here comes the climax - explosions, blood. It's brutal, the pace increases, the direction becomes sharper (although Don's dialogue is weak and a bit stupid). Juxtaposition: the team's need over Edgerton's; Megan over Crystal. Close act.

Megan in the hospital, ever the professional. I love this drive she has, I love this need to explain, to get out all the important information. It isn't about her, it's about getting to Crystal, about stopping the killing. Megan has her head on straight, her priorities are solid. She's fought her demons, she's already won. I love Megan opening up and thanking the boys, unashamed. "It felt like a really good time for a Hail Mary, but I was so lucky that you two were in the area." OKAY. NOW I'M CRYING. Diane Farr? OH MY GOD. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. I love this episode (which is so good because the first episode was fairly sucktastic in compare).

I love you, Larry. !!!

Alan! And Don! (This is going to be great, I know it. Some time last season, this relationship became so important to me, and it still is. Because I think Charlie was his mother's child, his parents' child, really, and whilst Don should have been his father's son, so-to-speak, Alan maybe felt helpless up against Don's independence. And now there's this mutual reaching out, and I just can't get over the dynamic between these two men, these two characters and the two actors. I love it so much.) [Oh, also, excellent time to bring Alan back into this story. The beginning of this second part had to be all about that FBI unit and the family constructed between those team members. Now there's time to take a breath, to remember life outside the office. Nice timing.] Don has to question himself, which I figured as soon as Colby stepped up to caution him (LAZY). But I like this as a method of resolution. Bring it back to Alan; bring it back to the father-son dynamic. It's so important. "How far would you go? - Oh." The baseball story is such an Alan story, and so perfect for this point in the storyline. True, too, and in this neat way which almost covers up for the way Don behaves in this episode. I don't want him angsting over the Buck thing, but I think having him confront the way in which he approached Megan's kidnapping is very important. The line which hits me here is: "when does it come back?" like he knows that it will, like he believes in the karmic essence of his behaviours. (Actually, let's make a segueway back to the S2 finale for a moment. This is another reason why I think Charlie and Alan see Margaret's 'ghost' but Don doesn't - because Alan and Charlie don't really believe in that, whilst Don, to some extent, believes in a higher faith of some variety, namely, he believes in justice, in getting it and delivering it. It's quite something to shape a character on.)

"You see, when you wrestle with your choices, you can take that as a sign that your good sense will return, sooner or later." Yes! Thank you! That's exactly why I think it so important for Don to have this shock to his morals and ethics. Spot on.

OH MAN. THE HOUSE. And Don's loneliness, so subtly pushed in there, not to mention a quiet thank you for having his father around, for having that support structure.

Oh wow, Amita. And this touch of bitterness there, along with Charlie's awkwardness. "Have you realised that you've been apologising to me a lot lately, whether you need to or not?" And she's beginning to get frustrated with how things are not moving forward. I almost want her to force the issue and make something break because her irritation is near palpable. Give her some sort of strength, please. Make her force something from him. Stalemate is hard to watch. "And yes, I do want to try - but only if you want to try, too." Sad, tired, and - this week's theme - frustrated. A nice scene, just right, I think.

"What you don't ever get tunnel vision being on a manhunt this long? I did. Messed me up. I had to give up that game." OH WRITERS, HOW YOU SPOIL ME. !!! ("Yeah, well that's the difference: hunting didn't change me, it chose me." OH, PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT. So true, so well stated, so fucking Edgerton. I am in love with this show all over again.)

[Did I mention yet how much I love David and Colby? Because, hell yeah. End act.]

OH YES. MEGAN AND LARRY. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. These two are such a wonderful and delightful pairing. They correlate so well, and they compliment either other. The concept of the inverse is pretty important, I think, because Megan maybe looks at Crystal and sees what she had te potential to become. Megan and her mad profiling skillz? Oh yeah: LOVE. (I can't get over how much I love her character, I just can't. Especially because I was so worried over the character's description before Farr was cast.) "Yes, you're right! They would try and erase all the emotional evidence. They would take possession by any acts of normalcy!" All this excitement, all this nervous energy. Megan still wants to get to Crystal first but more than that, the fact that I sometimes forget to mention: Megan is damn good at what she does. She is always thinking as a profiler, and storing away the other half, the human side. If Charlie is the numerology and Don is the process, Megan is the analysis, the true human, the over-human. She is the one who strips the body down to emotion, to reason, to motivators and influence. And she is wonderful at it; she was made to be put into this position of empathy. (I think that so long as she can use it against Crystal and not get too lost in the living similarities - which, let's face it, is what happened at the end of the first episode - Megan's empathy can be utilised against Crystal.)

Seeing Amita and Charlie working in the math is beautiful. So, let's add something else to the wishlist. Not only should Amita grow, but the writers should remember that Amita has a passion for the math, too, and that she and Charlie connect best in this way. There needs to be cooperation here. I miss that ease of understanding between the two, the way Amita would bend a little to accommodate Charlie, the way he appreciated her but got lost sometimes. But you have to be rid of that if Amita is going to grow up, which is exactly what is happening. Oh, damn, awkward. Please, Charlie, sweetie. Don't compare Amita to golf. Just - look, don't do it. (I really have a love-hate thing going on with the way Amita does not look at Charlie in this scene unless forced to. And then that closeness, Charlie trying so hard, and that sweetness to Amita's face when her expression ripens with surprise. Navi Rawat is beautiful, maybe classically so, but still. Beautiful.)

The song when Crystal is in the car watching her daughter? A good choice, very subtle, and something I wouldn't be paying attention to if I was the kind to just watch a show through and through. Crystal pulling away is such a gorgeous turn, and her turning to Megan was powerfully set up throughout this two-parter. That sense of inversion runs both ways; Megan made decisions that Crystal could have made, that Crystal almost made. Crystal could still have a clear record if Buck hadn't intervened, if they hadn't run, if she hadn't broken her boundaries the way in which Megan erected hers. End act.

"Screwing up's the part of life you learn from." Does she believe that? Maybe she does believe that now that she's seen her daughter. I don't think ths will end well because like Megan said in the first part, she has nothing to stop her now, and nothing to lose. So what will Crystal do next? What is her motivation now? Megan's words affected her; the proof is in how she left her daughter alone. So, does she believe Megan? Trust her words? Believe what she's telling Buck? And will she come back for Buck? It's a tricky place to be in at this point of the episode because that conclusion has to come very soon. We're 36 minutes into a 43 minute show and the logical climaxes have played out. What is Crystal's next move? Where does she take herself now that she has nothing left? (Personally I think the endgame has to be death, just because that's what she has - she has life and she has death. Then again, the endgame for her could be Buck.) Um. Heh. OK, I should press play now and watch the rest of the damn episode.

"You sweet, stupid boy." I LOVE THIS CHARACTER. "Only two people in the world that I ever loved; no good ot either one of them." I love how I sympathise with her. I've known this character for two episodes and I'm right there. Maybe it's because I think she connects so well to Megan, maybe it's this play-by-play, but Crystal Hoyle is a character that I adore almost as much as Edgerton and Cooper.

"Anything in front of her is fair game."

The final confrontation is forcing Crystal's moves. That's what the math metaphor has been about all along. Winning the game, being one step ahead, forcing the hand. And now you have Edgerton who knows only that he has one shot, and Megan, who wants Crystal out and she's this person who has spent her life reacting - reacting to her parents' parameters, to the forces of living on the street, to Buck, to her emotions, to Charlie's numbers. Crystal is brought to a standstill and this closing setup, with her car trapped in the centre and Edgerton banking down with his scope, Megan on the phone, and Crystal still there, still stuck in the middle - I don't know what to say about it. I love it. That's an inadequate sentence but the sentiment is true. I love it. AND THEN MEGAN GETTING READY FOR THE STAND-OFF. "She's coming." (I love, love, love that Megan doesn't even think about lifting that rifle. She's made her choice so long ago, she's been living with it ever since and whether there's empathy or not, there's still that inverse thinking, and Megan is still what Crystal is not. LOVE.)

JESUS FUCK. DON SHOT HER. I did not see that coming at all. I thought maybe it would be Megan, but this is such a smart move. This feels right (and see? It ended in death. All roads lead there, and all of that). Oh wow. OH WOW. Headshot, too, and then the cut to Megan's disappointment. This panning between them, Don and Megan, Don and Megan - and Don has made his decision, too, and he has to live with that (he did it for a reason and the reason was that Crystal had to be stopped) and then there's Megan, but she gets it too. She's there, too, calm, collected, sad but she knows why, she understands (and that will be Don's boon, really, having Megan understand more than anyone why he did what he did). And Megan does understand.

"All right guys, let's clear it."

MEGAN AND LARRY. Oh yeah.
"I should shut up, shouldn't I?"
"No! You should kiss me now."
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

And, as ever, we return home; we go to the source of comfort. [Re: Charlie in trouble with Amita] "And golf gets you out of it? You the man, Charlie." I wish you wouldn't be such a guy sometimes. (I still love you, of course. I'm not even remotely annoyed or surprised by that comment. Still.) This ending is a good cap, the way we unwind with Don, with his family - the way in which it's so natural, and so comfortable. You love it because to some extent you know it.

I love this show so fucking much.

Oh, also, Let me just talk quickly about the episode title (man, it's nearly half three in the morning). The title? IS SO CLEVER. Firstly the title is most obviously, or pertinently, referring to Crystal and Crystal's daughter. But secondly - and even more importantly - the title is a reference to Crystal and MEGAN, and that connection between the two of them. They were both daughters, both stifled by their parentage. I love the title! It's just so right for what this episode is about. And you will not persuade me otherwise - this is a Megan episode. Megan and Don, and Crystal who is easily my favourite villain in the history of the show. She may even be my favourite guest character. I have to watch these two episodes again.

eta: One of the things that induces my love for this show is the continuity. Guys! Larry and cellphones! Not living in his house! Don's evolution as a character! I just... it's too good. Too, too good.