First there was the Bobbi Morse / Hunter banter. Borderline unprofessional at times, yes, but pure Whedon goodness. It was a fun runner to watch them snipe at each other throughout the episode (without actually getting into it in a serious way), with perhaps the highlight being when they casually and simultaneously shot the same baddie. (Side note: We saw the benefits of being a media megaconglomerate in Bobbi's off-duty fashion choice, a Star Wars T-shirt.)
Ward finally getting out of his cage felt like classic Buffy. We saw the normally unflappable Ward finally... flapped... in a big way when his brother came into the equation. Suddenly, he was working any angle he thought he could even more desperately. Seems like getting Ward out in the wild and getting an obviously potent new villain in his brother is a win-win.
A win-win-win, actually, because actor Tim DeKay is playing Christian Ward. I've never watched a single episode of White Collar. (It's somewhere on the long to-do list.) But I do remember Tim DeKay from the brief HBO series Carnivale before that. And moreover, before that, he was a resident stage actor at the Denver Center Theater Company, where I saw him in at least half a dozen plays. He was excellent in all of them. What I don't recall ever seeing him play was an outright villain, and a conniving, false-faced politician seems like a particularly fun flavor to give him. I can't wait for more.
I loved the subplot between Fitz and Simmons. We've seen Fitz's heartbreak over their separation for the last several weeks. Now we saw what it has cost Simmons. Her watching someone else step in and be part of a new dynamic duo with Fitz, the way she used to be, was a sad twist of the knife.
My one disappointment in the episode would be how quickly (and, I think, implausibly) Talbot suddenly turned around after being so opposed to S.H.I.E.L.D. and our heroes for so long. It was hard to swallow.
Still, it was a fun and thrilling episode overall. I give it a B+.
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