The Equalizers

The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 12: Silent Fury

Another Equalizer special episode. This time he is helping the victims of a band of burglars who target deaf people. Among them, a young Cynthia Nixon in an impressive performance as a deaf person who calls on the Equalizer and has to mediate between him and her hothead fiancee. This episode takes on its special episode topic from many angles but as we note there are a few omissions (What do Cynthina and her fiancee do besides being deaf?), a few cut corners (Do people really just stand around the Center For The Deaf), and a few Equalizer-spiked additions ("What if the attack against the burglars was somehow hearing-themed?"). All that plus Chris shared his own stories about the topic which somehow break the podcast.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 11: Trial By Ordeal

Equalizer clip show! Control is on trial by an Agency Tribunal, with a judge and prosecutor and big agency flag and everything. The agency thinks that all the help Control has given The Equalizer could be considered treason, so they review all of these as evidence... which is where the clips come in. It's a unique clip show, only 30% or so clips, and by the Morrison Directives (one of several agency phrases in the episode), if he's found guilty he gets the chair! We go deep on the episode and clip shows in general, as well as expressing our love of Debbie Gibson.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 10: Past Imperfect

A bittersweet episode, given the recent passing of Mark Margolis. It's his last episode as lovable Jimmy on The Equalizer and packs the most emotional punch. Jimmy acts as Big Brother to a fatherless boy named Tomas. It's a sweet relationship but gets a bit muddy when the boy's father shows up, and then a cartel and the agency and the DOJ are all chasing after him. We pay tribute to Mark Margolis the actor and the character Jimmy while also wondering if Jimmy is really a good fit for the Big Brother program. Also featuring a great guest spot by Hector Elizondo, snake tattoos, and more EQ series callbacks than usual, e.g. microdots.

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The Equalizer 3 movie! Holy cow. How often does it happen on a podcast for a 35 year old show that a new movie in the franchise comes out? Not often at all. For Chris and Chuck, it's a lot of firsts - the first podcast field trip (to a Chicago suburb halfway between our respective suburbs), the first mid-season bonus episode, and the first time we've seen the character Robert McCall, whom we have discussed so very much, on the big screen. It's a roaring rampage of bloody Equalizing justice. On the whole it's consistent with the first two movies, but also a departure in significant ways. Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington reteam, along with cinematographer Robert Richardson to bring you this installment of The Equalizer in a beautiful Italian seaside village, and Chris and Chuck are here to discuss it with their specialized expertise of the original Equalizer.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 9: The Visitation

The Equalizer has an Outbreak episode - EQ has to stop a deadly disease from spreading outside of New York City. You may think you know what to expect from an episode like this, but the classic beats of the Equalizer totally overtake the beats of a typical pandemic story. Like in this one, the only way to stop the spread is to locate the biggest illegal arms dealer in New York who happens to be Mr. Strickland from Back to the Future wearing a Pirates cap. And the infectious disease plot is further pushed aside by perhaps the most bizarre EQ romance to date - the rekindling of a long-ago relationship that, from what we learn of it, is rather creepy. A bonkers episode that is unpredicatable to the last minute.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 8: The Sins of Our Fathers

A mobster's son is kidnapped; EQ helps his wife extricate her son from the inevitability of a life in the mafia. On the whole this is a rather thin episode considering a) recent heavy-hitting and very special episodes b) it's hard not to compare this plot of mafia domestic issues with The Sopranos which got just a tad more intricate and nuanced. That said our podcast coverage of this episode has got poetry, it's got Bible verses, it's contemplative. Making the episode has made our outlook on life that much more optimistic and informed, as we are sure it will for our listeners listening to it. Where this inspiration comes from, whether it's from The Equalizer, from our own lives, a combination or the collaboration - who knows, but there's probably some sonnet out there for that.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 7: Making of a Martyr

First episode of 1989. This is a very special episode that doesn't seem to know what to do with its very special topic. How is The Equalizer - who in the 3 1/3 seasons we've seen so far seems to enjoy guns and the freedom to shoot more or less anyone he wants based on his own idea of justice - going to deal with a friend's wife who's bringing everybody down with this whole gun control thing. It's the first time in a while that McCalls's views seem antiquated compared to modern day. We cover the episode much more thoroughly than the episode covered the original topic.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 6: Splinters

The KGB tries to reprogram Mickey's mind to turn on the Equalizer. But there's one thing the KGB didn't plan on: Mickey's heart, filled with love you can only get when you loyally assist your ex-secret agent coworker's weird new Equalizing business. This is first time the show has delved into sci-fi and easily the trippiest Equalizer episode. We break it down and place it in the history of the topic of memory fluidity in movies, as well as break down the entire sixth season of Black Mirror.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 3: Day of the Covenant

There are two sides to this episode. On one hand is a relatively tight plot about a violent resistance movement to the Apartheid, including an opening segment of footage from South Africa and even Desmond Tutu... not to mention a rogue Afrikaner, the NIS, and some grenades. On the other hand, there is Scott's first appearance in Season 4, featuring an even more majestic mane of hair, an actual music performance by his light jazz/peppy Muzak band, and repeatedly pulling a race card on his dad. Leave it to The Equalizer to bring together that doofus character with a very special episode that deals with a current topic more than any other episode to date.

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The Equalizer Season 4 Episode 4: Eighteen with a Bullet

The Equalizer dives into the hollow amoral music industry. A slimy agent, Greg Rivers, is trying to take advantage of a new young talent, Beverly Heat, but is having difficulty because his previous protégé, Gina Rox, is defiantly standing up to Greg and the music industry that spat her out. Greg gets more and more erratic not least because EQ and Mickey are contuinually taunting him for about a week straight. Great episode and great view of the 80s music scene from EQ's viewpoint.

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