The Equalizers

The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 17: The Mystery of Manon: Part 2

Part two of the final of four Equalizer two-parters. Everyone knows EQ is Yvette's real father, there's a lot of emotional regrouping after that. Then the bad dude that threw Manon back in everyone's life starts kidnapping people and EQ sets himself up to take down that guy from the inside, which he does in an especially epic fashion. Like its "mysterious" title, the episode ends on a note of ambiguity. We break that down as well as the roles of Scott and Control, and the pressing matter of responding via podcast to six year old tumblr posts.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 16: The Mystery of Manon: Part 1

Theoretically the Equalizer audiences in the late 1980s were demanding a) more Mary Ingalls b) of all the areas in EQ's mysterious past we could explore, let's explore more of his past romance with Manon; explore as much of that sliver of his backstory as possible, then we can move on to the rest of his sordid, intriguing past that's been hinted at so much. Or maybe the creators just thought the audiences were demanding that, but either way that's what we got. It's a bit of a reunion: Yvette's back, still unaware EQ is her biological father; Marcel's back, Scott too, even Jimmy and schlubby Sterno. There are some dark themes, dreams, despair, and setting up a lot of pins for Mystery of Manon Part 2 to knock down.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 15: Something Green

Almost three years before Home Alone, a seven year old Macaulay Culkin appeared in The Equalizer, his second credit. That in itself is worth the price of admission to watch this episode for free on nbc.com. You can tell he was bound for greatness. We just wish the creators of The Equalizer realized how proficient he would be at tricking his kidnappers and setting clever booby traps. Missed opportunity. This episode is also notable for stretching the possibilities of what's allowed under diplomatic immunity; the triumphant return of Mickey Kostmayer; and the final appearance of Richard Jordan as Harley Gage, initially brought in to pick up the slack after Edward Woodward's heart attack. We try to honor his departure... since the show itself did not.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 14: Video Games

This one is the most "Equalizer After Dark" episode so far. From the title, you'd think it was about some sort of criminal enterprise centered around Atari machines, but no... this episode deals with a brothel taking videos of the prostitutes in employs, then blackmailing them to keep working. And we kid you not, the phrase "Whore Wars" is actually used by an actual character on this actual show to describe the situation. We dive deep into what could have made this episode better, as well as congratulate Stewart Copeland on his recent Grammy win.

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Music Credit: 2022 Royalty Free Music for Free: Wisdom in the Sun

The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 13: The Child Broker

If absolutely nothing else, just check out that cast list. There's a new gang leader on the dire streets of NYC and he's turning on impressionable teens to the rough life: robbing pawn shops, running around, and basking in their misdeeds in their abandoned underground amusement park. You just don't want to get messed up with them, though if you do, you're pretty much guaranteed steady work in the entertainment business for at least forty years. The crazy plot itself would be more at home in a comic book, but this episode is definitely worth it for to see their recognizable faces in what seems like an extended headshot session for their "tough guy" shot.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 12: A Dance on the Dark Side

The first episode of 1988 and... it's not off to a good start. There's an undercover cop who gets in too deep and Amanda Plummer, the police station switchboard operator, hears too much. Sounds compelling, and under different circumstances this could have a been a 42-minute version of The Departed or A Scanner Darkly. Instead we have this amalgam of missed opportunities. Not that we're at a loss for words; we go through what could have made this better, how this compares to other Equalizer duds (few and far between), dive deep into band members gone solo, and look hopefully towards a brighter future for 1988 Equalizer.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 11: Christmas Presence

Possibly the most very special episode in the entire run of the show, the Equalizer (aka Mr. Manhattan) and Harley Gage have to protect a boy who has AIDS from some very concerned dads in the neighborhood. Because this is The Equalizer, instead of civilized community discourses these dads opt for smoke bombs, animal masks, and kniving furniture. Kudos to the show, there weren't many TV shows addressing this topic in the 80s; and despite the cartoonish bad guys, the show's viewpoint holds up pretty well, especially compared to other shows. Also it's a bona fide Christmas episode and the first appearance of Pete's, McCall's favorite restaurant. The specialness lives on through the years to make this a very special podcast episode.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 10: The Rehearsal

The Equalizer show takes the Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera (which debuted the year before) and makes it its own. No, none of the singing, nor any emotional complexity nor any sentiment of who's the real monster nor any nuance in general. But it does have a deformed guy terrorizing a Broadway theater. And instead of a chandelier crashing there's Molotov cocktails. And the original didn't have any mention of freebasing cocaine explosions, so this episode rights that wrong. It's a bona fide bottle episode and wild wild ride. Come for the recap, stay for our deep dives into Phantom, its themes and legacy, and how well it fits into The Equalizer mold. That's all I ask of you.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 9: Inner View

We're calling it now, this episode is an instant classic, if anything because it has its own theme song: Shadow Man. A clairvoyant woman helps EQ and Harley Gage track down a serial killer. The newspapers call that guy the Scrapbook Killer but his real inspiration is a hit song by the band "Archon". And that song... is Shadow Man. Between psychic visions and the 80s rock scene, this episode is venturing into new territories, which of course it does in a fresh and informed manner. For example, it shows the way rock concerts used to be promoted in most major cities back then that time nearly forgot about but we remember, and honestly, we'd like to see rock flags come back.

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The Equalizer Season 3 Episode 8: Shadow Play

To paraphrase the IMDB episode description: "There's a very dense plot concerning a Congressional hearing about a Mafia-funded shadow army overthrowing dictators. And very separately in addition, McCall continues his recovery." On one hand we have J.T. Walsh, an all time great guest star, along with a full cast of regulars - Mickey, Control, Bagler, and Alice Shepard jezebelling over J.T. Walsh's heroism. All that plus multiple assassination attempts that were, like all failed assassinations, poorly executed. This is Edward Woodward's first episode back in scenes alongside the cast since his heart attack, making us wish we could retroactively petition the CBS execs to please let the man recover more before returning to work.

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