Just a few thoughts about this episode:

Overall I enjoyed the episode. Having never watched CSI, it seemed like a cool plot to me. 

Yet another episode with a special needs child. Is this a new recurring BL theme? 

I thought Red was sort of crazy/diabolical this episode. Like Dembe, I'm worried about Red. So he had to lie to two people and kill them all to get a new cleaner?

After Red got Liz the pardon, I was surprised she wouldn't let him visit her apartment. At least she gave him the opening of "someday." Is she going to barter time with Agnes for information about her past?

I liked seeing Aram out in the field and figuring out the case. I'm always in favor of more screen time for Aram!

Hooray for Dembe getting more lines! I was surprised by his visit to Liz and the confession about Kate.

Tatiana - I agree the new apartment looks very much like the old apartment.

I like the twist at the end where Dembe confides in Liz that Red killed Kate.
Agreed: very much the theme of children being abuses/misused etc. 

We will certainly need to re-watch. What is the next episode about? I thought the key bad guy would have had a more prominent role in this episode. Will he show up again later?

Tuxie400 wrote:

I thought Red was sort of crazy/diabolical this episode. Like Dembe, I'm worried about Red. So he had to lie to two people and kill them all to get a new cleaner?

Tuxie400 - agree.  Red has been exhibiting this type of behavior on and off but this I thought was stronger.  Weren't the cleaners collateral damage though?  did I hear that wrong - I thought Red was avenging his friend's death.  Although I do think the overall theme of the episode was about the "cleaner".

BBB - I wonder if that cleaner "foreshadowing" about Red turns out to be Kate coming back for him....either that or she helping to save him...or neither.....lots of possibilities with that line!  And all that stuff from Dembe about the cleaner's murderer being known but not caught......hmmmm
 

I am thinking that some of the special children we have seen in this series are filmed in scenes where they are painting/drawing.  The two that come to mind are the girl in tonight's episode, and Skylar, but I think there are others. And Red did have that mini-monologue about Picasso, painting and children in that scene with Skylar.  Skyar's mother did ask Red whether he had a special needs child and he did not reply....

 We've talked a lot about whether Liz was a special child (she's been called special on a few occasions including by Red in the pilot), or had special abilities or mental abilities, and we've seen drawings front and center with the Liz story recently - the drawing in the Summer Palace that in turn looked like the drawing in Dom's garage/barn.  And art is a recurring BL theme.  So I wonder if tonight was drawing a parallel to Liz in some way, that she has some kind of special abilities (what we don't know).    Just some random thoughts....

Speaking of themes, the rabbit rears it head again in Aram's seance story. Poor little bunny.

lara1 wrote:

Tuxie400 - that is a good point.  And the whole cleaner conversation started early on, with Red and Inniko (sp?) in the restaurant and that also prompted the rebuke by Dembe.  So if in turn Red cared more about getting the cleaners than avenging his friend's death, that's real concerning (in my view).  Because I think in the past, the motivation would have been the other way around.  Maybe that's what Dembe sees too?

Yes, I think this is what had Dembe so concerned. That Red was putting in so much effort and committing so many sins in an effort to replace Kate.
 

So, I am thinking.  did Red not hear Dembe or he just ignored him?  When Dembe spoke to the cleaners.  Red certainly didn't rebuke him or even act the least bit concerned.  It seemed to me that Dembe in part said those lines to get a response from Red.  Which again leads back to Dembe's concern about Red.

Unless of course it turns out that Red did not intentionally kill Kate (i.e. he knows she is not dead).  That would be a twist, but I think it unlikely.    Need to watch that cleaner scene again!

Eastcoast wrote:

Tuxie and lara, that is what I was thinking. It is however like Red to kill two birds with one stone.
( no puns intended)

Eastcoast - yes agree, Red often has more than one agenda with things that he does.  Its just that I think the agenda was reversed here, which is worrying - IMO of course!

lara1 wrote:

So, I am thinking.  did Red not hear Dembe or he just ignored him?  When Dembe spoke to the cleaners.  Red certainly didn't rebuke him or even act the least bit concerned.  It seemed to me that Dembe in part said those lines to get a response from Red.  Which again leads back to Dembe's concern about Red.

Unless of course it turns out that Red did not intentionally kill Kate (i.e. he knows she is not dead).  That would be a twist, but I think it unlikely.    Need to watch that cleaner scene again!

I was wondering that myself. That didn't make any sense to me? 

I keep waiting for him to tell Liz who she is to him.....
 

I am now wondering and worried on one hand that Liz is going to go to Red and blow up the way she does at Red. On the other hand we will see if she has grown. Maybe she will realize that this could cost Dembe if she shoots her mouth off.