By Julian
Another episode of NBC’s The Irrational premiered and this one doesn’t seem like all fun and games. The topic now revolves around police shooting unarmed an unarmed black man. It is one of those sensitive topics that this episode is not afraid to dip its toes about police brutality and racism in America. This is a very good episode that sits right next to the pilot episode and manages to fit into the real world. Every other case in the series begins to slightly veer off course from realism until something like this brings it back to reality. So let’s see how Alec Mercer (Jessie L. Martin) manages to work his magic on this case.
Episode Six Point and Shoot finds Alec at FBI Headquarters with his ex-wife/FBI agent Marissa (Maahra Hill) and her boyfriend/FBI partner Jace Richards (Brian King) following up on the bombing case. After catching up on the case, his younger sister/computer nerd Kylie (Travina Springer) gets caught up in the latest fictional news of another police brutality incident. This time, it involves her best friend Mason Hill Jones’ (Emidio Jones) husband gunned down by a special police force known as the VIPER unit in a no-knock warrant. Kylie goes to join the protest to shut down this unit while Mercer becomes an expert witness testifying in court on behalf of Mason’s defense.
What was not on the agenda was Dr. Dustin Atwood (Malcolm Jamal-Warner) who is testifying on behalf of the police. As annoying as he is about the situation, he tries to stick up for the police whereas Mercer is doing his best to uncover the truth through proper investigation and concrete science experiments to back it up. He finds out that the VIPER squad were former employees of a multinational corporation to which Mason’s husband was about to expose them for corruption and abusing the system.
Meanwhile, the FBI couple is busy uncovering more about the church bombing case when they interrogate Pamely Shelby (Dolores Drake) the mother of Peter who died by suicide in the last episode. Turns out that his suicide was planned and was a loose end. They also learned that the bombs were meant to scare Muslims after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In addition, there’s a third man who is the architect of everything named Matthias, the mystery man Alec tried to pursue in the pilot episode. Her boss Bob Clovis (Garry Chalk) comes in with a kind yet stern warning to back off as she’s getting closer to the truth.
Meanwhile, with a little surprise help from Atwood and a thorough investigation, Mercer manages to apprehend dirty clerk Judge Thaddeus (Michael Querin). Thaddeus was on the verge of being caught for said wrongdoing until a no-knock warrant came into his office and conveniently decided to switch the address to the victim’s house to purposely get rid of his loose end. The case ends on a happy note with Mason trying to recover from his traumatic experience along with Kylie who also happened to have a stereotypical pullover incident with the police in earlier scenes and is also recovering from it.
The main case was an interesting watch because the topic is very real. It makes sense to understand the irrationality of policemen and why they resort to prejudice and violence when it comes to a person of color. It’s the kind of conversation that has to continue for any real change in America. The throughline story of solving the church bombing is becoming a crutch because we have to put the “case of the week” on hold for a completely separate and unrelated mystery that may or may not get resolved by the finale. Overall, it’s still a good watch for sleuthing fans to have fun with.
The Irrational Episode Five Point and Shoot is a functional mystery watch with a social message, all the while getting slightly weighted down by the throughline mystery that the show started with.
