- Title: The Irrational – Bombshell
- IMDb: link
My biggest complaint with “Bombshell” is how obvious the resolution of the episode is in not furthering the series-long story in any meaningful way. After escaping prison, Wes Banning (Ben Cotton) builds a bomb vest and shows up at the university to hold Alec (Jesse L. Martin), Phoebe (Molly Kunz), and Owen (Arash DeMaxi) hostage. During the episode, Alec earns the man’s trust and discovers the motivations behind the bomb that sent Banning to prison. Agreeing to help save Banning’s daughter (Siana Bajwa), Alec saves himself and his assistants, but because Banning dies at the end of the episode he never lives up to his end of the bargain and dies without revealing any new information about the man responsible thus keeping the status quo of the series intact.
Once Banning made the condition of revealing his information only after Grace was safe there was no situation that suggested he would survive the episode. His death closes the biggest lead into the bombing case. And, in the episode’s epilogue, the apparent death of Jace (Brian King) suggests a lead he conveniently didn’t share before his death, closes another. However this dangling thread does give Alec something to pull on, if he can find it. Whether he survives, in something like a coma, or dies, either way the show can play out the investigation into his actions for multiple episodes. Unfortunately that like means moving Marisa (Maahra Hill) closer into Alec’s orbit which isn’t the formula where the show has found its best success.
