This season feels so incomplete already. Even more than the previous three did. It’s just even more glaringly obvious that it is incomplete, literally, because they’ve showed us so many important pieces they’ve ended up cutting out of the final product.
The back end of TK and Carlos’s conversation in 4x01. Carlos talking to his mom in 4x03. TK talking to Tommy in 4x03. I’m sure I’m forgetting a whole lot but those particular ones are stuck in my mind. Because all of those scenes contained important context, all of those scenes added something to this storyline. Never mind that Carlos and Iris’s connection is never explored or even hinted at in season 1 (sure, it was planned from the beginning, but they cut it out - like they’ve cut out so much).
It is so deeply frustrating. I’m so happy Rafael Silva is getting more screentime, it’s what he deserves. But he and the other characters always, always share that screentime with Owen. This latest episode, he and Owen had equal screentime, with every other cast member getting a few minutes each. And what exactly does that do for us? For the story? To cut the scene of TK talking to Tommy, to have the rest of the 126 show up for 30 seconds at the end of the episode? To sacrifice the other cast members and the potential there to essentially rehash the arsonist storyline from season 2, only worse? To once again have Owen stumble into something huge and dangerous, get it into his head that he can solve it by himself (seriously? you think you can outsmart the FBI?), and put the people he loves in harm’s way?
Carlos and Iris should’ve been the only focus of this four-episode arc. Their plot is big and complex and deep enough to stand on its own! You don’t need to shove an entire Owen plot in there with them! When you do that, you end up with this incomplete, barely coherent mess. You end up having to cut scenes that would’ve provided valuable context and added depth to the story and characters. You end up having the majority of your cast play extremely minor roles in episode after episode.
This show could do so much better and for some reason (ok the reason is probably money) it just chooses not to.
