Two Takes: The Catch “The Hard Drive” 

According to ABC’s The Catch, the past always comes back to haunt you. Alice brought this point to light last week and when it comes to this week’s episode — “The Hard Drive” — she hit the nail on the head.

Not only did her somewhat shady past come back to haunt her in the form of re-investigating Ethan’s suspected cop-killing, but Ben and Rhys also had to face the fact that their past cons may have a target on their back. Margot had to face a resurgence of her mother’s betrayal and in an unexpected twist, Justine’s past seemed to be on its way back thanks to her currently AWOL husband.

Some of these skeletons came out of the closet and found themselves effectively escorted out of the picture, while others continued to linger in the form of a knock at the door at the most inopportune time. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Cortney: Tina, obviously, we have to start with Alice. How much did you love this episode? While “old Alice” was nothing like the Alice we’ve come to know and love, I really enjoyed seeing her first encounter with Val, her literal run-in with Danny and the event that caused her to turn the corner (and start wearing make-up — sorry, I know this is an aside, but I couldn’t help but notice how much more stunning she is now!).

That being said, as we mentioned in the intro, this is one “past” that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. After leaving her with an abrupt “okay” when she revealed that she finally cleared his name, Ethan showed up at her door just as Ben finally verbalized the fact that he profiled Alice and based himself on the best parts of Ethan to lure her in. I have two words for you – Uh. Oh.

Tina: I adored “The Hard Drive” but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. To me, this show can do almost no wrong. I’m happy we’re starting with Alice this week because even though we worship her, we’ve been starting with a lot of the other storylines first.

LOVED the flashbacks. We’ve been hearing about “Old Alice” for a while now. We actually got to see her in action and in bed with Ethan. They seemed to have a very fun, supportive relationship that quickly turned into suspicion once the whole Detective Steve Mason murder investigation took over.

We saw the “Meet Cutes” for Alice/Val and Alice/Danny. Really, there was nothing cute about it since Alice’s first experience with Val was being arrested for assaulting her; and first contact between Alice and Danny was him being hired to spy on her. But it was great to see the blanks filled in.

Cortney, I can’t believe I’m saying this but before the shit hit the fan with their relationship and the possible corruption and fraud messiness, I liked Alice and Ethan (the oh so delicious Warren Christie). And in present day, when she showed up to apologize to him, I liked that he remained sort of distant. He was like “okay” but didn’t really truly believe it.

But what was an even bigger deal to me than Ethan showing up at Alice’s door at the end of the episode was Ben’s confession that he knew exactly who Ethan Ward is. And on top of that, he said he borrowed Ethan’s best characteristics to model his “Christopher” identity.

That little nugget certainly threw Alice for a loop. You could totally see it.

Cortney: It sure did. But the thing I found so interesting is that Alice HAD to have subconsciously known this all along — after all, it is more or less what con men do — but hearing Ben say it out loud, that suddenly made it real.

Ben even pointed that out. But seeing her slowly pull back…and then pull back some more, that can’t be a good sign. I’m hoping it’ll just take a little time for it to sink in…I mean, she was just about to drop some pretty big revelations herself and clearly expecting Ben to be okay with it, so hopefully she can do the same.

And yes, I totally agree, I liked Alice and Ethan together, not that I’ll ever choose him over Ben, but you can see why they were together for five years. That being said, I’m glad that they finally cleared his name when it came to Mason’s murder and I even like how the case wrapped up.

Detective Mason, plagued by his own demons, committed suicide and left a note for his wife, who showed it to the Police Chief, who in turn hid the note, blackmailed the wife and made the case disappear, leaving a smudge on Nick’s record. However, one thing I will say is that I got a little frustrated with Val while they were working the case. I get that Mason was one of her colleagues and she couldn’t be unbiased but there were a few times that she turned on Alice and seemed more intent on “nailing Ethan” rather than actually getting the truth.

I appreciate that she came around in the end, but in those moments, I still felt a bit frustrated. That being said, I loved seeing how she and Alice met and actually want to know more about how they not only overcame their rocky start but went on to become friends and start their own firm.

Speaking of adversaries turned allies, I’m dying to hear your thoughts on Tessa and Margot’s granny takedown.

Tina: I feel you on the VAlice conflict, but to me, it’s natural for Val to quickly come to a cop’s defense, having been one back in the day. She didn’t want to think he was corrupt. And he wasn’t. He tried to provide for his family in a way that’s ultimately just heartbreaking. Those conflicts keep things interesting. No one relationship can be smooth sailing even though I often want them to be (***cough***Ben and Alice***cough).

As for Tessa and Margot’s take down of Sybil, well, that was simply satisfying. Call me twisted, but I love the dynamics of this strange family. All three women are fierce and deadly and will cut you if you turn your back or let your guard down for even a moment.

It’s clear Tessa wants to join the Kensington firm. She has what it takes. She tried to kill her mother and bring her down, which completely qualifies her to take over the Kensington throne. But I enjoyed the sneakiness and the spying and the using of voice recorder apps and the double-crossing and the photoshopping that went on.

Of course Sybil was going to turn on her daughter and use her granddaughter to do it. Margot took over the Firm and if you think Sybil was just going to lay back and let her have all the power, then you haven’t been watching this show. It was so immensely pleasurable to see that Margot and Tessa had the last laugh. Dare I say the women bonded. From here on out, I’m not sure what their relationship is going to look like, however. I don’t think it’s going to be all warm and fuzzy.

One of my favorite lines from this portion of the episode came from Margot:

Margot: “I keep hoping she’ll run away, go take over a country, give Putin a run for his money.”

Cortney, I really want to see Tessa and Ben interact. I thought we’d get that in this episode but we didn’t.

Cortney: That line was truly priceless. Another I enjoyed was Sybil’s comment at the dining table as Tessa had her nose buried in her phone:

Sybil: Are you rude or just young? I really can’t tell.

Tina: OMG. That was my other favorite line!

Cortney: The dynamic between these three cracks me up, they’re all brutally honest but also ruthlessly manipulative. For example, Sybil seemingly innocently offering everyone tea in a not-so-subtle attempt to undermine Margot during her meeting — shameless!

That being said, Sybil should’ve known better than to underestimate Tessa. As Alice pointed out, she is a mini-Margot and Margot is a mini-Sybil so I would expect nothing less. It’s clear that none of these women can be trusted, a fact Margot fortunately realized before jetting off to handle the “pirate problem.”

That being said, just because Margot and Tessa teamed up on this endeavor, I don’t think that means that Margot should turn a blind eye. Bonded or not, I have no doubt that if given the chance, Tessa will stab Margot in the back to get what she wants.

Tina: I totally agree with your assessment. Spot on!

Cortney: However, the one person I think could actually possibly cause Tessa to change her ways (and maybe this is just wishful thinking) is Ben. So yes, I agree, I would’ve loved to have seen these two together. I don’t know why but I feel like all she needs is to feel like she belongs and someone really cares for her and it’s clear that Margot is never going to be that warm maternal figure. But Ben, he could provide that for her. He’s known about her for one day and he’s already looking out for her and trying to rush back to her to make sure she doesn’t feel abandoned.

But of course, as is often the case with this show, things don’t go as planned and getting back to Tessa will have to wait as Ben deals with some troubles of his own — namely a hot, shirtless, wide-eyed lad named Troy (Nolan Gerard Funk, Arrow, Awkward, Glee) who just happens to have a photographic memory filled with FBI secrets.

Tina, you know I love it whenever Rhys, Justine and Ben team up and go out in the field and this time was no exception. The whole stunt they pulled at Blackwell was flawless. And while we still don’t know exactly why the private military contractor hacked the FBI servers or what they planned to do with all the info now stored in Troy’s brain, we can assume it is nothing good.

Tina: This is my favorite Team FBI caper yet. Seriously. The three — Justine, Ben and Rhys — are on fire together. The problem started when Justine gave Ben and Rhys some bad news. Somebody infiltrated an FBI facility and made off with the names of undercover agents and criminal informants. Ben and Rhys took it upon themselves to find the perpetrator.

All roads led to the Blackwell corporation, a special group of private military contractors. They specialized in little things like kidnappings and death squads. No biggie. Leave it up to Ben to come up with a plan. The mission? Infiltrate Blackwell. Ben’s new identity (that Alice so awesomely helped him out with) was as a gold baron, whatever that is.

It’s during this infiltration they discovered the human hard drive. Yes, a single guy with an eidetic memory. He could read things once and remember everything. He was this pretty boy who ended up naked in front of our favorite trio. Let’s just say Rhys had no problem with that whatsoever. (And maybe I didn’t either! #justsaying)

I didn’t see the whole Justine’s husband thing coming. Part of me thought she was lying about him the entire time. But I should have known better. The human hard drive said he knew where Justine’s husband was. And she said:

Justine: “Help me find my husband so I can kill him.”

Dun. Dun. Dun. Damn. That was a pretty awesome reveal there. Now I want to know Justine’s story. This show plays out like a symphony sometimes, don’t you think?

Cortney: It definitely does! And as far as Justine making up her husband, I was on the same page. She’s been so coy and elusive anytime he’s brought up that I couldn’t tell if she was being protective or deceptive. I guess now we know! Or do we?? I mean, the fact that Eddie was a former FBI agent is a pretty big tidbit but why is he MIA? Where did he go? Was it personal or for work? So many questions! And considering this trio’s stellar track record so far, I’m just going to assume that she’ll enlist Ben and Rhys to help hunt him down, which makes me downright giddy. Can you imagine Rhys shamelessly flirting with Justine while tracking down her husband? I can and I love it!

I’m also down for keeping Troy around for as long as it takes to find her husband. Or maybe even longer. I mean, having access to all those FBI secrets has to be useful, right?! Or is this just my #shameless wishful thinking again?! LoL. On another note, I have to give a shout out to this show for all their clever code names — first The Hammer, now The Hard Drive — it’s just one of the many things that makes this show fun and I’m eager to see what they come up with next.

Tina: Yes, I totally agree. I really don’t have much more to say about this excellent episode. However, before we call it quits on this latest Two Takes, here are some random thoughts, which for this week, are just some of my favorite and/or most interesting lines in addition to the ones already mentioned above:

Alice: “When are you going to make me partner?
Ethan: “When are you going to marry me?
Alice: Then no one’s gonna want to take me seriously.”

Rhys: “You’ve killed us.”

Alice:”I have a temper, not a drug problem.

Ben: “Once again, the FBI is no match for Alice Vaughan.”

Flashback Alice: “You want me to spy on him?”
Flashback Val: “He started it.”

Troy: “I am the hard drive. Are you here to save me?”

Rhys: “He’s so pretty.”

The Catch airs Thursday nights at 10/9c on ABC.