It got off to a good start with the dialogue and tension, but once Frank smashed his drink into Blake's head in slow motion, with glass shards flying out of the screen like a cheap 3D movie and twinkling sounds blending with the music to a cut screen, it became a little silly.

Then it cuts back to Blake crawling on the floor and Frank rubbing his face into the carpet/wall with squishy sounds and bland music playing on and off. Frank softly holds Blake's neck while Blake gives out information. Once finished, Frank tries to choke Blake to death, so Blake puts his hands on Frank's shoulders and tells him he wasn't finished detailing his betrayal. Back to Frank softly holding Blake's neck while Blake gives out information. Frank feigns forgiveness, bland music fades. Blake gives out more information, bland music comes back in, Frank shoots Blake. Blake is writhing on the floor gurgling blood while Frank shares their origin story and delivers his punchline.

Blake was dead the second he walked through that door. There was no real intensity or scuffle and the only valuable information the viewer learned in the 6 minute scene is that Osip is having a 12mil handoff with Catalyst that Frank will try to hit. The writing was bad, the direction was bad, the music was bad, the sound editing was bad, and the acting was bad, partly because Blake was a one dimensional character and his scenes with Frank were always hollow. It suffered from the same issue a lot of this season has been bogged down by: Pizzolato swinging for the fences with unrealistic dialogue and the lack of a singular director to provide a consistent style to the scenes.


Surprised to hear anyone say it was perfect but maybe others see it differently, as this season has been pretty polarizing (see: orgy score). I thought the scene was a poorly handled one in an otherwise strong episode.