Season 3, Episode 5:
Razgovor
Vadim: ...Always sneaking around, taking pictures—crazy little girl thinks she's a spy.
Gen: I'm just practicing for my career.
Shaw: Career doing what?
Gen: International espionage.
This week's Number is the second youngest on record, a ten year old Russian immigrant who wants to be a spy when she grows up, and has started her career by bugging the entirety of her crime-ridden neighborhood. This has gotten her into trouble with people who didn't want to be listened in on.
Meanwhile, Carter is spying on HR, knowing that until she's identified their real leader, the most she can possibly do is temporarily weaken them. Unfortunately, HR is spying on her as well.
Tropes present in this episode include
- AB Negative: Shaw is AB Positive, making her a universal recipient. So she uses Yogorov as a blood bag.
- Air Vent Escape
- Artistic License – Medicine: While Shaw stealing Yogorov's blood is incredibly badass, it wouldn't work as well in real life - Shaw was positioned higher than Yogorov, meaning that his blood wouldn't actually flow up against gravity. Not to mention that it'd be a good way to get an air embolism.
- Bluff the Imposter: Defied, a suspicious Gen suggests "Agent Cross" normally handles her case, but Shaw realizes there's no such person.
- Brick Joke: Near atart of the episode, Shaw tells Finch she bugged his office. At the end of the episode:
- Finch: Now, about that bug in my library...Shaw: (Smugly) Haven't found it yet, have you?
- Call-Back:
- Gen's comment to Shaw that "I figured you out" recalls Darren's similar comment to Reese in "Wolf and Cub."
- Carter turns Laskey using the same technique Reese used on Fusco in "Pilot." - killing a Dirty Cop friend of his using his own gun.
- Finch does a voice comparison check on Simmons saying "Most accidents don't require a shovel."
- Calming Tea: Finch offers to discuss her issues over tea. Shaw isn't interested.
- Cassandra Truth: Gen claims the reason she's being targeted is because she's a spy, Shaw doesn't believe her, but the fact that she's bugged much of her building is really the reason.
- Continuity Nod: Finch refers Shaw to "a doctor who owes us a favor" — the one who treated Reese's gunshot wound in "Super."
- Character Blog: The PoI for this episode had her own Twitter feed, @PA37ABOP
, where she was tweeting cryptic comments from the end of July to the episode's airdate. - Chekhov's Gun:
- Laskey's unregistered Sig-Sauer GSR leads to his undoing, when Carter uses it to kill his buddy who was trying to shoot her, and then threatens Laskey with being framed for the murder.
- The trembling man's symptoms tell Team Machine what HR are up to.
- Child Prodigy: Genrika Zhirova, who learned tradecraft from her grandfather the retired KGB agent.
- Cliffhanger: Root has captured Shaw again.
- Determinator: Shaw, even while shot and bleeding out and Finch insists that she see a doctor, won't stop until Gen is saved.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- Laskey did not see Carter's simple and pragmatic means of turning the tables on him.
- Root appearing at Shaw's bedside at the very end of the episode.
- Duct Tape for Everything: Shaw uses it to bind an injured shoulder.
- Even Evil Has Standards: HR is willing to kill kids; something even the Russian mob leader says is low.
- Yogorov: Cops might kill a kid. My people have standards.
- Feed the Mole: Laskey gets some good info on where Reese is going to be and relays it to Simmons, just as Carter wanted him too.
- First-Name Basis: Shaw re Genrika, when Finch uses her last name.
- Gas Mask Mooks
- The Glomp: D'awww Shaw...
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Shaw re Reese.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: When Reese finds the Trembling Man, he walks up behind him, gets his attention, flashes a grin, and decks him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Carter obtained Laskey's unregistered gun and used it to kill his associate and blackmail him to become her mole in HR.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: Team Machine thinks they're going to have to swap the tapes for the child, but ultimately averted.
- Internal Reveal: Averted — Carter has known all along her partner was a HR mole. Reese and Finch know that Carter is on a private mission to take down HR.
- Jump Scare: Shaw's had a rough day and is trying to get some sleep. But Root pops up with a taser in hand, looming over Shaw and clearly remembers they had some unfinished business back in Season 2.
- Knockout Gas: A field improvised version.Genrika: What's that?Shaw: R-22. They must have punctured the pipes for the building's AC. We'll be dizzy in 10 seconds, unconscious in 40.Genrika: What happens after that?Shaw: You don't wanna know.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Reese puts away his gun to engage in Good Old Fisticuffs with Simmons, who is not adverse to the idea.
- Meaningful Echo:
- In the flashback, the EMT tells young Shaw, "hang on, kiddo. I'm coming to you, okay?" When Shaw calls HR on Yogorov's phone, she tells Gen, "Hang on, kiddo. I'm coming for you."
- As he's about to fire up the Jaws of Life, the EMT asks young Shaw, "Ready to get out of here?" After blasting her way into the drug lab, Shaw asks Gen the same question.
- Carter and Reese both say they don't need help from the other, "But if I do, you'll be my first call."
- Meaningful Names: Writer David Slack was a fan of Harriet the Spy
- "Genrika" is "Harriet" in Russian
- The private school seen at the end is named after Louise Fitzhugh, the author of Harriet the Spy
- Meaningful Titles/Bilingual Bonus: The title is the Russian word for "conversation." Gen's number comes up because she's been listening in on other people's conversations. Carter's plot line climaxes in a conversation where she turns the tables on Laskey.
- Moe Couplet: Gen acts as this for Shaw, bringing out her more caring and friendly side.
- Morality Pet: This is the first episode in which Shaw actually cares about the well-being of the PoI, disregarding Finch's orders and her own health to rescue her. Finch actually approves, taking it as a sign that she's finally beginning to understand what they do.
- Mugging the Monster: Come on Laskey, did you seriously think you could intimidate a badass, highly experienced cop who's survived working with a mysterious billionaire and a ex-CIA assassin for the past two years? Guess again.
- Mythology Gag: This is the third time that a major character in this series has deliberately killed a villain with someone else's gun—and the second where this has been done to turn the gun's owner from an adversary to an asset.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Laskey realises Carter has utterly turned the tables on him.
- "Did anyone ever tell you it’s not polite to spy on people, little girl."
- Simmons has HR snipers ready to kill the Man in the Suit during the Hostage for MacGuffin exchange, only to find Reese has already taken them out.
- Shaw wakes up to find Root standing over her with a taser gun.
- Post Ass-Kicking One Liner: "Armies fall...one soldier at a time."
- One-Handed Shotgun Pump: Shaw does the Sarah Connor thing, thanks to her shoulder injury.
- Organ Theft: In the Batman Cold Open. Though in that case they're stealing it from a donor vehicle.
- Perp Sweating: Reese balances a cup on nitroglycerine on the Trembling Man's hand. It's actually corn syrup.
- Punk in the Trunk: A mook throws Shaw in his trunk and gets a tire iron in the face when he opens it again.Shaw: Maybe clean out your trunk next time, dumbass.
- Removing the Earpiece: Shaw steps on her mobile.
- Right in Front of Me: Finch switches to a private channel to complain about Shaw, only to have Shaw chime in because she's bugged Finch's office.
- Running Gag: "I'm only in it for the dog."
- Shown Their Work: The information about potassium permangate, one of the precursor chemicals to "bath salts."
- Shout-Out: At the end when Finch gets Gen into a nice private school, Shaw notes that not every kids "gets to be the ward of a reclusive billionaire."
- Harriet the Spy, as mentioned in Meaningful Name.
- Genrika pokes Shaw because she might be a robot. Shaw also does a One-Handed Shotgun Pump like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: With her normal weapon lost, Shaw breaks out a Mossberg 590 in order to tear through the drug factory and recover Gen.
- The Sociopath: The flashback scenes show Shaw as a young girl who just lost her father in a car crash. After the rescue workers get her out of the car and tell her that he's dead, her only reaction is to note that she's hungry and ask for a sandwich. The rescue workers are understandably disturbed by this.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Lanskey shows his contempt for having to be bossed around by Carter, who responds that he's always been afraid of her. Then she demonstrates why.
- Snooping Little Kid: Why Gen's number comes up.
- Spot the Imposter: Genrika says that Agent Cross is handling her case, but Shaw quickly realises she's being tested. "There is no Agent Cross."
- Stuff Blowing Up: After rescuing the PoI from a drug lab, Shaw asks Finch how much he knows about chemistry. A one-word answer—"Enough."—and a Psychotic Smirk from Finch, and in the next scene the entire lab explodes.
- Think Nothing of It / Book Ends: Shaw has trouble accepting thanks from a paramedic she saves. At the end of the episode, she accepts Genrika's medal.
- Token Evil Teammate Cannot Comprehend Good: Shaw thinks Finch is sidelining her because she lost the POI, but Finch just wants her injuries treated. At the end of the episode she assumes she'll be kicked off Team Machine for disobeying Finch's orders.Finch: On the contrary, Ms. Shaw. I think you finally got the job.
