After the first episode of this season being such a tough one for many fans, myself included, I think this was a great follow up episode. It had the lighter themes but also gave us some good continuation from the previous episode.
Personally I am not the biggest fan of the adoption storyline for Stellaride, however I do think this was a beautiful episode showing how good Stella and Kelly can and hopefully will be as parents. I loved the fact that Kelly felt safe enough to go to Cruz for advice on parenting a teenager. The final Stellaride scene of this episode was such a cute scene, having Stella watch Kelly do what he does best by bonding with Isaiah was such a good portrayal of how warm Stella and Kelly are.
Honestly as much as Vasquez’s storyline does intrigue me, it does very much feel like a repeat of both Gallo and Carver’s characters. Don’t get me wrong I loved both of those characters, but it seems that Stella has been dealing with problematic men on truck since she took over as lieutenant. I am glad we are getting to the deeper levels of Vasquez’s story and finding out that his dad is in prison, not that we know why yet. I did like Stella’s new approach to Vasquez and making him do a report of his work. I love Stella so I will never complain about getting to see new sides to her, but I do wish she would be given a break from the problematic truck boys.
This episode being the last episode we see Ritter was automatically a tough one. I really have loved Ritter as a character and Daniel Kyri has been such a great actor addition to the show for the last 7 years. I really did like how Ritter exited the show, it was so nice to see the progression for him. To go from not wanting to live with Dwayne, to being open enough to talk to him about how he feels and then also move to New York with him. Not that I don’t think that he needed Violet’s little push in order for him to speak to Dwayne.
It was a little bit of B story or possibly even the C story but Mouch giving away his stake in Molly’s so that Herrmann could make a little bit more money since he stepped down made me feel a mix of emotions. I’ve always loved the Mouch x Herrmann relationship and it was just so nice to see that again, I’m always a sucker for seeing old dynamics be utilised again.
One thing I am absolutely loving within these first two episodes, and I truly do hope it continues is Cruz’s one liners. “I can’t believe Dwayne got shot. He could’ve stayed in Chicago for that” was so savage but it caught me so off guard. It’s been so great to just see a little bit more of Cruz’s character.
I am definitely more looking forward to the rest of the season than I was after the last episode, but I do think there are some storylines I would rather see wrapped up sooner rather than later.