FAMILY MATTERS -- Edward (Christian Slater) is tasked by Mavis (Alfre Woodard) to go to Mexico in order attain schematics to Russia's next generation nuclear bomb and finds himself double-crossed. Meanwhile Henry (Slater) agrees to meet with an inquiring FBI Agent (guest star Tim Kelleher, "Flash of Genius") after discovering Edward inadvertently put his daughter Ruthy (Bella Thorne) in danger. Tom's (Mike O'Malley) wife Mary Grady (Missy Yager, "Boston Public") hires a P.I. after she begins to suspect Tom's many business trips are really something more.

THIS is what I was waiting for. Something really juicy or a 'Oh S***! moment! Can't wait for two weeks!!!!

two weeks. oh no!!! arghhhh i can't wait two weeks. i guess i'll have to watch the reruns.

Shocker ending with the Therapist killing the FBI agent but can we really trust her?

Nope, I wouldn't trust her. I wouldn't trust anyone. How else did the company know to put in the fake FBI guy to see if Ed/Henry is 'broken' and spilling the beans?

I think it was her.

Aside from the almost-a-surprise revelation about Henry's psychiatrist (once she told him she was employed by AJ Sun, it tipped the hand), what keeps me coming back is nuance. Of course as a viewer I have to keep my disbelief in a state of suspended animation, as it were, inre the premise, but Slater, O'Malley, and Woodard (of course) delivered yet again more break-neck speed pirouettes with the dialogue.

While the interplay between Henry and Edward via video is hilariously done, personally I was disappointed that O'Malley didn't have more Raymond-moments with Henry. Those, in my opinion, are absolute genius, and whoever is writing those scenes deserves serious praise. O'Malley can literally "dead-pan" in ways we aren't used to on network television, and he makes me believe.

The dress-buying scene was a tough sell (so to speak), but that Edward bought the family a new fridge had me howling - that was funny as hell. While we're shopping through the episode, though, I think they could have left the watch exchange out - "Hello Henry, welcome to the dangerous world of materialism" was almost a sub-theme, and it was a bit much. Throw in the $300K horse, along with a little lesson in fathering, and we had a sort of "Father-Knows-Best" packing heat episode.

All in all, I think the ensuing episodes are going to have to ratchet up the relationships between Slater (both of them), O'Malley, and Woodard to really reach a wider audience, and they will of course have to move from Monday night. Otherwise, our Sci-Fi spies are going to, in Raymond-speak, "Suffocate slowly and die - it will be terrible".

Indeed it would be.

I liked the watch exchange.
Perhaps in the future we will discover why the watch means so much to him.

I think the fathering lesson helped us, Henry, and Edward to see how Ed and Henry are so different.

Yes? No?

I do hear you, and understand your point. I just felt there was a little too much of it in this episode. The watch in and of itself would have been fine, if say, they had left the dress-shopping scenes on the cutting room floor, and perhaps gave a little more of Alfre Woodard dealing with "Broken Edward/Henry" - she needs to be fleshed out a little more, and avoid being one-dimensional. I think that would have been time better spent, just as an example.

The earlier episodes stressed Henry having to become more like Edward in order to survive. This episode clearly pushed Edward to realize that he has as much to learn from Henry- which he clearly acknowledged with the 'fridge purchase. (that was great scene)

Near the end where he got to connect with his daughter, (which was nice for Henry), he also planted some "seeds" with his daughter implying that, "If I'm not acting like myself, tell me."

This episode was the best one yet, I love this show, it is my current favorite. In this episode, it was really great to see the character development of Henry and his family. The one questions is always why Henry and Edward...what ? So now we understand becuase they finally showed us more about Henry's family and the dangers they are put in. The daughter Ruthie, played by Bella Thorne, really seems to have a great connection with Henry (Christian Slater). It would be very cool if somehow, she caught on to this scheme and played the game with Henry? Keep up this great work.

This show is BY FAR the best DRAMA on TV right now, and what this country needs, in additon to OBAMA is more FAMILY to show the depth of the character otherwise this show will like all the other UNsucessfull shows on TV that are all fighting, killing etc. We need to see the other side of these characters and this show seems to have great promise. Keep up the good work and let us see more of Henry interacting with his wife and kids.

In USA Today, this show was rated as a slow starter instead of a winner for NBC. I sure hope that NBC gives it time to develop and continues to market it because this episode sure showed it has potential!