The Equalizer: Season 5 Episode 5 “Take My Life… Please!” – Recap and Review

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Originally Aired	November 24, 2024
Network	CBS
Director(s)	Richard Lyons
Writer(s)	Vanessa K. Herron
Character	ACTOR’S NAME
Cliff	Jason Veasey
Craig	Luke Forbes
Robyn	Queen Latifah
Mel	Liza Lapira
Harry	Adam Goldberg
Carol	Valarie Pettiford
Marcus	Tory Kittles
Delilah	Laya DeLeon Hayes
Vi	Lorraine Toussaint

Storyline Recap

The Next Chapter – Delilah, Vi, Robyn, Marcus

It isn’t clear what’s going to happen between Robyn and Marcus. Miles is still pursuing her off-screen, but with Marcus around, she is showing who is her priority. Though if Miles dared to present an ultimatum, he’d likely lose.

Thankfully, rather than sweat what Robyn is doing, he’s focused on Delilah committing to an Ivy League school, but Delilah isn’t sure about that. A college visit gave her vibes that her attendance would be more for DEI purposes than them truly valuing what she could bring to the institution. Luckily, Aunt Vi not only advocates for the possibility of an HBCU but also has friends with people around Delilah’s age who she can introduce her to, and it seems Delilah takes to the idea of going somewhere that has it where she is around other young, gifted and Black students.

As all that happens for Delilah and Robyn’s personal life, Vi has her biopsy results, and Robyn stumbles onto learning that Vi had a scare. Luckily, she is cancer-free, but you can see Vi keeping a secret of this magnitude wasn’t appreciated.

What To Do About Big Ben – Carol, Marcus

Ben is getting out of the hospital, and Carol, Marcus’ mom and now Ben’s ex-wife, makes it clear it will not be her who will be taking care of him. With that, Marcus finds himself having to decide whether to put Ben in a home, maybe reach out and try to find his brother, James, or help his old man as he potentially recovers his memories or starts a new life.

A decision isn’t made where we leave off, but we know Marcus is torn.

That’s What Friends Are For – Robyn, Mel, Harry, Craig, Cliff

While Mel has recommitted to being in the field, Robyn and Harry still handle her with kid gloves, which isn’t appreciated. But, in their defense, they all just saw Fisk die in an explosion. Luckily, though, this episode focuses on a comedian, Craig, who was once down and out, so he planned to get murdered for insurance money and asked his friends to do so. None of them got the job done, but Craig’s joke writer, Cliff, was more than willing to take up the opportunity, considering Craig kept stealing his opportunities to break out.

Luckily, Mel puts the pieces together, and between her and Robyn, Craig’s life is saved, and this case is over.

New Character Descriptions

Craig

Craig is a famous comedian whose career was set to go mainstream until the pandemic happened. With that, the lifestyle he believed he was bound for didn’t pan out, and with him making purchases betting on future checks, he went into debt and struggled to get out of the hole until fairly recently.

Cliff

Cliff is a comedy writer and comedian, but he has found Craig to take his spot often just when he is about to have his moment.

Review

Highlights

Delilah

With the way Delilah’s storyline is going in season 5, it feels like someone knows pitching a coming-of-age story about a Black girl is an uphill battle to get financed and distributed anywhere that will give it marketing, so it is tacked onto “The Equalizer” so it can exist. But rather than Delilah being like many kids in shows like this, I feel most would be hard-pressed to say her storyline isn’t compelling.

Yes, it is in bits and pieces, but I think you could get something ideal by the end of this season if you compile all of Delilah’s scenes together. I mean, as said before, and likely will be said every time Delilah gets notable focus this season, there are no other stories like this on a major platform with some marketing budget behind it. Granted, CBS isn’t pushing Delilah’s story as a selling point, but what Robyn is doing increasingly feels like a Trojan Horse so that Delilah can thrive.

On The Fence

Robyn’s Love Triangle

As someone who doesn’t see any chemistry between Marcus and Robyn, I badly want to see more of her and Miles and an end to making Miles seem like a consolation prize. The two were married, and there is still something there! Heck, maybe instead of Fitz, Marcus should have died in that explosion in the last episode. It would have been more shocking and impactful.

Just Brushing What Happened To Fitz Under The Rug

I understand Fitz was no one’s favorite, but considering his role as a middleman between Robyn’s team and the CIA, never mind his death came during Mel’s first mission back in the field; I feel like it should have been mentioned. Mel should have been impacted in some way, and yet, we got nothing and likely will continue to get nothing until it is time to revisit who was watching in on that meeting Robyn had with Fisk and CIA Director Greene back in season 4.

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