Shooter Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Someplace Like Bolivia

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How the hell is this going to end? 

Shooter Season 2 Episode 7 moved forward with the ongoing plot but as the new penultimate episode in a season that was sadly cut short, it didn't exactly tie things together. It was a solid hour, however, and my curiosity is piqued regarding how the season will end. 

Solotov isn't close to being stopped, and new problems are thrown at the Swagger Squad amidst all of this. 

Trying to Escape - Shooter

Bob Lee and Isaac may not have put Prison Break's Michael and Lincoln to shame, but they gave it a good effort, and their prison scenes were among the best of the night. Their relationship has truly evolved since Shooter Season 1.

We only know via flashbacks and their many discussions that the pair were decent friends once upon a time. That's why Isaac's role in setting Bob Lee up and even attempting to kill him was the ultimate betrayal. 

The situation with Solotov coming after their unit has put Bob Lee and Isaac in a position where they have to work together and trust one another despite their troubled past. In all of this time of begrudgingly partnering up, they had never so much as discussed in detail how everything has come to pass. 

Hand Off

Isaac, up until this point, was still an irredeemable character. He did awful things that couldn't be justified with reasons like "the greater good." He aligned himself with terrible people who he knew were terrible and turned his back on his friends and in many ways his country. 

What has been interesting this season is how Isaac has responded to it all. He's self-aware enough to know that he committed unspeakable acts and has been an overall despicable person, but he isn't trying to redeem himself. 

He all but told Bob Lee that. He's not trying to apologize or make amends because he knows there is no way of doing that. It's an extra layer to his character that makes him far more interesting than he ever was before. 

I'm not looking for redemption, Bob Lee. I am who I am.

Isaac

Isaac is not trying to atone for his sins. He's not trying to make up for anything that he's done.

He admits to being haunted by killing Donny's mother, but even that was, in his mind the lesser of evils. If he didn't kill her, Payne would have killed her, and Payne was a psychopath who would have done far worse than respectfully strangling the woman as Isaac did.

Isaac was motivated by wanting to be important and serve a greater purpose. He was selfish and egotistical in that regard, and jealous of someone like Bob Lee who could at least say he was best in his field. There is something almost commendable about Isaac's honesty. 

Redemption

He's not a complete monster (like Payne), but he isn't walking around with his tail between his legs begging for forgiveness or wanting to prove something. He owns his actions and who he is. He's an asshole. 

Isaac is the character who has evolved the most since the first season and evolved for the better. This was probably the strongest installment for his character to date. 

I loved the fact that Isaac said he didn't think about his friendship with Bob Lee while setting him up. He had to compartmentalize and look at it as a mission. Isaac was always the one who called Bob Lee out on being cold and calculated, but it turns out he's even more so himself. 

Isaac: What? You want me to ask for your forgiveness?
Bob Lee: I don't. It's just like you said. You're an asshole.

I have to be honest, Isaac the hothead is entertaining as hell. I would subscribe to Isaac's way of handling most of the situations that they're in. When you're locked away in a corrupt Mexican prison, you stop having qualms about killing your way out. 

It was evident the Federale was going to kill both of them whether they gave him the contents of the safe or not. They screwed with the cartel. They were going to be goners either way. It seemed perfectly reasonable to take them out if necessary to get the hell out of there.

Bob Lee wasn't having that though. When did he become such a killjoy? What's a little murder between frenemies?

Isaac: We can do the marriage counseling after we get out of here. For now, we need a plan.
Bob Lee: The plan is don't die.

Bob Lee and Isaac working together to get out of that place was awesome. So was Bob Lee stopping an attempt on Isaac's life, and Isaac buying Bob Lee time and staying behind the way that he did. 

Quick question, how far of a drive is it from Bob Lee's home to wherever the hell they were in Mexico? I love Solotov to pieces, but on his long list of impressive credentials, does the man sprout wings too? How is he going back and forth from Mexico and Texas so fast? 

Solotov Strikes Again

One minute he's disguised as Travis, the next he's listening to the tapped phone, and then he's posing as an ATF agent in Mexico and killing he Federale. That, admittedly, was a fantastic scene too, especially when the rest of the prisoners just turned around and pretended like they didn't see anything. 

What's the plan now? To be honest, Solotov has had plenty of opportunities to take Bob Lee out, and he's been ahead for a while now. He could have taken him out long before Bob Lee screwed with his finances. 

Now he has his eyes on Julie and Mary, and it must be about getting into Bob Lee's head. So far, he's ahead in that too, all thanks to Julie. 

At the risk of channeling Chandler Bing, can Julie BE any more frustrating? She's all over the place and it's literally endangering her family now. She has known "Travis" all of ten seconds, and hasn't met neither his wife nor his kid, so why the hell is she inviting him to Mary's communion?

Julie's In Trouble

I thought that would be the worst moment for her in the hour, but then there was the exchange with the man she shot at and his friends. Why would she threaten to have her husband shoot him? Why would she feed into that and cause more trouble? 

The guy is a dick and so was his friends, but there were better ways of handling the situation in the grocery store. Ugh, Julie. What the hell? 

Although it was amusing that Bob Lee fresh off of escaping Mexican prison and with his sights on raising hell to rescue Isaac, assumed Sheriff Brown was coming for him, but really, the sheriff was coming for Julie. 

Nadine wasn't much better. It wasn't that she did anything bad at any point throughout the hour. It was just that her aspect of the storyline has been dragging and at times boring. 

Pull enough cards and eventually the house will collapse.

Nadine

Tio playing a bigger role in everything with Zehnder, Meachum, and the heroin should have been more interesting than it actually was. Her motivations were boring too. 

Nadine has been going rogue and not actually doing anything that Gregson has wanted her her to do. Gregson hasn't appeared for quite some time now. Nadine has been saddled with footwork and investigating with Jeffery. 

They're not a terrible pairing, but they aren't nearly as interesting as Nadine and either one of the Swaggers, or Nadine and Isaac. She shines best when she has someone interesting to play off of. As ridiculously cartoonish as Payne was, at least their interactions were entertaining to watch. 

Can we at least delve back into Atlas? 

So, how do you anticipate the season wrapping up? Has Isaac won you over? Do you find Nadine's portion of the investigation dull? Sound off below!

Don't forget you can watch Shooter online right here via TV Fanatic!

Someplace Like Bolivia Review

Editor Rating: 4.4 / 5.0
  • 4.4 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.8 / 5.0 (9 Votes)

Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.

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Shooter Season 2 Episode 7 Quotes

Isaac: I made a series of mistakes man.
Bob Lee: Was Donny's mother one of those mistakes?
Isaac: Yeah, she was.

Isaac: We can do the marriage counseling after we get out of here. For now, we need a plan.
Bob Lee: The plan is don't die.