Reviewing Queen Latifah's Brief Heel Turn in "The Equalizer"

I love The Equalizer with a passion. Haven't seen the original series, but I've seen the Denzel Washington movies--I know his third one is out now, and I've been watching Queen Latifah's version since Day One, which came after CBS' telecast of Super Bowl LV. Since then, it's been a habitual occurrence every Sunday--I never miss an episode. I am anxiously awaiting for Season Four, I know a fourth season is coming, but I do not know what impact the ongoing strike will have on the fourth season. With all of that said, Season Three definitely had its moments, with the best one airing just one day after my (and series star Queen Latifah's) birthday.

I remember my reaction to the opening of the episode, "Lost and Found," as well as the reactions to viewers live-tweeting the show. After the recap, which mentioned Robyn McCall's custody battle in regards to her daughter, Delilah, we are treated to a stunning scene: Robyn being tied up in her home and beaten up by a villainous culprit. The attacker's only lines of dialogue were "Tell me where they are!" and "Where are they?!," with Robyn refusing to answer.

At that moment, Robyn's mouth is taped shut by the attacker, who waits in ambush with a gun, and afterwards, Delilah enters the house with Aunt Vi, and it's followed by the attacker's mask being removed and the culprit being revealed as...Robyn?! So there were two Robyn McCalls in this sequence; one of them was tied up and gagged, while the evil one was the true culprit and had designs on killing Vi and Delilah. Robyn's warnings fall on deaf ears, as heel Robyn fires her shot, which ends the nightmare sequence. The episode revealed that Robyn's nightmares had been a recurring theme, and regarding the appearance of an evil Robyn McCall, it's due to Robyn's fear that she had placed her family in danger with her activities.

Robyn did end up retaining custody of Delilah, and to the best of the viewers' knowledge, the nightmares have stopped. But let's talk about that sequence, shall we?

"Lost and Found" is the 12th episode of The Equalizer's third season, and aired on CBS on March 19, 2023. Of course, Queen Latifah stars as Robyn McCall on the reboot series, but for this opening sequence in this episode, Latifah briefly turned heel for her role as the main villainess in Robyn's nightmare. This was an absolute treat for me, mainly because Queen Latifah hasn't really done the villainess thing a lot--though I still remember her amazing performance as Ursula in the live performance of The Little Mermaid. In addition, Latifah was playing an evil version of Robyn McCall, and that was a very epic occurrence and performance.

I loved everything about evil Robyn McCall. For one, how vicious she was to her heroic doppelganger. I also loved that Latifah deepened her voice to make her character sound more evil and ominous, plus her villainous masked disguise was amazing. The best moment, of course, was the unmasking, and I still remember my reaction to seeing Robyn as the attacker, mainly because I was hoping for an alternate sequence that features a villainous Robyn McCall. The unmasking is followed by a series of crazed expressions from evil Robyn, which was Queen Latifah's brilliant way of acting out Robyn's heel persona following her unveiling as the maniacal villainess. I absolutely loved this with a passion; I've watched that segment on a loop because of everything I have just stated. Queen Latifah's villainous turn in the sequence was brief, but it was delightful because of her performance, as well as evil Robyn's insane demeanor in that opening.

UPDATE: This is a long overdue update of this story, but here it is. To my pleasant surprise, we received a return of the evil Robyn McCall doppelganger in another sequence, this time appearing in the episode, "The Lost Ones." Similar to "Lost and Found," we see the real Robyn tied up to a chair again, but this time, she's approached by her abductor, who dons a motorcycle helmet and a killer leather jacket and gloves. After the gag is removed, Robyn asked why they're doing this, and at that moment, the helmet is removed, and Robyn sees a familiar face: her own.

"Same as you," Evil Robyn says, "because I can."

Robyn tells her villainous double that she won't get away with it, only for Evil Robyn--in true heel fashion, "Scream all you want. No one's gonna save you. No one's coming for you." The villainess leaves Robyn to scream for help, after which Robyn wakes up from the nightmare--the second to feature an evil version of herself. Regarding this sequence, the reason for this nightmare was due to the fact that Dante took a high level position in LA, and Mel had also left that circle as well, leaving Robyn fearing that she'd be permanently on her own.

"The Lost Ones" was the series' fifth (and, sadly, final) season opener, and aired on CBS on October 20, 2024. A year and a half after the first sequence aired, Queen Latifah turned heel on the series once again by bringing back the evil Robyn doppelganger to torment her real counterpart mentally. I loved both sequences for different reasons. The first sequence saw Latifah portraying evil Robyn as a demented and psychotic killer, which was very delicious. Regarding this sequence, we got to see evil Robyn deliver actual dialogue with such an ominous hiss and sinister arrogance, which I also loved. Plus, I couldn't help but love evil Robyn's attire in the second sequence; that killer leather jacket truly fit Robyn's heel persona in that segment!

Overall, Queen Latifah really delivered in both sequences as a doppelganger villainess. She acted out evil Robyn's maniacal rage brilliantly in the first sequence, while the second sequence saw Latifah shine by acting out evil Robyn's sinister and biting demeanor. Honestly, Queen Latifah's heel turns in the series were the best highlights of the show.

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