‘Necessary Roughness’ Review: Dr. Dani is ‘Swimming with Sharks’

Last night’s episode of Necessary Roughness was appropriately titled “Swimming with Sharks” as we got a bigger glimpse of what goes on behind the curtain at V3. The jury is still out on whether or not Connor is a good guy or a bad guy, but the episode gave us a few unexpected twists that definitely made me want to keep tuning in to find out what’s really going on.

But before we get into the agency stuff, let’s get the rest of the plots out of the way. I love Dr. Dani, but her storylines in this episode were so dull. Lindsay returned to remind us that Dani has a home life and Ray J was mentioned as Dani tried to get him on the phone and finally succeeded in the end. Paloma continued to overwhelm Dani with the Agency happenings and her schedule and attempted to play matchmaker by telling her about the available men in the agency.

The case of the week has always been a bit of a thorn in my side when it strayed away from TK or the other Hawks players. With the show’s new premise, it’s something I have to live with, but I’m never going to grow to love it. This week centered on Devon, a basketball player (Teen Wolf’s Sinqua Walls), who was having trouble making free throws and all of the NBA was laughing at him and fouling him on purpose. His temper would get the better of him and he’d get thrown out of games.

Dani agreed to help and during her first session, she had him making baskets, using a technique he’d done in college. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to do it during games though because he didn’t want to look stupid, but Dani encouraged him to try it. Then we got to meet his mother Lana and she was basically the basketball equivalent of a stage mom; so pushy that she actually came out onto the court to yell at him and then the ref tossed both of them out of the game.

But Devon didn’t appreciate it when Dani suggested that his mother was part of the problem. He stormed out of the session and Dani continued to watch game tapes, only to notice that another player and Devon were feuding. Dani confronted him and he finally told her that the other guy was banging his mom (awkward). Dani and Devon had a heart to heart about why he loves his mom so much and how he needs to do this for himself and I kind of stopped listening because I was over it.

However, Devon’s case did have one interesting thing going for it: he’s not a V3 client. Connor was looking to poach him from a rival agency and Dani was not particularly thrilled to be the bait. But Connor did his fast-talking and goaded her into helping him anyway, even though it made the rival agency pretty mad.

TK has reached his one-year sobriety point, which meant that he was finally able to go out and start hitting on woman again. As he’s trying to convince Rex to go to the club with him and be his wingman, a woman (Autumn Reeser) approaches him with his poster and gets all fangirl-y over it. She gives TK her number and the two agree to have dinner that night (TK has a date with Taylor Townsend!).

As the two are enjoying their meal, the conversation turns to TK’s endorsement deal and how Abby thinks he should be getting bigger things and she wants to help. She introduces herself as Abigail Bruce, explains that most people call her Bruce, and she’s the competition. TK is NOT happy about the attempted poaching, but Abby (sorry, I’m not referring to her as Bruce) convinces him to sit down again and listen to the real story about Connor since she used to be his assistant.

Meanwhile, V3 is having an issue when they lose their phone and internet connection (I’d panic too). But Connor is mostly worried about clients not being able to get ahold of their agents and he tells Troy to have everyone start calling people and locking them in while Nico works on resolving the problem. It doesn’t take long before Nico discovers they were hacked and they assume the rival agency is to blame. While Nico is out doing his thing, he sees that someone is following him and tells the guy to tell Troy to back off and just ask him if he wants to know what’s going on.

TK confronts Connor about his conversation with Bruce and Connor tells TK that if he wants to leave, he can, but he calmly warns him that if he does leave, it will break his heart and he can never come back. For the first time since his introduction (two whole episodes ago, I know), Connor seemed a little scary. He didn’t have the crazy eyes going on or anything, but he was way too calm and firm when he was talking to TK. It was totally a threat without it being a threat.

Nico saves the day once again and finds the hacker at an internet café. Troy wants to have him prosecuted, but Nico points out that would expose V3’s weakness and hints there might be a better use for him. Connor immediately picks up on what he’s suggesting and thinks poaching the hacker is a brilliant idea. He goes to talk to him and Nico warns Troy not to have him followed again and to just ask if he wants to know something.

It’s once again time for a car meeting between Nico and the guy that I think was the one with the badge in last season’s finale? I wish someone would confirm that for me. Anyway, he congratulates Nico on the idea to hack the files so they could see the books and let Connor think it was the rival agency. The hacker is in the backseat and the mystery man points out that now he’s got two men on the inside. Nico doesn’t look very happy about that.

There wasn’t a lot of Nico/Dani time in this episode, which is always disappointing. He helped her with her computer security and they shared an intense look after she brought up what Pittman did and he promised it would never happen again. Then Paloma came in and pointed out that the only time Nico was transparent was when he was looking at Dani. At the end of the episode, Connor and Dani danced at a party and he invited her to go on some trip and poor Nico was watching from above, looking dejected.

I’m torn between the two twists as to which one was the best, but I’m leaning toward Taylor Townsend Abby being the rival. That was a nice setup for future episodes and I’m looking forward to seeing her again. The Nico bringing in the hacker was good too, but I felt like I probably could have/should have guessed that one. Also, the model that TK meets at the end of the episode, who conveniently just signed with V3…she seems like a plant from Connor to keep TK in line. Time will tell.

Next week, there won’t be a new episode due to the Fourth of July holiday, but when it returns in two weeks, Dani has a potential new love interest in the form of Sam Page. While I’m always Team Nico, I do enjoy seeing him on my screen so I’m looking forward to that.

What do you guys think? Is Connor a good guy who just happens to use shady tactics from time to time or is he bad news? Who is the guy that Nico is working for and what does this person have on him? Hit the comments and tell us what’s on your mind.