  The blazars provide a considerable opportunity to peer into the workings
within a few tens of parsecs of the central engine in AGN. This considerable
opportunity involves significant challenges as different macroscopic dynamical
processes and microscopic physical processes operating at different locations
can be responsible for the observed emission. In this proceedings article I
review recent theoretical and numerical results relevant to dynamics inside the
blazar zone, review the particle acceleration processes capable of producing
the high energy particles required by the observed emission, discuss some of
the progress made at the microphysical level, and consider what recent TeV and
radio observations of M87 can tell us about the blazar zone.
