rozen

Agreed. Imo, this only tolerable if it's set up to explain why A Man allowed Arya to go on this vengeance spree instead of turning her into a face on the wall. She must be on track to be the greatest Faceless (Wo)Man the world has ever seen if she's reached the level of taking out the freaking Night King. Otherwise A Man and a cart full of gold could have solved this whole mess eons ago.

This was great and all...but what the hell was Bran's plan? Seriously? He sat there warging into some ravens watching w/ surround sound as the Night King came to murder him? I honestly expected the Night King to strut up and suddenly bend the knee to our new Sith Lord Bran. I know the plot demands Dany take enormous losses to make her battle for the throne harder, but wtf was sending the Dothraki to their doom with no support? Literally why? I love how Clegane was ready to let all these suckers die until he saw his baby Arya was in danger. He snatched her up like a unruly kitten and booked it!

Ok, so this was a 100% set up/wish fulfillment episode, fine. I'm ready for epic battles now, thanks. Sansa and Jon being conveniently dumb for the plot again. Yes, we should definitely ask the woman who dropped her claim to rush up here with her dragons and armies to save the North's ass if she promises to gtfo immediately afterwards. Now, girl? Really? And immediately afterwards Jon decides be all like 'hahaha, I'm actually the true heir, gotcha!' Everyone already knows each other except Dany. For all she knows this was an elaborate trap to get her killed fighting the Night King and have the Surprise! Targaryen! pop out of his kinderegg and take over everything. Now, dude? Really? Theon getting a warm welcome home from Sansa punched me straight in the feels. Though, realistically, dude should have been hiding out a dung heap somewhere waiting for her to walk by. No way he wouldn't have been immediately gutted by the people who remember what he did during the first sacking of Winterfell. Nevermind bringing fresh from the swamp Ironborn in with him.

Agreed, it's not their thing. But I am not surprised Sansa is raging that one of the last members of her family is determined to do the same shit that got most of the family killed in the first place. She's paid a higher price than most for the North's insolence, and no one seems to appreciate it except Brianne. Sansa being snitty to Dany is a lazy writing decision, imo. One of many shortcuts they've used to build friction rather than letting it bubble up organically. You're right, all historical data suggests Sansa would never say something so stupid so publicly. It's just convenient for the "girl fight" angle the producers are pushing.

I think all the players in this episode have reasonable points & disadvantages, and hopefully will balance each other out. Jon is "righteous" and honorable, yes. But he has a pathological refusal to take the time to coax people to see the same big picture he does. Additionally, he refuses to take the input of outside advisors, or make them feel included in the process of coming to the decisions he does. Of all the players who exhibits innate entitlement to do wtf he wants bc he's king, it's Jon. I've said it before, but he died to humans because he didn't understand them, he's won against the dead. If he marches on the way he is now, everyone loses. Sansa loves her brother, but she has acquired hard-earned political acumen that Jon lacks. I don't see her as not trusting Jon, I see it as her being increasingly exasperated that he refuses to learn one iota of the "game" because he disdains it, despite the fact it is having immediate and serious consequences for everyone. Showing up having thrown away his crown and expecting everyone to be chill about it is dumb. Bringing enormous armies with no warning and no plan to feed them is a serious goddamn problem. Dismissing people's concerns about his decisions as inconsequential is why some Northmen have decided to screw it and stay home. Sansa could be a good balancing force for Jon, but he refuses to listen (e.g. his sneering at Arya for even standing up for her). He expects her to deal with the small potatoes while he wages his great war, but doesn't keep her up to date on any of his thinking*. Dany has been taught through her entire lifetime of experience is that the only way to save herself is through strength & fear. Every faction she's encountered has tried to murder her and steal everything she's every earned for herself. Expecting her to have any soft skills at this stage of the game is a little silly. However, imo, she has a big step up on many other players in that she has excellent advisors, and she actually listens to them. Do they have argue from one end of westeros to the other to change her mind? Yes. But she hears what they're saying most of the time, even if she decides to go another direction. Dany's bottom line is being acknowledged as queen because that's the only way she could find value for herself. I think the day she realizes the title means nothing because she is inherently powerful & worthy is the day she blossoms into being a true queen. Sam gets to be mad in the immediate aftermath of learning his family is dead...but c'mon. I see the theme is going to be to build a foil between Dany & John based on this incident, but I'm not buying it. Sam *knows* his father was a hateful and stubborn asshole. If he'd been in the Nights Watch, he absolutely would have lead the line to stab Jon to death, and yes Jon would execute someone like Samwell's father. The story also conveniently lacks any context, Dany executed the 2 most recalcitrant rebels in a terrifying manner and cowed everyone else into submission. Rather than cutting them down to the last man, which I swear appears to be the more "honorable" option in this multiverse. Basically everyone needs to stfu and work together, because together they form one fully functioning imperial structure. Any of them alone is fairly unqualified, to me. * edit: Also, I am not shocked Sansa is snitty right now. Jon's rolled up with the spawn of genocidal despots who's way stronger than any of them, and has immediately given her more trust than he's ever shown Sansa.

I think that's why Kelsey was annoyed. All three kitchens were laid out literally side by side, you can see it in the wide field shots. Sara's servers were chatting off to the side instead of heading back out on the floor and I think that's who Kelsey was telling to shut up.

I might not have seen it right, but it looked like Kelsey was talking to a bunch of servers that had a Sara intervention on how to deliver their orders. It looked like a group just kind of milled around chatting instead of heading back out on the floor and Kelsey wanted them out and away from the cooking area.

All three restaurants had terrible servers, the difference was that Northeast and Thistle immediately intervened to do on the spot training. Adrienne made them take back the orders and write them properly, Sara pulled aside several servers to go over how to write a ticket again and again. Brian and Sara were also constantly shown interacting with the staff to make sure things were on track. Nini kind of threw her hands in the air and tried to put out all the fires herself. I'm sure her emotional state wasn't improved by coming back to see that none of her three teammates honestly gave a shit about the fact they just screwed her over on her dessert. Justin and Nini were both at fault for not dropping everything to pull all the staff over and go over table numbers and ticket writing. If someone is sitting so long that they start eating a banana instead, you might as well just call a time out and stop firing and instead go over stuff. I am not impressed with Justin just running around and fuming while things went to shit, really poor leadership. He's lucky that Pablo somehow put out two terrible and mediocre dishes, otherwise he should have gotten the boot too. Brandon was quite lovely and filled in gaps and helped others out admirably. He dealt with Pablo's delusions about needing help plating in the nicest way, just like 'well, I've got nothing to do and I've already picked things up, so I might as well help?' Sara just gives me the creeps, and I literally don't know why because she seems like a perfectly nice person?

I always assume the pay for these things is crap, if they pay at all. I assume it's the same for the designers they choose, who probably are getting pennies on the dollar in exchange for "exposure". If they hired people who specialized in executing these pop-up style venues it wouldn't be such a shitshow and even Nini would have had time to figure out how to organize her servers. Like, c'mon the tables should one of the first things that get set up, and none of those painfully enthusiastic party planners were around to even tell them where they eventually would be? Justin was justified (teehee) in raging that not only was Nini not done with her own dish, but also kept flitting away to do...whatever while Kelsey was trying to do her job and train the servers. But, I think it's going to come back to haunt Nini that she acquiesced to Justin's demand to spin her ice cream already. They've already established there's not a lot of room in the freezers, and they weren't cold enough to freeze the ice cream in the first place. Her dish will have melted by the time the guests work through the first few courses. Wow, is Adrienne cracking the whip for that team or what? It's good she's there, because Brian seems to not comprehend the level of wait staff he's working with. Writing a service manual probably makes sense when everyone is coming in with years of waitstaff experience and you're trying to add that extra flourish that makes it a high-end dining experience. These servers didn't even know what to do after introducing themselves to guests, that's way too much information overload. Good on that one woman for gamely trying to read through that thesis on her own.

Right? Or if there happened to be another excellent sniper with psychopathic tendencies and an obsession with protecting Karen...

TBF, Karen has a very consistent characterization of getting people killed for her stories and generally not giving a shit about it afterwards. She's one of the leading causes of death for minority characters on this show >_<.

Yea, I wasn't a fan of making Bullseye 'irredeemable' and fridging one of the few female characters this season to do so*. Pointdexter clearly stuck to his structure and routine without hurting anyone for decades had clearly put in a lot of work. His desperate attempt to get Julie to help him without violating her boundaries again was heartbreaking. It humanized him for me way more than Frank Castle ever was and he's the resident anti-hero. I know nuanced villains are becoming kind of a cliche, but I still would have liked a more nuanced resolution for Bullseye. We've had 3 seasons of Matt being an ass to his friends and then turning a tidy 180 when he's finally too broken down to go it alone. I know he has abandonment issues, but at some point he has to start taking responsibility for his own shit. I hope next season explores some new themes already. Ofc, Elektra will probably show up again and Matt will revert back to an angsty teenage boy. I hope they also build out Vanessa's character a little more, because we still know basically nothing about her. Except for her annoying habit of staring slack-jawed as various people try to murder her. Let her run Fisk's syndicate in his absence or something. Matt is satisfied with his bro-code peace treaty with Fisk not to go after the other's loved ones, but Vanessa is bound by no such agreement. I know Foggy is supposed to be the moral center for the show, but man is he annoying AF as a character to me. *was there literally any major female character that wasn't a love interest or a mother? Y'all, do better. Have Missy come read Matt the riot act or something.

I don't think there's anything to suggest that Davie, Elizabeth and Carl are a tight 3, so it wasn't necessarily a bad move. The two Davids were certainly ready to throw each other to the wolves this week, they made almost no attempt to work together to flip a 3rd vote from what I saw. Since Davie already went the 'ew, girls' route with Alec, for all we know Karl will come back and they will Pagong the women. Natalie cannot be an actual, real-life, successful human person. She thinks standing over someone's shoulder perpetually while spouting criticism is a form of bonding and leadership? If she has actual human employees (and not just a herd of 20 cats wearing knitted vests) they must be howling every episode as her true colors are revealed. I love that after Jeff dragged them for being so slow through the blind-folded maze portion, this lady literally slowed down in carting Angelina to parrot back with Jeff had just said. Like, omg, Angelina, did you know we are losing our chance? Also, what's this under my foot? Hope Gabby gets her mojo back now. Two nerds crying in the rainforest only has so much replay value.

I have to say I was a little surprised at how....incompetently Adora went about poisoning Camille. For lack of better phrasing. It was like she was trying to pack in 20 some years of missed opportunity into one night. It was like Adora was straight up trying to kill Camille, to the point where even Alan was telling her to slow her roll. Does Adora wield so much power that even in this modern age she could weasel out of Camille undergoing a tox report, and instead chalking it up to her wayward junkie daughter going a step too far? Camille must feel such survivor's guilt for not 'sharing the burden' with her two sisters, leaving them to wither and die under Adora's care. Also, that maid is not dumb, so I hope she is under a jail somewhere too. But probably not, since Alan inexplicably made it off scott-free. What a weasel. Who calmly watches their own children be murdered, only stepping in to manage the process so it's not too fast or suspicious? I liked the touch of Camille's boss hustling to get her covered up asap while Richard staggers back like he got smacked in the face with a skillet. Only at the very end did he realize how much he underestimated the perversion of little ol' Windgap and the residents thereof. There are not enough sorrys in the world, bro. The bloody teeth pliers were found almost immediately upon searching the house. Adora totally knew, I bet half of her insistence on keeping Amma housebound was to try to pace her in the number of girls she murdered. I could totally believe there are a few more odd murders that happened earlier on, but were spread far enough apart so as to not attract attention*. An instantaneous obsession with making an ivory floor out of teeth is unbelievable. She's been gearing up for, and becoming more efficient at, this for a while I bet. "Don't tell mama" is gonna creep me out big time ForEver. *Or, some very, very brutal pig abuse and slaughter incidents.

Hoo, a study in contrasts. Issa's girlfriends drag each other for filth, but they can accept the advice is meant well and move on. But every time Issa tells the truth to These Men, they lash out and tear her to pieces. I am so done with Daniel's out-sized ego. He wants to write supporting tracks, which means the beat is supposed to SUPPORT the artist it's written for. Khalil told him explicitly that the artist prefers heavy bass and for the track not to outshine his mumble rap lyrical prowess. He didn't even make that many adjustments to Daniel's track! Khalil really extended a hand out to a friend and Daniel spit in his face, and then has the nerve to be mad when called out on it. That track was all about how clever Daniel is about mixing instrumentation, where an artist supposed to fit in between all of that? Rolling eyes at the idea of apologizing too *steam comes out ears*. Molly, just because professional looks a little different than before doesn't mean you can be casual. If she had started a new job at struggle white firm, she would have 100% zipped her mouth and made none of those unnecessary 'at my old job' comments. She said she was aggressive in negotiations and they caved on everything she asked for, so she could at least try to come in without her nose stuck in the air. Issa better take that job, apply to the music program, and drop Daniel immediately. He clearly has no respect for her or for boundaries generally. Throwing a snit fit at your girl for not wanting to be one argument away from being homeless is some toxic and controlling bullshit.

That would be especially mindboggling because we just saw that Adora did not show up for her when she seeking treatment. Amma is devious as hell. She's infantalized and disempowered at home, so she actively seeks to gain maximum power outside the house. I felt like her coming after Camille in front of those jackal children was as much of an act of dominance as anything. She's willing to take on the historical 'it' girl of Wind Gap, the infamous bad girl that still reverberates in everyone's minds decades later. It's like she wants to gobble up everything Camille ever was. Ashley is a piece of work. Her takeaway from John lashing out at the town that ostracizes him and is responsible for his sister's murder is that...he wants to invalidate their relationship? So dumbass local cop can't intimidate Camille away from her job, so he runs to her momma? This whole town is garbage. The casual racism was the perfect coup de grace. Interesting that step-dad is apparently barely holding it together.

I was dying at the end of S2E6. That mom is gonna f**k that boy up once the cameras are gone.

I love how the protomolecule consistently attempts to deconstruct and reassemble everything it touches into something that is multi-purpose. It actually seems to have no malicious intent, it's just trying to do whatever the hell it was mandated to do as quickly as possible. I bet things like hybrids are just supposed to be defense ants protecting construction from hostile forces, not supersoliders. I like how with the later iterations Miller seemed to have moments where his statements were pleasing to him. Like he struck a balance between communicating in a way that was not deemed defective by his manufacturer, but was also something humans could understand. The idea that he gets disassembled and reassembled continuously until the protomolecule can generate a signal the sentient life forms in this universe can understand...is stark yo. Amos being willing to jump into the breach with Miller was so sweet. True bromance is blossoming! I'm looking forward to everyone putting 2 and 2 together and spacing the documentary crew. Well, they will probably just put them in confinement because they're good people. But they deserve some Drummer style justice right about now. I don't think the OPA can get back Naomi after this. "Acting like Inners" indeed. Shoot first and say 'whoops, didn't need to murder you after all' later. Roci crew needs their own private multiverse away from all this bullshit.

I think this is just the start of an arc where Drummer has to grow up from being 2nd in command. She's still used to being the fire spitting muscle, and trying to bring that up to the leadership position without quite understanding why it's ineffective. Fred was reluctant to break heads, and she probably always wrote it off as his being an Earther underneath it all. Ashford brings an important perspective because he's apparently had some experience working on his own and knows when to at least pretend to compromise. I totally agree he is a backstabbing snake that will try to sow destruction and discord, because Dawes and everything he touches is a cancer. He brought Diogo, of all people, ffs! Though, to be fair, Dawes was probably desperate for any opportunity to get rid of the space cockroach. So annoying to see these bums look down their noses at Naomi just because she's worked with Earth & Mars. She put you guys on the map! She's done more for you than your two macho macho macho man leaders put together! If anyone should be running shit, it's her. But Fred and Dawes want their pawns running the show so she doesn't grow into a 3rd player they have to contend with. The racer was comical and met an appropriately gruesome end. But, come on, there's no way Mars & Earth wouldn't have blown that sucker away any other episode. Is this supposed to represent the newfound respect the Belt has, with it's FrakenShip with guns duct taped to the hull? Poor baby Amos. At least FaceTime your man occasionally, Prax!

I missed when RPDR tried to make an actual not-garbage product at the end of acting challenges. They might as well not have a director there at all. There's occasional snide commentary with paltry suggestions to provide fodder to laud or berate the queens with on the main stage and that's it. And they're shot horribly. The writing was choppy and full of poorly connected gags. The whole thing was just...ugh. I could almost believe this challenge was fixed, bc it made no sense that Eureka was so reluctant to be goofy with the hairdryer. This is the person who literally scribbled on his belly as Honey Boo Boo and threw his naked ass on the ground and threw a tantrum. I bet Eureka's mad to reveal her secret weapon, the return of the splits, before the final 4. I was legitimately skressed when she did it not once, but twice. Kameron executed the lip sync Dusty Ray Bottoms tried to do. It wasn't one of my top lip syncs, but they were well matched and had good energy throughout, which is rare and I applaud them. Monet keeps tanking herself with these basic runway looks. PUT A DAMN WIG ON! THEN PUT ANOTHER WIG ON TOP OF IT! I feel like Cracker was desperately trying to provide some continuity throughout the sketch since she's kind of the lynchpin of the whole thing. She needed to Ben Dela it up and become the boozy android cruise guide of our dreams.

Yes, and there was lots of 'omg Eureka, what is going on, you're so fabulous and we know you can do better, this is your time!' from the judges. Somebody like Vixen is not going to roll off doing well only to have the judging panel express confusion on why this other queen isn't crushing her and the rest of the competition as expected. I'm not saying she's right, I just understand why Eureka is such a burr in her saddle. All the challenges basically require being quick on your feet and being good in front of an audience (the judges). And good queens bomb, spectacularly and often, as evidenced by Miz Cracker's Snatch Game in this season. Having practice doing a thing makes you better at it and more aware of small things that seem obvious in hindsight but not before you've done them. On top of having to do them in front of Ru. And a national audience. Eureka has strong name value because of RuPaul's drag race and her storyline of a tragic early exit. She herself has spoken of how stressful the pressure is of having tons of people expressing their admiration for her and how they expect her to come back, kick ass, and get the crown. Having people dislike you has nothing to do with whether you're in the upper echelons of known Drag Race queens. Plenty of people hate Raven, Willam, etc, and they're cashing checks off that name recognition regardless.

Eureka's neuroses aside, she is an established strong contender, fan favorite, and returnee with extensive prior experience and the explicit support of the judges. She's the closest a queen can come to winning the show without actually participating till the end, and now she's back for, what may seem to less exposed queens, a victory lap at their expense. In the context of real life, Eurkea is not privileged. In the context of Drag Race, she is royalty with insider status the other queens may only dream of. For example, the Dragoncon challenge was a resounding success in large part because Eureka has extensive past experience from participating in highly attended panels at Dragcon. Most queens would be lucky to just be attendees, yes? My reaction to Eureka is (imo) a drag Richard Blais. They are hyper-talented and hyper-competitive people that act like every victory was some sort of tortuous and heroic battle, and every loss is a Greek tragedy that sucks all the oxygen out of the room as they demand everyone drop everything and comfort them. This is not an uncommon trait in highly ambitious people, but it can be especially insufferable when you feel like you're only holding on by the tips of your fingernails. Vixen's behavior has been unacceptable, but there is absolutely a reason why Eureka, specifically, sets her off and I don't think it's due to trying to bully the weak, etc.

Wasn't the Nauvoo used to try to reroute a planet full of protomolecule? I think it has some role to play in the future. I don't see a lot of belters with the fuel to burn chasing after the Nauvoo being willing to piss off Fred Johnson. Also, I'm sure future Space Mormons! are just as litigious as their current time counterparts, who wants to be sued into perpetuity for stealing an extra door handle off the Nauvoo? I can totally see Drummer being done with this Alpha Macho bullshit and bringing the Nauvoo back only to evac all her Belters and leave Fred Johnson and whats his face sitting alone with a canister of protomolecule between them going 'what now?' I didn't know why Naomi was defensive about her offer to cook until I saw how everyone looked at her food with utter disdain. How rude, honestly. Makes me love Alex more that he powered through something he clearly hated while making sure to list all it's good qualities. Belter prejudice is so disgustingly familiar and deep-rooted. It even reflects in how the crew continues to treat her like total garbage and yet depend on her to keep fixing things that prevent them from dying. If she really wanted that ship on Tycho, your asses would already be there and there wouldn't be shit you could do to stop her. But, wah wah Amos. Can these evil nerds get a morally questionable linguist in here to start on communications with the protomolecule? I am so over scene after scene of The Ebil Nerds trying to turn a sentient hive mind into a railgun. The protomolecule is clearly trying to figure out how you stupid organics work, please assist! So it stops ripping living bits apart because it's never heard of a necropsy lab!

It took me forever to catch on, but, Vilanelle has face blindness, doesn't she? She is obsessed with people's hair, and build, and clothes, and wants her kills to look her in the eye, but otherwise seems unable to process features (i.e. 'oh, your hair is longer now' when she finally registers Nadia before she launches herself from the backseat). Would also explain why she likes killing asthma sufferers because she can hear their distress even if she can't process it on their faces. A face blind psychoassasin would be so epic, I hope I'm right. Damn, Konstantin got a harsh reminder that all of Vilanelle's playfulness is just looking for leverage on him. I wonder what short straw he drew to be her handler. Because eventually the bosses in charge are going to order him to try to put her down. And he knows perfectly well that he will probably lose and then she'll make tacos out of his family or something. His job suuuuuuuucks.

Naomi's decision kind of destroys the fragile diplomatic balance that Chrisjen's been trying to build her entire career. But that balance was built on the Belters being the runts of the litter, and at the complete mercy of Earth or Mars's area of influence. They can preach all day about OPA's questionable methods, but Belters aren't the ones stringing people up to torture them with gravity, or blowing up stations full of starving strikers just to make a political point. History is of full of nations building themselves off the backs of others and then snubbing their noses at the underdog's dirty and underhanded guerrilla tactics to try to assert themselves. No one gave a shit about a Belter planet full of protomolecule horrors until it was hurtling towards Earth. Belters *need* the biggest shield because they have the fewest resources and allies, Naomi gave them that. Bobbie was so low-key offended that this crew of non-Marine punks were able to take down a hybrid when she and her entire squad were wiped out. Hopefully she treats Roci crew with a little more respect from now on. I love that only former UN-officer Holden knew how to dress her down when she was 2s from starting a rumble with the entire crew. Alex is such a daddy-bear, trying to keep his new family together. I'm not even mad at the wife's reaction, he 100% earned that shit. Redemption doesn't come on your own time, man. Why did Evil Admiral Henchmen #3 decide to use the Agatha to go to Io instead of bringing in his own warship? He straight up knows the actual captain isn't buying any of this bullshit, and that entire crew is 100% loyal to him. Driving them straight into your evil base seems like a bad idea. Hmm, Mao is growing a conscience? Death imminent. Strickland is the Errinwright of team protomolecule. He looked ready to strangle Mao then and there for suggesting they stop infecting children with an alien homicidal organic matter.