FemmyV

I thought (spoiler) IS Delores? What about Daddy? (Peter Abernathy)

Sooooooo ... Who is in Charlotte? Teddy seems the logical choice but I'm wondering about Clementine? Anyway, the music for her arrival to her meeting with Serac was divine I love Dolores, and what they're trying to show us, but can't take how convoluted her storyline is. Caleb got interesting but I hope he won't be Teddy 2.0

I feel the light is used very strategically, overall, but especially this episode in the Venice scenes and JP3's confession. I don't know if there was any real dramatic purpose in the latter, but Gutierrez looked like a Rembrandt more than a living person and I thought that was fascinating.

I loved the episode, and how it wandered around exploring so many peoples' weaknesses. And Jude, wow. I don't think I've ever appreciated his screen presence as much as I did tonight and I've always been a Malkovich fan.

So here's a question: since when did entitled noble families ever encourage all of their male progeny to become Catholic priests? Is there a 3rd brother we don't know about? A sister with inheritance rights, hiding somewhere? How did mom and pop expect the estate to be maintained with their sons in a profession that negated all hope of having heirs?

This season seems to be far more abstract, by comparison. I hope it doesn't put too many people off.

The big themes that I'm getting at this stage are Symmetry, and the question of what to do with Rome's women. In the Episode 2 thread, duality was brought up, but imo it's more than that, as the camera emphasizes symmetry in almost every shot on Brannox's estate. Is it going anywhere, or is it just a neat camera trick? Don't know. But the women, and their sexuality and needs this season - wow, it's being pounded (sorry) at the start of every episode, with the opening theme. The nuns tonight were showcased as being screwed over by the boy's club, so I don't know where that's going, either, but I do expect it to continue to be explored as the season goes on.

I mostly loved the episode and how they managed to wrap up everything. Best ensemble acting and RK, JI, and JS were standouts. Although all hints have pointed to Angela taking on Jon's powers, I have a hard time believing he passed his power on to her, if only because of all of the baggage that would go with it — the loneliness, in particular, and the curse of knowing how all roads end, ie., eternal boredom — why would anyone want to pass that onto someone they wished happiness upon? Jon was probably far happier as Cal than any other time in his Blue life, so it makes sense to me that, if he wasn't going to pass the power onto her, he could have been giving the 'walk on water' demonstration as way of setting her up to understand that she's not a god. With all we know about Adrian as the story's official villain, funny that he wasn't after Jon's power, as well. I adored Jeremy Irons in this role; he made it impossible to root against Adrian even if I couldn't exactly root for him, so great.

Probably much like any actress playing a rape victim.

It's an interesting assertion, isn't it, that a police force comprised mostly of black people (and that seems to be the way we're going in many cities) would need authorization to use their guns. I watched the movie ages ago and found it difficult to follow, but loved the visuals. So here I am. It's interesting. And it would suck if Judd turned out to be Cavalry, but circumstances do kind of point that way.

Rhea's introduction + departure were the only things of the season that felt like off notes to me. She came and went way too swiftly. Everything else - brilliant.

Bonnie is also aware of her mother's abusive nature. Some people grow up with it, and never realize that not every home has that stuff going on. We didn't get to see Perry describe life with ML, only Celeste's take on it. That said, if Bonnie had been written as neurotic in other areas, it might have been a little more realistic (but then, maybe settling for Nathan was her way of seeking stability).

I think they did as well as they could with the time allotted. With Perry dead, Celeste gets to project pretty much anything she wants to on him (maybe that's the problem) but it seemed real enough to me. You can ask why a person is abusive, for years, and miss the answer that's right under your nose. Celeste must have caught on at some point, WE just weren't shown. Anyway, I love that it wasn't being questioned by Celeste that brought Mary Louise down, but that ML did it to herself, in the end ("she participated"). Yeah, I did, at last, feel sorry for Nathan. But losing a parent will do interesting things to a person's priorities. I loved seeing Renata get to go out swinging, but it was kind of odd that for once, no metal detector issues.

This was my biggest problem, throughout the episode. And it's a shame that it was held back for a big dramatic ending, because not having it, not being shown Celeste documenting all of ML's manipulations and stalking - yes, stalking - is such a huge departure from reality. She stalked Jane and Ziggy, she paid someone (we assume) to stalk Celeste. ML crossing the line has been addressed repeatedly, but not to the lawyer? No buy. And again, contrived so we can have the big payoff of Celeste representing herself and turning the tables on ML in the courtroom. *sigh* Next week's description indicates that's exactly what's going to happen. Was it just me, or did the guy in the last photo resemble Keith Urban? Bit of a gag, no? Very uncomfortable but I'm glad it's there. I'm glad the show is depicting the effects of domestic abuse in so many various ways: showing what victims go through, what they do to themselves, and how resolution doesn't come wrapped up in a few weeks/months of therapy. When all is said and done, no, I'm not hate-watching. This is nowhere near the debacle of what happened with GoT. (Actually, I'm having fun right this moment, imagining EC's Dany on that stand. "Tell us why you flipped ..." would have been so much more than D and D gave viewers.) So, I'm watching to see Celeste make ML her bitch next week, assuming she will and even knowing it's been contrived; to see how Bonnie works out her shit; and to see if Ed takes his revenge fuck. ETA: Has there been an episode this season, where Renata hasn't set off a metal detector?

With the addition of ML this season, we are also getting a close look at verbal abuse, and peoples' reactions to it. Celeste slapping ML; the boys beating on the bully, as physical response was the tool they reached for. On Reddit, there's a spec that Corey is a journalist.

That doesn't mean she wouldn't try.

She wants to find out the truth of how her son died. Fair. Along with the course of her search, we are finding out that her method of dealing with people is to: throw them off balance, attempt to induce massive amounts of pity (directed towards her) and combine it with guilt on her subjects for offenses they had absolutely nothing to do with. In season one, we were introduced to Perry, a malignant narcissist. Now we're meeting his mother, the vulnerable narcissist. They, too, come with claws. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she tried to get custody of Ziggy, considering Jane's lack of career. I was going to say resources, but I can't imagine how Jane could afford to rent anywhere in CA, let alone a place like Carmel, and raise a kid on the kind of jobs she's been working unless there's some kind of trust fund that we don't hear about.

I'm at a point where the plot is irrelevant to me, it's the performances that are priceless: The surreal exchanges between Principal Nippal, Renata and Madeleine. In what world does a school principal have conversations that go like this with kids' parents? Renata's reaction to Madeleine's speech Dr. Reisman digging into Celeste, Maddie and Ed, and Ed's body language in the session. Mary Louise's narcissism on Perry's behalf. How can anyone sit at a table and talk about her sweet, gentle son, and imagine that shit is going to earn her a pass into the life of the grandson that was gotten by rape?

It would be interesting. Ed appears to be the sharpest tool in the shed, where the men of the show are concerned, and he may have been willing to look away and forgive last year, but that doesn't mean he's going to want to be perceived as a cuckold by anyone, this year. I expect he's going to have to forgive her at some point; Ed is too much the center of sanity for the show to lose. Things I loved: Bonnie's mom appearing to be a big soft woman at first, and turning out to have a big bite. Madeleine's refusal to accept the guilt Mary Louise is trying so hard to tweak out of her.

Think of it like Male Movie Critics' Meg Ryan syndrome in the '80s/'90s: there were tons of insanely beautiful, hot, actresses in amazing roles, but movie critics fell all over themselves for Meg, because she looked like she was actually in their league. May be no need, but I'm going to enjoy it anyways. ML operates by manipulating people, pushing the big Neg buttons to make them feel guilt/pity. And I'm going to call this: We are going to find out the apple didn't fall far from the tree. I wonder how far the execs are willing to push this story, in showing us how the dynamics of Perry and Celeste's marriage came to be: ie, anger/punishment/guilt/sex/disgust. Just saying ... ie, involuntary manslaughter is still an offense.

Fine, then, let her die in a fall off of Drogon.

100%. Sansa: “can you forgive me?” she asks and although Jon responds that the North was saved, as a result of her betrayal, he doesn't exactly answer her question. Arya's response, as he's going off into exile and entreats her to visit him at Castle Black, is to blow him off, for life. And Bran, the only ruler in the whole show that _anyone_ is shown literally bending the knee to, and it just happens to be the guy who saved everyone's ass, first by allying with Dany and then by killing her when she became an inconvenience for everyone. None of them had the brass to stand up for him against Grey Worm and the Dothraki (who should have accepted him as Khal, anyway) for his sake? Fuck 'em. It will be interesting to see how many of the Stark kids, at the end of the novels - if George decides to finish - will still have connections to their Dire Wolves, or if Jon, the Targaryen, is the only one. Another interesting beginning/end mirror in that at the beginning of the story, Jon is an outsider to the main Stark family, with some exceptions. And so he is, in the end but with even less connection to the surviving family. I really hope GRRM can finish the books in a way that the Starks don't finish off like the self-serving assholes they do, in the show. (Which portrays them as nice people and doesn't dwell on them doing not very nice things.) Jorah beginning to doubt Dany in episode 4 is still a hell of a fast turnaround.

Right now, I feel like D and D's second greatest mistake, in rushing Dany from hero to zero in two episodes is that it didn't give viewers time to psychologically detach from the character. Although Ned's death was a shocker, we watched his slide to disfavor over the course of several episodes. Although the Red Wedding was a shocker, we watched Rob fuck up for almost a full season, leading up to it. As someone who long ago expected Dany to die near the end, and even to die at Jon's hands, everything about the way it was done came off as rushed, contrived and half-ass. Dany was portrayed as a hero, right up until the moment she wasn't (when she begged Jon to keep silent — and in that moment, she wasn't tyrannical, she was simply weak).

I'm not sure if they failed, or if they were just too chickenshit to put it in peoples' faces, how badly Dany and Jon were betrayed and played, respectively.

And this is why I call the story a bait and switch. Martin and his press about subverting fantasy tropes? GoT is not a fantasy, but a dystopian sc-fi dressed up in fantasy settings. In the end, hardly anything has changed. Instead of a barely-attentive king who spends his days getting drunk and getting laid, we will have a barely-attentive king who spends his days in visions of past events and, apparently, tracking Drogon. Or trying to. Two parties of the otherwise well-intentioned small council will be serving their own interest (yes, Tyrion will serve the Realm, but don't kid yourself into thinking his own interests will not be a factor) and there will be plenty of bickering on the way to getting things done. The master of coin will still have the means to blackmail everyone. And the guy who saved all of their asses winds up in exile, while the "good guys" who played him are King, Hand, and Queen in the North. As happy as Jon would be to go and stay North, Winterfell is no longer an option for summer vacation. When he dies, his bones won't wind up in the crypt with his Stark ancestors and family; he will die in anonymity, beyond the wall. Sam's cute book? I wonder how it's going to explain, for posterity, that one hero got knifed in the belly, and the other got talked into doing the deed, and was exiled? Dystopia. Brilliant, but it's likely to have a long-lasting effect on the fantasy genre, as copycats come in. And they will. The only thing that may hold that back for a little while is the amount of time it takes for more people to realize how the hero got played.