Misstify

I am thinking that the small nosebleeds are just foreshadowing for some big showdown where Eleven has to use her powers so intensely that something much, much worse than a nosebleed happens to her. (I have only watched thru this episode, just guessing).

I too wondered why they needed to put Eleven in a dress, wig, and makeup...then I realized, homage to E.T.'s makeover scene.

Wait, he did?? I was waiting all episode for someone to spot a monster in the background of the photos, but I never saw it. Maybe it's my TV.

I love Carla and would be thrilled to have her back (not as a love interest). I like Monica as a non-kooky foil for everyone, but hope she gets more stuff to do.

Those ads are fabulous. Thanks. The whole Jonah storyline is great, but one detail I especially loved was Richard's beaming smile when Dan walked into the campaign office to rip them to shreds. Also: the fact that Gary thought the c-word was "crone". Selina's dismissive attitude about the fact that everyone had called her a c*** was priceless, as was Catherine being in love with her mother's body double.

I've recently been rewatching Party Down, and the spaces/tabs scene tonight was way too reminiscent of the Party Down scene where Martin Starr's character blows up his chances with a woman because she doesn't know the difference between fantasy and sci-fi. The Party Down scene was great because Roman's passion for hard sci-fi was established over many episodes, it didn't come out of nowhere, and his character was established as a misanthrope who has no patience for anyone's foibles. Splitting up the virgin margarita and adding alcohol brought from home...wouldn't that have been better coming after Erlich realizes Bachmannity is broke? I agree with whoever said Jared's childhood stuffed animal was the best joke. It was perfectly set up because when you hear him say the toy was named Winnie, of course you think it's going to be Winnie-the-Pooh. Not a ziploc bag filled with shredded newspaper.

Hmm, maybe I will read it after all. I dipped into the book vs show thread and everyone seems to love the book.

I would have liked to see that. I really want to know why JFK's continued existence leads the election of George Wallace instead of Richard Nixon in '68. (And was Col. Sanders the VP?). I'm also wondering about things like...if there was no Vietnam War, what was the counterculture like? Was the 1968 Democratic National Convention a calm, dignified affair? What happened with the civil rights movement? And was the devastation we saw in 2016 caused by nuclear war, economic meltdown, conventional warfare, or what (and in which decade)? I don't know if I want to read the whole book, since I just saw the series, just to find out the details of the ending.

That was the fake company name on the check from the mark that Giselle and Jimmy scammed. There is no actual Ice Station Zebra Associates.

Frank and Conway played Agario! I once spent a 30-minute car ride listening to two 10-year-olds talk nonstop about Agario. How you can talk for 30 minutes about a game where dots eat other dots, I don't understand. Frank and Conway squeezed a few seconds of dialog out of it, and they at least were using it as a metaphor.

That was AMAZING. I loved how even as they were running away from the police, one of the clowns was doing a kind of exaggerated run--never breaking character. And Chip could hang out with them without knowing French because...mimes.

The passport photo with the bee! I may have enjoyed the photo stuff more because I watched this the day before I was getting a headshot taken at work. The day before the headshot, my hair got a perfect wave in it all by itself. Day of the headshot: no wave. The photographer (a colleague of mine) nicely told me he could get rid of the flyaway pieces of hair "in post". I guess Ilana and her brother are both fans of Kirk Steele. I saw someone being carted away by EMTs in the background, but I missed what had actually happened to them. Naturally, Ilana and Abbi noticed nothing and found the park to be idyllic (I don't remember the actual word they used).

That was great. We just kept hearing a crinkly sound whenever Chuck moved.

I enjoyed the sequence of Kim steadily, steadily working. She never seemed to get bleary-eyed, she did not complain in front of the junior workers and did not let them know she was working all night. Just wearing the suit and heels for all those hours would've done me in without any documents or phone calls. Calling all the people she's ever ever networked with was grueling as heck. She knows she screwed up by recommending Jimmy for the job, and she figures it's fair enough that she should be in the doghouse for a while, but she thought she had accomplished something that would make up for it and get her back in her old position. It didn't work that way because, as people have said, there's something personal going on. (I still think the "something personal" is really about Chuck and Jimmy, with Chuck pulling the strings and using Kim to get to Jimmy; although Howard may also have something against Kim).

For some reason, the fact that the adopted twins name-dropped the Chemical Brothers again just cracked me up.

Pissagra Falls

Many great Martha moments in this episode. She expresses her preference for "set it and forget it" not once, but twice in the episode (first GPS over "turn left at the tree" type directions, then cruise control over regular driving). Her dislike of confrontation is so strong, she is compelled to say, "I don't want to seem like that kind of a person" to the police before asking about incriminating herself. Also, she is terrible at charades--so much so that Chip has to repeat his mouthing of "Call 9-1-1". "Where are we going?" "To deliver some cowboy justice." "Okay, but where?"

Not strictly an ending for Downton, but... I'd like to see an alternate version of the story from the point of view of the first Mrs. Gregson. Kind of like how Wide Sargasso Sea gives a story of the first Mrs. Rochester...

I think it also may have been embarrassing for Kim to confess that Jimmy lied to her (or "strongly implied" an untruth) about the ad being approved. It may have helped her somewhat, but then again it may not have...since she recommended Jimmy for this job. I think she is already realizing that getting him into that job may have been a mistake. She had faith in him, I believe she really did, but that was misguided. That has become apparent rather quickly.

I agree with all this. But I do think there is an additional layer with the pointed mention of canary yellow and the fact that this city name was chosen by the writers as the particular distant place that Jimmy goes to. Now that I think of it, Playuh's Hummer and shoes were also yellow. I'm now thinking there are yellow warning flags being dropped all over the place, and Jimmy is ignoring them. Maybe on purpose.

Oooh, I like that.

Amarillo = yellow in Spanish. The episode made a point of letting us know that Jimmy picked out the canary yellow color of the flyers himself. What's up with that? The only symbolism I know of re: yellow is cowardice. I did not think Jimmy acted out of cowardice in this episode. Are there other things yellow could mean? Or was there other yellow stuff that I missed?

Regarding the removal of the fern from the boutonniere...I just finished reading JF's novel Snobs, and this detail comes up in that book as well! The book takes place in the 1990s. There is an aristocratic wedding, and a character who is an usher mentions that "of course" the white carnation had been stripped of the fern that the florist had attached to it. There is no real explanation; I inferred that it was a matter of taste, and perhaps the unsophisticated florist is messing with perfection by adding the fern. (The book didn't say that; it was just my theory as I was left somewhat mystified about the "of course" and then seeing the same thing again in Downton!). If that's the case, it is consistent for Carson to want the boutonnieres at his wedding to reflect the aristocratic style.

I think the show cast a very docile child as Marigold because they didn't want to give her any lines or spend time wrangling an active child on set. I actually found myself wondering if they had dosed her with Benadryl before the Mrs. Drewe scene.

The most frustrating thing in the episode for me (besides the realization that there was going to be more Drewe Drama) was how insistent Anna was that she could not have children and that it was set in stone. I realize she probably didn't want to suffer false hope, but the stone wall of, "Nope. Won't work. That won't work either. Not gonna happen." was maddening. We learned in her doctor's visit that 12 weeks is the point where she will get a cervical stitch. So presumably she has gone past that point in the incidents, which we now perceive to be lost pregnancies. (Which makes me a bit confused about her earlier comment that it has happened "Two, maybe three" times. Was the "maybe" case not as late as the others?). Anyway, I think bed rest would be required with that cervical problem. Please, please don't make this a thing where Anna wants to hide the fact that she's pregnant in order to spare Mr. Bates from false hope and also has to make up some excuse for staying in bed, which leads to further misunderstandings! Mary's underclothes were more fabulous than any garment I've ever owned. ETA: I forgot to mention Cora's mysterious "idea" about what to do about Mr. Mason. This was before the Mrs. Drewe meltdown, so what was Cora thinking?