gesundheit

Oh absolutely, that's what I meant by "milking it for all it's worth" -- not the perks, but the satisfaction of Armand knowing who has the upper hand.

Yeah, his first clue should've been that she wasn't offering to just hand him the bracelet herself. But naturally she was unwilling to risk anything, just wanted him to so she could feel better about herself somehow. I really think his best revenge is simply milking this for all it's worth for the rest of his stay and then getting him fired afterwards. Shane's the worst, but that is the most effective way to use the leverage! Quite deliberately! Very convenient.

Oh you're right, she did only mention the texture. Not sure why that was childish, though. I'm sure Gigi has a food or two she doesn't like! Granted, it's one of those things that was unnecessary to say -- if someone recommends a thing to you and you're not interested but you're not actually making the decision in front of them, it's clearly more graceful to just thank them for the recommendation (then later tell Tina you don't do scallops). I think that's maybe why she's relatable to me, though! I totally do things like that and then immediately get angry at myself for having blurted out why their recommendation doesn't work for me when they didn't need to know that. Just made Carrie very human to me, she seems like a nervous talker. Smooth types like Gigi and Bette will pounce on that like the prey that it is. I don't think there's any chance Carrie doesn't lose in this scenario, though. They really seem to be setting her up for failure, as they usually do on this show with anyone who isn't high-glam. (Well, and anyone who is a temporary Bette/Tina obstacle!)

It's really such a monstrous thing to do. I know it's TV and all so they had to go the Big!Drama! route, but seriously, she couldn't have gotten a slightly earlier flight? I'd loathe her for that if I were Sophie. And what an awful position to put all the guests in, too. Wonder if Dani's dad will send Finley the bill. I guess I'm a weirdo because I loved Carrie. She seemed very human with all her neuroses. And Gigi being all young and glam mocking Carrie for a stomach issue was so very Gigi. Though it was entertaining to watch Bette and Gigi be Mean Girls together. Alice is usually the funniest character and it's the best thing about her, I'm not so sure I love this whole "Alice is at the top of her game" version, she's exhausting. Less relatable, less of her awkward, self-deprecating humor moments. I'm assuming more happened later since Shane and the wife were texting back and forth, all cutesy.

I feel like it would bother her husband a lot more than it does her. It could actually impact his professional standing.

Yeah, I was confused about why they would sign those documents. First I was confused that HR would be bringing anything like that to name partners anyway (sadly they would not typically be subject to the same HR policies that other staff would be), but then I remembered there's a parent firm, so they are subject to the parent firm's policies. Or something. But then why sign a document they know to be a lie? Why are they faking a relationship at work? I'm not sure how that gets them anything. I understood why they did that with the judge, but that was a situational strategy. I love Boss Diane but I don't see how she can really stay managing partner at this point. If she's not a name partner but still partner, I fail to see how it would have the impact implied on her clients (if she did what was asked and stayed an equity partner, it doesn't make sense that her clients wouldn't see her regularly anymore), so I'm not sure why they're presenting it the way they are. I hope the lighthearted stuff with Liz this week doesn't put a pin in that story for too long.

It came out so wrong but I think he was trying to tell her not to worry It is. That finale was brutal. Hit me hard. I love Shona and Aine so much it's ridiculous!

Yup. Love Alice, but yikes. And her sketch was not funny. I was cringing that they were saying it "killed."

I have been watching it and I had no idea what they were talking about. I guess I missed an episode or two? It's also very weird because practically every Black-ish episode has an arc where Dre comes to respect Junior more. So to have him doing that routine every time he's on the spinoff is just weird. It'd be fine if it were just an inside joke in the family that Junior is in on, but Dre saying to a dude he's only met a few times with no other Johnsons in the room? Nooooo.

Interesting that that's considered the fake one. Seems like the fake one would be the heavily-curated-for-the-public one!

Basically she was into two dudes at once and felt funny about it since she was in a committed relationship, so she decided to make it a political stance. That's just kind of how it felt. And who knows, maybe she will be poly and this is just part of the process of learning about it, but it just hasn't read that way at all. Yeah, I mean all I kept thinking was, "Okay, this is the only time special knowledge of how teens use social media is going to help this team with a case, so let's not pretend like this is a full reversal of fortune here." (That said, did they ever explain what a Finsta is? Because my old ass had no clue what they were talking about. But I'm not their demo!) I loved Mariana a lot on the mothership but they are not helping her here.

Those TV storytelling copouts always crack me up. Oh, a musical montage with smiling and nodding! Checks out, who knows what was said but it sure worked! Oh hey, this character needs to tell this other character about a devastating death, I wonder how he'll break it to her? Oh okay, the sound will drop out and it'll be a long shot. Got it. Really feeling like Malika thought none of this through at all. I missed Alice a lot.

I thought she was gone for a whole year! But the time lapse has always been vague on this show. I did think I heard her say she had 12 more classes before her degree, so that tracks, but maybe I'm misremembering and she said 12 credits? Which would track for a senior in her last semester, and would therefore not make the slightest bit of sense.

This show is really quite well done and incredibly disturbing. I'm wondering if we ever find out how all the criticism of him got wiped clean off the internet. I can understand a lot of the "fall through the cracks" explanations here of how he kept working, but how he kept from getting shit-talked on the internet? That part's hard to understand. Or maybe he just only had patients who didn't think to google him? (I didn't listen to the podcast or ever read about him so I'm going to try to avoid looking up my answers -- which might not be the in-show explanation anyway -- until I finish the series, I guess.)

I feel like I read somewhere that season 2 is when it actually gets fun and that season 1 really isn't worth watching at all (unfortunately). But do we know, are they burning through all the seasons right away on the CW? Because if they are, and doing 2-at-once, then the first season will only last 3 weeks and then we get to the reportedly good stuff. So here's hoping!

Oh also, does this mean Kat's moving in with Adena immediately or something? I was confused about the apartment going away automatically. (A silly thing to be hung up on, of course.)

Exactly! She is the least willing of all the characters to yield any space between her idealism and how the world actually works. Just wait till the first thing she realizes as EIC is that the new activism vertical actually has to be cut because too many advertisers are pulling out. And once again, Jane has made a "following my dumb heart" decision about leaving a job and giving no notice. Of course nobody on television ever actually gives notice when they leave a job for an inspiring, completely-unfunded pipe dream. Bummer about Richard. Can't say I liked any of the outcomes, but as a few of you have mentioned above, I guess credit is due for a number of surprises?

Yes, I have to say it hadn't even occurred to me to think of the show's premise as "Allison plans to kill/does kill Kevin" -- that's just a plot point/idea right now. Just kind of a Trojan Horse for her personal journey, whatever it may hold.

Maybe I'll just skip the finale and pretend that's what happened.

Any chance that "Jacqueline, I need to talk to you" is Jane saying "Are you insane for giving me this job? I'm way underqualified, I'm turning it down, please don't make me do this."

And, I might add, Jane got sued for defamation shortly after she started writing for Scarlet. Then later quit for a different job, then got fired from that job (quite publicly) before begging her way back in.

I had such mixed feelings, once the second episode of the 2-hour premiere started, I knew it was too much all at once so I waited a couple days to finish. I'm glad I did because I had a better feeling after the single dose. I actually like the bad sitcom parody, it's pretty solid satire, plus it's so utterly familiar and flat that you sort of get little mini-breaks from the bleak reality just via the presentation. The actors that are mostly only in the sitcom scenes are doing a really remarkable job -- it's a hell of a needle to thread, having to deliver in a way that's both parody and believable old-school sitcom at the same time.

100% with everyone who thought this would've been plausible in a time jump and a time jump only. Literally the only good thing she's ever done in a leadership position was talking her one remaining employee out of leaving... by telling her she came to work while shrooming so hard she was hallucinating. So laughable. Seriously. This is supposed to be an establishment magazine, the board is mostly fossils, etc., etc. Yes, they've tried to keep an edge and roll with the times, but there will absolutely be advertisers who have demands that can't be met by "oh my cool friend who's really into social justice will have an answer!" Gen Z doesn't have disposable income yet, they're not every advertiser's target. What are any of these characters going to do when their first attempt at handling an obstacle doesn't magically work? Because that's the only pattern here. Oh there's an unexpected problem! Panic about it! Come up with something to try ---> works like a charm, problem solved. Promotion! Yes, that was the other thing. She just gets to decide her successor like that? Not even a façade of a search process? We've seen that the board has their hands in things! I couldn't help but wonder if Jacqueline just said yes to Kat about everything because she knew she was on her way out the door, so it didn't matter. There's no way she'd have the budget for an entire new vertical to just bust out like that. Guess she figured that's Jane's problem now. I hate that I even think Jacqueline sucks now. (She'd been too good to be true for years, but now she seems like total fool.)

I can't really remember, especially since some of these characters seem to work a choose-your-own-hours schedule -- I definitely remember some times where they all went drinking during the day and came back to work. And Sutton said she liked the wine so she was going to put it in the work fridge, she certainly wasn't sneaking it, so I just got the impression it's not unheard of to have a glass here and there on the job. But who knows. But most HR departments would probably make her at least have a convo with the EAP rep if she'd been reported. But of course this is this show, where anything goes.

Okay but I'd actually read that one! (Seriously, considering how ubiquitous the theme of self-help books for women are "stop pleasing, start living!" it absolutely makes women feel like they're supposed to be obsessively pleasing and some of us are always wondering what's wrong with us for not having that problem!) I can't handle it. She's only worked there for, what, 2 years max (and as some upthread were saying, maybe even less) but even if we're being generous and saying it was 3 years (soooo long!) IT WASN'T EVEN CONSECUTIVE!! She left! I've never been a fanfic person but mark my words, I'm signing up if someone writes a sequel about how Jane tanks Scarlet the second they put her in charge. He was certainly kind, but that workplace does have a drinking culture, there's pretty much no way HR would allow a firing in this case, that would be lawsuit city. (Of course on this show they'd settle out of court by giving her a corner office and the lease to the building after she gave an impassioned speech on Tik Tok) Sutton. Hilariously I just finished watching and was coming here to write a whole screed and my main mental note was "must complain about all the failing up!!!" and you guys covered it and then some. Honestly the episode felt kind of innocuous (albeit a time-waster with so few episodes left) until the infuriating outcomes for Jane and Kat. I don't trust that it's actually in the script and directing, but the actress playing Addison does seem to still be playing an undercurrent of "this is who I'm stuck with as a mentor?" that I appreciate. So I thank her for that. I might just be wishfully imposing that on her, of course, but I was thinking it wasn't the worst idea to keep the job when she realized how incompetent her direct supervisor is -- because that can be an opening. Or at least is proof positive that she never needs to feel like she's not good enough!