gesundheit

Just finished up the season last night. Terrible conclusion to the season's murder mystery. One would think AJ and the other kid wouldn't be so concerned about Kyle's memory. If Kyle got his memory back, he'd remember that the two of them witnessed him going on a psychopathic murder spree of four unarmed people (including two innocent children) and, instead of reporting him to the police, actually swapped out the guns in a manner that helped cover up the crime and planned to keep permanently quiet about it. He'd get away with it forever, thanks to their actions. So I was a little baffled by that. I also didn't like the way the show seemed to position those other non-murdering boys as the villains and Kyle as some sort of victim. They were little shits, but they weren't murdering any of their siblings at least. One point for them! Also, "IT'S BECAUSE HE'S REALLY MY SON!!!" Wow. It was like a really long L&O: Criminal Intent episode. It's also odd to me that the show seemed to be asking us to feel compassion for Seward being executed for a crime he didn't commit, but to shrug off Mills being executed for, what, 27 crimes he didn't commit? We know Mills was a violent criminal nonetheless, but so was Seward (by his own admission). It's not okay in either case. I was never once rooting for Linden/Holder to get together, but I was actually far more charmed by the idea once they played out that ending. (Overwrought ending, yes, but it still got me. Love those two.) I kept wishing Linden would be a little nicer to Reddick. I don't think he would have been entirely unsympathetic to the situation if he hadn't hated her so much. Ultimately the finale made me glad only because it had a good share of callbacks to Season 3, which I found to be its best by about a million country miles.

I thought the guidance the therapist gave Callie about needing to learn to trust herself again was lovely, but boy was that a misstep to have her tell Callie there had been signs about Liam. Not good counseling! Talk about making a kid feel like her own rape was partly her fault for not paying enough attention. Yikes. Jesus's tattoo. That's a massive infection waiting to happen. It was blood red! More than ever it's clear Callie needs a family more than a teen romance and yet they just won't quit. Teri Polo and her toolbelt. I'm still drooling. She was also hilarious about the whole burial thing. I mean it was completely inappropriate but it cracked me up.

Trope-corn indeed! "Start a life with you???" An hour before he was annoyed at Carter and they've never dated, but then a very sexually experienced drug-dealer/car-thief teenage boy has sex with a girl one time and decides he wants to spend his life with her? Yikes. I'm also in agreement with story on the bit about "that boy" never having had anyone believe in him. Carter says this about someone she just has sex with? Shudder.

Oh, definitely. I guess I could even see Elizabeth saying that she's just generally grateful that Carter was taken care of. But "grateful to Lori?" No. Yikes.

So what are we really building to here? Elizabeth finally "learning compassion" from Carter and telling Lori she's super-sorry she judged her? I mean seriously, she's grateful to Lori? And we're supposed to see this as a good thing? I look forward to Elizabeth thanking Lori for teaching her a lesson by kidnapping her child. And then releasing every criminal she's ever put away because Carter thinks she should just be nicer to people. We really shouldn't even have cops, it's so judgmental! How dare we have law enforcement! People have hard lives! Max continues to be the best thing about the show. "I'm completely.... dictory." "I used to think you were cool, too." (Probably neither quote is verbatim but I'm sure everyone remembers what I'm referring to!) The Bird/Carter/Crash sequence made absolutely no sense at all. Also, Crash sure proved himself to be on the straight-and-narrow by thirty minutes after being let off the hook just chilling out and giving some space and getaway time to a fugitive felon.

A kissing game at a high school party by DEFINITION means you're going to kiss more than one person. Sure, they rigged the game toward Taylor but I hardly think that was wild behavior on her part. Heck, she's a late bloomer so it was probably all a bit pent-up! I have no problem with that, I thought it was cute.

1. Max is amazing. Alex Saxon's delivery of the "here's what I'll say to your 'mother'" speech and in particular the "I'll polish it a bit" moment after was PERFECT. 2. So... let me get this straight. Carter's point is that Elizabeth should not pursue criminals because you cannot have compassion and also actually pursue fugitive felons? We should just go on ahead and let everyone get away with everything because they probably had a good reason? 3. Please tell me Elizabeth backing down from pursuit of Lori just means she backs down. The FBI is still on the hunt, right? They weren't suggesting otherwise, right? 4. Max is amazing. 5. Max is amazing.

Sarah's write-up of this episode is exactly how I feel. Carter's denial can make sense, but everybody's lack of interest in the kidnapping (not to mention all the many years since) is utter nonsense. And there's a bestseller anybody can read about it! But nobody has? And I'm agreeing with everyone above about the bizarre drama between Carter and Bird. I have no idea what the point was, why anyone was so mad, why anyone reacted the way they did, and why they made up. No idea. Max, however, is wonderful. He's dumb but more guileless-dumb-so-sometimes-it's-wise than just plain stupid. I wish he'd turned Lori in, but of course he's a confused kid. Maybe next week?

I think a 16-year-old is typically developed enough for this to throw her for a loop, but instead she hasn't skipped a beat. So Lori is actually a kidnapper and lied to her her entire life and everything she knew was a lie? No matter! Lori was still cooler. So her birth mom is just the WORST! I just don't buy that, unless they're suggesting that Carter's got some sort of serious psychological disorder resulting from all this. She has no sense of empathy and no curiosity. This should be a major paradigm shift, and they're just treating it like it's a new place to live. It's unreal to me that she's not even curious enough to ask questions. Or read her father's book! She just shrugs it all off. Stockholm Syndrome can of course be very real, but even with that, there are questions. She has none. It's not as if she was hidden from society -- she has enough of a moral compass to know what a serious crime and act of cruelty it is to kidnap someone's child. But she's just shrugged it off and literally can't fathom why Elizabeth wants to send Lori to prison. She doesn't have to like it -- but she seems to not even comprehend it.

I think for me the biggest issue is that Carter is rebelling against Elizabeth like a normal teenager would. She's not a normal teenager, these are not normal circumstances, and she literally just met her. They talk to each other as if they've had a contentious mother/daughter relationship for years, when actually they're strangers. People tread more lightly around strangers even in unusual circumstances like these. I guess it just feels like we skipped a lot? I'm not sure what the time jump was between this episode and the previous one, but the first two episodes only spanned about two days and Carter was already being "comfortable, entitled, belligerent teen daughter" to Elizabeth. The day she "met" her. Where is the awkwardness, the discomfort? The curiosity?

Nice write-up. I do find the little brother to be one thing that convinces me something smarter is at play here for the long-haul than what we're currently seeing. Carter herself got WAY less sympathetic in this most recent episode. She was frustrating in the first two but I at least felt for how complicated it must be, but she's just mean and thoughtless.

I just don't see a mailman (former cop or no) getting a bravery citation for laying in wait to kill a man, however evil and dangerous that man was. Especially when he intentionally kept his knowledge of said dangerous man's whereabouts from the police. Especially when the FBI was involved. His actions aren't just some small thing in a tiny town that nobody else would hear about. I can easily see him getting off with no charges with a decent attorney. Just not a bravery citation 14 days later.

I'm with you there. Not satisfying at all to me. Also, Gus can't stand the idea of Greta going to another funeral so he forbids his wife to do her job and instead runs off on his own with no backup to kill a dangerous man, risking his own life ten-fold?? And no way would he get a bravery citation. He was a mailman doing vigilante justice who neglected to report what he knew to be true, which could have saved lives (including his own -- the result was pure luck). I think in this case it's okay, since it's actually standard business for hitmen to do exactly that. It protects them from their customers. I felt terrible for Molly. She didn't look at all pleased with the news of Lester's demise. She definitely wanted him punished, he got off way too easy. I hope they do another season and that Molly's still around. And also that they have other female characters who aren't just victims-of-the-week.