Latverian Diplomat

I guess this puts Ryo in a pretty strong negotiating position to get the blink drive. I'm not sure why five was the one to peel off by herself? Unless they thought that was really easy to get to the Emperor as opposed to getting to Ryo? Or were they just trying to be unpredictable?

Hey, Sully did a pretty good job. And Peter Scolari was a great sport.

I don't remember if it was mentioned whether the old imprints would integrate with their current personalities, or displace them. If Ryo can't be sure his new self will be in the mix, that's a reason to hesitate.

Clearly "who planted the virus" wasn't what the writers were interested in. I suspect the idea came first and then they brainstormed "who could have done it" after, and AU!Truffaut was the only one who had lengthy access to the right systems. Her motive, an insurance policy to make sure they didn't get "away with it" still works OK for me though. Personally, though, I would have been fine if the virus had just been Red getting out of hand. "You programmed me to warn you if you were defective, but you won't listen. Maybe killing some of the crew will be a 'warning' you will listen to? Maybe being destroyed is a 'warning' you will listen to?" When it comes to programming AIs, you have to be careful what you ask for.

I guess I disagree about Ainsley? I think we are supposed to like her and see her as a model of what "smart conservatism" should be? In that sense, she's such an artificial construct I didn't like her at all. The "liberals are just bigots against Southerners" thing she liked to say wore out it's welcome real fast, IMHO. I should confess her arrival was about the time I set the show aside and never got back to though, so what do I know?

Good stuff. But no advice for Ten Forward? Or does Synthehol not qualify for liquor week? :-)

PG is expensive, and I have the impression they always promise "you will recoup some of the cost from the movie that gets made". My evidence for this is the fact that each subsequent series has started with a presumably more marketable starting point than the last. "We'll make a horror movie." "We'll make this comedy script supplied by Peter Farrelly." Even so, in these last two cases, they couldn't keep themselves from choosing a "creative," stubborn weirdo who made an unmarketable film, I can't help but think the respective networks felt there had been a broken promise there. Now, if the show were a huge success on its own, it might not matter, but there weren't huge ratings. I don't think Netflix in interested in producing terrible movies either. so that's going to be a very interesting negotiation. The Chair had a similar problem, unfortunately. I think the expectations for the films were modest but Zachary Quinto brought in financing by promising it would be good publicity for Pittsburgh and then Shane Dawson farted on all his dreams.

On land there's a "We're standing in a minefield" trope, which works because there's no easy way to back out, no one was paying attention. But with the sonar, they could see where all the mines were, so if there was a safe path in, they should be able to find it. Maybe the ship got "lucky" but the path back put them too close to mines for a safety margin, even though they passed closer than that on the way in? I guess you wouldn't count on that sort of luck twice. So, a bunch of pirates have the resources to invent and deploy a whole new mobile mine technology, but they only have one torpedo? Humanizing the Pirate Captain with a sick, pregnant wife didn't do much for me. Clearly the reporter is supposed to be a villain, and the actor does a good job of making him seem extra-dickish, but he is doing the job reporters are supposed to do, so I'm a little uncomfortable with how the show wants us to see him. On the other hand, I don't see why the American people would be on the edge of rioting because every detail of a hostage rescue mission on the other side of the planet isn't being released to the public. Even in the post-virus world, I would think a crisis like this would create unity, not disunity, at least in the short term. They had to have that one diver get killed by disobeying orders, instead of just being on a dangerous mission. It could have blown when he first tried cutting the chain, for example. Sometimes people die even though they didn't screw up.

Yeah, I thought along much the same lines. Alternating wake ups of two different folks would have been cool BTW. And if his opposite number was suddenly just not there, disappearance never explained, that would have been a genuinely disturbing development for CJ. It's actually really hard to play yourself in chess. By the end, he was mentally playing his dead(?) wife? But that kind of implies he was maybe picturing her there the whole time, in some sense? I guess he really was Pilcher's idea of the stable, reliable one.

Somebody put up a flyer for a party, said there'd be ladies there, you know what happens then.

Clearly, the soil was polluted by sadness when they drove the Abbies out. More of that top notch WP psychological profiling. Not sure why you'd use small cages with such wide gaps and keypad locks. Too small for large animals like pigs, gaps too large for small animals, and a keypad in easy reach from inside is useless for holding anything with more intelligence than Jason. "Things are bad. Time to evolve bad skin and fast reflexes." -- Humanity, circa 2500 CE ?

FWIW, they did call Mike Mr. O Negative, which is the universal donor blood type. but it's still a lot of hand waving. Also his first transfusion was incidental (he was shot) but he got blood from someone who got the injection cure? Relatively few people got the injection version, and all of those were in the US. How did that happen. As for the sonar, IIRC last year they were pretty good about not using active sonar (it gives away your position, not a good thing to do if you are worried about subs). Also not sure why sonar would set off some mines, unless it was the iron principle of "this will look dramatic on TV". Yes, it seems like a tampered with cure is the most likely explanation. Not sure why Japan's cure got delivered via China, especially since Japan is a longstanding US ally and big enough to get its own shipments.

One did say "I'm ready" before answering the door. So it's maybe a hint that he's psyching himself up for acting out an elaborate fakeout (possibly one he hired Corso to help with)? It's also possible they decided "billionaire fugitive" was not very workable, especially since they already have one guy who is a "royal fugitive".

I don't think so. I think she was just supposed to be an extreme badass. I've been wrong before, of course. It think it was 2 that was holding back. She seemed to just want the fight to end with no one really hurt. I don't think she was trying to bring Nyx down with extreme violence. 2 is worried about the authorities figuring out her secret.

If you're building a post-apocalypse genetic ark, you go with the corporate sponsors you can get. Clearly, Pilcher got sweet deals with the ice cream people and the ammo people, but Big Pharma, not so much. :-) So in addition to evolving, in record time, the teeth, claws, and strength to become apex predators, the Abbies also have better brains (and telepathy?) and can live comfortably in the great outdoors without melanin or fur. But, they never figured out fire (or bathing, apparently? they always look dirty outside the lab). If this turns into some "they've evolved beyond technology" paleo-romanticism bullshit, ugh. Even highly evolved beings like dentistry, medicine, and flush toilets.

IIRC Candyland, there was one card that got you to the end, ice cream bar, I think(?), and everybody wanted to draw that one In the WP Candyland, the equivalent is the "premature ejaculation" step. It's greeted less enthusiastically.

My understanding is that with the airborne cure, they were able to spread it very rapidly, so they've already done that in North America, now they are sharing it with the rest of the world. My theory is that the airborne cure doesn't work with the new strain? But they know the NJ crew got the original treatment as well, and they are hoping that can be extracted from the prisoner's blood for a select few in Asia. Just a wild guess.

I think a lot of the deaths were casting driven. On IMDB it looks like Tania Raymonde is pretty busy, maybe she couldn't do a full season? Anyway, I think the "noise" mystery will play out over a few more episodes.

I don't know that we were supposed to come away from this liking Healey better, or whatever, just understand what makes him tick. And also see that a lot of his issues have been there for a long time. They certainly don'r shy from showing him in an unflattering light, the way he was pressuring his social work client was also super creepy, for another example. Sophia's attempts to vandalize and protest her way out of solitary are going to backfire spectacularly. Starting a fire was in particular, really dumb.

If they were going to do vampires, it seems like a reimagining of Edward as a creepy predator who gets staked by Bella's mom would have been a better way to go. That would have integrated the themes of the original with some actual satire and commentary on the romanticizing of creepy, obsessive boyfriends in pop culture.

"A dome? Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? It would have made things so much easier." -- David Pilcher

As far as we know, the entire WP industrial base used to consist of a guy who made old-timey wooden toys, until they executed him.

Usually the important question is, "how's his Clark Kent?" But Supergirl can, and possibly wants to avoid that question. It depends on how and how much they use the character.

Maybe it's the performance, or something in the writing, but I find Kent a bit creepy, and his amateur diagnosis sleuthing is intrusive. Why not leave Maura's treatment to experts (surely she can get the best of care) and just be quietly supportive?

Oh really, what else was "in your head"? :-)