stormy weather

This might be the corniest ending to a TV show I've ever seen. So here are all the questions and observations I have re: this episode (and the entire season) in chronological order (yes I took notes during the episode and yes I'm a little ashamed of it): - the first 10 minutes were devoted to hint (quite heavily) at the fact Helen and Noah were gonna get back together. Yes, we got it like 5 episodes ago, can we please move on. - what are the odds of Colin's parents both missing the flight for completely different reasons? When he said he was from Northern Ireland and his dad had been arrested I thought "here we go with The Troubles" and I was SO thankful they didn't go there, too. - Noah’s speech to Colin about their dysfunctional but always-there-when-needed family was super trite. - why did Helen seem proud of having a daughter like Whitney during the wedding after she had treated her like dirt last episode and in the wedding dress scene? And why does Noah defend her with Martin also? How can they be so blind to the fact their daughter is a monster? I'm glad at least Martin sees her for how she truly is. Being away for the whole season did him good! - seeing Bruce strapped to a chair at the wedding and then jumping in the pool at Whitney's request at the end of the night was just stupid, mean and unnecessary. - so Sierra’s boyfriend from L.A.’s parents live near Montauk and he even applied for a job at The Lobster Roll?! I guess the six degrees of separation everyone in the world is supposed to have are not between them and another random person in the world but between them and Montauk. - the whole flash mob was super clichéd and also how did Whitney know the choreography when she joined at the end? - at the father-daughter dance when Whitney was alone in a corner Helen should've told Martin: "I think you should go and slap your sister" instead of "dance" because it's HER fault if her dad's not here to dance with her and Helen shouldn't feel bad for her. - I still don't get why EJ wants to be with Joanie so bad. She's clearly unhinged and she's insufferable! She even got more mad at him when he revealed that he was Eddie (who, to Joanie, is a complete stranger anyway) than he at her when she revealed she was married! And then they get in the car and just leave, presumably to Vienna, without packing a bag or even locking the house door? - the entire conversation between Noah and Joanie about trauma and his apologetic and forgiving view of Alison was just sad to see. - SOLLOWAY KIDS: Whitney, dad is here, he planned your whole wedding, paid for it and even organized and choreographed the flash mob. WHITNEY: I don't care, I hate him. COLIN: He bought my mother a plane ticket. W: OMG he's the best and I love him let's go get him at the motel. And then they all leave without even thinking about telling Helen (or Colin's mother, whom I assume was the only member of his family at the wedding and was just abandoned there) or wondering where she'd been for the last couple of hours. - who has sex in a motel without closing the curtain?! WHO?! HOW?! WHY?! - Stacey drinks champagne. Stacey is 12. - Joanie gets back home without a backpack or even the burgundy jacket she did have on that empty train that apparently exists only for her. - I'm sorry, maybe I'm an emotional glacier but the last scene of Noah dancing on the cliff was pathetic. Maybe it doesn't help that I hate that song. Also, how can Noah still remember the choreography of the flash mob 25-30 years later? Okay, I'm done. Like someone else already said, I would've preferred to be shown where all the main characters are now, what they've done with their lives, how Helen (and Margaret) died and why Noah decided to stay in Montauk in a sort of "Six Feet Under finale" way. Oh well, it is what it is. I honestly think the thing I'll miss the most about this show is this forum, that never failed to provide interesting discussions, useful insights and lots of laughter, so thank you all for the ride and I hope I'll catch you on some other threads!

Well, it's not like he's winning the game of life by marrying her either. Colin can be annoying sometimes (but remember it's always from Whitney's POV), but can you imagine spending the rest of your existence with "teenage angst" Whitney?! I'm not sure he knows what he's in for.

And with that ominous baseball cap that said "The End"! Come on! I was waiting for something to happen to her since they left the car. Honestly, during that scene I wanted to turn the TV off but I kept watching just because I was hoping with all my being Helen would finally give Whitney the long overdue slap across the face she's been deserving for the past 25 years of her life. Whitney should realize Helen and Noah failed as parents not because of what she accused them of, but because they allow her to throw around accusations and have this kind of fits without, I'm not saying flinging her across the room (because that's what my mom would've done with me if had thrown a tantrum like that at 25 years of age), but even confronting her, arguing back or telling her to calm the fuck down. It's like they're afraid of her or something. Parents are people too, Whitney, they make mistakes and their life doesn't revolve around yours. Also we've seen so little of Martin that, when in the following scene Colin came in with Trevor and Stacey, for a minute I thought it was the prodigal son coming back from the Swiss Alps or wherever he's studying at. I seem to recall they kind of look alike but I might be wrong 'cause who even vaguely remembers what Martin looks like at this point. Another detail that bothered me, apart from the case of the missing handbag, was the timing of this scene at Whitney's. So Helen left Noah on the couch and told him not to go anywhere and then she talked to Whitney for two minutes, went back to the living room, found out Noah had left, kids came in, talked to them for another two minutes, then rushed out to drive to Noah's and found him already passed out drunk on the bed, which means Noah got home like 5 minutes before Helen yet he managed in that time to drink himself to unresponsive comatose sleep. I know I'm nitpicking but not even teenagers can get that wasted in 5 minutes. I hoped Noah's POV would've coincided with Helen's to see how this impossible time-warp unraveled and also because I wanted to see how Noah would react to hearing Whitney speaking to her mom like that. Also a bit stretched was how, after Helen and Noah were asked by the police to pick up people on foot if they had room in the car, Helen found (instead of, I don't know, an uninteresting yet more plausible old man plus dog) a heavily pregnant couple whom quite unbelievably nobody had picked up yet, not even an ambulance, who were exactly at the stage of the relationship (young, about to have first child, bickering) Helen and Noah were just reminiscing about, just so that she could give them (and herself) some precious insight. But I have to admit I was 100% sure the girl was gonna go into labor in the car and it didn't happen, so yay Treem for that. Anyway, I've always said Helen and Noah would get back together at the end of the show and honestly, I'm fine with that. Assuming they're both in their mid 50s, I think forgetting and forgiving the past and admitting to yourself that it's acceptable to grow old in a "companionship" with someone who knows you better than anyone, is the father of your children, is your friend and sure, made some mistakes but genuinely cares about you, is a pretty mature choice.

I'm so sorry, again, I didn't mean to be disrespectful to people who were actually affected by the California wildfires, it's just that I found it ridiculous how they went to great lengths to shove that element in the season as well by adding two totally random scenes (the helicopter and the car) that could've easily been avoided 'cause they have nothing to do with the story!

Well I can't be sure, but I think that when Helen said that, Sasha recognized in Eden the kind of person that would do anything to get ahead, so he thought it wouldn't take much convincing for her to start spreading sexual assault rumors about Noah if she could somehow profit from it. And he was right. If I could like your comment 100 times, I would. This is exactly what drives me nuts about this movement or at least the way it's mostly portrayed, the fact that they often tar everyone with the same brush and it's just not fair to real victims. Might I add to your list of comedy relief moments: Helen's melodramatic gaze at the wildfires through her helicopter (thanks show for reminding us once again how poor and destitute these people are) window and then later on the scene where she and the kids drive through the smoke with those masks on like they were on a roadtrip to a nuclear waste site. I know both scenes were probably meant to be touching but to me they were just hilarious. Also, I said it before and I'll say it again, now that we've also touched on the subject of wildfires, if there's a shooting at Trevor and Stacey's school next week I think Team Treem will have successfully managed to talk about every single topic that was prominently featured in the news these past couple years. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be disrespectful to anyone but it's just ridiculous how they decided to cram all these super serious discussions together in one season of a show that has absolutely NOTHING to do with any of them just because they can't come up with a decent storyline for their characters!

Yes exactly, those kids sucked before he left the family, and I think it's high time everyone stopped blaming Noah for every little thing that they feel went wrong in their life. Sometimes this show seems to forget how privileged and lucky these kids were to begin with, which makes their whining and overreacting even more grating. So what? Daddy left mommy for another woman that he subsequently married? It happens more often than you imagine so get over it. And in most cases the aforementioned daddy doesn't go to jail for 3 years to cover mommy's ass and doesn't bend over backwards to still be present in his children's life and be a good father to them. So hold your tears Whitney, I can assure you there's people in the world who had it much, much worse than you guys. He used what Helen said to denigrate Noah as a sex offender, not a serial cheater, which not only is not true, but, like many others have pointed out, is damaging for the image of the whole #metoo movement, because it puts in the same category women who have really been victims of vicious sexual assaults and women whose professor in college told them they have no talent and should direct their time and energy towards some other activity (which is something which ANYONE who's been to college knows happens on a regular basis and could also be taken as useful advice). And whether Sasha was aware of this or not, Eden jumped on the bandwagon because she wanted publicity and money (just like Audrey with her book), which once again doesn't do any favors to the stereotype of working women and women in general. Adding to that, the fact that Helen lost her job because of the "scandal" surrounding Noah would be absurd IRL. "Man screws up so even though the #metoo movement is all about the exact opposite thing, we'll just punish the woman because HIS actions reflect poorly on her and on our business." Okay, Noah was demeaning to her, but who's to say he hasn't been just as demeaning to a male student who, like Audrey, lacked talent and depth? I'm sorry but whichever way you look at it, this is NOT a story about denigrating women. If anything, it's about a university professor doing his job, which he absolutely should not have lost because of Audrey. This is not kindergarten anymore, where you get a gold star for gluing two sticks together, it's college, and if people are not strong enough to receive some heavy criticism, they are probably not ready for it altogether. To add to the age discrepancy issue someone has already addressed, might I add that in this episode Whitney said Stacey is right now 12, and if the publication of Descent and the book tour that followed took place 10 years ago, that means that when Stacey was 2 Noah was already married to Allison (which he "almost" cheated on with Eden during such book tour), which in turn means that, if we assume that at the time of the book tour Allison and Noah had been together for a couple years, Stacey was 0 years old when she almost choked at the Lobster place in Montauk and Allison saved her life. I seem to recall she was at least 5. Saraaaaaaah!!!! Invest in a whiteboard and keep track of the timeline!

And those are things it would've been very interesting to learn in this 5th and final season of the show instead of spending time with all these new(ish) characters and storylines I honestly couldn't care less about. In any case, if EJ really is Eddie, I understand it would be sort of the writers' way for the story to "come full circle" somehow, but I'll still think it's too random and, in the end, also pretty unnecessary. Okay, if that turns out to be the case, which means that for five seasons we got to know a character only to find out, three episodes from the end of the show, that he was actually a completely different person, that would be one of the most extreme cases of retconning I've ever seen on TV. Because 1. we did get to see Noah through Helen and Allison's POV several times, and sure, he did come across as many bad things, but violent sex predator was never one of them and 2. at that point we'd have to doubt every. single. thing that ever happened on the show. And although I do believe Treem and her team wrote this season during a creative writing workshop for first graders, I think this would be too much of a stretch even for them.

This has been bothering me since episode 1 this season. Why has the relationship between Vik's parents and Eddie never been clarified? I am 100% sure that, if she had been given the chance, Priya would've come round and happily helped out with Eddie. Also, I might be biased about the subject because I've worked with children for many years and I have very little tolerance for negligent parents, but I don't think Helen did a good thing covering up for Sierra with the social worker. That baby is not safe with her. If she really wanted to help, she could've probably talked to the social worker and work out a plan where she (Helen) takes temporary custody of Eddie and makes sure Sierra attends post-partum depression therapy sessions while living with her. I don't know if that's feasible but it would've still been better than leaving Eddie alone with drowsy Sierra and her kitchen utensils. May I say that, 3 episodes from the finale, I am ZERO interested in Noah's #metoo lawsuit? There's not enough time to approach the topic in a decent manner, they are digging up a plethora of characters I can't even remember and I don't care about in the least (Noah's blond friend, his lawyer, the publisher, the publisher's attorney, Eden, Audrey - who is she, btw? -, the Vanity Fair lady...), and we already know none of the things he's accused of happened. And now he has to explain everything to Helen and how the accusations are not true and Helen, who might have been thinking about getting back together with Noah, is gonna think again, but then in the last episode he's going to be proven innocent and the series is going to end with both of them smiling at each other which leaves a glimmer of hope for their future. Booooring! I really do wish they would have spent more time on relationship we already know existed, like Joanie's relationship through the years with the Lockharts, with Noah, with Cole (how did he die? Were he and Joanie close until then?) and with Luisa, or Noah's attempt to rebuild his relationship with Helen, if that's where the show is going to end, Helen's parents and her role in helping out, and so on. I'm also (hardly ever, but still) wondering what happened to Martin, the one that got away. He's just off to school forever somewhere? I think this season he's been mentioned fewer times than Eden (or Audrey).

I agree with you, and also this POV thing made sense when we were shown two (or sometimes even 3) people's POVs on the same event, so that at least you could compare them and try to determine which was "truer" or more plausible. When it's only one person and you can't tell to what extent that POV is reliable, it seems to me it becomes a very convenient tool for retconning events that happened in the past but don't serve the purpose of the plot anymore. E.g. "Yeah okay, time and time again we showed Noah never harassed anyone and he's just not that kind of man BUUUUUT it was only HIS point of view! So now we're free to make him whatever we want to regardless of what we've shown so far because who knows how his actions were perceived by others who are not him!" Like I said, very convenient cover-up for lazy writing. Yeah, about that, it would be interesting to find out why Joanie still calls Luisa mom. Did they keep in touch through the years and saw each other regularly? 'Cause it would be hard to believe someone would call somebody "mom" when 1. they had a real mom who raised them for 2-3 years and co-raised them for another 4, and 2. they haven't lived with or seen that somebody since they were 7. I thought she was because Margaret said something about Helen missing her daughter's wedding, which wouldn't make sense if the wedding wasn't happening that weekend, and the tent was due to arrive the next day or something like that? But everything did feel super rushed and still in the early stages of planning so I might be wrong. I actually think she's so angry and grumpy and whiny about everything because sure, first and foremost she's always and forever an entitled little brat, but also because in reality she's deeply unsure about this wedding herself, so she's throwing all those fits to hide her insecurity about the whole ordeal. Which is, once again, very mature, Whitney.

I don't entirely agree with people saying Whitney has changed. She only got older, so she's not the prototype of the whiny, spoiled rotten teenager she was before, but in my opinion deep down she's still a pretty insufferable brat. When Margaret said they couldn't afford a 20K tent and Noah was uncomfortable because obviously he couldn't either, what kind of adult person would act like Whitney and run to their room in tears like that?! Yet, at the bridal shop (by the way, there is NO WAY saleswomen at such a high end bridal shop would EVER say the word "fucking" or behave like that, ever) she makes a scene because 17K for a dress is too much. So which one is it, Whitney? The writing is so inconsistent on this show it drives me up the walls. Also, wear a seatbelt maybe? Especially since you're riding with a maniac, grandma said. To conclude the Noah section, yes. They're going there. Women who falsely accuse men of sexual misconduct and they use the #metoo movement as a weapon. What a fantastic message to send. Who had this great idea? They honestly couldn't come up with any better story for Noah than unearthing a completely forgotten character who had like two lines of dialogues 4 years ago and have her start this ridiculous plotline when there's 4 episodes left in the series? Come on! In the same category of "stuff viewers already know happened (Ben killing Allison) or didn't happen (Noah coercing Eden into having sex with him) but let's show them anyway because we have nothing else to write about", Joanie and Ben. That whole part seemed written by a 5-year old. So we're meant to believe Ben had been planning this for years? And that Joanie signed papers offered to her by her mother's killer without reading them first? And that she willingly decided to do this sort of hypnosis-like therapy where she could've said things that would've revealed her true identity? And that she knew or "guessed it right" all the details of her mother's last night with Ben (the apartment, the rain, Ben coming for dinner, the fact that he told Allison he was married)? How would that be possible? Well at least they didn't have sex when he started choking her on the floor, so I guess we should be thankful for that.

Which, as everyone knows, makes for some great TV! Because who doesn't love watching characters on a show try to solve a murder mystery you already know the answer to? I mean, I would actually prefer it if we found out Alison really killed herself, because I remember finding it pretty odd that Ben, who had never displayed any behavior that could indicate PTSD and who seemed overall a pretty chill guy, would turn that violent against her in a matter of seconds. But I, too, recall Treem saying in different interviews that Alison was killed by Ben, so I guess that's what Joanie is going to find out. Soooo exciting.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that, it really bothered me too. If you can't find two child actors who look Senegalese (and I wonder how that's possible), why do you still have to say they're from Senegal like it's somehow relevant for the plot? Just say you adopted them, full stop! It doesn't matter where from! Also, thanks to the flashback scenes, I was reminded of the other child actor casting disaster that was 7-year-old Joanie. She looked more like Luisa than anyone else. I know this is minor stuff, but it really annoys me 'cause I don't think it would be that hard for casting directors to find more fitting actors for the role. I mean, that's practically their whole job.

Wow, this episode was SO boring. The writing was terrible, we didn't learn anything new and there were so many things that just didn't make sense! Here's a few, some of them I left out because they have already been mentioned: - so, Alison died in 2021 and it's now 2050. I can't believe NONE of the police records were digitalized and instead they were just lying there in piles of rotting and moldy paper in a basement among orange fungi like they had been written in 1874. It's been 30 years, not 150! Which leads us to the next point, - when exactly was Montauk abandoned? From the state of decay of roads, buildings and the fact that not a soul lives there (ScoobieDoobs is right, it did seem like Joanie and EJ were the last people on Earth!), one would think it's been at least 70-80 years. Yet, Cole still lived there (alone? Were there other inhabitants?) until not long ago and his house still has electricity! And EJ can still get gas somewhere! - And now about EJ: the "chance encounter" at the cemetery was ridiculous, the fact Joanie got to the cemetery on the bike but couldn't leave on the same bike because the wheels that were fine 10 minutes ago were now both flat was ridiculous, Joanie accepting a ride from him was ridiculous, him hitting on her after 5 minutes and banging her after 5 hours was ridiculous and so on. At this point I swear I wouldn't be surprised if EJ turned out to be Gabriel. You heard it here first! - so who told Joanie the story she tells EJ at the end of the episode? Who did she get her facts from? Luisa? Cole? Noah? Cole's mom? If Cole raised her, what did he say? Does she even remember Noah? Where is he now? Are they still in touch? Because I'd rather see that conversation than a strawberry garden planted in cotton balls being ripped out so that Treem can have an excuse to sneak a couple words in about open relationships and the end of the world.

Actually, I thought that during that moment of hesitation Sierra had when she was standing outside the audition place and saw Eddie asleep in car, she was contemplating whether to bring him in anyway even though he might wake up or forget about the audition and take him home since for once he was resting so peacefully. I am obviously too pure and innocent for this show.

I think the variable that makes you so different from Helen is that you loved this person, while I'm not sure Helen ever really loved Vik. I for sure couldn't start a proper relationship with another guy what, 3 months after my beloved partner died? (I'm saying 3 months because Eddie was born the day Vik died and we know he's 4 months old, and I'm assuming Helen and Sasha have been seeing each other for a month, but I might be wrong about that), but maybe someone else can, perhaps as a coping mechanism (which I don't think is Helen's case). Also, Priya obviously represents the stereotype of the obnoxious mother-in-law, but Helen keeps forgetting that she just lost her only son, whom she loved and adored more than Helen ever did, so maybe she should cut her some slack. And I'm not saying by wearing the white mourning sari or pretending she had a baby at 54, but maybe by explaining nicely why she can't do either of these things instead of leaving her hanging on the telephone for 30 seconds waiting for an answer while she makes out with her new BF like a teenager. I thought that was super petty and heartless of her.

At this point I feel personally insulted by the writers of this show because I can't believe they thought we were going to find ANY of the things that happened on this episode (read: season) even remotely plausible. A few examples: 1. Sierra leaving her baby locked inside a car (out in the sun, in the middle of the day, in California) while she auditions because "mommy really needs to get this job for both of us" instead of, I don't know, selling her house or her SUV? Asking her mom to help her out with money? Asking Priya/Helen if Eddie is set to receive any inheritance money from Vik? Renting out a couple rooms on AirBnB and maybe getting a live-in nanny? 2. Sierra going to the after party and banging the director for absolutely NO reason knowing she left her 4-months-old baby in the care of a 12-year-old for an entire day. WHY THO. 3. Sierra crashing her car into a garbage truck with said baby on it because she is "oh-so-exhausted". I mean, are we supposed to feel sorry for her? Anyway, someone should take Eddie away from Sierra or she should get some help because he is not safe with her. But hey, this week on Sarah Treem's "List of PSAs formerly known as The Affair": Post-partum Depression! 4. Helen not laughing in Priya's face when she asked her to pose as the mother of a newborn baby even though Maura Tierney is 54 (in life and, I presume, also on the show). 5. Helen not even questioning the fact she found "the" bra in the fridge and Sasha explaining he "threw that in there because he didn't know what to do with it". What?! I mean, is this a thing people normally do? And we didn't even get to see his point of view on that scene, which actually would have been interesting because the way it happened in Helen's POV was so completely random, stupid and out of context it didn't make any sense.

Yours and mine both, because although I called "first period" on Stacey (but only 'cause she's like 11), I was 100% sure Whitney was going to find out she was pregnant, judging by the amount of huffing and puffing and sweating and almost passing out after lifting one painting at the gallery. Okay there was no A/C but it was still a tad too much. Well, while I am SO, SO glad she isn't, I must say this could've been a great opportunity for Sarah Treem to add "anchor babies" to my aforementioned list of "issues this show is dealing with for no reason". Also, if my dad had waited outside the bathroom the day I got my first period it would've been so creepy I would've probably called social services on him myself. Helicopter parenting has ruined everything.

Like I wrote on this forum last week, the only two items missing from the "list of current topics of interest" this show seems so keen on compiling were the Me Too movement and gun violence. This week, thanks to the scene you mentioned, we got Me Too. Only one to go, guys. I repeat, I don't enjoy being ironic about these things at all, but honestly it's getting ridiculous. Noah is being treated like proper shite by Sasha and Helen and I admit I kind of felt bad for him because even though planting the sex toys was a very dumb idea and he did leave that poor groupie half naked in the tool shed, I would react waaaay worse if I found out my ex-wife's new bf is going around telling my own kids I'm a loser, has banned me from the set of the film he's shooting thanks to me and is also sharing writing credits for a book I spent 10 years of my life writing. In the Joanie segment, apart from the fact that she inexplicably threw out all the pictures and Gabriel's chest (does she even know about Gabriel?), we also learned that she can fix solar panels and that tires on bicycles that haven't been used in 30 years can still be fully inflated, which are both very interesting things. To conclude, I hope Helen gets more money so they can send Trevor to a boarding school in Switzerland and we never have to see him again.

"Hey guys, so there's only 5 people left in the competition, 3 of you are going to be up for elimination and we've already said Dani's and Jake's were the best tattoos of the bunch, but we're still going to have a jury of peers decide which one of the remaining three is going to be in the bottom with the other two because drama>math". Well I guess they just wanted to show us how Laura turned her back on Jason once more even though she really didn't need to. Who else did she think she could possibly be up against if not Pon and Jason? Dave Navarro? Other than that, Pon's elimination was expected but also fair. Dani's tattoo was stunning. I really hope she wins 'cause she's not only the best artist but also the best person on the show.

More than that, whatever other topic on Earth is it going to approach this season? So far we've had climate change, A.I., Black Lives Matter, LBGQT, Alzheimer and cancer, and we're only 3 episodes in! In the Joanie segment I was honestly afraid the sex scene was going to turn into a #metoo moment, because then the only thing missing would be gun violence and this show could be moved to CNN and become a news segment. I'm sorry if I'm being too cynical, but these are all very important themes and I don't see the point in cramming them all together like that in a show that has absolutely nothing to do with any of them. It feels so forced and useless and it's a shame to see such serious topics used as a time filler.

I've said before that this show is a trainwreck and after this episode I'm even more convinced. I honestly don't understand where this thing is going. I remember in the early seasons the characters' POVs were slightly different versions of basically the same events (a dress in a different color, a different choice of words for the same line with more or less the same meaning, or maybe a different tone in the dialogues etc.) but this episode Noah's and Helen's POVs were so drastically different it seemed like watching two separate stories. Are we still meant to believe they want to show us how different people experience the same event in a different way? Because it's become impossible to even tell which one of the two versions is closer to the truth (if either of them is, anyway). Why is Helen still living at Vic's place with the invisible Stacey, the insufferable Trevor and his +1 and the virtual stranger next door who just had her dead partner's baby? Has it ever been explained? Is Vic's mom okay with it? Doesn't seem like she would be. And why is Vic's mom not at all involved in the life of the only grandchild she'll ever have? That also seems a bit strange. And most of all, why does everyone have to have sex with whomever they come in contact with after 5 minutes? Is this how it works where the writers live? At this point every time two adult characters of the opposite sex (or not) are in the same room and speak two words to each other I just assume they'll hook up in the next scene (Janelle and her ex-husband, Helen and Sacha, Joanie and the bartender and Noah and the journalist - just wait for it.) It's like the writers don't know what else to do with them. I agree 100%, and I know shooting the actual scenes would be difficult, given that the two main actors there have left the show, but she could at least talk to somebody, like Cole's mom or any of the other members of the Lockhart clan, so that we all can find out what happened to the lot of them. It would for sure be more interesting than finding out that in 25 years we'll be able to look at pictures on a foldable piece of cellophane.

I couldn't agree more. I said last week that Janelle was my favorite character and she still is, but honestly this episode was like "white writers feel the need to touch on topic of racism so they introduce token black character who has zero meaning plot-wise (it also looks like she and Noah broke up so I'm curious to see how they're going to keep her in the show if she has no more ties with any of the main characters) just so they can get the chance to show us how bad things are for black people for a hot minute before carrying on with the rest of the gang". I really hate it when writers do that to black characters and I personally think this kind of attitude is just another, maybe more subtle, side of the same racism they're trying so hard to denounce. The rest of the show bordered between the repetitive (Solloway kids are still insufferable spoiled little brats, Helen is still dazed and confused, Noah is still a jerk) and the utterly far-fetched (Helen being hit on by mega Hollywood star who, as I'm sure it happens IRL, chats up random strangers at the catering table, bullet trains travelling directly to derelict, abandoned towns etc, etc). The only believable scene of the episode for me was Helen falling asleep at Trevor's musical. But then again, I'm not exactly a fan of teenage productions in general so that's probably why I empathized so much.

I agree, and honestly that's also the way it should be. In today's flash challenge, which I shamelessly admit I watched through a thick and persistent veil of tears, Laura and Jason were the only two artists who proved they can actually draw. As a matter of fact I was quite shocked at how bad some of the other drawings were. When they announced Pon as the winner I was speechless. A first grader could draw better than that. I like Pon as a person, but based on his tattoos throughout the show, I think he deserved to go home more than Cam, whose tattoo didn't actually look that bad to me. I also liked Jason's tattoo. Sure, the outline at the top was wobbly, but he said it was because the canvas moved or stretched too much and I believe him, 'cause so far he's never had that kind of problem. If they had sent him home it would've been a big mistake.

It still makes me wonder why they would still pursue that storyline when the viewers already know Ben Cruz killed her (as crazy and contrived that was, because it really felt like one day the writers' room went like "- Hey, btw, Rachel Wilson wants out and we have one last episode to write, whatever shall we do with her? - Listen, I don't know, let's just have this guy she just met and who never showed any hint of having PTSD so far randomly kill her and dispose of her body. - Oh yeah, that's cool.) I mean, I don't want to watch a completely new and utterly uninteresting character steal screen time from the regulars to investigate a crime that's not even a mystery for me anymore. Whyyyy though? Who cares?! I also thought suicide would be a more fitting way to end things for her character, but given what we've seen in the finale (and was shown to us again in this episode's "previously on"), plus what both Ruth Wilson and the writers have said after last season aired, it seems like it's pretty established that Ben killed her. Finally, I just wanted to say that 1. my favorite character of the episode was Janelle and although I would hope to see more of her, at the same time I'm thinking "Janelle for the sake of all that's good and holy, get the F out of there, girl. These arrogant pricks don't deserve you." and 2. Maura Tierney truly did a fantastic job in her scenes. I have loved her since her E.R. days and she might be is the only reason why I still watch this trainwreck of a show.

This is what bothered me about this whole season. Since Day 1, when we found out the teams were gonna be men against women, it was blatantly obvious that the judging was going to be based mainly (if not exclusively) on trying to balance the wins and losses of every team in order to get to the end with a pretty even number of people on each team, instead of judging the actual tattoos. That, paired with the fact that the rules for judging on this show are not exactly set in stone and judges can apparently bend them to their liking whichever way they want so that they can keep their favorites means that more than once on the season the wrong people were eliminated (like in this episode, where I would've happily sent home either Cam or Pon, because his sacred heart tattoo was really bad and misshapen). I totally agree with aussieinsydney, blind judging would for sure be more fair to the participants. Actually it would also be interesting to have an episode where the participants blind judge each other's tattoos. Maybe they'll do it someday, it would be quite refreshing.