RachelKM

Those kids are delightful. Watching them interact makes me smile.

OMG, THANK YOU! I cannot not see Bjork every time I look at her. I can' almost hear a Sugarcubes track in my head when she appears.

People mostly already expressed most of my thoughts about the episode. I enjoyed the hell out of that. And the scene with Rand at the end was really well acted and well done. But I have to admit, and I'm almost certainly going to hell for this, I couldn't entirely stay with the feeling of devastation because I was just relieved I'd never have to see or hear that kid again. Not that I hoped for a kid to die or anything. And I get how wrenching it was for Rand and how important a story beat it was. But, like, she's gone, right? She won't pop back up in dreams handing out wee little squash or anything, right?

I'm fairly certain she said there was not enough blood present, not just on his wrists. She may have said, "at the wrists." If so, it could be confusing, but I would still understand that to mean there should be a pool of blood at/around the area where his wrists were lying. The fact that there wasn't much blood would tend to indicate he died someplace else, or the cuts were postmortem, or both; all of which, in turn, would make suicide extremely unlikely.

Just started watching this show and came to the board. I will just say, if your opinions are unpopular, I'm pulling up a chair to the unpopular table Alice has been behaving like a lunatic. And if my spouse thought for a second I could kill an animal let alone their beloved pet, I would be GONE. And I don't really mind Birdie and the cop, Joel(?), either. I was giving a little side eye initially, while reserving judgment since I enjoyed them together. But the wife is just so much. And comment about the kid not being his son was a lot. And I can see how it might push him away. And I'm biased because I very much enjoy Birdie and Joel's reaction faces as Birdie identified the very many gardening tools they used in the murder,

Yes to your entire post but especially this. I was down right unnerved. It was really apparent with scene of Mr. Anderson coming right before it. I waited to watch until I could binge. I'm glad I did. Waiting week to week for follow-ups would have driven me nuts.

True. But Alice is 17. Kat is in her 40s and a mom. If it was just the relationship drama, I would find her immature. It's the constant disregard for her daughter (occasionally not considering whether she would ever see Alice again) that I find difficult to sympathize with. Last year, there was a point when Thomas literally had to remind her that she had a life to return to. She had, otherwise, been considering abandoning her life in 2024, Alice included.

Right? Honestly, Kat seems more committed to Susanna than either Elliot or Thomas and is absolutely more focused on her well-being. I had thought Kat was in love with her too, and maybe she is. But at this point, I'm not sure it matters what the nature of Kat's feelings for Susanna are. The relevant issue is that Kat is NOT particularly committed, devoted, or even able to focus for a sustained 30 minutes on Elliot and is barely more attentive to Thomas. This. Last season, Kat's willingness to repeatedly abandon her daughter and to risk potential permanent separation from Alice if the pond decided to be a dick was really wild to me. I had hoped that it was because of her need to bring Jacob home, something rooted in her trauma experienced as a teenager that was making her act like an impulsive, immature idiot and take risks with her life with Alice. But, no. Kat is just a drama junkie and cannot help herself.

The man is literally incapable of being idle for even a minute. LOL.

Yeah, this season, the pond seems wildly accommodating after being such a bossy dick in seasons one and two. Now, it seems to be sending whomever to wherever they're aiming for within a day or two of the intended landing date. The pond allowed Kat to visit Elijah just because she wanted him to know Jacob was okay. And, despite being largely preoccupied with the summer of 1974, allowed Kat and Jacob to go to 1816 because they expressed ... concern for over a dodgy summer that Suzanna opted not to write about. It is theoretically possible that either, the pond and Kat, Alice, and Jacob currently, and coincidently, have near precisely the same goals (unlikely) or that the pond is somewhat more accommodating when you aren't trying to do something it strictly opposes. But it's weird to see. I had the exact same reaction.

Agreed. There is a vast swath of open story terrain between Bury Your Gays and implausibly progressive attitudes. Fellowes has a knee-jerk need to sand down the realities of the times he writes about, particularly when it involves his main characters, and give them improbable (and occasionally inconsistent) progressive or ostensibly egalitarian traits. (See George Russell, the Good Robber Baron.)

I've been hoping for this. I think it should cause a significant rift. George adores his daughter. He might stand back while Berth prevented a match. But i cannot see him being okay with forcing Gladys into a match. I'm not sure he would protect Larry in the same way for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the practical fact that the risks for Larry are much lower. I hope the conflict with Larry and Marian will be less about money, or the disparity of it, and more the Bertha/Agnes friction. But that's because I've been waiting for them to be forced into interactions for two seasons. Since I don't think there we'll be a significant time jump, we'll be a bit early for this. We're still in the early in the Gilded Age for significant media backlash (even among liberal(ish) reporters). How the Other Half Lives was published in 1890 and Jacob Riis started photography as part of his journalism in the late 1880s. This season should be 1884. I do think, should the show get a few more seasons (not necessary another full 6), it would be a good topic. Though, I'm a little apprehensive about how Julian Fellowes would handle it. My trust level is ... low. Yes. This. I don't necessarily trust Julian Fellowes with this either. But I think it would still be good.

I find myself really looking forward to the second season. I can use some fluffy coming of age nonsense to counter the coming bleak future.

Huh, I thought her reaction was reasonable. Del was friendly enough until Colton got on his "people who like disco are all tone deaf" (which isn't what that term means, bro) high horse. Granted, I have a particularly exhausting history with that specific brand of pretentious musician, so I could have been projecting... or maybe I am also an unfriendly bitch (a possibility I do not completely discount). In anycase, she didn't seem all that standoffish. Just a bit reserved. Evelyn's reaction and comments seemed more a combination of being the complete opposite of reserved, and thus finding Del too uptight by contrast, and a hint of jealousy with the way Colton couldn't break his gaze from Del from the moment she arrived. And, we saw Del being a very warm and, if slightly less charismatic then her husband, fairly open person in 1999. So it does appear that the consecutive tragedies made her recede into her reserve and close off with grief. I'm glad Kat apologized to Elliot for shutting him down with "I don't want to have to take care of you too." That was harsh. I actually flinched when she said it. I kind of understand what she was thinking. Elliot would be new to the experience of being in a new era which has to be disorienting even with his experience from the other perspective. And the more time travelers running around the more potential for chaos. Although this show seems to subscribe to the what happened will always happen/paradox premise. So they can't actually cause harm or change anything because if any of them go back, they were always going to go back and the history they know was always based on that. That said, Kat could have told Elliot that she had to go back because her daughter was apparently tossed into the pond unwillingly, but one of them needed to stay. And/or she could have pointed out that it wasn't a good time them to explore time travel together while her daughter was already somewhere someone forcibly sent her. Finally, Elliot cannot catch a fucking break. Not only is Kat kind of a dick who takes him for granted even now that she intermittently acknowledges that she tends to take him for granted, but his father is an absolute bastard. Seem it's just Vic's nature since he was also a little asshole in 1974. Speaking of, how young was he when Elliot was born? Based on their ages in season one, 15/16 in 1999, Kate and Elliot should have been born in 83 or 84, a mere 10 years or less after the summer we just saw. Vic seemed to be about 12 or so there. Did he get married at 20?

Susanna is definitely in love with Kat. And I agree with @MJ Frog that Kat returns those feelings. I don't necessarily think Kat has feelings for EVERYONE, at least not romantic love. But I'm inclined to agree that she feels at least some type of love for Susanna, Thomas, and Elliot (in descending order of chemistry). Honestly, Susanna is the only one she appears to be in love with. (And the music seemed to agree.) Thomas feels more like excitement and lust. And Elliot seems like her safe place. But the way she looks at and expresses herself regarding Susanna seems almost as clear a declaration as Susanna's portrait.