tpel

Okay, so I'm totally in love with Pike now. There were things about the episode that were annoying: I was willing to hand-wave the time crystals in the Mudd episode, because it was kind of a humorous episode. But now, yeah, I want a better explanation. And Michael wanting to go after Leland because (1) his carelessness 20 years ago contributed to her parents' "death", and (2) he is control's puppet? These two things are incompatible. The guy who is culpable in the parents' fates is likely dead, and he is not culpable for Control's actions using his body. Back to Pike ❤️ He saw that he has a truly awful future in store for him. We knew it all along; now he knows too. But now, instead of just bad luck or the result of a knee-jerk impulse to help the cadets, his sacrifice is a considered decision. He was absolutely horrified by his future, but freely chose to lock it in. There may be examples of greater nobility and strength of character in Star Trek, but I can't think of any at the moment. Anson Mount was amazing. His freak-out in the cave and then talking himself through his decision for moral reasons was superb. And his scene later with L'Rel and Tyler, where he is trying to explain things to them but is clearly still deeply traumatized . . . wow!

At first I was annoyed that they were treating Nolan like a "suspect" over an obviously clean shoot. But then it became clear that we were seeing his perceptions, colored by guilt. The other characters were actually very nice to him. So I enjoyed the examination of Nolan's character, and thought that Fillion nailed the trauma reaction. But, of course, the writers couldn't leave it at that; they had to jump over the plausibility line and have the dead guy's brother break into Nolan's apartment. Sigh. I liked it that Bradford apologized to the Captain after barging into her office. But putting him on the "rescue" team has to be the worst idea ever.

He's going to be Captain Pike on Star Trek Discovery soon :-)

I like the friendship between Bishop, Lopez, and Bradford. But mostly we've seen Bishop and Lopez looking out for Bradford -- picking him up at the hospital, playing along with the round-up contest, comforting him at the end of this episode. That's sweet, but I hope we see him reciprocate a bit more. Given his personality, it makes sense that a lot of his support for them would not necessarily be out in the open, and it might consist in not doing things as much as doing things (e.g., not ratting Lopez out for covering up West's gunfire issues). So it is fine if it is not quite equal. I just don't want their relationship to be all about the women helping him deal with man-pain. Yeah, her just showing up was kind of weird. But, though at first we were meant to think Bradford took the heroin, apparently he did not. That is, I don't think he removed it from the apartment, left, and then brought it back. Rather, he took it out of its hiding place, but then changed his mind and put it back, before leaving the apartment.

This! It didn't occur to me until you mentioned it, but there is a strong resemblance. The coloring is different, but around the eyes and mouth there is definitely something there. No wonder I think Bradford is kind of hot :-) I'm not sure how literally we were supposed to take Hawke's remarks that his wife's boyfriend was naked and wearing Hawke's slippers. But in Hawke's mind, he was trespassing into Hawke's domestic role, and Hawke responded violently. I didn't care much for this episode. Hawke, while fairly well-acted, seemed cartoonish to me. And the episode emphasized the timeline/pacing problems of the series: everything is happening too fast. The story would hit the emotional notes it wanted better if Hawke was someone Nolan knew well, several years ago. But Nolan has only been on the job for a little over a month, and the LAPD police academy is only 6 months long. So the entirety of Nolan's relationship with Hawke has taken place within the last year. I did enjoy the interactions between Bradford and Chen. He seems to have progressed beyond merely torturing her to actually teaching her -- though if that teaching involves gross stuff, all the better! And she is striking back, not because she hates him, but because she is starting to see him as a colleague rather than simply her demon-taskmaster. I think these two have better chemistry than Chen had with Nolan, but don't want to see them romantically paired. If dating a fellow rookie is bad for Chen's career, dating a T.O. would be worse. And his romantic life is "complicated", to put it mildly.

I understood Bradford being angry at Lopez for not giving him a heads-up about West freezing under fire. But I'm not sure I get why everybody seems to think this will lead to an instant dismissal. The first time, his panic left his T.O. in danger; the second time that was less of an issue. Wouldn't the higher-ups expect that there would be some learning curve here, as people learn to tamp down their normal reaction to gunfire? I agree that Nolan fussing about the training book was silly. My favorite line from the episode was when Bradford said, straight out, that he would only be happy when he broke West's spirit. HODOR!!!!!

I like Bishop a lot. She and Nolan are moving from a T.O./Boot dynamic toward a genuine partnership a little quickly, perhaps, but their interactions feel natural, with a good companionable vibe. She's his superior, but she doesn't lord it over him more than is necessary, and they both listen to each other. I like the emphasis on Nolan's positive view of humanity, as that is something that could carry the series a bit, once he is no longer a rookie. Also, Nolan's more chill attitude toward having a plan B makes sense. He's not a kid. He knows stuff happens in life and you roll with it. That doesn't mean you are any less committed to the job at hand. "If this doesn't work out, I'll try Beauty School" :-) I find the scenes with Bradford to be the most gripping, yet also frustrating. This story arc would be so much more meaningful if it happened later in the season, when we know more of what his baseline is. In the first couple of episodes, he was shown to be a bit of a wild card, so it is hard to see what is truly out of character, due to stress. I liked that Chen was able to deal with him somewhat, but there seemed to be a bit of a failure of problem solving between her and Nolan. They acted like her options were narc on Bradford to his superiors, do nothing, or deal with it herself. But we, and presumably they, know that Bradford has friends among his peers. Bishop stepped outside the strict chain of command when she warned Chen about the potential consequences of her relationship with Nolan. Chen could have returned the favor by giving Bishop a heads up that her friend Tim was struggling.

Yep. This struck me as dead accurate. I work in a male-dominated academic profession, and the only time I perceived myself not being taken seriously on account of my gender (female) was when I was dating a man in the profession. We were the same age, same level, no conflicts of interest -- didn't matter. This relationship will cost Chen more than it costs Nolan. And it will be worse in a few years, if it lasts, since once they are no longer rookies, he will look like he has seniority even if they are the same rank. I found the timeline confusing. As others have noted, Tim was out of hospital an back to work implausibly quickly, given the apparent severity of his injury. In an early scene, Chen and Nolan joke about skipping work, and one of them mentions that it would look bad to play hooky on their first week. I don't know if that was meant to be strictly accurate, but if it was even approximately true way too much has happened in a week!

Yeah, I didn't care for that at all. They are both consenting adults, and there is no power differential at work, so I don't really have any ethical objections. But it cheapens Nolan's character, making it seem like maybe this is all just a midlife crisis -- hot new job, dating a girl half his age. It helps a bit that the actress is 30, though they seem to be writing her as younger.

Overall, I thought it was well cast, very well acted, and poorly written. That gives me some hope; a clunky pilot episode can lead to a good show, if the actors are on point. The good: Nathan Fillion is charming, as always. I also very much liked the dynamics between the female characters. The two established officers, Bishop and Lopez, had a friendly rivalry-- fierce competitors, but not cutting each other down. And Bishop's advice to Lucy seemed like it came from a good place, looking out for a young woman who might be harming her career. The bad: Way to much speechifying -- mostly Nolan, but also the Sergeant, go on and on with trite musings that are supposed to sound deep. Bradford, the T.O., could have been interesting. He presents himself as a sadistic, racist jerk, but that may just be a training technique, and his facility at dissecting Bishop and Lopez's feelings about promotion was interesting. Yet we've already randomly met his junkie wife and seen him get shot, so it's like the writers couldn't wait to reveal that he's not just an asshole. A little patience would have made for a better payoff. In the big picture, I'm worried about staying power. As Lucy said, in a year or two Nolan will just be one of the guys. Sure, he'll be a decade or two behind in terms of promotions, but once he's no longer a rookie a lot of the premise of the show goes away.

OK, so Julian was raised to be sacrificed, like the cow. It was Dr. Jeffries' idea. Vera wasn't crazy about doing it to the cow, and she seems genuinely attached to Julian, so I don't see her being all that eager to sacrifice the child she raised. But I could be wrong about that; she's hard to read. If we assume that Julian was abducted to spare him from this fate, that raises some new questions. Were the couple who abducted Julian working against Vera or for her? Is Jeffries still around, pulling the strings?

Do you mean you think she isn't gay? Because she seems pretty self aware that she is gay, and that she is attracted to Marin. She hasn't come out to her father yet in the flashbacks, but I don't see her deceiving herself about this. Maybe Heather is lying to herself about the possibility of a romantic future with Marin, who seems to be bi or experimenting. He's smart, but he's also terminally curious. He may have a self-destructive streak, and being in Keller has triggered some serious pain. Putting all that together and I can kind of see how he might act against his better judgement.

My understanding was that the fire happened when Ambrose was around Julian's age. He stayed in town for a few more years, perhaps finishing high school. Then he left, but visited once in a great while; the last visit was 15 years ago. While the fire might not exactly be a mystery, assuming Ambrose's age is approximately that of Bill Pullman (64), it happened 50 years ago. So I can buy that it has become part of the town's murky history that captures people's imagination -- something they've heard of, but may not be clear on the details.

Yes, I suspected that there was some behind-the-scenes intervention on Sean's behalf. But to hear Dr. Now chastising Dottie for not keeping up with her hygiene? Dude, she was clearly in a lot of pain, and just not up to doing everything that needed to be done properly. Whatever her issues, Dottie is not lazy. If she is not taking care of herself, it is probably because she can't. This! A couple of hours of assistance a day could have staved off a major setback.

I felt uncomfortable watching parts of this episode. Dottie, maybe a week post-surgery, is left alone in a hotel room with no assistance. Sean, barely mobile and emotionally crippled, is dropped off in front of his mold-infested apartment to fend for himself. Yes, Dottie shouldn't have been smoking, and yes, many of Sean's problems are his own (and his mother's) making. Still, cameras recorded physically and/or mentally compromised people in dangerous situations, and nobody thought to intervene? Perhaps there was some behind-the-scenes intervention for Sean, as the new apartment materialized rather quickly. But Dr. Now seemed surprised to learn that Dottie was on her own in the hotel.