tpel

When I saw a klingon female, L'Rell came to mind. But the more I saw of her, the less I thought it was her. She looks different (could just be makeup or lighting though) and sounds different (then again, she was speaking English). More compellingly, there is the time issue: Ash has been there 7 months, and his longevity is due to her interest in him, which implies that his rapist has been there for at least much of that time. L'Rell has been occupied elsewhere. Finally, L'Rell strikes me as fairly smart. This klingon woman, not so much. Despite having him at her mercy, Lorca owned her in their conversation.

Yeah, I think it did contribute to Landry's death, but that required a whole other layer of stupid. The time sequence was: Lorca plays the audio of the colonists, then Landry immediately decides to open the confinement area to lop off one of the creature's claws, then later Burnham figures out that the creature can talk to the spores and she and Stamets devise a navigation plan. So, at the time Landry made her decision, she had absolutely no reason to believe that studying the creature had anything to do with saving the colony. Her job, with regard to the creature, was to figure out how to emulate its natural defenses. The best guess I can make for her thought process is: "My boss is frustrated about Immediate Problem A (navigation to save colony). I can't do anything to solve that problem. So I'm going to go to any lengths to solve Less-Immediate Problem B (the endless quest for weapons). That should make him happy." That's terrible reasoning. I'm quite sure that, if she'd asked Lorca about going ahead with her plan, he would have told her not to -- for one thing, Burnham, whom he'd just taken pains to recruit, could easily have been killed. Still, he definitely triggered her action, in some way. One wouldn't think Lorca's leadership style would garner him such devotion. It seems more likely to lead to resentment, as Sandman noted. But perhaps people who are emotionally in need of an authoritarian figure do gravitate toward him, and, being in his thrall, make bad decisions a la Landry. To his credit, Lorca seems to actively try to surround himself with the opposite sort of person. He tolerates blatant contempt from Stamets. He sought out a mutineer. These are people who will never follow him blindly, and that's how he wants it. I seem to be defending Lorca a lot :-) I do find him interesting and, at the moment, he's up there with Saru as one of my favorites. What can I say? I gravitate toward dark-but-not-completely-evil characters. However, I'm still not sure I like this quality in a Starfleet Captain. I suppose having the captain not be the POV character frees the writers up to make him less than a paragon of virtue. But I'm still pining a bit for previous Treks' more optimistic view of human nature.

While I agree that this was a very unpleasant thing to do, I believe the strategy behind it made sense. Stamets had just gone off about how he was a scientist and Lorca was co-opting his work for military purposes . . . which is absolutely true. This was Lorca's way of saying (to Stamets and others who might be thinking the same), "Fine, you're not 100% on board with my war efforts. How do you feel about dying children? Because that's the other reason to kick it into high gear, despite the risks." He wasn't punishing them for past sloppiness, but trying to motivate some serious overachieving. It's awful, because most of the crew were already giving it their all, and there was no guarantee they would succeed. So, if they failed, they would have the added burden of being viscerally aware of the suffering of the colonists. But it might have given folks like Stamets a clarity of purpose, which could have contributed to their success. I find the tactic to be emotionally manipulative, but also kind of brilliant, which aptly describes Lorca. This makes the set-up for next week interesting. Lorca is a bit of an asshole, but an effective one. So, when he's in danger, I bet the thought crosses Stamets' and others' minds: Would it really be so bad if he didn't come back alive? The answer . . . after a loooong pause . . . is "yes". Whatever one thinks of his personality, his skills are an asset to Starfleet. And he knows military intelligence that we wouldn't want falling into the wrong hands. So, of course, the crew will work to save him. But the question never came up for other captains we've known, let alone the considered response.

I read that he's 6-foot-4, and they have him wear four-inch platform shoes. Yeah, from the previews it looks like Lorca gets captured. Most times on Trek, when this happens, the crew is distraught because they love and/or admire their captain. Don't think that's the case with Lorca, though the crew appeared quite motivated to get him back. I did feel for Lorca when his captor shined light in his eyes, given that we know he's light sensitive due to a previous injury.

Yeah, that's got to be one of the more bone-headed "redshirt" deaths we've seen! I wasn't creeped out by the last-will-and-testament thing. I imagine officers whose lives are frequently in danger update this sort of thing every few years. Lorca seemed more likable to me this week, oddly. His "weaponize everything" agenda isn't nice, but there's a certain purity to it. And the actor gave him nice subtle reactions to things like Landry's death and the colonists' children screaming, so he didn't come off as just a warmonger.

Like others, above, I was sad to see Captain Georgiou die, but not surprised, given Michelle Yeoh's guest star status. I'm not sure how I feel about Burnham. I thought her decisions were erratic, so it was hard to root for her. Yet she was still kind of engaging. I guess they didn't bother to develop the other crew members, since we won't be seeing them post Shenzhou anyway. With one exception . . . Saru. I think I love him. He was funny in the first episode, with his Nervous-Nelly attitude and "I smell death" doom-and-gloom mien counteracting the perky explorer approach of the others. But that's not why I love him. I love that, when actual danger and impending death arrived, he was calm, professional, and displayed good problem solving skills. That totally makes sense for prey: nervous and jumpy at the prospect that predators might be about, but once the lion has sprung the time for dithering is over and you kick your ass in gear.

The belt is called a "gait belt" or a "transfer belt". Basically, it gives the therapist or caregiver something to grab onto if the person wearing it loses balance, and can help them maneuver the person more safely. Although she certainly didn't make the kind of progress that Chad did, I was heartened to see that Teretha was at least not completely bed-bound at the end.

Even if the bit with the golf cart was staged, it might be prudent for him to get some kind of medical attention anyway. Not because he claims to be in pain, but because of concerns over the blood clots in his legs.

Makes more sense than what we saw. Unlike much of what we've seen on this show, it's actually totally in-character. Royals kill off Meisner's father and girlfriend? He spends years fighting them, culminating in bumping off their heir-apparent and finally their king -- which, judging by the Royals' subsequent irrelevancy on the show, threw them into disarray. Instead of worrying about Grimms, they should have been worrying about a plain old human with a grudge! Similarly, Black Claw kills Meisner and his HW crew? They'd better hope he's dead in a permanent and non-haunty way, 'cause otherwise they're doomed!

Yeah, leaving him in an apartment by himself seemed like a recipe for disaster. But him not being by himself requires some other poor soul to be with him, which also seems to end badly. I thought that Steven was on good behavior for a couple of months in the hospital, then became abusive. That actually doesn't seem all that surprising to me. Some kids with psychological/behavioral disorders can be sweet during the "honeymoon phase" but then when they become comfortable with a situation, or the adults start to thwart their manipulation, all hell breaks loose. Could be something similar happening here, though perhaps TLC fudged the timeline a bit. With regard to developmental and mental issues, upthread someone mentioned FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome). I'm not seeing the distinctive facial characteristics in the brothers' faces, but I think it is easier to recognize in children, and the brothers' weight may make it harder to spot. There is no conclusive test for FAS, but there is a genetic test for Prader-Willi syndrome, which is associated with extreme overeating, low muscle tone, cognitive impairment, and behavior issues. I assume that patients on this show would have been tested for Prader-Willi somewhere along the line, probably before they reached Dr. Now.

A long time ago, I rescued a pair of young feral kittens. After about a day, one of them started showing signs of illness, so I prepared to take them to the vet. By the time we got to the vet a few hours later, the other one was sick too. The first to become ill had a fever of 107. The second had 105-point-eight. Sadly, the first one died. But the second one lived, and is now a happy, healthy cat. The second one wouldn't have survived, if not for the first one deteriorating just a little bit ahead of her. I hate to compare these beautiful kitties to the train wreck we just watched, but I'm kind of hoping it plays out the same way. I don't hate Stephen, but I'm afraid he is unsalvageable. Even if he could be magically transformed overnight to a fit 200 pounds, his personality is such that he would still bring misery to himself and those around him. But Justin . . . my heart kind of broke for him. Yes, he's a stunted man-child -- what else could he be, given that family dynamic? So shut-down, it was hard to watch how hard it was for him to even look at other people. If Stephen continues to fail dramatically, that might give Justin the push he needs to accept help that he would never have the initiative to seek out on his own. Stephen's death might prompt Justin to realize that the world isn't such an awful place, when Stephen is no longer in it. Might be a kind of cosmic justice if Stephen, who arguably played a huge role in damaging Justin, inadvertently led to his salvation. I did like how Dr. Now dealt with Justin. He wasn't put off by the rudeness/social anxiety; he went out of his way to talk to Justin like he was an adult, even when Justin acted like a child. He didn't pressure him, but he let him know what was available. We might reasonably ask why Dr. Now was willing to muck about with this awful family, even questioning the ethics of doing so. Perhaps his motives were a mix of sordid and noble: Stephen pulls in the ratings, and maybe (just maybe) he can radically improve Justin's life.

I'm gonna pretend that this is what Ghost Meisner did when he wasn't busy haunting Renard: used his new supernatural status to take out the organization that killed him and his friends at HW ;-)

Yeah, I was hoping Trubel would show up, machete in hand, and take care of business. Our guys just weren't handling things well. Renard at least has a strong attachment to his own life, and now, that of his daughter. He would be bright enough not to just fling himself bodily at the bad guy, or linger obliviously over fallen buddies, I hope.

We're not supposed to believe that Hank and Wu are dead dead, right? Like in a permanent way? Their deaths were so close to the end credits, conveniently placed for a stick revival next episode. If they really are dead, then I'm kind of pissed. Not that there were casualties, even beloved ones, but that their deaths were so . . . well . . . stupid. Nick: Shooting Skeletor didn't work in the other place. Nick, Hank, and Wu: Let's shoot him with really big guns. Huh? I mean, yeah, bring the big guns just in case they at least slow him down, but if ever there was a time for Grimm weapons (axe, machete, whatever), this was it. Come to think of it, this story arc is one bad decision after another. Eve goes into the mirror alone. Then Nick goes in after her. Neither really has a plan. Now Diana opens the mirror-portal to get them back, unleashing hell on earth, apparently. Diana at least has the excuse of being either a toddler or a tween, neither of which is known for great forethought. Then Nick decides the perfect hiding place for Diana is out in a cabin in the woods because . . . I got nothing. Yeah, I know, the writers liked the symmetry. But it divides the group and is not particularly defensible. Then Adalind's idea that the safest place for Diana is also the safest place for Kelly . . . Really? I would think the safest place for Kelly is far, far away from the person whom the evil beastie is targeting. Of course, it randomly turns out later that Skeletor wants Kelly, too. Because why wouldn't a child-bride stealing creep want his infant brother-in-law around? Sigh. OK, they did make one good decision in recent memory: bringing Renard into the fold. He seems committed to protecting his daughter. I'm thinking I've waited just about long enough to re-watch House, stopping at the end of season 3.

I'm not so convinced that Skeletor wants Diana. Or rather, I don't see why everyone on the show is so convinced. It was Eve whose presence was maybe felt in the other world during the Death Grip sequence, and it was Eve who Skeletor appears to in the mirror. She can see the symbols, mostly, and carved them in the tunnel. I would think that the logical conclusion is that Skeletor wants Eve. Yeah, I know, Diana is the super special child of prophecy, but on this show, who isn't? That description could apply to Eve, Diana, or even baby Kelly. Of course, the writers want it to be Diana, so as to bring Renard into the main plot. And I don't object to that, as I like Renard and SR is one of the stronger actors in the cast. I just wish they would tighten up the storytelling to get us there.

Were the Halloween bullies kids? I thought Monroe said something about kids coping OK with seeing woges, since they have a more flexible line between fantasy and reality, or something like that. And adults seem to do OK when they believe there is a common-sense explanation for what they saw, like it was a mask or a mutation. I think the main problem for woge witnesses is supposed to be an extreme form of cognitive dissonance; they are unable to mentally process what they've seen.

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I never got the sense that it was especially difficult for wesen to do a full-on woge, just that it required a conscious decision to do so, as opposed to the stress-woges that happen involuntarily and are only visible to Grimms. There have been hints that full-on woges boost the strength of some wesen, so perhaps they are often done when attacking "prey" or defending oneself from a threat. Thus, the seniors with dementia may have been acting consciously, but confusedly. One thing the writers have definitely been inconsistent about is the deleterious effects on humans of witnessing a full-on woge. Early on, we were told that this would result in insanity, and indeed, we saw Hank and Wu suffer pretty severe reactions, though they recovered. Maybe the writers had to downplay the insanity factor as the series progressed, to make it plausible that all the major characters got over their symptoms, and also to avoid having the psych wards bursting at the seams following Black Claws public antics. So, my interpretation is that the "full woge + human = permanent insanity" idea was somewhat exaggerated by wesen and grimms in order to discourage wesen from revealing themselves to humans (and thereby endangering the community). In fact, there are a wide range of human reactions, from temporary freak-outs (Mason the orderly, this week), to severe but recoverable psychosis (e.g., Wu), to permanent insanity. I take the fact that Mason coped with the experience relatively well to be explained by two factors: (1) He was able to fight off the "monster" himself, thus diminishing its nightmare potential. (2) It takes a rather resilient personality to do what he does for a living -- take care of dementia patients.

That was oddly satisfying. It presented us with something I hadn't thought of as a problem before: wesen dementia causing unintended woging, and worse. That totally makes sense; people with dementia loose inhibitions and become confused and sometimes aggressive, compound that with being wesen and you've got serious trouble. Then, just as I was thinking, "Hey, wait a minute, wouldn't that be noticed and blow the wesen's cover", the show gave a reasonable solution -- and one that we plausibly might not have heard about heretofore. I liked it that the mercy-killing-bug-doctor was a good guy, and that Nick flat-out let him do his thing. It was kind of cool that the bug-guy was (presumably) a gerontologist, and did try other methods of stabilizing his patients before taking that final step.

I was disappointed that nobody referred to the WoW as an avenging Ent ;-) Kind of with Monroe when he suggested that maybe the killer had a right to defend his habitat from those who harmed it.

I believe he does. He has been shown giving them a stack of papers, he mentions in another episode something about a list of foods and back in the TWoP days, there was discussion about the diet that was handed out. I can't imagine a doctor like him would just kick them out the door saying "NO carbs!" and expect them to know what that means. I meant a simple food list to get them through the initial stages of the process. Maybe only, say, 20 food options. I'm afraid a stack of papers is overwhelming for some of these patients. After a few weeks, when they are sick of those 20 options, then they can wade through the stack to figure out more. But I see your point: there is a lot of behind the scenes stuff we don't see, and presumably Dr. Now is providing more extensive advice.

Yeah, I was wondering about that "no carbs" thing, too. As a vegetarian, I don't think I could survive on a no-carb diet, since vegetarian protein sources -- like tofu and beans -- have some carbs (the latter more than the former). Of course, there probably aren't that many 600-pound vegetarians . . . I can see why Dr. Now might say "no carb" when he means "very low carb" for the sake of simplicity, but that makes me wonder why he doesn't go a step further, particularly for families such as Nicole's who are clearly overwhelmed. Why not give them a food list? If it is on the list you can eat it, if not, don't. Or even pre-planned daily menus with a few choices? True, the more functional patients might benefit from figuring this out for themselves, but for someone like Nicole, it might short-circuit some of her excuses.

In Renard's defense, given the silly tone of the episode, I don't think the viewers were supposed to take seriously the risk of a child's death in this one. Also, Renard is pretty good at reading people: he knew that the kidnapper was using Diana to get to him, and a dead hostage isn't worth that much. If he got the sense that the guy was keeping Diana unconscious the whole time, he would have played the "frantic dad" role and asked to speak with her. And, while I agree that Renard did not really love any of the women he slept with, I believe he loves his Mom :-)

I think Adalind told Diana that Nick is mama-Kelly's son. It happened when Adalind was asking Diana to send her holographic message to Nick at the end of last season.

Nick and Adalind and Eve/Juliette and everyone being one big happy group is still hard for me to take, and a lot of the histrionics were kind of predictable. But let me add to the chorus of how awesome Hank was. I haven't enjoyed Renard this much in a long time. Love the suits, but . . . wow: let's have casual Friday more often! And that look of realization that Diana is NOT the one in danger here, followed by his little smirks throughout the rest of the episode as his enemy gets his comeuppance -- awesome! I get the sense that he is the only one who really gets a kick out of Diana's badassery (as long as it is directed at an appropriate target). He loves his little sociopath!

All of these theories are possible, but there is one other piece of information we have about him: back in season 3 he mentioned to Renard that his father was killed by the Royals. That suggests that his father might have been Resistance, which would explain why Meisner knows so much about the wesen world. I bet Resistance parents make sure that their kids see wesen woge while they are young enough that it is not psychologically damaging, thereby inoculating them against this risk as adults. So Meisner has seen "showing the world" type woges, and has been around wesen woging less visibly for decades; yeah, I bet he can read the body language signs enough to know that a woge is taking place.