krimimimi

Thanks for that!

Like @Wouter and @sjohnson said, we haven't really come to know Moss pre-wipe that made him One. I feel like this ep gave us more data points as to who Two, Three, and even Four and Six were. We've seen Two, Three and Four pre-wipe before (the season 2 ep where they reset), and we have enough history, old acquaintances and actually relevant (ie non-horse feeding) flashbacks for Six. I feel like we have almost none of that for One and little for Five, up to and including AU versions. Yeah, we got some version of AU Corso/Moss, but the fact we can't seem to tell which of the two of them it even was should tell us we didn't learn much (or at least: enough) from his presence. AU Raza didn't have two blink drives, just the one that the prime universe's Raza liberated. And the AU Marauder just had FTL capabilities, but not its own BD. It doesn't seem like she bonded with the number folks pre-wipe though, and post wipe they are definitely different people. The problem either way is regardless of how useful she can be or how much they might be capable of liking her, they would have to not space her long enough to determine these things, which they didn't seem inclined to do in the prime universe, and I'd suspect even less so in the AU. Also, given Varrick has been shown to be a good guy of less than pure character, I could picture him going to bat for her only if someone else does (Moss, maybe), but not without someone else for "cover," because he's at risk of blowing his own cover. Speaking of why she didn't get spaced, did we ever see the actual vote on that? (I haven't rewatched season one, and it's been too long.) I feel like One and Five always assumed he'd have voted to save her, but I'm not as sure Moss (the guy actually doing the voting at the time) would have. I always suspected she was so sure Boone was going to space her, but his saying so in the flashback doesn't mean that's how he was going to actually vote. Or even that they voted at all, really. That just felt like one of those things show runners like to put a twist on - it doesn't happen until it actually does. @Black Knight, I really like your take on the relationships between Two and One vs. Three, and particularly how her position vis a vis Six made the video evidence of his death harder for him to take. (I hadn't thought about it from his standpoint.) Also, I appreciate your POV that she is the new and improved One/ moral compass.

We cross posted. Heh. Interesting, because I assumed that was proof they meant to kill Varrick, but you're right about the sequence of the waking and Android being in kill-9 mode. I'll need to rethink that.

So I, too, am guessing AU Jace/Derrick Moss on the AU Marauder. Mixed feelings on that one.* But. One and Corso are both dead. And the guy who could be on that ship, if we run with that, is either AU Corso or AU Moss. There is no AU One. I figure AU Corso would be too much of a "been there, done that," and don't really see an organic way to integrate him into the crew anyhow, or a good "why" for it either. They could have him reoccur as a villain, I guess, but it seems a bit pointless to me, and the seasons seem too short for that. But what might be interesting instead is if that's AU Moss. If that's the case, the dude is seriously evil enough that he was willing to nuke the miners just to get rid of AU Portia (so he's definitely not a good guy :-/), but unlike Corso, maybe he could still be "saved"? (I agree there's no saving Corso (AU or ours).) And given the Raza's crew's redemption struggle, that could prove a goal they might be interested in pursuing, and not too OOC. AU Moss also offers a couple of benefits storywise. He can provide insights into the workings of the Corps, without being too knowledgeable (as AU), which could help with the upcoming battle, and be generally more competent than One, having not been wiped. It makes the story with the murder of Moss's wife relevant again. And it answers the question I immediately had - why would you switch universes? How would it put whomever at an advantage? But if you're AU Moss, you know you can be charged with things like bombing the miners, so no "get out of jail free card" like with One in the beginning of this season, and as with our crew last season, AU Moss probably wouldn't have the memories/contacts to survive as AU Corso or as a wanted criminal on the run, and if you thought your wife might still be alive here... Well, I find the motivation somewhat compelling, and could picture it, which helps me a lot, and the possibilities for the story intriguing, for which I am thankful. Nevertheless, I was still a bit sorry they didn't just shoot him, whichever one he is (heh), because as a running gag, it had something. Otoh, as a meta statement, it has something, too - keep shooting him until they get it "right." Too good, too evil, just right. (Once again, fully accepting that mileage varies on what "right" may be. Also, in light of the Raza's crew's wiped status, I personally don't hold their past crimes against them, which makes a difference, but that's a seriously tricky moral issue IRL. (Think: punishment or lack thereof for mentally ill 'criminals.') But that makes any rehabilitation of AU Moss difficult for the story, because he clearly is the guy who pushed that button. ) I really hope it wasn't AU Emily on the ship, because I thought Five's/JL's performances as different characters when they were doing the flashbacks/memories in season one were some of the weakest sauce in the show, next to One's/MB's. I don't think the actress has the range for it, and I'd prefer they play to their strengths. As the AU Android said (or more appropriately: the writers had her say), basically anyone on the AU Marauder other than AU Corso/Moss would be "redundant." I think the show runners have been kind of straight forward with their twists and hints (in part, no doubt, because the small handful of eps they have to get things done limits how much they can twist things around), so imma taking that as a pretty clear wink through the fourth wall. (Along the lines of "lack of twists," I also took this ep as final confirmation that the "him/he" Portia and Ryo were discussing killing in that fragment from season one was in fact Jones/Varrick.) Worst case, if the person on board is AU Moss, in this story 'rehabilitation' can always take the form of wiping him and hoping to regain One, but like I said above, I can't see the narrative advantage to that (and really hope they don't). I'm thinking Moss as "Corso" on our Raza saved Emily in our universe, but their clearly more damaged AU Moss or AU Corso (if the switch never happened) voted to space her. So the fact they have the drive means she was there, the scene with AU Android at the end lets us know that Portia has/had skills (probably did the mods on Android, given she's thankful), and she or maybe AU Emily hooked it up successfully. Otoh, looking at that, I realize we never saw just how damaged our universe's version of Moss was. We only got to know him as One. And his plan always sounded really stupid/cracktastic, so maybe that's because it wasn't his plan we were seeing/hearing about, but simpletonOne's assumptions about it. Ooo, this makes me happier. That was always a weak point for me, and it would be nice to see it fixed. (So, he didn't join the Raza to just kill Boone, but did so to get closer to the truth about who hired him, and schemes and stuff that hopefully made sense at the time. And probably then kill him, sure.) This is not a thing. Wait, no, you can watch too much SyFy, but not too much sci-fi. * Dead horse:

Honestly, that's what I see, too, but I assumed it was what they are going for. Some people are like that. Too stunted to have a meaningful relationship, but totally capable of being possessive or jealous, heck, even caring for people in much the same limited and egotistical way a three year old might. But that doesn't mean they don't have physical needs or desires. And I consider it even more true to type that such a character would seek to fulfill those needs outside his or her circle of "necessary" people, as with Dutch and Alvin, as opposed to her continuing to boink D'avin, which was liable to get messy. So help me out here, guys. When Jelco busts Johnny, why exactly? Breaking and entering, sure, but he literally said show me the warrant, and Johnny actually has one for traitorous engineer lady. So he has a warrant to retrieve her, and there she was. (That he didn't know that before breaking in is beside the point. They can't prove it.). So if a warrant were sufficient to justify the B&E, as Jelco's question implies, then why isn't his? The snooping he accused Johnny of, Johnny never actually got around to doing, and just because traitorous engineer lady says he was gonna, doesn't make it so. On the contrary, she's been discredited on various fronts, and Johnny is a member of the RAC in good standing. So, huh?

1) Heh. Prolly not, or it wouldn't have been canceled. *sigh* 2) Interesting point. Been thinking about that, and have decided I disagree. While I don't think it's *always* the case, I do believe that *sometimes* having someone considered "reliable" making predictive statements (doesn't have to he a psychic - could even be a financial advisor ;-)), even if those are thoroughly ill-defined, will change the course of action. For example, characters who might not otherwise engage in a preemptive strike could then consider such action "justified," which would change the typical parameters of their behavior, thereby permitting such action. While watching, I immediately felt that the probability that Four would betray the others had increased, simply by having had Milo tell him that *someone* would. (Assuming that we both consider Milo's statements sufficiently cryptic. They certainly weren't all that specific.) 3) I think changing the accepted "facts" of a situation (for example via prophecy) frequently changes how people decide to behave. While the choice remains theirs, if those "facts" are sufficiently altered, they may not have been left with much perceived choice at all. Good point. I think neither Raza nor Seers would last long if the corporations decided to *seriously* pursue them, so the trick is to remain largely off their radar. But as long as stopping them doesn't become a real priority, there's probably no reason they shouldn't both be able to continue as they have.

The Grunwald, iirc. I think the parents aren't so much missing due to budget cuts as stuck in a cellar somewhere. (That's my head canon and I'm sticking to it.) Wouldn't it be nice if the girls discovered them this ep? At this point, I'd honestly prefer hanging out with the moms (especially if it involved drinking copious quantities of wine to ... well... cope) to what has become of the Liars: sad shadows of their former glorious selves. Except Aria. She's pretty much unchanged. (That's not exactly a good thing, though.)

Good grief, that was awful! It felt like rotten fanfic written by a fourteen year old girl. Or at least, how I imagine that stuff must play out, because I wouldn't normally subject myself to this (/ that) kind of garbage. A music video? Complete with stupid wedding trappings and baby and happily ever after crap? (Only slightly pulled out of that kamikaze nosedive by having Dutch go stone cold pyscho, but holy crap, that was embarrassing.) The ongoing, never ending, ubiquitous Dutch worship deepens. ("Please, woman I met an hour ago, who just tried to kill me, btdubs, move in and spend your life with me.") At this point I half think they're trolling us. Johnny continues to keep stupid, and worse: boring secrets. Not one, not two, but three sets of sex(-ish) scenes. That dragged on forever. (Only vaguely helped by Sabine's sliming. I think it would help more if I thought she was actually dead.) You are doing something wrong when your sex scenes annoy me and leave me wondering if you are just trying to distract from the fact that you ran out of actual story to tell. The whole Scarback cutting crap bothers me a lot. I can't believe they styled a religion/ "thing" around it for the show. So I greatly appreciated that they at least (finally) gave it a probable purpose, but I really have to wonder if there wasn't a better way to do this. Or, y'know, a dozen. But on the good side, Pree remains lovely, inside and out. (I prefer him as is, and not in flashbacks to stylish dictator, in part because the clean shaven scalp suits him so much better than the hair they showed in the "warlord" picture (/shallow), but mostly because I agree with @Snarkette that some stories are better in your mind/ undefined.) And I did like them acknowledging the "d'wanting" on screen, which is pretty much how I read Dutch's reactions. I don't see her actually wanting any of the men we've seen her with yet. Sex, sure. The people themselves in the context of a (romantic) relationship? Not so much. But that's subjective, and even having Pree say it doesn't make it so. Other than that, Dutch has a nice voice (that I'd still rather have not heard). And Johnny is thankfully emerging from his role as Dutch's supporting choir. But that's just not enough. So that'd be, what, maybe a 2/10? Imho, ymmv.

As with the B5 example you gave above, the mark of a good storyteller is *how* you deal with the BTS stuff. She could have fallen in lurve with a space prince and gone off to a happily ever after, but they went with something that made a lot of viewers take note instead. As a show runner, you can't change the RL stuff, but you can decide how to let it chew into your show (a few actress' pregnancies immediately spring to mind. *shudder*).

I think you're right about the writing (and of course the acting). But the scripts really did One no favors, despite giving him the hero treatment. (Somehow that only made it worse.) Given he was the only actor with a double (physical*) role, I'd assume this death was planned, too. I really hope that he stays dead, though, and not just for mean ol' meanie reasons. Star Trek TOS had a bad habit of killing off anyone we'd never seen before (BFD) while the heroes were blessed with some serious plot armor. ST TNG did something pretty remarkable when they killed off a member of their core crew mid season one, and particularly for no good reason, just proving life is nasty, brutish and meanly short. "Dark Matter" throws up all kinds of problems for viewers with its murderous "heroes." Even good guy One was shooting corporation people in the pilot who were "just doing their jobs." (Of course the job description was "murderous asshole," but still...) If you want to make that somehow okay for the majority of viewers to still root for them, then it helps if they aren't just murderers, but rather that life is universally cheap in their world. We need to know that it really is "us or them," or they are no better than the psychopaths they (mostly) used to be, and I think a lot of viewers could have problems rooting for a merry band of psychos. Morally grey characters are something else, though. One's death makes the stakes more real and, at least for me, serves to legitimize (to some extent) their lethal actions. Something along the lines of: they live in a kill or be killed world; if I'd like to see them survive to return next week, then I will have to accept that they'll leave some bodies in their wake. Otherwise I may as well watch the A-team, where all the bad guys miraculously survive. * If we count the Numbers vs. original flavor characters, flashbacks etc. pretty much everyone has at least a double role, but MBD was the only one where that involved a separate physical being.

Johnny gave Pawter an assist in rescuing herself from the rapey hill-folk that apparently captured her last week. Pree's (hi, Pree!) got a still and a new waitress for D'avin to flirt with. Turin told Dutch that they traced Khlyen's message transmission to a school for gifted poor kids. Dutch requested a warrant to get them there to investigate further, and (conveniently) received one immediately, how 'bout that, which involved transporting the next batch of kids (henceforth 2.0) there. Synchronicitous babysitting ftw! On arrival, they find the kids (henceforth 1.0) that are already supposed to be there are MIA, along with their minder. Delle Seyah Kendry pops up out of nowhere, demanding to know what they are doing there so far ahead of schedule. The group smells trouble and tries to do a tactical retreat to Lucy with the kids while Dutch and D.S.K. hate flirt and investigate ... stuff ... further, and Pawter and Johnny examine the children's learning pods (presumably illegal, and apparently unintentionally lethal, as it transpires). The evil governess is spotted, chasing happens, and Delle Seyah's bodyguard goes the way of all red shirts. The original student group 1.0 is declared toast. Governess McEvil demands D.S.K. surrender herself or "the truth will be revealed." Only then does Dutch twig to the fact that D.S.K.'s program is uber secret and probably illegal, and pressures her into playing bait, but only after shooting her for good measure. (The crowd cheered.) Dutch tells D.S.K. about Khlyen's transmission, who in turn shares that they've been in regular contact, pay off surely to follow. Lucy & P&J&D'avin, in stages, figure out the transmission probably fried the kids 1.0. Nanny McEvil is revealed to have been a hologram, dead and a hero who tried to save some/one of the kids and was killed for her troubles, now for added pathos! And then the kids 2.0 are used to take D'avin out by luring him into a trap. At which point the older brother of one of the kids 2.0, a presumably dead member of students 1.0, is revealed as alive and behind the whole thing, in a move surprising to no one but the characters, and tries to hijack Lucy to make their getaway, turning off life support to the others in the station for bad measure. Muwahahaha! Johnny saves the day by wielding guilt + 10 like an adept and talks Olan (the older brother) down. Dutch saves the day by gratuitously snogging D.S.K., or maybe by reinstating life support, whichever, possibly both. Elsewhere, D'avin tells Pawter Johnny snores like a wookie. Brotherly teasing ensues. Johnny likes Pawter. Or maybe Lucy. Possibly both. And Dutch talks D.S.K. into agreeing to let her take Olan to the Scarbacks (hi, Alvis, in your self-proclaimed 'sexy' robes!), where they're going to try to get the transmission out of his brain and maybe let him chill. Expect to see him again. Elsewhere, Fancy is a murderous bad-ass who steals a ship with Khlyen to go on a road trip to visit Jaqobis!world, because who wouldn't want to see the source of the pretty? Or maybe they just want to know why the green goo can resist D'avin's winsome smile... (And at that, snark aside, I should say how much I really like that the actor actually has a few wrinkles and looks like a human. Rare thing indeed. More please. Less plastic, more people.)

I think you mean Jake and not Olan, the older brother? I would have liked that, too, but unfortunately, I don't think that was the story they told. Delle Seyah Kendry said that a new group of students wasn't expected yet, which was unusual and concerning enough for her to rush to the station. So I figured Olan had sent out a faked warrant to have his brother brought to him and included the other "little people" as natural cover. Which worked, in as much as the Killjoys and Delle Seyah didn't immediately figure out what was going on. At the least, if Jake had always been intended as a candidate for the school, I thought it was odd that the other children were shown to solve puzzles and know things (like hearing frequencies), whereas the only apparently "smart" thing Jake did was not hanging around with his BSC brother, but going to seek help. Which was unquestionably useful, but not demonstratively smart as with the others. On the contrary, the writers had him kicking things and dropping stuff (too dumb to hide?). While it would have been nice to show that intelligence takes many forms, that offered us a clue that something was off, beyond just the narrative focus (we saw Jake being picked up, but not the others, say), which is decent story-telling.

Given the short seasons, I'm fine with some accelerated or truncated storylines, so the primary focus remains on the interactions between our characters (including the new additions) and not a *lot* of time spent on others, like Android's new friends, or Three's old team. (Though I *do* like that they spend a chunk of their budget on people instead of effects. That generally makes a more interesting story for me.) I suspect there was some truth in Tanner seeing a form of redemption in raising Boone. And if that's the case, I bet there would also be a kind of relief in seeing Three was apparently still criminal even without any memory of Tanner. With no memories of Tanner or Boone's parents, Three, on the surface, still seems to be pretty much the same old Boone, as we saw last week. What a relief it could be to think you apparently didn't cause that. What Tanner will have missed is that lack of memories of something isn't the same as its lack of influence, because that is still there, even if diminished: the reality Three currently finds himself in is partly so because of Tanner. Three is a wanted criminal with the options of a wanted criminal available to him. That definitely limits his choices and will drive some decisions. Not remembering Tanner's contribution to that doesn't change many of its effects. The Raza's crew may have woken with no memories, but the situations they are responding to (at least initially) are created entirely from those other, unknown lives. (Sort of like Scott Bakula's character on "Quantum Leap" - "Oh boy.") Somewhat perversely, I'm also fine with not completely understanding Tanner's motivations, because it puts us in the same boat as Three. (But it would be problematic for me if they took advantage of that too often.) The crew will on occasion find themselves in situations where, with a very imperfect understanding of everyone's roles, they will need to make decisions that could cost them or others their lives. How they navigate that will be what determines what kind of people they're becoming. The crew remains handicapped, now also by their own choices to not regain their memories (at least for the moment), when dealing with people they used to know. But the flip side of that is they are no longer behaving quite predictably in terms of their past behavior, and that will cause some problems for those other people as well. This illustrated that quite nicely. (Another example recently was Six shooting his friend and colleague in 2x01. They don't have the emotional ties to their past experiences to weight their decisions, even if they have the knowledge of those lives. We were friends / We were family.) Last week, Three found that rocket ship in his lockbox that we see his mother hand him in the beginning of this episode, so I do believe the old Boone remembered his past and was at least somewhat aware of the problematic nature of his relationship with Tanner. By the time he would have been able to act on that, he may well have been too far gone (Stockholm Syndrome) or in too deep to want to, but otoh, he did save that toy as one of his few possessions. We also don't know the truth of how he was left by them for dead. I loved that he didn't try to chase answers he was never going to get from Tanner or his crew. Three could ask all he wanted, he would never be able to trust their answers, and I hate when shows pretend otherwise. Finally, I kind of like their new simplified world view. They seem to be interested in pursuing a form of justice - for One, or here for Boone's parents. That in a system with a death penalty (Four was to be executed, iirc, for patricide/treasonous acts) that justice, particularly when executed by criminals, can be deadly should come as no surprise.

Best of both worlds: Shour Harvey. :-)

Hoping Mona clued Caleb in on the sitch and he's the one driving around in a Wrollins mask. (It would be so nice to move past the triangle and be plot relevant again.) Or I'll accept Lucas as option 2, as a nice callback to the days when he was her minion. But Caleb and Mona were always so good and snarky together on their SaveHanna! missions. Miss that. And that would probably be a decent idea if Noelkahn* weren't simultaneously gaslighting them with calls that freak them out and, when coupled with the police photos, apparently cause them to ramp up the stupid. ((Wo)Man the shovels! Felonious shoveling, ho!) If they ever actually checked that people were dead, this wouldn't be a thing. I keep hoping that clip is an excerpt from someone's nightmare or flashback, and they aren't stupid enough to revisit the grave. But then they still don't wear gloves seven seasons in, so... * or possibly Wren (hope never dies *sigh*), but Noelkahn makes more sense atm as part of TeamJenna...

She was a sour girl the day that she met me... She was a sour girl the day that she met me...

So update on the Driver situation: First, I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who responded. Especially those of you with personal experiences with domestic abuse/violence. I'd also like to apologize if it pushed any buttons, and thank you especially for finding the courage to respond. It helped me be active, when I was indecisive, and it *did* make a difference. I really appreciate that. For my part, I've been quietly going bonkers because there was literally nothing to report, which wasn't exactly a relief. I've spent about a month now vacillating between concern for my friend and, frankly, frustration. The deal was Mrs. Driver would get in touch at least once a day, and *of course* that didn't happen. There were long stretches where she was completely MIA, and we sat here wondering what to do. (Ultimately, given her restrictions: bugger-all.) Then she was going to return to town a couple of weeks ago. No sign of her. And so on... She finally showed up briefly last week, and left town again the same day to go take care of her mom. (She's physically ok, but a complete bundle of nerves.) She'll go from there back to her in-laws', and eventually get back here, at which point she has said she *might* be willing to find a counselor, but *maybe* she'd rather do that at her mom's... So I think she's back pedaling here, and I don't know if she'll actually seek any help at all. Obviously that has me worried. (At a later point, I'm going to have to figure out how to be a good friend there, or what that even means, because I'm not at all sure how to be supportive in this situation. But it's definitely not pressing, because it'll be a while before she's back. And I really think I need to be better able to define the situation before anyone can help me with this.) Ultimately, I can't help but feel if I had been able to keep in touch with her, and if she had returned as originally planned, that the chances would have been a lot better that she would have sought help. So with that in mind, I contacted @AgentRXS, because I felt a need to at least try to do *something* useful. And like many of you, I, too, begged her to call a DV hotline. Folks, *she already had.* She took your advice and gave it a shot. Unfortunately her experience with them seems to have been about as useful as some of mine. (I had phoned around for Mrs. Driver, and while I generally got a lot of sympathetic noises, I only found *one* instance where people were likely to offer *concrete* help. That particular service is of no help here, because wrong continent.) If anyone can do better than "call someone," that might help, but consider: if *I* was feeling frustrated and exhausted as someone only tangentially involved in Mrs. Driver's problem, how taxing must conversations like that be for people actually in her and AgentRXS's shoes? So please go easy on her. Unlike my friend, she is taking this seriously and trying to solve things. For the person actually involved, that can't be all that easy to do. And it does take time. Things don't get sorted over night. (If you're not willing or unable to leave your life behind and go to a shelter *now*, or unable to have someone arrested (on what charges in either of their cases?), then you pretty much have to accept that things will take time and be "iffy" for a while.) I was genuinely pleased to see somebody actually recognize a threat, listen to advice, and take steps to insure her personal safety, even if those steps aren't necessarily as far or as successful as we might hope. Also, I want to go on record on the HR issue -> we've got a person taking this seriously, but who didn't seem to respond enthusiastically to the HR suggestions. I know in an ideal world, *of course* the thing to do is report the situation. But I've yet to meet anyone who actually lives in an ideal world. She spoke to her supervisor, which I think is brilliant. But if she isn't sure about HR, I think she should probably listen to her instincts. No one else knows her situation better than she does, and none of us knows the first thing about the power dynamics at her firm. The (unfortunate) reality is, not all HR departments are up to the task. One of the hardest things after an experience like hers is learning to trust yourself again. If a person is hesitant, there may be good reason for it. (But by all means, RXS, do seek professional help, because if it's just a question of not feeling secure, they can build you up until you can do what needs doing. And in the meantime, document like mad.) But you certainly shouldn't do something you feel might worsen your situation just because it's the done thing or looks good on paper. First and foremost, it needs to be of help to you. I think if you see someone behaving more like AgentRXS (and far less like Mrs. Driver), in addition to the moral support and advice you can give, it's also important to acknowledge their judgment *isn't* worthless and help them regain some confidence. Because that's another casualty of abuse, and *we* shouldn't compound the damage. And don't underestimate the importance of moral support. It's sometimes far more helpful than trying to solve a person's problems, which ultimately is down to them. (Which is slightly rich coming from me, but no less true. What can I say, I'm a work in progress.) TL,DR: Mrs. Driver's alive (if not well). But after being MIA, she's waffling on seeking support. AgentRXS contacted a DV hotline, but no real joy. But she's on it, so let's go easy on her, eh?

Sounds like it was missing something flour-like, wasn't it?(No idea what goes into something like that, but that seems probable.) Otherwise it's a soufflé, which I would expect to fail miserably in the microwave, especially when you consider how many people have trouble with them even in ovens...

Key Lime Pie. (There may have been other food, too, but, really, who cares? Life's short and unpredictable: eat dessert first! :-))

Oh, sweetie. People suck sometimes. And others who don't suck, are just sometimes too quick to be hurtful, because they feel safe in their anonymity and don't truly understand the ramifications of their posts. If they "knew" you, I'm sure the majority of them wouldn't have behaved that way. Now. Enough tears and moping! You know they are wrong. Hell, we know they are wrong. Idiots don't deserve any more thought. Phooey! Life is too short. Kaylee was an incredibly loved pup, and anyone who is truly a friend to dogs wouldn't ridicule you or your care. Patently absurd! I actually didn't think the Pokemon thing sounded so bad, sort of like Geo-caching, which we used to do with misc. nieces and nephews and such. (Plenty of such.) I didn't realize the Pokemon game was directing people onto private property; that's just madness. I agree with your actions completely, and wouldn't have behaved differently, fwiw. (Except for avoiding dog forums. ;-) Seriously, they've consistently proven to be some of the least tolerant places I've visited. I honestly can't figure out why.) @Sun-Bun, that's horrible. And depressing. Please don't let a single idiot make you smaller or less than you are. I personally think isolation is really bad for the soul, which is effectively what happens when you hide the real "you." How else can people you're interacting with know you? Don't do that to yourself. Let your sun shine! :-) So I was thinking (that's always dangerous)... I have a friend I am failing to help, basically because we didn't keep in touch at a critical point in time. That annoys me more than I can say. As a result of which, it occurred to me (repeatedly) that sometimes timing is really important (for example ours), and sometimes it's helpful to not be doing things all on your own (in this example, her). Transposing that sort of situation to here, we have a thread to support folks with their weight loss goals, which is probably brilliant, because I've known people who were better able to stick to a diet in the context of a group setting than on their own. How about we try something like that for anything and everything else? Like there's a person in the relationship thread that could probably use a bit of hand holding to remain single. There are folks here that could probably use the occasional "atta girl/boy/individual of unspecified gender" - so maybe a continued support and periodic cheerleading thread? A safe zone where you can get support until you opt out. (Can you tell I've never started a thread? Also, I fail at pithy titles, so...) Or is that too out there? ETA: Never mind, I've decided to just embrace my inner flake and figured out how to start a thread and went for it. :-)

@Treehugger, good on you for posting! Much better to get that out than to keep things bottled up. And good for you for standing up for yourself! A few years ago a friend of mine lost a lot of hair due to an adverse reaction to completely stupid amounts of stress. I got a small taste of what that must be like when I was put on warfarin two years ago and began to lose my hair as well. Although my hair loss was far less severe, and I began to recover once they switched my meds (a year later :-/ *sigh*), I do have an inkling of how that can feel. (I was less than chuffed at the time, so... I think I spent the better part of a year not going out without a cap or scarf.) I can only imagine how you're feeling, and I'm very sorry you're going through this. Three thoughts beyond general sympathy - 1) given the number of serious personal losses in your life, is there any chance your alopecia could be caused by stress, as in my friend's case? Because if so, there are things to be done for it that can help. (She's recovered quite a bit in the last few years, but also had to make a bunch of changes in her life, although that was probably for the best either way.) 2) I ended up needing crutches or a cane to get around and walking with a pronounced limp, and to be honest, that had an impact on my sense of security when I was out and about. I find the less secure I'm feeling, the more negative attention I attract. And of course the more negative attention, the less secure I feel. It's a negative feedback circuit. But that also means anything you can do to fake the appearance of confidence will actually help you to feel more confident in time. Worth a try. Costs nothing but effort. 3) I really think it's great that you posted, but I would also encourage you to talk to your nearest and dearest. It's hard for people to understand us if we don't let them in on what's going on inside. Your in laws clearly didn't understand how you feel (or they are completely insensitive, whichever), but I do believe in general if folks have any idea of how their behavior was making you feel, I doubt they would wish to continue it. Let your husband and daughters in on your feelings, at the least you'll come away from it better understood, and I think that's a victory in and of itself.

Ooo! I never thought to check if we could run it off an app. I'll have to see if the app offers any advantages. Our cable TV provider offers it, and it's actually the channel most regularly watched in our home. It's weird now having a three-way split for television resources, but she so obviously enjoys it that we're happy to share. She also enjoys "Dogs with Jobs" which we can stream (I believe via Netflix, but we've got too darn many boxes and apps these days to be sure). You can tell by how excited she gets at the theme music, but the dog TV channel definitely is her fave. It's interesting to see that I can't entirely accurately predict what she will like, which helps explain her preference of the channel vs. stuff I put together on youtube for her. The fish and water videos bore her, monkeys are sometimes interesting, the videos of dogs are solid wins, clips of dogs playing catch or cavorting dogs excite her - so far so good, I can predict that. But then animations of balls bore me to tears, but she seems to like them alright, and a lot of bizarre animation or green screen dog silhouette sequences I don't like actually appeal to her greatly. It shows where the research has paid off. Dogs and humans don't see or hear the same way, and even if we can judge content properly, the presentation apparently makes a difference to the viewing dog. And she likes a lot of the goPro angle shots. But I have noticed that while she likes watching her TV "shows" and requests it regularly, she's not an addict, which is a relief. (They talk about deliberately avoiding that in their advertising material, and it somehow works, or maybe dogs aren't as susceptible as humans to that kind of thing.) At some point, she'll have enough and want to play or sleep instead. And now I should probably say she also plays with buddies outside regularly, it's just that I'm not the one who gets to see that, so that's not what I write about.

Darn cute, @EighteenTwelve. Good for you! @Maharincess, not too long after we got our German Shepherd puppy, I ended up on crutches. And as luck would have it, Mr. Mimi needed knee surgery when she was six months old. It was a great look, his and hers crutches, and a bouncy pup in between. Now hubs wasn't on his crutches long, but in preparation for when he was, we got a used treadmill off ebay and trained our girl to walk on it. It's worked out so well for us, we use it to this day (three years later). We don't let her run on it*, she can run in our yard, in the fields or at the park, but it helps keep her moving enough to satisfy her needs and keep her super fit. It allows us to focus walks (three a day) more on socialization and/or interaction with hubs. And because we're fond of technology, we let her watch dog TV (a special cable channel with material designed just for dogs), doggy youtube videos, or listen to recordings to spice up her workouts. She really enjoys watching television, and will request that we turn "her shows" on for her. She'll also ask us to fast forward when they hit a "boring" patch, which I think is really funny. Sometimes I feel like a human remote control. I also got a bunch of agility equipment that I trained her to use in our yard. Basically I can stand around (or sit) while she runs the course in circles around me, but she gets a real kick out of it. And it's just a bunch of PVC tubing and a fabric tunnel that I can easily change around for variety and takes up virtually no space when packed away. I was thinking of trying Treibball next, which is good for dogs with built in shepherding firmware. And we play a lot of searching games, for treats, toys and people. While I really miss going for walks a couple of hours a day like I used to, having our pup really enriches my life, and keeps me from going as bonkers as I probably would otherwise. But I'd hate to have that benefit at her expense. Ultimately, using a bit of technology and equipment with plenty of love and creativity means she doesn't suffer any real negative consequences from my restrictions - her needs are being met, and we're both very happy. So please don't let the "guilts" stop you from being happy, too. There's no way a dog of yours isn't going to be given the best possible life. * At six months, that's an issue anyway, but as a rule, people treadmills tend to be a bit short for large dogs, and you don't want to train them to shorten their gait. You either need a long treadmill (there are some out there, but it makes it harder to pick up a good deal) or you shouldn't let them run on it. (You can tell by looking at them from the side on it.)

I guess I'm wired differently, because Johnny remains the character I like the least. I'd swap him for Pree in a hot minute. Repeatedly. So I was glad we had more of Pree here, and pleasantly surprised at how nicely done, too. Often expanding the material for characters who are very much "characters" doesn't end well (the "best in small doses" set), but this left me looking forward to more. Glad D'avin is back. Loved the goofy smile / humming. Super dorky and worked for me. (Overly cool characters can sometimes bug.) Liked the use of Khlyen, who was cool but didn't bug, and appreciate the indication of a more nuanced relationship with Dutch to come. I wasn't fond of the one note-ishness they've had. Clara was fine, didn't even mind the heavy telegraphing of possible romantic interest, so they must have hit something right there. (Wouldn't she be more cyber- than steampunk?) Nervous about Fancy. I like him way too much for this to zombify him. Fingers crossed the snark remains. Still, glad he appeared, and relieved he's still alive. Where there's life, there's hope. Really like the recurring character name dropping and exposition about Oldtown. It was handled organically and helps make their world feel more robust and three dimensional. All in all, glad this is back. Didn't even mind the credits. Kind of liked the colors, in fact.

IIRC, the deal with the clones was that they replaced you, theoretically elsewhere or maybe in a dangerous situation, but that you couldn't use one to multitask. You're basically in stasis until done using the clone. Which doesn't preclude One using a clone for whatever reason and the clone getting shot. Jace walked away before it w/should have turned to goo. But he couldn't use one to give himself time to rescue the crew. And the fact they turn to mush means leaving a dead clone behind won't make things "look good," unless we're talking security camera feeds. That's a problem I have with scifi, anyway, that today we're already capable of faking film footage quite convincingly, so it shouldn't be necessary to go to cloning lengths to fake it - you'd have Five mock up something on the computer instead. I'd bet the backstory with the witness/ wife's murder serves two purposes: 1) so that Six has something of value to offer the crew, as he'll recognize that Jace/One is fake, and 2) it has to do with the question of Three's guilt. We tend to think of that SL in terms of One and his loss, but it was also the OOC crime that Three was supposed to have committed. This allows for an out -> he didn't actually do it, he was wrongfully accused. Like they redeemed/cleared Six (undercover) and One (impostor), and Five (just misdemeanors). With Three, we've already seen that he was killing in self defense after having been wrongfully accused of patricide, so somewhat less guilty than it initially appeared. Other than that, mixed feelings on One's apparent death. Theoretically I like Jace as a character better than Moss (although Moss could have provided an interesting insight into a system where corporations have become the dictators/government, but I don't think they really figured out how to use him that way). But I felt the actor was kind of weak, and his Jace was even harder for me to take than his One/Moss. Here's hoping they use him more sparingly this season. One was frequently pretty damn annoying. I was okay with Six's "betrayal" of the crew, because it made enough sense. I wasn't always 100% sold, but it worked well enough. What really didn't work for me was his whole "they're criminals" schtick, where we all know (Six included) that he had a meltdown while undercover and killed a bunch of people in cold blood. I'm really not okay with that. Even if they were murdering terrorists, there still should have been due process. Of course, knowing his bosses knew the attack was going to happen makes it worse, and makes you wonder how dirty the law here is, but then he definitely needs to get off the self righteous trip. I think he can replace One as moral compass quite nicely, particularly because he's far more competent, which provides a counterweight to the moral nattering. Here's also hoping they tone down the Five and her annoying!girl persona. I'm about ready to throw her out of an airlock at this rate. Calling it now: Nyx joins them, but won't betray them, because they can't possibly have two season finales in a row with POC betraying the crew. (Can they?) None of the other new characters made much of an impression on me but the guard ("highlight of my day"), except Franka P., who I irrationally dislike and hope doesn't appear much. (Not sure why, either. I must have really hated her in something.)