ItCouldBeWorse

As I mentioned earlier, Sterling's father died when he was 10. Even a fictional account of losing a parent before you really had a chance to know him might make him sad.

I would exclude military families for the purpose of this discussion because when you marry someone in the active military, you have signed on to the likelihood that you and your children will be left for long periods of time. The time to decide that that is not something you are comfortable with is before you marry, not when the spouse is about to leave. If your spouse's job unexpectedly adds on the condition that he or she must travel for long periods of time and that doesn't work for your family, then you need to discuss if your spouse can find another job. If he or she can't and that income is necessary, then you are going to be unhappy. If the income is not necessary, then you need to see if there is a way to compromise. I wish Jack would have asked Rebecca if she could limit tours to two weeks at a time, or perhaps one week a month. Since the band can't tour at all without replacing her as vocalist, perhaps this would have been an option.

Yeah, Matt was holding the dog during the "wedding". I thought they sometimes included the extra scenes because there was no time to use them in the main stories while still having previews. Jen did go home and change out of her white dress, though.

They could probably get away with it, as a doctor is unlikely to ask for proof of marriage if the grown kids go along with it and no one spills the beans about the divorce, but there could be inheritance/tax issues about any assets not held jointly, and if one of them wants to collect survivor benefits there could be difficulties. I wonder if they are filing joint taxes, since Joanne is likely the only one with earned income.

Room on the grump couch for two? I didn't think it was "cute" that Anna-Kat punched Oliver in the face. Schools usually have zero tolerance for violence, so I expect that Anna-Kat will eventually be suspended for her playground punching.

It was an interesting choice that Leland Bray did not directly threaten Anna's son to get the desired information, but attempted to use her fear of her son hearing her be tortured to do so. Since she was willing to blow up her compatriots to save her son, I assume she would have given up her information quickly if he had held a knife to the boy. I guess he likes kids? (Yeah, I know that he used him as a shield later, but that's when he was directly threatened.)

Solomon really seemed to enjoy hurting people, though. We saw them play at that with the pretend torture of the swimmer. The question is, when push comes to shove, would Solomon still be sadistic, and would Tom intervene? We've seen Tom do horrible things to get information before, but he doesn't enjoy it the way Solomon does.

She clearly had more disposable income than Maya's family. Money does make a difference. Also, the amount of time you must devote to intervening on your child's behalf (which could be related to the degree of disability) will affect how much time you devote to your house. If her daughter was the one with the walker, then, hypothetically, she might need less intervention from her mother than JJ does.

So, Amok Time minus the pon farr? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amok_Time

Stupid, yes, but he wanted to do it the "old fashioned" way, even if it got him killed, and his team lost as a result. He really wanted to!

I could be wrong, but I think we've heard the well story before. That's why Mitchell was able to recite it along with him. There is no way that a student at Caltech would have the ability to work every weekend during the school year and still perform at the level that Alex expects of herself. Yes, students have social lives and activities, but they also have problem sets and exams and work schedules are just not flexible enough.

Why was the school building unlocked?

Since the food was still on the table, I guess the staff was told to stay away. Did they show Red taking all their phones? Did no one have to use the bathroom after being locked up all night? I know there were sinks, but still. Were they standing up all night, or did they stand up because they heard Red outside but all agreed not to bang on the door? Didn't Marvin Gerard have to stay out of the country since his jail break, or did Red get a pardon for him, too?

Yes; that too. Whatever the news, find out ASAP. Also, shouldn't you minimize the number of people in the room with an active bomb? I am also trying to visualize if it is possible to cut 2 wires at exactly the same time with one tool. Wouldn't the cutting edge cut through one wire first? They weren't even on top of one another.

Also, Liz is rushing to work until Tom gets that call to go to NY, and now she has time to wait around for a babysitter?

So Tom is told to show up in NY for something having to do with his father's death, and neither he nor Liz remember that his father doesn't know that he is Christopher? Did that make sense to anyone?

For me it's Debra Winger's scene with her son in Terms of Endearment. And Robert Munsch's Love You Forever. If you are familiar with both works, you will sense a theme.

I haven't seen this mentioned here, but Sterling's father died when he was 10. Some of his tears on the show may come easily.

And also the knowledge that he had so much left undone, especially with his older daughter: "fix Rachel."

Without getting into a debate concerning the afterlife, I took that scene as more of William's expectation as he was taking his last breath; after all, he saw his mother at her peak (from his point of view), not as she actually was as he last saw her, yet his body was still old and frail, not that of a pre-addiction young man, which he would likely possess if the afterlife were consistent. Since he never met his father, he didn't have an image of him in his mind as he was dying. What actually happened after death, and who was waiting for him, is speculation, of course, but in addition to meeting his father, one could hope that he would see Randall's mother, as beautiful as she was when he first saw her on the bus. He said on The Tonight Show that he had to have surgery on his arm due to a few torn tendons. Maybe doing those push-ups with Sterling on his back took their toll. He said he owned the club, so in that context it makes sense. If he hadn't owned the bar, it would have been really silly. William seemed kind of socially awkward when young. I don't find it unbelievable that he wouldn't have called to say that his mother was sicker than he thought, and once she died, he got into the drugs and that was that. The cousins could have been Ricky's kids (and their spouses) who didn't exist when William last saw Ricky.

They had showed "Poems for my Son" in one of the early flashback episodes; I think William showed it to Rebecca when she made her second visit. I was actually surprised that Randall didn't come across it in the same drawer in which he found William's boyhood picture of him. Interesting perspective. To me it seemed a very logical slide into addiction. Drug addicts didn't start out being bad guys (well, maybe some of them). They started out, like everyone, with potential. Don't some people have the sort of biology where one try is enough to get them hooked on drugs or drinking? And he had no one to turn to after his mother's death, except Laurel, who was already addicted, as shown by her demeanor on the bus and when she entered William's mother's room before her death, so the slide into addiction was probably quite easy.

From the recap: "...he does some harm to his old therapist Dr. Poole (although we don't know exactly what yet and I'm kind of dreading finding out)." I thought that Division 3 did that and took the tapes of his sessions with David.

I completely agree about Sara and Ray. Why would Amaya have great sword skills?

I urge everyone to watch: http://www.usanetwork.com/playinghouse There have only been 18 episodes, so watching 2 at a time, you'll catch up quickly.

I don't recall what time period the episode was supposed to be set in (Roman Britain? Medieval Britain?) but Guinevere struck me as a very Boudicca-like figure what with her warrior-queen ways. It could be that her marriage to Arthur was political rather than romantic. So Stargirl is content being "the other woman"? Just pointing out that if one of the guys had been chatting up the (married) Queen and then decided to go in for a kiss without asking, some viewers would be mighty annoyed. Can you imagine if Mick did that?