Pallas

I'll buy that Anne and Alice found common ground. Princess Alice was a workhorse; Princess Anne is a workhorse. While Anne had little in common with her gauzy maternal grandmother, Alice was Anne's father's mother, despite their differences. And Anne is her father's daughter: brusque, acerbic, keen and driven. I think we're meant to see her as, at first, supporting her father and doubting his concept, in equal parts -- then, when he really called on her, accepting his strategy and doing it one better. But there was no interview with Alice, and no John Andrews or other with the Guardian.

My guess is that Elizabeth observed a distinction between war zones and natural disasters. The monarch is the titular leader of the military; during the battle of Britain, bombings on native soil were acts of aggression by a belligerent foreign power. The Windsors could appear among the people -- "a little touch of Harry in the night" -- in the Crown's traditional role: to boost morale among the home front and the troops. But natural disasters are also known as acts of God, or Providence. There was probably no precedent for rallying the people against acts of God, and no traditional role to be followed. Which would explain why Elizabeth asked Wilson, twice, "To do what, exactly?"

Thanksgiving: still going strong after 398 years, because no one at the first one held power of attorney. Or a grudge.

The Profumo Affair, depicted in season 2's Mystery Man. The Profumo Affair had helped lead to the end of longtime Tory governance, so Blunt was also hinting that any connection to the Queen's consort -- if made public -- might do the same for the monarchy.

Yes! Two days ago I texted, "Though we've lost Alan Rickman, we still have Tobias Menzies to smolder from the brains on down."

It's not only that the BCC broadcast its interview with the Duke of York on the same date that Netflix dropped season 3 of The Crown. Nor that Stephen Ward and Jeffrey Epstein each committed suicide following his national disgrace and before his sentencing: Epstein's death took place well after season 3 was written and filmed. To me, though, the S3.E1 discussion between Anthony Blunt and Philip about the Duke's association with Ward -- osteopath, charismatic host to the illustrious and procurer of young women -- is intended to invoke the future Duke of York's association with Epstein: financier, charismatic host to the illustrious and procurer of adolescent girls. Just as the confiscated, shadowy picture of a man who might have been Philip, in the doorway of Ward's flat after a party, prefigures the public photos of Andrew with Epstein in Central Park or in the window of Epstein's New York "party mansion" (taken in 2010 and published by the Daily Mail in 2011). I'm not sure where creator Peter Morgan is going with this. Is he equating Elizabeth's helpmeet with her erstwhile favorite son? Or is he contrasting them? Down the road, of course, there will be other public scandals where British intelligence/security is linked to recording and leaking information that directly targeted specific members of the royal family, in themselves. Is Morgan tossing all these stories into one stew called "what is royal highness in the information age"?

And that's why season 2. The marital partnership grown up between Elizabeth and Philip puts the crown on their story. All conveyed behind the eyes and within the gestures of both actors. Early in their first scene, Tobias Menzies took one GIF from Matt Smith's Philip -- that suggestively equine bridling of his head in wordless commentary -- and seemed to distill it through his core and out again, with no ado. "Right," it said. "Here we are." "Settled sovereign." The word that the courtier avoided was maturity, and that's what's new in the second of the two portraits of the Queen. But both profiles sharply defined and in their clarity, in stark contrast to the public and hidden face within the Rubens portrait -- symbolizing Blunt and the Establishment over which the Queen reigns.

Thank you! So Kevin did The Manny for eight years -- from ages 28 to 36? I never had that impression. (Though it would explain his being even wealthier than he appears, and Kate's financial independence.) Can you remind me what established that the pilot taping took place in 2008?

Rebecca sought out William, both times. The first, when Randall was still an infant (it was William who suggested that Rebecca change the baby's name from Kyle), and the second when Randall was nine. William was already sober during Rebecca's first visit; he was still sober and in the same apartment when Rebecca returned, nearly ten years later.

Best-laid plans and bans. Plans: (1) by: Jackie and Becky; for: the Lunch Box; type: business plan; target: Darlene. (2) by: Mark; for: Thanksgiving; type: ?; target: ? Bans: (1) by: Dan; for: ?; type: ?; target: Odessa.

I'd call it a statistical inevitability.

There are daily "mainstream" tabloids in the U.S. But these are city-based, i.e., New York's Post and Daily News, and Boston's Herald. They headline local and national news (especially political news and local government scandals) and feature extensive sports and entertainment coverage. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation owns a number of these daily tabloids in the U.S. and Australia as well as the U.K., along with The Times (U.K.), the Wall Street Journal (U.S.), and Fox News. In New York City and nationally as well, the combined circulation for the Post and Daily News is slightly greater than that for the NY Times.

Yes, we saw the family pack up and leave in a montage at the end of last season. We also saw one spouse show the other a photo listing for a Philly townhouse, maybe with the address obscured. But this Media topic article about a recent Philly location shoot places the Pearson home in Spring Garden.

I hope they do. But Zola was grieving her father there and then. That's when she needed comfort. DeLuca was with her; he'd been asked to be responsible for her; she was hurting and she'd already shown Dr. You're-Not-My-Father what was hurting her. Meanwhile, as DeLuca also knew, Zola's mother was not available because she was in jail. And like Meredith, every other character who'd ever known Derek had something better to do -- half of them somewhere else, across town.

That's never been spelled out. Joanie hadn't turned two when Noah was imprisoned. Sometime after that, while still living in Manhattan, Alison told Cole that Joanie was Cole's daughter, and the exes shared custody while also working together on the Lobster Roll. Six months before season 3 begins, Alison had her breakdown: Joanie had just turned four -- the same age as Gabriel when he died -- then became ill and didn't seem able to get well. Spiraling, terrified of her incapacity as a mother, Alison left Joanie with Cole and Luisa on yet another stormy night in Montauk, and disappeared (to seek in-patient care for her PTSD, anxiety and depression). At the beginning of season 3, a recovering Alison leaves the facility and NYC: she moves to Montauk, taking an apartment there and furnishing Joanie's room with Gabriel's toychest and a dollhouse that Alison builds for her. Cole and Luisa aren't having it, at first, but though they sue for sole custody, Luisa eventually relents and even helps Alison regain physical custody. Luisa is guided in part by how much Joanie not only adores Alison, but trusts her. Noah comes to see Alison in Montauk mid-season (after attacking himself in his kitchen, the night he argued with his student Audrey about Descent and his/his avatar's treatment of Alison/her avatar). He negotiates another day with her on Block Island, in exchange for signing the divorce papers she's sent him. They end up missing the last ferry and spend the night speaking of their childhoods. How Alison's greatest fear is to emotionally and physically abandon Joanie as her mother did her. How Noah's worst impulse is to flee women he loves, to cut himself free of their pain, as he did with his mother. When they return to Montauk, he signs the papers, leaves with good grace, then hallucinates being driven off the road by the guard. What did Alison tell Joanie? Something like, "Your father and I weren't together when I was pregnant with you, and that's when I married Noah. He helped me take care of you when you were a baby. But he had to go away, and I wanted you and your father to have each other. So your father and Luisa and I figured it out. And Noah moved to California to be near his own kids, so here we are..." With questions answered only if asked : "He went to jail for something he didn't do" and "I don't know; but when people are unhappy, sometimes that's why they do things. To really feel it."