shapeshifter

I like the episode titles. Like: "[Imitation is] THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY." "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"—except for maybe when there are half a dozen of them hidden in a drawer. A drawer ajar. And the toast. Yes, he was drunk, but as a person of unrestrained desires, Peter's personal agenda (of discovery) was bound to trump the mission's. But we also saw him as a considerate lover (in contrast to Other Claire's first). It looks like they might both choose "love" over their respective companies' agendas. As a viewer, I am too cynical to believe in "love" without a lot of convincing. Especially from these characters (I could easily believe that Other Howard loved the baker). But I could see Other Claire deciding the people who broke her legs and took her childhood friend away are not the real good guys.

I don't see what the point would be, since Wyatt already made it clear that he's finally accepted Jessica's death, has given up trying to save her, and has moved on. How would she be brought back if he was the only one who was ever interested in doing so? I seriously doubt that Carol, Emma, and Rittenhouse give a damn. Maybe I'm being paranoid because of my insane hatred of love triangles, but I'm tempted to put my response in spoiler tags to prevent some love triangle loving writer from the show from reading it (heh). But an excuse for a Wyatt-Lucy-Jessica (Wyatt's dead wife) triangle could be easily manufactured out of Rittenhouse's fear that a team of Lucy and Wyatt will somehow prevail over Rittenhouse—maybe even through Lucy-Wyatt progeny—and then, egads, our lovely little time travel show would be saddled with both a love triangle plot and a baby plot—who would likely be a frackin' Star Child.

Wow! And yes!:

Yes, but the desk interviews I've seen have been mostly duds. I wonder if it has more to do with the unrehearsed nature of the desk interviews, or if the format is deadening as well.

They should've just gone with Cubanistan (IMO).

Yes. However, living in the Chicago area where long term corruption in the department has been topic here of investigative journalism, law suits, etc., I can except that it might only now begin to be dealt with in the show's universe, and maybe this episode's introduction of the new ADA will usher in a sea change—or at least a little course correction. But, yeah, seriously, to be realistic, the writers should have all along at least had some character acknowledge that when someone behaves as Cassidy did and still keeps his job, that he is definitely getting away with something that he shouldn't be.

Good thing his name was easy to sign and not JingleheimerSchmidt or something like that! Hah! Most convenient perp name of the 21st century!

Oh! Right! I was just thinking she had one too many tokes—and I was gaging the effects by 1970s grades.

Howard might have thought that if the bad luck (Bernadette's dad dying) happened, it would make his (Howard's) life less stressful and not be his fault because he had tried to prevent naming their son after a still-living grandfather—so Howard might not have wanted to mention it. And Bernadette did already say her dad was dying "eventually." But, yeah, I wonder if that was in an earlier version of the script. It seems like it would have fit in, and would put an entirely different spin on Howard's objection to naming their son after her father. And didn't Howard and Bernadette's dad reach an understanding anyway? I hope this happened in an alternate universe.

Ostensibly, yes. But on a show where every word has to count, maybe another reason?

Yes, it was refreshing (and more realistic) to have the actual birth happen off screen. However, an equally big pet peeve of mine regarding late pregnancies on TV is the mother vociferously complaining about how she just wants to get the baby out of her. Am I really so different from most women who have given birth? Even though all three were a week "overdue," I was never in a hurry to get to the labor and postpartum pain part. And never did I have everything ready. My water broke with the first as I was sitting at a sewing machine finishing up a baby quilt--which did not get completed for another six months.

Ah, but that would have required Brian to "bare [his] soul," and he wasn't about to do that with anyone just yet. The one plothole that bugged me was that neither the mom nor SVU in all the months leading up to the courtroom scene had ever suspected that the older brother had to have been molested by his pediatrician too. I thought they did a great job of rehabbing Cassidy's character into the lives of the squad without it seeming like a retcon or otherwise inconsistent. At the beginning they flashed the names of two writers on the screen that did not seem familiar to me. Maybe that's why the script was overall better than what we've seen as of late.

So no car radios were involved. As someone who gets migraines and hives from scented products people apply to themselves and their clothes and environments, I kind of wish this would happen more often.

I'll theorize a bit: There was some confluence of electrical shorts and fuel leaks that were ignited when the car was started and the tiny amount of electrical power sucked into the cabin via the radio caused the kaboom.

How did I miss this? Groundbreaking! Or less so (in terms of physics rather than fashion). And an actually sensible reason for Hannah not to get killed for making fools of the kidnappers! So I guess the evil business man was originally listed as "Double Crosser" in the script and that morphed into the name of "Cross" which unfortunately meant Hannah's sign of the cross had to refer to his name rather than his being a double crosser—or something like that? The texting driver who killed the FLOTUS looked so sad and repentent. Yup. I predict Prezident Good Guy will magnanimously forgive him when he (POTUS) realizes he needs to forgive for his own mental health. Please tell him to send me my counseling fee via direct deposit. ETA (Most important of all): Was I imagining a non existent future plot point when I thought Emily seeing imperiled Aaron realized how hot and heroic he is and that was why she baled on Turks and Caicos with shlubby looking Seth? Now I think I know why they gave him a neck beard instead of a dapper goatee.

I was assuming that it was essential to the plot and character development that Baldwin did not actually complete having sex with the barista, but maybe not, and, ITA, more was shown than was necessary or useful, regardless of whether the scene was plot-important.

Given the eyeroll not-Lester and Paige shared, I hope she dumps Walter and runs off to the particle excelerator with Ralph. Then it can turn out Walter and chemist girl are just sibling-ish. This was my favorite episode in a long time (until the last few minutes). I LOLed at the shot of Happy's hair after the air blaster. I really appreciated the cause of the near disaster being a groundhog instead of Scorpion for a change.

That's an interesting idea. Maybe Other Clare made an excuse for not wanting to have sex with him because of hormone changes and/or exhaustion after the baby was born, and maybe even encouraged him to hire women for that purpose. I'm probably going to start reading the recaps at counterpartstars.wikia.com http://counterpartstarz.wikia.com/wiki/Act_Like_You've_Been_Here_Before

Is there any health related reason that Judd Hirsch might have been reading his lines off of a cue card? I mean, he is 82, which is an age when certain afflictions can occur. I noticed the difference in the scene blocking so he isn't face to face with the actor to whom he speaking as he would have been in earlier episodes. More to the point: There were no pauses that are essential for comedic timing. The other possible reason could be that the pauses were edited out for time for commercials, which would be a horrible thing to do, but there are lots bad choices being made these these days for seemingly justifiable reasons. Is this the first time they had Randy saying Tush's punch lines right before he said them? The only reason I can imagine for doing that is to be sure the audience knows that Tush is joking.

I wanted to like this show—even as just relaxing, mind numbing, therapy TV. But I feel like the boy who announced that the emperor had no clothes here. I spent most of this episode trying to decide which was worse: the clunky dialogue or the reading of the dialogue, and, OMG, the famous author character's adult daughter sounded exactly like a middle schooler reading an essay too fast with a flat affect. Sorry.

It does sound like "anxiety," but I'm not a mental health professional, and I don't play one on TV, heh. I've sought professional counseling and tried medications off and on since the 70s—some with better results than others. I recently started seeing a therapist/"life coach" again and was pleasantly surprised by both the quantity and the quality of practitioners available today, which I suspect is in part because health insurance companies and the large employers whom they serve through insurance benefits have created a market to "fix" employees who are not performing optimally. So you might try making an appointment, or you could first read up (libraries are free) on "cognitive behavioral therapy" and "mindfulness," which might give you enough tools and techniques to turn off the sweat reaction (I hate it when that happens!) or at least acquaint yourself with the techniques, which might speed up the process if/when you do see someone, which can save time and money.

I'm guessing the use of the Nazi-type is supposed to serve as a universally familiar archetype so the viewer can identify this type within this fictional world—but, honestly, until you pointed it out, @scrb, I had missed it. I've been assuming she is representing the very scary legendary Slit Mouth Woman of Japanese culture (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuchisake-onna), but to me, her character is more annoying than terrifying, and I don't think they were going for a character that annoys to death—although if there isn't already a comic book villain "The Annoyer," there should be.

Yes. What Peter Quayle was reading:

Well, speaking from experience (mostly second hand) of too many years, there typically are other victims. However, now that you mention it, it would be an SVU story that hasn't been told (IIRC) to have just one raped victim of a perp.

Not just fluid identities, but fluid gender identities--I guess? The other side is going all Walternate on "our" side--but did "we" really infect them with the genocidal plague? And, if so, who thought it was a good idea (besides those wanting to make trillions off of resources)? I mean, for example, my uncle would have preferred to meet his dead sons' counterparts rather than have beach front property. Bad example. He sort of does have beach front property.