shapeshifter

We do discuss this in the threads here, so... ;>)

He paints on old canvases? Or did Angel or Booth? Sorry. Pop culture knowledge fail.

"911" (or often "9/11") is the slang term. Prior to early 2002, "911" was always pronounced "9-1-1" and referred to an emergency phone call. I recall right after the event people referred to it as "September 11," and then when it became "Nine eleven" spelled "911," some TV announcers at first pronounced it"9-1-1" because that's how they were used to reading 911 aloud. Similarly, the terms "Holocaust" and "The Killing Fields" didn't exist at the times of the events. We don't now say "Hurricane Katrina," but rather just "Katrina." So, since this is only the first episode, I expect there to be a term for this event too, 3 years later. If not, there should be at least a character who asks why there isn't a name--perhaps a young school child. But that doesn't make sense either, because if there isn't a name, it is those school kids who would coin one.

Perhaps a silly question: What is the meaning of "The cord and the axe"?

Oh, but it's a snarker's dream title. And it looks like that's exactly what it is. *sigh*

Yes. Except for the door. It looked like it was painted by someone else. Maybe she does all her paintings on used canvases she gets from yard sales. I dunno.

Right. But I've been wondering too: Is that the reference they're making? It's Junior's mom, right? And we just learned via the voice of Monarch Julia that the dome wants the killing to stop, followed by Junior and Angie being shown to be still on their Kill Big Jim mission (at least I think that's the sequence; I might be off). So I'm guessing Angie gets the axe (literally and figuratively and every which way) to stop the killing (which makes no sense, but, whatever) but Junior (don't call me that!)/James gets spared because his mom painted a blood red stripe over a door somewhere--plus he refused to pull the plug on Barbie. Or was it just that the actor playing Mom could only manage to paint a simple stripe? As someone who does oil paint, I thought I saw a thought balloon caption that read: "This painting is harder than it looks," but it was probably just a storm warning crawl. I assumed Stephen King viewed the episodes prior to the one he had agreed to write and realized the characterizations of Angie (who quickly moved on from being chained up in a flooding storm shelter with nary a "bygones") and Linda (whose decision making revealed serious cognitive difficulties that should have precluded her from professionally carrying a gun) were so unworkable that killing them off was the kindest cut.

Yeah. I had been trying to fanwank that Datak had gotten sunburned in the prison yard, but it's not quite working.

LOL! If this were a Choose Your Own Adventure, that would surely be one of the alternate paths.When Nolan was ransacking Irisa's stuff for clues about what was up with her and he found the knife cases, were they empty? Datak and Stahma have clearly underestimated each other.

I don't think the words were even necessary. It's the visual I'm still trying to bleach out of my brain.

Me too, same reason. Plus John Piper Ferguson. Adam Baldwin never is the lead. He doesn't need to be, because his presence already fills the room. I wonder if they'll have a line (after they inevitably wipe out the Russians) about how they're relieved not to have to share the food. Pretty funny that the spoils of war are potato chips instead of liquor. Because the good guys are so wholesome and pure. JPF's character will taint that pool. Heh. I wonder if he'll bring out Adam Baldwin's character's snark at last. I wasn't sure what message exactly they were going for with having all the "Al Qaeda" faceless like they were not human, but then when they gave the one hostage taker a voice, I figured it might just be a budget thing.

I happened to read the book FlashForward before the show aired. I liked the book and was looking forward to the show. I read some interviews that I posted on TWoP about what went wrong. Basically, it was allegedly a case of too many cooks--or rather, too many head chefs wrestling for control of the plot. I haven't read the source material for this show (it wasn't available from the library by the time the show was announced), but, regardless of deviations from the original, I just hope egos don't get too involved.

Not so sure. I'd need to make/see a spread sheet.

This French's Mustard commerical message is about something more than mustard--more cringe worthy than funny: http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7KNe/frenchs-yellow-mustard-man-in-white-shirt

Great but tragic episode, in no small part because of young actor Cole Sand. I totally believed he had the syndrome he was portraying. The musical scene snippet at the end made me tear up.

I don't think it's gone off the rails yet. David Ridges in the enforcer for Malachi. Nighthorse is a lackey/henchman for Malachi, holding down Malachi's virtual forth while he's away. Malachi is punishing Walt by hurting those he cares about--which is the same as last week's case in which the sons of the somewhat Mad Doctor were killed to avenge the deaths of potential tribal children.

Dogs can't see color like humans, but I don't think they can see anything that we can't--in a world without magic. But dogs do hear things we can't. So maybe rather than a doggie psychosis, they are being controlled by sounds the Leftovers can't hear. Maybe the Clean Plates had sensitive ears.

Could a different time travel instance of Kiera or Garza be Jason's birth mother? (I don't think I want that to be the case.) Or could Jason have done some other time traveling that would make Emily being his mother feasible? Let's see...Emily is pregnant now-ish, and sends baby Jason to a date in the future (2063?) to protect him. Then, as an adult in 2077, he goes back to 1992. Maybe the second trip is what cause his cognitive dissonance.

You might want to ask for advice on The free & legal to view online resource thread: where to see your favorite shows. Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed. Guess I'll give Taxi Brooklyn another try tonight. During the commercials I can switch back to Motive to catch glimpses of Louis Ferreira/Vega.

Substitute "Malachi" for "any of them" and I think that works.

Thank you. This is certainly not the only show that portrays this Bizarro, upside down reaction to tragedy or apocalypse, but it seems to take it to an extreme. Maybe that's the point?

Theory: The Disappered/Vanished/Clean Plate Club were taken because they were causing the Leftovers to "sin" in some way. I'm just not sure how the last 2 on that list would fit this model.

I'm wondering if it's just that the writers were all really bad at math and meant to have it be 20%.

From io9: The Exact Moment When We Gave Up On Falling Skies Ever Making Sense

Yes, everything is better with Dr. Kadar.About Lourdes: I watched on an iPad Mini, and it was a very dark scene, but I thought, once again, Lourdes has become the hostess with the mostest, in this case she is really a giant, malevolant dude from outerspace. No? Too bad they destroyed major league basketball, because those tall space aliens would've become superstars and had no trouble bending the masses to their will.