ElectricBoogaloo

Pray comes clean:

Who We Are: MJ Rodriguez Identity. Family. Community: Looking Good

I know this is all part of Elektra's redemption arc (as well as some "it's the last season so let's just go nuts") but I still love that she is sharing her wealth with everyone. It's about time someone bought some new furniture for Blanca's place! Obviously Elektra is being reckless because she thinks she's invincible now, but I was just glad that Blanca got a new dining room table. Now if only we can get Elektra to spring for a few cans of paint to freshen up that apartment. I don't care how silly it was that Blanca, Elektra, and Lulu tried on wedding gowns while they were shopping for Angel's dress. It was still fun to see! And it was so nice to see them all happy, angst-free, and just having fun. There has already been so much death and sadness this season that it was really great to have an episode with some regular fun and laughter. And if you can't have fun going wedding dress shopping, having a spa day, and throwing a bachelorette party, that's ain't right. The bridal shop owner was an ass, and I felt bad about how much harder it was to buy a dress back in the day. If that happened now, you could just find out the name of the designer and the style of the dress, do a quick google, and buy the exact same dress from any number of other stores. It still would have been doable to find the same dress elsewhere in 1994, but it would have taken a lot more legwork and phone calls. I know that Papi wants to do right by his son and I totally support that. But I can see why Angel totally freaked out at the thought of becoming a mother overnight. I'm sure she will end up coming around, but it was a pretty huge bombshell to get dropped on her so I get that she needs some time to take it all in. I'm guessing that once she sobers up, has some time to process all that information, and gets used to the idea that Papi has a son, she will end up being okay with it.

Elektra: How many bedrooms? Real estate agent: Three. Elektra: I'll have convert one into a walk-in cedar closet. Real estate agent: Interest rates are down to 9%. Elektra: Borrow to buy? Puh-leeeeze. I'll pay cash. Elektra: Years ago I went to a psychic who told me I was the reincarnation of Cleopatra. I said, "Then why am I still eating at Roy Rogers?" Elektra: I'm currently eating caviar daily. It's full of B-12 vitamins which keeps my mind sharp so I can read a bitch. Elektra: I was destined to have more coins than Scrooge McDuck. Elektra: The mafia was wonderful to work with! Elektra: I have become the Madonna of the phone sex industry. Lulu: I got me a new man. Angel: Who is he? Lulu: Jerome. Angel: Jerome? The bouncer from the strip club? Elektra: The pipe must have really affected your critical thinking skills. Lulu: Why can't y'all just be happy for me like a family for once? Why can't you be happy for me? Blanca: That's right. We need to support her, not judge her. Elektra: Oh, please, I'm not falling for this poorly written monologue. I know what clean looks like and it don't look like you. Elektra: Darling, this is an honor more important to me than my 1104 trophies which are currently in storage right now because they clash with my new furniture. Blanca: [Angel] looks like a Puerto Rican Lady Diana. Mafia guy: The new call center in St. Louis is doing double the business we expected. We were thinking about expanding into Canada. Elektra: Horny has no borders.

3.5

Andrew Scott's iconic dance in The Pursuit of Love

Andrew Scott's iconic dance in The Pursuit of Love

John didn't put the gun in the tackle box specifically for the fishing trip. It was shown to be in there earlier in the season.

Cathy definitely went into detail about how Corrine spent all Friday getting her hair done at the beauty salon, soaking in the bathtub, doing her makeup, etc. in preparation for Chris Sr. coming home but since there was no mention of a nanny, at the very least she took good care of Cathy and Chris. In If There Be Thorns, Christopher tells Corrine that he overheard her telling Chris Sr. to sue to try to get some of the money that was owed to him, so I guess Corrine not so secretly missed being rich. I guess this is a good time for a poll: who thought that Corrine was telling the truth when she said she was trying to make the kids sick enough to sneak them out of the attic? And who thought she was trying to kill them to destroy any evidence that they ever existed because she didn't want to risk losing her inheritance? My grandmother had a similar thing happen to her. She came from a very rich family with servants and she went to boarding school. Her parents disapproved when she got married so they disowned her. She had never done any sort of manual labor in her life, but she and her husband initially worked on a farm. A few years later, he got a job in another country so she was raising four kids by herself and working multiple minimum wage jobs to keep a roof over their heads. From what I remember, Jillian's childhood in Texas was not nearly as luxurious as the life she lived with Tony. Her father was a foreman at an oil field. After he died, her two sisters Peggy and Beatrice (who she claimed had always been jealous because she was sooooo pretty and their dad's favorite) supposedly treated her like Cinderella, stealing her jewelry, throwing away her makeup, and making her do all the chores, but Jillian was a pretty unreliable narrator so I don't know how much of that I believe. Jillian's original fairytale story was that Jana intended to have Cleave Van Voreen marry one of Jillian's sisters but when he saw Jillian, he fell in love with her immediately and proposed. The real story was that Jillian got knocked up by some guy named Chester so Jana was trying to find a husband and marry her off as quickly as possible. Jillian never told Cleave that Leigh wasn't his. According to Leigh, they had the nicest house in town so it sounded like they were pretty well off, but not nearly as loaded as Tony. Of course, that's all relative because one of Jillian's complaints was that Cleave's company had several ships but that Cleave didn't have his own private yacht. When Heaven initially arrived at Farthy, Tony told her that he wasn't her biological grandfather. He said that Leigh's "real" father Cleave had died two years earlier. In Fallen Angel, Tony said that Cleave left money to Jillian (which is kind of strange since he married Mildred a few years after Jillian divorced him). Leigh already felt that Cleave was neglecting her, but after he married Mildred and then cancelled on her at the last minute when he was supposed to come to Boston and have dinner with her, she felt he had totally abandoned her. As to why Cleave didn't leave any money to Leigh, Jillian said that Cleave couldn't put himself back together after Leigh disappeared. Leigh had been gone for about 15 years by the time Cleave died, so he probably assumed that she was dead so there was no point in leaving money for her.

On an "I watch too much tv" note, it made me laugh that Susan from Friends played Susan the author in this episode.

Re: the gun in the tackle box - in one of the very early episodes (I think it was episode 2), John was shown with the tackle box in his truck and it already had the gun inside. I'm not saying that exonerates him from the theory that he's going to kill Billy while they're up at the cabin, just that the smoking gun has been there all along. My guess is that John is the one who was sleeping with Erin but that a very drunk Billy was there the night that John killed Erin. I'm still trying to figure out the timeline because I thought the coroner said that Erin was killed between midnight and 2am. John said that he took Frank home around 2:30am (after he sang Uptown Girl but before he took a leak in the closet). Did John leave the bar with Billy, kill Erin, then go back to the bar and take Frank home? I always used to get the second/third cousins versus cousins once/twice removed mixed up, but "removed" indicates a generational gap, so once removed means the other person is either your parents' generation or your kids' generation. Twice removed means the other person is your grandparents' generation or your grandchildren's generation. Hope that helps anyone who has a hard time figuring out all the cousin stuff! Even though I knew Zabel's mom was going to blame Mare for Colin's death, it was still harsh to watch. The truth is that he was investigating this case. He should have been doing the legwork on all of those blue vans regardless of Mare's involvement in getting that information. Once he noticed the cigarettes, he should have been on guard, especially when a suspect leaves the room while being questioned. If he'd been quicker pulling his gun out, he wouldn't have been shot. Poor Bethy. I can understand her being relieved though. Dylan is a psycho. At least his friend told him to stop when he was threatening Jess with a gun. Thank goodness DJ isn't his kid because I wouldn't want someone like that raising a baby. She was exhausted because she has been working a lot. She said, "I slept three hours last night. I'm [at work] 'til 2AM here, and then I'm back cleaning offices at 6AM." I'm glad Mare is voluntarily continuing to go to therapy even though it's no longer required by the police department. She realizes and accepts that she needs help and she isn't quite where she needs to be. I totally understand Siobhan's anger now. I can't imagine how traumatizing it was for her to find her brother's body.

I agree that she's still working pretty hard. She could just sit back and count her money and then show up at the casino to do her shows, but she's trying to maximize her business opportunities with QVC, that pizza opening, the MC gig that her manager mentioned, etc. This all underlines the fact that even though she's an established name, she is still not just lying around doing nothing in between shows. We saw that she gets up early, reads lots of newspapers/magazines to stay informed, swims to stay in shape, and books extra appearances outside of her regular job. In contrast, Ava can barely bring herself to make an effort at this job even though she needs the work.

This is one area where I think the numbers don't lie and support her belief that they love the crap she's selling - if her stuff wasn't selling well on QVC, they wouldn't continue featuring her merchandise. It wouldn't be worth QVC's time unless her products were selling. I think the sales are probably some fans who will buy anything she puts her name on as well as regular QVC shoppers who are looking for affordable merchandise.

Made to measure challenge: I really liked Serena's striped dress. She did a great job lining everything up perfectly. I also liked that she used the old waistbands for the edges of the sleeves. Damien's dress was nice. I wish he hadn't added the pockets though. I love pockets as much as the next girl, but slapping some pockets on top of that dress ruined the nice lines. The dress looked like it was too big in the back but it fit well on the front. I didn't like the oily pieces of denim. The seams were lined up nicely on the front but not in the back. I think Farie's dress would have looked better if it had been made in a softer fabric. Making it with a stiff denim made the whole dress very stiff and it looked ill fitting.. Didn't she already do the same neckline that folds down in an earlier made to measure challenge? I liked Andrew's chevron dress. The diagonal zip was cute too. It was too big though. The judges were pointing it out in the back but it was too big in the front too. While I liked the red, white, and tan chevron section down the middle of Rebecca's dress, I didn't like the rest of the dress which looked too simple. It was a plain tank dress. I didn't like Adeena's patchwork dress. I also didn't like the pockets. I didn't like that she put the red painted section on the back. It also didn't fit well at all. Raph's wave dress was really cool. I didn't like the whale but I get why he included it. I just wish the dress had been a tiny bit more fitted. He deserved garment of the week. It was obvious how much thought and work went into creating this dress. I was pretty sure Adeena was going home after she came in last place in the first two challenges. Her made to measure dress wasn't enough to pull her out of dead last.

Transformation challenge: I didn't like Raph's one shoulder top because I'm a practical person. What kind of situation would I be in where I would want one arm covered with a full sleeve and the other arm completely bare? But the orange trim was nice. I wasn't crazy about Rebecca's dress for the exact reason that the judges liked it. I didn't like using the front of the jacket for the front of the skirt. I hated the brown trim on Andrew's dress? Poncho? I also didn't like how shapeless it was. Serena's dress looked the most transformed and wearable to me. She made some good decisions about how to use the fabric. The camo net skirt was cute. I liked the way she used the part with the label as the center of the halter top. Adeena's dress was a bit too shapeless for me. I didn't like how the front was longer than sides. I also hated the frinte. Damien's dress was surprisingly cute. Using the sleeves for the cross back was fun. I didn't like the bottom of the dress being uneven. Farie's cape had a really strong silhouette. Can we please have Esme model the outfits every week?

Joe wearing Patrick's suit did nothing for me, but Patrick wearing Joe's sequined jacket and sunglasses was hilarious. Damian is lucky that Serena told him exactly what to do since he is known for not following the directions correctly in the pattern challenge. I didn't like the brownish color combined with the greyish color for the front panels. It looked like there was an existing seam running up the brown pieces in addition to a seam that he sewed which I also didn't like. The left side being longer than the right side was bothering my OCD. And Esme saw where he didn't sew it correctly on one seam so the fabric wasn't lying flat. I liked the purple buttons though. Andrew's red vest looked very neat. I wasn't crazy about the sweater vest he made for himself out of recycled socks. It was just too lumpy. Farie's grey tweed vest was nice. I liked the light blue striped fabric on the back. But I agreed that the left side of the front being longer than the right side was a pretty noticeable mistake. It wasn't quite as bad as Damien's but still. And she didn't finish the strap on the back, hence the pin. I wouldn't have noticed the problem with the facing if Esme hadn't pointed it out. Rebecca's brown vest was okay from a distance but upon closer inspection, it looked like the tops of the two back pieces weren't the same level at the collar. The buttons were spaced unevenly. When looking at the back, it seemed a bit lumpy, like maybe the lining wasn't flat. Serena's gold brocade and black vest was a bit too, I don't know - 80s sofa? Magician's costume? But it looked very well sewn. I liked the red she used for the back. Someone said that Raph's turquoise striped waistcoat was very Raph and I agree. It was very colorful and cheerful. The purple he used for the back went well with the purple stripes on the front. It looked very neatly sewn. Taking apart the jacket completely before picking out which pieces to use for his pattern really paid off. Adeena, on the other hand, should have done the same. I didn't like how she had old seams and pockets everywhere. It made her waistcoat look very messy. No surprise that she came in last place. Raph and Serena were by far the best in this round. I think Raph won because they loved his fabric choices and how well he assembled the fabrics so seamlessly.

S7.E6 Original air date: 5/19/21

S1.E2: Sod and the City Original air date: 5/19/21

Ooh, Stella snitched on Chin? Fun fact about the real Vincent Gigante:

I consulted my old copy of Flowers in the Attic and they did not have a nanny in Gladstone (or if they did, Cathy didn't mention one). Their next door neighbor Mrs. Bertha Simpson was described as their most dependable babysitter but she didn't say how often she watched the kids. The only time Cathy brought her up was when she was cooking dinner and watching Cathy and Chris while Corrine was waiting to go into labor with Carrie and Cory. But Corrine was the one who made all the food for Chris Sr's big birthday party so I assumed that she usually made all the meals for the family. Later when Corrine helped Cathy and Chris clean the attic, Cathy said, "When we lived in Gladstone, we had a twice weekly maid who came in to do all the hard, dreary things that would redden Momma's hands and break her fingernails."

S2.E6: The Ballot or the Bullet Original air date: 5/23/21

From what I recall seeing of Regina and her mom interact over three seasons, 95% of Regina's issues with her mom are non race related. Gina gets annoyed because her mother is always nagging, nitpicking, complaining, being judgmental, and ignoring what Gina wants (like when she was telling the contractors to make changes to the restaurant in S1). She doesn't respect Gina's boundaries (coming over after being told Gina is busy). She insists that she is right and Gina is wrong. She's pushy and demanding (like getting mad because her daughter, who is trying to run a business during a pandemic, doesn't have time to have a same day picnic at the park with her so she just showed up at the restaurant). She treats her adult daughter like she's a not so bright child (telling her she should get a job selling closets). She either can't or won't read the room (when you can tell your kid is annoyed with you, that's not a sign for you to continue steamrolling her). Regina bites her tongue A LOT when she's around her mother. If anything, Shelly could handle things a lot better but she chooses not to. I don't recall them mentioning Sophie's birthday, just that Delilah gave her Jon's car after she got her license. Schools are a lot stricter now about birthday cut offs when enrolling kids in pre-K, kindergarten, or first grade than they used to be. My nephew's birthday is a week after the cut off and they would not let him enroll for first grade.

I'm pretty sure she's a high school senior which is why she was auditioning to get into that music school (and her friend just called to say that she got accepted at Harvard). It's the very end of the school year so she should be 18 though.

And on youtube in slow motion!

I know Kevin was totally freaking out, but dude, your friend just got hauled away by the cops and at no point in the ensuing hours did you think to call his brother to let him know? Thank goodness Maisha had the presence of mind to take out her phone and start recording. It looks like this is going to cause a huge rift between Jake and Kevin. Loved Papa coming to the hospital with his usual cheerfulness. I know that Otis is not a good guy, but I loved that as soon as he found out about Jake, he left the restaurant and went straight to the hospital. I get why Jake's brother wanted immediate revenge but that is not going to end well. Imani proving once again that she is totally ride or die. I can't blame Tiff for wanting to find the best home for her baby. It was clear from the beginning that the husband in that couple was very argumentative. I guess it was nice of him to show up to help his soon to be ex-wife try to adopt a kid, but man, you can't keep your cool for five whole minutes? No wonder you're getting a divorce. It's hard for me to feel bad about Emmett's extended freak out every time he saw Tiff and Dom interacting. Not only did he cheat, but he cheated with his business partner who Tiff knows and then he lied about it. That was just one bad decision after another. I was cracking up at Jemma's dad watching Kevin climb out of her window on his security cameras. I wonder how long he's going to hold onto that information before dropping it on Kevin and/or Jemma.