Perfect Xero

I liked Beth(?) saying that Pat should work for NASA, since his talents are probably kind of being underutilized running a garage when he can build flying cars and giant mech suits. If they'd only had it in the first episode I'd have taken it for an Easter egg, but I don't think they would have included the lantern and had an an active part of the plot/references if they didn't intend to have a Green Lantern on the show at some point. As to Pat himself being Green Lantern, well, I imagine that a few green energy blasts would be easier on the CGI budget than a CGI Mech suit.

Grains of Paradise is definitely still a specialty order in most of the country, but Tapioca Flour and Apple Jelly are both usually stocked at the local Kroger where I live (not a major city, to be sure). I think I might have had to find Tapioca flour on the Health Food isle in the past rather than with the other flours. Granted Good Eats shoots in the Atlanta area and AB spends a lot of time in the NYC area doing other food Network things, so he probably has a pretty skewed sense of what's widely available at the mega mart.

Toby always seemed to prefer Bay to Daphne, which was even true in the various AU/dream episodes. Which is why Toby was always one of my favorite characters on the show even though they gave him some real clunker storylines. She came back in one of the later seasons to reveal to Kathryn that she had dementia and was moving to Europe with her friend, it was either outright revealed or strongly hinted that she and the friend were in a lesbian relationship. They more or less ignored her being a racist and having treated Bay like crap before.

From Uncle Matt's POV his sister and her husband made him the legal father of their kid with no warning, left him with enough money to live on for a couple of years, told him that he was the only one they could trust (aka, there's no one that YOU can trust or tell about this either), took off into the night with no further explanation, and promptly died under suspicious circumstances. He probably decided that he had to keep as low a profile as possible to avoid drawing the attention of whatever they were running from, so I don't think he'd have viewed it as an option to just leave and pursue a career in tech or whatever his dreams might have been as if he hadn't just got dropped into the middle of some sort of spy thriller. It doesn't justify the way he treats his nephew, but that's a whole lot of paranoia, stress, and responsibility to get dropped on you from out of nowhere.

The show wasn't really explicit in what Henry's involvement was. Their entire conversation was text, which makes it questionable about who was on the other end, He's looking at something on his phone the next day, but it could just as easily be a funny meme. I'm thinking that Cindy is a super hacker or a technopath who took control of his phone or spoofed his number. Henry thinks Yolanda sent those pictures to someone else and was cheating on him.

I don't know about the studio, I was always under the impression that Network interference (which is obviously different from the studio) and S&P went down quite a bit when they switched to UPN. I always thought it was Joss "give the audience what they need, not what they want" Whedon railing against the fanbase who had become increasingly critical and, in some cases hostile toward him and the creative direction of the show for various reasons and possibly some of the actors and writers who had issues with the direction the show had gone.

The people who are primarily watching the show for Ruby are probably not going to stick around whether they recast Kate or replace her with a new character. Ruby is gone either way. I can't imagine that they're going to hang around for the slim chance that Ruby might decide to come back as Kate at some point. I just can't see the logic in making decisions for the direction of the show based around the fans of an actress who is leaving after 1 season.

From @VCRTracking in the Rise of Skywalker thread, thought it was more on topic here: Han's arc in ANH is that he's only looking out for himself, but through his friendship with Luke he joins the fight against the Empire to save what he loves. I don't recall Leia lecturing Han in ESB, I remember that she was upset that he was leaving, but that was pretty clearly more about her own personal feelings for him being hurt that he was going. Han's reason for leaving (That Jabba is sending bounty hunters after him and that there have been close calls, so he needs to clear up his debt for the good of himself and the people around him) isn't framed as him not caring about the Rebellion. The Rebel General agrees and understands even if he doesn't want to lose him as a soldier. Han doesn't need to be taught why to fight the Empire, because Han already figured it out for himself in ANH and ESB doesn't strip that away from him for the sake of having a new character teach him the lesson. Finn's arc in TFA is that he hates TFO but doesn't want to fight them out of anger, through his friendship with Rey he learns to fight to save what he loves as the reason to face down TFO. Even though he says he's only there for Rey he still does everything to help Han and the Resistance, he doesn't try to ditch them to find Rey, nor makes any mention that they should leave rather than helping to take down star killer base even though it's very dangerous for them. His actions show that he's 'in' with the Resistance. At the same time his refusal to give up on Rey is what she needs to be able to realize that she can make her own family instead of waiting on her parents to come back for her or some other hero to save her. She's able to follow Finn's example to stand up to Kylo Ren by listening to the Force. Finn's arc in TLJ is to treat his relationship with Rey as a one sided joke where he runs around yelling her name while wearing a leaking water balloon and she basically forgets he exists while becoming friends with the guy who put him in a coma, he's then stripped of his freedom and agency he spent the previous film earning by Rose, starts fighting TFO out of hate and anger because he sees some animals being treated badly (after they kept him as a slave) ... Then Rose crashes her speeder into him and teaches him he should, wait for it, fight to save what he loves instead of destroy what he hates. Finn's entire arc in TLJ is tearing down his entire character to rebuild him to basically where he was at the end of the previous film but giving credit for his growth and agency to Rose instead of himself. It likewise removes his role in Rey's growth from TFA so that Kylo Ren of all people can teach her that she doesn't need to wait for her family to come back.

Going to respond in the Saga thread

Finn leads a Stormtrooper revolt would have been a good story for his character. I certainly understand why people would have liked to have seen it, if Disney had inexplicably called me for advice on how to plot Ep IX, it's probably the exact story I'd have suggested for Finn because it seemed like the obvious path for his character after TFA. JJ went with a story that Finn wasn't the only one to leave TFO, he wasn't alone, he had a family of other troopers who also walked away because they, like Finn, had listened to the Force telling them that what they were doing was wrong. Instead of fiery speeches inspiring them, it was about the idea that you can choose to be a good person on your own no matter what circumstances you grow up in. It's also the clearest example in the film of the idea that The Force isn't just for a select few, not just the powerful "bloodlines" or even just the Jedi and the Sith who move things with their minds. It's for normal people and storm troopers too. I think it was very powerful in its own way to see Finn come to peace with who he is and his history by finding that shared bond with his people. While I understand why people who didn't like TLJ might not like the direction they went with Finn and the troopers in Rise, I find it a bit odd that many of the same people who I saw around the web praising TLJ/Rian for subverting expectations and making the force "for everyone", are apparently quite upset that JJ didn't go with the obvious story where Finn gives the stormtroopers an inspiring speech and they all switch sides, and instead made his story about how the Force is there for people who aren't powerful Jedi from famous Jedi and Sith families.

I don't know, he seems to have surrounded himself with a fairly diverse group. My guess is that with his wife's death he's more of a Thanos style environmental extremist who is planning to save the human race by killing half the population.

So ... I find myself wondering if Icicle is Courtney's father. Sure, there's the issue of Courtney's Mom not recognizing him, but he had a teammate with mind powers, so that's not a deal breaker. He looks enough like Joel McHale that blurry pictures of one could pass for the other. He seems interested in Courtney's mom and rearranges his plans for the town to preserve a theater she likes, and the giant coincidence of her hometown happening to be the place Icicle is creating his perfect community and her getting a job offer to return now makes some sense if there's an existing connection between the two of them.

My time heavily reading DC and Helena Wayne's time as a key character have almost no overlap, so even if Ryan is Helena and not a total random it's a pretty poor compensation for disrupting the major storylines and character relationships for me.

Having the change as part of the plot would mean they'd need to bring Rose back if they ever wanted to have a flashback to Kate at any point after childhood. Would be limiting to the writers. Also if they face swapped Kate to start next season it would make it much harder to get away with whatever Bruce Wayne/Tommy Elliot shenanigans they have planned without team Bat quickly realizing he isn't the real Bruce.

Endings are predetermined. Traditionally most wrestling matches are not rehearsed extensively in advance, they go over the ending, the general flow/story of the match, and a few big moments and then improvise the rest of the match in the ring based on what is and isn't working and the crowd reaction. If two wrestlers haven't worked together before they'd go over any particular/unusual moves they use and how to bump (protect yourself) for them. In WWE there's usually an agent (a former wrestler) who helps them communicate before the show and figure things out. For the most part once you know the basics of wrestling you can take most moves with just a few descriptors of the set up and the bump. Some more advanced sequences might require some sort of preshow walk through or rehearsal, but you don't have to have those in a match, particularly in a TV match, which tends to be shorter. One wrestler has the "call", usually whoever is working as the heel (villain) but sometimes the wrestler with the most experience and tells the other what moves to do next while the match is going on. Rarely (if both wrestlers are inexperienced) the Ref might be the one to call the match. Some wrestlers did prefer to more extensively plan out their matches beforehand, and sometimes even rehearse the entire match for the biggest show. Macho Man Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page were two of the bigger stars who liked to do this, but they were an exception. In recent years it's gotten a bit more complicated, NXT (the training league) has a much lighter schedule and is known for more extensively planning out matches and sometimes rehearsing it or at least certain sequences in the match, with the help of one of the agents/trainers. Then wrestlers would get to the main WWE roster and be expected to adjust to the traditional formula of a less planned out match, which would lead to issues. WWE in recent years has indeed become known for sudden changes of direction, wrestlers being called up or shifted to another show with little notice and match results being decided or changed the day of the show. IRL Paige says she was told she was being called up and was winning the day before the show. It wouldn't be unusual for her to have not told her family she was going to win, either to protect against it leaking or in case it was changed at the last minute.

Until Sheldon freaks out because Leonard made a protocol mistake and quarantines him to his room for 2 weeks

I don't know that it would be that easy for him, Sheldon absolutely hates having his routine disrupted and has very specific tastes. He'd go crazy if his thai place switched to a reduced menu or some of the item substitutions the stores would throw at him. "What do you mean they didn't have Spaghetti?" "They were sold out, we got Linguini instead?" "But I can't make Spaghetti with little hot dogs cut up in the sauce with Linguini! Then it would be Linguini with little hot dogs cut up in the sauce. That's absurd!" Then some delivery driver would ignore the no contact order and be waiting on the other side of the door when Sheldon opened it ... Without a mask.

"A little bit of work" meaning that he needs a year to create a Snyder cut of the film because they didn't already have one sitting around?

I wonder if the post covid schedule was an issue for her. They're basically going to try to delay production this upcoming season, then turn around and get back on the normal schedule for the next season, which would mean a short break between seasons. Well it could be hard if they wanted to fight her on it, they could block her from appearing in other projects. But they can't force her to show up to work, so if she held out they'd have to be prepared to shoot around her absence or delay production, .so they'd probably just rather move on since it's still early in the show's run rather than have a big public fight with their big name star over it.

I had the Simpsons Christmas Special VHS as a kid, for whatever reason it was I think an Aunt gave it to me for Christmas one year and it ended up being the one Simpsons episode I was allowed to watch until I was in 8th or 9th grade, so I must have seen that episode dozens of times. Kind of amazing seeing an actual flashback to it, complete with 4:3 aspect ratio.

On the shows, sure, but this isn't accurate to real life. According to his Facebook page the Real John Atkins went to college in South Carolina where he now lives and has been working in sales/finance. He was also Class President in high school and posted a link to a video of his graduation where he gave a speech. The whole repeating grades over and over and ending up the school janitor thing seems to be a show invention to keep the character/actor around.

Obi Wan and Yoda went into hiding because the Empire/Sith had completely taken over the Republic and were using their galaxy spanning resources to kill every Jedi they could find, they made an effort at taking down Palpatine that failed, and (as we see with Luke in ESB/Jedi) the presence of a force user Vader or Palpatine can identify only makes it harder for any sort of resistance group to stay hidden. They also told Bail where they were going before they left. Their going into hiding wasn't selfish, it was practical, it gave the Rebellion the best chance to grow and stay hidden, while allowing them to preserve the Jedi knowledge/teachings to pass on in the future. And they let their ally know where to find them in case he needed their help. Which is how Leia knows where to contact Obi Wan when the Death Star shit hits the fan, and why he's quick to set off to help her when he gets her message.

I don't think they dated in real life, IIRC there was one of those closing segments with the home movies where the arrow pointed at the real Brea and said "too cool to date me" or something like that.

Having Bobby Caldwell playing when you meet someone is basically a dating cheat code.

I don't think he'd have written them during principal photography on TFA, But writing a rough draft script doesn't necessarily take that much time, they're often not much more than fleshed out outlines. and JJ has experience producing scripts quickly for TV. So I can imagine the if he wanted to have a basic structure for the story going forward as he was writing TFA he might have written a couple of rough scripts during the early stages of production on 7 for 8 and 9.