atticdrama

I just took the whole situation as a plot point to use Sister Evangelina's gown (and reinforce her practicality and generosity) and tie her death to one of the episode's weekly births. Especially as wedding gowns were certainly not the big thing in the mid 20th century they are now. But be that as it may, the young woman did not strike me as selfish at all, but quite vulnerable and human. That's kind of the beauty of this show, everyone gets their full measure of humanity, no one is 100% villain or saint, they get to have flaws and virtues. The mother-in-law of the episode is first presented as pretty horrible, but eventually, we see that she's really OK and making the best of things and welcoming her son's new wife.

It's rather nice to see Alyssa grow into her voice, as it were. For whatever reason, perhaps because she isn't a quote/unquote fashion person she isn't vulnerable to Sam's "charms" and when he does his "drape pretty fabric on a dress form, tack it down in a few places, sew strategically" thing for the 25th time doesn't fall off her chair in astonishment. In this case, he didn't even choose the pretty fabric in question. Oh Kini. I get that Sam is a horrible little shit but don't engage. He's an infant. Treat him as such. I really like Alexander. I don't think he'll win it all but he's such a grown up and seems really smart. Ken also seems to have made leaps and bounds since his last appearance. I hope the meltdown they keep teasing isn't as bad as it looks.

It is instructive to read Kipling's own words. He wrote to Cameron Forbes, the US governor of the Phillipines from 1909 to 1913: "My fear (not that it's any of my business but we're all white men together) is that some fool Democratic spasm may land your people with a full-blooded modern constitution…. May Allah preserve your land [the Philippines] from this fate and enable you to continue your works in peace." His letters are are full of such items.

One could interpret "White Man's Burden" as a love poem, an ode on a Grecian urn, or as critical of imperialism, but this would not be supported by historical fact, the text of the poem or critical consensus.

Kipling wrote the poem overtly to support the US's imperialist efforts in the Philippines, at a time when the US was becoming a global power. This is a matter of historical record, not open to interpretation.

Re Kipling, I'll let the man speak for himself: Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go send your sons to exile To serve your captives' need To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child Take up the White Man’s burden In patience to abide To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride; By open speech and simple An hundred times made plain To seek another’s profit And work another’s gain And etc.

And Sood is just there to be a tragic and doomed example of the oppressed masses. a lot of the British characters are caricatures of evil or stupidity and made out to to be worse than they actually were. I don't really think they cared about her either, but they did care about rules, fairness, law, and a certain amount of class equality inside court rooms. All those Kipling virtues that McLeod and Sooni were talking about -- I loved the way she persuaded him through that "If," poem. The people least likely to care about the drowned woman would have probably been the high-caste Indians there was no demand of a jury trial because the writers of this show have written the Sood character as a symbol of the oppressed of the EEEEVIL of the British Empire. If there was realism and common sense and Sood might get off and go free - he couldn't be a hanged martyr now, could he? It doesn't seem to me that these comments have to do with accuracy or sloppiness (Kipling "values"!?!?!) but a fundamental disbelief that British rule in India was actually all that terrible or unjust. Sood was actually quite a complex character, to characterize him as some sort of plaster saint is pretty obtuse. I get it; it makes people uncomfortable, especially if they identify in some way with the group getting called out, but really, so what? Get over yourselves. Obviously Afrin was chosen as a member because Ralph wanted it to be so. Is this historically accurate? No. Does it make sense within the narrative confines of this world? Yes. I don't give a rat's ass about the "Miss Whelan" thing and don't know why everyone is so obsessed with this minor detiail.

Yes, I agree. It is so disheartening to see so much ignorance, yes ignorance, regarding what colonialism was and is. It is theft. It is dominance. Look at how the Indians in this show live, and compare it with the lifestyles of even the less well-off British. My personal subtitle for this series is "Get Out of Our Damn Country," I don't think anything Indian Summers has shown has been over the top nor caricature because I've read a broad amount of history, not one cherry-picked passage in one book. In the scene, in fact, that has caused so much Sturm und Drang, Afrin and his father are initially rejected, but eventually shown drinking and playing pool with club members because one member led the way. While the leadership of the club did vote to overturn the color bar (due to political pressure, not innate liberal values) that doesn't mean the members agreed with it. Sood was executed for a murder he did not commit. What more proof of a corrupt system does anyone need?

Legit LOL. The writers didn't choose to have Olivia tell President Passive Aggressive about the abortion so they can milk it for the next half season, or more, no? I agree with everyone that the timeline on all this is wonky. More clarification on how much time had passed between last week's "I'm not ready for it to be over" and this week's def con five/abortion/blowing everything up would have been nice and not too hard to accomplish. I think they tried a bit with the full on holiday theme, but it wasn't enough. I don't know what's going on between Susan, David and Lizzy Bear and I only care that Susan doesn't get hurt but she probably will be.

The "who's a real victim" Olympics are a zero sum game. Obviously there are much more serious arenas than Project Runway, but here we all are. The women of color were picked last (or nearly) in the paintball challenge, and the fat woman of color was singled out as the difficult one. That's a telling fact in and of itself. Saying someone is "difficult," or "hard to work with"or "not a team player" or any number of vague, unprovable accusations are pretty typical microaggressions. I'd argue that that mediocre idiot whose name I can't be bothered to remember's treatment of Merline was pretty bad as well.

Bolding mine, and cosigining so hard to this whole post.

Blake wasn't my favorite by far but I bet I knows a thing or two about the kind of crappy group dynamic at play in this situation. The moment of truth in that reunion was Lindsey whining about Ashley being her "friend." Girl, please. Yes, I agree. He is all over her social media.

This is a pretty astute observation. Candace and her cronies were utterly full of it. That was such classically transparent nonsense. How about we forget all the interpersonal drama and look at the clothes (remember them) from the paintball episode? Everyone's favorite l'il trooper Kelly's entry was a hot mess. Amanda's wasn't much better. Ashely was simply a scapegoat; her design was middling at worst. Candace fancies herself some kind of astute manager and appointed herself leader. She failed miserably at both and probably deserved the auf.

I'm not morally outraged over Rachel's death and definitely saw it coming, but the tone and style in which it was presented was, I felt, a stylistic departure for the show. I don't watch HOC for stalker/woman in danger porn. It felt exploitative, and though they spared us her actual death, her terror and suffering was quite affecting. I see Rachel as just another woman that was ground out of existence, that in the end was only her body, and now that body is rotting in the desert. No one will care or ever know, probably. It's nice to think that women she lived with might do something, but they were all marginal/poor as well. She had a marginal existence when she met Russo and things went from bad to worse. The moral, if there is one, is that if you're poor and a woman and a whore don't make one mistake, because you'll end up dead. Hell, one could argue she never made any mistakes, she was simply a victim of circumstance. If you're rich and white and a man and have power you can make ENDLESS mistakes and nothing ever comes of it. While I enjoyed aspects of Stamper's storyline I the show never gave a compelling reason for his obsession with Rachel. It just was presented as a given. So he's obsessed but then he has to kill her because she Knows Things. And then he has to kill her, but he's sad? He's happy cause it's revenge? He's, what? It was all too muddled to care very much beyond hoping Rachel got away, and given this show's history, we all knew a happy ending wasn't in the ---- cards.

Well this season ends with a "cathartic" reunion. How fitting. It struck me as ironic at the time, and even more now, that Korina told Char "it's not all about you" when she was eliminated, because Korina strikes me as pathologically self-centered. And like many such people, she has the ability to gain sympathy even when she is being terribly unsympathetic. I know they were coached, but the offstage designers making cooing noises at her during one of her staged crying jags was gross. I was made deeply uncomfortable by the fact that Char was pressured into accepting her apology and hugging her in the face of Korina's sniveling. What a load of nonsense. Put on your big girl pants and deal with yourself lady. Also, I have no doubt Char received plenty of social media hate herself.