wilnil

Same here. I'd figured the reason he needed the refined uranium was as the most easily accessible (to Darius) radioactive substance for building a reactor to power an ion drive (which was pretty realistically described in a recent novel, Saturn Run). As for an "actual" EM drive, I've heard the same arguments, and so far the "impossible" side appears to have the edge. I don't mind too much when reality gets bent a bit in TV fiction, but this episode -- and, even more so, the next -- is threatening to break it altogether.

I haven't seen much of Scandal, but from what I have seen, this seems like a very Scandal-ish thing to do, more so than for any other show on the list (at least of the ones I've watched) ... emphatically including Elementary. But you never know what the showrunners or their writing staffs on any series might do in the never-ending quest to prop up ratings or be seen as edgy -- or just to get maximum mileage out of an actor's as-yet unpublicized plan to leave a series (as has already happened more than once on NCIS) -- so I can't really rule out any of these shows. Whichever it is, though, it'll probably suck, as the Kill a Main Character trope almost never fits well into a show's overall plot arc in practice unless it's been planned long in advance. (Exception: If this is Elementary's last season, as we suspect, since it's a short order of episodes, it might work if it's built up into a whole series-ending Holmes' Ultimate/Final Case arc. Think Season 5 of Person of Interest.)

We don't really know yet what the situation is with other countries, though it's definitely implausible that only NASA and one MIT program picked up on this. The international situation could be anything, from the major powers all agreeing to keep the secret to prevent global panic, to every country that discovers the asteroid deciding to stay mum or only share the info with key allies.

This was my thinking as well. I realize they had to have Tricia Helfer play Mom in her scenes in Hell because having a glowing special effect represent the character instead would have kneecapped the drama of the scene, but within the setting there wasn't any real reason she would have appeared as Charlotte once freed of her earthly vessel. Maybe possessing Charlotte's body formed enough of a connection that when she appeared in Hell the soul was likewise merged with her and came back when she was resuscitated. Interesting idea. I've been rewatching the earlier episodes of the season on demand, and what struck me was how bad Mom was at "being" Charlotte in the beginning. In the later episodes, she's not only comfortable with handling Charlotte's legal career (not just the actual practice of law, which we're told she learned by speed-reading case law before trial, but handling her scummy client list), but she knows things like who to call for discreet corpse disposal. Having the real Charlotte's soul along for the ride for those episodes would explain how Mom got so good at being an ethically challenged, high-powered attorney.

Not to mention the extra boost they'd get when Marvel's "Thor" franchise hit the big screen.

I think all the problems with canon/continuity basically boil down to: Gene Roddenberry (and much of his original TOS creative team) have died or are very elderly, and even many of those who came on board for the TNG-era shows are also probably retired or thinking about it. So the "torch-bearers" for the Trek franchise now are people hired by Paramount and CBS, probably with the specific mandate of "refreshing the brand" rather than "making the kind of show Gene would make" -- i.e. "screw canon, do something new!" Throw in the fact that even the wardrobe, set and makeup designers will want to demonstrate some originality rather than duplicate what came before, and you end up with a whole production that's at best going to do something "inspired by" the previous series instead of truly linked to them. For the latter to happen, you'd need a real Trek devotee who could convince the money people to go along with it, and I (cynically, I guess) don't think that's possible anymore, this far into the Remake/Reboot Era.

(Moved to Canon thread...)

Well, there's only one more episode this season -- it's already been renewed for a second, I believe -- and that's undoubtedly part of why the show runners are focusing so much on the backstories and the secondary characters: so they don't get too deep into the book too soon for their timeline. It's been a long time since I read the novel, but it feels to me so far like they're shooting for a three-season run.

After rewatching: We'll hopefully know more next season, but my guess for now is that Mom passed a little miracle on her way to her new Creation -- plucked Charlotte's soul out of Hell and put it back in her body, then healed the body (all of which she'd probably have had the power to do when in her "natural" form and not bound into a body). Her reasoning might have been that Lucifer being found standing over Charlotte's dead body might put him in trouble (though he was clearly ready to start tap-dancing around that problem right before she woke up as Charlotte).

My take on the "manipulation" issue is that it is Dad's plan but that, despite how Lucifer sees it, it's not manipulation as such (since both he and Chloe still have free will), more like God seeing future consequences -- basically, Lucifer and Chloe were made for each other (literally) with the idea that their interaction would eventually teach Lucifer what he still needs to understand about humanity and God's plan. (As to what Chloe gets out of it, I dunno -- maybe an invitation to become Queen of Hell after she shuffles off this mortal coil?)

I'm going to say it's because God, having apparently decreed Chloe's birth so she could be an influence on Lucifer, decided that plan wouldn't work so well if she were susceptible to his supernatural charms and if he weren't vulnerable around (and to) her, so he tinkered with them both to remove those potential obstacles.

He wasn't, but Wednesday is a corruption of "Woden's Day" -- the German variation of "Odin." When Shadow asked his name, Odin replied "What's today?" and when told it was Wednesday, he said that was "my day." A lot of English and other Germanic weekday names come from the names of Norse gods.

They do let Lucifer go Full Fallen Angel on occasion; they just seem to want to ration those moments, probably for the reasons @johntfs suggests. Just this season, I can recall these scenes off the top of my head (so there are likely a couple more I've forgotten): While the team hunts for the killer from the drug-transporting charter airline, the killer finds Lucifer, who crushes the man's gun, overpowers him and then utterly cows him with a flash of the Devil's Game Face. During their search for Chloe's antidote, Lucifer and Dan have been taken into the back room of an artist (who's actually an underworld money launderer) for some ass-kicking. Lucifer's been "following Dan's lead" and not resisting, but when he explains this to a beaten (and now infuriated) Dan and gets told to get them out of the situation, he lays waste to a whole room of henchmen. No devilish violence in this one, but Lucifer has Chloe chase Professor Tim McKay (forget the character's name) so she'll get far enough away from him that he can rip open a locked lab door, walk through a room full of poison gas and rescue two college students. And of course in the episode after "God Johnson" (so I'll spoiler-tag it here),

Yeah, in that article, I think the key word was "pricey." My takeaway from it was that the series would have needed to be one of NBC's top-rated shows, rather than just doing OK, to justify the cost of all the sets and costumes, plus the occasional CGI effects.

That and Sylvester's huge three-week beard, to me, were the clearest signals the show has sent that it's intending to be a tongue-in-cheek "adventure" show deliberately not taking itself seriously, as someone (sorry, forget who/where) said on another thread in comparing it to shows like The A-Team.

By now, we have to assume the existence of a hidden alien species (the "Repressers"?) that has put stealth satellites around every world in the DC TV Universe. These satellites beam a ray down on every city that a hero calls home, and the ray's effect is to lessen that particular hero's powers and intelligence. The rays aimed at Earth-1's Central City only affect the Flash, Kid Flash and Vibe (remember, Caitlin-as-Killer-Frost is a villain, not a hero); the rays pouring down on Earth-38's National City affect Supergirl, the Martian Manhunter, Guardian et al.; and so on. So the only way for a hero to use her/his full potential is to go to another city or a parallel universe where they can provide assistance to that place's local hero (and come off looking more competent than the local into the bargain). I'm kidding, of course, but think how many of the plotlines this would explain!

I figured the reason Kimble was no longer up for VP was that she'd have to be confirmed by both houses of Congress, and she can't count on the House of Representatives anymore.

As I understood it (and I'm not 100% sure I'm right, given my limited knowledge of how the financial industry and its laws work), Axe's whole interest in the Klaxon Co. is because he's got insider information on it, which is illegal to use. So Mafee and the other guy were tasked with coming up with an analysis of the company that would justify shorting its stock for reasons other than the insider info, and they were failing. Taylor found an approach that would work and prepared that report -- which may make him guilty of helping conceal Axe Capital's use of insider information (assuming Axe goes through with the deal).

OK, so I guess the reason we haven't seen a clear picture of Margaret all season is because they didn't want to pay Andie MacDowell for more than one episode? :)

I imagine they didn't have enough faith in the justice system to be sure Bonnie wouldn't be charged with and possibly convicted of some form of homicide. And Detective Zippo Woman was bearing those fears out (though she was naturally focusing on Celeste as a suspect). Even with her colleague pointing out that no serious charge would stick given the circumstances, she still would prefer to find something she could build a case around. Much easier for all the women to stick with the story that Perry tripped and fell in his blind rage and ensure Bonnie never has to see the inside of a courtroom.

Last week I guessed the homicide would be a group confrontation with Perry as the ultimate victim but got two key details wrong, so the final reveal still had some surprises for me. I'd thought it was possible that Ed would also end up involved, after they set him up first as angered by bullying and then feeling nearly like a nonentity as he started to believe Madeline merely settled for him. And as this episode went on, I really thought they might be going there. But he and all the other men were of course AWOL when the fatal moment came. And I'd dismissed Bonnie as too New Age to do anything (other than try to do conflict mediation) if she stumbled onto the confrontation. I wasn't prepared at all for her to see Celeste and Perry and take in the reality of the situation at first glance. Like the reviewer said, that's when you realize that what Bonnie meant by "We've all got baggage" was maybe domestic violence wasn't an unfamiliar situation for her (whether against herself as a child or someone else, say, her mother).

Have to say I'm impressed with the progress we saw on rebuilding the Capitol considering there has only been a Congress to authorize and fund the project for a few months in apparent show time. (Though I suspect they were just using an image from the recently completed dome restoration work, which involved the same scaffolding we saw in that shot.)

The upside is that, according to TV By the Numbers, Designated Survivor is still far and away the highest-rated of ABC's first-year dramas this season (the network has already canceled at least two of the others, IIRC), so TVBTN is calling it a sure bet for renewal at this point.

Earlier, I threw in a theory that it will be Madeline killing Perry, but now I'm starting to consider a "Murder on the Orient Express" (movie) scenario -- maybe Perry being hounded to his death by most or all of the main characters. First, Stella's note above. Second, the police seem to be having a bit of trouble sorting out just what happened; the people they're interviewing seem to be collectively throwing suspicion on everyone. And the situation that seems to be emerging could give all of the main characters motives if Perry's true nature gets revealed. Celeste's motive is obvious; she's now more in danger from him than ever. Jane, even if Perry isn't her rapist, is likely to react with rage if she learns he's a violent predator. Madeline, as I said before, is Celeste's best friend and is quick to get angry when her friends are threatened. Even Renata, who takes no prisoners -- what if it does turn out to be one or both of the twins abusing Amabella, and when she confronts Celeste, Celeste says something like "Oh my god, they're starting to imitate Perry!" And it's not limited to the women; Ed has his own suppressed rage over bullying, so I could easily see him aiding and abetting an impromptu "conspiracy" to give Perry what they'd all agree he deserves. (Nathan and Bonnie, not likely, unless their New Age lifestyle is only for show.)

Person of Interest did have an episode featuring it (using the fake trade name "ShotSeeker") in the show's final season, though it may not have been the show you were thinking of. The POI episode centered on a police department tech with a sharp enough ear to catch the system's false positives, who determined that a real shooting of an acquaintance had been concealed by being labeled a false positive.