BlackberryJam

Not sure how I feel yet about the fucking, but the long con was obvious during the phone call. Duke had been talking to Nathan straight up and the moment Mara came through the doorway, Duke made a completely obvious tone change. Blargh. At least Nathan is in on the con this time and it's not the same thing happening a third time with Duke. Seriously though, Nathan, Duke tells you he's going to vent a Trouble that kills people and you're all "Sorry, dude. Busy. You deal with that on your own." What a jackass. Dwight is going to get burned by the nonCDC lady. Poor Dwight. With the fucking...I'm kind of wondering if Duke did it because he thought he could do it emotion free, but then in the middle, when he seemed to stop, he realized he was having an attack of feelings. The chem between EB and ER is still off the charts during the sexy times and ER was shockingly better this episode as Mara. The coughing as Audrey is fake as hell though. And the Trouble was sucking the oxygen of the air around him, so opening the windows would have helped. Such poor quality writing.

Exactly. That's what Duke does, pretends to side with the baddies so he can figure out what they are up to, only to get close enough to turn on them later. There's no reason not to think they are rehashing that trope with him again.

Audrey never gave Duke the chance to finish his long con with the Rev, because you know, she shot and killed him. So we have no idea if the Rev would have given up the goods or not. Duke pointed a gun at someone with no intention of shooting. I can't see how that compares to Nathan taking swing after swing and being a violent asshole to Duke over the series. Having a gun shoved in his face once is nothing compared to Nathan's poor behavior. The show has been clear that Duke was playing the Rev in hopes to get the information. Did he think it was going to be a piece of cake? FUCK NO. The show made it clear that Duke was the player and not the one being played.

Exactly. It was pretty clear in the Wendigo episode that Duke was playing the Rev all along and never bought into his spiel. The "worst" thing Duke did was point a gun at people with zero intent to shoot. The Rev was never pulling Duke's strings and the show made that obvious, so ...uhm...yeah...No. If Duke is buying what Mara is selling it's completely and utterly out of character.

*yawn* Seriously. This felt like such a rehash.

Dancing bears were stupid. Completely and utterly stupid. I have money on everything thinking that Mara has turned Duke until the big reveal in the end, he's been conning her all along! Shocking! What a twist! Then someone will say, "But Duke, why did you blah blah blah when Mara wasn't there?" And he'll say, "I had to make it seem real. I was afraid if I told someone, like my most trusted buds, you would blow it. I needed you all to believe it's real, but I'm a con man and was faking all the time!" And everyone will be all "Oh, Duke, you're so clever, but you were really an ass. Let's hug!" And then Mara, if she's still around or perhaps Gloria or Dwight will say, "Duke, were you really just playing both sides so you came out the winner?" as Duke packs up to leave. And he'll give a cheeky grin and say something ambiguous. FUCK FUCK FUCK. FUCKING STUPID. Nathan's socks. At some point there will be a doubles or shapeshifter or skinwalker Trouble and Audrey won't know if Nathan is really Nathan except that he's wearing boring socks and she mentions socks and he doesn't get it and she'll know it's not Nathan and shoot him while everyone else gasps dramatically, thinking she's the skinwalker! But Audrey will have figured out a Trouble not because of her specialness but using good old fashioned smarticleness. FUCK FUCK FUCK.

I watched. Not much to say. They are really setting up the "Duke chooses Mara over Audrey/Nathan/The Town" thing. I wish I'd been wrong about that.

Exactly. There is no excitement of discovery. What is there to speculate on? I mean, how many hours did I spend speculating on the Crocker boxes? How long did I spend thinking about Nathan's years before he lost feeling again? How many scenarios did I run about the day of the Colorado Kid's murder? How much Barn speculation did I throw out? Now it's all..Meh. At this point, I don't even think they are going to address all of these interesting bits from the first three seasons. We are going to see Mara escape, Duke have to choose between turning Mara in and Nathan/Audrey. Duke will choose Mara because he believes by doing that he can trick her into stopping the Troubles or revealing something or he's just giving her enough rope to hang herself. Nathan will be certain Duke has returned to his old ways. Audrey will try to have Faith in Duke. Gloria will toss out one liners. Dwight will save the day, and the Guard will put up roadblocks. It will all end in some flash of light where we get images of the Audreys through the years, maybe a little flashbacky. When it's over, we will at first not know if she's Audrey or Mara but it will be a newer, stronger Audrey with more knowledge than before or a total blank slate. If Duke has survived the flashes of light and Mara trying to kill him bits, we will get a scene of him packing up the Cape Rouge and leaving Haven forever. Vince and Dave will continue bickering. Nathan will be able to feel and he and Audrey will strap on their guns, acknowledging that they are excited about investigating a regular burglary. Dwight will have died. The End. *yawn*

This show used to be my favorite. I loved the first three seasons. Last season was ...okay. I enjoyed some of it, but the overall story arc suffered. Once Lexie/Audrey came out of the Barn, everything seemed to go to hell. There is not one Lexie or Audrey episode from last season that I would want to watch again. I have watched Sins of the Fathers several times and there were a few others from the first three seasons. Now...meh. Season 4 went off the rails and now season 5 is somehow both annoying and boring. I do not care at this point. Sure, I'm going to watch until the end. I'm still invested in knowing the ending. I hope it picks up, but I don't have a lot of faith.

Wade was Duke's brother from a different mother, so he wasn't mentioned. Does Duke have any full brothers? Also, and so so petty, ER's hair is suffering from the treatments. In that shot with Nathan at the end, when they are hugging and we see her from behind, damn, that stuff looks fried. I did enjoy the Dave and Vince B-Story but I am missing Dwight. So, when does Mara get a bathroom break?

Congrats to TabbyClaw for figuring out the troubled person and the murderous cancer ghost. As to the episode. Meh. I had the feeling Duke was lying about his mother. The story was way too much of a Lifetime Movie. Too perfectly tragic and so unrealistic. I'd love it if he had been lying. Nathan. Meh. Audrey. *sigh* I realize I have missed Audrey but ER is so struggling with the dual roles. She can't even be good at Audrey anymore. ETA: Fixing my duel typo to dual. But I think we are supposed to see it as duel. I see it as boring.

Drat. I was looking forward to some details of some of the smaller house. I am not that interested in the Targs.

Interesting Sean. Anything else good in the book? I watched the GRRM event via livestream last night. The art looks gorgeous. Any new house words?

I'll jump in and say I think she's terrible. She's yelly when she should show emotion. She's wooden when she tries to be restrained. She's dull as fuck. The only people I've talked to who love her acting are, and this is completely terrible of me, teenagers. Every teen GoT fan I've met, including my own family members, think EC is just amazing. She's young. She's gorgeous. That doesn't mean she can act. I think she lacks any emotional depth in the role. Also, the eyebrows. The eyebrows are painful.

This episode felt better, but ER is just so...meh. I'm an very bothered by Mara's bra. I know this is going to sound weird. But they have a woman chained up and she just happens to be wearing a thin t-shirt and her bra is completely visible. It gives the whole thing a sexual overtone that seems inappropriate. Would it have been that difficult to put her in one of Duke's t-shirts? Really? No wardrobe, make it somewhat sexy. UGH. GROSS. I think Freddie the Camera GIrl is the one with the Trouble as well. Another two partner. It is getting annoying. So now that they are sure Audrey and Mara aren't connected, how about cutting off her toe for realz Duke? She's a crazy bitch who has caused the death of hundreds of people. If you need something from her, physical violence might be he way to make it happen. Just stop having her trying to look sexy while you do it. Loved seeing the Chief again. That was the very best part of the episode.

If I remember correctly, at the end of Dance, Jaime hasn't been heard from in weeks. If LSH had killed him, I suspect we'd know. On the other hand, I find it hard to buy that Jaime, who knows Brienne well, doesn't know immediately that she's lying or that she doesn't tell him the truth sometime before they get to LSH. So this idea that they actually get to LSH in the way LSH wants (Brienne bringing Jaime to slaughter) doesn't seem to fit with either Jaime (he's now smarter than the average bear and has come into his own as a leader of men) and Brienne (honest, honorable and in love with Jaime.) Not to mention, the Hound having Sansa and wanting Jaime to come alone is a STUPID lie. Now whether Jaime or Brienne (my money is on Brienne for the Aerys parallel) kills LSH, who knows. But I don't think it's going down as LSH planned. And Thoros of Myr seems to be there for a reason.

I am so freaking ANNOYED that only Audrey came out. What a fucking cop out. FUCK FUCK. FUCK. The writers are doing the easiest possible thing and it's LAME and not good story telling. Audrey is not some magic unicorn of wonder. She never was. She was an interesting character, but she was also kind of a self-absorbed snotrag (which only made her more interesting). Now that she is the fucking STAR CHILD I want her to DIE a thousand deaths. I hate the star child trope. The only thing that can save this shitty choice of having only Audrey split will be if the other personalities fade in and out of the Audrey body. And by the way, Lexie wasn't destroyed either. When the body got de-barned, she had both Lexie and Audrey. Then again, I'm not sure ER could make it work. Well, at least we won't get the I'm-Audrey-Now gasp, but we will have to put up with twice as much ER. FUCK. This is so damn stupid.

John Barrowman can sell me things that Emily Rose can't. It's like when she played with her hair to show us she was Lexie. Blargh. I feel like she falls back on bad technique because she is overwhelmed by the scope of the role. I'd feel bad for her if this weren't HER JOB. There are actors who get crap dialogue and sell it, make me believe it, no matter how stupid it is (points at the cast of Sleepy Hollow). ER is just...bad. I'm struggling to care about this show because she is so terrible. I want her to go back in the Barn and just give me a few shows without her to get my give-a-damn revved up. At this point, every time she's on screen, I want to fast forward.

I haven't commented much because I am in the "bored" faction. I'm bored with Nathan's romantic angsting. I'm bored with Audrey gasping and revealing herself and I will ONLY find that interesting if it's Mara faking them out because FUCKING HELL it's STUPID. That stupid stupid gasp every fucking TIME. And I'm bored with Duke as the comic relief. ER is weak. If it "looks like she's having fun," well aren't we admitting the acting sucks and it just looks like an actress goofing off? I don't care about Mara. I DO NOT CARE about Audrey. I care about Dwight, Duke, Gloria, the town of Haven, Nathan, Vince and Dave. In that order. Audrey/Mara/Lucy/Sarah is not even making the list and that is sad. ER's crap acting has killed the character for me. Last year she was clunky; this year she's just high-school camp. Yuck. LB gets SHIT to work with and yet he sells it. I don't like the character, but I believe I'm watching Nathan and not Lucas Bryant. EB sells it and AC has really come into his own this year. He doesn't have a ton of range, but he's good at what they are giving him. Until we get real progress, I'm just not sure what to say....except I want to shove a sock in ER's mouth every single time she does that stupid "I'm AUDREY NOW" gasp.

Exactly. I've been off Haven during the hiatus but it just kills me that people think Mara is using Audrey. Mara is the real personality. Audrey is just a construct. Gah. Audrey has been the one using Mara's body. If i were Mara, I'd be pretty pissed too.

That's from Lady of Tarth. You can find more of her stuff here. http://jaimebrienne.com/topic/10373810/1/

I think NCW is a chemistry machine and most of his scenes are gold, but with LH, at least in Season 4, he got pretty whiny. I don't think that LH and NCW have the same chemistry as say, NCW and Finn Jones, or Jerome Flynn, or Charles Dance. NCW is off the charts with the Peter Dinklage chemistry and the Gwendoline Christie chemistry. Maybe it's because Jaime is in the subservient role with Cersei that the chemistry doesn't sing.

Yes yes, a thousand times YES. Hemingway is fine in his way, but Fitzgerald creates a much richer story.

Sorry. I suppose I didn't think to spoiler it because it was just so obvious, but some people didn't find it so.