BlackberryJam

I’m not one to enjoy feeling tense during my entertainment viewing. I just got so invested into a fictional election. Roman is absolutely circling the drain. Tom is going to be absolutely crucified in the media for his calling it. Ken and Roman are going to hang him out to dry.

I’ll stand alone in loving Chef Tom, but you can see all of his stress in his face. I’m coming around on Amar, but I have a lingering memory of him sweating into his food. He’s much better now. I admire Sara for her tenacity and commitment, but I sometimes feel her food is ..I’m trying to find a way to explain, but it’s doesn’t challenge my palate. It’s always a guarantee. I want more risk. Not a fan of Buddha. Too much calculation, too little heart. Ali gives me food plus charm. Love him. Gabri is well past his Best If Served By date.

I actually thought that a few days had elapsed and Shiv was post abortion. Maybe because I thought there was raw fish on the breakfast tray and she was in her jammies? I had the impression that Tom and Shiv "reconciled" and agreed she'd have the abortion and that's why time was upset that she didn't want to have his baby. It's a complicated show with as much said as unsaid. The timeline is a mess.

And I remember why I’m not a fan of Restaurant Wars…

I don’t think this is a GoT type show where there are subtle clues along the way that are showing who “ends on top.” And all of those GoT “clues” turned out to be crap anyway, at least as far as the show goes. I think it ends with Mattson, or Sandy or Stewy or some conglomerate, or just the board of directors, voting out the Roy family and leaving them with only a pile of money and no company to play with or employees to boss around while the employees stroke Roy egos. Connor loses the election. Kendall, Roman and Shiv go to the Waystar/Royco Building to…pretend like they are still in charge, security doesn’t even let them upstairs and they get handed boxes of their personal possession. They go to get in one of the SUVs and are told, “sorry, these are company cars.” Kendall: Should we like, order an Uber or something? Shiv pulls out her phone: Dammit, they shut off our ‘company’ phones too. Rome, do you have a second dick pic sending phone? Roman: No I do not *outraged* I just have a second phone for, you know, times like this, shut up. The fucking Uber app won’t work because it’s linked to the company credit card. Shiv: We have billions in the bank and can’t even call a car? Fucking ridiculous. Kendall: Maybe we could walk to Rava’s? Her place is like…four blocks? Roman: Is she even taking your calls? Kendall stares blankly: She will. I mean. Probably. Tom and Greg roll up in a shitty taxi. “Hey Shiv, I just, hey. I thought, well. I mean…” Shiv looks at Tom. Tom shoves Greg out of the car. Shiv hops in and they take off. Rome finds $50 in his pocket and buys a bicycle off someone on the street, rides off leaving his box behind. Kendall stands on the sidewalk with his box as rap music plays. Greg: Do you want me to carry that for you? I have, you know, long arms, and I’m strong, not like going to the gym strong, but because of the length of my arms I have technically more muscle than people with shorter arms, not that you have short arms, just that if we measure in inches…. Fade out. The End. Sorry, I got carried away there, but I don’t see the Roy family ending up with anything.

Moved to the Spec thread.

It’s all working for me until we get to the Swatch.

Kendall's presentation planning seemed so much like the Too Much Birthday episode where he wanted to float down from the rafters singing Honesty or something. Kendall wants to be a showman and have these big meaningful production numbers where he is the star. Like his rap to Logan. But he has neither the talent nor the vision and he can't settle on an idea and follow it through. Roman was circling the drain and lashing out this episode. He fires Joy. He fires Geri. He follows Shiv's lead and bails on the presentation with Kendall. Kendall, because Roman bailed, abandons his stupid co-pilots idea and pulls out a decent presentation. So Roman was left out of that success as well.

If I remember right, in S1, the kids needed to get Ewan's vote, along with Sandy, Stewy, etc, to out vote Logan. Stewy ended up throwing Kendall under the bus and siding with Logan, so no matter what Ewan did, Logan was still coming out on top. The retired employees own a percentage, Caroline (KSR's mother) owns a percentage, Sandy, Stewy, Logan, and then there is the publicly traded shares. So anyone with a giant pile of money, like Mattson, could just buy all of the public stock and take over. That's a "hostile" takeover. However, it's hard to do because once someone starts buying the stock, the price rises and it becomes more expensive than it's worth. If I had to guess, I'd say Logan owned about 30% of the company, with another 3-5% with Caroline, 10% to Ewan, making it a razor thin margin for Logan to have defeated the No Confidence vote.

I never got the impression that Ewan owned a share larger than any of the children individually. I assumed Ewan was at say, 10-15% which gives him a larger share than the Retired Janitors of Idaho, but not so much he could take over the company. I thought it was Logan at 40% or so, so that it would require everyone else to go against him in a united front for him to lose.

Strangely, I found the most disturbing part of the episode Mattson walking across the tarmac barefoot to get to Shiv's plane. I do think in a different show, this would be a sexual relationship, but somehow Snook and Skarsgard make it the opposite of sexy flirting.

I thought it was clear, Dale made a fish dish. Charbel focused on tomatoes. Yay.

The lamb team failed the moment they all decided to do lamb. Thrilled for my roasted pepper boyfriend Tom. I was hoping he’d ask Victoire to be his movie date.

I thought Kerry had some drugs, not vitamins? I might need to watch that again. Kerry thoroughly enjoyed bullying people. She made no friends and had no talent. And she was banging a geezer to get to that role. Suddenly, she’s got nothing and no one. No job, no friends, no protector, and likely no money to fall back on. Makes sense to me she’d be a disaster. I also thought she was on something… I kind of imagined that if Kerry had gotten herself upstairs, she would have barricaded herself in and refused to leave. As to the bodyguards taking Marcia’s orders, they were members of the household staff. It’s Marcia’s house. About to be Connor’s, but currently Marcia’s. I’m sure Marcia is getting more from the will than she would from whatever prenup she and Logan had.

Willa got in good digs and she has a lot of confidence now that she and Connor are married, but let's not forget her horrible play and the delusion about her own talent. Didn't Roman introduce Connor and Willa after Roman had purchased her services? Marcia coming in like a boss, Chief Mourner, and selling the apartment was fabulous. The Pilot started out with Logan wanting to change his will/family trust to give Marcia two seats on the Board after his death. I thought that's what the paper would be. On the other hand, I love that it was Logan's musings and possible wishes for a funeral. And underline or cross out? Considering Logan was post-stroke when he made the changes, it's likely that his handwriting wasn't exactly steady. I sometimes underline things I hate or underline to emphasize sarcasm. Greg, such a grasping douche, pulling out that he'd spoken to his grandfather, and Tom, the grasping douche who taught Greg everything he knows. This show is fab.

Marcia’s back! Shiv is pregnant. Greg is such an idiot. Kendall still wants validation. Gerri’s hair look great.

Yeah, and Tom quickly switched gears to, "Greg, go to the office, get this file from my computer, delete it, go to the trash bin, delete it from there..." The CYA was beginning. Tom did handle the Roy children well.

Sorry, I meant youngest son. Kieran is very naughty little boy in his clothing and mannerisms. On the Greg issue, we met him getting stoned and then interacting with children, puking out the eyeholes of his bear or whatever costume. Greg is an asshole douche like the rest of the Roys, he just doesn't have as much power.

I think Shiv’s wardrobe is telling. She’s struggling emotionally. Her marriage is falling apart. She has no support, no friends, no one on her side. She’s in a lifelong battle with her brothers. Previously, she was a successful political consultant, a woman about to get married and then in control of her marriage. When Tom flipped, it took a lot of her power away. It’s reflected in her wardrobe. Like Roman is always dressed like he just stopped wearing short pants, reminding us that he’s the youngest, he’s immature, he behaves like a naughty school boy. Kendall alternates between power suits and “shady street corner drug dealer”. I miss Shiv’s fabulous pants, but the costuming is deliberate.

I rewatched a bit of S1 before this season started. The pilot was all about how Logan was to name Kendall his successor, Kendall would be taking over the company, etc. Shiv was working in politics and Roman was smoking weed with his (now vanished) wife. Kendall is the child who knows the company best. He’s also an egomaniac coke addict with a whole host of mental health issues. But yeah, not surprised that he switched into business mode. Personally, my hero of the Teterboro crew was Karolina. Every single thing that happened, from finding out Geri was getting the axe to dealing with Kreepy Kerry, she took in stride. If I were running a business, I want Karolina on my team. You know, for a hot second here, I might ship Karolina and Mattson, because A-Skars is hot and Karolina deserves better than to be stuck with Frank, Karl and Tom.

I also thought the boat looked a little cheap on the outside for Roy standards, but the inside was lovely. I need to rewatch and figure out what Logan’s last words were on the show. Having Shiv read the statement seemed calculating. Roman doesn’t have self-control to not throw in a few “fucks” into every sentence and Kendall would be subject to far too many questions. I thought Connor’s small wedding was the right thing to do for him. He does need love and he needs the security that Willa can provide him. I like Willa because she can’t help but be honest with him. I’ve had to make the call that Tom did, and it’s hard. It’s so hard. How do you answer, “Are you sure?” type questions when you can hear the heartbreaking on the other end of the line? I think Tom is weak and slimy, but he did the best he could. Until of course, he called Greg to tell Greg to destroy some evidence. I’m certain all the Roy children resent Tom because it was Tom who was with Logan at the end, and not any one of them. Family relationships are complicated and grief complicates things even more. On a lighter note, I totally need someone to “Greg” for me. I need a team of Greglets to do my bidding.

Just realized…no one called Marcia…

Well, that’s excellent television. Absolutely. I had some…flashbacks to my own personal grief. I don’t even like the Roys and I hurt for them. Fabulous acting and writing.

Absolutely Begona over Dale. And Luciana over Dale as well, but it sounded like her squab was not good.

My love of Tom is unreasonable. I don't think he's the best chef. I think many of the other chefs have better skills. I think this season will be much less entertaining when he's gone. I did appreciate Tom trying to soothe Begona. And was it Sara who, when Buddha was complaining about his critique, said, "Underseasoned is underseasoned," or something. Then Buddha pouted. I knew Buddha would be in the bottom because during the dinner absolutely no one commented on his dish. I thought Begona's dish looked like an unappetizing mess, but scorched mole would have been a problem for me as well. I'm not a salmon fan so I wouldn't have wanted Buddha's. I think I would prefer blind judging, but then my German Chef Boyfriend Tom might get the boot and my heart would be broken. You can see the bind I'm in.