DearEvette

Oh I remember the scene about the sodas. Thought it was charming at the time. But the way the cooler played out the soda thing only has resonance after the fact because she just so happened to find sodas in there . If she hadn't actually found soda we wouldn't even be thinking about the call back because the scene didn't signal it. She could have just as easily found moldy sandwiches in there. You don't get the sense when she sees the cooler that sodas were on her mind at the time. As she was walking along the tracks and glanced over and happened to see a cooler in the car. She said "Hey, there's a cooler in there, it might be something useful." Daryl and Rosita tell her no, let's go we got what we came for. But of course she found that soda in just that way. And it signals the call back scene. She's gonna be dead in five minutes. Makes it more poignant.

Not unpopular with me. I knew from the minute she insisted on going with Daryl and Rosita that she was going to die. Actually I gave her 80-20 odds with Rosita possibly being the one who would bite it. I was sad because I liked her, but as the episode went on, I just got more and more exasperated. It was Plot service 101 where you could see every decision the character was making was to bring her to a point to kill her. But on the character front I wanted to slap her too. She just had to have that cooler? Like what in the ever freaking hell could you imagine would be useful in that piss hot cooler in a closed up car with a desiccated zombie body? Right then and there I was like, girl you deserve to be eaten!! Yeah, I can't blame people for being exasperated about TWD falling into the dead lesbian trope. But to be fair, Denise's death kinda falls into every trope. And to be fair, In TWD-land her death was practically a given even without being a lesbian. They are nothing if not consistent in killing off recurring characters at speed. They are basically red shirts, some just have a longer expiration date than others. To be fair, TWD will kill off at least one main character each season. But in some cases they simply make a recurring character a main character and then kill them off (Merle, Beth, Tyreese). I think the timing is unfortunate more than anything because this came so quickly in a more highly publicized lesbian death.

I just watched Untucked and oh Chi Chi is a quote machine. I could quote her all day! And I like how she puts the extra drawl on when she talks about Louisiana. I especially loved her characterization of Acid Betty as a possible lover. The Dorian Corey shout out took it over the top. LOL. Also interesting, I think this is the second time in a row (not counting last week when she was in the top 3) that Chi Chi correctly guessed who would/should be LSFYL. I agree that I hate, hate, hate Trixie's make-up. It is not to my taste or aesthetic. It looks almost repulsive to me. But.... I have to agree with Derrick, that is her thing and it is probably drag that some people like. Acid Betty's comments just felt like there was no reason for them. She jumped on the chance to deride Trixie. And it was in poor taste at that moment because it was during the nice message for Kim Chi.

Oh, Bob! How I love you. She was on fire this whole episode. First because she was so sincerely delighted by everyone's looks during the Supreme court min challenge. And Then the purse. The Purse! That needs to be a specific topic during the reunion show. And then her TRON look for the runway challenge. Excellent way to hide the fact that she can't roller-skate for hell. And finally her ad-lib's during Ru-Co's empire. I mean, really, who else could have been Chocolate Chip Cookie? And the taking of ONE shoe. ONE. Oh, Bob how I love you. I have to give it up for Naomi Smalls. She did not break character at all with that final dump of water on her. She was well cast as Vanilla Wafer aka Boo Boo Kitty. Chi-Chi was also perfectly cast as the Hakeem character. Hakeem so hood and so is Chi Chi. Derrick better do something... something. She was actually quite pretty in the afro-wig. So it was such a disappointment to see yet another Britney-eqsue look from her. She really needs to up her game. Thorgy is neck and neck with Chi Chi as my second favorite this season so far. Her story about her mother was so heartbreaking. ThorgyMom looked just like her though! I am super enjoying the season so far. And I agree with everyone that the bench is really deep and the talent is good so it is fun just to enjoy them all without being constantly exasperated by some dead-weight who seems to be coasting.

I think that is part of the issue though, I don't recall ever really getting insight into that relationship until Abraham started making eyes at Sasha. Or at least after I stopped being a little perturbed that they had sex while Eugene watched. You knew they were together but not, say, like Maggie & Glen together. But suddenly once he started liking Sasha then it seems like we saw more of what was with him & Rosita. Bad storytelling in some ways. I do think this comment is interesting in light of Rosita and Spenser's interaction where he is explicitly trying to understand their relationship but she seems resistant to making it more. It could just be that she is gun shy after Abraham. But that little snippet could also be read that to infer that there was that lack of definition in her relationship with Abraham too.

I gather from reading these forums that Abraham/Sasha as a pair is not very popular. I like Sasha and hope we get some more face time with her. Or rather I hope she gets face-time with other characters. I can imagine we would get some interaction between her and Rosita now, even though I wish it would not be Abraham-centric interaction. I have no strong opinion pro or con about Abraham. I am generally agreeable about him because he has proven to be useful as a fighter for the team, but beyond that I don't think he's terrible or anything. With that in mind, I actually don't have any real issue with these two as a couple. I always felt it was strongly implied that Rosita and Abraham gravitated to each other out of sexual convenience in the first place because they were traveling together. This seems to be later confirmed by Abraham's statement to her. I honestly never got the impression they were anything more than fuck-buddies really until her reaction to him breaking up signaled that it seemed like more to her. I gather that with the time he has spent with Sasha and seeing other couples (Rich/Michonne, Gelnn/Maggie) that he's casting about for something a bit more. While I don't think he handled with break-up with Rosita very gracefully (dingleberies? really Abe?) I can't really blame him for not wanting to be with one person and wanting to be with someone else.

My take is, as others have alluded to elsewhere, the relative down-time they have in Alexandria is giving them all time of think about themselves and life and all that stuff that they had to put aside until now because they were simply in fight-fight-fight-survival mode. So people are able to turn their attention to those things that nourish the soul -- romance and other self-reflection stuff Rick and Michonne are finally in a place where they notice each other that way. Carole is having a crisis of conscience, Denise and Eugene are looking around them and realizing they can't sit behind the lines anymore, Father Gabriel has undergone some sort of epiphany etc. so everybody is sorta having an internal re-group. We saw Abraham going through his as well and it is also is centered on relationship. He sees Rick/Michonne and he questions the commitment of Glen and Maggie & their choice to get pregnant. Reading between the lines you get the impression he wants a bit of what they are having, but he realizes he just doesn't want it with the woman he is currently with. Say what you will about Abraham, he's not a bad catch in a Post-ZA world. He is a competent fighter. I could see why Sasha may gravitate toward someone who might have a better than average chance of living a bit longer than the next guy. Personally, I thought Bob was a terrible match for Sasha Fierce! Also I don't necessarily agree that it needs to have any bigger meaning in the overall context of the show than just more character development or in the case of one or the other them of biting it, it gives the remaining actor something to react to. I also see no reason why Rosita wouldn't have his back in a fight. Regardless of where they are personally, this is still a dangerous world with Zombies and a group of killers that are possibly crazier than Rick x10. No matter how much you might fight internally, you band together against an external attack; See: Eugene.

I think the furor is more along the lines of, here is an opportunity redress something that should not have happened in the first place and Netflix missed a golden opportunity. Iron Fist first appeared sometime in the 70s, most likely he is the spiritual inheritor of the same idea that made David Carradine the Caine character in the tv show King Fu which aired sometime before Iron Fist. Nobody really had the platform to protest loudly or even point out the problematic issues surrounding a white guy appropriating Asian martial arts culture (teachings, lifestyle philosophy, language, mannerism etc.) and presenting it as something easy to digest for white audiences. So of course Iron Fist was created as a white guy in the comic books. That is what they did back in the day. Creating him as an actual Asian superhero was way too progressive. Kinda like of course Luke Cage as a black superhero is going to come from the 'hood in Harlem and be a product of gang culture and be heavily influenced by the Blaxploitation films of he time cuz that is what black people were all like in the 70s!. The problem with comic book purists holding onto Iron Fist being a white guy as some inviolable canon is they are refusing to acknowledge the flawed historical/political context of his creation. By rights a character like Iron Fist should have been Asian in the first place. But he wasn't because that is not how Marvel rolled back in the day. Easier to create X-men as an allegory of otherness... But in today's climate where we are a bit more woke about stuff like that... and race bending is not without precedent, making Danny Rand Asian could have been a way to address the thorny issues of appropriation.

Don't you mean Pintos?

Carole left to go do stuff and thangs... I suspect Morgan is gonna go all tracker and follow her. I thought ir was interesting that this episode focused on Denise and Eugene both trying to become more assertive of their physical contribution to protecting Alexandria in the aftermath of the Negan raid. But I knew, knew, knew, Denise was a goner. I also thought maybe Abraham would bite it because of the previouslies... but it was just foreshadowing him getting with Sasha. Surprisingly I do not.... hate that. Weird. Slow episode, not much happened but still felt very tense, especially the repetitiveness of the scenes before the start of the credits. Gave off a very 'waiting for the other shoe to drop' vibe without being overtly suspenseful. I will say Eugene biting Dwight's junk was a supreme highlight. I think I cackled the entire scene.

Aw, Eugene fought a miniboss and won. Level up complete!

This episode felt slow but also it went kinda fast.

Eugene biting Dwight in the nuts has to be the best thing this whole season. Even better than Richonne!

Welp, there we go....

I know right? Please simebody get killed so I can finally stop biting my nails?

Jesus, Denise....seriously?

I guess this is Eugene's version of 'Why are dingleberries brown?"

"I most definitely, almost certainly..." Oh Eugene..

Eugene is trying to level up

Shit. Denise is gonna die, isn't she? Or Rosita....

Aw, Rosita, don;t be mean to Spencer cuz Abraham was an asshat to you.

Oh.. something is going break up the monotony of their days real quick, methinks.

Groundhog Day!

I forgot to mention how much I am enjoying Sophie. SH isn't known for being a show that is light-hearted at all and when they do bring a little comedy it is usally Tom they rely on because his comedic timing is impeccable. But I am liking how Sophie is filling that niche a little bit. Her entire delivery of 'Who's gonna tell Mills that we knocked off her monster? Hmm?..." "Not it!" Also her face! LOL. So... a little bit of sexy Ichabbie speculation/hope. Last week the scientist made it seem awfully like the symbol was almost like a representation of the Witnesses themselves. "two things that are bonded together" etc. etc. But the power in it comes from the two things, coming together, 'making their own chemistry". Abbie notices that the symbols need "skin on skin" action to work. Alls I'm saying is ... maybe now that the symbol is destroyed and the Witnesses still need to defeat THO, maybe it'll require some skin-on-skin action? ....Ok I'll see myself out then.... On rewatch I think the entire Banshee sub-plot and the Jenny/Joe stuff really worked against the best parts of the episode. I don't hate Joenny as a couple. I actually like them. I just think their insertion here in this episode plus the over emphasis on their love at this point works more as a distraction/time waster than anything else. This episode would have been perfect if it had been a simple bottle episode with THO/Ichabod battling wits inside and Pandy/Abbie doing the same thing outside. No need for Jendigo, of the Banshee or even Sophie even though I like her in this episode. The two pairs, facing off just those four would have been perfect because they really are the central plot here. We already know that Nicole & Shannyn have great actor chemistry. And now we know that so do Tom & Peter. I can only imagine what just the 40 mins of just them mind-mojo-ing each other could have been like.

Nope. Nope. Nope. I reject thee! LOL. Well, Pandora as an entity is rather tiresome, but Shannyn Sossamon is miles ahead of KW in my opinion. Mainly because SS does so much more with her face. For instance the look on her face when she thinks Abbie is going to give her the Eye of Whatsehoosit so that Ichabod won't lose his soul. Or the look on her face when she is trying to lure Abbie to her side when they face off after Pandy tortures Nevins out of that FBI truck. She is always in the moment and her facial expressions gives Pandy's words so much more nuance. She lets it out more when she is in her scenes with Abbie. But she is never -- even on her most tedious when she was just talking to her box -- as wooden as KW.