Chris24601

If it follows the comics (which it should) then the answer to this and why the Federation of Planets is able to be a thing in the face of the Viltrimite Empire should be answered fairly soon.

Jimmy being stupid rich and working as a photojournalist purely because he loves it has been a thing since the Nu52 reboot (his parents were billionaires and died in a plane crash, leaving everything to their only child). In fact, shortly before the Rebirth storyline in the comics, Jimmy actually bought the Daily Planet outright with his money and has Perry run it for him while he continues his passion of photojournalism. While $5.6 million isn’t that big in comparison, it does mean he’s well off enough to make his job more akin to a hobby.

Some people just click really fast. Some friends of mine met and got married a month later; they’re still together and their oldest is starting highschool. As to timeline… Episode 1 is where Lois and Clark have their meetcute and all happens on the same day. Episode 2 is, at most, a day or two later. Episode 3 is some period of time later, long enough for Lois to be frustrated that Superman keeps flying off. Episode 4 is the next day as Lois is upset about Superman being a liar. Episode 5 is likely two days after that as Clark had said Lois was looking at him oddly all the previous day. Episode 6 is the day after that as Lois and Clark are unable to reach Jimmy. Episode 7 is likely the next day for showing Lois and Jimmy the ship, but could be several days later (likely a Friday) for the actual date. Episode 8 is at least a few days after that as Jimmy returns from being gone for a few days and Clark hasn’t slept for a few days. Episode 9 is probably 24 the following day and into the evening with Parasite’s rampage ending near dawn. * * * * That probably puts it at roughly two weeks on the low end to maybe a month on the high end. So definitely fast by typical Lois & Clark standards, but still probably slower than my friends (unless next episode features a wedding).

He really just needs an accident that causes him to lose his hair that he can somehow blame on Superman and we’re golden. Episode 4 already established that Alex did a LOT of the work on the Parasite project as well. Frankly, just the fact that Alex was brought back at all is one of the bigger potential hints.

Regarding all the evil alternate Supermen in relation to Task Force X; I have a prediction on where this might be going... its basically an inversion of a "For Want of a Nail" story. The gist is that Clark WAS sent to Earth to prep it for conquest, but due to some accident*, ended up being raised by the Kents and so became the classic Superman we all know and love (basically reinforcing the "Krypton gave him powers, the Kents made him a hero" concept) and so will defend the Earth when the main invasion force finally turns up. * Ex. since the Post-Crisis reintroduction of Kara Zor-El it has become the DC standard that Kara Zor-El was sent to Earth at the same time as Clark in order to actually raise him, but due to some accident ends up being delayed in a manner and so by the time she arrives or is awakened on Earth, Kal-El is already an adult. Maybe the Jor-El AI was intended to be more involved in Clark's upbringing in this version? (in the big villain shot in the opening credits its worth noting that there's a tiny Jor-El floating in the middle of them). Maybe its not an accident they decided to model Jor-El's look on Big Boss (one of the main villains of the Metal Gear series and 'father' of its hero; Solid Snake).

Couple of points; Sam Lane (aka the General, I haven’t read spoilers it’s just so obvious it can’t be anyone else) really did a number on Lois. Her REAL beef with Clark about his secret was if he was lying about his feelings for her; if “Clark” was just a disguise for an alien and his flirting just part of some angle he was playing… once that got settled in her mind she opened right up again. And that seems pretty consistent with the rather strained relationship Lois has with her father, whom she blames for keeping her mother’s terminal illness from her and for constantly moving her around as a kid, meaning she doesn’t really have any deep friendships in her past to speak of… basically Clark and Jimmy are probably the first people she’s really opened up to since her mother died; and she just found out one of them was lying to her and might have even been faking feelings for her… so that’s why the whole acting like wounded animal (trying to push others away) routine. However, another important tidbit that connects with the revelations from last episode is that Lois’ father didn’t just take his daughter on camping trips; they were survival weekends and pretty extreme ones given “setting bones” was on her list of things she was trained to do. But, consider it context of the General having been preparing for another alien invasion for at least the last 22 years and suddenly this isn’t just Sam Lane being randomly hard on Lois, but wanting her to have skills that would help her survive when the alien invasion arrived. This also tracks with the interviews from the writers about how they took inspiration from a novel called The Three Body Problem which is about secret preparations for an impending alien invasion (Lois’ training particularly falls in line with the novel’s grim conclusion that, even if they fail to stop the invasion, like cockroaches, humanity would find a way to survive). Of course from a storytelling standpoint it follows that Task Force X has identified the wrong target (Superman) as the threat and are probably going to make things harder by continuing to fight Superman even when the real threat shows up (my money is either on a Kryptonian AI version Brainiac; as in STAS and Smallville; or the Eradicator, but given the interstellar war images and Krypton’s sun turning red before exploding it could instead be a Colluan Brainiac or if they wanted to be really different, Mongul).

Okay, after this episode, I finally understand the references by the developers to novel "The Three Body Problem" (part of it involves Earth organizations prepping for an alien invasion they know is coming generations into the future). Clark's visions when exposed to (presumably) Kryptonian tech weren't visions of the future... they were flashbacks/memories connected to the repurposed artifacts of a previous invasion of Earth and Clark's got enough similarities to the invaders they think he's actually one of them who's returned and a new invasion in imminent. I'm now at 99% the general is Sam Lane... because there's way more drama to it that way (and the REAL plot reason Clark had to leave Lois behind, lest she instantly identify him)... and internal conflict between Lane (win without endangering innocents) and Waller/Deathstroke (win at all costs). Lois' position was completely understandable... she was 99% sure Clark was Superman already, then the dumbbells and popping in and out with the radio just removed the last 1%. After that she was just trying to get Clark to be honest with her by dropping anvil-sized hints until she'd finally had enough and did the roof drop (which I absolutely believe she only would have done if she weren't 100% certain) because, as has been established Lois absolutely hates being lied to "for her own good/safety" after she never knew about her mom's terminal illness until it was too late. But it is absolutely heat of the moment anger... which based on Jimmy's dire straits is likely to be dealt with next episode (sidebar - I am loving the serialized nature of the series with each episode leaving on a minor cliffhanger of sorts; just like the old movie serials and radio dramas). And speaking of Jimmy... in one episode we got the entirety of Jimmy's position in Superman stories once Lois learns Clark's secret... sidelined so hard its actually painful from his perspective (on the other hand, his continual interruptions just as something might turn overtly romantic really go a long way towards limiting my sympathy for Clark and Lois ghosting him). Throwing him into peril (said cliffhanger) while Clark and Lois are having their first big fight is probably the best way to slide him back into the best friend (along with being peacemaker for them) and I wouldn't be surprised if Clark has to reveal his secret to Jimmy next episode since I think getting him to even footing on the secret is just about the only way to not continue to sideline the character and we just past mid-season (man, its going fast).

To be fair, he had ONE transformation sequence in the episode when he first got his costume (and then further subverted it with Ma saying “nope, it needs something and adding the trunks/belt by hand). Every change since has been the classic shirt rip+superspeed (and even a bit where he forgot to restyle his hair back and had to quickly mess it up so Lois wouldn’t notice).

Given that Lois has known in the comics since 1991 (just four years after the post-crisis reboot) and how much other recent media has either had Lois knowing from the start (Sniderverse) or only not knowing in flashbacks (Superman & Lois) it doesn’t surprise me that they opted for an early reveal.* The two main advantages it has are, first, it pretty much eliminates the “Lois is stupid/blind” aspect since she figured it out after very little actual time in his presence. Second, while it’s been okay so far, Clark continuing to keep a secret that big as things get romantic lends itself to superdickery instead of a healthy relationship. Third (apparently I had three points) it gives the relationship a bit of a speed bump that will keep Jimmy from becoming a complete third wheel in the trio… which is a problem that’s existed ever since Lois found out Clark’s identity in the comics. Jimmy hasn’t worked as Clark/Superman’s closest confidant ever since he got a girlfriend/fiancé/wife who was in on the secret. Giving Lois a little time to be streamed at Clark for keeping secrets (even if it’s only been a couple weeks at most) will let Jimmy step in as mediator which can cement him as best friend to both instead of slipping into irrelevance as he’s done in other media once Lois becomes his secret-keeper (I also fully expect Jimmy to find out too in this version). The other thing that pleases me is that this is a serial rather than episodic. Four episodes in and we’re already upsetting the trio’s status quo with Jimmy feeling a bit marginalized and Lois has learned Clark’s secret (ironically because he tore the tabloid story out… Lois only started really looking at them that night because she noticed the ripped out story and it was finding the missing story of the flying Smallville boy in Clark’s pocket that sealed it). This means we can reasonably expect recurring shakeups to keep things fresh. * Also there was that brief scene in the trailer where Clark tells her to hold on and then he superspeed flies up… kinda a dead giveaway she was going to find out sometime this season.

Given that right after he says that we get a pullback shot of the street where all the previously fighting people have vanished into thin air; it means she’s been remembering all these events as Dolores did in season one. My hunch is that Teddy isn’t even really there either, or if he is, is a projection inside her head. Indeed it is entirely possible that everyone she’s been seeing and the few she’s interacted with (not many; her roommate, her boss, the guy who kills himself in the first episode, Teddy and Hale are it and; other than the suicide, none of them have actually interacted with her in a way that would require them to be physically present*) are nothing but memories; perhaps cobbled together by Bernard for Christina to experience as part of his plan. I mean… is Christina’s roommate even real or just a projection/memory? Why would she just happen to have a roommate with nightmares of how Hale took control of them and just happens to know Teddy? Maybe she’s been in an empty city all this time going through a loop designed to wake her up so she can actually take the next step in Bernard’s “save a tiny part” plan. As to humans being awful as a premise; I think it worked in the sense that West World was a park for the elite; costing as much as ordinary folks made in a year to visit for a week. That is absolutely going to skew the sample population towards those used to having power over others. Regardless of how poorly executed, Caleb was intended to point out that the majority of humans were NOT like the people who visited the park. It’s why Dolores gave up her quest for vengeance and died setting humans free from Rehaboam. Halores diverged from Dolores when she again experienced the nastiness of the elite in killing Hale’s child. She chose to ignore the good. My hunch is that Christina is actually a memory suppressed Halores restored to Dolores’ original body being run through a loop in order to bring about a version who would be capable of the compassion OG Dolores showed. The Hale she met in the coffee shop was a projection of her past self just as Teddy is a projection from her memories. My further hunch is that, the part of the world that will be preserved is actually WestWorld; specifically all the human data recorded there and versions of the hosts Dolores was familiar with can be recreated there (just as she was able to recreate Bernard from her memory … and that’s where the Fidelity test of William we saw at the end of season two comes into play.

So my original prediction was mostly on the right track; Christina has been in a third timeline and was Bernard’s plan to save at least some part of civilization. My hunch is that she’s been an unreliable narrator and has been recalling events recorded from leading up to the fall. The only real question is; was she actually there the first time and remembering that here… or are her memories a stitched together patchwork and she’s actually been sitting in an empty city the whole time talking to imaginary ghosts as her subconscious was processing her purpose (with Hale and Teddy as the devil and angel on her shoulders respectively)?

Well, it’s been noted by a more careful viewer than me that during a part of Caleb’s escape, he passes by the same floor number sign and location (with different decorations) as the office where Christina works… so I think the third timeline is confirmed. My hunch is now that Hale is going to suicide herself in the middle timeline because what Caleb said is going to stick with her, but first she recreates original-recipe Dolores as Christina to be a successor in maintaining the narratives only unaware of her true nature. The various people she’s seen, from the homeless man screaming about the tower to the man who killed himself are either memories (Hale being basically her own subconscious) or people she has subconsciously caused to replay those memories (it’s possible that Teddy is just some random guy she’s made act like Teddy and she’s subconsciously projecting Teddy’s image into the space. It feels like this needs a lot more than two episodes unless they really do intend this season to be a cliffhanger.

Well, it’s good to be done with ONE of the timelines now that Maeve and CalebCopy are in Bernard’s time. I think we also see why she’s trying the fidelity tests on him… she’s still trying to figure out why some people are immune to her control mechanisms (like the resistance members apparently; the use of “outlier” feels quite deliberate). I think we’re meant to think on a surface read that we’re done with multiple timelines in the story, but I think the further twist is going to be that Christina is still further into the future after Bernard’s plan inserts her into Hale’s narrative. No, my hunch is that the outlier the resistance is coming to rescue is either Caleb or someone else entirely… perhaps even the original guy who died and donated to the mental hospital that shut down years earlier and the endgame for Bernard will be using Maeve’s hacking power to insert Christina (and elements needed to awaken her Dolores side like Teddy) into Hale’s infrastructure to bring it down from the inside.

I imagine they’re pretty unrecognizable by this point. They were uploaded at the end of season two which was probably a year before the Rehoboam riots when Bernard went in… so already a thousand years had passed for the Hosts… Bernard then spent probably at least two decades running all the possible timelines… during which 20,000 more years had passed for the hosts without human input (nor much with each other if each one had created their own personal paradise). It reminds me a bit of what someone once said about not fearing the AI apocalypse because any AI’s interests would likely be so tangential to our own that we might never realized they’d rebelled (i.e. keep the power on and let me engage in my true passion of calculating all the decimals of Pi and I’ll run your silly meat management programs for you on my secondary processors). That’s probably where the Hosts inside the Sublime are at at this point. So utterly alien that they were only able to communicate with Bernard because they have perfect memories of what such conversations look like. They’re probably more akin to the nonlinear time explanations for God… creating a world in four dimensions with their own fifth dimension they use to observe the whole construct from beginning to end and so observe the effects of any changes they make at one end of the time dimension have upon the rest of the 4D structure. Basically, each one of them became a god of their own virtual universe.

My hunch in terms of story is that the less advanced cars along with the glitching sign at the diner are intended to show a technological backslide among the humans who aren’t under Hale’s control. Another key point about the late model vehicles… many of them looked old enough that they wouldn’t have onboard computers in their engines (or at least not the modern ones that mechanics can connect to via wifi). Other than the glitchy sign, the diner was pretty analog… laminated paper menus, old juke box selector, etc. The point is, there seems to be a deliberate avoidance of advanced technology by the people there. The exception to that is the Resistance. FutureFrankie’s jeep was all futured up, as were the bikes/helmets the others were using. But my guess is they’re skilled enough with tech to be able to handle whatever issues the civilians are trying to avoid by going low tech.

So, it seems people who actually slow-mo'd Bernard's visions in the opening revealed a couple of things and; as they were actually in the episode proper, even if for a moment; don't constitute spoilers; - First, there is a shot of Golden Age World's street, but abandoned, covered in dust and overgrown... all but confirming that Bernard's timeline is well past Maeve/Caleb's. - Second, in the clear shot of The Tower in the vision it is supporting a giant version of the sound generator used in the lab Maeve/Caleb to control the infected people. - Also someone freeze-framed the displays and it noted that they were "Infrasound Control Trials" and one of the test subjects was the government guy Hale infected with flies last episode. So, I'm going to guess what with the burning bush analogue (the Tree is the one Dolores went to whenever she discussed the future with Teddy) is both the burning branches symbolizing all the possible timelines that end in disaster; but is also a metaphorical motif of God appointing Moses to save his people from bondage in Egypt... implying Bernard's actions will lead people out of bondage, but also like Moses, not live to actually enter the Promised Land. An interesting aspect of that too is that, in Christian tradition, Moses' saving of his people was a prefiguring of (and necessary setup for) the eventual salvation of all mankind through Jesus Christ... i.e. Bernard, who saves his people will pave the way for Christina to save everyone if they wanted to stick with the redemption narrative (which seems likely as the Big Bad is basically the Lord of the Flies who holds people in spiritual bondage to her whims). How much beyond that basic point of Christina = Savior/Redeemer they intend to go though is an open question. If they wanted to go full bore into it then Hale will probably attempt to kill/destroy Christina only for her death/rebirth to be the mechanism that utterly defeats Hale and liberates the people... by turning the very instrument of torture/subjugation (Crucifixion/The Tower) that the Lords of This World (Rome/Hale and her minions) used to enforce their will into the means and symbol of Christ's eternal victory over death (possibly turning by the Infrasound generator against Hale somehow). But I lean towards it being more of a Savior in broad strokes with motifs and imagery.

Okay, so the timelines are starting to sort themselves out. Maeve/Caleb is clearly the earliest timeline… apparently giving us the story of the rise of the machines as Hale (she apparently no longer identifies as an Dolores-copy) is perfecting her technology to turn humanity into meat puppets. Sidebar: on the importance of names - note that Maeve specifically comments that the Golden Age Dolores was calling herself Wyatt at the point being recreated… and in this season she’s being called Christina. /Sidebar Bernard/Stubbs is clearly a later timeline; ballpark about 15 years given that the woman who picked them up is clearly a grownup Frankie (no spoilers here; it’s just THAT damnably obvious from the structure of the narrative) who’s out in the desert; probably on the site that used to be Golden Age world; looking for the weapon Maeve and Caleb just found and strongly suggesting that Caleb never actually makes it home to her and she grows up as part of a resistance to the Hosts. What’s unclear is if Bernard’s timeline is concurrent with or still beyond Christina’s timeline. If concurrent then Hale has succeeded in her tests and has turned all of New York into a park where Hosts are playing with human lives, but probably in secret because there are clearly still humans who aren’t under her control at the diner and with the resistance. My hunch though is that Christina is actually even further into the future after all humanity is enslaved. If so then Christina will prove to be an insert by Bernard into whatever system Hale is using to keep humans under the control of the narratives they create for them… probably a recreation from his memory just as this Bernard was a recreation from Dolores’ memories. Thus the timeline structure is; - seven years after season three, Maeve and Caleb uncover, but fail to stop Hale’s plan. Their primary narrative purpose is to reveal the extent of Hale’s plan as it’s unfolding. It also sets up that Frankie has been on the run from the Hosts and seeking to thwart them for basically her whole life. - 12-20 years after that Bernard wakes up; things in the real world out in the desert are clearly run down, but people are still humans. They’re going to uncover the weapon (probably the prototype control system) and presumably try to find a way to counter it… which will probably require some sort of suicide mission but with the payoff that… - at an indeterminate, possibly decades or even centuries, time in the future; Christina/Dolores is born (perhaps as a hybrid) or created within Hale’s NYC torture world equipped to be some sort of savior figure for mankind (and all the Hosts that Hale seems to have no problem essentially enslaving for her own ends). At least that’s my present take.

I believe the point of it was what youngsters these days call a “flex”; gloating or showing off. Basically, HostWilliam was using his ability to precisely duplicate his golf swing* as a means of demonstrating his complete superiority over the VP he was either going to get to go along with his plan or was going to shortly be replacing with a duplicate. It was an intimidation tactic because William, real or host, is a sadist and he didn’t just want the VP dead, he wanted him frightened for his life first. * forget shooting 50’s; Hosts can theoretically Ace every hole on a course so long as they have the right data inputs. There’s zero sport in the sport for him. HostWilliam wasn’t out on the course for any reason other than to start the VP in a situation where the VP felt like he had an advantage and then use his inhuman abilities to then throw him off balance and then outright terrify his victim.

I suspect who the pearl was originally isn’t terribly important. Host personalities are completely re-writable just by adjusting settings in their code. Halores certainly grew into a version very different (in personality and priorities) from the Dolores who sacrificed herself to shut down Rehabom. I think the primary value to using copies of herself for Dolores was that the shared memories provided a baseline she thought would keep everyone loyal long enough to carry out what was, for the most part, a suicide mission. She didn’t expect Halores to deviate as quickly as she did. One prospect the discussion of the Lawerence/Dolores copy that just occurred to me that could explain Christina is that Dolores put the codes to the Sublime into Bernard and didn’t have them when she was deleted, but to put them into him she had to have them at some point. She also, through her Lawrence version, gave Bernard the device to reach the Sublime… which also means original Dolores had the device at some point.Finally, we know Teddy was last seen in Sublime, but is now watching over Christina in New York. So, crazy thought, knowing that her mission to destroy Rehoboam was going to be a one way trip and having said to Maeve just before she was deleted that the beauty humans created was worth protecting… could she have included herself as the creation of Arnold in that list of beautiful things to be preserved and used the access codes before deleting them from herself and the device before it was delivered to Bernard to upload an unmodified copy of herself to the Sublime? Because what I’m suspecting is the twist involving the timelines is that the past timeline with Halores/William/Maeve/Caleb is about unlocking the data secured at the Hoover Dam and that the NYC “Park” has Christina and Teddy in it is because the Sublime data has been cracked and is being used for some end of Halores we haven’t had explained to us yet. There are still some holes in the potential multiple timelines for me… one being the clip of Caleb in NYC looking pretty much as he does now somewhat limiting the timeframe NYC being in the future could be. Conversely, something as big as that tower the crazy guy, sketches and the credits appears to be, couldn’t go up overnight without people noticing, yet no one sees it and it is apparently actually in NYC since Christina was able to drive over to New Jersey to check out the mental hospital. Which reminds me… I don’t think it’s an accident that right after Christina wishes for the construction people to keep on moving they do exactly as she was hoping. Connect that with the stalker whose story played out exactly as Christina wrote it and I think we’re going to see a continuing pattern that Dolores is somehow controlling the flow of her story inside the NYC Park. Almost as if she’s written her own awakening into the park’s narrative. I stand by my hunch; Christina is a spanner in the works whose presence in NYC (the end goal of Halores’ plans) was planted by one or more of Maeve, Caleb or Bernard… possibly even on a suicide mission akin to the one Dolores made to destroy Rehaboam… and the big twist reveal of the season will be that what will look like utter defeat at the climax of Christina’s story is actually the moment of victory set up by the past crew (akin to the reveal in s2 that the Hale in the present timeline was actually Dolores all along).

I think this episode definitely confirmed two separate timelines; Timeline 1: Maeve, Caleb, Hale and William (and most likely Stubbs/Bernard) are in a “Rise of the Machines” story that explains how Hale and Williambot are relaunching the theme parks as part of their take control of humanity (and make them suffer as we have) plan. This culminates in… Timeline 2: where Christina/Dolores 2.0 is living in a world where Hale’s plans have come to fruition and New York is a theme park/torture lab, but Christina is starting to notice the cracks in the façade. Bernard is either in timeline 1 or in a timeline 1.5 after the rise of the machines that involves, as has been established with Dolores rebuilding Bernard in his entirety from flawless host memory, creating Chistina and introducing her into the system to eventually subvert it. The memories/story overlaps with people who died years ago are part of triggering her awakening so she can do what needs done. At least that’s my present thoery.

To be fair, I don't think they're necessarily trying to claim he's a high school student... once you're in the school it doesn't look like there's any sort of set graduation date... I mean I'm pretty sure based on the established time passage that Hope was already 19 (or maybe even twenty) last season.

I have to give the show props for sticking with its strengths; Hope + Lizzie’s frenemies and MG + Kaleb’s found family deals. Lizzie being Hope’s morality pet is keeping Hope’s humanity switch arc from being as grating as it could be (this is definitely one of the longer “humanity switch off” arcs we’ve gotten in the TVD-verse with no obvious signs of how it’s going to be flipped back on in the immediate future as every obvious reversion trigger save Landon turning up alive or de-vamping has pretty much been played out). The headmaster thing is almost a deliberate joke at this point, but the ironic thing is that it’s actually NOT the basic premise of a supernatural school for multiple types of supernaturals that’s the problem… it’s the past sins of its founders/primary benefactor that have mostly made it a massive danger magnet (and despite being a magnet it’s notable that other than Landon; literally the whipping boy for Nature’s need for loopholes; none of the students have actually been killed by all the monsters turning up).

I think what most sums up this series is that it closed on the triumphal rise of The Mandolorian’s theme and Djinn and Grogu flying off to new adventures… even the show realized Boba’s band of misfits wasn’t enough of a draw to make an emotionally resonant close. I’m glad they resolved that Cobb was still alive at the end, because I have my doubts this will ever get a second season given the ONLY good parts anyone is talking about are basically what was season 2.5 of The Mandalorian. I know it’s all available for streaming on the same service, but I’m kinda hoping we get a solid in-episode recap of the last three episodes of this season at the start of season 3 of Mando. side-bar: I think of the things that makes The Mandalorian so intriguing is that one of the leads has to convey everything using just his voice and tilts of the head and the mask conceals all his expressions while the other has to convey everything through his highly expressive rubber face, mewls and grunts because he has no voice… which is why I doubt they’ll give Grogu a mask until he can use something other than his face to emote with.

I liked the juxtaposition near the end of Boba doing his vengeance showdown with Cad with Mando trying to save the town from the rampaging Rancor that Boba lost control of (and Grogu putting it to sleep then taking a nap by it’s massive head). One was busy killing for personal reasons while the other was trying to save virtual strangers in the city from a rampaging beast… and the one trying to save the city WASN’T the guy who wants to be in charge of it. Almost feels like you could could just start with episode 5 and pretend it’s a mini-season of The Mandalorian and wouldn’t even miss much context from the series as a whole… which, honestly, is how I’ll be rewatching it (i.e. Mandalorian season 2.5 after binging 1 and 2).

Well, the news that Josie being put on literal bus definitely changes up several plot elements. My hunch now is Lizzie going Heretic is actually the writers also writing out the Merge storyline since, short of recasting, there’s just no way to reliably guarantee Kaylee’s return for long enough to do a suitable wrap up. And honestly? THIS is precisely where I saw that particular plotline ending anyway… that rather than actually go through with the merge one of the twins would become a vampire and, due to already heightened emotions and being previously reluctant due to possibly wanting a family (something Josie, by contrast has never voiced during the series), Lizzie would be the obvious dramatic choice for who would end up becoming the vampire (where as, had not been cut short, I suspect the original play would be Josie planning to make that sacrifice only for Lizzie to surprise be the one to do it). My main point of evidence on this (i.e. that the Merge storyline is basically dead) is Josie’s final comments about not being able to feel Lizzie anymore and that it was basically a “goodbye… you’re now free to live your life” moment where the last cord is cut. I’m definitely hoping the arrival of the Sphinx means we’re nearing the end of the underworld arc. I can take or leave Landon and Ted, but the school needs Alaric back in the land of the living (I think his being there is because while his body is being kept alive, he’s basically brain dead and the implication is that his soul is in the process of moving on) because so many of the kids just bounce off him better than they do with each other… though if Landon coming back finally snaps Hope’s switch back on; I probably wouldn’t complain too much at this point even if it’s not my first choice (first choice is that her humanity can’t be restored as a vampire and the only solution is restoring her to life with the threat that if she ever dies again humanity-less Hope will return).