Edgehopper

FYI, for the story writer--the Wrigley Rooftops are a real thing. The owners of the buildings next to the park figured out that they could build tall enough to see into the stadium, put bleachers on the roof, and sell tickets. They usually also add other perks like all-you-can-eat food and drinks, and keep the game on a big screen on lower floors as well. There was a big fight a few years ago when the big scoreboard you saw was installed, with rooftop owners claiming it would ruin their business by blocking the view :)

This makes me want to see a final leg in Chicago at rush hour :)

Is it just me, or is anyone else starting to find this show increasingly turning into Assassin's Creed? The whole "shadowy cabal controls everything while our heroes go back in time to interact with it" plot feels very familiar, with Rittenhouse playing the part of the Templars. The complicated puzzle box at the end of this one added to the similar feel of the two stories.

Individual singers (Jayma, Calysta, Kadie, Brian) - they're all good singers, but ordinary individual singers don't excite me on AGT. I like Sal because he adds banter and charm to an ordinary singing act, but all of these...meh. Linkin Bridge: My favorite of the night. The song choice worked really well for this group, and they made it better than the original IMHO. Kid magicians: I really liked their audition and quarterfinal performances, not as much their judge cut and semifinal performances. Like Passing Zone, this is a comedy act as much as their skill, and when they don't have the cartoon sibling violence thing going, the trick falls flat. And it didn't help that there are four other magic acts in the semis, three of which do consistently more impressive tricks. Steven Brundage: Didn't we learn anything from "The Prestige?" Without any indicator to prove that the back of the mosaic really came from the same cubes in the front, the act isn't that satisfying. Nowhere near as good as... The Clairvoyants: Great showmanship and great tricks, though the time limit hurt them. Best magic of the night. Victor, The Passing Zone: Both fairly simple acts improved by the surrounding showmanship. I prefer comedy to art, so I enjoy the Passing Zone, but they won't go on. Sofie: Contortionist acts are tough to change, but the spinning ring part was a nice change and improvement. Very impressive. The ones I want to go through: Linkin Bridge, The Clairvoyants, Sofie, Kadie, Steven Brundage The ones who will go through: Linkin Bridge, The Clairvoyants, Kadie, Brian, Calysta

Richard Feynmann described seeing an act like that as a kid where a mentalist on stage named things an assistant pulled from the audience, and it was done by an elaborate code--the assistant's choice of seemingly innocuous words told the mentalist what the item was. Now, the insane level of detail here, with the number and date guessing and the smoothness of the whole thing took it to another level, but that's how I've heard this type of trick done.

Cartman's always been willing to break down and fake cry to get what he wants--it's just that before, the only person in South Park who'd respond to that was his mom. I'm pretty sure you can find examples of that going back at least to Season 4's "Trapper Keeper" episode; more recent big examples are "Tsst" and "Breast Cancer Show Ever."

Yeah, given that they did come across as pretty sensitive in the Photoshop episode focusing on Wendy, and that Reality's speech at the end pointed out that Vin Diesel's response was its own form of fat-shaming, I don't think Parker and Stone were going for "body shaming is good" as much as "don't show off on the Internet and then whine if the world isn't nice about it." From the song, the main line was about "bulletproof windows"--that is, demanding to show off to the world and then be safe from it. As Chef said in one episode, "Children, there's a big difference between gay people and Mr. Garrison," and similarly, there's a big difference between fat people and Cartman. I loved Kyle and Wendy's scenes with PC Principal. "That's fine, I'll take the detention."

In the books, Cersei's arrest cues a more widespread palace coup, with Kevan Lannister taking over as Hand and all of Cersei's minions except Qyburn fleeing. The city guard and Lannister army won't do anything because Kevan is in charge. Tommen is even younger and more of a useless pawn in the books; after the walk, Cersei and Tommen are spending most of their time cowering together while Kevan, Randyll Tarly, and Mace Tyrell take over the actual governing. Now, an event from the epilogue of Book 5 that hasn't happened on the show may change the power dynamics, but up to that point, the High Sparrow has a lot more friends in King's Landing than Cersei.

I was half expecting Robert Arryn, er, Hugo, to say of Harry "Make the bad man fly!" The actual line--"That's the bad man who hit me--he's going to jail"--wasn't too far off!