slf

I never felt bad for Dawson at all. He was a willing participant in that relationship with Joey and gave as good as he got. I always wondered if Joey wouldn't have liked Dawson so much, wouldn't have placed so much value on his approval, if they hadn't been friends when her mom died. Her mom had this slow awful death, her father stepped out on her mother and then got sent to prison, the whole town treated them badly because of it and then her mom died. Gale stepped in as surrogate and Joey was informally adopted by the Leery's. That's...no small thing. There was a huge sense of loyalty there on Joey's part and a huge emotional codependency that I always figured was left over from childhood. She idealized what being with Dawson would be like and I get that, even though I think it's kind of sad, because it's the perfect story and the safest and best option in her 16 year old mind. Which, to bring this back to my earlier point, is basically what Dawson said himself several times in the back half of this season. "Our history," "you can't beat history" blah blah destiny. Dawson loved the story as well but for entirely different reasons. Besides, I remember him asking her for advice or something when he was trying to date another girl (maybe Eve?) after he rejected her so he earned some heat from her. I don't think him rejecting her advances was a bad thing, he wasn't ready and it would have been disastrous for their friendship, but maybe don't go to the girl for advice and then turn around and get mad at her for moving on? Dawson really expected that she would come back to him and that he could have all the fun he wanted in the meantime. Never occurred to him that she would find someone better. I didn't see Joey as a bitch at all this season, though she did a few things I didn't care for (like planning on going on a date with AJ instead of attending opening night for Pacey's play. He helped build your house and business, he mopped floors and ran his butt of getting that place off the ground! Take a raincheck with AJ and go support your friend!) Or as incapable of doing any wrong since the show clearly took the position that she was wanting to have her cake and eat it too several times and the show had other characters call her out. But there's no excusing the assassination of Andie or the horrible false rape accusation and I hate so much that the show went there. WTH was Kevin Williamson thinking? I mean, that her relationship with Pacey ended rang true to me for a numbers of reasons, but instead of exploring those valid reasons that made Andie in an asshole. Why not explore how different her life was from Pacey's and what that would mean for them in the future? Or the fact that Andie, as she once pointed out herself, saw herself as making Pacey into a better guy when she didn't. He was always that guy, he just lacked belief in his own self-worth - an abusive father will do that. So there's was always this slight condescending element to their relationship where she felt responsible for his good choices, and while his feelings for her certainly inspired him to mature, he made the choice and did the work. Also she cheated on him and then had the nerve to act like he was the one giving up on their relationship which actually seemed believable to me. But everything else they did with her that season fell flat. I think part of the reason they went all soap opera villain with her is because they simply didn't know what to do with her character. She's not someone the other characters naturally gravitated toward and never really clicked with their group. I don't think they knew how to organically include her with the main characters after they broke her and Pacey up. I think they had that some problem with Jen off and on, too. She didn't have that childhood connection like Joey, Pacey, and Dawson did and she and Pacey/Joey never became really close. Jen wasn't bestie to any of them, dated one on and off, and flirted with becoming friends with benefits with another but that's it. Becoming besties with Jack, while just cliche-ridden as all hell, let them ground her character and form this second little group on the show that worked. I don't think they wrote Jen and Andie the way they did to service Joey because to me that makes no sense. Nothing they did with either girl was necessary to accomplish what they wanted to do with Joey. I just think they really had no idea what to do with either girl once the show became triangle-centered.

I always saw Merlin as a traitor and a snitch. Honestly. I know the actor once said that if Kilgarrah hadn't told Merlin the prophecy then he would have sided with Morgana against Uther. Uther committed genocide and the show portrayed every warlock and magician who didn't just keep their heads down as homicidal maniacs who had the be stopped by Merlin. So it's five seasons of Merlin killing and battling other warlocks and witches to save the family responsible for routinely slaughtering his kind because, and this is so shocking let me tell you, that family made some enemies along the way. I never liked how Merlin refused to tell Morgana about having magic because he didn't feel close enough to tell her (even though he told other people and they were still friends when he could have shared the info with her) but he felt he had a right to let her tell him secrets about herself. That's a little twisted. I always thought he was really manipulative like that. Arthur half-assed reform - I mean, c'mon, he held a sword to a child's throat to force the druids to do what he wanted - and was still shown to be the good guy. Morgana got thrown under the bus w/r/t characterization. This is the woman that saved a druid child from execution by trying to smuggle him out of the castle, that ended up chained to a floor after standing up to Uther, and who risked her life to save Merlin's childhood village. And she just....goes off the rails and will kill even other warlocks and witches because, I don't even, if she didn't do that and instead only attacked Uther/Arthur/the knights it might be hard to sell her as a villain. I'm really not sure what this show thought it was doing politically.

This show has gotten so boring and I barely care about any of the characters. Who wanted to spend an hour listening to Bjorn yell? I felt more for the bear than I did for him. Ragnar's wittle ego is offended that his wife stepped out even though he's never been faithful to any of his wives? Is that supposed to be interesting- that he's just another limp dick? Who cares that Ragnar and Ecbert are still in love with the most Mary Sue male character ever conceived? Their shared mystical exprience was the most faux profound thing this show has ever done. Dear writers: Athelstan was boring and didn't have a single entertaining scene past season one. Am I meant to be rooting for Rollo? Dude, of course she doesn't like you. She had to be dragged down the aisle, have her head forced into a bow, and then dragged screaming and crying into the bedroom. She pulled a knife on you. She did not want to marry you and still doesn't. I mean, I'm sure there's a Harlequin twist coming but watching Rollo make these dumb childish faces because he's so earnest and vulnerable right now was embarrassing. I sincerely hope Lagertha follows through in her swear to kill Baby Cow (and his wee blonde cohort). "When I unsurped your throne it was because I love you!" Cut his dick off, too, my queen. Then go rule Norway solo. I doubt I'm tuning in next week, I'll just dvr it and watch Lagertha's scenes.

I liked that scene, too, because Quentin has such a boyish outlook on magic and what his role might be. I know everyone at some point wants to believe they have a special destiny that involves magic and otherworldly realms, but most people grow out of that, grow up. Quentin still has that and he's living in a world where magic is real and can be devastating. You're right, I was wrong, Quentin was 17 at the start of the series and in the show he's mid 20s. So they aged him about 7-8 years. Mid 20s for Quentin and Julia. Eliot and a few of the others are supposed to be older, I think. So they kept the experimenting, etc., that teenagers who've just learned magic is real would naturally do but assigned it to mid-to-late twentysomethings.

Yeah, see they kept a lot of the interactions from the books, a lot of the fighting, but they aged the characters by ten years. It's jarring at times. That would explain why she was pursued and then singled out. Also why the show is also tracking her progress. Though I'm not sure how wild I am about the magic=drug thing because it's bringing up unfortunate memories of Willow's descent into gothdom.

13 episodes. Yeah, it feels right now like it's going to be a rush job. Because there has to be a romance and they've been pairing those two from the beginning. Perhaps they'll go a different route, which would be different and much appreciated, but I'm not holding out any hope.

Yeah, we're just going to have to agree to disagree because Quentin, imo, is such a weak protagonist and doesn't really deserve the friends he has. When it comes to Julia I do think they made a mistake in speeding up her progression into magic and with the hedge witches. In the books Quentin and Alice still don't have chemistry so it makes their scenes a little weird to me, but his friendship with Eliot is really lovely (despite making zero sense to me from Eliot's side).

Why should she be held accountable for thinking a grown man in his late twenties should probably stop reading children's books all the time and working himself up so much he has to check himself into the local nut hut? Quentin displayed no magical ability before going to Brakebills. He didn't think it existed either, he just wanted to pretend. And he pretended so much even he thought he was going insane and was being medicated. Quentin's only objection to Julia no longer pursuing magic tricks was that it was, according to him, "their thing"; not "Julia, magic is real, why would you abandon it" it was "I learned tricks to keep up with you, why'd you stop, oh yeah: boyfriend." There was no belief on his part, there was longing. Desire. He was as shocked as anyone when it turned out he could actually do magic. (His first instinct was to do a standard "is this your card" trick.) Julia was a very supportive friend. But she saw her friend slipping, admitting himself to a psych ward, having to be medicated because he was obsessed with Narnia. She wanted him to let go and learn to embrace his life. Why does she have to be held accountable for that like she did something wrong? Especially when Quentin's made it clear in his own nice guy way that a huge part of his attitude toward her is because she didn't pick him. If she'd dated him instead of James I don't think he'd be this way with her, even if she still turned her back on magic tricks. (Magic tricks, not magic.) Julia is a perfectionist (one of her strengths but also one of her flaws), so it doesn't surprise me that she's mad about not getting into Brakebills without even knowing what really goes on there. If she did I doubt she'd want to go (the approach isn't her style). For the audition for Eliot they had the actors say a line about Julia, that she didn't even really want Brakebills she just didn't want to fail to get into Brakebills. I'm not sure how she's supposed to be supportive of his life when he didn't even communicate with her after getting in. She can't just call him there or pop over. James said in the first ep, I think, that Quentin hadn't called or come by once (since getting in), didn't seem to remember it was her birthday, and didn't seem particularly bothered by the shell she had become or the fact that she'd had her mind wiped (which I'd see as a huge violation). He just liked having something she didn't. From the beginning of the first episode we saw Julia encourage and try to include him. Waving him over to join the conversation, finding him when he secluded himself and talking to him/encouraging him to go for the unicorn girl, walking him to his interview, giving him a pep talk. For once, instead of being the one trying to keep up, being the one feeling left out, he's the chosen one. And he's repeatedly lorded that over her head, which is very different from "you're so devoted to Hogwarts you had to be hospitalized and I'm worried." Frankly, given his attitude, I wouldn't want to be very supportive. As far as Julia's ability and the hedge witches...it's frustrating because I know how this is going to go but the show isn't there yet so I can't talk about it.

I don't like how Julia's essentially held accountable for not childishly believing in magic in her late twenties despite having no reason to believe it exists. Quentin himself said in the first episode that he learned magic tricks to keep up with her, that she was the one that introduced him to Fillory, and that her decision to set it aside only happened when she became involved with James. God forbid a woman decide to grow up. And despite the other characters like Eliot not having believed in magic before their powers manifested they aren't punished for it. I prefer Julia and the hedge witches to Brakebills and Quentin. Quentin is passive as hell, he just accepts whatever someone tells him and only puts up an argument if someone might die. He's kind of a whiny loser and I'm sure he's going to be the Harry Potter of this world, god knows why, and I don't believe people like Margo and Eliot would ever really have an interest in him. Neither would someone like Julia. Ultimately the hedge witches seem to be better at this than the Brakebills kids- they seem to have more control and are less reckless (even if some of them are assholes). Of course, I was spoiled last night about what happens to Julia so needless to say she's the character I'm most interested in. Alice grates a lot. Her recklessness, her ego; she's like Tracy Flick crossed with Hermione Granger but with virtually no redeemable qualities. As much as I enjoy Eliot, he and Margo are such cliches. I need them to be given more to do.

L.A. itself has 4 million citizens and LA county has almost 11 million. (That gives that one county half the number of people of New York STATE. There are more people living in California than Canada.) This is the show's greatest failure: it was overly ambitious. "We'll set this in one of the most overcrowded, diverse cities in the country! Urban warfare taken to a whole new level! There's already unrivalled tension between citizens and law enforcement we can use! The city will become a lawless concrete jungle they'll never escape!" However the reality probably set in early. I doubt they ever had the budget to pull this off the way they envisioned it. But they didn't need a lot of money, imo. They should have a) cast more charismatic actors (and told Dillane to stop watching Johnny Depp movies before coming on set), b) dropped the addict storyline, c) doubled the number of individual attacks in the first episode, d) not have the characters just squint whenever they saw something unusual but just carry on with their day- they should have had characters react and recognize something was really wrong so as to build tension and paranoia, and lastly, e) they should have made the protest the big kick-off. THAT'S what I was expecting. The cops take down that female walker we saw but behind them, in the crowd, two or three walkers emerge from various alleyways and attack bystanders, Other people start screaming, running, trying to intervene, and while the cops fight their way through the crowds the people attacked die and turn. Maybe the cops kill a few but the cops themselves get bitten (a throat ripped out here, a calf gnawed through there) and they die after a few minutes and turn too. Total chaos. The family barely makes it out of there and when they home they have to hole up. They're paranoid, have to deal with one or two attacks on the house and they take seriously the need to leave; they pack and plan and discuss the need for weapons and which vehicles they're gonna use. They realize they don't have enough food for nine people (!) and they have to do a supply run. Maybe when they come back you do the military take-over thing, whatever, but my point is they could have done a lot more than they're doing now with all the pointless driving around the find Nick, sitting around bored waiting for other people to get back, etc., bullcrap they've been doing. They promised us the beginning but then they skipped the beginning. The writers for this franchise have always massively sucked at writing dialogue that normal people would say. But it's even worse with this show because there's only like 5% of the action we got in the first season of TWD. (To say nothing of the fact they don't appreciate that a character drama is not an action movie with the action parts taken out. It's a completely different genre that requires a completely different skillset. Over the shoulder angles and half sentences do not a study of the human condition make.) So it's just mostly boring, uncharismatic people sitting around during the apocalypse (literally the world is ending and they are just hanging out). Madison being more willing to put down a walker (and having done so) makes her one of the most valuable people in the group but I'm not willing to make a decision about her condoning the torture, not just yet. She had her son ripped from her by men with guns, who were supposed to be protecting them, because, what? He's a drug addict? Sketchy. She's recently had to kill a friend and colleague to defend someone. She's had a friend and neighbor, whom she saw every day, turn into a walker (which attacked her daughter) and then get mowed down by soldiers. I do think she might be in a state of shock (or the actress can't act for crap, but I liked her in Gone Girl so I don't know). I should have known they were going to drag out the boredom until the finale and then give us all the action then.

I get that to a point but this show tries to have it both ways. Aethelwulf killed a child when he attacked the Viking settlement and the show, through the way the scene was filmed (and the music, etc.), took the position: this guy is kind of villainous. Whereas Ragnar, Bjorn, etc., 'our' characters, have been shown to not kill little kids. Rollo, during the first season when he was being written as an antagonist and potential enemy for Ragnar, raped a slave girl- but he wasn't the only one. Knut did as well and he was also positioned by the show as a villain. Again, the show has not had Legendary Viking Warlord Ragnar commit rape and he's had plenty of opportunities. Floki was shown to be 'going over the edge' when he was manhandling Helga but, I'm just guessing here, that probably wasn't all that uncommon in Viking communities...so why use it the way they did? This show uses violence from that era, yes, but also uses modern tones and perspectives. Ragnar, who has killed people, hasn't killed children or raped women. Lagertha hasn't killed children (or raped anyone) either. Neither has Bjorn or the other 'good' characters. (Notice also how the show, thankfully, doesn't employ rape that often? Like, if it's really just there to be historically accurate then why have Rollo rape just once? Why have Ragnar never rape anyone?) And given that they do use a modern perspective (and it's not that people back then didn't appreciate what rape was, it's just that all the people who had a say in that system benefited from it; there are countless writings going back thousands of years that acknowledge rape for the atrocity it is) it's a little grating to me that shows like Vikings break out a rapist character that I'm meant to root for or sympathize with when, even in modern times, rape isn't taken that seriously; also adding to that, rape is a crime overwhelmingly committed by one group against another. Have a white character kill black characters? Okay. But...maybe don't expect me to root for the racist p.o.s.? Have a man rape a woman- rape exists, I'm not new to the world. But don't hand me a rapist and say: find him charismatic, root for him, want him to get this girl. Because: no. Again, it's the show's tone that's getting under my skin. Everyone's got a line, though, right? This is just mine, I guess. Oh ew, lol. I did not need that mental image. That's an interesting idea. I'd assumed Ragnar looking back at Rollo meant he was unsettled by his brother's choice, that maybe keeping him out of the loop had been a mistake. But this would be much cooler than rehashing the ol' rivalry.

I'll be honest: I never cared about Athelstan. He was the male equivalent of the Bella Swan-type female characters that all the men drool over, inexplicably. I didn't find him charming or smart or adorably naive. He was well-educated but otherwise beige. I know I was supposed to be all "Oh SHIT!" when Ragnar said, "You killed Athelstan" but I just rolled my eyes. And then got mad that THAT was the last scene of the season. I genuinely do not care if Floki never pays for that, I do not care what Ragnar does about it, I don't miss Athelstan. This show needs to stop wasting Lagertha. I feel like the writers hadn't decided who they wanted Rollo to be when they had him rape that slave girl, and that's unfortunate, really. (And just to get this out there: Knut was a rapist and the show clearly took the position he was a villain and Lagertha was right to kill him.) Clive Standen is a good actor (I saw him previously in Camelot and liked him there as well) and if you hadn't watched the first season you'd have no reason to think Rollo is anything worse than a morally grey man struggling with being in his brother's shadow. He was actually great in this episode; his 'eulogy' made me laugh and his interaction with Gisla was the cute shit I assume my granny's Harlequins were made of. But as it stands? Odo may not actually be any worse than Rollo. Less attractive? Absolutely. But BDSM whipping ain't rape and I'm pretty sure that slave girl didn't have a safeword. Ragnar's rise from the dead was fantastic but the payoff was a letdown. All of that for a minor raid? They looted the city a bit and we didn't even get to see it? Just a few dozen Vikings storming main street? Okay, show.

Yep, apparently this is it exactly which is hilarious because I, and other Americans, notice that the show (and others like Lost Girl) is set in Canada. Like...that's obviously not America. La Femme Nikita was very popular here, too, and not in spite of it being believed to have been set in Canada*- it wasn't a factor either way. Do the Canadian tv execs not get that? It's a little...hhmm. I mean, if we were talking about Russia, China, Iran, etc., I might get why they'd decide it would be 'safer' to be coy. But it's Canada. Canadians do not experience discrimination (no, eh jokes don't count) or anything that would make this understandable. No one cares! Canada is pretty! *I know it was set in Paris, but that wasn't revealed until the third or fourth season. Until that, everyone figured Section One was in Canada. God, yes. This show is almost as bad as The Blacklist when it comes to abducting characters. There's enough danger what with the assassins, government and military conspiracies, rival clones, illegal experiments, and everything else- abduction is a little played out, at least for the next season.

Very much male fantasy. Hate!sex is a (not actually all that common) thing, of course, but it's usually with your douchey coworker who's hot- not the guy who spurned you and then used your trust to usurp your political power. There's this long-standing male fantasy (in everything from Pocahontas to A Song of Ice and Fire) that you can do anything- destroy her country, kill her brothers and father, starve and degrade her people, destroy her culture. But she'll still want the D. YOUR D, specifically.

Well, Rollo didn't have consensual sex with the slave girl, he raped her. And yes, he's despicable for it just like Jefferson was for raping Sally Hemings.

I do think it's unfortunate they had Rollo rape that girl in season one because ever since then I find it impossible to care about him, especially his romantic exploits. Siggy deserved better than him and so does the Princess. (Yes, I am aware I'm watching a show where characters murder people all the time. Sue me; imo, rapists can't be humanized even for the sake of televised drama. Same as child molesters.) I quite like the Parisians and hope this will be the shot in the arm the series has needed.

I want Lagertha to marry Kalf. Then on their wedding night I want her to flip him on his stomach, pin him down, and drag a knife down his back. When he points out that he's her husband I want her to say, "Sigvard was also my husband." Then I want her to blood eagle him, right there in the marriage bed. That will make me happy.

Gunnar is beginning to rival Maddie in brattishness except his dad isn't dying. Of the 'main cast', the characters we've had since season one, Gunnar ties with Teddy as least useful. I liked him well enough in the beginning when he was this kind-hearted country dork mooning over Scarlett but he turned into an ass pretty quickly. IIRC, in season one he was told by Watty White he would get where he wants to go eventually but he'd get there faster with Scarlett. Pretty much the next episode he was 'encouraging' her to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter and he was a little pushy in the recording studio when she was uncomfortable. That never sat right with me but I kind of shrugged it off because they sing so well together and Avery was an enormous dick. But he was always possessive of her and would badger her if she did something he didn't like, like when they went out drinking and she ended up hanging out with a bunch of guys. He started yelling at her, I think? And it was not about her potentially being in danger, he was just jealous. She reamed him a little for that and he backed down, but still. Once they were together it wasn't actually any better and he proposed despite their relationship being younger than six months. Scarlett dumping him was the best thing she could do for herself. He set her couch on fire! Then hooked up with her best friend. (And look how he treated Zoey, especially during the Micah situation.) Now he sees her happily involved with a kind, attractive, and accomplished man who likely has no ulterior motives for being with her (I do think Gunnar, in his way, cares about her but I also think Watty's comment is always in the back of his mind). And, unbeknownst to Gunnar, Caleb is providing Scarlett with much needed emotional support and happiness during one of the most difficult times of her life. I don't care about Caleb but he does right now have a great deal of emotional intimacy with Scarlett that Gunnar can't claim, and isn't even really aware of. I hope Scarlett continues to reject Gunnar and stays with Caleb. If Gunnar wants to take a page out of Avery's book, eat some humble pie, grow the fuck up, and become awesome that would be great. But I need him to otherwise keep his trap shut unless it's to sing. He's making everyone uncomfortable and he's been kryptonite for Scarlett's character since s2. Juliette's outfit was hideous. The color, the lace, the style, THE SLEEVES. Who picked that out? I hope they burned it after this episode. They've really been wasting Hayden P.'s talent this season. Juliette could've been shown writing a lot of new songs, very personal and introspective songs. Being pregnant, contemplating motherhood, it all has to have dredged up some things from her childhood and how she wants better for her child. But instead her pregnancy has been played for cheap, vaguely sexist comedy (they hit almost every trope in the book and none of it was funny). I...don't think Rayna has perfect hair. She has such a low hairline that the center part always swallows her face. A side part, though, looks beautiful on her. Not that any of that matters, especially with what she had to deal with. They're finally writing Rayna in a way I like. I think she works best when she's focused on other people because they don't know how to write her as self-caring without making her obnoxiously selfish. She was attentive and quick to act, solving as many problems and taking care of as many people as she was able but it all still seemed believable. Loved her shutting down Juliette, someone had to. But it did highlight how little these two have interacted since season one. The show was pitched as being about them, individually and together, but sometimes it feels like I'm watching two different shows. MJ's definitely setting up Teddy, even my mom called it. I hope he just gets prison instead of death. He could even still donate to Deacon, it's not like Deacon needs a whole liver. Or do we think they're saving that storyline for Maddie?

My longest-running problem with TWD has always been the dialogue. This is not how real people talk. The writers think they're being profound and capturing an older way of speaking that used to be more common in the south, but it just doesn't work. That meeting at the end was so damn frustrating because...no one talks like that. No one communicates in so many half sentences that are as vague as possible. "The things we've seen....terrible things....things you haven't seen..." Jesus. EXPLAIN. Tell them very specifically about the things, about Terminus and the Governor, tell them about how Grady operated, tell them about the biker gang that almost raped Carl. Tell them how Lori had to have her baby cut out of her and Carl had to put her down. Tell them about Noah's community and the Unfair Wolves. Tell them about how everyone is already infected. Use your words. But, you know, that means the characters might actually resolve shit every now and then so why bother? Morgan's found Rick and Glenn didn't die so I'm happy enough.

I disliked Dean from the first moment we met, honestly. Rory had dropped a bunch of books and was crouched down picking them up when he walked up to her and just stood there. Quietly. Watching her. While she cracked her Rosemary's baby joke I remember thinking, "What an ass, who just stands there?" Even if it's someone I dislike, I help them pick up their stuff (cause that makes me look better, lol). There was always something, every few episodes. I remember when she first invited him over and was showing him around her room he picked up a stuffed rooster she had and kind of mocked her with it. She was obviously very uncomfortable and ushered him out of her room. Or during the dance episode when she dropped her bag? She explained she had brought a book and he mocked that, too, despite knowing how much she loves to read. Or when he got mad that she wanted to study instead of coming to his baseball game and he actually suggested that she study in the stands? I didn't find his nice gestures to be all that nice. I thought calling her fifteen times a day was creepy and the car was inappropriate. Watching someone browse for a couple of hours is weird, not cute. There was something almost Laurie-ish about him; I felt like he thought he belonged with Rory more at least in part because he fit in with her and Lorelai better and Lorelai liked him. I found his conversations with Lorelai post-breakup to be inappropriate for the most part. Not that I think Lorelai should've been rude, just that it seemed to encouraged him. I disliked where they went with a lot of the characters because while the show was very sarcastic and some of the characters were cynical, the show did have a fairytale element to it. Even though I think a lot of Dean's decisions made sense given his upbringing and his ideas about family I still think they kind of humiliated him and broke him down a bit. Having him and Rory break up a second time like they did, having his living at home while working two jobs (with that sad facial hair) was just embarrassing to watch. They could have given him a more dignified end. Given that he proposed to Lindsey almost immediately after the fight with Jess I always just assumed he did it to prove to her that he wasn't in love with Rory. I wondered if it was even planned given his manic announcement to Rory, all "I AM GETTING MARRIED ISN'T THAT GREAT? IT'S SO AWESOME I CANNOT BELIEVE IT AREN'T YOU HAPPY FOR ME?!"

1. Scenes between Alison and Cosima. They've been in Clone Club the longest, felt the deaths of Katja and Beth the most, but we don't really get to see them interact. 2. Scenes between Alison and Rachel. Just....please. Please please please. 3. Get Cosima out of the lab more. I feel like she's the least developed, least used of the clones. 4. Stop making Alison the comic relief. There were several scenes where her reactions seemed less genuine and more designed to get laughs. Tatiana Maslany is great at comedy, and Alison is hilarious, but explore her more. 5. Stop using Alison's alcoholism as a punchline. 6. Do not focus too much on the male clones. I'd rather continue to explore Felix and Art than bring in 6 new white male (all or nearly all of whom will likely be straight) characters who seem to be mostly grunting military types. If this show has thus far been a commentary on women's right/liberation then what are the Castor Clones? 7. More Felix/Alison and Alison/Sarah. Alison sticks out like a sore thumb in Clone Club so I was happy to see the others grow closer to her, defend her, learn to appreciate her. 8. Stop making the Felix/Alison scenes all about Felix being there for Alison. Alison is a considerate, nurturing person and there's no reason she couldn't direct some of that toward Felix. 9. Give Felix a love interest or something important outside of Clone Club. 10. More harcore Siobhan. 11. Do not skip over/ignore the fact that Rachel sexually assaulted Paul. 12. Actually deal with the consequences of Helena's upbringing and her psychological issues rather than just using them for humor.

I was wondering about that. I thought it was implied in the last episode that she was pregnant (I thought Floki said something about it). But she didn't have a new baby that I saw and she wasn't pregnant.

Anne Boleyn hadn't committed adultery, that was a trumped up charge to clear the way for Henry to remarry. He was obsessed with having sons and didn't want to go through another divorce. Adultery among the nobility and royalty wasn't uncommon. Killing someone for it was. That was more likely to happen among the lower classes, but adultery charges were more often a smokescreen like with Boleyn. The highborn had their own non-violent way of handling it, when it needed to be handled. Generally, so long as you weren't flaunting the affair in public and, if you were a woman, waited until you'd had a son or two with your husband you were fine. Plenty of noblemen didn't care what their wives did so long as it didn't cause a scandal or shame the family. Agreed. Lagertha is my favorite character and it does kind of annoy me that they chose to make Ragnar a King but only made her an Earl (and I really didn't like the way that happened). I know they aren't abiding by history and a lot of things attributed to them likely didn't happen anyway but I was so here for Lagertha saving Ragnar in battle and going home to kill her husband and rule as Queen by herself. I'd like to see that but I don't have much hope at this point.

This is what I'm thinking. If they had done several things differently they could have easily gotten ten seasons out of this show but as is everything just feels...tired. I mean, what would three more seasons look like? Ragnar loses his crown and fights to get it back? We've kind of done that. He leads more raids? Seen it. Gets a new wife? Boring. Deals with more traitors and fathers more children? Eh. This season has been very disappointing; I was actually really looking forward to the show coming back but it's been a letdown. I feel like the only story they really have left to tell is the end.

There's a part of me that doesn't believe Athelstan is dead, but that Ragnar buried the old man and loudly spoke to "Athelstan" the whole time for anyone who might be listening. As, perhaps, a way to fool the disloyal. But I can't come up with any way that situation would play out so... I can only assume they know when the show is going to end, like the end of next season or the season after that. They've had the Wessex settlement destroyed, they've severed any real connection between Ragnar and Aslaug, Rollo is about to start fulfilling his destiny as is Bjorn, and it looks like Ragnar's failure to back up Lagertha might come back to bite him in the rear. And now tonight with Floki betraying Ragnar and Athelstan dying...Ragnar's losing everything. Perhaps they're preparing for the end? Or maybe this really is all just one big ruse like last season. The only thing I really responded to was a startled Ragnar dumping his kid on the floor. Heh.