feverfew

It's not that I don't agree somewhat, I just think it depend on what sort of character Abraham is going to be on the show. If he's going to be a lead character going forward, I think it's a very good idea to have this sort of revelatory episode. I still miss that with Tyrese and Sasha. I would have prefered the group not to split up, especially because I think there's some good stuff to be mined from the difference between him and Rick, but I understand why it happened, and I'm happy we got to know something more on Rosita and Tara; I don't think that would have happened if they had stayed with the main group. Frankly I thought last week's episode was far worse in terms of waste of precious time.

I really liked this episode. Sometimes I think Rick is too un-unhinged compared to what has happened to him and his "people", and compared to what he has done to other people. I liked seeing that sort of mental break-down Abraham had; I thought it was way more realistic than Rick's supposed moral superiority. I haven't read this far into the comics, but I thought it was pretty clear what had happened: Neither Ellen or the children were "neat and clean, not a hair out of place, no tear-stained faces or ripped clothes" - in fact I thought they looked really banged up. Ellen's blouse is ripped half-way down her stomach, and both she and the girl had big bruises on their faces. Combining this with Abraham's "We're safe now" I didn't need anymore confirmation of what had happened; in fact, I was happy they went with subtle. I don't need to see rape on my screen. I think it was suicide. I think it makes the best sense in the context of Abraham trying to commit suicide too. (Otherwise you're right, and it would make her dumber than dumb).

Thank you, FurryFurry and patchwork. I sometimes worry :) I thought Murphy was going to be their stock-villain in the first few episodes, but then the show actually allowed him to be somewhat right. I still think both Bellamy and Clarke came off worse in the Charlotte-story; Clarke especially, since we were supposed to believe Wells was her best friend. However, that was the episode when I realised I was hooked; even if the dilemma was slightly more hookily presented on the show, I still applaud them for going full on Lord of the Flies. I do think you're right though: Murphy will be killed off soon, to further his redemption arch. (Or not; he did kill those kids in cold blood). I gave up on Arrow, not because of the teen characters (I like Thea just fine), but because of the ¤W" emerging triangles. If The 100 ends up having love triangle 1 (Clarke/Finn/Raven) going at the same time as love triangle 2 (Bellamy/Clarke/Finn) I will throw something at my screen. Have Finn decide he loves Raven more, and Clarke prefer Bellamy. Or let Finn and Clarke stay together. Not this wishy-washy back-and-forth. Have you read the books, patchwork? Should I give them another chance? I like Clarke/Bellamy for the simple fact that there's an inherent conflict in their leadership approach; as long as they don't de-fang Bellamy too much. I know our recapper hates Bellamy for his apparent stupidity, but I actually find him rather interesting. Again, I think for me it's because his sometimes stupid decisions seems like something a normal person would make. And I like the parallel with the grown ups: Abby and Clarke on one side and Kane and Bellamy on the other. Obviously it's not a clear parallel (and I find Clarke way more appealing than her mother), but it is there nonetheless. I have a very bad short term memory sometimes, which serves me well, I guess, when it comes to characters like Octavia and Murphy. I hope, going forward, that Octavia will kick some ass from now on. That is one of the things I love about this show: Almost all of our female characters are allowed to be kick-ass at the same time. It could so easily be that Clarke was this morally superior superhero who did everything better than all of the other female characters combined (another reason for hating love triangles), but both Raven and Octavia (sometimes) are awesome. Or they will be. It doesn't feel like the show runners want us to prefer one over the other (another reason I quit Arrow), but are telling different stories with the different girls. Obviously Octavia and Lincoln are supposed to be the star crossed lovers of this show, but maybe TPTB will surprise us. I hope they won't find each other too soon; I want to see what sort of people they are away from each other. Let Lincoln meet up with Monty and Jasper and let Octavia be a part of the Grounder tribe. I think that would patch up their weird and problematic beginning. Also, it would give Monty and Jasper a much needed storyline. I don't mind the size of the cast right now, because I like all the storylines so far. Well, I can probably do without the upcoming Jaha in New York, but who knows? Maybe that'll be interesting too? Another thing I love about this show is that they keep changing up the constellation of characters: Now we've got Finn and Bellamy, Clarke and Anya, Monty/Jasper and Maya (who I also hope is shady) - it shakes things up a bit.

I'm pretty sure the writers know about the Bellamy/Clarke potential , but I guess they a) was suprised by how fast people latched on to them as a (possible) couple, and b) are playing stuff close to their vests. I applaud them for not focusing so much on love triangles on the second season, and I think you're right; since Finn apparently was a made-up character for the show, it was the CW that wanted triangles right out of the gate. I actually don't hate Octavia/Lincoln even though they tick all the usual boxes of hate for me (insta!Love! Stockholm Syndrome nonsense!). I guess it comes down to the fact that I like the actors who portray them; and even if it was quite silly and defies belief that Octavia was a warrior princess this episode, I love the fact that she wasn't a damsel, but was trying to actively save him. I hope she gets adobted by this tribe (facepaint and all) - she would be a good window into Grounder-life (the only possibility, since the rest of the 100 aren't interested in adapting into Grounder-life; at least not yet.)* Actually; I like all "teen" characters (okay; I only like Finn when he's not tethered to one of the girls) and that's a first for me when it comes to shows on the CW (I still bear the scars from Smallville, and I quit Arrow and TVD for that same reason). I even like Murphy :) * I hope I make sense. English is not my first language, and sometimes I don't think I get the things I want to say across the right way.

Yes; In the episode where Finn, Clarke and Lincoln are escaping the Reavers in the tunnels, you can see some Reavers eating. One of them throws some meat on the ground, and you can clearly see the tattoo and killer-markings on the flesh. You know, a little like the foot on The Walking Dead. I've just inhaled the show up until this episode, and I really like it. I love the fact that there are so many BSG alumns on the show; I love the there's-a-gamer-in-the-writers'-room (tm FurryFurry); I even love almost all the characters. Usually with shows with love traingles/pentagons/what have you, I end up hating half the characters, but here I like both Raven and Clarke and Bellamy and Finn (even if he's a bit of a douche for sleeping with Clarke ten days after leaving his girlfriend, who by the way, is hot and great and dumped his sorry arse without too much pining). I have a few issues with Abby and her self-righteous quest for her daughter, but they are not getting in the way of my enjoyment of the show.

Thank you! Unfortunately that link send me to a "Apologies; we can't find this page right now, but we'd love for you to stay." - maybe the universe reaaally don't want me to read that article *grins*. But I googled the title you provided (thanks!) and found it here. Very exciting arc beginning, Im am very intrigued. Spoiler tag for yall that are reading compediums and collections and are not caught up yet. I haven't read the lastest isssue, but that sounds a bit like a passage in World War Z by Mel Brooks, which incidentally is the best zombie-post-apocalyptic story I've ever read.

Pete, I think your link is broken - it keeps sending me to the top of this page. (I would love to read that comparison.)

I wil only buy redemption for Lexi, if she dies right after. But this is the only possible way the showrunners can do it: Write it so that everything that made her human, was suppressed while she was in the cocoon, and it has to claw its way out. (But she still needs to die right after - she's too powerful and too much of a Deus ex Machina to survive this season. And too dull.) If they kill Ben, I'd propably stop watching. I know it's such a cliché to say, but he really has become my favourite character. And there's so much more of his story to tell - that is, if the showrunners hasn't forgotten that the spikes are more than "new therapy for paralysis and wi-fi all in one" (tm BungalowSummer) I agree that Hal is the most interesting he has been these past four seasons, but I'd rather they reformed Pope a bit, and turned him into the Tom-alternative. The conflict of saving Maggie and turning her alien, or letting her die a human as she wished didn't seem soap opera-like to me. It can be argued that the triangle is, but I don't think we were supposed to view Hal's actions as petty. As with the entire show, we are supposed to view the larger conflict through the lense of the Mason family and their problems, and this episode was about hope even when there's no hope left. True, I am not fond of the way they are going about it wrt the love triangle, but I remain hopeful (heh) that something good will come out of it. I didn't like this epsiode as much as the previous. Too many things that didn't make sense. Or: How did Ben really escape? Why didn't we see it? It was simply too easy, which annoys me, because it makes the showrunners look like they ran out of steam before the end. (Maybe the joke's on me for looking for geographic consistency/character consistency in this show, but I have to. Otherwise I'll have to give op on the show altogether.)

Me three. I would rather have seen that hybrid story told, than the one we got. I liked Denny, but I realised, as soon as Anne treated her like crap wrt the skitter she stabbed while Denny was still attached, that we weren't gonna get her story in the show all. I do think they are going with "we're different from the rest, but not Lexi-different", considering the preview Thank you. I wish a lot of it was dfferent - I too believe, as you and ganesh wrote, that when characters are sacrificed for plot advancement, the story suffers. And I do recoqnise that particular problem; I'm just hoping they'll right the ship before it's too late. Getting rid of Lexi will be a start, because whatever conflict she represent, it's not coming across too well.

I'm sorry so many people here thinks the show has gone to crap - makes me start wondering whether I'm seeing things that aren't really there on the screen, since I still love the show. Or maybe I just love the show in my head ;) I agree that the first two seasons were more consistent in terms of both thematics and scale, but I found the third season rather boring, so this feels like an upgrade. Or maybe it's because Ben takes more of a center stage in this season (and Hal is in the background) and he's the most interesting of the Masons. (And the better actor, but that's not on the showrunners). Speaking of Ben, one of the things I'm missing this season, is actually his alieness. I think it was in season two, but wasn't there something about his back turning more scalely? Did that development get thrown away with the magic baby-plot or?

I don't think it would have mattered to Lexi, if any humans in that moment had told her that they were fighting for freedom, not because violence is the human nature. As Bishop wrote, she has completely bought into the nonsense the Espheni told her, and I don't believe a trademark Mason speech would have made a difference. Whether it would have made a difference for the audience is another thing, but I think TPTB thought it would have been redundant vis-a-vis Hal and Maggie's talk. Again, maybe I'm reading too much into the show, but I don't think we're supposed to take Lexi's view as Word of God. What Tom and Anne did was idiotic. It was exactly what Hal was warning them all about; that love makes you blind*. And they paid for it. No matter what we the audience think of Lourdes, in the show she was loved by several characters, and Tom especially was shaken. Anne is so consumed by the loss of her son she's not thinking clearly, but I believe Tom might see things different now. And again, I think (cross-my-fingers-hope-to-die) we weren't supposed to agree with Tom and Anne's wishful thinking, but instead feel that same shock they did, when they realised she was the enemy. That said, if the hybrid baby-plot ends with Lexi-the-savior-of-all-humankind, I will rage as much as the next person. That is not clever; that's just lazy writing. A dying Lexi speechifying like her dad I can live with, full-on redemption is not interesting. *Conversely, this is the most interesting I've found Hal in all four seasons. I think he works better in juxaposition to Tom, especially since Pope's too much brawn for that position.

I thought this episode was interesting, although I'm not that fond of big explotions; I prefer my sci-fi a little more cerebral. An maybe that's the reason why I continuesly try to look for a deeper intent from the showrunners. As a big, big fan of BSG, I was optimistic when I read that David Eick was coming onboard, because I hoped he would bring BSG's grasp of moral dilemmas and it's inherent sense of danger. In a way, I think we got it with this episode: I don't think we were supposed to think that Lexi was correct in her assesment of human behavior. After all, she killed Lourdes immediately after her speech. I think it was meant as a juxtaposition to the conversation Hal and Maggie had earlier in the episode: Hal says that love is what gets you killed (familial love especally when it comes to the 2nd Mass and their relation to the Masons'), but Maggie points out that love - and I'm sorry, now I'm going to sound hippy-dippy like Lourdes - is the only reason they still fight. It might have been a clumsy one, but I'm pretty sure "putting it on the humans" wasn't the intent from the showrunners.

Some of it may be left-over love from her character on Smallville, but I still love Maggie. And I don't think Sarah Carter is a bad actress - I like the way she infuses Maggie with this world-weary, cynical facade, from which hopefulness sort of peaks through. And speaking of hope, I think that was what TPTB were trying to convey with Maggie's "wishy-washiness" and the scene where Ben is trying to make her change her mind: These people have been "fighting the devil all their (post-apocalyptic) lives", and they need to believe in more than just the fight, if they are going to survive as a species. I'm still not onboard with Lexi and her unity-bullshit, I still don't like the rapidly growing baby-plot, but I applaud them for trying to put some of those questions about what sort of world they want to live in, beside the fighting, in the show. Or maybe I'm giving the writers too much credit, and this wasn't at all what they were going for. (I love post apocalyptic-stories for this exact reason: How do you keep your humanity, when everything else is going to crap? And I'm giving shows a lot of leeway if they at least try to grapple with that question). I agree that it seemed a rather quick turn-around for Maggie, but I think it is rather consistent with her previous characterization. She has a tendency to go off half-cocked when something frightens her, and I think Ben was right: She was happy and it did turn out too good to be true. Or did you mean when she changed her mind in the end? I don't think we were supposed to think that it was because she's in love with Ben, but because he made her remember that he too is different. Then again - I'm not really opposed to a triangle, if it's more about how the new world is going to look, versus a Vampire Diaries sort of brother-swapping. You know, a question of two differing world views. And I don't really mind the age gap - it's not one of my hot-buttons as long as the actors/characters are above a certain age. *shrugs* I also think the way Maggie interacted with Ben these past few episodes, made her seem younger in a way, which; kudos to the actress. (I might be slightly biased, since I find Hal to be the most boring character on the show, and Ben's my favourite...) This was actually the only part of the show I had problems with. We've seen that Lexi is dangerous already - I mean, choking her mom Darth Vader style, because Anne did the mom thing and said no, was a huge red flag for me. And it should have been for Anne as well. Instead we got drawn up battle lines, with no sense on either side. I understand the writers wanted that imagery of the Masons divided, but it just made them all seem ... dumb. But I still love the show; warts and all ;)

Fanfics, my friend. Unfortunately most of the Sansa-centric fics are SanSan porn, but..them's the breaks. Kidding aside, I am as exited as you are - this season has already been interesting in terms of her future development, since I'm guessing the last episode with her means to convey that she'll be a player, not a piece going forward. Nice to be vindicated - it's been 8 long years ;)

The thing is, for me it did look like a "hey, we got a bit rough last night and now I'm feeling it". I was actually really surprised to read that some people felt uncomfortable with that scene. For me, it was definitely played for laughs - Stiles complaining that Malia makes him the little spoon sounded like guy postering to me. I never got the sense that we were supposed to infer that there was something malign in their relationship; rather, as I think we saw in the newest episode, there is a sweetness to their interactions (the way Stiles kisses her after he realises that she took her colour coding cues from his wall of weird) which doesn't add up to dub-con. I'm becoming really fond of Malia, and I think she might end up my favourite female character on the show.

You were! And thank you!

I agree. I just ... can't with this *new and improved* Alison. If this was real life, sure, I would hope that people can change that much, but this is Rosewood! Hyper-ninja-reality! And all the flashbacks showed a psychopath in the making. Also - I'm just not that invested in either character or actress, so if Ali's becoming the fifth little liar, I just see less screentime for the rest of the girls.

You're right. Five years of French and I still get my phonetics-to-letters wrong. I'll just stay with the phonetic /fwɛteɪ/ and pretend I know what I'm saying ;)

I guess I'm rather easy to please, because I'm just as entertained this year as I was last year. Of course I have some issues with the show: as the rest of you guys I find the SORAS-as-plot to be annoying, and Anne pissed me off during the whole "wheeere's my baby!"-thingy (another rip-off from GoT, I guess?) - especially because Anthony is one of my favourite characters, and it would have made so much more sense if he was the one leading the squad. But on the whole I love the show. I love the characters. But. Lexi. (Budget Khaleesi - ha!). I know we have new showrunners now, but neither a new big bad or Lexi's new age mumbo-jumbo will convince me that the Espheni just are misunderstood, woobie characters who just want to sing kumbaja with the humans. After three seasons of (attempted) genocide, nothing will, I guess. It just doesn't make any sense. It could be an attempt from the new showrunners to create a fraction within the Espheni (like the rebel skitters) who want peace yadda yadda, but that doesn't make sense either, since the Karen-Overlord definitely wasn't part of any rebellion and she was the one who 'impregnated' Anne with alien sperm. So there's only one option really: Espheni are still the bad guys (never mind the new big bad) and either Lexi's duped into thinking she's saving makind and alien alike, or she's actually evil. I would love for the last option to be true, but unfortunately I think she's as stupid as she looks. Although the whole "breaking Maggie's wrist" sorta tilts toward evil. I mean, she crossed right into crazy for me with that one... Edit to ask: How do you get the name of the person you are quoting to show up in your post?

I know the Merriam-Webster dictionary pronounce it like that (rhymes with "ashtray" according to their web page), but I'm pretty sure it's pronounced /fwɛteɪ/ [fweh-TEI] in French. Alexander Kølpin pronounces it that way at least ;)

As a fellow Dane, I was on pins and needles before Malene's routine - there's no fun in rooting for someone who's bad. But I loved it! As Nigel said (blergh, agreeing with Nigel) I'm really sorry they are splitting up the pairs next week - would have loved to see Malene and Marquet dance together again. Crossing my fingers she won't get Bollywood next week. As a longtime ballet fan (though not a dancer) I thought the ballet girls did adequately with what they were given. And I really pity them for the costuming. Am I the only one who thinks Bridget looks uncannily like Jill Hennessy? That was all I could think about during her routine...

He won't stop glowering, but that's part of his charm (at least in this one. As the villain in Nothanger Abbey and The Abduction Club - not so much. Heh).

Liam Cunningham (Davos) played one of the main characters in my maybe favourite romantic drama ever: Falling for a Dancer. It is a lovely, low-key love story set in 1930s Ireland and it made me a Cunningham fan for life. Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Snow/Bolton) plays against type as the cute, young neighbor of Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi's couple in the british sitcom Vicious which you have to watch if you haven't already.