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I kept waiting for someone to mention that her circus jacket was exactly the same as one from her own wardrobe that she wears in a lot of talking head shots. Including in this episode. Even if I thought the show had set Sophie up or that the other competitors owed her a heads up, her behavior on the second night killed any sympathy I had for her. She'd just missed the deadline the day before, everyone in the studio was helping get her package together and on the rack, and she still came close to the cut off. Amazon's page for this episode is here. I know it's how these things work but it's still a little strange to see Gary's jacket listed as Levi's Upside-Downable Trucker Jacket and have to scroll down to the bottom half of the page to get a mention of Gary himself.

The looks on amazon for this challenge are here (keep scrolling for Angela's. It's a long ways down). I preferred Gary's ready to wear top so was disappointed the judges decided to sell the other one (really not into puffed sleeves) but I wouldn't have bought it anyway. I loved Gary's vision for the video and that he had no problem trusting the model to write the poem he wanted.

I also loved this. And that they didn't take the time to really explain everything in great detail to new viewers. There was enough to know this job had extra weight, just not specifically why. Me too. Or at least learn more about her. If she's younger, I'm guessing mom has custody but does she live in town? Does he get to see her often? Did his change of heart change their relationship? I was expecting that too, early on, but he really didn't appear to feel any remorse for what he was helping his 'friend' do. I hope he ended up arrested too. And that everyone in the game community finds out what he did and ostracizes him (the drug company stuff was definitely the worst but being so eager to betray his own people was pretty ugly too). I particularly loved Eliot's yank of Harry to get him off-screen. Harry is really not good at reacting to anything unexpected and was just standing there. He didn't get the email. Cordozar's tech guy built an algorithm to track Springer down. He mentions it as an aside as they're all heading into Cordozar's office. He did, originally, but then Pharma Bro decided winning the contest would count instead for some reason (he wouldn't have wanted anyone else near the vault but I'm not sure why he thought Springer would go along with that). And then he and Springer switched to "I'll agree to sell if you have the magic card" which I didn't really get. Me too. And that more people haven't heard that he left the firm and rumors about why which would put them on guard.

I noticed while watching this time that their instructions for the ritual were written on the back of one of the Claw's placemats (like the one they show after the end credits) which amused it. It was just so practical and a very nice touch by the show.

I was not a fan of Olivia so I'm ok with her being gone. I liked Ally better until I remembered her aesthetic was basically stealing from Asian cultures.

There should also have been a mention of Jordan. I agree with Clark's reasoning, especially with additional points raised here, but Lois could have added some extra weight to her side if she'd brought up their son.

Do we think Ryan ever realized that George was possessed by his dead wife in parts of this episode? He's not a believer in the supernatural at this point but he learns about it later. I hope he did if only so he doesn't think George was acting that crazy.

Winning look on Amazon. I feel like they dropped the gorgeous print from the fabric which is too bad. From the pictures, the dress looks all white.

It was a Filipino parol and it was beautiful. I loved quite a few of the porches but I think I'd have given Melanio's the win.

I'm rewatching for background noise and am extremely impressed by how much they managed to include in this episode. When I noticed the credits playing, I was shocked to be starting episode 2 and not 3.

Bess' weapon/tool of choice, her tire iron, makes its first appearance in this episode. I didn't realize we saw it so soon.

There are 2 groups of people in Smallville right now: people who volunteered for Edge's offer and the rest of the town (a much bigger group). I could easily believe the first group encouraging the Cushing blame just to get attention off of them. The average citizen has no idea what happened so would be pretty open to the Kyle and Lana did this narrative since they were the face of the project in town. He was at the front table with Kyle and Edge at the town council meeting and with Kyle and Edge on the sidelines of one of the football games (Kyle was reminiscing about Smallville High's glory days and planning to replace the old stands with something more impressive). The show should at least have filmed one of these scenes somewhere other than the paper's offices. Having everything there with Chrissy so focused on Lois was not a good look. Even if she was going to use the DoD's statement in her articles, she should have been conducting interviews and investigating while waiting. Does she always just print what the government sends her?

But the Legends always screw things up for the better! I'd definitely trust them over Star Labs. I'm not sure about the comics but he was watching this universe's version of her at the beginning of the last episode. Lois called him before he could decide whether or not to talk to her though. Considering he's dead here, however, he needs to find a better way to introduce himself than walking up to her in the dark. Maybe have Lois call and explain first?

Sarah said she was the biggest bully in her school which should be something her parents are concerned with. Maybe Sarah shouldn't be the only Cushing in therapy? I vaguely remember someone mentioning she was at a friend's house but can't come up with more than that. I thought of another Black speaking character! The firefighter who came to tell Kyle not to come to work. I also forgot Natalie. Potential BIPOC speaking roles: Perry White (he's even Black in the latest movies), the mayor, the mom of the missing Edge worker and her son, Lois' therapist, Clark's parents (he was adopted).

The football coach and Sarah's ex are both Black. Of course, the ex was pretty much an angry Black man stereotype and vanished as soon as he was no longer needed in the white characters' storylines which isn't great. Same with the coach, actually. You're definitely right that, once the twins quit football, JHI is it. True, however, it took a few episodes before the viewers found out he wasn't a bad guy so from our point of view, 2 out of 3 Black characters were bad guys. How many people stopped watching before the Luthor reveal? If they'd had more speaking parts for POC (which is something the writer who quit had pushed for), this wouldn't be such a big deal. When the villains in Flash or Legends of Tomorrow are Black, I never think the show is being racist because the heroes are diverse and the ratio of good characters of color vs evil is much more even.

Yes, he's had plenty of experience being stone faced but, in the past, he wasn't emotionally involved in his cases. Winning for his clients was the challenge, with no moral implications. It's only now that he realizes what he actually took from the people who lost so he's much more invested. I didn't really understand why they included the Krista/driver stuff since it didn't end up affecting anything (except maybe it was the only reason the writers could come up with to get her to find the team?). I kept expecting someone to comment on the affair and discuss using it in the plan so it was weird that it went unmentioned. I've always assumed Eliot was just making up a Klingon sounding word, assuming the assistant wouldn't know either way (which still implies Eliot has watched enough of the show to know what Klingon sounds like) but I looked "baghHa' " up and it means "decrypt, break, crack (a code) [without permission, by unauthorized means]" which was actually relevant to the job.

Joshua's look is available here (some posters were having trouble finding the look from episode 1 and, as long as I was getting that link, I figured I'd grab this one too).

Gary's look is available here. And it's more reasonably priced than I expected. I wish I liked puffed sleeves more.

And all the supplies they need. There's definitely a lot of prep work we're not seeing.

Her comments confused me at first but I realized she was talking about hacks like life hacks where Melanio used "a usually simple and clever tip or technique for accomplishing some familiar task more easily and efficiently" (like the pumpkin candle holders, I think?) and it wasn't a critique on his skills. She is definitely a hack though and I really wish the show had replaced her. Other than the tire sculpture, I haven't really liked anything the former baseball player has done (the scarecrow was impressive but I was annoyed it wasn't even his idea). The pictures they show of his non-show work are much better though.

I think Beth Kane was explained as being kind of a remnant when her universe was destroyed. That was part of their problem, she couldn't stay in the same universe as Alice and she had no where to go. The Wellses were basically ghosts haunting the surviving Wells since their worlds had been destroyed. I can't remember the story behind Brainiac 5 though so I'm not sure how that fits in (is there an all-Arrowverse shows thread somewhere? This discussion is technically related to this episode but it feels off-topic). I've lost track. Do we know JHI's world was destroyed when he left it? I hate the thought that Natalie is dead (although her losing her mom and dad so horribly isn't great either). I know she's not really Jordan and Jonathan's sister but it might be nice to see them becoming friends. I spent all episode wondering if the writers had decided to just go full Chuck Cunningham and hope we'd forget she ever existed so I was relieved to see her too. I do hope they fill her in on some of what's going on though. She's going to wonder why some of her friends won't talk to her.

Diggle seemed very interested when he was told JHI was from an alternate universe. I wonder if there will be any follow up to that. As far as he (along with every other Arrowverse character) knows, Oliver either combined or destroyed all AUs in the Arrow finale. Finding out that one still exists should be a big deal. I loved all of the family stuff in this episode. Everyone was fantastic.

I thought that too. I loved the guy but he didn't seem like police material, especially at his age. I hope he gets at least a mention later and he's decided to change career goals.

I thought she was wearing more makeup (or more obvious makeup) than Parker normally did in her first scene but I kind of forgot about that as the episode continued. Her hair ended up bugging me more. The short bangs don't work for her face as well as what she had in the original series.

I really didn't like the scene between Parker and the mark at the shooting range. I know it was an act and he was awful but I didn't think bragging about her white privilege and his parents' immigration was necessary. I kept hoping they'd come back to the conversation in some way although I'm not sure what would have made me feel better about it. I did love Eliot bonding with his boss and Parker training Breanna. Especially the women's talk at the end where they finally seem to get on the same page. I also thought they did a good job making Hardison feel present even though Aldis Hodge had this week off (one of the actresses on the Flash was recently unavailable for a couple episodes and it was super obvious she wasn't there so this is extra impressive).