Carrie Ann

I thought that episode was outstanding. Better than the premiere, or at least more satisfying. The Jennifer reveal was done perfectly, I thought, with just the right amount of dread. The dime dropped for good when that nurse tried to look into Duke's question and her mouth sewed shut, and all my hope was gone. Gloria is a gift to this show and the world at large. She's my current favorite character and if anything happens to her, so help me God... I just felt like all the character beats were right here, and the actors handled everything brilliantly, and it was an almost perfect Haven for me. I just wish we could have all of this and Jennifer and Audrey too.

Bo and Hope were my first TV OTP, I think, when I was a little kid watching over Mom's shoulder. I thought Kristian Alfonso was the most beautiful woman on the planet. And I'm relieved they're finally going to let Hope move on. PR will be back someday, I have no doubt, assuming the show doesn't go off the air first. But in the meantime, KA deserves to have something to do.

Everyone is very pretty, but get that Stelena crap outta here. :) (I say that as a former shipper.) (Just over it, ready for all characters involved in that terrible triangle to move on with other people.) (Like, for example, heyyyyyy Bamon.)

Dude, all this just makes me sad for the poor soul(s) who missed their deadline on this poster and are getting hammered for it now.

Yeah, there's another interview from the same source with EBR that seems like it must have happened pre-filming or at least pre-SDCC, because she talks about hoping we might meet one of Felicity's parents, but doesn't sound like she actually knows whether it will happen, for one example.

I want to hug you. Why did I never think of using that? I bought it specifically for some of our chrome fixtures, and use it in our sink, but never thought of trying it on the pans. I'm gonna go nuts with it tonight!

I kind of agree with all points of view regarding the finale and the Grand EnSlayering spell. It's bad in about a dozen ways--forcing power onto girls who didn't ask for it, just like the original dudes did to the original slayer. Also, you're going to be giving superpowers to all manner of people. Some will be like Buffy, some will be like Faith, some will be worse. And yeah, these 2,000 girls have no clue what's happening to them, so you better find them all and help them with that (I think the comics deal with this, right?). On the other hand, it means that every Slayer's story doesn't end in her death, and that is a good thing--good enough for Buffy to smile about. I think in an ideal world, you would find all these superpowered ladies, see which of them want to fight the fight, and wish the rest a happy life. The ones who want to become Slayers fight and train and help each other and no one has to die in order for the next to be called; they can have kids if they want, they can retire and have other careers. In general, more than one Slayer is a good thing. The problem is with the depiction of it as a 100% positive, empowering thing for not just Buffy but every potential-now-actual Slayer out there. I wish they'd shown it as a complicated and tough, but correct and necessary decision, which is how I view it.

Yeah, I saw this pair of gifs on Tumblr and it made me really sad.

I actually think at this point Elizabeth's love of and dedication to Mother Russia is almost like a defense mechanism. A way to protect herself from having to question her entire life, and herself as a person, and what all of the awful things she has done and have been done to her have really been for. I think she does truly love Phillip and her children more than she loves the homeland, but she doesn't believe she has to make that choice, so she just doesn't. And if pressed, she might deny it, even to herself. Again, I think part of why she's willing to consider indoctrinating Paige is that she can't bear to question Mother Russia because then the whole house of cards comes down on her and she ends up having a nervous breakdown. I wouldn't be surprised to see something like that happen at some point.

I love Austin Butler and his face, so there. :) Here's the thing about all the "love interests": Sebastian Blood was probably considered a love interest for Laurel last season, and that barely registered at all. Even the Barry/Felicity thing amounted to a tiny handful of scenes, most of which were about something else and included other characters. It's just not something this show spends a lot of time on.

Or he could have just not responded to the tweet at all, but he seems pathologically incapable of doing that, so....

To wade in here a little bit, I found the body-inhabiting/identity switching aspect of this show really difficult. Audrey is the character I came to love, and so for me, it's problematic. That's Mara's body and her mind and her freedom being assaulted. But I hate Mara, so there's a cognitive dissonance there. So anyway, I have this theory/hope about her and it relates to all the other personas that have inhabited her body. We know that whoever Audrey/Lucy/Sarah is, she always ends up helping the Troubled. Now, maybe Agent Howard had something to do with that--by choosing her new personalities, or imbuing her with a desire/ability to help. Who knows? But maybe it's something else. Something innate, and if so, then that's a part of Mara too. We know that she can create Troubles, that she enjoyed creating them with William. But my hope is that that she was sort of under his power, and under the spell of whatever rush she got from doing that. And that her true nature abhors that, and wants to help people, to atone and try to fix the problems she created. (So what we've seen of Mara is really like the Dark Willow version of her, while Audrey/Sarah/Lucy are more reflective of her real, best self.) I prefer to believe that there is something true and real about Audrey, something that comes from Mara, and that when this finally shakes out, that is the person we will see. Otherwise, I have zero interest in Mara. And if the writers think that developing a different character for 3.5 seasons and then just handwaving her out of existence is good, satisfying storytelling, then I don't know what to say.

I fully agree with this. To me, the events of Season 5 (and Letters of Transit) would have been better left to fanfic. I love Season 4, which is maybe a slightly unpopular opinion, and it's a perfect ending to the series for me, so that's where my rewatches will end.

Whoa, what's the source on that?

I love this episode, and I think the girl who plays Ginger is really great, especially for someone in her age range, which is always kind of hit-or-miss. I actually believed she'd bonded with Duke, and I would love to see them meet up again someday.

I loved JMB as Lulu, and in fact it was combination of JJ's return as Lucky and the burgeoning Lulu/Dante romance that brought me back into GH a few years ago. Lante was really what kept me around, considering how awful the Lucky stuff was. Once it was obvious what was happening with the Maxie baby storyline, I was glad JMB was leaving because I would have found all of that even harder to take with her in the role, because I was pretty attached to that Lulu (and to her friendship with Maxie). I don't have that problem anymore, because I just don't connect with Emme Rylan at all. Plus, it has just been nonstop BABY BABY BABY since she showed up, so I guess she hasn't had much chance to be appealing.

It wasn't that Tyler was willing to hurt Hayley--I didn't like that, but whatever, all these people have been awful to each other at various times. The issue, as I said in the part you quoted, was that he was willing to kill the baby. Like I said, on The Originals, almost every character has done truly abhorrent things (aside from Camille, and maybe Josh), and at some point, I realized that the only reliable metric I had for BAD was whether the person wanted to kill the baby or take it from Hayley. That doesn't mean that characters who didn't want that (Klaus) are good, it just means that I was on their team as far as that aspect goes. For me, Tyler being willing to kill a baby was over the line. I also think it was OOC, but what are you going to do? So is everyone at this point, I suppose.

I thought the Rev was sort of hilariously overacting in that scene, but not out of concern for Nathan. He was acting like an End-Times preacher, welcoming the plagues. I don't know if I'm making sense, but he's actually smiling like a loon at one point, holding Nathan up by the shirt. Doesn't read as concern to me, and if it's supposed to...well I don't really get it either way.

I would love if it they made Walter more of a presence on the show. For one, he's just really pretty and lovely to listen to. But in general, I think CW shows suffer by eliminating or ignoring parent figures for their leads. And while Walter was certainly more of a father to Thea than to Oliver, I think the idea of found family is central to this show and they could do even more with it. I'd love to see a relationship develop as Walter helps Oliver reclaim his family business. But I think that's a pipe dream because they haven't signed Colin Salmon to any kind of deal.

I can't stand Anne as a character, but I LOVE that actress. I really love her scenes with Melissa Reeves, who I actually think shines in scenes with the "bad guys" on Days, ironically. Maybe that's why I like Jen best when it comes to her odd friendships, like with Kristen and Nicole for that one month they got along.

Yep, the Eric stuff is gross, and like I said a few weeks back, it's making him look mentally challenged or at least mentally ill. Are we supposed to root for that couple again, at any point? Are we supposed to be on Eric's side against the evil Nicole, who is doing nothing to him aside from trying to make up for her mistakes?

I don't even really want to respond to this, because I'm starting to get a really bad feeling about it.

God, I hope so. And I wish the writers would remember that Lulu is a Spencer, the daughter of Luke and Laura, and Maxie is the daughter of Felicia and Frisco, and was raised by Mac. They don't need to wait around for Nathan and Dante, though they are SUCH excellent shots, to save them. They better get the majority of the way out of this on their own or I will be PISSED.

That's an interesting idea. I was thinking that Bonnie and Damon were in another time period somehow, but parallel universes makes more sense. For TVD, anyway.

Based on the few spoilers we have and the trailer, it seems like Oliver is pushing Felicity and Dig away to try to keep them safe. It seems like that would be equally true for Laurel, from his perspective, so if he does train her at all, I wouldn't expect that until he's resolved this savior complex. But I can understand his willingness to continue to train Roy--he really has nothing else in his life right now, and he'd been doing this kind of thing on his own before he got involved with the Arrow. He'd absolutely go back to that if Oliver ditched him, so it's safer and more practical to keep working with him.