Carrie Ann

Maybe, but my point is that Mrs. S could try to tell Sarah something to that effect, but she doesn't because she doesn't respect her. Instead, she just gets to hold all the cards and deal them out as she feels. Part of the reason Sarah doesn't have "the knowledge" to protect Kira is that Mrs. S won't give it to her. And it's the way she presents it. It's not like, "Please let me help you and Kira." It's "This is what's happening to your daughter. You don't have a say. And you don't deserve to have one because you were an awful kid and you turned into an awful adult." And that's after running off with Kira and then acting shady and lying. Can't imagine why Sarah wouldn't just go along with the plan. Part of this is just that I feel protective of Sarah and Kira, and suspicious of anyone trying to keep them apart, even if they claim it's for their own good. But I'm going to take back my statement that Mrs. S lost my sympathy, because that's not entirely true. I do understand where she's coming from and I still like her, but where I approved of most of her actions last season, I just didn't anymore in S2E2. We'll see what the rest of the season brings.

Oh yeah, in case you missed the arc from two seasons ago (I think?), he has an anxiety issue and some social issues related to trauma in early life. He had a whole fake life story concocted that the group figured out because some details weren't adding up. So then Jeff fired him and rehired him after Andy came clean. Gage was on the record as thinking that was a terrible idea, and I think he's held onto that feeling ever since.

Yeah, like I said, I think Sara (or Laurel, to a lesser extent) might be the more natural and satisfying choice from Slade's perspective. But the smarter move would be Felicity, and it would be more interesting to me if Slade really was that smart.

I don't really have a prediction for Slade's plans, but taking Felicity makes the most sense to me from a season-long arc perspective. We know he's been watching the team for months, planting cameras and tapping their phones and comms. We had a whole episode devoted to how riled up Oliver got when Felicity wasn't around as much as he was used to. We had another episode that established that it's really Felicity whose value to the team is immeasurable, because while Sara, Dig, Roy, and Oliver are all strong and trained, no one else can do what Felicity does. Did Slade see all of that? Has he noticed her value? Killing Laurel or Sara might be more satisfying to Slade personally, but killing Felicity would do more damage to The Arrow (and Oliver, in my opinion, but I'm not sure Slade is THAT perceptive). Kidnapping Felicity and forcing her to do work for him would be even better.

That made me crazy! Seriously, people joke about how much the writers marginalize and even hate Bonnie, but...maybe they do? Liv has in no way shown that she is more powerful than Bonnie ever was. Please. Enzo--a relatively young vampire--managed to overpower her by threatening her brother? All she should have had to do is give him a little headache and demand that he uncompel those LAX guys, and the rest of that nonsense never had to happen. Bonnie would have had him on his knees in seconds.

Making sure that no one person would obtain, carry, and administer the poison might seem unnecessarily complicated, but it ensures silence on all sides. It keeps Sansa quiet, should she have wanted to tell someone to try to save Tyrion, because she was a part of the murder whether she knew it or not. Cersei wouldn't believe that she wasn't aware of the plan. I do think QoT and maybe Marg knew Sansa would be fleeing immediately, but I don't know what details they knew about that. Maybe I just love those Tyrells too much, but I do think they honestly cared about Sansa and wanted her to be safe, while also being willing to take some risks to her safety in executing the plan.

In a lot of ways, I would have been fine with Tree Bran if he were excited about it. But he's not. He is scared and disappointed and unhappy. I don't want him doomed to that life simply because he's able to do that. I hope GRRM finds another way for him, and I'm glad the show has given him other stuff in the meantime. For awhile I felt like all the characters who were interacting with the supernatural in some way wouldn't also become rulers in a traditional sense because this world has seemed to be without magic for so long, that I just thought it wouldn't make sense. No one in the current administration believes in any of that stuff. But now it seems like the supernatural is making a comeback, and I wonder if all the people who can tap into that spiritual realm are going to ascend. People like the Starks who are wargs--particularly Bran because he's Special and Arya with her face-changing; Dany who has her dragons and is apparently impervious to fire; Melisandre and Qyburn with...whatever it is they do.

No, I understand Mrs. S's motivations and her reasoning; I've just stopped sympathizing with it. She hasn't seemed to reevaluate her thoughts about Sarah, or considered that maybe going through all this crazy clone shit would make her realize that all that matters is keeping Kira safe. And especially because Mrs. S has been mixed up with this all along--while raising Sarah, who was apparently a difficult child, which she manages to throw in her face at every opportunity, like who are you blaming for that?--she can jump down off her high horse anytime. Plus, she seriously misjudged and misplayed this situation, because her options were to continue to lie to Sarah and just demand her trust or to tell her the truth and hope she would agree that her plan was best. I don't think she has any respect for Sarah, and that irks me. Like she doesn't deserve the truth. Not to mention that Sarah is not a trusting person, so lying was just not the smart choice.

Mrs. S was great here, but she also lost my sympathy. I had a strong feeling she'd made off with Kira herself, so that wasn't a surprise. But her attitude toward Sarah w/r/t Kira has started to really bother me. Whether Mrs. S believes she knows best or not--Kira is Sarah's daughter, and I think she's proven that she cares about her above everything else. I understand that Sarah is in a dangerous position, but she should be the one making decisions about Kira, and at the very least, she deserves the full truth if Mrs. S wants her to follow her plans.

Why do you hate that Twitch married Allison? I'm so happy for them!

I can understand why, for production reasons, they needed to have a no-elimination week to make up for the unexpected double. But why do it at this stage when there is still all this cannon-fodder hanging around? Why not save it for Final Four or Five, when we're down to the actual talent and the decision is harder to make? I can't stand Jay, and there's no chance he's going to suddenly turn it around.

This is really nitpicky, but I took Trig as a sophomore in high school. Sara was taking it in college, so my guess is that she was taking it because she never got that far in math in high school. So, to me, that doesn't signal that she was very academically focused. But that said, I suppose she could have been taking an Advanced Trig course (which is just... calculus? Math people, help me out), which she would have to do if she were on a math/physics/engineering path. Eeek, back on topic. I agree that Laurel's flashback characterization does her NO favors. She comes across as willfully blind to Oliver's true character and the cracks in their relationship. In the five years she had to reflect, you might think she'd have come to some painful realizations about that. But instead, she just took that time to get REAL bitter. That's sort of interesting, from a villain origin story perspective, but not appealing in a heroine.

I really like Zoe this season. In general, after Wade put her in her place early on about trying to prevent him from dating Vivian, I think she's been considerate of his feelings and caring and more mature in general. And I hope Wade's anger at her dissipates fast because he has no right to be mad at her because Vivian broke up with him (or didn't, apparently, because she's awful).

Agreed. That scene is so hard to talk about, but I think it's unequivocally not rape. I think Elizabeth wanted him to "be Clark" because subconsciously she was processing her rape, for the first time in her life. She thought she wanted that type of sex, but once it happened, she realized her mistake, and I think she realized the reason she'd demanded it in the first place. That's why she asked him if he was OK afterward (and then he was quick to say, yes, are you OK?). Because she knew he didn't want to do that, and he felt terrible that he'd been a part of her reliving that. It was a heartbreaking moment, but not one borne out of violence. I also don't actually think that Clark is like that in bed. From what we've seen of him with Martha, they seem to have fairly standard sex, unless one considers oral really wild, which I suspect Martha does.

OK, we can just agree to disagree. I think Stefan tries to babysit and clean up after Damon because he doesn't want Damon or anyone else to end up dead. Where Damon doesn't give a shit about other people--only Elena, Stefan, and sometimes Alaric, Enzo, and Sheriff Forbes--so he just lets Stefan go wild when he's a ripper. I'm grateful for the human population that Stefan tries to keep Damon in check! But I think he gave up trying to make Damon be like him a few seasons ago. Now he just wants to minimize damage and put Damon on the best possible path to keep him alive and preferably happy and not killing. But my biggest complaint about Stefan this season is that he was willing to sacrifice Elena and her well-being for the sake of keeping Damon "happy" and therefore not murderous. That is ridiculous, OOC, and a disgusting message to send to the younger members of the TVD audience. But that just goes to the point that the writers seriously don't care about Elena anymore--she's just a catalyst for Damon's journey, and I suspect ultimately his reward.

I don't even know if it's her as much as the character. Sabrina was introduced as a silly naive little girl with a schoolgirl crush on Patrick. That was her characterization until the night of the Nurse's Ball (and even then, that icky Princess dress, ugh). So pairing her with full-grown men is never going to work. She's just not a match for either of them. I think Teresa could have handled a different character well, but this character was doomed from the get-go. (I saw her on an episode of Bones where she was basically unrecognizable to me because all the Sabrina pwetty pwincess stuff was gone. I liked her. I hope she gets a better job somewhere someday.)

There was an idea brought up in the episode thread that Stefan is just like Damon, only he pretends not to be. I'm paraphrasing, but I see this argument all the time. Specifically, the charge was that Stefan is just as prone to vengeance, and that he held a grudge against Damon for not finding him this summer, just like Damon held a grudge when Stefan didn't find him while he was held by Augustine. First, Stefan didn't hold a grudge against Damon after the summer. I wish he had, frankly. He had amnesia, which was the only time he was allowed to be mean to Damon (and it was GLORIOUS). After he regained his memory, he said, ONCE, that he'd wished it had been Elena and Damon who found him. That was the extent of his grudge. Then he didn't interact with Damon while he had PTSD because Damon couldn't be bothered to give a shit about him. Instead, he suffered through it with Katherine and Caroline. Then he went right back to babysitting and cleaning up after Damon's messes. Also, I don't think Stefan's judging Damon for having vengeful feelings. He just recognizes the power of those feelings, and wants Damon to keep himself in check. That is the difference between them. When Stefan has his humanity turned on, he resists those urges. If Stefan were an equally vengeful character, he would have acted out against Damon after he killed Lexie. Or after he killed their "uncle" Zach. Or after he tried to force Elena to drink his blood and become a vampire. Or after he tried to kill Jeremy, multiple times. It's like that saying that you shouldn't have to tear someone else down in order to build yourself up. If you can't explain why Damon is a good guy without derailing to talk about why Stefan is just as bad, then Damon probably isn't that good. And that's OK! But if you do want Damon to be good (which I do, someday), then celebrate his good moments and root for good character development for him. But twisting up in knots trying to pretend he's already there, or that it doesn't matter because they're all equally terrible in the same way.... Stefan's a work in progress, but he is making progress. When he does something awful, I call him on it. I just want to throw out a link to that How to Be a Fan of Problematic Things article sometimes.

(Taking my response to the Stefan thread.)

Yeah, I just find the writing of all the characters disappointing these days. Conflict used to arise between them fairly organically, and the writers used to subvert a lot of tropes by having the characters actually TALK to each other about things that on other shows would be hushed up. Now the characters have to act OOC in order to create the drama. It's annoying. I understand them not wanting to tell Damon, even fearing that he would lose it, but I think in the old days, they would have told him anyway. He shouldn't lean on Elena right now, but he and Stefan seem to be in an OK place, and if Stefan had told him what actually happened (not "I killed him" but "He was trying to kill us both and decided to just kill himself"), I think Damon could have handled it. But, based on the shitty writing lately, he would have gone completely nuts over this guy he barely knew. He probably will, when he actually finds out.

This is why I've gotten tired of Damon, aside from his use as comic relief. He angsts about not being good enough, but also says he doesn't want to be good. And he proves that over and over. It just makes him look immature and selfish. If he was so accepting of himself, he would stop whining about it and stop expecting to have everything he wants without doing any work for it. In a perfect storytelling world, I think the writers would have put him on a decent character development arc, where he would have become self-actualized by the end of the series. He was on that track for a few seasons, and then the writers screwed up. It's not entirely their fault, because they don't have an end date, and they don't want him to be good too early. But instead, what's happened is that they've undercut him as a character so many times that I just can't care about him anymore. (They've done this with everybody at this point, which is why I'm pretty much done with the show at the end of this season.) Until he owns his shit and faces actual consequences for any of it (and no, being broken up with Elena while still having her moon over him doesn't count), and makes positive steps to change for real reasons and not to get Elena back, I'm not interested.

I'm not sure the cosmetic stuff will hold up at all, but when she has structural work done, they don't mess around. Those houses are in much better shape than they would be if the average flipper got their hands on them.

Oh man, I forgot about that. I actually liked Peter and Jennifer together.

Well, we've seen Larick in the alley of a gay bar, so I'm guessing it didn't take long for anyone surveilling him to figure it out.

Fincher is basically the perfect director for this material, I think, and Affleck seems to be a great fit for Nick.

I agree that Stefan "tries to act better than Damon all the time." That's what makes him better than Damon. Stefan doesn't actually believe that he is naturally a better person than Damon. He is a vampire, and he has done terrible things. He takes responsibility for those actions, and tries to make up for them by being a better person. He cares. He tries. Damon doesn't. That's the difference. Stefan believes that Damon has the potential to be better--he just wants him to care and to try. That's why he's never been able to completely give up on him (and why Damon couldn't give up on Stefan when he was a ripper either).