zannej

I hear you on that. I used to be much more patient with people. Now I'm at the point where my tolerance for people in general is dwindling. That's why I spend so much more time with my cats. LOL. It's a really good thing I live out in the woods away from other people. I don't want to see or hear any neighbors.

I would probably have to watch again when I'm not feeling so exhausted. But I had a lot of problems with this one-- mostly because of the whole plot of the arc (not the episode itself) and there were things in this one that showed the flaws in the overall arc. First of all, I think my biggest nitpick is the inconsistency in how much power the team has over inmates and so forth. Alvez can get Shaw transferred to another prison, but they can't do anything to get Reid put in protective custody? Reid and the team are shown as so powerless about Reid's situation. Reid is not able to communicate effectively with his team while he's locked up yet Cat is somehow able to orchestrate some nefarious plan despite being in solitary for the past 6 months? Lindsey's involvement really does not make sense. There is no reason for Lindsey to have a grudge against Reid and to go along with this scheme. It doesn't make sense for Cat to have that much power and reach. The whole thing with the warden and the mean guards is so contrived. And Emily only just NOW decides to go talk to the warden? And the warden said there were orders from higher up to keep Reid out of custody? From whom? And why? Then the warden says that Reid is in no more danger than any other inmate. Uh, Yes he *is*. He's a federal agent. Also, unlike most of the other inmates, he hasn't even gone to trial yet. He is NOT a convicted felon. He shouldn't even be in the prison in the first place. Why couldn't Alvez have pulled strings to get him transferred to a safer facility where they *would* put him in protective custody? Also, from a previous episode, Reid was very clearly on the list to be in protective custody. So, who decided to pull him from it and put him in genpop and why? The warden said that Reid wasn't exactly a model prisoner. How so? Other than getting beaten up a few times and trying to protect another inmate, what had he done wrong (that they could prove)? I wish Emily had put up more of an argument with the warden-- pointing out some of the things that I mentioned. Also, maybe I'm wrong about this, but if the court order was for him to be in protective custody, how could the prison itself override that? And if they did, why couldn't his lawyer go back to the court and say that their orders were not being followed and that Reid was placed in a very dangerous situation and that if he died while pending trial there would be one hell of a wrongful death lawsuit and investigations in to the operations of the prison and so forth. Also, if this judge was available for Prentiss to talk to, why didn't she go to her sooner (perhaps with Reid's lawyer) around the first time Reid got attacked to point out that Reid was not convicted yet but he was in genpop where guards were threatening to tell the other inmates he was a fed and he would surely be killed? The means they used to keep Reid in genpop was beyond suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, they believed Scratch was targeting Reid so his mother could still be in danger. JJ was supposedly visiting the mother about every day, so why did she not notice that Cassie was missing and there was a new girl there? I also agree with someone else who asked why the other tenants didn't smell Cassie's rotting body. It clearly stunk enough that JJ was having to cover her nose-- and no tenants complained about that odor to the landlord? While I get that Garcia is supposed to be a fragile little snowflake about things, I felt that it was out of character for her to stop being productive and to waste time with the resignation letter and complaining to Prentiss about how it was chipping away at her soul when she actually had a task to do that was time sensitive. If written properly, Garcia would have put that aside and focused on doing whatever was necessary to get Reid out and would have been too busy trying to get those prints from WITSEC to wallow in self pity. Now, if it were during a time where she had nothing to do and she was helpless, I could see her wallowing and having time for the letter. But that wasn't the case, so it was frustrating to me that they wasted time in the episode and in actually taking action with that. The whole "If Reid dies.." thing. Well, yeah, he *might* die if you don't hurry up and find the damn prints! Ugh. If they'd had that bit before she was tasked with finding the fingerprints I would have been fine with it. It was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Prentiss giving the speech about them all stopping to take a moment was cheesy and I felt that it detracted from the episode. There was so much crammed in that I felt it was just out-of-place and shouldn't have been there. They should have just been "Let's get to work" and been focused. I do tend to agree with Daniel about Reid being infantalized. I think they were giving him less credit-- particularly when compared to how other team members have handled extremely stressful situations. I do get to an extent that Reid being in prison in a situation where he had to do things he didn't want to do and being so helpless for such an extended period would be stressful to him, but I think he is tougher than they think. This is the guy who told Hotch he kicked like a 9-year-old girl. I know this is a different situation and all, but Reid has been a hostage and tortured and he still kept his head enough to get out of the situation. Granted, as I said before, these were different circumstances, but I still feel they weren't giving him enough credit and I feel like it was done for drama purposes to try to make the viewers worry more about Reid. I just got interrupted and have to go make dinner now...

Yes. I really think there should be more serious consequences for poisoning animals. It should be a felony-- especially when it is done so maliciously. I forgot to mention that the dog who had young puppies started having seizures while the vet was closed and there is no emergency vet service in the area. She seized and convulsed for 10 hours before finally dying. It was a horrible miserable death. No animal should ever have to suffer through that. The dog that had been on an IV drip lived a few days longer but then started hemorrhaging out her eyes and vomiting large amounts of blood so she had to be put to sleep. If there had been an available vet, the other one would have been put to sleep too. There used to be about a dozen dogs in the neighborhood and they are gone. There were also cats and kittens and they are gone too. And that son-of-a-bitch is still walking free.

Venting a little bit... Some friends of mine are having problems with an unsub neighbor. The worthless sack of shit neighbor has been poisoning their dogs. He doesn't have pets but he started putting out bowls of dog food in his yard-- but they were mixed with antifreeze. Both of my friend's dogs got sick-- one of them is nursing puppies and the puppies are starting to look sick-- but the vet said the mother should be ok. But the other dog might not pull through. She's at the vet's on an IV drip. She's just the sweetest little doggie. People who do things like that... just... Ugh! I'm not a violent person, but I really really want to just get a 2x4 with some nails in it and beat the living shit out that guy. Is it wrong that I wish someone would slip some antifreeze in his drinks? Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him sick and feel just what those dogs are going through. I hope he goes to jail and gets the shit kicked out of him.

Wasn't this episode written by a new writer? I have to say that for a first time writer for this show, I thought she did fairly well. I don't recall Dania Bennett writing episodes before. I try to give new writers a little bit of slack because they might not come in knowing the voices of the characters. I liked Alvez from the start-- probably because I liked the actor from CSI-- but I do agree that the way they have him interact with Garcia is very forced. Although, I just wonder if he's the type of person who wants to win everyone over and who doesn't like having a co-worker dislike him so he is trying extra hard to get Garcia to like him. I don't think he is trying to date her, but I think he just doesn't want her to dislike him. Despite the fact that this was a new writer and ignoring how Alvez is busting his hump to try to get Garcia to like him, I actually found their interactions in this episode to be better than in some of the past episodes. She wasn't outright rude to him. I know the writers claimed they haven't done serialized writing before, but they tried in the past in multiple seasons (with season-long unsub arcs-- or multiple episode unsub arcs) and they have dropped the ball every single time. From this episode, I'm starting to suspect that Shaw has more control than Reid thinks-- that Shaw is the one pulling the strings with drugs coming in and out and he either wants Reid to help or to stay out of the way. I think that is the real reason he was getting upset with Reid for interfering and trying to protect Louis. He wanted his henchmen to get Louis to do stuff with the drugs and he was refusing-- this interfered with Shaw's plans. Reid ratting out Shaw's people also interfered so Shaw wants Reid to stop. Since he has the threat from Alvez, he can't let anything happen to Reid directly again, but he can make his life miserable by hurting people that Reid wants to protect. And maybe letting Reid think that he might get hurt again if he doesn't cooperate is also on his agenda. I just hope that if this is the case, that Reid will see through the ruse and recognize that Shaw is not his friend.

Cisco was singing along with the "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" number. He had his hair slicked back in a ponytail and was wearing a suit, so maybe he was harder to spot if you weren't looking for him. I was able to forgive the bad accents because they were in a fantasy world and I figured that Barry would just be hearing what he thought the accents would sound like. I kinda wish we'd had Tom Cavanagh and Tom Felton singing too, but I realize there wasn't much room for it. I think they missed the mark a little. It went too long between songs and then some of the songs lasted too long. I think it would have been more entertaining if almost everyone in the fantasy world sang their lines or if they had just done it differently. The autotuning sort of ruined it. I wanted to hear more natural sounding voices.

I'm lazy so I'm copying and pasting what I wrote elsewhere. Maybe it's because I'm in a better mood, but I actually enjoyed this one. It did have it's flaws, but it was much better than last week's crapfest. I actually liked Garcia in this one. Having her crying alone in her office because she was upset about Reid actually made sense. I'm still really liking Alvez. I like that he is kind to Garcia despite her being cold to him a lot of the time. And I like that he is looking out for Reid. Interesting that they said he's slower than the rest of the team, so they aren't trying to make him out to be a genius, but he does his research and it seems like he figured out things about Shaw that the prosecutor's hadn't. JJ and Prentiss seemed to be barely there most of the time. I don't really remember much of their contributions-- but I did have to go to the kitchen to get something for my mother so I might have missed something. This was the first episode I watched with my mother in a long time. So she made some comments and nitpicks as well. She liked Garcia's line about a cheetah on a lightning something (can't remember what it was). When they mentioned they were going to check for people with a history of sleepwalking, Mom said "But they can't see people's medical records!" and I had to explain to her that they regularly ignore that rule and have Garcia hack medical stuff all the time. I guess the writer for this episode was not aware that it is illegal to hack people's medical files like that. So saying to the police that they were going to search for that was just plain bad. I actually liked Walker in this one. He showed a bit more personality. The bit about "I was hoping you wouldn't remember that. This is why I don't give pep talks" cracked me up. The case was somewhat interesting to me-- and since it was fictional-- I was laughing when the poacher got shot while trying to shoot a deer. I also found it amusing that the coroner pointed out that thus far the victims had all been people who were not well-liked. My mother guessed that the unsub was sleepwalking and blurted that out and then bragged about how she figured it out before the BAU team did. LOL. I will say that sometimes injuries/pain can cause people to wake up. My brother used to sleepwalk and one day he fell down some steps and woke up in pain and started crying. But, I can buy that a loud gunshot could wake someone up. I did think "I hope Rossi is paying for that chair he just shot". LOL. I think one of the things that worked for me was that the actor playing the unsub was believable. He seemed like sort of an evil zombie while sleepwalking, but he was also believably upset when he woke up. He's one of the unsubs we are supposed to sympathize with-- and it was clear that the guy just wasn't right mentally. Also, the guy sleepwalking to places he knew actually made sense. There wasn't much with Reid, but what they had was pretty good-- although, this is about the 4th episode in a row that has ended with Reid screaming for help within the last few minutes. The heteroflexible thing cracked me up. I suspect that maybe Shaw is up to something sinister and he is pretending that he's not the bad guy but that the other's are. I don't think he's warning Reid not to do things because it's not how it is done in prison-- I think he's running things and doesn't want Reid to find out and interfere. I highly suspect he ordered those guys to kill Reid's friend. Dude looked like he was dying. I've heard that people can have heart attacks and the guards will ignore all of the calls for help and not check on people for hours. I had to call BS on Reid's lawyer not being able to do something about him being in genpop. If the orders were for him to be in protective custody (and we know that they were), then she could go to the DA or warden or someone higher up the chain. Having him in genpop is just so contrived. I agree that getting an earlier trial date is not that great if they have found zero evidence to exonerate him. Unless they are talking about him getting some sort of appeal to get bail. I really think the lawyer should have requested another hearing to ask for bail or have the court order them to put Reid in a safer place-- especially since Reid was attacked. And if the lawyer knew that a guard threatened him, they might be more likely to transfer him back to smalltime jail or put him in protective custody. I was somewhat distracted at the end by the clear raincoat (or whatever it was) that Garcia was wearing. I kept trying to figure out if it was a rain coat or if it was some sort of fashion statement. But at least Garcia finally called Alvez "Luke" and not "Newbie" so I was happy with that. I'm really hoping they won't have Reid do something majorly stupid-- but with the Erica Messer solo episode coming up, I'm afraid it will be stupid. She does not write well for Reid at all and she likes to have overly contrived stories with people acting out of character. Adding that I agree that Fiona sucks. The whole "I can only give suggestions thing". Um, no. You go to the DA / court and get THEM to enforce the protective custody thing. If someone was ordered to be in protective custody and they've been placed in genpop and were harmed, they need to raise hell and move him to protective custody before they have a hefty lawsuit filed against them. That is straight up negligence.

I have mixed feelings on this episode. I normally enjoy musical episodes, but something was off about this one. It just seemed to drag. Some of the singing parts just seemed to last too long and then some of the gaps in between singing also seemed long. I liked the Moon River song, but I thought it could have been cut shorter. I liked the one that had Cisco and others singing. I actually wish we'd been able to hear Cisco sing more. I did find it funny how Barry was actually enjoying some of the musical parts and was halfway dancing while people were singing. I like Jesse L. Martin's voice and I like Victor Garber, but I'm not a fan of his singing voice. It just seems too strained. So, the duet with Garber and Martin was a bit painful, but I did enjoy some parts of it. I really liked John Barrowman's singing though. When Grant started singing, I couldn't even see his lips moving at some points (probably crappy quality video) so it sort of took me out of it-- it seemed like bad lipsyncing. I still find it odd that Iris grew up with Barry and it seems like she never heard him sing in the shower. Cisco saying something about a gif of Barry singing didn't make much sense to me since gifs don't have sound. I did like that they briefly had some time to give Wally some confidence back. I kind of wish we'd seen Barry mentioning that Cisco was singing and that he was good. It was sweet at the end when Barry sang to Iris and gave her the ring-- although I admit it lasted a little too long. Overall, I liked it. I liked the Music Meister and I'm glad it wasn't a totally depressing show.

Matt Letscher said he made a Periscope post to explain with pictures how this is the time remnant of the Eobard who spent time as Dr. Wells. But I don't know what periscope is (I'm assuming it is something like snapchat-- which I don't use) or how to find the pictures. He said he was going to do another thing and give people more of a heads up, but I haven't seen him mentioning it again. So, I really have no clue. That said, I do like the pet theory about Eobard getting the memories of other iterations of himself. Actually, being able to remember the various versions would be somewhat maddening and could be another explanation for why he's a bit nuts and why he would want to restore things.

I enjoyed this one for the most part. I admit that I don't like it when they present religious stories as fact. Not all of the viewers are Christian or believe in the story of Jesus. I personally don't, and I don't like it when shows/movies try to push stories from Christianity as fact/history. But, in certain cases I can handwave and just pretend that it is just part of that fictional universe and not representative of the real world. I was able to greatly enjoy Dogma because I took it as a fantasy world. So, for this one I had to remind myself that there are people with superpowers in this so I can pretend that Jesus existed in their world. I have to agree that they should have gone to look for the blood prior to the war. I actually liked how they used Tolkein in this one. The war scenes were still somewhat sanitized. I remember in LOTR where they were going over the water and there were tons of bodies just below the water's surface (which was something that Tolkein witnessed during war). The team being mad at Mick for talking to what he thought was a hallucination didn't make sense to me. Snart was dead as far as he knew. Why would him talking to a figment of his imagination mean that he wasn't loyal to them? Snart was right, they really never gave Mick the trust and respect that he deserved. I agree with the people who said that it seemed odd that Eobard didn't have better security. He knew that Rip had his memories back and that Rip would be able to recognize where the hideout was. So why was he so surprised that they showed up? But, I do have to remind myself that he created STAR Labs (under the guise of Dr. Wells) and the security there really sucked. People just walk in all the time. Also, he didn't have cameras at his own front door (so he didn't see that Caitlin was at his door to talk to him) but he had cameras everywhere else-- including people's bedrooms. But for the most part, he was really on top of his game and predicting how people would react and anticipating a lot of things. So, I don't buy that he would underestimate the Legends enough to be shocked and say they weren't smart enough to pull off the heist of the spear piece. I'm trying to remember if he ever met Snart while posing as Dr. Wells. I admit that I was actually rooting for the Legion because the Legends were kinda pissing me off. Loved the "Legendary idiots" line. And it was funny seeing him lose his temper only to calm down and realize that they could just go take the whole spear away. Loved the interaction with Damien about the zombie speedster and how he wanted to let it eat Eobard's brain and then "did it already eat your brain?" or something like that. LOL. I wonder if bringing in Snart was Damien's idea or if just bringing more reinforcements was his idea. I also wonder why it was Malcolm who read the inscription from the book. No explanation of how he knew how to read it. I would have thought Damien or Eobard would know. Damien putting his hand at the top part of the spear made sense, he clearly wants to be top dog. LOL. I also love how Malcolm returned to find them with two new people and the spear, but he just brushed it off (albeit with a snide remark about them waiting for him). I'm glad hey used Nate's powers to have him bust through enemy lines. Ray laughing while inside the canon and scaring the soldiers was pretty funny. Although, the translation said "Gremlins" but they said "Poltergeist!" If they wanted to destroy the spear, putting it together didn't make sense. Especially if Rip knew that it would call to people and try to tempt them. It kinda made sense that Amaya wanted to use the spear, but if she didn't know how to use it then it would be rather pointless. The visual of Amaya and Sara kicking down soldiers in the nurses uniforms cracked me up for some reason. Loved all of the LOTR references. It was also cool to see the villains at the end all holding on to the spear with the spinning camera. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

I have to say that I think it is odd that Eobard would want to create a world where men had to wear ties. They are like nooses. I don't think Eobard wore a tie on the Flash ever. He clearly wasn't fond of them. So, why would he want a tie? LOL. And I wonder if he would be back in the future or if he would stay in the past. I'd think he would want to go to the future.

I think one of the things that made the situation in "Damaged" work was because it was based loosely on actual events. A BAU agent got locked in with an inmate during a guard exchange & the inmate was saying how he was going to kill the agent, but said agent distracted him until the guards got back and then the inmate suddenly claimed he was just joking. I think what grates about this episode so much is that the whole situation of Reid being in prison in general population like that is absolutely ludicrous and not even remotely like anything in real life. And the behavior of the characters is very stereotypical.

Wait.. I thought the Lunar Module re-docked and connected back with the rest of the ship. Or was it docking on to the Waverider? It looked to me like it docked with the other ship though. But, that begs the question how they got from there to the Waverider if not attached to it. Ray would be fine in his suit, but Eobard would not. Eobard didn't even have shoes on in the LEM (at least when they showed the bts footage of how they did the fights). LOL.

Maybe they will have to go back in time to save Hourman. or maybe they will warn their former selves about what is going to happen?

Apparently Matt actually brought up that the moon and Waverider have gravity thing but ultimately decided to just "support the story". So they were aware it didn't make sense, but they are the actors, not the writers. (Matt said that on Twitter). I noticed that Eobard didn't use his speed on the Waverider until they entered the Earth's atmosphere. I'm just going to pretend that being within the Earth's atmosphere was the key-- although you have a good point about him not wanting to end up out in space where he couldn't breathe and the lack of pressure would cause him to explode. I don't know if Malcolm would need to be the absolute top, but I think he'd like to be in the highest ranks-- maybe 2nd in command. He's shown he's willing to defer to someone he believes is more of a threat. But I *do* think that he would want to get his family and his hand back before he sought any personal glory. I think that Eobard is similar in that he would put family and getting back what he lost as the priority and then he would want the power, glory, etc. I completely agree with you on Damien. He doesn't seem to have the inclination to care about family (at least not at this stage-- since he hasn't found Ruve or had his daughter yet). I imagine his original family died out long ago and he's gotten used to living without them. I think having lived as long as he has made him have less appreciation for life. He's probably watched countless friends/family members die over the years. So to him, watching the world burn is not a big deal. He was around when the population was smaller and he'd probably want it bring it back to that level again. Sort of like Vandal Savage.