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.

Mick's take on the other shows would be absolutely HILARIOUS! I would love it if they did it as a bonus feature. Matt Letscher apparently did something on "periscope" (not sure what that is) to explain Thawne's existence. Someone said there was a link but I couldn't find it. But he did confirm that this *is* the time remnant of the Thawne who spent 15 years stranded in the past living as Wells. Which makes me wonder why he seems less experienced/knowledgeable in some ways. Unless maybe he just doesn't care about mucking up time because he's already a time remnant & if he gets the spear he can set things right. Interesting that he mentioned Cisco and Caitlin but not Barry. And with Flashpoint having changed things, maybe this version of Eobard never came to care about Barry as much? Also, how could he have gone through those 15 years while probably knowing that Eddie was going to kill himself? You just know Bigmouth Barry probably would have told him that. I think I'm going to accept that Thawne didn't have his powers while in zero gravity (for whatever reason) but that he could use them while on the moon and on the Waverider but he was trying to avoid attracting zombie zoom. Plus, he promised to "play nice" until they got to Earth and he kept his word. Also, I found it funny how he seemed to respect Ray after awhile and tried to gain his trust, but as soon as he got on the Waverider he started calling the team "morons".

Since this involves the villains, I wonder what people think about Eobard not having superspeed out in space and on the moon. Ray attributed it to "zero gravity" but the moon has gravity. So, wouldn't he have had speed while on the moon? My theory was that he *could* have used his speed but was refraining from doing so to avoid drawing the attention of Zombie Zoom. Also, he promised to "play nice until" he got back to Earth. Because the Waverider had gravity too. So, either Ray was wrong about the gravity being the cause and it was because he needs to be within Earth's atmosphere to access the speedforce, or he was just refraining from using it. And then we have the bit where he talked about Cisco and Caitlin and missing the camaraderie. But didn't he say he got pulled from the timeline by the Flash and held captive for months and then he was let go and was being hunted. Did he just omit the whole spending 15 years in the past thing? Because the Eobard that Barry pulled out of time hadn't killed Nora and spent 15 years in the past-- and the one who spent 15 years in the past disintegrated when Eddie died. So, how could he be the time remnant of the latter? Did he somehow gain the memories and feelings of the Eobard who spent the 15 years in the past? Or did he just remember stuff Barry told him (about his ancestor killing himself and perhaps about the team-- I imagine Barry vented to him a lot about his transgressions in the 15-year-period) and just lied to Ray to try to win him over. He really is quite clever and a master manipulator because he managed to get Ray to sympathize with him. I do think it was mixture of truth in there though. I think he does crave the camaraderie of fellow scientists, but he also probably realized that Ray is the type of person who has a heart and could be swayed by seeing Eobard as human. I really loved how he pointed out that Ray could have used the dwarf star element in his suit to power an entire city but chose to become something greater-- doing something for his own personal gain because he wasn't satisfied with being a nobody (nevermind that he'd been the CEO of a company and had quite a bit of power and influence). And how he smiled so brightly while talking about walking on the moon-- but then how he lowered his guard just a little and showed some vulnerability and sadness when he said he wanted the spear because he wanted to live. IMO, it was a cleverly calculated (yet at least partially honest) play on his part. He knew that showing Ray that vulnerability and letting him know that his life was at stake might help him gain a little influence. And it worked in the end because instead of trying to shoot him with the speedster weapon, Ray let him go-- but Ray still held some of the upper hand by pointing out that Eobard wouldn't have time to find the spear pieces. But, in Eobard's favor, he has gotten under Ray's skin a little and garnered enough sympathy that it could be used at a critical moment to his advantage again. Moving on to the other villains, I started thinking about what each of the villains would want if they could alter reality (and we will find out soon with an upcoming episode). Eobard: He will want to have his family and life restored so he can have his friends, home, etc. But, I don't buy that he would limit it to just that-- I think he'd want to have prestige and be adored by the masses and be faster than the Flash ever was. Because once he had what he needed to be safe, he would want to feel fulfilled. Malcolm: He would want to have his wife and son alive. Tommy (his son) would probably be a successful and responsible person-- possibly a doctor. He'd also want a good relationship with his daughter Thea. I think he's also want his wealth and power back and he'd want to live in a safe community-- or perhaps have the League of Assassins at his beck and call. Snart: He'd want to be alive and for his father to not have been a complete jerk and to have had a happy childhood for himself and his sister. Beyond that, he'd probably want to be rich and perhaps still be buddies with Mick. Damien: I think he would probably be the most malicious out of the villains. He would want wealth and extreme power. He would probably want to have absolute power and for his subjects to live in fear of him. He claimed to have wanted to create a utopia by killing off most of the world save for the people in his little dome, but what he really wanted was control and he knew he couldn't control that many people. So, in his altered reality, he would want to be able to control the world. He'd also want to make his enemies suffer-- because I don't think he's a person who would feel satisfied without having some enemies to torment. Any other thoughts?

Oops. You're right. I corrected it now. "That she still wanted to marry him". Health issues have been making my brain sluggish lately. The breakup was just dumb. I wonder if it will turn out that Barry was just feeling unworthy because of the stuff his subconscious told him in the speedforce (IMO, what the "speedforce" tells him is really just his own subconscious speaking to him- and right now he has a lot of doubts and feels unworthy). Another possibility is that his distancing her because he thinks it will somehow protect her-- that maybe she'll be safter away from him-- a very common tv trope. Maybe he thinks that if he split with her that Savitar will somehow think he doesn't need to kill her to get to Barry.

I forgot that the episode was on and only caught the last 5 minutes so I had to watch it online later. I tried to watch the parts I had missed without fastforwarding, but there was a LOT of boring stuff with the unsub menacing the victim and a lot of gore that wasn't necessary-- very fake looking gore I might add. The supposedly broken fingers looked like a fake rubber hand. This was yet another torture porn episode. And we also had a case where the BAU didn't even have to solve it because the mother came forward. When she brought her son's journal in, I couldn't help but think that Reid would have been all over it and would have been analyzing it like the journal in Limelight. I still thought the escalation to wanting to break bones because his father left him, he was awkward, and his mother gave him drugs didn't quite add up. I actually thought the actress playing the mother did fine and I liked Alvez in this-- although he got way more screentime and contribution than the rest of the team. It almost seemed like Alvez was in charge because I barely remember Prentiss even being there. She and Tara were rather subdued. I'm glad they gave Rossi more to do, but I wish they could balance the team equally. I thought it was a little odd that JJ actually stayed behind on the case--but I was hopeful that Reid would actually offer some insight when she told him about it. But instead they had Reid being utterly useless and being dumb enough to tell a guard in front of other inmates under the pretense of asking for more water-- which was really dumb, IMO. I actually think Reid is stronger than JJ gave him credit for. And I wonder if the blood results were from the test taken when Reid got back to the US and whether or not any tests from Mexico are still forthcoming. I also noticed that a LOT of the dialog was delivered as line-reading rather than people understanding or investing in what they were saying (particularly when "profiling"). Also, I really wish Garcia would stop with the "Newbie" stuff. I just find the "banter" between her and Alvez to be unprofessional and unenjoyable. I don't want Garcia to be hitting on him, but it would be nice if she just stopped treating him like that. If it came off more that they were good friends who were just messing with one another, that would be fine-- but it doesn't come across that way. I was thinking that when JJ visited it would have been a good opportunity for him to mention that he's not in protective custody and that guard Wilkins was threatening to expose him-- BUT then I realized that he probably knew it would freak JJ out and he was trying to avoid upsetting her. I think that is something he would have to say to Prentiss, Rossi, or his lawyer (or all 3). In some ways I like that Reid actually did something to protect the poor guy who was being bullied. And I wonder if he expected to get a beating for it or if he thought his prison buddy would protect him. If he expected he might get beat up-- maybe it would be likely they would put him in protective custody afterward. It would be something his lawyer would fight for. But overall, that whole arc is being handled badly because it does not come anywhere close to what would happen in real life. I know it is fiction, but it goes beyond suspension of disbelief. I'm not sure what to make of the former Fed who is in prison with Reid. His personality seemed totally different in this episode and he was more of a dick. Still debating on whether he will ultimately turn out to be an enemy or not. I just wish they would end the arc already. I don't like stories that drag out-- especially when they don't dedicate the necessary time to it and they end up splitting the focus. I was cringing at how cheesy the Cubs world series thing with Rossi and JJ was. I don't like sports and I knew about the Cubs winning. I'm going to just fanwank that JJ was indulging Rossi's mansplaining to be polite because he was obviously excited about it-- but the whole "hope" message made me gag the way it was delivered. Also, there were baseball fans who died while never seeing their team win-- what if Reid dies while waiting to get out of prison? I don't think that will happen, but it's where my mind went. Reid can't afford to wait 100 years. It just wasn't a good comparison and the amount of cheese involved was unpleasant. I like to eat cheese-- not see cheesy crap on TV. Editing to add that I think Erica often likes to express "alternative facts". :P

So do you think he was faking not having his speed? He did have an astronaut suit he could have used (unless it was punctured). I mean, really, if he'd had his speed while on the moon he could have stolen Ray's suit from him in a flash and then used it himself-- unless he just doesn't know how to use it-- but given that an ancient Japanese bad guy figured out how to use it, I think Eobard could too. Of course, he would still need to find a way to get back to Earth-- and he probably needed the Waverider for that, so perhaps he just orchestrated things that way and he was just manipulating them. While I do think there was some truth to what he said to Ray, I do think that he's always playing mind games and he was subtly manipulating him. The fact that he was already prepared to tell Ray the angle of entry showed that he'd been planning things through more than they might have thought-- but he didn't end up with the spear fragment, so things obviously didn't go exactly as planned. I also wonder if he delayed using his speed so that he would have more time to get away before Hunter could track him-- given hat Hunter seems to be able to track him by his usage of the speedforce. So, what if he just refrained from using his speed in space and on the moon because he didn't want to attract Hunter until he knew he would be able to get away.

I don't think that what the speedforce version of Snart said truly reflected what Snart actually felt. I think it was just the speedforce or Barry's subconscious mind trying to guilt-trip him. I think of it like when Sheldon on Big Bang Theory talks to imaginary versions of people and they basically are just figments of his imagination who tell him what is already in his own mind. If Barry had not selfishly chosen to go back in time to save his mother-- while knowing that if he screwed up it could create a singularity that could wipe out the planet (or more), it wouldn't have happened. Reverse Flash would have remained trapped in the pipeline (until he eventually escaped-- because he had to have known how to get out). But, as another person said, Ronnie and other members supported this decision and enabled Barry. So, Barry had something to do with it, but so did other people-- including Eobard who knew full well what could happen. And frankly, if Eobard hadn't decided to be a dick and tear Eddie down so much while he was a captive, Eddie might not have killed himself. I have another thought on the WestAllen breakup. What if Barry is purposely distancing Iris from him in a misguided attempt to protect her? What if he feels that if Savitar sees that they broke up, he might not think it is necessary to kill her? Because he was not at all convincing when he talked about needing space.

I just had a thought: If lack of gravity was the reason Eobard's superspeed wasn't working, then why didn't it work when they were on the moon? The moon has gravity (albeit lower gravity than Earth's). Also, there was gravity on the Waverider-- so, if it was a gravity thing, then why wouldn't Thawne have gotten his speed back as soon as he boarded the ship? Or, was he just keeping good on his promise to "play nice" until they got back to Earth? Granted, it's possible that Ray was just wrong about the reason for Thawne not having superspeed. Maybe the speedforce only operates on Earth? Could it be a proximity thing? I wonder when that will come to bite them later if they ever try to have Barry Allen go into space.

Why would kids from the future need to be biologically modified to learn astrophysics? They've actually found that kids can understand more than people think and that teaching more advanced math at younger ages actually helps them to understand math better when they get older. Part of the problem, though, is that many of the teachers for the lower grade levels don't understand the higher math themselves. Also, we have a system that teaches kids math one way and then when they are older they are taught to unlearn what they previously learned and replace it with something else-- all because they erroneously thought kids couldn't learn more advanced stuff at younger ages. Like, they thought children couldn't understand negative numbers and such. Granted, not all kids learn a the same pace and not all have the aptitude for learning more advanced things. But, by Thawne's time they have mnemonic devices to store and re-introduce memories. Perhaps they learned to do something similar with education. Keep in mind that Eobard told Eddie that he was a genius even in his own time-- so perhaps he had an accelerated learning process as well. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if at that point in the future there would be some biological modifications-- perhaps to prevent genetic illnesses and severe disabilities. Hell, I personally fanwanked that by Eobard's time, they could grow organs and have a way to keep them healthy in some sort of container in labs and that it would extend to growing a uterus and having the parents contribute the sperm and eggs so they could grow the baby in a genetically engineered uterus-- eliminating the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth for the mothers. Good point about the 38 degrees. They never really established that Swigert was dead-- but it would be hard for them to explain what happened. Yeah. And if they remembered what happened before being stabbed, it would be even more of a mess. I wish they had addressed that. I wonder why they chose Swigert of all people-- especially since he later became a politician. And I wonder if Eobard did something to prevent the oxygen thingy from exploding. Loved hearing Franz use his real accent. I think my favorite parts of the episode were the ones with Ray and Eobard together. IIRC, Tom Cavanagh's Eobard was impressed with Ray and his suit. So, it was a bit interesting that Eobard had a bit of an attitude with Ray at first, but then seemed to respect him more-- of course, that could just have been Eobard trying to butter him up. Loved Ray doing what I assume was some approximation of the movie where Matt Damon's character was trapped (on Mars? I never saw the movie so I don't know) and then Eobard butts in with "What are you doing?" and that incredulous look on his face. And the "I am not dying on the moon!" I was sad about Henry, but at least he didn't have to spend more years missing his family and having regrets. I really want to see Amaya interact with someone other than Nate. I want them to give her something to do that does not involve her being a love interest. You weren't alone on the singing. Normally I find it entertaining when people sing (if they sing well), but it also depends on the circumstances. I'm not a fan of awkwardness. Still not on board with Nate. He just comes off as a spoiled frat boy type to me so much of the time. That said, I actually felt I could relate to him a bit more in this episode in that he wanted his family members to be happy-- albeit his selfish motive was so he wouldn't have had a sucky childhood with a distant father. And telling Amaya to ask Ray about the fate of her village and family was a total dick move. I loved the dynamic with Ray and Eobard. Especially since it went from Eobard saying how he didn't want to die on the moon with the "likes of" Raymond but then admitted that he was enjoying working with him. I do think that some of that was genuine but I also think he was buttering him up. I love how he sort of shot down the whole selfless hero thing. Eobard is very clever and I think he knows how Ray's mind works and how to manipulate him. I thought Matt and Brandon did a great job with some of the more subtle nuances where you can see that Ray actually seemed to feel sympathy for Eobard. The moment when Eobard let his guard down a little and showed that vulnerability and said "I want to live" was great. Because it was true, but it was also a clever way to humanize himself in Ray's eyes. And I think it worked out for him in the end because Ray could have shot him with the anti-speedster weapon and knocked him out. He managed to gain Ray's trust. And I admit, I was sort of rooting for Eobard and hoping he would get the spear piece. I did think it was odd that Ray figured out that something was actually chasing Eobard rather than just thinking that Eobard needed to move to another time before time caught up to him in his current chronological location. I did like the mutual understanding that Ray was letting Eobard go so that he could live. Although, I admit that I would love to see what the Legends would do if they saw Hunter Zolomon in his zombie Zoom form. I think Stein would need to change his pants. Also, I was a bit puzzled when Eobard mentioned Caitlin and Cisco. If that version of Eobard disintegrated (in front of Stein) and the version that was pulled out of the timeline was the one who had NOT spent all those years stuck-- then how does this Eobard have those memories? And does that mean he still has that much fondness for Cisco and the younger version of Barry? Is this the version who realized that he didn't consider himself and Barry to be enemies? Eobard said that after he got free (from being held captive by the Flash) he started being chased. Did he abridge the story to leave out being stuck in the past for 15 years? Or did those memories somehow come to him from another timeline? Or did the writers just screw up on continuity? I really liked how Rip would be trying to think of a solution and Sara would say she'd already given an order or she jumped in and took action. In some ways I felt sorry for Rip-- especially after what he's been through-- but I do like Sara as captain and I'm glad Rip didn't fight her on it. Yeah, as much as I don't care for Nate, the bit with his grandfather dying was so sad- and I thought Nick did a good job with the emotions there. But I thought about what he said to Amaya and lost sympathy for him. I love Letcher's Thawne. I loved Cavanagh's Thawne too and it took a bit for Letscher to grow on me, but he totally owns the role now. He has a vulnerability and isn't a cartoon style villain who is evil just to be evil. His mission is to change reality so he's not being hunted (and probably to restore his family line). Since his family was wiped from existence he no longer has family, a home, friends, or co-workers who know him. People he formed relationships with wouldn't know who he was and there would be no record of him so he wouldn't be able to resume his job as a professor. I wonder why this show hasn't mentioned that he was a professor. I'm still scratching my head at the whole speedforce powers go away in zero gravity. That makes no sense whatsoever. When Eobard said that puns were the lowest form of humor, I kept wishing that Mick had been there to belch or fart or something and someone could point out that *that* was the lowest form of humor.

This was an interesting one although the pace was a bit slow at some points. Didn't really need so much time of Caitlin with the ugly little baby (I think ALL babies are ugly). I'm a curmudgeon, I don't like babies or children. The speedforce trying to make Barry feel guilty for what could have been was a bit of a stretch in some regards. A part of me contends that what he sees in the speedforce is more a fabrication of his own mind & insecurities. In many ways, the things that happened were just as much Eobard's fault (if not more). The speedforce version of Eddie saying that they only let him leave because Barry said he'd come to terms with his mother's death was dumb. I mean, I think Barry felt like he had come to terms with it, but his father being murdered in front of him reopened that wound. And Barry is still only 3 years in to this. He still has a lot to learn. It was great to see Rick Cosnett and Wentworth Miller again. I was a bit sad that Jay took Wally's place. Although, I sort of wanted to see what his personal hell would be (would it be back to being trapped in the iron mask again?) I wonder if Jay will inadvertently become Savitar because Barry can't find a way to get him out and he goes insane and forgets that he volunteered to enter. Unless Savitar somehow turns out to be a time remnant of Eobard or something... I was surprised that HR was actually useful in this one. I loved his interactions with Jesse. I love how he thought he could stop her from leaving and risking her life and that he was willing to stand up to her. Although, why she didn't just say "Later!" and zip around him is beyond me. She could have been gone before he could blink. But having her punch him and say it was strangely satisfying was amusing. I also really liked that for once HR actually realized that Savitar needed the armor because he's vulnerable underneath-- but, why is it that none of the supposed geniuses on the show never thought of that? Also, what happened to the armor piece Jesse stabbed him with? Did she get any DNA on it? They could examine the tip and analyze any tissue or blood. But I suppose that would give away who Savitar is and they can't have that reveal happen too soon. Jesse is lucky that Savitar didn't want to kill her and only hurt her a little bit. Which makes me wonder if he's really Wally somehow. He doesn't have a British accent so I don't think he's Julian. At least this episode didn't have anything insultingly sexist like the last one. So, Jesse decides to go off to Earth 3. Does she even know much about Earth 3? Where will she live? How will she eat? What will she do for money? Will she just steal stuff and figure that it's ok because she's there to save people? And what about Earth 2 not having a Flash? And then we get to probably the dumbest thing I've seen on the show: Barry being given the opportunity to put the ring back on Iris' finger and instead saying they need to have "space". WTF? Seriously? When he said "I love you" and there was a pause I was waiting for the "But" and thinking "If he says 'but' I'm going to punch someone." and then it came and it was worse than I expected. And the sad thing is, he completely lacked conviction. I felt like Grant didn't want to say the words and that Barry didn't really mean it. It just made absolutely NO sense whatsoever. Is it because he felt guilty for the things the speedforce showed him and he's punishing himself because he thinks he doesn't deserve to be happy? It's just absolutely idiotic. I just don't understand why the show has to stall this relationship. Only other plausible thing I can think of is that the *real* Barry is still in the speedforce and someone else came out pretending to be Barry.

These writers... Seriously, WTF? So, Iris let Barry know that she still wanted to marry him and he said he needed space? And as good of an actor as Grant is, I wasn't buying it. I don't know if that means Barry really didn't want to break it off-- there was just something missing. Is it because he feels that he's not worthy? WTF? As soon as he said he loved her I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to say "but" and then I was saying "fuckin' REALLY, writers?" WTF is with all stalling? They can stay together and be engaged and not get married right away. What do they hope to accomplish by hindering the relationship? Are they simply unable to write for them as a healthy couple? Is that the problem? Do they think happy couples are boring? And this is why I don't like romance stories on shows-- when they pull this crap.