Hana Chan

My only quibble with this is that Steve's friendship with Bucky was at least as strong as his new love for Peggy and is a much longer standing relationship. If Peggy loved Steve as much as she was stated to, then his relationship with Bucky would have been a consideration for her since Bucky wasn't going to disappear from Steve's life just because he got a girl. Plus Bucky was under her command, so his importance to Steve would have been something she would have to consider. But I agree that this was Peggy's story and that was why I felt she was so badly shortchanged. Instead of letting her be her own kind of hero, she was basically just a female version of Captain America with different packaging. I think that there were a lot of ways that they could have followed the WW2 Hydra storyline without rehashing the events of CATFA. The format basically gives the writers the freedom to go completely off the rails and by making the Hydra plan an eldritch squid monster that Peggy was able to pretty much tackle single-handed... I was not impressed. When you have a character so insanely overpowered (like Wanda, Captain Marvel and Steve/Bucky at their peak), you need to have a threat that is equally daunting. The writer in me just see a lot of missed opportunities for some real drama that were due, as many have said, primarily to the very limited run time of the episode (though I will argue that the writers showed a lack of any real imagination). I would have been more interested in an early Captain Britain, where TPTB want to turn their only super soldier (and a looker at that) into a PR showgirl with a skimpy costume and Peggy fighting to be taken seriously (as she had to do in Agent Carter). We could have had some seriously interpersonal conflict with coolly pragmatic Peggy not considering that putting Steve (with all his health issues) into an armored fighting suit might be an unreasonable risk to him while Bucky wants to protect Steve (I always thought that SkinnySteve would be much more effective working with Stark to help the Commandos). Or that while Steve was Peggy's romantic interest, Steve's best friend was under her command and that alone could create all kinds of conflict (Bucky falling from the train and not being caught would have been a wonderful way to inject some real tension into their relationship). Or Red Skull, rather than just releasing a giant squid monster from another dimension decides to meld himself with the giant squid monster to become an unstoppable God (since it's already canon that he believes that as a super soldier, he has left humanity behind). There were a lot of ways they could have taken this story that really could have shifted how we view these characters but we basically just got a minor deviation from what we'd already seen. They just played this one too straight and too safely.

I watched it again on the way home on the train just to get my criticisms more clearly thought out and make sure that I wasn't being unduly harsh. Admittedly, one of the biggest things working against this episode is that it's only a half hour and they're trying to squeeze in a story that needed at least three times the run time to touch on. So everything was condensed and rushed and the story just wasn't told in a satisfying manner. Now for my issues with the story itself... 1) There was a lot of focus on a Steggy romance and one thing that I really appreciated about CATFA is that the romance was there, but it was on the back burner. Steve was finally in a position where he could fight and was becoming a great leader. While it's nice to see that Peggy still was attracted to Skinny Steve when she was all bulked up, so much of the run time was Steve and Peggy and we really didn't get a whole lot of focus on the other relationships. Howard was there, but we didn't have a whole lot of focus on how he supported her, especially against the sexism she had to deal with (more on that in a bit). And Steve's lifelong friendship with Bucky took such a backseat that it wasn't even in the same vehicle. Given that their friendship was such a driving force for Steve long after he became CA, it was frustrating to see it barely acknowledged once the Azammo rescue happened. I'm not asking for hardcore Stucky, but some proper acknowledgement that Steve's bond with Bucky was at least as important to him as his bond with Peggy (and in some ways more important) was not out of line to expect. 2) The sexism was touched up but really not dealt with in a meaningful way. It would have been interesting to see Peggy resisting being made into a cheesecake pinup figure for the war propaganda machine and squeezed into a Wonder Woman onesie (I did appreciate that her costume was decidedly non-sexualzed), but there were a couple of problems that I found with the conceit that Peggy would have been judged as unworthy of being a soldier. They were in the thick of WW2 and women had been taking part in the war effort on the continent since the start. Women worked in intelligence, with partisan units and there was a squad of Russian female pilots so feared that they were called the Night Witches. One of the most successful snipers was Lyudmilia Pavlichenko and was credited with 309 confirmed kills (when she met Elenore Roosevelt and was asked how many men she'd killed, she remarked that she'd killed no men - only fascists'). While in the British and American regular forced women were regulated to support roles, a woman in combat was not unheard of. With more time, this fact could and should have been brought up as a reason to get Peggy out on the front lines. 3) The show just hewed too closely to CATFA and I don't think it can stand on its own. Up until the final confrontation with Red Skull and the monster squid creature (seriously?), the episode really followed nearly to the letter the events of CATFA and you can't help from drawing a comparison. Even having Bucky start to fall from the train. There were just too many moments calling back to the film which had the luxury of time to tell its story in a more cohesive manner. It really needed more originality. I think that the biggest problem is that this was too big a story to squeeze into a 30 minute self-contained episode. It would have made a good mini-series, but this format just didn't work. I hope that with the future episodes they don't try to bite off so much and we can get stories that are able to be their own self-contained little selves and not feel like all the interesting stuff was left on the cutting room floor.

This was the part that had me rolling my eyes. That Peggy couldn't be just as strong and capable as Steve turned out - she had to be better! With cooler weapons. The things that made Steven most interesting were absent and I just came away feeling like I was watching a Peggy Sue storyline. I know, that's a dangerous accusation to make with a female character (and I'm a woman so I'm particularly sensitive to the positive portrayal of exceptionally strong women in media) but I think that it was a mistake to just make her into a better, more capable version of Captain America who can overcome even steeper odds than Steve did. For me, interesting characters are flawed and the biggest issue that I had with this version of Peggy is that she was just too perfect. Too skilled, too capable, a perfect leader who didn't have to take guff from lesser men (and they were all lesser to her now). She took to being Captain Britain like she was born to it. Steve, for all his physical capabilities, was still allowed to be human and make mistakes. He had the heart of a hero but had to learn the skills and it cost him the life of his best friend. I think that the show had a real opportunity to show Peggy as her own type of hero and missed the mark.

Ditto. Given that this series basically gives them a license to go totally batshit with the canon, and they basically followed the CATFA storyline with Peggy standing in for Steve. It wasn't particularly engaging and I'm still at a loss at why I'm supposed to love Peggy so much. Rah rah feminism, I guess? What I loved about Steve was his flawed humanity - that he could be rigid and selfish while also being the most self-sacrificing person in the universe. It feels like they were afraid to give Peggy any flaws because she's a woman but some of my favorite female characters in the MCU are the most flawed, damaged ones (Natasha and Nebula at the top of the list). It also didn't help that the story gets told with a finger on the fast foward button, not giving us time to see how these relationships develop. It was pretty underwhelming And way to sideline Bucky... He had one of the most fascinating and tragic storylines in the MCU and not only did they take away the bit about him being experimented on at Azammo and becoming the Winter Soldier, but basically relegate him to sidekick status without anything to do except crack wise. Instead of taking all the elements of the CA storyline that made it so compelling and putting a different spin on them, they played it way too safe. I've read fanfiction that was a lot more daring than this. Hopefully the next episode will be more interesting.

The John and Mary story, IMO, has been done very completely on the show and I can't see much value about turning it into a soap opera story with the monsters and demons in the background. The best stories about John and Mary I've found still tie primarily into their roles as parents to Sam and Dean so trying to tell something original about them without that angle just don't feel all that interesting. We might get some filling in of the blanks, but as a writer, it feels like we'd be retracing old ground that we already know. They can try to turn things around, but that could conflict with the canon of the original series (not that the canon didn't contradict itself on a very frequent basis). I really wish that the first SPN spinoff would have gone into a totally new direction and broke away from the original characters. Hunters in the medieval era would have been a lot of fun. Or how about telling the story of Samuel Colt and the hunters that he designed weapons for? That would have been interesting and could have feed nicely into SPN canon lore.

To me, the tweets are the least of things. If that is what Jensen's defenders are hanging their hats on, it's not a very strong argument in Jensen's favor. Jensen is not automatically the "good guy" just because he's not using social media as much as Jared does. Except for the tweet to Rob (which was totally out of line and Jared rightfully deleted it), what did Jared tweet in this case that was so terrible? That he didn't know that they were announcing the series and that he was hurt about that? That he was sad that his character would not be included? And Jensen doesn't need to weaponize his fans, because they are happy to mobilize with or without him and I've seen plenty of posts mocking Jared, calling him a "whiny bitch" and that he doesn't have any right to SPN since everyone knows that Jensen was the only thing important from the show. I don't agree with the basic premise that just because Jared posts his displeasures makes him the "bad guy" in this particular moment and that Jensen doesn't makes him the "good guy". I'm not going to go into a long debate about Jared's social media history, which is I agree is messy and he often doesn't exercise the descension that I would hope for. That doesn't necessarily change the foundation of this discussion. Some people will see this as a problematic pattern and others will see honesty. Both can be wrong and right. As for speaking to Jensen before he tweeted, I and many others have agreed that he should have. But if Jensen deserved that kind of consideration, then shouldn't Jared have deserved Jensen reaching out before the announcement? I don't think anyone handled this well. Again, I don't think that Jensen deliberately meant to insult or hurt Jared and I don't think that Jared wants to sink Jensen's project. Things should have been handled better across the board.

We don't know 99.9% of what was going on. For all we know, Jared and Jensen had a clear agreement between them that if they were to work on an SPN project, it would be as a team and Jensen went back on his word. But we don't know. All we know is Jared's tweet that he was supportive but hurt and feels a certain amount of betrayal that he 1) is not involved in the new project (at least at this point) and 2) was not aware that the project was moving forward (to the point where an official announcement was made). We can paint Jared as problematic because he brought this into social media, but just because Jensen kept things to himself negate the possibility that he may be problematic too. Again, as fans we don't know what was happening behind the scenes. The fact that Kripke said that he thought that Jared was aware and wasn't participating because he was busy with his own series seems IMO to think that there were at least some things left unsaid. It is possible that Jensen went back on an agreement between them? Sure. It is possible that Jared thought that he and Jensen had an agreement that really wasn't there? Equally possible. We're all jumping to conclusions about who is to blame and making judgements on how things were handled when we only know what was going on through what was said at convention panels and a few tweets. The point is that we just don't know and I think that it's unfair to judge either Jared or Jensen over this little mess. Yes, Jared could (and should) have handled things better. And Jensen could (and should) have given Jared a clear heads up about the project before the announcement was made. I'm willing to give both of them the benefit of the doubt. Again, as I and others said previously, just because you don't have to do something doesn't mean that it's not a good idea to do something. If only to avoid this kind of bad spillover. I will say this, though. If the shoe was on the other foot and Jared was launching an SPN series without Jensen, even if Jensen wouldn't say something on social media, his fans would be out with pitchforks and torches for Jared over his audacity for thinking that he owns SPN's legacy and shutting out Jensen. This fandom is one of the most toxic I've been involved in and as someone who likes both Jared and Jensen as actors, liked both Sam and Dean as characters (even if Jared/Sam were my favorites), it's hard to stay involved because the extreme fans of both actors can be so hard to stomach at times.

One thing is clear - none us know the whole story about what was going on, who really knew what, who told who what, etc. We're all responding on our personal bias. I will say that most Jared fans are giving Jensen the benefit of the doubt and not holding it against him while there have been a lot of insults leveled at Jared by Jensen's fans. Kind of sad. I don't see anyone agreeing that Jared responded well and that tweet to Rob was way out of line (which is why he deleted it, but unfortunately anything on the internet is forever), but he also has a right to his feelings whether we feel his sense of injury was justified or not. It's not our place to argue that he doesn't have as much right to feel a sense of propriety over SPN and its legacy as as Jensen does. And saying that it would have been smart for Chaos Machine's PR team to anticipate that Jared, who is known to respond more emotionally and has a little bit of a hair trigger should at least be given the curtesy of being notified that this was coming down the pike if only to avoid a negative blowup doesn't mean that they feel that Jared should be placated. It's just smart business. Whenever there's a reboot, the original cast often weight in on things and they don't always show unwavering support for the new project. When Kripke himself is backtracking, trying to explain that he thought that Jared was aware and wasn't participating because he was busy on Walker, it's clear that was a oversight on their part. It's not the end of the world, but it could have been anticipated. Again, not excusing Jared's behavior and Jensen certain should be looking out for his own career now. But this could have easily been avoided by being a little proactive and giving Jared (and Misha) the news before it it hit the media. Simply out of cutesy of one actor to the men that he'd worked with so long if nothing else.

Not exactly a surprise, which is why this episode was so disappointing. Those that already don't like Jared or have a bias against him are going to see him in the worst possible light, and vice versa. And I'll go out on limb here and say that I don't believe for a single second that Jensen meant to slight Jared or make his contribution to SPN seem unimportant. Nor did Kripke. There were a lot of assumptions on all sides and it just kind of blew up. A lot of this can and should be blamed on the simple fact that Chaos Machine is a new production company and doesn't have the experience to make sure that everything is lined up before announcements are made. There was zero reason that anyone should have expected that Jared wouldn't have a reaction in some way, positive or negative, about the announcement. He's the co-lead of SPN and at some point someone would ask him what he thought about the new series and why is he not involved in some way. An experienced PR team would know this and do what was necessary to head it off before the announcement was made. The biggest issue for many is that Jared expressed that he found out about this on Twitter. I don't doubt that he was aware that Jensen had something SPN related in the works (as expressed by the panels posted earlier) but know that something was being worked on and having an announcement without you being aware were two different things and I don't think that Jared was disingenuous about that. An experienced PR team would have expected that Jared's response would be sought out by the press and at the very least gotten in touch with his people beforehand so that there could be no claims that he was being blindsided or shut out. That way, if Jared expressed any negativity about not being included, it becomes a him problem. By assuming that he was aware of the project and wasn't going to be involved because he was busy with his own show, it became a Chaos Machine problem. Again, it wasn't like they had to tell Jared six months before they were ready to make an announcement if they were worried about word getting out. But making sure that he was aware right beforehand was definitely feasible and in the end it doesn't really made if any of us here thinks that Jared was owed any kind of notification. He felt that he did and whether or not any of us believe that's true, by not addressing that Jared felt that he should have at least gotten a heads up, we got this tempest in a teacup that did nothing but stir up fandom resentments. And if anything, it created more interest in the show because any publicity is good publicity.

There's a big difference between Walker and The Winchesters and that is Jared. We can't ignore the fact that the major reason that SPN was so successful for so long was due Jensen and Jared, the characters they played and the chemistry between the two of them. Without them being on the screen, there's no telling if the audience will stick around for more than a few episodes. And this is to credit both Jared and Jensen, that they took a show that normally would only last a few seasons to being one of the longest running programs in television. They elevated the show past crappy storylines and problematic seasons and were the heart and soul of the show.

Exactly. I don't agree who how Jared chose to express his upset and being left in the dark about a new SPN project because it wasn't done well. Again, social media can be a real pitfall because you can lash out and then have to walk it back once you cool down. But I don't blame him for being upset that he wasn't advised that this project was in the works and that there would be no focus on Sam or Dean (outside of Dean appearing as a narrator via Jensen). If he and Jensen had spoken about being willing to do an SPN spin off at a later date, it's understandable that he would have at least been advised that there was something in the works. Kripke also blew it. I get that he's personally closer to Jensen and that they worked together on The Boys, but Jared was still one of the co-leads on SPN and his assumption that Jared couldn't be involved because of Walker when Jared didn't know that the spinoff was seriously in the works was a huge oversight on his part. Yes, Robbie and Jensen deserved an apology for Jared taking this to social media, but Jared did deserve an apology for this kind of oversight. I thought from his posts (outside the one to Robbie which was, I agree, really out line) that 1) he was happy for Jensen doing this, 2) that he's sad that Sam won't be a part of the show and 3) that he was shocked because while he might have known that this was in the works in an abstract manner, he had no clue that they were ready to make a big announcement. This is the last thing I'm going to say on the matter. Maybe Jared wasn't owed (as in legally) notification prior to the announcement since he's not involved in The Winchesters. Would it have been the right thing for Jensen, Robbie and Kripie to tell him before the announcement? Definitely. At the very least, they would have had a clean announcement drop and if Jared was asked what he thought (since the media would have asked the other lead of the original series what he thought), Jared could have given his full public support. Instead we got this 24 hour mess that once again pits Jensen's fans against Jared's for no good reason. There are times when you take the extra step, even when you don't think you should have too just out of respect for the work that others have done.

That's the biggest issue that I have with this premise. We've seen this story before on the show. It's Meet Cute w/Monsters. Mary hides her hunter credentials and John is clueless until after Mary dies. There aren't that many holes in their storyline and it's going to be a challenge to create something that really changes this dynamic without retconning the whole premise that started off the series and come across like AU fanfiction. Maybe Robbie can pull it off, but of all idea around expanding the SPN universe, this excites me the least. And I'm glad that Jared and Jensen apparently talked and cleared the air. This is the big problem with SM - you post something when you're upset, the whole world blows up and it all has to get resolved with a person to person talk. It's one of the primary reasons that I deleted my Facebook account.

Totally agree with his. I agree that SM was the wrong place for Jared to vent. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that I do understand why he's upset and that he's got some justification. The best thing for him to do would be to delete his tweets and talk to Jensen directly. And again, is Dean John and Mary's only child? Are only his observations about them and their relationship valid? In narrating (and yes, I know what that means), Dean will be setting the tone for the storylines. His dialogue will help shape the audience's viewpoint of what happens, so it's not going to be entirely passive. The show has always portrayed Dean's relationship with John and Mary closer than than Sam's and he got to have a lot of interactions with them that Sam was excluded from (like this little time travel trip). Personally, I would have liked Sam's viewpoint on them since his relationship with John was so contentious and he had zero childhood memories of Mary, but that's not going to happen so... Did anyone really want a John and Mary show? Is this the best SPN story we can come up with?

Yeah... about that....

We're going to have Dean as a character since he's narrating, so we'll have Dean's POV. Sam, if he's included at all will probably be a brief mention once every ten or so episodes.

Are not John and Mary Sam's parents too? Did Sam not have complicated, difficult relationships with both of them but still loved them? Is Sam suddenly not a Winchester now?

Well, to be fair Jared was given plenty of ammunition on this. Did anyone really think that the media wouldn't pick up on the fact that one of the leads of SPN was totally shut out of this project? Not just that he's not involved in in as an actor, but that he only learned about what the series entailed after the official announcement was made? And seriously... if Jensen was contractually obligated to tell absolutely no one about the project, then it was the network that blew it. Jared was the co-lead on SPN and the current lead on their highest-profile new series. He could and should have been clued in before the news dropped because now, instead of there being excitement over a new SPN series, all the attention is focused on the DRAMA.

Why shouldn't Jared be upset that the character that he spent over 15 years playing and was the co-lead to Dean isn't at all in the series, even as a narrator? I don't get the impression that Jared is upset that he's not acting on the series, but that Sam's character is being shut out. Dean gets to appear as the loving narrator while Sam... Sam who? And if Jared was notified before the announcement what was going on and lashed out on SM, I'd be calling him a chowderhead and not to worry about that because he's the lead in his own series. This isn't just a former co-star doing a project adjacent to the one he did with Jared and not including him. It's also someone who has publicly called Jared his friend and "brother". I think that is where this feeling of upset on Jared's part is coming from. Again, I'm not saying that he handled it very well, but I understand where his feelings on the matter are coming from.

I'll agree with you that going on SM was not a wonderful way to handle things. But this was an unforced error on Jensen's part. He knows Jared and he should have recognized that giving his former castmate and supposed close friend that this was in the works, this is what Jensen had in mind and that the only part for Dean in this is narrating John and Mary's life. A quick heads up right before the announcement dropped would have prevented all the drama. Instead of being focused on an new SPN project, the media is focusing on the fact that one of the leads from the original was totally out of the loop and is hurt by it. That's not good PR for a new show or a new production company. I'm sure that Jared's detractors will have a field day with this but that's to be expected. Do I hold it against Jensen for doing this project? Not at all, even if I don't have any real interest in it. Could this have been handled better? Absolutely. It's not like the two of them haven't shown a lot of support for one another on SM following the finale. Jensen was very supportive of Jared and Walker, and Jared has been very supportive of Jensen being on The Boys and posting a lot of requests for Jensen to direct on Walker. Even if their friendship was just PR, this was a stupid oversight to make.

I'm just curious that if Jared decided to do an SPN prequel that Jensen had no role in would Jensen's fans be so supportive of it. Or would Jared end up being ripped apart for his audacity? Jensen has been around the fandom enough to know that it's a touchy beast and slighting one of the former leads (even unintentionally) was going to stir up a strong reaction. All of this could have been avoided with a simple phone call between colleges that worked together for a long time. And in all seriousness... I saw a lot of Jensen stand on various platforms who were so upset about how SPN's finale went that they wanted to see Walker fail. It's a two way street.

Considering how much he and Jensen had spoken about revisiting SPN in the future and both being open to a spinoff idea, that's not totally out of line for Jared to believe. Like I said, I don't have any interest in the John and Mary story because there's no real surprise in it. We've seen it dealt with on the show and we know how it all ends. If this is what Jensen wants to do, that's great for him. He still had a relationship with Jared, both professional and personal and letting Jared find out through the media that there is a new SPN project, Jensen is producing it and that he won't have any role to play... I can get why he's upset. I don't agree how he handled it but his feelings are understandable. And man... I did not miss the Jensen/DeanGirls vs the Jared/SamGirls bullshit. Not thrilled to see this all bubbling up again.

*sigh* Just when I thought that we were done with the SPN drama... Gonna start off with that posting your upset on SM wasn't the ideal way to handle this matter, but I can understand Jared feeling's about this. Like Jensen, he invested a decade and a half of his life to a show and understandably has strong feelings about it and its legacy. If Jensen and Danielle want to do a prequel and have Kripke's blessing, that's fine. While I've got nearly zero interest in the John and Mary story, Jensen can do what he wants. Personally I would have been more interested in the story of how John managed during those first few years after losing Mary, raising his Weechesters and starting to discover all about the supernatural but that's not what we're getting, at least for now. It's still pretty shitty for Jensen to have not given Jared (and Misha) a heads up right before the news broke. If only as a professional courtesy to actors that he'd worked with for so long, and especially given that they had close personal friendships and showed so much mutual support for one another's new projects. Sure, I can see that as Jensen framed the show that there's no role for Sam and that's fine but it was not a nice thing to do to a man that you called "brother" for many years and who you had expressed an interest in revisiting your characters again in the future to blindside him like this. This was handled badly. Again, Jared's response wasn't as mature as I would have liked but that's the downside of SM - we can post things in the heat of the moment and then look back and think "Yeah... I could have handled this better."

Thank the Gods that Clint is gone. While I'm always up got great dramatics between antagonists, Clint wasn't a compelling character and his justifications for seeking vengeance on Cordell was pretty weak. Sorry bud, but you and your wife were criminals long before "Duke" showed up. Sad that she died, but that wasn't Cordell's doing. And nice how you had to drag your son into this and get him in trouble. Hoping that Trevor doesn't have to seriously pay for his father's actions. He seems like a decent kid when all is said and done. I was sure than Bonham would be the one to bite it after finding out he has cancer, but it had to be one of my pieces of eye candy. Hoyt was a sweetie and if he had to go, it was protecting his best friend and the family that took him in. And poor Liam... he really had a shitty day, but props to him for being the one to shoot Clint. Nice to see Action Jared and some realistic fighting (much preferable to the stylized fights in the original Walker that seemed to be more about letting Norris show off his moves). And taking a leave from his job is probably the best thing since he's still dealing with his wife's death, and now the repercussions of this case and the death of his best friend. I know that it won't be more than one of two episodes.

It's been a long time since I've been able to watch any of Anthony's shows. He'd meant so much to me - my mentor who taught me that there was more to traveling than just seeing sites and checking things off my list. That there is a big difference between a traveler and a tourist and I became a more curious, adventurous traveler because of his influence. Many of my most cherished traveling adventures in Japan, Thailand, Budapest and others were guided by his influence. His death had hit me hard. I would walk by where his old restaurant, Les Halles, used to be and think about him a lot. My traveling the past two years was curtailed by both Covid and the recent death of my mother, who had been one of my biggest travel cheerleaders. I had wanted to take my parents on a trip that they would have loved, in a country that they had never been to before but all travel got shut down. Then Mom was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer and I lost her barely three months later. I've been in a pretty dark place ever since. Last week, I started watching Anthony's shows again and while they were bittersweet, I found myself smiling at his antics and cherishing the wonderful curiosity he had about the world. I remembered how he impacted so many people and the wonderful legacy he left and I was determined to keep exploring. I'm taking my Dad to Europe this fall and we're going to Budapest (which I loved) and Vienna (where I'd never been before). Anthony will continue guiding me and Mom will be with us every moment. And Dad and I will find a few moments of joy and healing.

But it didn't. The kids could have very easily waken him up and if he wasn't up to driving could have called the grandparents to come get them. Or Stella could have driven with Cordell supervising. There was zero justification to deliberately drive into the hitching post and then lie to everyone that Cordell had been behind the wheel. There were plenty of things that the family could have intervened on (though a bare week or two following Emily's death is really not giving Cordell any time to grieve). They could have kept it to worrying about his well being, that he wasn't taking care of himself (and he wouldn't be able to take care of the kids if he wasn't well) and that it would be only a matter of time before he fell apart or made a mistake at work that could get him injured or killed. The fact that Cordell was barely holding himself together should have been the grounds for that family gathering and not Stella's made up accusation that Cordell had put his children in real physical danger. Cordell took the undercover job specifically because he felt that he couldn't be a good father. That they were better off without him around. I get that it wasn't what Stella intended to happen, but that doesn't change the fact that Cordell might not have taken the assignment if she hadn't tried to manipulate him. And I'm not forgetting everything that happened since then. How Liam sought custody of the children while Cordell was away because the assignment ended running longer than expected and that Stella seemed all right with that idea. Or how Stella was getting in trouble and using Cordell has her justification. She drove him away (inadvertently) and then went on to continue punishing him. I get that she's a teenager and was also grieving, but her behavior was abominable. She had plenty of time to let the family know that Cordell hadn't been the one driving and that she crashed into the post deliberately in order to try to scare him straight. She didn't and it's not too much of a stretch to say that a lot of the bad things that happened since can be linked to her behavior.