KLeewrite

Someone needs to help me out here. Legasov got up to deliver his testimony...and my system decided to test its emergency alert system right then. We got the test for a couple of minutes and when the show came back, we were in the control room and Asimov was whispering to the young guy that he was doing fine. Can you fill me in on those couple of minutes that I missed? Many thanks!

I liked this episode, although I admit there were problems, specifically that Daenerys’s transformation into the “mad queen” felt rushed — I get why it happened and I know that there have been references to the show going in this direction for a while, but I think there needed to be more buildup. But I think, also, that I know what the main theme is now. It’s not so much that war is hell or power corrupts — although that’s a lot of it. It’s that vengeance corrupts. It’s self-destructive and self-defeating, something that the Hound made explicit last night. Cersei basically has run on vengeance, against Robert Baratheon for shaming and humiliating her, against Tyrion (who she thought killed Joffrey), against the Martells for killing her daughter, against the Sparrow and his followers. Daenerys’s quest also has been based in no small part upon vengeance against those who took the Iron Throne from her family — her final destruction here is also in large part about vengeance against those who killed her dragon, killed her advisor and friend, and won’t welcome her with open arms. For a few years now, I’ve seen a lot of comments about Arya turning into a soulless killing machine based on her quest for vengeance. And obviously, the Hound has turned himself inside out from vengeance.

I like Irene Jacob, I like her character, and I like her story -- in a different show. Unfortunately, I didn't tune into this show to find out her point of view. Frankly, I'd rather this episode have been all Noah. Everyone else seems to be more or less resolved and getting their lives back together, and we might have been able to spend the first half hour finding out how Noah actually came back from the brink. Because when we left him, he looked like he was ready for six months at the place where Alison stayed; I can't believe three months with Juliette turned him around that much. And it would have been nice to see some sort of process anyway, even if it's an appointment with a therapist. It actually feels like there's an episode missing. Frankly, I think this is a good place to end the series. The affair has run its course. All mysteries have been solved. And finally, it looks like everybody has moved on from the pain they've all caused each other and are where they should be in their lives. If the creators are smart -- never a given -- they'll end it here.

It actually hadn't occurred to me that Bran might have caused Hodor's mental breakdown. The impression I came away with was that all this is predestined. Maybe the phrase "Hold the door" flashed into Willis's (that was his name, right?) and overwhelmed him. He could be seeing the future, in a way. So it seemed to me that holding the door really was what Hodor was meant to do -- it was his mission in life. Like that Red Priestess said, everything happens for a reason.

I think once Hector and the Cousins got involved -- and especially once they started threatening Kaylee -- Nacho knew they needed to cut their losses. He may have no compunction about killing his cousin, but he seems to draw the line at killing small children.

Intellectually, yes, I know it's very bad in a committed relationship to drop out of school without telling your fiancé or to go behind his back to buy a business with your ex-husband. But to me, Noah has proven himself to be such a flaming asshole that I fully support Alison in anything that will piss him off.

Can somebody tell me why everybody is so quick to believe what Allison says? I would think, after everything that has happened, there would at least be some question as to whether anything that comes out of her mouth is true.

I agree that Allison's remarks to Robert were inappropriate, but notice not what she was saying, but the way she was saying it -- in a rush, as if she'd been holding it in for a long time. Because I think she had been. This is not something she can talk about with other people because she will almost invariably meet with disapproval. But the way I see it, she finds out that Robert and Yvonne's marriage resulted from an extramarital affair and she feels she has finally found somebody who understands. In her mind, she doesn't have to make up stories and put on an act anymore because Robert has been there and he gets it, and so she can finally be open and honest with someone in a way that she can't with anyone else, not even with Noah. Allison looks on Robert as someone who won't judge her, and so it never occurs to her that, in this context, what she's saying is inappropriate. In fact, I think the fact that Robert evicted her hurts her more than almost anything else, because she thought she found something like a kindred spirit, only to have him abandon her as well.

I was thinking about how that fight was following that last Inigo Montoya duel so closely. But wow, the end really didn't follow. Please tell me this doesn't mean we'll lose Tyrion, too