CaliCheeseSucks

Heck, in 2000 it was a big deal when Friendship Heights (a neighborhood in Chevy Chase) outlawed smoking almost everywhere outdoors. It was so controversial - and not necessarily going to withstand legal challenges - it was repealed in spring of 2001. Now, that's more and more common. Not so at the turn to the 21st century.

Well, he was about to eat some Roy Rogers - that's gonna put him on the toilet.

I mean, I know they've been using that, "They're either all the same people or they're all different people" quote in previews but seeing it in context, I just groaned at the Captain Obviousness of it all. Brandon Dirden deserved more from this character. Looks like Renee will really have been a years-long red herring to draw someone into the FBI Building that *can* recognize the next-door neighbors. After Claudia told Elizabeth, "We can't make you do it," I was waiting for a closet door to pop open with a bound and gagged Paige to fall out. I am impressed they FINALLY got something good going with Elizabeth - i.e., her acting on something other than murdering innocent people in various disguises - but waiting until the second-to-last episode (given that her turn came at the very tail end of the third-to-last) to kick the ramifications of that turn into gear... yikes.

I was a little younger than Paige is and I saw Purple Rain! Not that it was appropriate for a minor but good music :) I don't think they've plotted this season well whatsoever.

I don't want Philip to die but admittedly, his dying to spare/save Stan would be emotionally satisfying (in a gut-punchy kind of way). Given what a dolt Paige is, I'd enjoy her leaping into the Anacostia, having no idea she was at the wrong river.

Well, at least they got to finagle a clip in from the Disney commercial episode. I was looking forward to more of single Bow. Disappointed they killed off Beau Bridges and played the 'dead parent repairs an estranged marriage' card but kudos to the commenter who called it.

He should know by now that guests like Hunter are disingenuous liars who will do whatever they can to change the topic from Trump to whatever their Breitbart-provided talking points direct. There is literally no point to hosting people like Hunter except to give them yet another opportunity to spew b.s. I skipped ahead to the panel and was annoyed that Killer Mike was allowed to hijack the segment like that. Did he have an interesting point of view, sure. But where was Bill (or Reich) pointing out the NRA's silence on the death of African-American gun owners at the hands of police, for instance? There have been some notable examples of the NRA failing to rally behind the rights of a gun owner, when that gun owner is a person of color. I'm hard pressed to believe Bill would let any other NRA shill get away with going on like that without any serious pushback for so long. Revisiting the Bernie well is just tiresome and I'm over the excuses from Killer Mike and others like him for refusing to vote for the only candidate with a chance to stop Trump from becoming president (especially when Bernie himself was emphatic that his supporters give her their votes). I wish at the end of "New Rules," when Bill said, "If you sold your soul to get protection from these two grandmas, the big pussy is you" - he had punctuated his point by turning and specifically staring at Killer Mike.

I can't even make it past the Duncan Hunter interview. Ten seconds of him b.s.-ing with regard to mocking McCain, I want to break something.

That's why I find it amusing when the showrunners are given credit for "trusting" the audience to intuit things without having to show them; the show has literally been bogged down by dragging out the minutiae of showing almost everything. (Think back to Oleg deciphering Philip's note a week ago - we really didn't need to watch the step-by-step of that, but for some reason, that's where the showrunners repeatedly decide to invest time, utilitarian-ness be damned.) Now they have a handful of episodes left and it's like, "Huh, guess we shoulda started laying the breadcrumbs of Stan piecing it together at warp speed." The figurative lightbulb over Stan's head in this episode doesn't feel at all earned, just a function of realizing they literally have run out of time to get him on this path.

I'm laughing at the very thought. "Paige, we have some questions for you..." "Listen Mr. Beeman, I know WAY more about the world than you do! Your speech at Thanksgiving made me sick. You don't care about the USSR. I've watched movies and eaten peasant stew. I know things!"

I'm not sure I understand the relevance. The children's citizenship is based upon fraud and treason. Never mind that one of them has openly embraced working for the cause. They have no claim to stay in the country. If there were more than three episodes left, I'd say there was some potential for Stan to be emotionally gutted at not just losing his best friend but causing a child neighbor who he had come to see as a second son sent thousands of miles away because Stan helped expose the spies next door.

If Philip and Elizabeth are exposed as spies - whether or not they are caught - it stands to reason that Henry and Paige will be deported to Mother Russia. The children of the Heathfield/Foleys were sent back by Canada; the Murphy children of Montclair, New Jersey were "repatriated."

Three more episodes - eight, nine, ten.

Stan: "I'm really good at noticing when things are wrong." One of the biggest laughs I've had in a long time. I might be starting to believe there's more to Elizabeth's stress zit than just stress or a zit. That thing is epic. Harvest sure did think Philip had unlimited abilities to memorize all those deathbed thoughts. The mission was pretty much a bust, but I guess it got them out-of-town and an excuse for getting Stan to snoop around the house. So close to a Paige-free episode. By all means, let's give this kid all the info about a mission that just went really badly and means the FBI is working on an escalated level of urgency to find the illegals involved. "Then it's time for you to apply for an internship at the State Department." But Mom, I wanna kill people like you do!!!!!!!!

For what it's worth, I agree with you. June has behaved recklessly in ways that unnecessarily endangered others assisting her during a dangerous time. Yes, it's not the fault of the victims; at the same time, why do something that shines a big bright light on someone who is on your side? Last week, I was literally screaming, "STOP LOOKING OUT THE DAMN WINDOW" as she watched Omar and his family going to church. It's not rocket science. Everyone is in danger. Don't do things that put others in more/unnecessary danger. Especially when they're risking everything to help you as it is. As for this episode, as others have said: It's time to focus on Lydia or another character/aspect of Gilead.

Still not a fan of This Is Us-ing the show *but* at least we got to see the kids, and Ruby/Pops, doing more than just delivering punchlines based on the shallow-est of characterizations. While I think Bow should have probably told Dre about going back to work, I can totally understand why she would not have: His reaction was completely predictable and in-character.

Hey @duVerre, to get the direct URL to any comment, just go to the timestamp beneath the (your) username and right click to copy the URL. Then you can turn that into a hyperlinked text within a comment (use the "link" button on the top of your comment box while you're writing/editing). Like so!

Fan service, plain and simple. It's why I stopped listening to the Slate podcast with the showrunners a few seasons back - their playing to what jazzed up the fans was just too obvious and overbearing. I'd have to watch the scene again, but if it was close enough to trigger the motion sensors on the doors, that is all it would have taken for the 'doors closing' to turn into 'doors opening.' The technology for those door sensors has been fairly sensitive for a long time (not to say that in real life every building or elevator was up to the same standards). I can't say I wouldn't have minded seeing Mail Robot get the Rosalind Shays treatment in general, though.

Yes, I misspoke. Lots and lots of wasted time with red herrings and plots to nowhere over the last two seasons, no question. It reminds me of the fan letter in the The Simpsons' '138th Episode Spectacular': "I think Homer gets stupider every year." Except here Homer is "everyone other than Philip and Elizabeth Jennings." It was literally an excuse to fan service a mail robot appearance. More wasted time from the writers, who seem to have completely lost sight of how tight these final ten episodes needed to be; they should have exhausted all the time-wasting instincts out of their system in season five. It's like they just can help but stick something in there that serves no purpose. I felt the same with the small talk standing at the FBI's post-Thanksgiving pot luck.

The one I had to deal with, it was not used in any sensitive/Executive areas. All mail was hand-delivered to those offices, and the robot got the drudgery of going floor-to-floor/door-to-door in the other 3/4 of the building. It would BEEP BEEP loudly, to summon people to its presence. From what I saw, it was so slow, people could take their sweet time responding, since it was easy enough to catch up with it elsewhere on its 'route' if it had already moved on from your door.

I did but it still didn't really explain how either them could just work at their leisure. If anything, I was like, "So two of the artist's nurses can take unscheduled time off simultaneously?" I understand the "explanation" might be "Thanksgiving time off" but it's also another piece of lazy writing.

So Elizabeth had a new cover ID tonight, targeting film guy... and she took off on a moment's notice for Chicago to personally extricate a colleague... I guess the artist lady is okay with one of her home nurses working whenever it fits the nurse's schedule?

Oh, those things are annoying af. I totally empathized with Stan that time he kicked the tar out of it.

Everything Aderholt was filling Stan in on as far how and who they were tracking as illegals, I thought, "Wow. This is something I wish we'd been able to follow along as it was happening." As soon as Aderholt explained about cars bought with cash as the key to backtracking illegals in the D.C. area, my mind went straight to Chekov's Camaro. And then I thought, "Well, that was a long way to go for that to be the thing that brings them down." Philip should have reassured Stavos they'd always have their line dancing nights together. I thought Philip was INSANE to tell Elizabeth about his warning to Kimmy. In. Sane. And then even more insane to volunteer to go to Chicago. Unless he plans on turning on her to her face.

The whole episode reminded me of "The Annie Of It All" montages in the Community episode, "Paradigms Of Human Memory" (both the Annie/Jeff and Abed/Pierce ones) - which in themselves were making fun of shows/movies using musical cues, cinematography tricks and flashbacks to construct a narrative memory that the writing didn't support. With "Blue Valentime," I just could not stop rolling my eyes at the showy and obvious staging, dark lighting and almost endless instrumental pop songs in lieu of actual dialogue. ETA: Here's the clip I am referring to.