numbnut

Fantastic ep. The Fargo film callbacks really stood out. I'll miss Donovan's funny moments but he so deserved to die. I agree that Dodd would have killed Peggy without a second thought.

WTF is happening this season?!? All my shows have threatened to kill off my fave characters. First Glenn on TWD, Kevin on The Leftovers, and now Quinn! My heart can't take it!

Maybe they're all buried in a cave somewhere after an earthquake hit. That is the one thing I liked. Cults imho always go this way becuase people always join for reasons other than pure intentions. Usually anger. And then corrupt from within, discarding the rules to achieve their own adgenda. I could see that. GR wasn't particularly organized anyway. That all makes sense but they didn't show any of it, so it came out of the blue. There's at least one episode missing to show Meg's arc. We only saw Laurie hitting GRs with her car, but she doesn't aspire to be a GR terrorist.

IKR? There are a bunch of GRs that want to up the ante and need a leader? Since when? The writing is getting too fast and loose. I would enjoy seeing Meg's journey from a dissatisfied GR to a cult leader.

Yup, that was BB. I was hoping Meg's character would be more developed and not just crazy. Oh well. Tyler is good at being evil though. But didn't Tommy think that the original hug guy was a scammer? Why would he believe Meg?

Same here. I can't get invested in characters I don't understand. The Evie reveal was cool, and I'm glad that they backtracked to cover what happened with the hug scam, but the latter was rushed to completion. I don't know enough about Tommy to get why he would follow Meg around like a puppy after she doused in him gasoline and threatened to burn him alive. And what secret could a mother possibly share to turn their daughter into a sociopath? At this point if Meg revealed that she could fly, I'd be like "OK, whatever." I need a stronger foundation for both characters.

Aaaand.... I'm out. I stumbled across this show and tried to hang on (with Tucci's help), but it's just too slow, vague and confusing.

ITA. If Lindelof wants to write a Bourne-type assassin movie or another Alias show or Lost reboot, he should write a Bourne-type assassin movie or launch another Alias show or Lost reboot. I'd love to see Theroux in a spy movie. I just don't want that spy movie randomly shoehorned into an established show. While everything in the episode can be explained, it was too Lost-y and off-book for me.

I can buy that analogy if it's consistently used. It's odd that a shotgun caused a concussion when the explosion caused nothing (e.g. broken bones).

The word "rape" doesn't need to be used. The exposition is "he made me do things" and similar phrases. I was more invested in Hope because the cinematic approach to Hope's experience was more effectively conveyed than Jessica's IMO -- we see Hope's desperation while in captivity (although not with her captor) and her anguish after killing her parents. And they didn't show the murders, just the aftermath. We don't see the rapes in True Detective S1 but the crime is powerfully conveyed in a cinematic way when we see Hart reacting to the videotape of a rape and murder. I like subtlety and agree that expo can be effective when strongly written and the actor has a skill for being nuanced (the Indianapolis monologue in Jaws is a classic example). The handling of the expo in JJ simply didn't make the cut for me, especially since the sex slave aspect is a key factor in the narrative.

Great point. I could see that scenario as well. Maybe it's intentionally ambiguous. I thought she used the weight of the books to feel like she wasn't sleeping alone (because she missed sleeping in the same bed as her brother).

It doesn't need to be explicit or gratuitous; showing the aftermath of the crime or just the frustrating need to escape captivity is enough to pack an emotional punch. I know well-written films with rape storylines focus on the victim, and I avoid watching crap. I believe what happened to Jessica storywise (I don't think viewers are meant to question if she's lying about being raped) but I'm not invested in the character. I generally prefer a cinematic approach in lieu of relying on exposition, which can often come off as "written."

I also found Kilgrave's end a bit anticlimactic but only because I didn't get why Jessica couldn't kill him sooner (there would be more collateral damage the longer he lived). Glad he's dead though; another season of the same villain would be tiresome. After Rosario fixed Jessica's sliced leg, Jessica wore a fresh pair of jeans to lie beside Luke in bed.

This show continues to confound me. If Luke is unbreakable and can survive an explosion, why would he be stopped by a shotgun blast to the face?

Trish is badass. Love her. She needs a new boyfriend though. I wonder why Simpson left his secret military unit to be a cop, and why those guys didn't come after him sooner. Luke's bar looks like the husband's bar from Nurse Jackie (until it blew up). I also just realized that Hope was Woody's Harrelson's daughter in True Detective. Sad she's gone.

He's charismatic but in casting circles he would be labeled as "limited." We'll just have to agree to disagree on his level of talent and that me not watching his show would be a personal loss.

Ah, that's makes sense. Thanks for breaking it down.

That was eventful, like two episodes squeezed into one. I'm confused. If Jessica is immune, why was she Kilgrave's captive for so long? I also don't get why some victims can be rationally conversational (like Jeri and Wendy) when controlled by Kilgrave while other victims are like lobotomized robots. Simpson's drug-enhanced obsession is intense. So glad Trish decided to act fast instead of freaking out.

I'm underwhelmed by the villain because I'm not that emotionally invested in the lead. I'm attached to Hope after seeing her kill her parents, but we didn't see Jessica and Hope's tortured captivity, only their escape. Weren't they sex slaves for months as well as minions?

Finally back on track. I wasn't into the "let's play house" scenario. It sort of highlighted that Kilgrave doesn't really have a compelling evil plan; he just likes to be pleased. It's funny when he marvels at how boring it is to wait for people to do what you want them to do, but it's odd that he's not bored of his power (like how Dorian Gray in Penny Dreadful thrives on pushing the envelope because he's seen everything).

I understood that, but she tried to reach him after she initially failed to get the drugs. I wondered about that too when that new family started attacking Jessica. I guess Kilgrave didn't like the food at the previous home and moved on. They probably don't remember him if they're still alive.

Wait, what happened to the cop? He lies to Trish about seeing Kilgrave, waits for Kilgrave to leave the house, and then what? Is he hiding in the house? I'm not 100% on the Supermax plan either. Can't Kilgrave control a guard by intercepting one outside the prison? Is the writing getting sloppy or am I binge-drunk?

So why did Luke need to lie when hiring Jessica? Did I miss something? Jessica's confession would have been really powerful if Colter was a better actor. I'm starting to wonder how he got hired. If there's a spinoff for him in the works I won't be watching.

IKR? I'm starting to wonder if the scenario of Jessica hunting down Kilgrave is only good for a limited series. It could get old without another villain in season 2. I wonder if that's where Trinity comes in (what's the lawyer's name again?) since she envies K's powers.

I like the paranoia where anyone can be the enemy (it's a bit like that movie Fallen) but I could have done without that "I must avenge my mother" storyline, especially since none of the characters involved in the "incident" can appear on the show. I love that the cop wasn't a throwaway character. He can be a good asset but I fear that he won't be around for long.