Eyes High

I am loving Eve Best as Rhaenys. It’s also good that Corlys has more to do this episode. Someone on Twitter or Reddit describes Daemon’s actions this episode as a bratty little brother temper tantrum, and I tend to agree. Laena was adorable, but that whole scene was stomach-churning. I appreciate the attempts to be faithful to GRRM’s dialogue, but in between all the mislikes and mine owns, we’re approaching drinking game territory. At least I have yet to hear “nuncle.”

Not only that, but the show hit the specific items mentioned by the BanShe executives: desserts, Central Park (I assume, being set in New York), and even Dev Patel (as the article about Sally’s meltdown stated that Dev Patel was costarring in Just Desserts). Sarah Goldberg was so great in this episode.

Why would you study Russian literature at all unless you were either interested in an academic career specializing in Russian literature or unconcerned about your future career prospects? It seems like a great way to specialize yourself out of a job, unless said job is in Russia I guess.

Why is it that fictional TV children are so unspeakably awful to their parents? I'm not that old, but I can't even conceive of ever calling my mother a slut. Yeah, Deja, I was "wise beyond my years" in my teens too, and I still didn't know shit. Take a seat. That Malik is even willing to consider Deja blowing up her own prospects and moving away from her family and support system because it will help him with his parenting situation lowers my opinion of him considerably. No person worth having as a partner would even entertain the suggestion. Nicky and Edie are so cute together. I did like Randall dragging Kevin over his serial monogamy. "Try not to propose to this one." Randall trying to manipulate Malik into breaking up with Deja was dumb--how did he think that was going to go, seriously?--but nothing he said was inaccurate. It's kind of annoying that the writers are milking so much suspense from the Kevin romance storyline when they've straight-up acknowledged that it consists of a series of interchangeable blondes.

“Don’t call my escorts whores” is definitely something Connor would say. And Tom like Tobias has a habit of saying (unintentionally?) homoerotic things, like yelling “I will not let go of what is mine!” when Greg tries to “break up” with him in 2x04 or asking Greg whether he does house chores in the nude. It’s interesting that Roman’s physical abuse can be brought up without rancour—someone mentions Logan hitting a Roman when he ordered lobster at a restaurant in S2—but bringing up his sexual issues (possibly stemming from sexual abuse) is crossing a line. It’s strange that Shiv lashed out with such a cruel comment unprompted, since Shiv and Roman seem fairly close as Roy siblings go (even with their slap fight in S1) and a lot of their insults read as standard sibling ribbing (Shiv referring to Roman’s wider cultural interests as hatred and Instagram). I guess it’s going to get uglier as the stakes get higher. I tend to think that there must be something truly bad at the root of Roman’s issues that they all know about, because why else would they have what appears to be a tacit agreement not to bring it up no matter how many sexually inappropriate comments Roman makes or no matter how much he insults them? Everything else is fair game for commentary—Logan’s mistresses, Kendall’s substance abuse issues, Willa being a paid companion, Connor being unloved, even Roman being physically abused, among other things—but Roman’s celibacy and humiliation kink are off limits? Yeah, going back to the first few episodes, Roman doesn’t seem all that different, but Shiv is virtually unrecognizable. It’s hard to imagine the glamorous, poised S3 Shiv with dowdy clothes, unstyled hair and no makeup getting into a physical fight with Roman.

Of course, Roman brushed off Logan knocking out his tooth, too. I don't think his dismissive response is any kind of accurate gauge for whether or not it was incredibly hurtful or upset him. I don't think Shiv particularly "agonized" over whether she was in the wrong or not. She initially tried to scoff when Connor flat-out told her it was low and only doubted herself after he scolded her. Even then, she giggled when Kendall reassured her that Roman loved being insulted and probably got off on it. Not exactly genuine remorse there. (Compare it to Shiv's bereft "Well I'm sorry" after Tom muses about whether he'd be happier without her in 2x10.) I don't know. Roman has said a lot of horrible things to his siblings over the course of the series, but someone's sexuality is something so personal that mocking someone's sexual hangups that obviously stem from some sort of past psychological trauma is crossing a line. And the fact that the siblings have known the whole time about Roman's inability to have penetrative sex and humiliation kink--neither Connor nor Kendall act surprised when Shiv brings it up, Kendall casually suggests that Roman "loves" being insulted and is probably masturbating because he was insulted--but have never once mentioned it, even though Roman is constantly making hypersexual comments and insulting them suggests that they know damn well that there is a line. And when was the last time one of the siblings chewed out another for being too cruel? They're constantly being awful to each other, but Shiv's comment was the one that got Connor to call her out. There is a line, Shiv crossed it, and they all knew it.

Ray is one of the more loathsome Waystar Royco execs, played by Patch Darragh. I'm not sure what his role is at the company, but he's so awful that he heartily enjoyed Boar on the Floor and Laird picked him for "Kill" in the executive floor game of Marry, Fuck, Kill that Roman proposed, to which Roman instantly said "Of course." It was weird seeing Connor in big brother mode, even chiding Shiv for being mean. I wouldn't want to be in the Roy siblings' shoes either when asked to choose between Kendall and Logan. Logan's obviously in deep trouble, but Kendall seems extremely unstable and obviously hasn't thought this through.

What really gets me is that this tragedy was entirely preventable. There were lots of options for Tony and Erica given the LFS issue. Donor sperm. IVF and screened embryos. Adoption. And yet they decided to bring children into the world knowing that there was a 50/50 chance they would be virtually guaranteed to die young from cancer. Tony made it to 31, but one of Tony's relatives had their two LFS-positive children die from cancer before the age of 25. I wouldn't wish cancer on my worst enemy, let alone a child. It just blows my mind. I have no idea who thought that this family would be a good idea for a reality TV show, given the LFS elephant in the room. It's just so infuriatingly tragic.

Yes. Influencers often keep having kids to have a fresh supply of cute baby goodness for the gram, but that isn't an option for the Busbys due to the hysterectomy, and the quints are aging out of the kindergarten phase, so adoption it is. Quick question: has Hazel ever had an MRI or a CT scan? Because I thought nystagmus was often a symptom of an underlying brain condition. She's been treated by several opthalmologists, so I assumed any brain issue would have been ruled out long ago, but has it ever been discussed on the show?

There's a long-form article from 2014 about Tony's family that gives more context about their sad history with LFS. Apparently Tony's uncles and aunts begged him and Erica to go the IVF route to screen embryos for the gene and make sure any kids wouldn't have LFS, but Tony and Erica weren't having any of that: The article also discusses another Thompson family relative, Ricky, who died at 50 and whose two biological children died of cancer at the respective ages of 23 and 9. Bryce and his wife Jenni had one child (Kade) before they knew Bryce had the gene, who turned out not to have the gene, and then did IVF for their next children so that they could screen the embryos for LFS. To be entirely fair to Tony, other grandchildren in the Thompson family also decided to forgo IVF and produced children with the LFS gene, but seriously, what the fuck?

But the door with Janet is just a lovely, beautified, sanitized gloss on a very ugly, nasty and nihilistic idea. If the method for ending their existence wasn’t walking through a door but Janet lovingly handing them a special metaphysical gun, a special metaphysical noose or special metaphysical sleeping pills, I doubt people would be moaning and weeping over the magnificent beauty of the affair, but the end result would be the same and at least guns or sleeping pills would be more intellectually honest. Most people who have lost someone they cared about to suicide cried buckets, but they weren’t crying about how lovely and gorgeous it was, I can tell you that.

They’re not choosing in your example, though. They’re dying for certain of illness or a fatal injury, and they have a choice whether or not to struggle to resist it. The difference is between someone who’s drowning in a well with no way out and stops struggling to put an end to their agony, and someone who decides to end it all and jump into a well to drown. No one was forcing Jason, Chidi or Eleanor to go through the door. They weren’t terminally ill. If they wanted to hang around for all eternity, no one would have stopped them. So yes, the comparison to suicide absolutely holds, and I found it not only nihilistic but shockingly irresponsible. If the show were stripped of the metaphysical trappings and concluded with several of the main characters deciding to blow their brains out because life was too boring and they’d had enough, there would be an enormous outcry, but instead everyone seems to be sobbing about how beautiful, lovely and moving suicide is. It’s bullshit.

The ending seemed like a strong endorsement of suicide. And as for the “oh it’s not about suicide, the door is a metaphor for human mortality” argument, the comparison falls apart because most of us don’t die by choice or wish to die by choice. Most of us will be dragged from existence kicking and screaming. The idea that they’ll embrace suicide as a solution is comforting to you? That is extremely fucked up. And frankly, what worries me about the show’s rosy depiction of suicide is that mentally fragile people will watch the finale and think that suicide is a lovely, beautiful thing. I mean, yes, theoretically, all of us on Earth can go “whenever we’re ready” (a much nicer way of putting it than dying by suicide) but it’s downright nihilistic to suggest that that’s a choice to feel good about and to actively embrace.

Melissa’s “White Male Rage” song was adorable...as were Colin’s “confessions” that he worked out to Joker every day and that he watched The Irishman alone on Christmas Day. Hee. Hearing all the groans in response to “Just hanging” was a great reminder of why live audiences are so much fun. The “Aw, man, I’m all out of cash!” sketch had a very old-school humour feel to it.

This show is surprisingly wholesome and sweet. Aside from the mask conceit, it’s pretty much Celebrity Karaoke, and like the best karaoke nights, it’s an enthusiastic, generous and supportive atmosphere.