CeeBeeGee

Right? And this is the mid-'80s, where mall culture had reached TV--which El watches every day. She's probably been dying for this moment.

Perfect song choice! And hilarious scene. I was very taken aback with how much El and Mike were kissing--I was a teen in the '80s and older HS kids kissed like that but middle schoolers/soon-to-be ninth graders did not. A la Firestarter--Charlie telekinetically robbed the payphones. As much as I loved it, I was horrified at the reveal of what was in the trunk. That was too real. This is a horror/sci-fi series--yes, we know Billy isn't going to go full Buffalo Bill on her, that the Mind Flayer or some other horror or about to appear but she doesn't know that. Seeing a bound and gagged woman open her eyes and realize what was happening was horrible, way too real.

David Harbour is an outstanding actor. The way he said that line "Sara's my girl..." with such tenderness, such love, brought me to tears. I'm crying now, remembering. How has he not won an Emmy yet? He's absolutely incredible.

A highlight was Jamie saying the word "lim-mo" over and over again in the first episode. I always thought they were being trolled by the producers with that montage. She looked ridiculous. I think I read somewhere that Aly didn't want to do it anymore because they thought they came off as assholes. Original Heidi was adorable. She never, ever should've gotten all that shit down to her face. She looks gross now, I'm sorry to say. Time and truth tell all... Jason looks surprisingly good! He was disgusting back in the day, I could NOT see his appeal. Heidi confronting Stephanie just made me cringe. She's trying to come off as Mama Bear but it's transparently obvious that she just wants screentime. And I despise it when spouses insert themselves into family drama. You should be trying to help unite a family, not further stoking anger.

Audrina seems so much...happier now. She was a cipher ten years ago but I actually quite like her now. She seems like she's grown up. Spencer is just as creepy and tries-too-hard as ever. Nice to see Whitney, I always liked her. I kind of feel like everyone's "I moved to London, I moved to Costa Rica" is supposed to be some kind of shorthand for how much they've matured. Mischa! Boy, she's been through some shit, hasn't she? I'm hoping Brodie's atrocious treatment of his wife is just a performance for the camera. Because he is not coming off well. I loved the footage of the waves. LB and The Hills always had such lovely beach shots to establish setting. More, please 🙂

Full fathom five thy father lies...nothing of him that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea change, into something rich and strange. I always read that passage in The Tempest (Ariel is describing the drowning of Ferdinand's father) as a metaphor about the artistic process, spinning pain into something to last the ages. Star 80 is a fantastic movie but very, very difficult to watch. Re: the anecdote about his telling Eric Roberts "You're playing me if I hadn't been successful"--I can only hope he said that as a way to motivate a talented actor who couldn't quite look into the abyss. I don't see Bob as that misogynistic. Fucked up and dark, yes. But I can't imagine him ever being capable of doing what that monster did to Dorothy. (She was only 20 when she was murdered. Twenty. She was just a kid, not even old enough to drink. I read Bog's incredibly self-serving book The Killing of the Unicorn where he puts down Hef and every other moth who fluttered around her as a lech and a dirty old man, and I'm thinking "And so are you, and always have been. Cybill Shepherd, Dorothy's younger sister...you are no different from Hef.") So messed up--ACL, while an excellent show, surely does not have a superior score to Chicago. And Bennett was full of tittery drama queen headgames like that. I love ACL but I can't stand Bennett. He always, always tried to make himself the center of attention--perhaps the worst example is how he restaged the ending of I Am Telling You in Dreamgirls to take away the thunderous applause that surely would've greeted Jennifer Holliday's amazing solo by cutting off the last couple of phrases so that the other dreamgirls come bustling in. Just to fuck her over, just to wave a finger in her face and say "I'm the star, not you." I hate how he tried to screw over the very dancers whose own life stories are the backbone of the show! Not at all surprised he put up Donna for Leading Actress even though Cassie is only a featured role. I absolutely loved this show. That last episode--I knew Bob was going to tap dance at Paddy's funeral but I did not expect that. Absolutely heartbreaking. And the scene on the sidewalk--I was sobbing in front of the TV. They really were soulmates.

If you can believe it, Michelle Fairley was not nominated for Season 3 when the Red Wedding aired. That SCENE! When she just lost it and wailed over Robb's body! Her face was absolutely distorted by grief, as though it had chemically changed, as though she'd lost bone mass underneath. WTF fell asleep and did not submit her for that scene, or who on the Emmy committee did not nominate her for that work? She was amazing. And it is a crime that Nikolaj C-W was not nominated for his monologue in the bathtub to Brienne. Just incredible work. "Jaime...my name is Jaime..." I think Emilia has a strong chance to get another Supporting Actress nomination. To the extent that we bought Dany's going rogue so quickly, was in large part due to Emilia's selling it. Honestly D/D should give her a bonus for acting the shit out of the un-actable, stupid and makes-no-sense writing beats she was given this season.

I...didn't hate it. I liked it better than Daenerys methodically murdering civilians street by street in the last episode. There was some stuff that was a little too "on the nose"--I will admit, Sam calling his book ASOIAF was *cheeeesyyyyyy.* It rwaps up things perhaps a little too neatly but after the first twenty minutes of the episode--when I was dreading what Grey Worm (one of my favorite characters) or Dany (ditto) might do or say next to erode their humanity--I'll take it. The conversation between Dany and Jon in the Throne Room was terrifying, as was Dany's address to the troops. Full-on Triumph of the Will. I did like Brienne's writing the epitaph for Jaime. Tyrion uncovering Jaime and Cersei was so moving. Such a waste. I was *wrecked* by Dany and Drogon. Wrecked. That was beautiful, and sad, and heartbreaking. Her character deserved so, so much better. His anguished keening over her body, his carrying her off--wrecked. I'm crying right now. Goodbye, beautiful queen who just wanted to end slavery, who wanted to give the Unsullied a choice, who wanted to avenge the murdered slave children of Mereen, who tried to stop the Dothraki from raping the women of the Great Grass Sea. Who helped save the world from the Night King just three episodes ago. Take her somewhere, you magnificent beast, and honor her. I truly hope we see your kind again. The world is a little sadder and smaller without dragons.

I absolutely love this theory. Dany's chemistry with Khal Drogo was off-the-charts hot. I love watching their scenes on YouTube together and I loved it when she got a chance to see him again in the House of the Undying. And I adore the dragons too--every time Drogon perches somewhere and roars I just want to pet him on the head. All the battle scenes where Drogon kicks ass and takes names I love. (To clarify, in this episode, when he smashes the Iron Fleet and the scorpions on the parapets. Not when he massacres the civilians.) This theory makes me cry, it is so perfect and beautiful. I'm not kidding. Thank you.

Ser Jorah: We don't need Yunkai, Khaleesi. Taking this city will not bring you any closer to Westoros or the Iron Throne. Dany: How many slaves are there in Yunkai? Ser Jorah: 200,000, if not more. Dany: Then we have 200,000 reasons to take the city.

Yep. I'm thrilled we're living in the Golden Age of television right now and I hate the culture of entitlement to which some fans subscribe. I am hugely grateful for the first 7.5 seasons of this show,a and still love it. But the second half of the last episode and the unsupported Dany twist in this one are deeply, deeply disappointing. Seriously? People criticizing her reaction to Viserys's death? Utterly ridiculous. He'd just waved a sword at her pregnant belly, for God's sake. That's right up there with criticizing her for turning the tables on the khals or criticizing her for frying Kraznys and sacking Astapor. That says to me you are bound to die on the hill of Dany Is Evil, and then I stop reading your posts. (Not you, Jewlmc 🙂 I mean posters who post over and over and over and over and over again their one Manichaean opinion. Thank God for the block function.) That would've been poetically great. I did like their ending although I get why some fans hated it. In the end he was unable to quit his addiction--Cersei. It's quite tragic. I do wish he and Brienne hadn't sealed the deal. Someone in this forum said that his knighting her was the best sex they'll ever have--D/D should've left it at that. FUCK Varys. I'm so disgusted with his blatant sexism last episode, and here he's trying to MURDER her? When she hasn't even done anything yet? (And involving a child? Having a child spy and tell secrets is one thing but involving her in conspiracy to murder is quite another.) As you say, terrible storytelling. He's been such a good and interesting character until the past couple of seasons but D/D had to write him This Way to get to That Plot Point. It's intolerably bad storytelling. If they didn't want to finish the series properly, they should've handed over the showrunning responsibilities to someone else. I am somewhat mollified by reading the critics' response--D/D are getting roasted. You mean the woman who murdered her unborn child? I actually think the Mirri/Dany conflict was quite interesting in that both of them had a point. But Mirri killed her baby. I completely understand Dany's response. I don't think that, or the other examples in that tweet that listed all of Dany's prior acts of violence, proves anything at all except that in a violent world, Dany has used violence against her enemies. The rest of the series is still quite good. My personal choice is to watch to the end, and then just delete Ep. 5 (and 6 if it too sucks) and the second half of Ep. 4 from my brain's hard drive. Just bask in blissful forgetfulness that D/D fucked it up so badly, all because they wanted to play with their Star Wars toys. HBO wanted ten full seasons. D/D made the decision to cut it short. GOD, yes. Jesus, that fucking story. Horrible. That poor old lady, a second mother to Mary Tudor, literally hacked to death. ...Seriously? You're criticizing Dany for turning the tables on a slaver? We had just seen the man cut off the nipple of one of the Unsullied, just to show off for Dany. He tells her that part of the process of creating the Unsullied is for them to murder a baby in front of its mother. And you have a problem with Dany ending that system by roasting him and every other active participant in the system? Wow. ❤️ :D AKA the Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II treatment? I like it! ME TOO. I hate that two strong women are reduced to jealous sniping harpies.

HAAAAAATED this episode. Once you realized that D&D were determined to fasttrack Dan's Mad Queen arc (reminder: it took Aerys a full twenty years after he ascended the throne to go mad), this was entirely predictable. Also--people who "go nuts" don't methodically strafe the city block by block by block. They're usually a little more emotional and explosive than that--and heck, you'd think they might decided to take out the Red Keep entirely where Cersei is, before going after the innocent civilians. D&D can film spectacle, absolutely, but they don't know how to hire good writers (and WOMEN writers) and respect character arcs. This was garbage. This was "I wanna shock you because I can" garbage. I am SO sad and disappointed. 7 and a half seasons of a truly great show undone by two episodes so far. Will never watch another D&D show again. Spectacle is great, yes, but not at the expense of good writing. They had it in their hands and they botched it completely.

I feel the same way, although I did enjoy the first three episodes. But this past one was so terrible...I am radically readjusting my expectations for tomorrow and next week. Liquor will help.

Poor Cassandra though!

I detest the term Mary Sue. As soon as someone uses it I stop reading. It had some relevance back in the day--the '70s, when it was talking about Star Trek fanfiction--but when talking about actual media content, it is used solely to denigrate and undermine women characters. You know who is the biggest Mary Sue alive? James fucking Bond. No one ever talks about that. Nope. They just use the term to shit on characters like Arya, whose killing of the Night King was set up years ago. That deeply disappointed me. I'm honestly disgusted with the writing of these great women characters. Literally every woman who is not a designated Cool Girl (Arya) is being killed off or outright murdered (Missandei) or written to strip them of their awesome strong and nuanced qualities and development. The hushed, pained conversations between Varys and Tyrion are fucking BULLSHIT. Fucking sexist, badly-written-shit-by-male-showrunners BULLSHIT. FUCK YOU, VARYS FOR YOUR SHIT OBSERVATIONS. When has Dany acted like a Mad Queen? Her father burnt people for SPORT. When has Dany done that? She burnt the Tarlys? Yes--she offered them a choice and she didn't have a fucking prison in which to hold them. THAT'S HOW WAR IS FOUGHT. It is worth pointing out that in the Dark Ages, common practice was for the entire losing side of a battle to be executed. Dany didn't do that. She can be ruthless (a good quality in a leader) but by nature she is kind, she tries to do the right thing and I am fucking LIVID at this "let's trash the character development of this great woman character." I'm LIVID. And I'm livid at the "let's regress Sansa to a backstabbing bitch" garbage. Sansa, by telling the secret she swore to keep secret, is destablizing the effort to take out Cersei. That makes no sense whatsoever. I fucking HATED this episode. The rumor is that William is screwing around and the press got wind--and that William fed them made up stories denigrating Meghan to throw her under the bus and divert the press's attention. GROSS. Fuck William. I have never understood why they (Jaq'en, the Waif) came down so hard on Arya for killing Meryn. When Jaq'en said goodbye in Season 2, he specifically mentioned her list "a girl has many names...she could offer them all to the Red God." Why are you such a dick when Meryn Trant is one of the names off her list? *offers handkerchief* I love the dragons as well. I have only seen Viserion's murder the one time (as in, when I've rewatched the episode I've turned away), and same with Rhaegal's murder. Please don't helpfully try to tell me they don't really exist. That's not how Art works. In this universe, these are an endangered species. In my universe, that's a Thing. A Thing I take seriously. I'm a Wasp, we love animals more than people. I am devastated at what happened to Rhaegal. I just can't even. I want Euron ripped from limb to limb, a la Ramsay. ....Seriously? "All those people" were the Khals who just told her they were going to rape her until she died. If she didn't die, they were going to give her to their horses to be raped. Seriously? This is what I dislike so much about internet discourse. People dig in their heels and these great nuanced characters are reduced to the Mets or the Bulls or whatever. Ride or die. Whatever your hated one does, it's terrible--there's no defending it. We've regressed to Season 1/2 hatred of Sansa, and there is similar dogmatic hatred of Dany. Fuck these writers. Fuck D/D. Yep yep yep. This was a complicated case. Mary and Elizabeth had been declared bastards but also declared in Henry's will as heirs, which was passed by Parliament and made law. Henry's successor, his only son Edward, was kind of a Protestant fanatic (in his own way almost as fanatical as his older half-sister Mary) so he was more than willing to overturn Henry's will and bypass his half-sisters in order to name Jane as heir, because Jane was almost as Protestant as he was.

Totally agree. I detested Varys's reasoning and I dislike what they're forcing Dany into, just to amp up the tension. I love Sansa but she acted spectacularly stupidly in this episode--it doesn't make sense, it's just there to create unearned conflict.

Well done, Dany. That is how you build loyalty. (I was afraid she was gonna have him offed, the way the writing is going.) Oh my God, the drinking game--BRIENNE AND JAIME SO CUTE LOVED the conversation between Sansa and the Hound. Gendry and Arya--I could see that coming a mile away. "That's not me." Beautiful character moment, beautifully acted. "This is not the game. This is only drinking." Hilarious! Awww, Jaime's jealous...AAAAAAAAAUUUUGHHHH!!!!!!! YES YES YES!!!!! GO BRIENNE AND JAIME!!!! Fuck off, Cersei!!! Finally we hear about Dorne. Jon siding with Dany over Sansa...I think Sansa has a point though. But I detest the writers pitting two strong women against each other. NO, Jon!!!! Oh God word vomit.....WHEN will he keep his mouth shut?! How the hell did Bronn get allowed into Winterfell? Sansa, NO. Oh, for fuck's sake. What?! Poor Ghost!!! You can't just send him north of the Wall! He's bonded to you! God, that is heartless. Come over here, Ghost, I'll take care of you and love you. Poor baby. Did they say where Sam and Gilly are heading? Are they going to Hornhill? Oh my God my hands are shaking... I can't watch anymore oh my poor Rhaegal

The show has dropped the Dorne subplot completely. What the hell is happening down there? Who is ruling? Surely the Dornish people did not take kindly to having their prince murdered by his paramour-in-law? They have an army that was ready to support Dany--who is commanding that army? They still hate Cersei presumably so the show needs to pick that thread back up. Re: the juicy wights: it actually makes sense if the body is relatively fresh.

So many truth bombs were dropped at that wedding! It was like my slumber party in the eighth grade.

I will admit I thought Euron's clowning of Jaime was hilarious. Jaime absolutely wanted to kill him right there.

YESSSSSSS. (Although Catelyn's body was thrown in the river near the Twins and never recovered.) But imagine Sansa's horror at having to fight, say, Rickon? That was a storytelling opportunity missed. See, the amazing thing is she was afraid--you can see her rock back on her feet when the giant bursts through. She's clearly terrified, as any sane person would be. But like the she-bear she is, she manages her fear and turns it into a way to move forward, to attack. She was afraid, but she didn't let that stop her. I was sobbing. I'm so sad she died. It was a great death but...And when her sweet face, reposed in death, suddenly opens its blue eyes--the Night King is so vile, so truly evil. It's not enough to have these people murdered, he has to desecrate their bodies afterward, to reanimate them to try to kill their friends and loved ones. Dragons are genderless, so I'm told. And I have long speculated that there must be other eggs out there--it's ridiculously improbable that Dany just happened to be gifted the last three. Sam was an idiot, no doubt (although his reaction was quite understandable--still, he should've gone down to the crypts at the first) but at least he had the prescience to give Heartsbane to Ser Jorah. I have been going over the ramifications of the Dothraki massacre. Yes, it is certain the Dothraki could never have been assimiliated into Westerosi culture. Yes, they swore loyalty to Dany; yes, they agreed to come over to Westeros; yes, they agreed to the cavalry charge (and the Forbes article says the plan wasn't so bad after all). But in the end, they are basically gone as a culture, as a people. They would've been terrible for Westeros. But honestly, they're not that great for Essos either--they destroy villages and rape and reave. But does that mean they should be eliminated? I love the Dothraki but I sure would hate to be a peaceful Essosi villager whose village gets invaded by them. Knowing Dany's hatred of slavery, I think she would've tried very hard to eliminate that from their culture (as she required of Theon and Yara). That would've been amazing. Another missed storytelling opportunity. Power resides where men believe it resides. Aerys was the king because everyone was opting into a system where they agreed the Targaryens were the ruling dynasty--until he abused that system, and then people pushed back, and then eventually the new system into which everyone (but the Targaryens and their loyalists) believed the Baratheons were the ruling dynasty. (Although interestingly a legal pretext for that claim was because Robert's grandmother was a Targaryen. But that was just a pretext, a legal loincloth. The real reason Robert was the new king was because he defeated Rhaegar and the armies who backed him sacked King's Landing.) The legal claims are just loincloths. Henry VII had a laughable claim to the throne, compared to Richard III (who was a usurper and an infanticide, but his claim was still much stronger than Henry's). But he won the Battle of Bosworth Field (helped by the last-minute changing of sides by the Stanleys) and England found a way to live with that, flimsy claim or no. Which is my way of saying some of the arguments that I'm seeing, about how Dany is a hypocrite if she doesn't yield to Jon, are simplistic. Dany is not only claiming the throne because she is a Targaryen--she's conquering. It's the flimsy loincloth of legality, plus sheer might. Another thing to consider is that Dany didn't wake up one morning and decide "I want the throne." She was enrolled in the Game of Thrones at birth--she was never allowed to opt out. All of her life Robert Baratheon sent assassins after her and her brother. When Dany married Drogo and got pregnant, both she and Drogo seemed blissfully happy and not at all ambitious. Viserys and his deal with Drogo notwithstanding, it's entirely possible Dany and Drogo would've lived out their life on the Grass Sea. Until Robert sent the assassin to murder the pregnant Dany. THAT is what pissed off both Dany and Drogo, that is why Drogo made the vow to send an army of Dothraki across the Narrow Sea. So Dany was forced into this struggle--it has defined her life, she has earned, through her dragons and her conquests and her armies, her shot at the Throne in a way that Jon has not, notwithstanding his technically higher claim to the throne. (That said, I strongly doubt Jon wants the Iron Throne.) On another note, FWIW, I always have closed captions on and Jon just yells "Aaaaaaaahh!!!" at Viserion, not "Go!" Whoever said that the Hound grabbed up Arya "like an unruly kitten," please know how charmed I am by that remark. I have been chucking about it all week! I absolutely love the arc of the Hound's redemption. And Theon's--a few have remarked that Bran seemed to be sending Theon to his death with his "You're a good man" comments. My take is different--I think Bran was releasing Theon from his pledge to protect Bran, because I think Bran knew Theon wanted to die. He has seemed so defeated ever since Ramsay (understandably). Sansa was able to coax him back to a shell of his former self, and then reconnecting with his sister also helped. But deep down I think he was so tremendously ashamed of what he did--sacking Winterfell, burning alive two children--that he wanted to die. When Bran said that, Theon's transformation was subtle but noticeable--he was a full man again (I mean in the holistic sense), he needed to hear that absolution. On a final note--I just love it when these characters are bracing themselves for battle and the commander says "steady, lads." I've noticed it twice now--Lord Tarly says it at the start of the Loot Train Battle and Theon says it in this episode as the wights are approaching the Godswood. There's something so sweetly paternal about it, so "we might be about to die but I am here with you." I just love it. I can't imagine what the American equivalent is--I'm pretty sure American military commanders don't call their sailors/soldiers boys. Anyway, just love it.

WRECKED. Oh my God. I am a fucking mess. I am so, so sad over Lady Mormont. Yes, she went out like a badass but...man, that awesome, tiny, amazing badass. Rest in peace, Lady Mormont. No doubt you are taking tiny charge and kicking tiny ass in the seven heavens (or whatever version of the afterlife to which the Northerners subscribe). I sobbed, watching Drogon comfort Dany. This is what our pets do. This is why we love them so much. Poor Viserion. The dance of dragons was electric. PLEASE let HBO adapt that. The first time we've seen dragons fighting. ARYA. No words. Thank God Beric snapped the Hound out of it. "Tell that to her!" She has seen Death; she knows Death. And she looks forward to seeing this face. FUCK yeah. Not today. The very beginning was absolutely terrifying. All that darkness. Strange sounds. A random horse galloping away in terror. That gorgeous scene from above showing the Dothraki vanguard with flaming weapons...and then they are snuffed out. Incredible direction. Melisandre really helped them out. It doesn't make up for Shireen--nothing could--but thank God she was there. Thank the seven gods. Is Brienne still alive? When the White Walkers with the Night King were approaching the weirwood, I was reminded of that picture of the outgoing Obama administration out front of the White House, watching as Trump's transition team approaches. The White Walkers indeed! Tyrion and Sansa--that was lovely. Oh God I'm off to drink. I really need a drink after this.

Not surprised. Hope she makes it this time. I wasn't thrilled with how she expressed her frustration but I can understand her frustration in 2016. She had earned her spot.

I need more evidence than a few WTF looks at Missandei and Grey Worm during the progress, and little kids running away to say "they're racist." There are so few people of color in Westeros that I don't see how a structural system of "let's keep down POC" even applies. There was one episode--the last episode of Season 3, I think?--where we saw Tyrion and Sansa having a lovely, warm conversation, they were getting along wonderfully, she was able to open up to him. It was sweet and funny and lovely. And then someone came to say the Small Council needs to see Tyrion---where he found out that his father had orchestrated the cold-blooded murder of his wife's mother, brother, sister-in-law, vassals and hundreds of men at arms. And afterward they desecrated her brother's body along with that of his direwolf's. And they tossed her mother's body in the river. It's really not surprising that after that Sansa shut down completely. Yes! Shit, this is the easiest money ever. Sure, we all know the final results but the details--Rhaegar riding past Elia and tossing that crown to Lyanna, Jaime frozen as Aerys commands him to behead his own father, even the the stuff of Aerys's and Tywin's early friendship before Aerys started creeping on Tywin's wife and fixating on fire. I wanna see all of that!

I saw that! So happy for her! She will be amazing!