Paloma

Maybe I didn't watch the first two seasons closely enough, but I am confused about the Faks--specifically, how they are related to Carmy's family and how many Faks are involved in the restaurant and in what capacity. Before this season, I thought there was just one Fak (Neil? the heavyset guy who was previously a sort of fix-it guy but now seems to be front of house), but now I'm getting the impression that there is more than one.

Copenhagen also has canals, and I think Noma is (or was--it's closed until 2025) between two canals. The city scenes went by quickly but definitely looked like Copenhagen as I remember it.

I liked the original actor, and it took me a long time to really see MB as Jonathan. But by this season I had also forgotten what the original actor looked like, until this week when I saw him in Little Fires Everywhere, a Hulu series from 2020 (only seeing it now because we got a free trial of Hulu). His acting in that role was not great, but he did not have good writing to work with.

I blame the show writers, not the book author (although I don't actually remember this book). But I read Our Missing Hearts by the same author and it was excellent. And Mia just left her there. She doesn't even know if the Ryan's are still married. I haven't read all the comments so probably someone else answered this, but I'm sure the house that Pearl went in was Mia's parents (in McKeesport, PA) and not the house of the Ryans in NYC. Even though we only saw Mia's parents' house briefly, I recognized it. Also, the Ryans seemed to live in a more upscale place, though I'm not sure if it was an apartment or condo.

Just catching up since we got a trial subscription to Hulu. What doesn't make sense to me, if Mia has resources, is why she can't put some of those resources into even temporary housing such as a motel room where she and Pearl can take a shower (instead of using the supermarket restroom to wash up in the sink) and sleep in a bed instead of the car). I had been sympathetic to Mia in the first couple of episodes because I thought she was living out of her car and washing in a store bathroom by necessity, but as her artist reputation has been revealed, along with her ability to earn a bunch of money by selling one piece, my sympathy is pretty much gone. (Not that I like Elena any better.)

Absolutely. Bebe made a deliberate decision to give up May Ling. It's heartbreaking, but it's what she did. Mia doesn't seem to want to acknowledge this fact and that really ticks me off. Now Mia has made Bebe appear to be an unstable lunatic. Agree with all this and, what's worse, Bebe is likely to get arrested for what she did at the party, and as an "illegal" I'm assuming she can be deported. Even if she is not deported, what legal grounds would she have for getting May Ling back? And her actions (thanks to Mia) have ensured that the adoptive parents will not let her have access for a long time, if ever. This whole plot line has made me much less sympathetic to Mia.

Thank you for sharing--I'd forgotten about those scenes, but they were great! And I especially loved the Dirty Dancing references, in some of dialogue but even more in the visuals (almost copying the movements when Johnny and his partner were teaching Baby to dance).

Just catching up with this show since we got a trial subscription to Hulu. I didn’t know about the true story and am finding this show both compelling and horrifying. Poor Reena, the kind of bullying she experienced in school is all too common among girls of that age, and I’m not surprised that she wanted to become part of Josephine’s group (though I don’t think in the beginning she realized it was a real gang that committed crimes). I am having a hard time feeling empathy for Josephine or any of the girls in her gang who expressed shock at hearing that Reena was dead. Josephine initiated and the others participated in a mob assault and torture, and they left her unconscious (I assume that part was true, even if the rest of Josephine’s story of waiting for Reena to get up and leave was a lie). So they thought it was OK to beat her to the point of unconsciousness, which could have resulted in death, but not to actually take it one step further and make sure she was dead? I understand that Josephine and her gang had difficult backgrounds, but so do a lot of kids and they don’t become violent. I also understand the feeling that you have to go along with a gang leader out of fear and/or peer pressure, and once Josephine gave the order the mob mentality took over. But that still doesn’t excuse the level of violence against Reena. I don’t think all the kids are evil (though I tend to agree with Reena’s father that Josephine is), but they should all face consequences for their criminal actions.

I was confused about the scene in the bar. The sympathetic bartender asked if Mel had someplace safe to go, and Mel said yes. But I thought the bartender gave Mel a piece of paper with a name and an address, and the name looked like Allie (though I didn't get a close look). So when Mel went to that apartment, I thought it was the apartment of the bartender and didn't understand why she would go there if she had someplace safe to go. So was the paper with the name and address actually from the purse of the patient who died, not from the bartender? And the apartment Mel went to was the apartment of the patient who died, whose name I think was Elise?

According to Vulture's episode recap, the male cop and Cam are brother and sister--their father is the police chief. I think they both called him Dad in the boxing bag scene where we first met them. But I don't think their father is Native American, so I'm not sure Cam and her brother are supposed to be (unless they are half NA from their mother). In any case, I agree that the male cop's dismissiveness was due at least in part to Reena and her family being Indian but also to the all-too-common attitude of male cops to female victims. I thought that Raj's comment referred to Cam being female and therefore should be more empathetic to crimes involving girls and women. I thought this as well at first. Me three. I was really confused about the timeline, but I guess we are supposed to know that Rebecca was home at the same time as Reena's assault because they both saw the red satellite debris in the sky.

Although the writing and acting are a little heavy-handed, so far I'm finding the show compelling. I've been surprised by some of the earlier comments from 2020 (presumably when the show first aired) because they seem to be blaming Mia for her attitude and giving Elena a pass for how she treats Mia, even seeming to suggest that Mia deserves to be treated suspiciously and/or should be more appreciative of the opportunities that Elena gives her. But then I realized that some of those comments were written before the nationally raised awareness of a series of racially motivated killings (Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, to name a few) and white "Karens" calling the cops on Black people doing innocent things. (Apologies for using the term "Karens" since it is offensive to people with that name, but that is the term used in the media.) Anyway, watching this in 2024 as a white suburban liberal woman (similar to Elena in some ways, though not as rich or as controlling) I am keenly aware of the pervasive racism in our society and understand Mia's attitude. (I'm not patting myself on the back about this, just explaining why I see the Mia-Elena interactions differently from some posters. Just because I'm aware of racism doesn't mean I "don't see color," and I still sometimes struggle to overcome racist assumptions.) Elena tries to hide her racism and condescension with politeness and "niceness," but if it's obvious to me it would be even more obvious to Mia. If I were Mia, I would have a hard time responding to Elena with even minimal politeness. However, I agree that some aspects of Mia's behavior are not likable, and it's not just because she is understandably disgusted by or worried about racist treatment. Although we don't know why she and Pearl have moved around so much, it does seem like she puts her own creative needs above Pearl's need for stability. I don't think she can be earning much money from her art, and as a single mother she should probably be trying to look for regular jobs (not just part-time waitressing) and keep art as a side activity. But as someone said above, maybe she is on the run and has to move often. The one area where I sympathize with Elena is her feelings as a mother. Although my daughter was not as rebellious in behavior as Izzy is, beginning around age 10 she developed "attitude" toward me, and that hurtful attitude continued at least into her 20s (and even at age 40 still comes out occasionally when we are together for more than a short time). What Elena said about the way young children need you and realizing that you as a mother need them (or need to be needed) really struck home with me. That is why I treasure my relationship with my granddaughter, who gives me the cuddles and other expressions of love I can no longer get from my adult daughter. (Sadly, my granddaughter is 8, which means she will probably start pulling away from our closeness in another year or two.)

Just starting this series now since we got a 1-month Hulu trial. I'm pretty sure that one of the criminal records Mia saw was her own--I saw her looking at 3 or 4 records from the fax machine, and 1 of them (I think it was the last one she looked at) had what looked like her photo. She must have taken that record, because when Elena picked up the records from the machine later, there were only a couple and they did not look like Mia.

We were in France for most of October so just having a chance to catch up with the new season now. I haven't seen anyone mention this yet in this episode thread, but was Rose McIver still pregnant (or maybe carrying some postpartum weight) when this was filmed? Both my husband and I noticed that her middle was concealed in some shots, as they did last season, but she didn't look noticeably pregnant when she wasn't concealed. I think the tops she was wearing in this episode all had horizontal stripes, which seems an odd choice because they generally make people look heavier.

My husband and I just started watching it since it came to Netflix. Until this episode things generally made sense or had reasonable explanations, but we are totally confused by the blackmail plot. After the women put the bag of money in the dropoff bin and then unsuccessfully pursued the masked guy who picked it up, and Nat returned to her motel room, we thought there was a brief blurry scene (from Misty's surveillance camera?) of the same masked guy coming to Nat's motel room and handing her what looked like the packet of blackmail money. Why would the blackmailer give her back the money, especially if it was Jeff who needed the money to pay back bad guys who loaned the money for his business? And why would she bother to sell her car to get the money if she was in on the blackmail plot? And if she was in on it, why would she do it?

My husband and I also binged this in a couple of days. With what's going on in the world we really needed something light and with a happy ending (for now), especially as a "palate cleanser" after watching the first two episodes of Yellowjackets on Netflix. One thing we liked about this was that Noah and Joanne faced some real challenges and for the most part dealt with them as adults. It wasn't all just predictable rom-com dialogue. Regarding Noah's future, it's true that he can't become head rabbi if she doesn't convert, but he could probably remain as the assistant rabbi at this temple or else go to another temple that may not be so strict. (Just guessing here--my husband and I are non-observant Jews so don't really know the rules.) I agree that this is not likely to turn out well in the long run, especially with his mother's hostility to shiksas. And I'm not even sure that the chemistry between Noah and Joanne will be enough for a lifetime commitment.