Paloma

I was already worried about what happened to the puppy that Devon gave to Priya--after the wedding disaster, I don't know if she would want to take it to SF. Even if she did, with her new job she may not have time to take care of the puppy properly. Now I'm also worried about who will take care of the cat. Is it bad that I care more about what happens to the puppy and the cat than what happens to some of the characters in this show?

Finally watching this series post-Covid (or at least post the worst Covid period--it's going around my area again in early 2024, though not as seriously as in 2020-21), and I'm shocked that the doctors and nurses don't routinely wear masks in the ER and when dealing with potentially infectious patients. I'm not even talking about the plague or other lethal diseases--they should be protecting themselves and other patients (not to mention the families of doctors, nurses, and other patients) against common sicknesses like colds, flu, strep throat, stomach flu, etc.. Especially when they can see and hear patients in a crowded ER coughing, sneezing, and vomiting. But I guess medical personnel had less concern about protecting themselves pre-Covid, or else the show doesn't want to cover up the actors' faces.

Agree 100%. Until the Julian attraction plot, Devon was a very sympathetic character. Now the writers are going to have to do a lot of work to get me to like his character again.

If anybody is still reading this season's posts, why do you think the episode is called "The Dance"? Before the show started I thought it would refer to the dance that was supposed to be performed at the wedding, but obviously that didn't happen. Was it referring to the slow dance (seemingly without music) done by Conrad and Nic after the wedding was canceled? Usually the titles have some significance that I get during or after watching an episode, but I'm not sure of this one.

@heatherchandler Just have to say how appropriate your profile image is for this episode!

I was truly terrified by those night terrors, partly because they were so convincing (I thought she actually fell in the opening scene and would be brought to the hospital with life-threatening injuries) and partly because I have had terrifying nightmares--though not technically night terrors--all my life. Also terrifying was the possibility that she had schizophrenia, so I was happy that it was something that could be cured. However, when Conrad said that she would still have night terrors for a while until she was fully cured (I forget what the treatment was but I assume there was medication), I couldn't help but wonder if she would be seriously hurt or even die before the night terrors ended. It kind of bothered me that we've had no hint before this that Nic had panic attacks. She's certainly been in very stressful and anxiety-provoking situations before in this show, so I feel like the writers just introduced this to increase the drama, and I think it's unnecessary since she already has enough drama with her relationships with Conrad and her sister. Much as I love to hate Bell, one thing I have to give him credit for--actually, the writers get the credit--is that his love and sex interests have been age-appropriate (except for the hooker, I guess) rather than the decades-younger trophy girlfriends that are often seen in real life with powerful men and also shown in TV and movies. Both Lane Hunter and his assistant's mother are beautiful women but look like the actresses' real age (mid-50s for Melina, early 60s for Julia). I wondered the same...thought maybe one of the others had swiped a couple of amputated body parts just to mess with Devin, since they made such a big deal about it being his first Halloween in the ER. I was sure it was a Halloween prank until they finally brought the guy in, but the explanation for the delay was that the victim had to be extricated from the vehicle. I still don't understand how an arm and a leg on opposite sides of the body were amputated. It also seemed unbelievable that the arm and leg were just left lying around in the unsterile environment of the ER, not even fully covered in ice and stored in a secure container.

I applauded when Bell saw his new boss!

I still like this show but had some problems with this episode. First, it felt like I was in a teen horror movie shouting to Nic "don't go inside" her house with the door open (why not call 911 to report a possible break-in and wait for the police, given that she knows someone creepy is after her), and shouting to her even louder when she entered the clinic alone despite her "friend" not being there. Second, I didn't like the white savior plot, with all the scary-looking (in a Hollywood way, not really all that scary) Black and Hispanic ex-gang members and ex-cons treating her like a beloved mother and saint. It's not that there aren't white people in real life who do wonderful things working with minority gang members and ex-cons, but this felt over the top. Third (a lesser complaint), did Nic go straight to jail without an arraignment or a lawyer? I guess she used her one call to call Conrad about her sister, but couldn't she have asked him to also find a lawyer? I will be really upset if the evil oncologist doesn't get her comeuppance soon, but I suspect that the writers will keep Nic in jail or at least in danger of her life being ruined well into next season. Oh well, on to the season finale.

This part of the plot distracted me because the firing and Bell becoming CEO seemed to happen in a few minutes during the part of the board meeting we didn't see, while Nic was waiting for her appointment to see the CEO (Claire). Would a hospital really be able to fire a CEO and hire a new one that quickly and easily? Wouldn't there need to be another board meeting or negotiations on terms for either the firing (such as severance or nondisclosure of cause) or putting Bell in the new position (such as salary and benefits, or even just writing and signing a new contract)?

Glad to see we are not the only ones binge watching 6 years later, though we never saw the show when it originally aired. The pilot was somewhat off-putting for the reasons other posters have given, but we decided to give it a couple more episodes and now are most of the way through the first season and enjoying it. It's not perfect but it keeps us engaged. Looking forward to reading comments on the rest of the episodes.

Despite my negative feelings after the second episode, I decided to watch the rest of the series with my husband but basically snarked my way through it. Aside from the cool visual effects, it was mostly a big waste of time. And I don't see where they can go from here, if they intend to make this a multiseason series...or even 2 seasons. If they stay pretty much in current time, we'll be stuck with the same boring characters (aside from the detective, who grew on me) and a lot of talk but not much action. If they jump 400 years, it would be interesting to see what happens when the aliens arrive. But it doesn't make sense that the aliens need to wait until they arrive to defeat humans, because they obviously have the power now to screw up our technology and drive people to commit suicide and homicide. Also, the selection of Saul to be one of the three experts to come up with a plan to defeat the aliens seems silly. What special skills or knowledge does he bring to this, and wouldn't Jin be a better choice if they need an expert in physics who can think out of the box? And why only three experts? Why not have 100 or more? And if any of them come up with a plan, how are they going to communicate it to the people who need to implement it since the aliens can see and hear anything that is said or written? I know that they are not supposed to speak about the plan or write anything down, but even if that's possible, they still need to communicate it at some point. Maybe they can communicate by whispering without the aliens hearing?

Well, I might be out now that a big part of the action seems to be video games or VR with silly characters and dialogue (though I do like the little girl). Maybe I'm just not the right demographic for this show, even though I enjoy stories about alien contact. I can believe that people who were close in college could stay close over the next decade, but their characters are not developed or interesting enough to make me care. I still can't remember all their names, including the one who looks like Angelina Jolie and seems to have only one expression (pouty). She is the most interesting character to me, despite not having much to say (so far) in the present. My husband is interested enough to keep watching, so I will probably watch another episode with him. But if they don't tie together the VR with real life pretty quickly, I will find something else to do.

I agree, it didn't make sense. Not saying this project didn't happen (I don't know if the Chinese actually made any attempts at interstellar communication in that era), but if that's an important goal you need physicists and other scientists. We wanted to skip the preview spoilers but didn't FF fast enough to miss the first shocking scene. It's annoying when shows do that.

I haven't read the books and wasn't sure I'd be interested in this show because the descriptions emphasized physics, which I know next to nothing about. Also, I like sci-fi but not particularly hard, or technical, sci-fi. But the first episode was intriguing, not so much for the scientific questions as for the human drama. I'm especially interested in the story of the daughter of the professor who was killed in that horrific opening scene. (As an aside, I was especially upset by this scene because I don't see the "Cultural Revolution" as just a historical event in China; hatred of and threats against scientists, medical professionals, and educators in the US have escalated in recent years, though for different reasons.) The scenes at the logging camp seemed unrealistic--would they really have let the prisoners/workers have unsupervised free time to sit and eat lunch and chat with others? Also, who was the guy who gave her the book Silent Spring? He said something indicating he was a reporter, but it wasn't clear if he was also a prisoner. And did he turn her in for having the book? He was standing behind the guards who arrested her. So the purpose of the Chinese dish seemed to be communication with aliens. Are the countdowns also a message from aliens? And is each person who sees a countdown seeing the same numbers, or does each person have a different countdown? I'd be interested in an aliens story, but there also are suggestions that this has something to do with religious faith and belief in God--and if that becomes a prominent part, it will lose me.

I'm not sure if this is the right episode to ask this question, but can anyone explain the names that were written under Galvan & Powell on the page that was hidden under the painting in Sam Hodges office, and how those names are related to the medical records that the police found? At one point (before this episode, I think) I thought that the medical records were for the people whose names were written under Galvan & Powell. But in this episode, Liv and Asta interviewed relatives of the people those medical records were for, and it became clear that the medical records were for local people who died. I'm pretty sure the names on the page hidden under the painting were not local people. Were they G & P employees who were covering up the poisoning of the creek? If so, how were they connected to Harry and Sam?

I felt that it would have been realistic for an abortion to have at least been mentioned as an option since we knew that neither Ben nor Kate wanted another child, but the writers may have worried about losing some audience (or advertisers) over this topic. In any case, I don't know when it could have been mentioned because Ben and Kate were not being honest about their feelings after the initial positive test. I assume that the general pushed him off the cliff while he was holding the ball to prove that he could survive the fall, but he looked like he was badly injured so I'm not sure that was a useful test. Also, I'm surprised she didn't just finish him off and leave his body where it was. And I was confused by the scene of someone leaving him in ABQ and telling him to take his medicine--until I read the post above, I thought they really did give him medicine, though I didn't know what for. Now that I know it was heroin, I guess they wanted him to overdose himself, but what made the MIB so sure that he would inject himself? Just seems a lot easier for them to give him an overdose and stage it so it looks like he did it himself. Oh well, I need to stop worrying about the details of a crazy plot.

I've liked Sahar up til now, but was really turned off when seeing how she was treating the baby alien. Whether it's a baby alien or a pet, it's wrong to treat them meanly.

Not only is it getting tired and annoying, it's not believable that those who don't know he's an alien are not being more suspicious of him because of the way he talks and laughs. They might not suspect him of being an alien, but they should suspect him of having done something wrong based on his attempts to act "normal."

I assumed it was the alien baby because it looked like the wires were chewed through rather than cut. Maybe John (Deputy Liv's Husband) is complaining about Jay because he hasn't been told that she is Asta's child. John thinks that Jay just works at the Diner and was only there to deliver the cake, then invited herself to stay and eat all the food. It was definitely Ben (the mayor) who was rude to Jay for no apparent reason. I did not see anyone else being rude to her, and I don't remember Deputy Liv's husband (I didn't know his name before) even talking to her.

Although I liked the conversation between Dan and the Sheriff, and I generally like the Sheriff better as they are making him more "normal" and less cartoonish, I agree with you on the rest of this. And I especially dislike the focus on the mayor, his wife, and D'Arcy (the one with red hair--currently). None of them are likable to me, and during the prolonged scenes at the gym and bar between the mayor's wife and D'Arcy I was waiting for the wife to find out that D'Arcy spent the night with her husband in their home (not sleeping together, but I'm sure spending the night smoking weed together would be almost as bad to the wife). Since that didn't happen (and I wouldn't have cared if it did), what was the point of these scenes? The gym scene was unrealistic, even in the context of this show about an alien--we are supposed to believe that D'Arcy has not been working out for years since her injury and on her first day back in the gym did a prolonged killer workout? BTW, did this remind anyone else of the gym scene in Flashdance? (Yes, I'm old, but I still love Flashdance.)

I couldn't condemn Jay for his outburst because he has put up with so much and been mostly patient and understanding of sharing a home with a bunch of ghosts whom he can't see or hear. It's true that the advance was for Isaac's story, but Sam is the one writing the story, and it would not be told if Sam wasn't able to interact with Isaac and the other ghosts. So I get why Jay would be so frustrated that the money can't be used for a project that is important to both Jay and Sam, especially since Isaac can't use it in any way that Jay can appreciate (such as a wedding that presumably will only be attended by ghosts, and that Jay will probably be expected to do all the cooking for--cooking of food that will just get thrown out since the ghosts can't eat).

I'm sure you're right, but I had a hard time believing they were actually friends since Sam and Jay are such nice, down-to-earth people and Nico and Sasha are obnoxious and arrogant. Why would Sam and Jay want to hang out with them? Don't they have nicer, more compatible friends from the city?

This was definitely my favorite episode this season, and a return to the quality of the first season. I didn't mind the combination of serious (such as what happened to the sheriff) and funny/weird because it makes the characters feel more fully developed and human...or in the case of Harry, becoming human. I'm not sure if the introduction of Harry's daughter was necessary, especially if there is no further appearance or reference to her, but I did like them both cracking up at the ridiculous play while most of the audience was aghast. I didn't understand where she went at the end, though--was she taking a bus from Colorado to New York City? Her mother was off with some guy in Europe or wherever, so was the daughter going to live alone? I'm surprised that Asta didn't insist that Harry have her stay with him until the mother got home.

OMG, I didn't even get the point of the donut! I just thought he was being inconsiderate about her gluten intolerance!

I'm curious about why you see this as an exemplary woke and serious PC show and what are the "all kind of minorities" you object to. I assume you don't like the references to human lack of respect for Earth and destruction of the environment, but I see that as making an important point in the context of a funny show. But that is not the main theme of the show, and I don't think it makes the show "exemplary woke and serious PC." As for minorities, I hope you are not denigrating the inclusion of Native Americans, since there are in fact reservations in Colorado (and many other states), and it is logical to include characters from that population. And I really hope you are not objecting to Max's friend being Muslim.