Paloma

I'm not sure why she should feel violated, since going to his house to have sex was her idea. IIRC, he seemed a bit stunned by her wanting to do that. I guess he could have said no, but it certainly didn't seem like he was pushing her into it. The problem was afterward, when they both misinterpreted the way the other person was acting. She expected it to be more meaningful and for a romantic relationship to develop (not that she let him know that), and he might have wanted that but, thanks to Dwight Howard's analysis of the period after "Hey", Ben assumed she did not want that. I've never been a fan of Ben, but he's probably right in his reason for why they should not be together. But Margot can be pretty nasty, so it won't necessarily be any easier to be with her. I doubt this is the end of Bevi (or whatever their couple name is). Overall, I did not enjoy this episode as much as most of the first three seasons. Maybe because a lot of the dialogue seemed stilted or unnatural, in order to provide information to new viewers or to old viewers who had forgotten what happened before.

I was getting "assisted suicide" vibes from the dialogue between Superman and Peia near the end (along the lines of she wanted it to end, and he could help her), but it's unclear what he actually did for her when he flew her up into the clouds. Did he do this so she could safely let out one final blast of sound with her dying breath, without causing further destruction on Earth? Or did taking her up to space or wherever he took her actually render her unconscious (with little or no oxygen) and ultimately dead? I thought that it was interesting for the writers to even hint at assisted suicide, because it is so controversial. But it is a topic that often comes up in relation to terminal patients who have unmanageable pain (or pain that can only be managed by possibly fatal doses of morphine).

Catching up several months later, my husband and I found the series interesting, especially when viewed as a black comedy, but had similar complaints as most posters here regarding the premise and how the characters behaved. But if you accept the part of the premise that shows a highly educated death row prisoner who is a Sherlock Holmes, it makes sense that he would be treated as a favored prisoner. The warden clearly does not want him to be executed, which may be as much because of Grieff's usefulness in solving criminal cases as because the warden respects his civilized behavior (presumably in contrast to most ordinary inmates) and wanting to atone for his horrific crime by taking cases based on moral worth. I don't remember how long ago Grieff murdered his wife, but I got the impression that he has been on death row for several years--long enough to form a somewhat personal relationship with the warden. However, it didn't seem like the guards treated Grieff with the same respect as the warden did. I just thought of another thing that did not make sense: When the father of Grieff's wife assaulted Grieff, the warden let it happen so he could get the assault on video and then blackmail the father to use his connections to either delay or stop Grieff's execution. The father was apparently a criminal boss, and the warden threatened to turn the video over to the FBI if the father didn't do this. But the father was British (as was Grieff's wife, I think), and I assume that his criminal activities were in England. Would the FBI even have jurisdiction? It would have made more sense to threaten to turn the video over to British police or Interpol, but I guess it's possible that the father's criminal activities were in the US.

I think the explosion was the plane crashing, and the guy was shot to eliminate any witnesses. (He seemed to be just some random guy living out there, not a passenger.) I assume that the heavily armed guys in black captured the pilot (and I guess the woman he took with him), but I don't know how they made the plane disappear.

I had to read this very slowly and more than once, but I got it this time! The funny thing is that I do genealogy for my family and am usually able to rattle off relationships of various levels of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. for multiple branches of the tree. But I guess it's easier when you have a personal connection than when it is a fictional family.

The "lusty tornado" scene (where Kate was intensely flirting with and being flirted with by her husband and the foreign secretary) was ridiculous to me. Not only did it seem totally out of character for Kate's normally brusque personality, but it was out of character for Dennison's reserved and proper personality, and inappropriate behavior for an ambassador representing her country at a function. I also have a hard time believing in this possible romantic triangle because I see zero chemistry between Kate and Dennison, and it bugs me that a show can't have a strong female lead without softening her with flirtation and romance.

My head just exploded trying to follow this, LOL. More seriously, before they knew this was a scam, did one of the characters say that Sophie was Sam's great-aunt? I thought there was some mention of them being cousins.

Well, I was in my late 20s in the late 70s and loved pop/rock music as well as other genres, but even though the group's name sounds familiar, I don't remember knowing their music. Also, Sam was presumably a career military guy and straight-laced, so it's believable that he would not have been into music or not familiar with any artists except the most famous ones (Beatles, Stones, etc.) in that era.

I was bored by the first episode (though a little more interested when we rewatched after vacation), but at least something interesting happened in the second episode. Still, the whole kidnapping thing seemed unrealistic.

My husband and I started watching this on vacation, but I couldn't even get through the first episode because (1) I didn't want to think about politics on vacation (even fictional politics) and (2) the situation and dialogue (including husband-wife interactions) felt too artificial. But we've been home a week now and my husband wanted to give it another chance, so we rewatched the first episode last night. This time I was able to get through the episode, though it still didn't grab me. However, my husband likes it. I'll see how I feel after the second episode, but there are so many things to watch on Netflix and other streamers that I don't want to waste time on shows that are not really compelling or at least entertaining.

This is exactly why the show is not as compelling to me as the book. The show makes it look like all of this started in our present day, but (IIRC) the book was framed as a thesis or research project on how society developed as one based on female power. I remember that there were drawings of historical or archeological finds that dated long before present day (maybe 1500+ years as you mention), although much of the narrative did seem to take place in a modern context (the storylines we see in the show).

I'm sorry to hear that you know this from personal experience. Hope you are doing well.

She and another patient in the chemo treatment room were wearing what looked like a gray cap, and I wondered whether that was supposed to be a cold cap. But I think cold caps need to be attached to something to keep them cold (based on images I found in a Google search), and the ones I found in the search did not look like the one she and the other patient was wearing. So I don't know what the point was of showing those gray caps. Peia was not wearing one, though she did have a black scarf covering her head.

Two years could be an eternity for teenagers. Aside from the risk of Candice learning that Clark is Superman and Jordan has powers while living with them that long, I'm sure Lois and Clark would be (rightly) worried about Candice and Jonathan having sex in the home when no one else is there. Not that they couldn't find another place to have sex if they really wanted to, but living together makes it a lot easier. And perhaps more important, what if Candice and Jonathan fall out of "love" (I don't see it as a really mature lifetime love) at some point in those two years? That would create a really awkward situation, especially if they get interested in other people. It's not clear to me if Candice has a lot of friends in Smallville, but even if she did that's asking a lot for anyone else's parents to take in someone they don't know well for two years, to support her financially and in other ways. And with all the drama in the Cushing/Cortez household, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for Candice to be added to the mix (and you can't force friendship, so there's no guarantee that things would go well between Sarah and Candice--though I'm not sure if they are already friends). I agree that the suddenness is odd and she should be able to finish out the year before moving. But since she's still a minor, social services (if there is such a thing in the show world) would probably want her to live with a family member ASAP rather than living as an indefinite "guest" with another family that has two teenage boys.

Good point, and it reminded me that Crash's head should have returned to his body after Isaac and then Flower tossed it. Is there an explanation other than "that's what the writers want"? I almost didn't catch that one, but when I realized what she'd said, I nearly rolled off the couch laughing. I'm embarrassed to admit that I heard her shout "Barbarella" but don't get why it was funny, other than the movie had nothing to do with baseball.

But if Jay is the chef at this destination restaurant, will he still have time to cook the regular B&B meals? I think he has made both breakfast and dinner for the few guests so far (correct me if wrong). Maybe he could still make breakfast (someone has to, since that's what the second B is for), but for dinner I guess the guests would eat at the barn restaurant instead of the smaller scale house dining room.

I think the woman in Racine had the nanny cam video of the VP yelling at his daughter. I agree that is probably why they killed her, but (like so much else in this series) it didn't make sense. Who was she and why would she have that video? Was she actually the nanny of the VP's daughter and then kept the video when she left the job? How did the assassins or their boss know where the video was, all these years later? (The incriminating video seemed to have been taken when Maddie was a young teen.) Overall I thought the last couple of episodes were much better than the preceding ones, at least in terms of tension. But I probably won't be in for a second season.

If that's the point, would they want her as a figurehead just because of her association with football players and history as a model? It just doesn't quite make sense to me from a business standpoint, but maybe we will find out more later.

I love the show, but the Keeley plot is distracting to me because it doesn't seem believable that she could go from someone mainly identified as football star's girlfriend and model (I guess--it was hard for me to tell what kind of modeling she did) to powerhouse PR businesswoman in the last year or so, without any apparent business education or training. It's true that she came up with and implemented ideas for commercial deals for the players last season, but I would think someone wanting to invest a ton of money in a PR business would need to see more experience than that when picking a CEO. I was even more confused when she ran into Shandy at the shoot and they were talking about being models and Keeley being the one to make it. I don't remember the exact dialogue, but I got the impression that Shandy and Keeley were almost groupies and/or party girls who got commercial (not fashion of other high-level) modeling gigs from being seen with football players. And Shandy did not look like a model to me; actually, neither does Keeley aside from her thinness. They are good-looking but not the type of beauties I usually associate with fashion and commercial models.

Just started watching The Power on Amazon Prime (highly recommended, but a totally different type of show than TL). Toheeb Jimoh has an important role, and I think--not 100% sure--that Juno Temple has a minor role early in series. The character has the same hair and distinctive voice and accent, but in The Power she looks older than in TL--maybe because she is not dressed and made up glamorously.

Putting in spoiler tags because I can't remember if it was in this episode:

It's the President! Quite a comedown since his 24 days, but he may be the best actor on this show so far. Agree with everyone about the female psycho assassin, both the acting and the amount of screen time she gets--every time she appears I feel like yelling "Get off my screen!" Just hope somebody found the baby in Wisconsin.

I'd love to see all of that! Exploring how the ghosts met, learned to communicate, and became friends would be fascinating. I would expect Sam and Jay to be curious about this, so the writers should make a couple of episodes where Sam or Jay asks questions and the answers unfold in flashbacks (i.e., "ghost stories"--I'll show myself out).

This episode was really powerful (pun intended), especially the mayor's speech at the end. I'm sure some viewers will hate the "woke" messaging, but it was poignant and relevant. As a woman, a mother, and a grandmother, I wish we had the power--in whatever form needed, not necessarily physical--to protect ourselves and fight back against ignorance, hate, abuse, and oppression. I also related painfully to the mayor's interactions with her daughter. Although Jos is also prickly toward her father, in general she gives him less crap than she gives her mother, and that is often the pattern with teenage daughters and their parents. It's so difficult as a mother to feel rejected by your child no matter how much you try to reach her and say and show that you love her. My relationship with my daughter got much better once she was no longer living at home, but even in her 30s and with a child of her own, she reverts to that teenage sulky attitude when she comes home to visit for more than a couple of days.

That was excellent casting. I also thought they were related in real life. Same here. There was a facial resemblance and an even stronger resemblance in voice/speech style. The latter could have been an acting choice rather than the natural voice and speech style of the actress playing Alicia, but either way it was striking.