kwnyc

I think it's excellent that Melissa adapted her Jalen Hurts speech for Gregory. Also liked the shout out to Bone Town! (And a $50 gift card!)

That is EXACTLY what I hope. The league needs more women owners. If Rupert has a couple more marriages in him, they might end up adding a whole bunch of Boss Bitches.

That's EXACTLY how I handwaved it! Also: Michelle dating the ex-therapist = Olivia Wilde dating Harry Styles?

That's actually realistic in action...a young team (aside from Zava, they all skew fairly young) sometimes has to get its ass handed to it in order to mature and act right. It was a particularly painful learning experience for everyone at Richmond. (I actually used to be a sportswriter...though never as high up as Trent Crimm, The Independent), and I'll bet Ted had to teach his D2 boys at Wichita State how to bounce back, too. (And I only know it's 38 games because Ted mentioned it in Episode 1). It's closer in length to a college basketball season!)

Totally. It was inevitable that Rupert would keep fucking around, and will probably find a way to blame Bex. Good for Rebecca for telling him off. And Rupert showed his master manipulator side when he spoke to Nate, at first comforting him, then: "Mr. Mannion." I like the callback to Bones & Honey from Beard's night out. :-) Ted is definitely flailing, but that's not what the team needs right now. Sassy is right: he's a mess, and she should wait til he's in better shape, otherwise she's just Rebound Woman. (Ted wouldn't treat her badly, but he'd probably get way too involved too fast.) They seem to be hinting that Keeley misses Jamie, but I don't believe a word of it. Roy/Keely is endgame and the sooner the better. And Shandy screwed up when she was handed a big project; she probably gets this one as a do-over, but if she does it again, I don't think Keeley can keep her around. Richmond's admin all acted like asses around Jack. What's the BFD about a VC who's a woman? Rebecca at least spoke to her in Boss Bitch dialect, but everyone else was an idiot (especially Higgins.) That was some, well, ovaries to the wall acting. Brava! Obvs, there's more pain to slog through, but as Ted helpfully pointed out previously, fairy tales have their dark parts. To quote Sondheim: One peculiar passing moment Must it all be either less or more, Either plain or grand? Is it always 'or'? Is it never 'and'? That's what woods are for: For those moments in the woods... Oh, if life were made of moments, Even now and then a bad one--! But if life were only moments, Then you'd never know you had one. Ted was right when he said there's a lot more football to be played: 38 games in a season? An American football coach gets maybe 12. You can't blow yourself out on just one...so Roy & Beard, who are now functioning well as assistants, had to hear Ted's "I'm not angry, I'm DISAPPOINTED." And I hope it does them some good. I"m still waiting for the other shoe to drop with Zava, but I don't know that it will be him flouncing off. BUT...if he's injured, it could leave the team incapacitated (except if there's an angry young Mancunian waiting to step in). Also...Ted made a step forward in being able to tell Michelle how he felt about Dr. Jacob. And he's right: the two of them do have to co-parent, and they are still a family. Not the one they started out as, but they are in it together. I hope Michelle does something about this. (I have the feeling that if the creepy therapist dated one patient, he probably did before. Like, you know, RUPERT and his philandering ways.)

She didn't say "pregnant," she said Rebecca will "become a mother" and have a family. VERY different.

Michelle COULD have met him at JFK and flown back with him...but NO! She was probably making kissy face with her ex-therapist!

Yes, Keeley is a self-made PR professional, and must have seemed like a good investment to the venture Capital firm that put money in her business. And, like a lot of startups, they insisted on a grown up in the room, who is Barbara. I also think that Keeley took Barbara's nasty dismissal of Shandy as a personal attack: Keeley, as far as we know, didn't have a degree or higher ed, and got her experience by doing her own work for years. I think Shandy is a wild card, but I don't think they're going to use her as a villain or negative influence. That doesn't fit in with the way they take other New characters.

Now that Nate is a BFD head coach, he can get a model/spokesperson to date him. OF course, it won't make him happy. Nothing makes Nate happy.

Seriously! This could have been her very strong introduction. And with Trixie's dinner party, I did sort of wonder whether she's effectively moved in with Matthew already. But "woman cooking fail" is such an old trope used to show a woman with a career isn't REALLY successful (see the film "Woman of the Year"). AS IF they won't have a cook and a maid... Same kind of thing with Nancy: she was completely raised in institutions, and moved into what's essentially an adult women's dorm. She's never had anyone to teach her about real budgeting and homemaking. She's still younger than her real age in a lot of ways. She's got a version of freedom now, and has no idea how to use it. A strong performance by the actress in the role of the woman who finally leaves her husband, and they did not stint in showing how hard it was going to be for her. What amazed my 21st century eyes were that a woman with 2 kids was sharing a bed in a hostel (aka homeless shelter) and that was considered safe acceptable. (Not to mention that her husband could have tracked her down in a shelter). Didn't they used to have shelters on the show where they could send women away to to hide from batterers? Oh, and hemophilia, argh...the kids with it didn't just get infected with HIV in the '80s, they were shunned and persecuted (remember Ryan White?)

Hammer and tongs are some nasty weapons! (Also, I loved that the hammer served as the "speaking stick" when the Mandalorians were having a group discussion.)

But since Julie's Eliza was never filmed, it is, of necessity, an audio-only performance. (And we Julie Andrews fans know that the New York OCR is not the one to have, because the London OCR is in stereo!)

That also has resonance, because Nate came up from kit man, and then abused Will terribly. This is going to come into play somehow...

Shades of Sergeant Noakes! (Come back Chummy...)

He's Welsh, his granny wouldn't speak to him when his team got relegated, and he's not a piece of shit!

I predict Zava is going to flake off at an important moment and then we'll see Jamie Tartt 3.0: the football machine trained by Roy Kent. And as I mentioned in the episode thread: Rebecca/Trent. Note that he chose Queen Clarisse of Genovia as his favorite Julie Andrews role.

My favorite Julie Andrews character is Victoria Grant/Count Victor Grazinski. Trent's preference of Queen Clarisse, the grown-up boss bitch of Genovia reads to me as another hint he's going to be a match for Rebecca. Queen Clarisse has a low-key thing with her head of security. The other Diamond Dogs prefer the nanny who will scold them, or the foul-mouthed Covent Garden urchin (of course, that's Coach Beard!) Also, the team as a whole has good taste in its streaming series because they agree Mrs. Maisel is great. I also think the green matchbook is a fake-out...Rebecca is not rekindling things with Sam. So much of this season seems to be fan service, and I'm there for it: Roy Kent training Jamie to be the best player on the team (because I'm also betting Zava fritters off before an important match). Danny Rojas also clearly has a Lesson to Learn. (But how sweet was it that he made Zava a friendship bracelet?) Ted was closer to a panic attack than we've seen him in awhile, and I hope he had hot uncomplicated sex with Sassy, who also gave him a reality check that the new boyfriend was unprofessional/unethical. I hope we get Doc Sharon back in person soon! Shandy is a chaos agent, and she's lucky Keeley hired her; Keeley turned herself from a spokesmodel to the head of a PR firm by being smart, resourceful and not pissing important people off. I'm hoping Shandy picks up on that and goes from a diamond in the rough to an asset to KJPR. And Colin's going to come out soon (or be outed) and I think it'll be Roy Kent who tells the team there's to be no backlash.

According to a friend in the know, Aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint) will play Gertrude in Hamlet in this summer's Shakespeare in the Park in NYC!

I really DON'T like when we get into super-secret gov't Black Ops; give us little guys being f*cked by the system. And that poor guy who was the sole survivor of the attack...so the next job he goes for, they say, why did you leave your last employer, and he says: well, they were all murdered.

Well that was a feel-good episode (not...) The brothers lose both parents in the space of a couple of days (and one of them wasn't even the kid's bio-dad). Oh, and Regina finds out HER father may have had something to do with a murder when HE was a cop. On the other hand, I'm really appreciating Richard Kind as the Captain. Those Italian lessons paid off! And there's no way he's going to betray his agoraphobic wife. Also a salute to old-school cop shows/foot chases, complete with cute young cop leaping a car hood and sliding across it. Also: glitter bomb. I really hope this show gets picked up, because I think it's finding its feet.

Since the younger nurse/midwives all move on after a few seasons (except Trixie, who is clearly staying because it's a great role and she has a family to support...) Phyllis is one of the longest-running cast members. She remembers everyone who came through, and has a well-deeloped sense of empathy and loyalty that really do make her an essential cast member.

There is NO WAY Judy Parfitt is giving up that part. It's probably her most widely-seen role of a very long career. She is leaving the show feet first!

Yes. I thought that, too!

I'm falling on the side of the folks who think Ted is playing dumb about football/coaching/strategy. He didn't get to be a national championship winning American football coach on charm alone.

Just wanted to say that this episode was directed by APOLLO Creed! ;-) (I'll show myself out.)