stopeslite

I forgot how ancient Abel actually looked until I saw the podcast page pic (after I listened to it). Eek! I hope it's not too OT to say how much I love this podcast, because this is seriously the best podcast. Some episodes come back to me scene by scene as I'm listening, others must not have been in the common rerun lists because I don't remember a thing about them. But it's soaked through SO MUCH of my head it feels amazing to relive with others. :)

Right? That was her episode, completely. It highlighted what is the most wonderful part of her character - that even when she isn't entirely sure of the facts of what's going on, she's completely tuned in to the emotional needs of the people around her and places primary importance on that.

It wasn't necessarily always happy, since a lot of people were placed there against their will (we saw Reggie being happy about it, but not everyone was). It was definitely the best option for him at the time, but there is some pushback on them today. There's an article called "Farms for disabled people aren't a new idea" on the NOS magazine website that explores it further. I'm glad they did have Reggie take to gardening before he went there so he could really feel like he fit in. That entire storyline basically killed me start to finish.

I was pretty meh about Angelo, but my heart did not know how much it needed a Travis/Emmett reconciliation. I thought Melody did a great job of not falling entirely to Emmett's side in the whole argument. I was braced for a "yeah he's your real son so of course you'd say that" but it never happened, because she didn't push like that. Yay for all acting like adults! I still think they let Bay off the hook a bit too much though. Bay has been trampled on for the whole series, but she did go get herself too close to Emmett and knew it. Daphne, wow. I am disposed to dislike anything Daphne does, but I had to laugh at her mean girl skeptic act towards Ally. Was glad that she was the one not going off into la-la land for once. The other thing that stood out to me was Kathryn. Seriously, woman. That seemed so out of character for her. It would have made more sense if it were John being pigheaded and ignorant and Kathryn and Lilly trying to talk him down out of it. (yes, Little House and Percival made a huge impact on me as well, as I assume it would have on Kathryn). It was interesting to have Toby link Lilly's desire to have a bond to his disability, but I thought he might have also mentioned it gave them something in common and independent of the smothering all-inclusive everythingness that is living in the Kennish household. Glad that got wrapped up before the end of the episode.

I really like that Mike seems to be just as much of a jerk as Phil is. You can really see how the family dynamic/genetics/having each other for brothers made them what they are now, feeding off of each other and getting to be more and more jerk-ish. I thought Mike would be some kind of brilliant saint, but nope. He's just as petty and callous as we've ever seen Phil be.

Great news - there's been an announcement that Chummy will be back and prominent in season 6! That said, be careful out there on the internet - I keep forgetting that this entire season has already aired in the UK (season 5), so I got a massive spoiler on accident when I didn't realize that season 5 is the one we've only just started with this episode, and thought I was finding old recaps to brush up on where we were starting out. (D'oh!)

I wonder if Todd thought he was donating to impregnate Carol, thereby "hooking up" with her too. I guess not, since he didn't admit to it in his big confession. But still. He gets around.

Oh, man. As soon as Rhoda looked nauseous and took a swig from that bottle I was all "OH NO SHE IS DRINKING THALIDOMIDE NO SHOW NOOOOOO". That said, though, I hope they keep it as a thread through the season, and it wasn't a one special episode and done. If they're in 1961, it's going to take another year for everything to hash out in terms of realizing what's causing it and putting a stop to it. How cute was Sister Monica Joan? I loved everything she did tonight, including falling asleep while she was helping with the dishes. I loved the Sister Julienne save at the end. I wasn't expecting that. :) I also loved the storyline with Olive. Nice to see them having female bonding and helping and empowering moments across the age spectrum. Go away, Tom. I hope we see Fred and the new Mrs. Fred next episode.

What with all the drama on the show and the plots and all and how ridiculous they get, I sometimes wonder why I watch this show. I didn't, in fact, watch a lot this season - I kept up with recaps, but I just couldn't bear to watch it play out. I finally watched this one, not realizing it was the cliffhanger before hiatus, and I was reminded of why: it's the little acting moments. When Stef was ranting at the end, the way Lena sharply yelled her name to get her to look at Callie, then the cut to Callie rocking with tears rolling down in the dead silence, almost inaudibly keening, then back to the look on Stef's face when she realized - that sequence was a punch in the gut even more powerful than a minute later when Callie said the accusation was true. That's what keeps me coming back to this show - they don't do big plotlines well at all, but the little moments of character building and payoff are amazing compared to any other show out there. ETA: I was really disappointed, though, that they never really brought out the idea that Jude might be bisexual. It was almost all framed as "not gay any more?" or "only gay for Connor". Bisexual is the most obvious answer to me, so I'm really disappointed that wasn't the angle they pushed.

Wait, he ...drives in circles for a living? IS FERNANDO A RACECAR DRIVER? If so, this show had darned well better have Kimmy watching Downton Abbey and trying to act like Lady Mary leading Henry Talbot around by his nose, or they have missed the best cultural reference joke. I can't stand Kimmy, but I'd definitely watch her try to do a Mary Crawley impression.

About Anna - I think her pregnancy is still a secret from most of the servants. The only ones who know are the same ones who know what really happened to Thomas, so nobody would think it odd that she's bringing him his food etc.

I had been thoroughly spoiled for the episode, and was pleased to see that Bertie didn't just up and storm out of the room and LEAVE FOREVER, but that he and Edith talked it over like grownups after he'd calmed down. I was expecting Edith to say something like "I tried to tell you a dozen times" or "Didn't you notice my reluctance? That was why, and I never did directly say yes". But she didn't. At first that annoyed me, but then I realized no, she's taking full blame for the fact that she didn't tell him, no matter how much she thought about it or tried to dodge the marriage question. I really liked that. Even more than Edith and Tom yelling at Mary, I think the most cutting thing anyone said to her was Edith at the wedding, casually saying well of course you're nice now, that's because you're happy, and you'll get back to being a bitch soon. (not that she said it in quite those terms, much as I wanted her to) It really summed up Mary's personality. She likes to think she's a paragon of good manners and higher upbringing, but she just lashes out with whatever her id is up to at the moment.

I did not even notice it until Alex Hirsch tweeted it today, but the bus driver was Kyle MacLachlan. After all the comments over the years about Twin Peaks similarities, he threw us that bone at the end. :D

Cipher at the end: FADED PICTURES BLEACHED BY SUN THE TALE’S TOLD, THE SUMMER’S DONE IN MEMORIES THE PINES STILL PLAY ON A SUNNY SUMMER’S DAY

OH MY GOSH LIGHT BULB I couldn't figure out why the heck Mary cared at all how Thomas treated the children, given that she seems to repeatedly forget that she has one. That totally explains it, though. Thanks, WatchrTina.

The curse of the lonely Crawleys who have no friends has already infected Henry. There is just no way he'd be by himself by just after dinner. He and Charlie were part of a team, right? The team would be together, and wouldn't let anyone be alone that first night. And he said he had to "take care of Charlie's family" - I'd think he'd be there for awhile. He wouldn't be sitting around moping by himself, he'd be collapsing the next day after staying up with everyone else. Daisy's little "doesn't it, though?" after Mrs. Patmore said sharing love doesn't mean dividing it got me to forgive her for all the slams of the last few weeks. Oh right, she was basically an orphan (or abandoned) who has lived at the mercy of other people her whole life. Of course she doesn't know how relationships work, poor thing. Hm, if Isobel marries Merton, can the Granthams sell her house to make some money? They could even sell the dower house once Violet dies, assuming that Cora and then Mary will just live at Downton until they die instead of moving to their own house (although if Mary turns out like Violet, which I'm sure she will, some distance would probably be good for George). I worry for Edith. Her having an engagement right when Mary's broken it off with her own boyfriend is a serious danger zone for Mary trying to drag Edith right back down with her. In S1, Mary tanked Edith's first run at Strallan after realizing she had to contend with Matthew instead of looking for her own husband. She could easily pull the same thing now and tell Bertie there's no way the family would accept him, that Edith would look down on him, etc. I noticed his glances at Mary when she was sniping at Edith, but I doubt he's got her number to the point that he'd know she was outright lying to him. So, would Thomas accept a demotion back down to footman to stay? Robert and Mr. C have talked several times about not needing an under-butler, but never about not needing a footman. Robert's not caring about the dog weeing on everything - besides the fact that the servants would be dealing with it, I thought "And we saw last episode you don't even know your house, so you don't know those are half a million dollar carpets she'd be ruining, you twit". I thought that Rosamund digging at Robert at dinner was realistic - she is his sister, after all. I assume that's exactly how Mary and Edith will be in the future. Oh also, about Tom - they could clear up his Henry obsession so easily with just a little dialogue - Mary asks him why he cares about her being with Henry so much, and he says something about how when they're together he sees a happiness and a spark in Mary that hasn't been there since Matthew died, and even if she doesn't realizes how much she loves him it shows. But instead, we're left wondering what the heck is going on. So frustrating.

That whole "How can Mary not possibly link Henry's hobby to her husband's death" question reminds me of an argument that happened about Torchwood - the main character Gwen had previously played an 1800s character named Gwyneth on Doctor Who, so everyone watching naturally assumed that she was supposed to be a reincarnation of the past character and wasn't that a nice bit of continuity/crossover? But then the writer was genuinely aghast and said not at all, the names Gwen and Gwyneth have nothing to do with each other, and how dare anyone think that because it was so preposterous. And everyone else in the world went "Whuh?" I imagine JF would have the same "Preposterous!" reaction to everyone wondering how Mary isn't a touch concerned about THE WHOLE CAR THING and somehow can't even see how they're connected. Maybe it's a British writer thing. I don't really mind that the family didn't notice Gwen, especially since she was there when there was still a fairly big contingent of servants. I doubt they ever see most of the staff. Heck, we never even saw most of the staff - when there was the whole to-do about Daisy taking over for one of the scullery maids, I was all "oh, they still have those?"

I missed the first 15 minutes because I didn't realize it was on. Only found out because I follow one of the actors on twitter and saw a comment about it. (does that mean Switched At Birth is back too? You would think Freeform would have important things like starting date on their website...) I agree with everyone about everything. Shady foster lady is obviously a private foster care advocate who wants the site to control placements into the private part of the system. Desperate Monte is desperate. Jesus v.2 startled me when I saw him in the house (WHO IS THIS GUY oh....) and he's not any better an actor than Jake was, at least so far. Lexie is annoying and I don't know why she came back - for all I just complained about Jesus' acting, the way he just noped out of there when he saw Lexie's campaign poster summed up my feelings about her exactly. Annie Potts is fantastic, but why would she date someone who is so angry and opposed to what her own daughter does for a living? Speaking of Stef, cancer? Really? They don't have ENOUGH going on in the plotlines of this show? It's like every episode is the result of the writers having a drinking game where they dare each other to fit one more thing in. Need more Jude. I still can't get over how much older he is now. I liked that he hugged Connor's dad even though I agree that it's a little too pat that his dad would do such a turnaround and everyone would be ok with his history. More Jude and Mariana, less Brandon and Callie.

I'm curious as to how "realistic" they'll try to make the return of Mike. If he lands in the ocean, he has no way to get to land. If he lands on land, even with the parachutes that would be a hard landing, right? And imagining he makes it, he hasn't felt gravity in about 4 years or so. Or eaten any solid food. His re-acclimation would be... rough.

I like how whoever had that freezer filled it with nothing but one-pound packages of bacon. Was there a sale at Costco or something?

She didn't though, did she? She said she hadn't thought of it before, and that she didn't want to do that to Marybeth, and she didn't want to do that to Emmett. It seemed she was explicitly making sure NOT to say she wasn't interested in him like that. And the kiss itself only lasted so long because she actively kissed him back. But yes, that was not a good model of "yes means yes" clear consent. (If you don't like thinking of it as assault, think of what her view of it would have been if she hadn't liked him at all. Grabbing her face and forcing a kiss on her nonconsensually? Yes, that is assault.) (but I admit it was hard to think of such nuances when Travis was so SMOKING HOT OH MY GOSH. Ryan Lane is always cute, but he was really bringing it this episode. That was some seriously intense acting there.) I thought he was doing it as a way to show her that he had been paying attention, that he knew what a terrible time she'd had and he knew that he had been a big part of that badness, and he did refer to Tank as a rape, showing her he accepted her version of it. I liked that Bay was a tattoo artist, even if it did seem too fast. That's a way for her to really make an impact on individuals and change their lives, which is what she seems to want to do with her art. I also liked that they left it hanging that they were there for 10 months and didn't explain why - that's an interesting cliffhanger. I also thought of Alfonso Ribeiro when they said the baby's name. :D

I liked that they didn't believe Real Phil's story about the bacon, and did believe that Todd had done it. And I liked that they put them both in the stocks at the end. But I couldn't believe that they'd be in southern California and not think "hey, some houses probably have solar panels" when they first got there and were looking for a place to live. Not sure about the group - I still hate them, and I'm not sure this development salvages them enough to make me want Real Phil and Carol to stick around with them. If they realize how much of a jerk New Phil is next week, maybe.

Yes - I couldn't believe she answered the call from Regina rather than ignoring it/quick hangup to call 911 instead!

Oh yeah, about Daphne and Sharee - it's like the writers have totally forgotten that Daphne grew up in the poor section of town. She should not be so shocked and surprised that someone might not have all of the background and support needed for college!

theatermouse, I totally thought that too. Malibu is a big place - he can live across town! And Carol can visit her jerk friends! And Phil doesn't have to interact with them except for the occasional dinner party! I know he wants people too, but please, not these people. This is an abusive relationship for him. (and was anyone else going " PHIL. You have HANDS. You can COVER THE SPRAY NOZZLE SO IT DOESN'T SPRAY YOU IN THE FACE."?)