stopeslite

Another thing that keeps gnawing at me - this is all being framed around how awful it is that Daphne might not get into medical school, her dream, if she has a criminal record. Oh, that would be the dream she's had for, what, all of two months or so? She's gone through at least three different "this is absolutely what I want to do with my life" decisions over the course of this show. That's fine, that's what teenagers are supposed to do, but when she was going on about how this was a thing she had "worked so hard for" and how it was all she wanted to do in life, all I could do was roll my eyes. Girl, you had zero interest in medicine until after you were forcibly put into a clinic for your probation. This is nothing like a lifelong dream being crushed. Know where a criminal record isn't as important? Cooking, which is what they showed her wanting to do for pretty much her whole life before this, which she seemingly only gave up on because she had a bad breakup with a chef. Gaaa. That kind of made me mad. After the kind of cliffhanger they left us with, next is yet ANOTHER fantasy sequence? Wasn't the dancing episode enough? Or John's death dream? No thanks.

Me too! I thought they were going for a whole switcheroo with leading everyone to believe that the vandalism was the thing Daphne had to worry about, and then it would turn out to be the drug thing instead.But nope. I think the plea bargain was because the investigator said that the DA was really pushing this for political reasons - they could be seen as really tough on crime and uncorruptible if they gave time to a state senator's daughter. So how tight the case was wouldn't matter; the DA was going in guns blazing no matter what. Exactly - that was a several-episode arc that took up a huge amount of plot time and had major almost-rioting by the students. But now "oh hey by the way we have to close lol bye" and it was all over?

Oh, what a good idea - maybe this does blow up that way, and it comes out that the new principal wanted it covered up, so the school board fires her and institutes Lena as principal! That is the only way this would make any sense. I couldn't believe they kept calling the dad a "bully" when the real word is "child abuser". I didn't think so at all, and kind of agreed with her. Stef is a protector. If it takes a little emotional self-harm to protect someone else, Stef will choose that route every time. Connor is being physically hit by his dad because of being with Jude. She'd choose distance from Connor to protect him from his dad, and thinks Jude should too. I think she understands that Jude and Connor have a special close friendship going, but she's afraid that Connor will be hurt more, and, by extension, Jude too. Also, she's right that Jude could use some other friends whose lives aren't as full of family drama. Wasn't she just? I loved how she's portrayed Rita as being as vulnerable as the girls, and right under the surface - no digging necessary. Those expressions on her face - the complete loss of knowing what to do about her job, the discomfort at being at a rich guy's house asking for support, all of it. And all in a way that doesn't upstage anyone else. She's amazing.

YES. That was the best part of this episode. No, wait, the best part was Bay lining up a job for herself and figuring out how to meet all of their expenses, in defiance of her father's confidence that she couldn't. Travis and his mom were a close second, though. The writing on this show has gone off the rails. Why did they close Carleton? There was zero reason to do that. They were all graduating. Melody was already going to another job. Toby doesn't need to coach because everyone he knows graduated. It's not like they needed to close it to advance any plot at all. The only person it affects is the new woman who bonks with Toby, and the writers could just have easily just had her job cut due to budget or something. And then Daphne will get more time for lying to the police. I just don't understand this. She may be able to walk it back right now if they do another quick lie and say that she wasn't following the conversation with the policewoman properly (due to being deaf and all) and didn't realize that Bay was taking the fall for her, but otherwise... I just don't get it. I'm more worried that it will be that Daphne has to tell Emmett what happened, and he tells Melody and/or Travis, and then they decide that they have to tell the truth, and then everyone gets mad at each other and in more trouble.

Holy crap Bay. I was mad enough that once again the writers screwed up her once chance to have a good day by having her have to bail on the graduation party to take Daphne to the police, but then that? That was crap. She'd better just get community service. I agree that this won't hurt her in the way it would Daphne, but Daphne's the one who did it! Daphne should be the one punished! I would have been ok with it if Bay had gone ahead and done that, but Daphne hadn't let her. But nope, Daphne sees an easy way out and takes it. I wonder what will happen when John and Katherine find out. Will they side with Bay, or Daphne?

Ok, I just can't get past this - an entire group full of airbenders, and they didn't airbend the airship away from them when they saw it coming? Or airbend the air out of the airship when she started attacking, or airbend a gust to knock her out when she was standing at the open door? How did they not do any of this, and let her keep circling around and firing at them?

Stef is my favorite character in this show always and forever. That's...wow. Yeah, probably exactly that. I miss Jude! But I do like the idea of sending Lena away for awhile. Her character would be so overwhelmed by grief, there would be no way to really write that into the show without it taking over everything. To be fair to the portrayal of the character and not kill plot movement, they had to send her off to deal with it away from everyone. (well, everyone except Jude, who probably collects her tears and transforms them into fuzzy rainbows that hug her until she feels better)

Seriously, what they do to poor Bay on this show. It was great to have a "Stand up for all the people" showdown, and if she had been snarky about the prom the entire time it would have been awesome, but she had a day or two there where she wanted to be pretty and the center of attention and have a night for herself for once. She had a few fleeting moments of feeling special, and then... nope, have to be an activist again. I know she wanted to. I know she couldn't have lived with herself if she hadn't. But jeez, can't the girl have something that is her thing to be happy about, without having to take care of everyone else in the process? Daphne finally broke, and it's about time. Too bad that didn't happen before she stole drugs. I did really like that they brought back the switch with Katherine talking about all that lost time. That was a good use of the background of it. Toby, Toby, Toby. Just... jeez, Toby.

I thought so too, when they were first fighting - I thought Melody was going to say that it was his decision and she respected it. And when it shifted to her telling him what to do, I thought he was going to explode at her. But then that smile - right then you could see how relieved he was, that what he really needed was a mom figure to believe in him and to say that no, he could still do a lot better. In real life that would have been a dangerous path, but a scripted one where the writers have decided that Travis really wanted someone to tell him he couldn't quit? They played it perfectly.

I loved that Bay yelled at Daphne, but I wish Regina would, too. Someone needs to remind Daphne that it's not a sin to get into a fight with someone, that Regina had every right to be angry at Angelo, that Angelo got into fights with lots of people, that Angelo getting so mad was all Angelo's decision. Bay just breaks my heart. Girl needs some goodness in her life! That moment with Travis and Melody at the end, where she stands there glaring at him being all "yes I will so act like your mom because you need one right now and I love you", and he gives her that smile, and they hug? The actors totally, totally sold me on that moment. That little smile took my breath away - this show is full of lovely little character moments, but that was the best one I think I've seen in the entire series.

I just had an awful idea - what if Sophie has some kind of medical condition that requires a blood/tissue match donor, and they all think Callie might be it? That could explain how much Sophie is clinging to Callie, and why her dad hasn't signed away rights yet - he might be holding that as a trade for her assistance to Sophie. Ugh, it makes me sick to think about. But I wouldn't put it past this show.

I'm really disappointed in this storyline, too. Su's apology was a "blink and you'll miss it" version, and it wasn't "I'm sorry for what I did" so much as "I was young and immature so you have to forgive me". I wanted a lot more contrition,and more of her recognizing how much that affected Lin. I would have been more than happy with them making some kind of truce but understanding that Su could never really make it up. I'm totally bored with the 4 horsemen of the bendpocalypse coming after Korra. They do such a good job of worldbuilding, they don't need that kind of cheap storyline. It could just be "Everyone tries to figure out how the world works now" and it would be interesting. Remember how in the first episode the big problem was how to deal with the spirits being there too? And how that just got dropped? I don't know if they'll even get back to it now.

I think Daphne had more unfinished business with Angelo than Bay did. For Bay, he was a father she never knew she had. (and then didn't seem to take a lot of effort in getting to know). For Daphne, though, he was the dad who had abandoned him. She had an entire life history with a particular history in her mind as to what he did to her and to her mom. That's a lot to deal with and try to work through, so I totally buy that Daphne's blooming relationship with Angelo is emotionally more important than Bay's - Daphne is not exactly rewriting history, but patching large amounts of pain that have gone on her entire life, while for Bay it was just all new in the last couple of years.

But it's so much more respectful to realize that Lin has her own problems, she doesn't want to talk about them, and that's ok. Korra doesn't have any special claim to get to know everything about Lin's life. It's a larger societal problem, to think that you should be able to "fix" everything for your friends, and that everyone should work through their problems and get along with everybody. Sometimes a relationship is toxic and everyone is better off letting it lie. And like steelyis said, I'm disturbed that they're modeling "being a meddler is the right thing to do" in a kids' show, especially one that is usually really good about showing nuance and maturity in relationships.

I was also very disappointed in how Korra acted in this episode, and how the whole thing around it was written. When people have a real, deep problem with someone else, there's usually a good reason why, especially if it's family. Korra assumed whatever Lin was mad about MUST be something small and petty and stupid, based just on having met her sister and thinking she seemed nice. She really betrayed Lin there, taking the side of someone she had just met over someone she's known for a few years. When people are so upset with their closest family that they don't talk to them for 30 years and refuse to see them, that's not a history you want to go poking at with a stick. I really didn't like the attitude the show was pushing that everyone has to kiss and make up because the notion of family is more important than anything they ever did, because that's an attitude that can really hurt people in real life.

In a way I wish she would, because I do not want generic baby adjustment drama added to the mix. But I wouldn't want Sherri to deal with that storyline being really pregnant, so I wish they would find some other way out of it.

Yeah, I couldn't believe that Daphne only yelled "Mom" ONCE, when she knew that Regina was in there somewhere. Honestly!

On the interview - Timothy prefaced his question by saying that she had disclosed it, so I think once the interviewee brings it up, it's fair game to discuss. On Timothy - I think Lena might be more gunshy about him being involved, because she already feels shut out when Stef and Mike make decisions about Brandon without her. They've brought the topic up before, but I think that kind of hurt would run really deep. It seemed that a big part of why she wanted to have a baby was to have one kid who was "hers", where she was the primary parent, and Timothy wanting joint custody threatens that. - that's what I kept wondering! If it's a team that does performances at school events, they have to have an adult sponsor/captain or else there would be liability issues for injury, all kinds of issues with whether the dance moves were "appropriate", etc.

Ohno, baby Judicorn! I thought that he might crack sooner or later - they just kept piling more and more on that sweet little head, and he tried so hard to roll with it all. His dad officially giving him up for adoption, Lena being pregnant, Callie not being his full sister, the fallout with Connor, Callie getting a whole other family... I'm glad that they didn't make him a permanent saint, but I hope that they have him get all the love and attention and therapy he needs. Jesus is an idiot. But, an entirely believable teenaged idiot. I hope that Mariana quits the team and changes her hair back to brown. I think they should refuse any money from Callie's dad until she turns 18 - I have a bad feeling about it, too. After how concerned his family is about money and claims to it and all, him trying to give her some will just mess everything up.

Was I the only one who was thrilled that it was Angelo instead of Toby? The writers seem to not know what to do with Angelo, so maybe they'll use this to write him off. And I was sad when he was talking about being a good dad to Daphne, because what about Bay? He and Daphne have issues to work out, yes, but Bay still ever got a chance with him, either. My favorite part was the Kennish Listing of Failures. "Oh, and remember the gambling? That was pretty bad."

No kidding. Since Mariana was searching for the one drunk friend for half of the episode, I was convinced she was going to find the friend passed out and nearly dead and they'd have to call 911 and maybe the friend would be dead anyway and it would be an afterschool special episode about why not to drink. So glad they didn't go there.

I totally can. My parents had a surprise baby when I was almost 21 and hadn't really lived at home for a long time, and I still felt left out. I knew it was irrational and stupid, but it still hurt on an emotional level I wasn't prepared for. Took years to get over feeling so displaced. That said, I agree with everyone who said that it was the topping after several events in a row - housebuying, wedding, that comment about being a mistake (even though he misinterpreted, Cameron worded it horribly), then the baby. Interesting - I read it as the opposite, that he was clapping because he wouldn't go so far as to clap in his preferred method, that he was kind of shutting his dad out of his world. I do like your interpretation better, but I'm not sure how much he was on board. Speaking of the baby thing, I couldn't get over that little talk between Bay and Cameron's wife - "Oh, you discovered our little secret". Yes, you were hiding it so well, having a room that was already half-decorated as a nursery with the door open right next to the bathroom at your HOUSEWARMING PARTY where people might be expected to want to LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE. Sheesh. I love Travis and Marybeth and want to see them all the time plz thx. I wasn't sure if the brother Travis was talking about was his real brother or Emmett - it was kind of unclear. Also we need Toby back now stat.

That part broke my heart, because I thought that what she was doing was trying to act more "crazy" to go along with what Vee wanted. Vee told her that she had done it and not remembered it, Vee told her that she was crazy and needed to take responsibility for it, so Suzanne thought it was now her job to convince the investigators that she had done it so acted as insane as she could to get the investigators to believe her. I am so glad I'm not the only one who thought Old Rosa was Eastern European and Young Rosa was Latina. That is the worst mismatch for flashbacks the show has had. I did love that Vee was a cardboard villain; as mentioned a few times already, sometimes people are just bad. I also saw the death coming, but thought I was kidding myself: "Wouldn't it be fantastic if Rosa hits Vee? They'd never do that"... boom. I also thought at first that it was going to be that Vee got stuck in the tunnel after the older woman put the cover back on. But this was so, so satisfying. Daya and John can leave the show any minute now, as far as I'm concerned. Most boring storyline. Even more boring than Polly and Larry. I do like that Pornstache is trying to take responsibility, in his own twisted stupid way. Poor guy.

I'm also jumping on the "why was everyone so stupid?" bandwagon. They really haven't done any character growth with Daphne at all. Wait, maybe they're trying to show how much she's like John, unwavering in her own beliefs no matter what? Probably not. I just feel so sorry for Tank. So, so sorry. I really felt the lack of Toby this episode. Bring back Toby!

There were bars on the windows - it was hard to see, but in one of the scenes after the woman closes the door, Callie looks longingly at the window and the lighting highlights the bars on the outside. I don't think at all that Mike hit Ana, but I bet he gets blamed for it, and it will take half a season to unravel. I didn't like Emma at all as a character, and still kind of don't, but this bit about her talking to the guys warmed me up a bit. Something about Jesus and Emma still doesn't sit right for me, though. I was totally shocked when I realized the girl who played Callie's sister is the same one who played young Snow. I was as convinced that she looks just like Maia as I was convinced she looks just like Ginnifer. :)