Virtual

Great episode. I've actually looked forward to each episode this season, and I don't expect that to change with the way the season has been going. My only complaint is that there's been no Dylan and Emma the past two episodes. These are characters I've gotten to know and like since Season 1 and I want to know how they're doing, too. But I'm kind of hoping that Emma finds out what happened to Caleb and feels bad; I was pretty much "ehh" over her telling him he had to leave in return for helping save her life. If it weren't for him, she was going to die and never would have had the opportunity to make the family that she has. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the Sheriff looking at the sign-in book being similar to Arbogast doing so in Psycho. Her catching Norman on things he says differing from previous things (the clutter, and knowing where the hitman was from) also reminded me of Arbogast catching him in the movie about how recently he'd seen people try to check in the motel. Romero sure took an unexpected turn as far as where I expected him to go. We hadn't seen Keith Summers' sister since the first season when Romero went to her for information about that guy Abernathy. I'm guessing he will stay at her house until he gets "patched up" enough to confront Norman. I definitely wasn't expecting him to try and confront him now, when he's having a hard time getting around. But we all know that is what is keeping Romero going at this point; he wouldn't have even tried to escape had the hitman succeeded in killing Norman. Although I'm not a big fan of Chick, I couldn't quite understand the reasoning behind Norman telling him he couldn't stay at the house anymore. As far as Norman knows, he's only been helpful. My thought is, he's afraid Mother will go off the rails and try to get him to kill Chick, and he doesn't want to do that. I think Chick's book is in danger of being found out by Norman, especially since he's now told Norman that he's writing one (he just didn't tell Norman it was about him and his secrets), and if he finds out, Mother will know too. If I didn't think Madeline was a goner before (and I did), I think it even more now, since we saw clear evidence that Mother wants to kill her. You could liken that scene to the scene in Season 3 when Norman and Bradley were making out, Mother appeared and Norman ran to avoid hurting her. We all know what happened to Bradley after that. And did Mother take over Norman's body at the end of the episode when he was in the kitchen? The synopsis for the next episode says that he tries to piece together Mother's movements.

So it looks like we got some air time of a completely different group of colleagues at the time the virus hit Earth. And the woman we saw who stayed in the bunker is connected (or will be connected to) Tandy and his group due to seeing Erica, Gail and Todd with a drone camera, I assume? Not sure how that will work out but we will see, I guess. Did we see Erica, Gail and Todd spotting that camera in a previous episode (I can't remember)? Like this show did with Mike, we pretty much got a whole episode giving us an idea of who this woman is supposed to be.

What I was interested to see was if the Alternate Universe version of Robin would be able to transport to Storybrooke. So far, it looks like that's gone well. Regina bringing back "another Robin" has pretty much been the way she has always dealt with loss (IIRC, she tried to bring back Daniel), so that's not surprising. I WAS surprised to see Emma encourage her to do it, but that can be attributed to Emma and Regina becoming fairly close over the 6 seasons this show has aired, and it's great that Emma cares that much about Regina's happiness. I laughed considerably at the AU version of Hook, and Emma's comments to the Storybrooke version of Hook about switching from rum to water. Hopefully Gideon doesn't have anything within his personality to allow him to be redeemed easily. He has the potential to be a very threatening villain, and I think it'd be interesting to see.

It's safe to say Caleb is dead now. I really hate to see him go, but after getting hit like that by the car Chick was driving, there's no way he's still alive. Chick had zero time to slow down by the time he realized Caleb was standing in the road. I found it very interesting that Norman himself, in his own persona, can't bring himself to kill someone*, even though he's killed many when blacked out as Mother. This is why I don't think Norman is a bad guy. He IS dangerous, but because he blacks out and kills, not knowing what he's doing on a conscious level. I already didn't like Chick because of how he knowingly put Caleb and Dylan in a position to be killed in Season 3, but he's once again hitting a low by using Norman and his illness to write a book on it, and profit from it. At least he's not doing anything to hurt Norman directly, although he sees everything that is going on with Norman and doesn't attempt to get him help, only using the situations he sees as further material for his book. To me, Chick sees other people as tools he can use for his own benefit, and only pretends to care about hard/painful predicaments others go through. But I will say this: at least he is smart in the way he is playing all of these roles. As far as Romero, if he doesn't get to a hospital or to someone who can patch him up, I really don't see him surviving past the next episode. It looked like he got shot right in the gut by that teenager. *Well..... Norman DID kill Norma while in his own persona and being aware of what he was doing, but he also planned on taking himself with her and when that didn't happen, he started clinging onto any semblance of Norma's memory and using it to convince himself she's still alive. Norman has yet to kill someone in his own persona while planning to survive himself.

I'm in no hurry to purchase this, in fact, if I never get it, it won't be the end of the world. I'm like the previous two posters on the subject of the Nintendo Switch; I'm not hyped up for it.

I think Maya is just as much to blame for the unhealthy closeness of her friendship with Riley as the latter is to blame. I also blame Cory and Topanga for not encouraging them to spread their wings a little more. Riley and Maya's "unbreakable" (rather, obsessive) bond I found okay at first and not really unhealthy. But the writers were sure to amp it up towards the end of the show to the point where that was the case. I find these obsessive friendships really annoying in today's kids' shows, and Girl Meets World took it to the extreme with Riley and Maya. They did not know how to seperate from each other; it was bad enough to the point that they were getting up in front of the class and doing each other's speeches together as a DUET!! And Cory actually accepted this?! This is where I have to face-palm big time. Topanga noticed this too and accepted it, so the blame falls on her as well. Cory and Shawn were inseperable friends in Boy Meets World, and Topanga even said that Cory loved Shawn more than he loved her. But at least Cory and Shawn had to figure out a lot of stuff on their own. They had a lot of plots written seperately. I can't recall a time that happened with Riley and Maya. It sends a bad message to young kids, because they'll think it's okay to be emotionally reliant on someone else. You can't get through life that way.

AHS got off to the best start possible with Murder House and Asylum. I really enjoyed those two seasons. Coven was a good and interesting season as well. I didn't care for Freak Show at all, and was relieved when I finished watching through that season. Hotel picked things back up, as I found the several stories they followed to be entertaining/interesting. I have yet to see Roanoke; I'll be surprised if it surpasses Asylum on my list though.

I have to agree that the cards are stacked against Caleb at this point. It's more hope on my part that he makes it out. Another thing that came completely to light in my mind after watching this episode is that Norman thought of himself as a burden to Norma, which is somewhat sad. Real Norma, aside from one outburst in Season 3, never said anything to Norman to allude to that. But his Mother hallucination (which we all know contains Norman's inner thoughts and how he perceived Norma) has been saying things that indicate this quite a bit in these first two episodes. Plus he told Dr. Edwards last season that he couldn't stand adding to the list of things that make Norma suffer.

We were all pretty much waiting for someone to find out just how insane Norman has become, and Caleb and Chick both found out in this episode. Caleb already knew that Norman was dangerous from his encounter with "Mother" when Norman showed up at the King's Motel in Episode 2x04, and knew right away that it was Norman who killed Norma. Surely when Dylan finds out, he's going to know it was Norman's doing as well. Like Caleb, Dylan also knows how dangerous Norman is. Speaking of Caleb, I'm actually hoping he makes it out of this alive, but it's not looking good for him right now. A lot of people don't like him because he raped Norma when they were young, and I thought he was going to be an unlikable monster on the show after his first couple of scenes (showing up at the auto mechanic's asking where the motel was, and when he first showed up at the motel), but he has proved himself to be the opposite of that since he appeared on the show. I really came around on him when he helped Dylan get the money for Emma's lung transplant. But if it's not Caleb who informs Dylan about what's going on, I don't know how he will make his way back to White Pine Bay. We know he eventually does, since he's seen in the house talking to Norman in the season previews (and throwing him onto the Mercedes).

Is there any way I can watch the full episode online? I still haven't seen it.

Lots of thoughts after seeing the first episode of the new season. I guess my first one is that I was disappointed that they did not open the episode with explaining how Norman got Dr. Edwards off his back. They were doing therapy 3 times a week, and Dr. Edwards in a deleted scene from 4x10 said he wanted to see Norman every day after finding out Norma died (thinking she was the one who committed suicide and wanted to take Norman with her). Was he able to just fool him by coming off as normal, like he's doing with everyone else in town? I'd have liked to see an opening scene like that, and then have them cut to two years later and start that timeline with the Norma/Norman breakfast scene. There's been speculation that "Mother" will get more bitter towards Norman as the season goes on, but I think "Mother's" attitude will variate from sweet/loving, murderous or bitter depending on the situation. We saw in this episode her trying to make Norman feel bad because he planned on spending time with Madeline, bringing up how she "has to take care of and protect" him and how she gave up her life for him. Then later she "pulled him by the ear" up the stairs and showed him the dead body in the basement freezer, telling him that guy came to the motel to shoot him, so he went into a blackout and she killed him. It's good to see that Dylan and Emma are doing well in their lives, and now have a baby daughter. But with Emma telling Caleb he had to leave (Caleb's a prime example of how an ugly past can brand you for life), I'm assuming he's gonna show up at the motel where Chick or Norman will attack him. Overall, a good start to the season and I feel it's gonna get better with each episode.

^ I actually wonder if they find Bradley's body in the lake as well. In the season previews, Norman is told that bodies were found in the lake and is asked if he knew anything about it. It could be characters that "Mother" killed earlier in S5, but I would not be surprised at all if Bradley's was one of the bodies they found. I think Norman WILL get caught for all he's done, but it won't happen until the very end of the finale episode in my opinion.

Thoughts that popped in my head after seeing this episode were Eric behaving ungratefully towards Feeny, which I found to be lousy of him. Feeny helped him become who he is, and apparently because he didn't help Eric enough according to the video I heard about (even though Eric is well into adult years and should figure things out for himself), he throws a childish fit. I also figured that whatever speeches Harley and Minkus gave to Cory and Topanga were cut out. Speaking of which, I believe this episode was the first time those two were in a room together during any Meets World Series episode. Can't help but think that there are still tiny loose ends here and there, but at the same time the show felt really forced at times. Boy Meets World was more natural, likely because they weren't a spin-off show trying to be like its predecessor at times.

I haven't yet seen Sponge Out of Water, but the SpongeBob movie I saw the year it first came out and I still watch it on the DVD once in a while.

Recently, my favorite character has been Patrick. I also like Larry even though he's a minor character. I used to like Squidward, but I've been "eh" on him as of most recent.

Season 3 had a lot of my favorite episodes (SpongeBob BC, The Strangler, Born Again Krabs, I Had An Accident, Plankton's Army, MMBB 5), so I'd have to say that is my favorite season. I have yet to watch the entire seasons beyond Season 5 (which I got the DVD for pretty cheap only a few days ago).