meira.hand

I would like to give a shout-out to Ben Browder in this episode. He managed to make the hostage taking scenes intense enough to make the whole episode vibrate. He has only done bit parts in the last ten years after Farscape and Stargate which I have been wondering about.

It looks like the writer is just not interested in the male characters apart from what is needed to highlight the female characters behavior. They are almost disposable place markers, which in the case of Joshua Jackson is criminal (although he squeezes every drop from each reaction he is allowed to have 🙂). I realize that this is a female centered story and all the people responsible for creating it are women, but it does the series a disservice being so tilted.

Ok but I feel like Elena’s motivations are easier to see in the story. I don’t agree with them but I understand them. Mia’s are harder to understand for me. She’s clearly living a life where she has to keep moving yet she inserts herself into this situation. She doesn’t like Elena but she accepts a job working there to keep an eye on Pearl. She’s clearly the catalyst and that makes sense for the story to happen. But as a character, I don’t get it. Its hard to fully understand Mia because this is how she was written. Full of secrets in her past that are only hinted at but never explained. Her actions, towards almost everyone, seem to be motivated more by her past experiences than by what the situation actually calls for. Even Bebe said that she was better off not knowing and later nearly accepted that her daughter may be better off with the adopting parents but Mia pushed her really hard to fight them. The same is true with her behavior towards Pearl, accepting that Izzy finds it easier to communicate with her but not that pearl can honestly find it easier to communicate with Elena. Everything is viewed thru the filtered glasses of her own past traumas that are never explained, just hinted at. Still I don't think we are meant to blindly root for her because of it.

From the first episode there have been many posts with similar comments, assuming we are supposed to root for Mia while her behavior and attitude often makes it hard. I wonder why this is an assumption in the first place. What I like about this series is that no one here is totally bad or good. They are all (well actually mostly the female leads:) complex characters, regardless of their background, social status or economic circumstances. Maybe the writers never intended us to root for or criticize specific characters but only specific actions.

This was especially upsetting because both her and Bebe were acting as if May Ling was kidnapped. Despite the tragic circumstances Bebe did leave her at the firehouse and the adoption was done in good faith and with love, so despite Bebe's grief, her outrage was really not justified and Mia who knew the people involved behaved outrageously.

Nice catch :). This now makes sense.

I was wondering why after shouting "Austin Fire and Rescue" Owen didn't add: "please open the door" before motioning to TK to breach the door, without even a warning in case someone is standing on the other side. Even if the grandma was too distracted to remember the door was closed, this would have reminded her.

Exactly. I must admit this whole plot point eludes me. I kept thinking that I must have missed something here, because it never made sense, not when KIm suggested it and even less when the dumb pair went thru their rampage. The only point that sort of contributed to the story was that they went for a much larger drug buy, which is probably what resulted in the packets being stuck in the drain pipe.

This. He was clearly in tears when he heard her scream. This way he could get his sister what she wanted and still give Soji a chance while seeming to try and kill her.

After Harry Treadaway role as Brady in Mr. Mercedes, Narek is positively a sweetheart :)

Ditto. He sometimes sounds shady and others sincere. So either the writers told him to leave it open or this is just inconsistent acting. I am quite sure he did something shady that he is trying to hide but on a personal level is still very likable.

Both mothers used sperm from a sperm bank that apparently came from the same donor (they came from a small town) but the families were not acquainted. It did seem a little strange because I would assume, to be on the safe side, that sperm banks would not leave multiple samples in the same place, especially not if its a small town.

Later it occurred to me that this scenario could only be accepted and nearly unnoticed because the kid was not actually killed and the people who were killed were either unknown to us or not even shown.

What really disturbed me was that they were taking care of the copied man by providing him with an alibi, while essentially waiting for another kid to be murdered. They knew what the killer will look like and that he was hunting for kids and yet did not even try to do anything about it. Also did not try to find and stop the killer "helper" from providing new bodies for it. There is zero urgency in what they are doing while people are being killed.

He was asking her advice as press secretary when and how to release this information so it does the least harm. Read more And later when Mayor and Wife appeared together holding hands on TV, Press Secretary had a line like, "That's what I did," which I presumed was as opposed to Press Secretary having a hot date with Mayor at his most vulnerable moment, but maybe that was not the intended subtext? I saw it as her patting herself on the shoulder for giving him a good professional advice, which he followed, i.e. filling the news cycle with positive message supporting women, with his wife by his side, which will make the news about the divorce a small private issue that will not harm him or humiliate his wife.