watcher1006

The opening sentence from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five comes to me: "Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." That's what this episode felt like to me, as if exactly that had happened to the viewing audience.

I was definitely disappointed at the end about how much the plots of the series in general and the finale in particular hung on the question of Catherine of Aragon's virginity. Not sure I care to tune in for Part 2. The scene of Dudley's execution was grotesque but I imagine that historically headsmen were not always accurate and often enough had to take more than a single swing.

The Hapsburg line suffered particularly from a long history of inbreeding, marriages with a high degree of consanguinity. Of course that generally occurred in the royal bloodlines of Europe and thus the genetic troubles which often made those bloodlines less than robust.

I don't think Margaret Pole can love Catherine of Aragon because of what happened to Teddie but I don't think she hates her either. On the other hand I think she can hate the Lady Mother of the King for what the Tudors have done to her family. I could see her hating the mother more than the son if she thinks that it was the mother pulling the strings behind the scenes. She would do well to steer a pragmatic course but she may not see telling the King's mother that Catherine is lying to be that course. M. Pole knows what ruthlessness the King's mother is capable of. It was amusing how the Lady Mother of the King would only refer to Catherine as "that Spanish girl" in this episode. However much Catherine wants to be Queen of England I can't see her immediately and totally rejecting her mother's command to return and burning her letter.

I was also waiting for something more about Connor and Ava. It would be too bad if they just vanished from the show with barely an explanation. On the other hand, is the show worth tuning back into come fall? They made it look that way but if its the case it would be going too far, in my opinion. Dislikable as Ava Bekker may be, could they have they really turned her into a man-obsessed murderer? Maggie not only bears the burden of having metastatic breast cancer, she also has to deal with the guilt of having given it to a friend she was trying to help. She really CAN'T catch a break. I liked the idea of both Maggie and Dr. Latham being able to sign to the hearing impaired couple. Disappointing that they made a big cliffhanger about Will and Natalie. That relationship is so tired by now, they've been going at it since early Season 1.

Well Elizabeth of York has exited the scene now but Margaret Pole remains fully in the thick of it. Yes I agree, we're not likely to stop hearing about her brother Teddy anytime soon. Not liking this portrayal of Catherine (Katherine?) of Aragon too much although Charlotte Hope is appealing enough. Her mother Queen Isabella keeps being mentioned, her father Ferdinand II, not so much.

I haven't read any of the Philippa Gregory books but does she actually come out and say that the marriage between between Arthur and Catherine was consummated? That lies at the heart of the whole matter of "The Great Question" leading to Henry VIII breaking from Rome and historically she told the Pope herself that it was not.

I guess there was supposed to be some "subtle" irony at the end when the teenage mother decided she might not want to give her baby away after all, which is what set the whole chain of events into motion. I agree it was hard to feel too much for the hostage taker, he had no plan for getting out of the hospital and no plan for what to do if he did.

In particular, this along with Ato Essendoh's unavailability leaves the cardiothoracic unit of the hospital vacant-never mind what will happen with the hybrid ER/OR. I wonder if the show will restaff it with new characters or if they will stop having so many stories about heart cases, and they sure have had a lot up till now.

I think the flash forward was a mistake. Whatever one thinks of the futures of the characters that were shown, it robs the episodes to come of some of their intrigue or at least unnecessarily colors them for the viewer.

It occurred to me that the cardiothoracic unit of Chicago Med was very strained for resources in this episode. Rhodes and Bekker performing the tumor removal surgery on the heart of the driver who crashed, Rhodes also on the team of doctors helping the man pinned under the car, and on top of that a teenager with CF needing an immediate lung transplant. Did Latham himself perform the transplant surgery on the girlfriend? Even if he did there would have been a need for specialized assistants and equipment, equipment, equipment. Can the cardiothoracic unit of a real hospital deal realistically deal with such a situation?

I agree with the pro-Miguel comments on this thread and I was angry at Toby when he made the joke about Kate wanting to see him first. It was so cruel. Here was Miguel feeling the typical Pearson family exclusion of him and then Toby goes and makes a joke which was driven by the feeling, likely one that he agrees with, that Miguel is not quite part of the family.

I liked the exploration in this episode of Deja's school situation. Yes, of course having an essay posted on the school paper is going to draw attention to her and her teacher Miss Cunningham should have known that. But there is a deeper resentment that she is being treated differently and looked at differently from her white classmates, even when she does something to draw praise and recognition. And it is understandable that she doesn't want to go through an imminent upheaval of being thrust into high school a year ahead, even though it should feel like a reward for working hard and being smart. It is going to be a hard decision for Deja, Randall, and Beth to make.

She didn't speak again but at the end Choi said (while the camera showed her in the bed) that she was likely to lose all five fingers of her left hand. I suppose that symbolically it represented the reality that her marriage was over and that the recovery of her wedding ring was meaningless.

Dr. Latham is head of the department and should have an important, if not deciding, voice in a dispute between the two surgeons. In no way is the department Bekker's "floor" as she claimed, unless there've been reorganizations and/or promotions that haven't been mentioned. Instead the argument spilled into Sharon Goodwin's office. We were missing a step in the chain of authority. If Choi had some nagging doubts before April's invitation, couldn't he have told Vicky beforehand that he wasn't ready to take the step of meeting her parents? Seems more realistic. If he had his reversal solely due to the invitation then he seems to be quite the flake. Either way he seems to have unnecessarily burned bridges with Vicky. I wonder what kind of excuses she will make for him to her parents.

That spare parts generator brother story was grotesque, reminiscent even of the story of Frankenstein and his creation. But really, what are the rules here? The parents can't force their child to give up his tissue for his brother's sake when doing so is clearly harmful to and risky for him, can they? They just continue to make the Connor-Ava story more tiresome and unbelievable. Once again where was Dr. Latham when we needed him? I wish Ato Essendoh had more time to give to this show. And a groan to the idea of Ethan slipping back towards April again. Has she so quickly gotten over her fury at him for suspecting her of murder?

I feel that the Ava Bekker character worked best on this show as a strong minded professional competitor to Connor Rhodes. They could have developed her character further without introducing a romance between the two. Not every woman and man who are put together in the workplace develop romantic feelings between each other and it annoys me when TV shows make it seem that way. Well I understand your opinion. I note the coincidence that this episode should air this week as violence and race relations are very much in the news cycle with the Jussie Smollett business and the news that broke the very same day as the episode aired about the Coast Guard lieutenant who was planning a killing spree against liberal figures in government and the press.

A theme of race relationships ran throughout this episode - the homicidal white supremacist, the brain dead daughter possibly donating her heart to a white recipient, all the racial complexities of Dr. Charles’ family. The medical stories seemed to take back place to that overriding theme. That said, I thought the episode's treatment of said theme was sufficiently nuanced and not overly self-righteous. Connor seems to pair more naturally with Robyn on screen than with Ava. I don't know if Mekia Cox is a better actress than Norma Kuhling or if she just has a better written character or better onscreen chemistry with Colin Donnell. To watch them it seems like it's not much of a contest between the two women.

It's an ongoing story, done compellingly in the Broadway musical "A Chorus Line". Talented young people in the performing arts - music, stage, ballet - someday have to learn that there are only a few places in the world for them to make it professionally. To make it in ballet one has to start young and it can cost money and as one matures physically she or he may just not have the talent or perhaps not have the body type to succeed, regardless of how much talent she or he may have shown earlier. I liked Phylicia Rashad, not sure about the episode as a whole, but I thought the story of a performing artist having to let go of her childhood dreams was well done.

I groaned at the Will Halstead story in this one. Season 1 WH redux with emphasis. So he hasn't grown at all in these last few years of being attending? It seemed beyond credulity when he went to Sam Abrams to try and stop him from doing the surgery, just as he was scrubbing for it, and after he was the one who brought the situation on. Oh yeah, and then they grafted on the unlikely happy ending for good measure.

Didn't this feel like the mob people Will was involved with sending him some kind of message, like "yes we have our eye on you"? Like they knew he had a gun and where it was and so on. The gun theft appears destined to continue haunting Will. I don't know how they can make Ava Bekker any more dislikable.

Also no Iceland story this finale. I'm wondering - if Floki really is dead, where are they going to go with the Iceland settlement story? Sure there are still people there but not one of them besides Floki seems to have developed into a real character. If Freydis' baby couldn't nurse at her breast as the midwife said then did he really have much chance of survival anyway?

How beat up Ubbe was after his victorious fight - within inches of losing his life - and that it took time for him to recover from it - well that's a dose of realism. It makes me think how unrealistic some of the scenes are of people generally walking around after a battle as if they were just fine and that nothing had happened to them. It occurred to me that with everything going on it's possible to get confused over who hates whom and what sides the sons of Ragnar are on relative to each other. I too was wondering if the end had come for Floki. So that was his "land of the gods".

When characters suddenly stop appearing it may be because the actors have found gigs elsewhere. I like Dr. Latham and he might certainly have something to say about the silliness between Connor and Bekker but maybe Ato Essendoh isn't currently available?

I don't hate this show, it is one of the only two broadcast network shows I watch regularly. But I hope they don't keep it going to the point when it gets driven into the ground. No show could maintain the high writing level and plot intensity that was S1 of This Is Us, but I would like to see some more still of the stories of the main characters. Sterling K. Brown remains brilliant as Randall. Perhaps Kevin has of late been the least interesting of the three siblings to me but now I am intrigued as to where the quest for his uncle will lead.