Snapdragon

You know, when they first introduced the idea of Bow becoming a stay-at-home mom, I thought it would be an interesting plotline because it's something you don't see that often on TV. We see a lot of experienced stay-at-home moms (ie, women that have been doing it for several years) and lots of women transitioning from being a stay-at-home mom to re-entering the workforce but you don't often see a show covering a woman being a new stay-at-home mom and all the challenges and adjustments that entails. You see that plot with dads a lot these days but not with moms (because I guess TV producers just assume that all women just smoothly and naturally adapt to being a stay-at-home parent). So yeah, I was on board when they first decided that Bow would be a stay-at-home mom but I'm no longer a fan as it's become very obvious that they have no idea what to do with her in this role. There are so many things they could have done with this. In the earlier seasons, Bow was very organic/granola about food so why not have a plot where now that she has more time at home, she's gotten way into cooking...only it's all awful tasting and the rest of the family is figuring out ways to work around it. Her going to yoga makes sense so why not have her get really competitive about it, trying to show up her yoga classmates? Since Bow was so dismissive of stay-at-home moms in the past, why not have her be treated similarly by a working mom so that she realizes how unpleasant she was being before? Have her volunteer at the kids' schools and something goes wrong. Have an episode where she has to adjust from saying "Doctor" to "Stay-at-home mom" when someone asks what she does for a living. Any of those things would be better plots and subplots than what they have done with Bow in the last few episodes. I just don't get what the point was of having Bow stay-at-home to spend time with the baby if they're not going to actually do anything with her.

This. I would have preferred it if Alba and Chip had stayed involved in the church as a background thing, with Father Zack showing up every now and then just so that Mickey could be super annoyed by it.

I was shocked when she said that! I could give it a pass if she was trying to make a joke and it fell flat but she was dead serious. The whole thing was just really weird. Also from today's episode, what was up with her telling the dancer/actress from Step It Up to turn away from her when she spoke because she didn't want the flu? That was just really rude and unprofessional, especially since I highly doubt the woman had the flu, given that she just did an all out dance routine.

It was in English last season too. There is the option to play the show in Spanish so if you do that then the theme song is in Spanish but if you have the audio set to English, then the theme song is in English too.

Wasn't it Randall that turned the crockpot back on? When Jack comes into the kitchen, Randall is standing by the crockpot, eating something out of a bowl. So my guess is that Rebecca did turn the crockpot off but that Randall turned it back on the reheat the chili for a late night snack. And this just occurred to me but is the red-haired girl that teenage Randall is dating (can't remember her name) going to be Miguel's daughter? Because in the scene where Kate and Randall are sitting on Miguel's couch post-fire, that girl is there. If she and Randall had been dating a long time, I could see him calling her right after and her rushing over even if it is midnight on a school night but if they've only gone on one actual date? That just doesn't seem right. If she's Miguel's daughter though, then she already would have been at his house and would have been woken up by all the commotion. I'm kind of hoping this is the case, for no other reason then it could lead to a deliciously awkward Thanksgiving episode where Randall has to spend the day with his ex-girlfriend because Rebecca and Miguel are hosting all their kids for the holiday.

My guess for Jack's death is that the dog is a complete red herring. Upon waking up and realizing the house is on fire (and knowing that Kevin is gone for the night), Jack and Rebecca split up to get the kids out of the house, each taking their favorite child (and as we all know, Kevin is no one's favorite so it's double lucky that he wasn't in that house that night since between his basement bedroom and non-favorite status, Kevin would have been totes dead. Totes). Rebecca gets Randall out but Jack and Kate get trapped. In an attempt to save them, Jack makes a rope out of bedsheets or something, sending Kate down first. She gets down, but accidentally breaks whatever they're using as a ladder, trapping Jack in the fiery house, which is why she blames herself for his death (or by the time she gets out, the fire has reached Jack and he can't make it down). All the emotions around the dog are probably because after Jack's death, the dog is who Kate clings to and after the dog dies, it's hard for her to get another pet. Also Titanic was released in theaters in December of 1997 but stayed in theaters almost a year, so Randall seeing it on Super Bowl Sunday 1998 is realistic. And while I'm glad that Kevin got his necklace back, my stomach is turning over the fact that he had to write an apology letter to rapey Charlotte to do it. I mean, what did the letter say, "Sorry I ran out on you after you used me (while I was obviously drunk and emotionally unstable) to fulfill your pathetic high school fantasies?" Ugh!

Yes, Adam designed the cover of Jane's novel. It was a few episodes back, when Jane's publisher is sending her various covers to choose from and she hates them all so as a surprise, Adam designs a cover for her. No, Anezka didn't hang herself. At the end of the episode, as the paramedics are taking her body down, the narrator says, "I'll give you a little clue, she didn't kill herself." So I guess that's going to be the mystery for the second half of the season, who killed Anezka.