Marie Claudine

Me, too. The entire Toni thing, in fact, made very limited narrative sense, but I still liked them together. In particular, I liked how happy Dylan looked with her, happier then with anyone else. He hardly did any of the sighing and the crunching his forehead that were his go-to moves with both Brenda and Kelly. There is this one episode where Toni goes out for an errand in the morning, and when she comes home, Dylan says, rather cheesily: "I woke up and my baby was gone." The line is nothing to write home about, but he smiles a genuine smile when he says it, and just looks happier than Dylan ever looked. Luke Perry really did a good job selling what was one of the most improbable and least well developed love affairs on the show.

Awww, thanks! Right back at you! I am starting to love this thread; finally I can voice all the unpopular opinions I never admitted to myself. :-) Here's one related to the Kelly/Dylan mess: I should have disliked Kelly for going after Brenda's boyfriend, but really, I didn't. I liked Kelly at this point, she was very cute and relatable and teenager-y, and Brenda frankly got on my nerves with the entitled way she acted around her parents at that time. So even though Kelly was, objectively, totally in the wrong, I didn't much care. However, every time I get to season 5, I start blaming her in retrospect, because she gets so sanctimonious. I don't mind that she isn't perfect and did something rotten. That makes her an interesting character. I do mind that she did something rotten, then got holier-than-thou about the slightest transgression on the part of others. But honestly, had Kelly stayed the character she was in season 3 or even 4, she would have had my blessing with Dylan, wrong as their cheating was.

Here's another: I am not mad at Brandon for not taking Brenda's side when Dylan and Kelly cheated on her, but staying neutral. Yes, Brenda was his twin and therefore deserved his loyalty. But Dylan was the friend who had saved his life when he dangled from that rock at their camping trip. In fact I was glad Brandon did not forget that tidbit and for once did not get all sanctimonious. It made sense to me that he remained neutral, much as that has enraged other posters in the past.

I did, too, although I audibly snort every time he says "kismet". In fact I snort as I type this :-). I stopped liking them together when he became Jim 2.0, but of course by then he was nothing but a narrative Brenda-and-Dylan break-up device.

I must admit I that am totally opportunistic about this issue. Liked Dylan with Brenda, liked that they broke up when they started to get boring, also liked that he started things up with Kelly. It was a good narrative, I think. Didn't like the back-and-forth though, it made the girls look weak and Dylan look stupid. I also didn't like that he sort of kind of went back to Brenda toward the end of season 4. Season 4 Brenda is really not likeable to me, and Dylan drifting back towards her when she is at her most smug and haughty didn't do anything for me. Also, it just seemed as if he wanted the girl who was the least trouble, and after Brenda had been so accepting of him cheating, dumping her and making kissy face with her ex-bestie right in front of her nose, she certainly was the one who "understood" him (read: gave him less grief about getting his act together).

Yup, where did she go? Would she not have been at the Senior Breakfast herself? Lol, whenever I think of that girl and the related plot, I giggle. "Mary Ann gave him roses, and he broke her heart" - Andrea was soo dramatic! Because 16-year old girls always send roses to boys in their class, and nobody notices that unless the guy spreads inappropriate rumours during gym. M-hm.

Wow, it's been some time since I posted here! I always loved TAT, and had a soft spot for Val. I don't fault Kelly at all for telling Donna about Victor Malone's suicide. I would probably have told my best friends, too, especially at that age. Not because I was particularly mean (I don't think), but simply because I would have been deadly afraid that one of my friends might step in it with a careless remark à la "If I have to take this class, I'll kill myself" or "My dad would die if I did this or that" or something similar, around Val. I had a college friend whose mother died in an accident, and boy, are there many thoughtless metaphors with death references in them - and boy, did we cringe every time someone let one slip without thinking or knowing! The pothead thing, to me, was way worse, because it exaggerated Val's tiny slip from the straight Walsh path in a way that was simply hypocritical, coming from Kelly Taylor. This is one of the early instances of Kelly growing into little Miss Holier-Than-Thou. The judgemental face she kept making, after everything she had been through herself! In the later seasons, Val went over the edge. The Kenny Bennerman thing, for instance, was a bit much. But in the beginning, she wasn't exactly a Gina. She didn't deserve the huge amount of mistrust Kelly dished out. With Kelly and Val, I always got the impression that they were both jealous of each other. They just couldn't let it go. Agreed that Tom Miller was a babe. And somehow he seemed like the perfect guy for Val. Although I also quite liked her with David, I have to say.

Glad the ladies survived the finale! I think Milady is probably going to start working for Buckingham next season. I've really grown to like Anne over the past few episodes. Don't get me wrong, I always liked her, but she has grown to be more than just pretty, naive, and kind. I liked her queenly poise and courage when facing Rochefort. I also liked that Aramis tried to make a deal with god to get off the hook. A very human thing to do... Yay for Treville's promotion! Whatever happens next season, Louis will be advised better than he has been of late. Not sure he'll like that, of course.

You are probably right, ennui :-). What I meant to say was that I already didn't feel a lot of emotion from Santiago Cabrera in the scene where Aramis's secret is revealed to the musketeers. I didn't feel the emotions and the rift such a secret between the four of them might potentially bring; from the others, yes, but not from Aramis. But at least I got the impression that he felt genuinely uncomfortable, which I thought was mostly conveyed by his body language. In the arrest scene, I couldn't tell what he was feeling at all. Come to think of it, maybe that's what the actor went for, but in the moment, it felt a bit odd to me.

Agreed. I was a bit annoyed in this scene. I get that the musketeers are supernaturally brave and all that, but this was not just about Aramis. He knew that at this point, Anne and probably sooner or later the little boy were in grave danger. The logic of his character up to now would make it likely that he'd be scared for them, or at least outraged, but the "You start to get on my nerves" stare he went for instead did not convey that. He seemed to be more inconvenienced by the musketeers learning of his night with Anne than by Anne's life being in very real danger.

Great episode. Poor Lemay. I would have loved to keep him. Poor Rochefort. That eyepatch did not do him any favours, although I welcome any setback, even if it's just a mismatched eyepatch for now. And poor Anne. Not only was she nearly raped and is married to a whimsical grown-up child, her own brother would betray her, again. The Catherine plot was a bit of let-down. Was that it with her? On the upside, Athos and Milady were intriguing (unlike Constance and d'Artagnan, for whom I kind of root but who are a tad boring). With everything we've been seen of Aramis/Anne, Athos/Milady and d'Artagnan/Constance, I really think Porthos needs an exciting love interest next season, one that stays for more than one episode. I am really curious now who will survive the finale. Constance has a target on her back, but it's so damn obvious that I am starting to have doubts if they will really kill her off. The actress did a great job with Constance's horror/shock reaction when the doctor was executed, by the way. Things are also looking dire for Rochefort, although he might escape off to Spain or whereever, and haunt them from there. I was actually entertained by his evilness this episode. Now that he's acting on it and Anne can see it, I can stomach it so much more easily. I've been having some uncomfortable worries about Milady, whom I would hate to lose for this show, but whose redemption story might be topped off with an honourable death. That's a very standard narrative procedure. Take someone beyond redemption, redeem them as much as you can, then kill them off to forego the awkward question of where they'll go from there with the undeniable residuals of their evilness. I really hope that our writers found a way around that. For the sake of Milady, and for the preservation of snarky Athos. Steamy snarky Athos in today's episode! I've also worried about Treville, who I suspect will become captain again or die. I loved Treville in this episode, especially when Aramis's night with the queen was revealed, and Treville immediately jumped into his role of the captain again, just the way he handled the situation. As utterly annoying as Louis has been this entire season, and indeed this whole episode, I kind of liked how it was not at all easy for Rochefort to really turn him against Anne. Classic: Athos and Milady playing 7 Minutes in Heaven in Richelieu's closet.

Maybe that's Constance's one chance. Maid Marian never dies, but she did on the BBC. Constance always dies, so she might live on the BBC :-).

Indeed it has been renewed: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s235/the-musketeers/news/a626038/the-musketeers-to-return-for-third-series-on-bbc-one.html#~p6wUsSh72Dj8td Btw, I loved the dinner scene with Porthos's awful family, when the guy spit in Porthos's face, and Aramis immediately jumped to his feet, whereas Porthos remained cool and in control. It was nice to see Porthos handling this with such self-confidence; and I always like it when the boys are protective of each other.

You are right - not looking forward to that, if it happens. D'Artagnan did get over the violent death of his father in approximately two minutes, but I doubt he would swallow Constance's death quite so easily. Rochefort as a demon in the shadows might be fun. This way, I'd enjoy his obvious personality disorder more than now that he's first minister despite overly evident creepiness and delusions.

Poor Anne, surely, is the worst protected queen in history (or rather, the history of television?). I know Louis keeps whining about not being protected well enough, but what are they doing with Anne? I get that Rochefort "owns" her guards now, but they still would be there, right? Not in the room with him and her, of course, but in the antechambre. Which means when Constance opened the door, they would have heard the screams. Which means they would have approached, and found Rochefort on top of a struggling queen. And after that, if he said a word about Aramis, everyone would just think that the loon who attacked the queen got even loonier in his attempt to save himself. Alas, the guards where apparantly far away, as was the page of the door. Poor Porthos. Estate or no estate - I'm not sure it wouldn't have been nicer not to have found this family. And I agree: Constance is likely doomed. That blue dress is not a good foreboding for her. As for Rochefort, it seems that either him or Anne and the baby will perish very soon now. So unless they reverse history to the point where the Sun King got murdered in the cradle, Rochefort's prospects seem rather grim.