The Companion

RIGHT? I was laughing about this last night with my husband. He has paired off with half the cast. You can imagine, as well, that he has spent his entire career telling new and overconfident magicians not to do a particular thing, only to have them go an do it (disappearing half their class or turning themselves into a miffin, etc.). I don't blame him for being over it. I loved this point too. I love that they both have chosen Fillory (and particularly Margo who made the point that she was never chosen herself). I think Margo and Eliot have had particularly enjoyable arcs, but Margo is my absolute favorite.

Margo is so amazing. I would have watched an hour of her talking about things she was gonna do with the eggs. The end was really intense. The Frey resolution was sadder than expected. Poor Fen. I did think it was a little weird they took the fairy queen' s word on what happened. I don't think there is more to the story, but I would expect them to find her an unreliable source. I hope Fen finds some peace in the Square of Time and the land of pizza. Penny continues kill me. The Penny and Kady scenes were so good. Someone needs to teach Kady to negotiate though. She is really better at punching.

I mean yes and no, because I LOVE her eyepatch and the way she matches it to her outfit. Also when she makes a face around the eyepatch to look at someone, it is legitimately awesome. Whoever does the costuming on this show is having a field day with Margo. The eyepatch makes her immediately cosplayable as well. The intimacy was very sweet. They had some really nice moments. I appreciate that the show didn't just forget about the storyline from the episode before. I like Felicia Day, but that may be because my first exposure to her was Dr. Horrible (in which she was named Penny. Surely I am not the only one who was hoping for a nod to that.). That being said, I can't hate on her character too much for passing off the key. She had been on a raft with her worst self for how long? Three weeks? She didn't know Quentin and she had no idea about his pre-existing issues. She had to be fairly desperate by that point. Should she have told him? For sure. Do I blame her? Not totally. I would assume it is a legal requirement similar to those seen in many legal systems over the years. For example, annulment is traditionally permitted if a marriage is not consummated. Similarly, common law marriage sometimes required a declaration of intent plus consummation (most states don't allow them to form these days, so it is really a historical perspective). There is a similar structure implied in GOT, where a marriage is considered invalid if not consummated (rather than annulable from what I can tell). I assumed it had more to do with the Fairy Queen. We know that the Fairy Queen wants an alliance and that she is not above fairly horrifying acts to get what she wants. We also know that the Fairy Queen has apparently been running the show in the Non-Magic-Mountain Kingdom as well. Who knows what she has gotten up to thus far, but she seems to have gotten the Queen sufficiently in line. I suspect that is why Mama was telling Margo her plan to destroy the Fairy Queen. It was her way of saying: we are both queens under siege and we are going to do what we have to do for the time being, now go consummate this marriage. A day of reckoning is coming, but that day is not today. I can't believe we caught up! It sucks to have to wait until the next episode. I continue to love Margo so hard. The scene where she decided whether or not to pull the mushroom cracked me the hell up. Despite the insane amount of misery that has been dumped on her, I think she shines when she has a clear enemy from a character development standpoint. I loved how excited Quentin was about a quest. On a boat! While letting his inner depression being out was really sad, I really loved that he recognized his prior depression gave him tools to address the being, rather than letting it get into his head immediately. I also loved tying him to the mast. I immediately thought the voice in the darkness would be a Siren. I enjoyed that they turned that expectation on its head a bit. They gave Alice something new to do, which was nice. Julia is still stuck in this rut, characterwise. I hope they give her something interesting to do soon. Having her lie in a park and deal with PTSD doesn't great make TV.

I loved this, too. We didn't have to understand everything happening there to understand that the three of them were in this together and they found a way to make it work. The story was one of a family, in whatever form that took. I wonder if that isn't why they threw in Jane Chatwin's comments about how her future was gonna be awesome. A promise to the audience that she is gonna get to rage later. Margot is amazing. I am dying to cosplay her with the crown and eyepatch. I need someone with more talent than me to make that first dress she was wearing with matching eye patch. I will wear that outfit to the grocery store. I cannot help but be amused every time the answer to some mystery in the books is him. You can just imagine him wondering about all these whimsical characters for years, only to have it turn out to be him. Seconded! Though some part of me still ships Tahani and Eleanor. Team Elehani! As I said above, I think one of the best parts of the excerpts of their life is that they clearly had figured out something that worked for them. They found a way to love and support one another and raise a child together. We didn't need to know what has happening in between. I got the impression of an semi-open marriage/polyamorous relationship but it doesn't really matter where you end up on the sexual side of things. They had a family. No reason to overthink it (per Eliot). So we binge watched Seasons 1 and 2, and are catching up on this season on demand. I am excited to finally find time to post between episodes! I echo the love for the bunny-grams. They are absolutely hilarious. The Q/Eliot story was so strong in this episode, that it is hard to think about the rest. I was disappointed with Kady's storyline, but not necessarily about the anger (which I think is one of the ways people deal with grief and sadness) but more about the story feeling too much like the episode where Quentin was trapped in the asylum. Perhaps it is because I binge-watched it and the episodes are all so fresh, but it felt like more of the same. It also felt like there was too much build up for the payoff to be anger. While I think anger is a natural reaction to grief (my spouse does exactly this, getting angry instead of sad), we watched too much of Penny trying to get noticed for it to be that small of a reward. That being said, Arjun Gupta always brings his A game when it comes to emotionally charged scenes, doesn't he? The Julia/Alice scenes felt a little tacked on. It was like they didn't know what to do with those two characters. I imagine it will lead somewhere interesting, but I would really like to see some progress in both of their storylines. It feels like they haven't gotten to do as much as the rest of the cast. They basically got their characters turned into monsters and then semi-restored. I am ready to see something new for both of them.

In Law School, we even had school sanctioned parties that served alcohol on campus. That being said, most of the people partying too hard suffered at the end of the semester. I loved Fringe, but I hadn't put that together! I agree. It is a little confusing how the instruction fits in, how much they are supposed to learn from their peers, etc. There is also alarmingly little supervision. The fact that you can find books with super dangerous spells in them and then attempt them in the middle of campus without anyone saying a word means that they may want to re-think all of this. I think part of the problem too is that this is being treated as grad school for which there was no prior undergraduate work. The instructor tells them and us that it is important to learn in order because some of this can be dangerous, yet there are no safeguards in place and there is no prohibition on 1st years trying whatever the hell they feel like. It's like taking a bunch of Communications majors and letting them try surgery cause they read a book about surgery. This has been talked to death, but I just want to put in that I felt initially uncomfortable when I saw her in the first outfit not because she needs to have a wall of muscle to pull off the outfit, but because actresses often don't have a say in their costume. I hope she had some input. I felt for Julia when she was stuck in a world without magic after being exposed to it, but she is losing me. She has access to magic and time. She is treating her poor boyfriend (who I actually like a lot for being a stable, kind and supportive individual in a world of self-centered jerks) like complete crap. It isn't like she has a magic test coming up or they are going to kick her out. She doesn't have to fight some monster around the corner. She is just getting obsessed with something she can't share with her boyfriend, and her solution is to string him along while offering nothing in return. He is throwing her birthday parties and calling her supposed best friend and worrying about her while she completely dismisses him. I thought the point of that, in part, is that he doesn't have control over his own powers. Wasn't that referenced when he got to his house? I agree with this. I don't hate any of the characters at the moment because I think all of them have some depth. I wish they had tweaked a bit of the story here so that we could get a better understanding of the dynamic. She seemed like a supportive friend when they were together, but neither one of them seems to really get one another and there is so much resentment between them now. I think she probably doesn't have a handle on how dangerous the cult might be. She is surrounded by people who can do magic and who know a lot more about it than she does. She has no way of gauging the safety or knowing what would be considered normal in the magic world. That being said, she does read very desperate and I really don't understand it. They haven't shown her doing anything that would be particularly addictive (other than free money). I can't imagine being so pumped about unlocking a padlock that I would lie to my boyfriend.

Agreed that this line was a miss for me. I suppose the idea was that it was a misdiagnosis, but it felt a little off. Additionally, we certainly didn't see a substantial improvement in his exterior symptoms to indicate that his depression was gone. We are very late to the game. We wanted to watch initially, but failed to record the first episode. We kept seeing snippets before something else (Killjoys maybe?), but we didn't go back to it until we re-discovered it on Netflix. Overall, the first two episodes were fairly enjoyable. I have not read the books, so I am coming in blind. The characters seem a little shallow, but I am assuming part of that is the need to introduce so many things at once. There is definitely enough here to keep my interest.

I think this past year was really great. I didn't hate Clara as much as a lot of people, but the show greatly improved with the introduction of Bill and I find myself retroactively disliking Clara because we could have had more of the Doctor and Bill. You should give it a shot. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I think Moffat left it open in The Name of the Doctor, but it is possible this episode could be a resolution. To the extent that River is a collection of memories in a database, she could easily be "rescued" by the future water people. I love River, but I suspect her story is over. The Husbands of River Song was an amazing episode to end it on. I thought it was an entertaining episode. I find myself very sad to say goodbye to Bill and the Doctor. The last year has been so entertaining. I was sad that Danny didn't come back. He is stuck in a different version of Heaven, I guess.

That's the one.

It will feel like ten. It's not like she is showing or anything. When we stopped watching FTWD, these were basically my complaints. The pacing is off and none of the characters are likable. I think I might be rooting for the zombies. I remember asking how it was possible the shows were being produced by the same people. Unfortunately, TWD has now inherited the same problems. The worst part of it is that the Glenn scene feels even more unnecessarily manipulative. At this point, we aren't all waiting with anticipation to see Negan finally get his comeuppance for killing Glenn. We are just bored, and irritated. Are the characters still dealing with the emotional fallout? I have no idea because they are so inconsistent, and we are time jumping so much, that I can barely remember what the particular character is supposed to be navigating. It removes all of the emotional impact to make us wait three weeks to find out what happened in a particular storyline. I am definitely rooting for anyone who shuts Negan up, but I agree that they are doing a bad job putting together a cohesive storyline with a likable protagonist. Weren't weapons a difficult thing to acquire like a week ago (show time)? Even if they can't agree on what to do, surely they can agree to take them, store them somewhere off the road and decide. It would be pretty interesting to make him secretly have some sort of injury there, but given the harem, I don't think that is where we are going. This is the thing that is most frustrating. Compare it to GOT (don't, you will be disappointed) where we hear a lot of plans and see a lot of battles won and lost with strategy. There appears to be no strategy here at all. I am assuming the writers have some big reveal about some extra part of the plan we don't know, and they think that will be more dramatic. However, it would have been a lot more interesting to see strategic planning and then watch as the plan was altered. You would at least expect that they would have discussed what to do with POWs who voluntarily surrendered, how to deal with a major battle losses, how they planned to take the main stronghold of the enemy, etc. I have seen more strategy for a 4 year old's birthday party. The critical difference here is that the wounded become fatalities when the fatalities become zombies. Also, clean up of the battlefield in this case may mean killing people who might have survived with medical attention because of the risk of zombification. That being said, I agree that we rarely see non-plotcentric injuries. SO MUCH THIS. We have at least seen them undertake large plans through careful planning before (e.g., the zombie pit). In this case, it legitimately feels like everyone has been given minimal orders (1. Don't shoot Negan even though he appears to be the linchpin. 2. Attack outpost A. 3. Good luck!!). There are no retreat options, no signalling options in the event of a major retreat or surprise, no rally points or runners or scouts. Hell, they haven't even discussed what happens if people surrender. That isn't an unforeseeable event, particularly if we believe the workers are coerced. I used to love this show. I have reached the point where I have three episodes on my DVR. I don't even know why I watch anymore. I don't find Negan's story the slightest bit compelling. He appears to have always been a narcissistic bully. He cheated on the woman he loved (but he totally loved her because he couldn't bring himself to kill her), he coerces women to be his "wives," he is not funny or charming or interesting. He has somehow become the central plot point. The entire story is around him, and trying to defeat him, and listening to him. I don't know how much more I am in for.

I love the way they have these little callbacks and character quirks. Carol's awkward phrasing to avoid a preposition ad the end of the sentence cracks me up every time. The Out to Latch blanket was amazing. I suspect they have all just given up on fighting it. If they don't let him officiate, he is still going to find a way to insert himself into the mix and say or do something inappropriate (a song, a toast, pouting in the corner because they wouldn't let him participate). I also think they have all just gotten used to him. They just roll their eyes and move on. He clearly cares about everyone and just doesn't know how to interact in a way that isn't awkward and a bit obnoxious. I agree. I got the feeling that initially they were together because they didn't have any other options. They eventually found their way back to each other because they actually do care for one another and find the relationship fulfilling. If another man were to come along, there might be some pressure on Erica to try to conceive again, given the low population. However, I think the wedding showed where their hearts are. They are going to be a family and raise their daughter. I thought the episode was a little weaker than some of the other ones this season. At the same time, I did find a lot of stuff pretty funny, so I can't really put my finger on what it was that made it less enjoyable as a whole. I think it was that the Tandy thing felt a little forced. Some of the things he came up with were pretty funny, but the provocation for it didn't really feel sufficient for the reaction (then again, when can you not say that about Tandy). For a second, I thought Erica said her last name was Tandy, which I actually think would have been even funnier.

Personally, I am more of a Star Wars girl because that is what I grew up on, but I don't have strong opinions one way or the other. I enjoy both (though I find the older Star Trek episodes a bit campy). This episode actually cracked me up a bit because it was particularly relevant for me. My husband and I like the same things, almost universally. We have similar taste in movies, tv shows, books and music. The other day we watched a show that he really liked and I really didn't and it caused a minor uproar in the house. I realized it was because the situation was so foreign to us. Poor Barry and Lainey. With regard to Murray's underwear, I don't really have a problem with it. It isn't like he is nude (though I did have a friend who was raised by hippie nudists and she was just fine), and it certainly isn't sexual. It is no less than a speedo swimsuit. If he wants to walk around in his own home in his underwear, it doesn't really affect me. I am pretty sure a good portion of the population does. Also, I feel his pain in the sense that I hate pants. I tend to sleep in night shirts and wear dresses and skirts a lot. I just find them too constricting.

My family generally fell into the "early adopter" category. Probably because my Dad was a computer science major in college before the microchip (his advisor told him "there is no future in this computer business" so he became a doctor instead). I don't remember the ET game but my husband definitely had it and remembers it well. It was terrible. I love the Thanksgiving episodes every year. They capture the joy and frustration of Thanksgiving as a kid. Still loving the Bevolution, and I actually hope they continue to let Bev grow a bit. My heart did hurt a bit for Murray when Barry said he didn't want the same life. I mean, I knew they would make up because it is the Goldbergs, but it was really sad.

I want her to have just enough pain to respect the process. Ha! I found this episode to be hilarious. I also appreciated that we already had the tense and intense birth scene for Erica, so I appreciated a different take.

Another mediocre episode for me. I am sick of flashbacks and speeches. It feels like all they do anymore. The Savior was so cartoon villain that he was hard to take seriously. Also, the zombies weren't so far away that he should have been comfortable speechifying until he could be sliced open. I figured Shiva was going to get killed but it was pretty sad. To its credit, I think this episode had a better flow and made more sense than last week's random cuts between battles. I liked the action sequences and it is nice to have Carol back to being Carol. I just wish they would stop wasting our time with speeches and random details (close up of a shirt being buttoned!). It feels like they have 2 hours of story but they were told to stretch it into 10.

Yeah, I can't decide if it is doing permanent damage or if it is just a device to show a physical manifestation of how much it take out of her (and therefore why she can't use it all the time). I can definitely see it becoming a plot point later (and therefore giving them an excuse to require the characters to come up with other ways to defeat baddies).

I can't imagine that the government would decide anything other than that. She can act as a untraceable spy and she can kill with her mind. She is incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. They would absolutely kill or kidnap anyone they thought she cared about to get their weapon back and/or prevent her from using her powers against them. I suspect Hopper has taken things too far because he is so worried about losing her after losing his daughter, but I think we can assume that the danger is real as well.

I agree. The multiple storylines keep the pace moving and it is fun when they finally converge.

Their relationship guts me. Seeing Hopper and Eleven finally connect in the car was so amazing. She finally understood why he was struggling and overprotective. He finally understood that safety wasn't enough. In the end, when he is fighting to protect her then holding her telling her how well she did, I was definitely crying. I would have loved to see some happy dance preparation too, but it her reveal was so great. I totally agree. They could have made Steve unlikeable, but instead we got a great character to root for in a totally different role. I would love to see Steve continue to diverge from love interest into something else. I felt horrible for poor Dart. He is a wild animal. He doesn't understand that the cat means anything. The cat is food and he must have been starving given the energy required for the rapid growth we saw. In the end, he did bond with Dustin and it was sad to see him stand down and then just shrivel up. I loved this so much. I liked that it wasn't a cheap death. We saw those he left behind dealing with the loss. Poor sweet awesome Bob. She may or may not have any rights if Eleven's birth certificate say a Hopper is her dad. I am assuming they doctored or created a birth certificate rather than a closed adoption proceeding. The legal presumption would be that he is her biological parent. Regardless, her aunt didn't seem equipped to handle a new charge and she certainly didn't know the details of Eleven' s trauma. Moving her at this point would probably involve having her hide her powers from any friends she made, isolating her and making it even harder. I hope they maintain the relationship, but it should be up to Eleven. She is old enough to get a say in where she wants to be and she has damn well earned it. I would love to see her bring in her sister to try and help her mom. I wonder if her mind powers would allow her to alter the loop. To know that her daughter is safe and happy. That would have been amazing. Don't forget the random teenager drugged and on the floor. The visual of them stuffing that Demodog in the fridge was amazing. Brb, gotta go cry for awhile. I have a bracelet that I wear every day. It is a POW bracelet and I have only taken it off (other than things like surgery) to give to my husband to wear in Iraq. This detail hits home hard. It is what makes this show so special. Those little details. Maybe he will develop a power. Throw this kid a bone. I think it can be assumed that it was the practice and the learning to channel her emotions to increase the power. It also makes the side quest to Chicago have a bit more relevance. What an incredible ending. I want more, but this episode was jam packed with awesomeness. As I said above, the Eleven and Hopper stuff was amazing. Those two actors were doing some next level work. For me, the payoff was there. When she held his hand in the elevator, when he was shooting Demodogs desperately trying to protect her, when he held her and told her over and over how well she had done and when he finally decided to let her have a normal night. My heart, y'all. Speaking of great work, I loved the Will exorcism. I also loved bringing Bob into it. Again, I am blown away by the way they developed him over the season. Bob Newby, Superhero indeed. The Steve and the gang adventure was also amazing. There was a moment when I thought he would get Dustin out and get eaten. It was a tense scene. The final scene was so great. I loved getting to see the gang have a normal night. Sweet Dustin looked amazong. Those girls are idiots. Good job, Nancy. I don't want to see that sweet boy grow cynical. I didn't mind the romances. It wasn't like anything age appropriate was happening. Will they last? Probably not but it has happened. Eleven and Mike in particular have been through so much.

My husband said exactly that. "Well, I guess she is a teenage girl." I think Kali was definitely sincere, but I also think she was manipulative. Did she bring back Papa to help Eleven or to convince her to stay. I am not sure even she could answer that. Imagine the power you would have if you could make people see what you wanted them to, induce them to do what you wanted them to. Being surrounded by people who can't challenge her must have warped her in some ways. That being said, I ended up feeling like she was mostly trying to do the right thing. I think she cared about Eleven, and I appreciate that she let her go. I think this is a good point. I think it was the placement just as things are getting ramped up that made it so jarring. I don't know how they would have done it, but I think it also would have worked as bonus content episode between two of the seasons. Obviously, major changes would have had to be made to make it happen. In the end, it didn't really fit the same tone as the other episodes but I actually liked the episode itself. I agree. I loved El looking for home and deciding to go back. She has spent her entire life controlled by others. She needed to go out into the world and make a choice. Where does she want to be? Who does she want to be? I got the feeling that Kali used her powers to get them to help them work through their own issues. Similar to what she tried to do with Eleven. A cynic would see that as manipulation. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, it is very possible that she helped them channel their rage but also escape their feelings of helplessness. My husband was a HUGE fan of this episode. He thought it was a really fun concept. That being said, it felt a bit like something we have seen before. I am not sure they had enough to make me want to watch a season, but who knows. I had no idea how they were going to get a Season 2 of Stranger Things and it has been phenomenal. I loved this so much. Again, it seemed like a realization that she could be an individual actor. She isn't doing things because others tell her to, she is doing things because she wants to and because she cares. One random observation. One of the bookshelves was spray painted "So long and thanks." It made me so happy. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is my favorite series.

Exactly. Poor Bob. I have been saying he is DOOMED all season, but man he was a great guy. Even after everything went to hell and back, there he was being supportive, kind and steady. They could have made him incompetent or a coward. He could have been a safe choice for Joyce and nothing more. Instead we got a surprisingly competent and sweet character. You could imagine a different world where he and Joyce got together, and he and Will spent hours playing board games while he made terrible Dad jokes. You just knew he was a goner from the get go, but you couldn't help but like him. Ha! "how did you end up in this plot?" indeed. I have been waiting for the payoff of bringing everyone together and it did not disappoint. Steve has grown on me now that he is taking care of the guys instead of being the love interest. It was really cute how he was the last one to get in the car. I loved how he jumped right in and just went with it. I mean, I GUESS I am waiting to see why we had to suffer through Billy, but I would be just as happy if they dropped the plot and Billy never showed up on the screen again (or he only showed up to be eaten by demodogs). The entire thing just felt "after school special" to me. The rest of the characters have such nuance, and then here comes Billy, the over-the-top bully who (shockingly to zero people) is abused by his father and also appears to be horrendously racist. I just don't care, not even if he has a great redemption. He is the anti-Bob. I can also buy Hopper leaving El out of it. If the bad guys are going to show up anywhere, it is going to be here. Beyond that, it wouldn't have felt in character to have him leave them while they are dealing with a crisis to go get her or to have him send someone else to get her. OMG, both of these comments kill me. It is so true, though. As a mom, I just want to reach out with a purse tissue and wipe her nose while giving her a giant hug. Agreed on Noah Schnapp. I sound like a broken record, but this cast is just incredible. These kids are phenomenal actors. As for the abuser who looks normal and charming, I think we even saw a bit of that in the scene. He looked so genial until he went into abuser mode. Still, I hate the entire plot line. More upside down monsters and fewer human ones please, please. I am applying the Sci Fi rule of onscreen death or it didn't happen. It isn't like poor Bob's death was subtle. I am betting Reiser isn't done. Y'all, I have never wanted to stay up late for one more episode more than last night. What an incredible episode. So much happened. I LOVED getting the band back together. It was really fun to have the characters that have been having their separate adventures converge. I particularly loved Max's question as to why they were running towards the noise. I found the Demodogs fairly scary because they were running in a pack. They were so fast and they were clearly capable of taking someone down to the ground. The entire escape was so tense. I found myself holding my breath and even though I knew Bob was surely doomed, I was rooting so hard for him. I actually gasped when the broom fell. Similarly, watching them all come together to try and get answers from Will was great. I loved everyone trying to come up with solutions together. The tension as they tried to communicate with Will was palpable. Obviously, the appearance of Eleven at the end was amazing. I legitimately cannot wait for the final episode. Is it inappropriate to go home early for Stranger Things? That's a real excuse, right?

I love Bob. He is so kind and supportive. Totally doomed, right? The random girl comment was hilarious. Also, who knew Steve and Dustin was the buddy comedy I needed in my life? With the amount of meat, when Max asked if they were sure it wasn't a dog, I wasn't. What a great creepy episode. They have been ramping up to it, and the payoff was definitely worth it.

What if the person you would kill volunteers? Suppose a parent was willing to die if it meant their child would survive? Then there are the cases where you don't kill the person, but you do cause them unnecessary pain. For example, the cases where parents have another child to act as a donor. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/04/health/more-babies-being-born-to-be-donors-of-tissue.html?pagewanted=all Perhaps there were children present. They are about to see something incredibly traumatic, but wouldn't it be so much worse for them to watch Santa die? Man, I might have a future as a demon myself. What worked so well, in my opinion, was forcing Chidi to actually experience his hypotheticals. It is a fun thought exercise when it is purely theoretical. It gets much harder when it is presented in reality.

When my kid plays "Ghostbusters" he is always Venkman. My husband and I are a mixture of the other guys (though I am frequently Egon because I wear glasses). I can't say I am surprised there was a fight over being him. As an aside, my kid dressed as a Ghostbuster for Halloween. My husband and I joked that he was actually dressing as one of the characters from Stranger Things (he is too young for this show).

My take was that he was struggling to figure out something that would have an impact on her and get through to her. He was probably scared out of his mind and he can't figure out a way to make her understand that. He started with "you're grounded" and then realized that didn't really have an impact, so he was floundering to come up with some sort of consequence that would have meaning to her. Once he found one, she doubled down and he had to. I feel for Hopper. He is trying to figure out how to parent a fully formed and damaged human being and he has no resources. He doesn't believe he can even ask for advice because he is trying to keep her safe. The fight broke my heart for both of them. My heart! She was absolutely devastating, wasn't she? Millie does a lot of things well, but she is a master at vulnerability. I just want to wrap her up in a huge hug and make it all go away. I am hoping we will eventually get there. I have to say I loved Joyce in this episode. She took her son seriously. After what she saw last season, she was the first to consider the possibility that this wasn't PTSD. I think she has absolutely done all of the right things this season to try to support her traumatized son, but I was particularly touched by her taking him seriously. She has experts telling her that this is psychological, but she remembers what it is like not to be believed when the Upside Down is intruding on your life. Hopper is struggling, and part of that is that this is a totally new relationship for him. El is broken but so is Hopper. It is what makes those scenes particularly poignant for me. Both long for a family and both are doing their best. You just want them both to take a deep breath and talk it out. I think Hopper is so scared of losing El (like he lost his child) that he wants to lock her up and keep all the bad men away. Any risk is unacceptable. That is no way for a girl to live, and particularly one who has spent her entire life isolated and alone. On the other hand, she does run a real risk of exposure, even if they manage to change her appearance. She doesn't have any coping mechanisms and she is carrying a lot of anger and sadness. It is hard because they are both right. Admittedly, I love Dustin. His relentless optimism and huge grin warm my cold cynical heart. I really think Dustin saw Dart as his ET (when he is really more of a Gremlin). Kids aren't great at assessing risk and danger, plus Dart has been so small and manageable up until this point that I really don't think he could have predicted how quickly this would become a problem. I think Dustin was just so excited about having this cool little pet who seemed to have a real connection with him, that it didn't really hit home how dangerous the entire situation could be. RIP Mew Mew and possibly Myrtle (poor Myrtle, evicted and maybe eaten). The cast is really spectacular. I don't know where you find this many exceptionally talented kids. All I need now is a cameo by Lady Mormont. My only explanation is that they underestimated Nancy because she was a kid. Still, it seems like a pretty big oversight not to at least check her purse. It's not like the tape recorder was small. I assumed they had some sort of plan for a trap last week, but I don't feel like we really got a full explanation this week. I can hand wave it because it has Nancy doing something interesting. It was REALLY hard not to stay up last night and binge watch the next episode. They are setting up a really intriguing season. I was honestly wondering when I saw them burning the roots if the Upside Down could really be contained to the one portal and low and behold, it is sneaking in under the town. I don't know how you defeat this thing. I agree with several posters that the only thing that is falling flat for me is the Billy character. I just can't get into the mystery of is he just an asshole? Is he a racist asshole? Is there something else I don't care about because he is an asshole? At this point, I just want him to be Dart food. It's not working for me. That being said, the rest of the show is so good that it doesn't matter.