Dowel Jones

Maybe Roman was her college counselor. They go to all this trouble to develop ZIP when all they had to do was get in touch with the MiB and get lots of those flashy-thingies. Problem solved.

The Corleone Cowboys are back. This episode apparently is taking place almost immediately after the massacre, as Beth is still bruised up. You gotta love Dutton going in to the governor (will he be boning her again this season?) and saying "It was all my fault. I will resign the Livestock Commisioner position as long as you agree not to investigate what we did." And then, in a second breath, "I am nominating my own son to be the Livestock Commissioner." The newspapers in Montana would have to be pretty dense not to make a connection there. I hope there's more spine in the resort company's back. I would like to see a bit more competition for the Duttons, as everyone else in the Rockies seems to bend right over for them. What was the cease and desist order for the tribe about? What were they doing? And, to be honest, that crowd of people that trespassed had to be a bit dumb to not know exactly where the property lines were. You don't buy property without knowing what you got. If I were a student in Monica's class, that "You're just wasting my fucking time" remark would be on social media before the end of class. Let her explain that one to the dean. True, but a 10 mile round trip hike in running water is pushing the limits of belief to me.

Except in professional sports, of course.

Shakespeare would have a field day riding on this train. It's like all his plays rolled into one. What is with this statement by Melanie that 'we have to maintain the social order' for the train to survive.'? A more perfect example of social Darwinism would be hard to find. I think Wilford Industries must have conducted some in depth studies of the potential passengers (and not just their wealth) to collect such a bunch of weak willies and backstabbers to populate this luxury excursion. After seven years of deprivation, Melanie can walk into 3d class with only three guards and easily dominate (yes, that was intentional) the scene. I find it very unlikely that, out of three engineers that know anything about the train's workings, two of them are down in the undertrain, exposing themselves to life threatening danger. Wouldn't it have been better to have an entire cadre of trained engineers and such, just for redundancy? I get that the intent was to show Melanie's capabilities, but, come on. I also find it very odd that no one in the design, manufacture, or marketing of the train questioned why there were 18, I think, cars made up of nothing but essentially coffins. And also, with a limited agricultural production area, why would grain be allocated to alcohol production?

So Jackie thinks she is just hot shit and can tell a gangster what's what. Sounds like Jackie might have watched a few episodes of early Chicago Fire and picked up some Gabby arrogance. Someone needs to remind what's left of her alcohol-addled brain of just what happened to Ahab after chasing down his white whale. The guy has already had two people killed. Will three make a difference? Maybe even four, since Renee pissed him off. I have to laugh at Junior. Give the drugs to people, and then demand payment. Yeah, that always works out. I would like to know in what world would two junkies even get a showing at an open house. Another lighter moment: Ray: "Why weren't you wearing your glasses?" "Hooker: "Do you suck dick with glasses on?" Ray: "Uh, no." End of conversation.

Brian Dennehy. I kept looking at him and thinking, 'that can't be Brian Dennehy', but there he was. So Papa Townsend is the real power broker in LA, and little Townsend realizes what a squib he is. I hope Lewis at least informs his boss about the events. Maybe his boss was even in on it, and it's not likely those cops will receive any real punishment, but how are they going to explain it? Coincidentally enough, anyone remember the HBO series Carnivale? There was a crucial scene in one of the episodes where one of the characters gets beaten to a pulp, and another one, Nick Stahl IIRC, gets his jollies in the back seat of a car, all set to the beat of Sing Sing Sing. I hope Herr Goss takes a long walk off of a short pier on dark night. I wonder what's going to happen if the plot results in all of Natalie Dormand's characters showing up in the same place at the same time.

I did a quick check on current day Amtrak cars, which are 85' long. Assuming just a bit longer (for ease of mathematics), 1001 cars 100' long each would be a train of about 18 miles long. It would be an interesting check in at Chicago.

I just finished watching The Caddy and that was a gut punch after the whole season. Here the entire time I was cheering for Denton and, boom. Arnott needs a vacation far away for awhile to get away from this cesspool. Looking forward to the next season.

Somewhere around the neighborhood of an A-frame made out of 1" thick steel, I would think.

Nah. It would go against the entire ethos of this show to have a normal relationship between two people.

Early investment was only $400 million? Even if 100 people ponied up that amount, that would be only $40 billion dollars. For those of you counting, California's HSR is up to around $50 billion and not there yet. Of course, costs would be much lower to build the rail through the third world, but that brings up the security question and the timeline. Did the ticketed passengers know they were buying into a survival ark at the time, or was it sold as a fabulous luxury excursion? I can't imagine 3d class signing up for that kind of abuse in the latter case, and I can't imagine the world joining in to build and maintain a railroad with extraordinary luxury so that a favored few could survive. Somewhere out there, early on, there would be a derailment with the attendant looting and pillaging. So, to me, it appears that 3d class was offered a chance at survival in return for abject serfdom, which is a perfect recipe for revolt. I got a kick out of those two looting the drawer car. Layton? Who's Layton? Bugger him. I'm putting out a guess right now. The "experiments" are either cloning or sperm and egg harvesting, because the train has to perpetuate itself. There will be a certain amount of death, natural or otherwise, and 1st class would normally be made up of older people who spent their lives accumulating enough wealth to get there. And, of course, the crowd that "Wilford" assembled in there could give lessons to the Game of Thrones cast. They missed an opportunity for some dark humor there. LJ: "Daddy, what happens if I'm guilty? Will I go to the drawers?" Daddy Folger: "I'll keep an eye our for you."

I can't believe Maria took that deal. "$5 per week more to deal with Satan? Bye." Possibly not, but he's the kind of detective that doesn't take people at face value. Even if she wants to team up with him, in the back of his mind is the feeling that she's no friend. "My roommate is from Bakersfield. He husband has a dairy. She misses her cows." Hee. That ending sure surprised me. Lewis sure came back strong, pumping fire right back at the bandit.

A proper set of operatives would then shoot, but not kill the bad guys. Transport them to a train station, tie them up in a box car, and then tie them up so they die somewhere on the route of the Orient Express or somewhere.

Somewhere along the line, pre-freeze, someone would have looked into Wilford Industries and its plan to build a global railroad. The company would not have been able to keep its structure completely secret. I think he existed, and, given Melanie's treachery with Layton, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that there had been a palace revolt along the way.

I did a quick search and didn't find it anywhere, so it's likely someone made it up, perhaps just for alliterative reasons. The closest I found was 'jumpy as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.' Or Carol Burnett, perhaps.

That piqued my interest, so I looked it up. The first woman elected to the LA City Council, Estelle Lindsey, won her seat in 1915. There were no districts then, and elections were city-wide until 1925. However, the next woman elected to the Council was not until 1953.

The kid should have named the hamster Chekhov instead of Friar Puck. Lewis is rightfully bemoaning the murder of his two friends by the goon, but, to be honest, they got themselves into it by following his car bumper to bumper up a narrow, deserted canyon road. Sorry guys. Elsa is just evil. Kick the housekeeper out, and then insist that the kids speak German.

Okay, so Jackie & crowd are fish cops from Massachusetts. They spot someone doing some illegal fishing in state waters, and wait for them to cross the state line with the idea that they can get them for a federal crime. Do they even have jurisdiction in Rhode Island? They announced themselves as federal agents, so, either they're misidentifying themselves or they could have busted the fishermen for a federal crime right away. Sounds rather sloppy to me. I won't even go into the fact that they're drinking in their official uniforms. Ray has more balls than brains. He could have been occupying a trunk in any of those cars. I did kind of like how Osito shut him down with the license plate.

And here I was, waiting throughout the entire episode for Rich Dotcom to break out into some serious air guitar.

Usually, but some nursing homes can and will evict the residents who cannot pay for their upkeep anymore. I find the dynamics of the train environment interesting in that, apparently, all the paying passengers were told at the beginning that it was an luxury excursion, not a lifeboat (which makes no sense, given the changing weather). Just as with the practice of capitalism in the real world, either the industry has to start paying returns, or it needs a new infusion of capital. Neither seems possible in this situation. So, they paid up front with a massive infusion of capital in return for endless luxury and entertainment. The problem, for all the passengers really, is that no one has any way of enforcing Wilford Industries to live up to their agreements. The only power that each class has over the lower class and employees is a goon squad to enforce management's rules. At some point that system will break down.

I wonder what the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce thinks about the show.

A proper railroad siding would have connections at both ends of the siding, so that the train, in a normal world, could reverse and push the tail cars onto the siding after it had passed the junction. The entire series assumes that whatever the track is made of is strong enough to withstand temperatures of -130, so of course the switches would work, too. In real life, steel rails do crack in harsh temperatures. "The only reason the First Class passengers have better treatment is because they have a small army protecting them from the working class and the rabble. " And that is one of the main tenets of Marxism, coincidentally. The working class and the rabble here on the train could wield substantial power if they refused to work for the First Class passengers. First Class probably has no idea how to grow food or keep the train operating. At least in theory. The goons would likely come head hunting, but then you have your revolution handed to you on a plate.

I had a thought last night that perhaps some of the brilliant engineers and such who designed the train and its route realized what was going on, and put themselves to developing ground based shelters for the majority of the world that didn't make it on to the train. It would be the height of irony if the train finally stopped, for whatever reason, and the occupants found themselves stranded, with no possible rescue, in a world that has passed them by.

Well, I have suspended all disbelief in anything regarding the train itself, and am now focusing solely on the murder plot, with all the assorted characters involved along the way. Sort of like 'Murder on the Orient-African-TransSiberian-Amtrak Express' (not in that order, of course). "Mr. Wilford" definitely needs to upgrade his security force. The poor schmuck guarding the witness was too stupid to notice someone approaching him in the corrdior and paid the price. Who was that killer? Have we seen him already? Melanie's comment, "God, I wish I was wealthy." was interesting. Does she not have privileges that they do?

Any sign of thawing would stop the train on its tracks, as it would not be able to safely cross any of the oceans it now does.