Johnny Dollar

Sorry @PepSinger but the system only let me give your post one like. You couldn’t have said it better. Unless they’re setting this up for Kate to get her comeuppance, the show really overestimated her appeal.

Kevin looked like his dog died when Madison told him she loved Elijah. He was like “How can that be? I’m a Pearson??!!” Allowing your kids to do something stupid and dangerous like locking the babysitter in the bathroom and not facing any consequences seems to be a theme with this family. If the show is trying to turn viewers against Kate, they’re doing a damn good job. Nothing Toby does is ever good enough and nothing is ever her fault. Having her brothers come to “Katie girl’s” rescue was pathetic. If we’re supposed to believe that PMJ is going to put up with this nonsense, they’re going to need a few more episodes to spin that tale. Someone should’ve given Rebecca credit for figuring out where Jack went.

When you read stories about billionaires paying little to no income taxes, it’s because they are using loans against their company’s stock to fund their lifestyle. Why take a salary and pay income tax when you can just borrow against your stock portfolio literally tax free? And if the stock tanks and you can’t pay back the bank? That’s what taxpayers are for.

It appears that Helly’s outie was enjoying herself at the Friends of Lumon cocktail party. I wonder how deeply involved in the company she is. No wonder her outie was such a meanie. It should be interesting when her innie wakes up in the middle of all the festivities. The weird mask dance reminded me of the even weirder scene in Squid Game. I assume Ms Cobel will join our fearless foursome to bring down Lumon in S2.

I would watch the hell out of a show called “Louise Grant” starring Lisa Gay Hamilton as a hard-boiled, snarky managing editor and a team of intrepid reporters.

The test for herpes was the first test they ever got FDA approval for. And this was after the company had been in business for twelve years. And of course the business media simply ran with the Theranos press releases when reporting on it, making it seem like some big deal and ignoring how long it took them to develop even one successful test. Ironically, I believe it was eventually revealed that some of the data provided to the FDA may have been fudged.

As this episode showed, the problem for a whistleblower is that you still need to hire an attorney to defend you against the threats. Boies knew that Elizabeth was full of shit but he also knew that he could essentially bankrupt the sources before the truth would come out. Tyler’s parents apparently spent over half a million dollars fighting the suits. If you read the book or listened to either of the podcasts you know that the series doesn’t even cover half of the shitty things these people did and how they terrorizes their employees. I don’t know if there is a second season, but I would love for them to cover the trial and see Elizabeth and her $10 million legal dream team get their asses handed to them in court.

Jack coddled young Kate so much that she was never able to develop a sense of self and led a mostly aimless life. Jack raised young Kevin with his so much toxic masculinity that he hasn’t been able to form a meaningful relationship with a woman into his 40s. Jack ignored young Randall so much that he grew up with a hero complex and a giant bag of neuroses. Jack was an alcoholic who didn’t allow Rebecca to have a say in how their kids were raised. Jack abandoned his PTSD suffering brother to such an extreme extent that he told his family that he was dead, leaving the man alone and in despair for decades. Jack effectively tossed aside his mother once she got up enough courage to leave her abusive husband. Jack was an awful father, husband, brother and son.

Rebecca’s Box of Memories for Kate seemed to include a diner menu and a bad attitude. I can definitely understand Randall being pissed at Rebecca’s decision of naming Kate her executor. Randall spends his whole life being her “rock” yet she ditches him when it comes to making the most important decision one could be faced with. When Rebecca moves full time to the cabin, Randall will be the closest to her geographically while Kate is still trying to find herself. Rebecca’s excuse essentially says that Kate has literally nothing going on in her life so that’s why she was chosen. Not surprisingly, Kate is the last family member to make it to the cabin when Rebecca is at death’s door. I’m beginning to go along with the idea that they’ve been padding Chrissy Metz this year, with some kind of big reveal when she finally drags her ass out to the cabin.

I just realized that the Bridgerton children are named in alphabetical order. Duh.

The cynic in me says that Kate marries PMJ five years in the future because that’s when Toby’s obligation to pay alimony ends. She will need someone else to take care of her by then. Kate bashing aside, that character is almost criminally under-developed compared to the story arcs of the brothers. Both Randall and Kevin would be able to carry a stand-alone series based on their own life experiences, from teen years to adulthood. Can you imagine a show solely dedicated to Kate’s life? I wonder if Fogelman had much more planned for that character that just didn’t work out for some reason.

Expecting Miguel to help cover the costs of Kate’s persistently poor life choices is a bit much, even though she is a Pearson. He has kids of his own, and presumably grandkids, who should come before subsidizing Kate’s existence. Not to mention the tremendous costs of Rebecca’s future care. None of that is covered by Medicare. They are starting each of the three episodes with the same preamble of Rebecca imploring her kids not to let her illness affect the choices they make in life, and to take the big step if it presents itself. In typical Kate fashion, her choice is to do nothing and wait for someone to take care of her.

It was quite awkward the way the writers tried to turn Toby into a villain. As someone said upthread, many viewers find the character much more likable than his wife, even though she is Pearson royalty. They should’ve handled his turn like this: ”On the next explosive episode of This Is Us, despite the obvious impossibility due to him not being born yet, Toby is revealed to be The Zodiac Killer. His wife Kate, a member of the beloved Pearson Family, spent five years of her life pretending to be a self-absorbed, grouchy shrew, to finally bring one of the most notorious serial killers to justice. When asked to comment, Kate merely said “Just following in my dad’s footsteps when he single handedly won the Vietnam War and brought the World Series to Pittsburgh.””

Toby - “Babe. This job is so much more than I thought. I’m making several hundred thousand dollars a year, they are giving me stock options, we can afford a multi million dollar home in San Francisco. The house even has room for your mom and Miguel. We can afford to get Jack the best education and assistance available. I am actually happy for the first time in a long time!” Kate - “Babe. Why can’t you be the fat, suicidal, loser who acts like a clown that I fell in love with. And why are you allowed to be happy. BTW I’m happy now.” And this is the person that PMJ will fall in love with? The guy who dumped super models because they bored him? I wonder which episode he hits his head in?

What qualifications does Kate have to be a full time teacher at a school for the blind? Where did she get her degree in specialized education from? Where did she learn how to prepare lesson plans, especially for blind children? In which state does she have a teaching license? Oh wait. She’s a Pearson and all Pearsons are perfect. Just ask Toby. And Beth. And Sophie. And Madison. BTW, what was Kate doing from her late teens to the time the show started? She complained that she saw nothing in her future, yet apparently did nothing to change it. She barely had a life before Toby came along, and even him trying to better himself wasn’t good enough for her. I’m glad this show is ending because I can’t take much more of this family.

Well this was a waste of twelve hours. Tara is willing to throw away her relationship with her daughter for a father she didn’t know existed until a few months ago? And couldn’t they have kidnapped Leo and gotten the same amount of publicity without framing innocent people? Or, if they wanted to show how powerful social media can be in perpetuating a lie, couldn’t Leo have done that by exposing what his mother did? Or would he miss the perks of being a rich white guy? And I still can’t figure out what Sean’s deal was. Was he working for Copeland, or Uma or Leo? It doesn’t appear that he was being used as a stooge because he ended up getting paid by somebody. And do Aadesh and Tara just plan to go home with no questions asked?

Didn’t Kevin land The Manny when he was essentially a nobody? I don’t think he would’ve been able to negotiate much of a piece of the syndication money back then. The second iteration is another story, but he’s been throwing his money around like he’s Seinfeld since the first season.

The character that Alan Ruck is playing approached this multi-million dollar project exactly the way Connor Roy would approach it. Trusting his instincts with completely predictable results.

The only reason Kevin questioned the capabilities of the construction crew was because his architect screwed up the specs for the foundation. For him to then denigrate the qualifications of veterans to build a residential building, apparently only because they are vets, he should first question his decision to put Nicky and Cassidy in charge of the project in the first place.

The employees stayed on with the company because every department at Theranos was “siloed” with security preventing them from interacting. This way, nobody could put the pieces together to figure out that the technology was non-existent. Not really a spoiler, but after Walgreens sunk $140 million into the project with Theranos, Wade left the company to become the CFO of JoAnn’s Fabrics. Quite a steep fall from grace.

Because Pearsons know everything and are always right /s. Here’s how it could have gone when speaking to a non-Pearson: ”Where did you get these guys?” ”They’re all veterans.” ”Oh. Did they learn the building trade in the military?” ”Yes. Some are SeaBees and some are ex-Corps of Engineers.” ”Really?” ”Yeah. Trust me. They’ve all built much more complex structures than your shitty cabin. And many of them did it in a war zone. And none of them would’ve screwed up the specs for the foundation the way your architect did.”

Too bad Nicky couldn’t have been more involved in the Pearson kids’ lives after Jack died. He seems to be the only one who’s able to tell Kevin to get his head out of his ass and think about someone other than himself for once. Sorry kids, but your dad was nothing special, so trying to live up to some mythical ideal of the perfect parent isn’t particularly healthy. Instead of endlessly regaling them with tales of St Jack the Perfect, it would’ve been better for the kids if Rebecca let them know that their dad had some real flaws. And if she insisted on therapy. Lots and lots of therapy.

Her sentencing is being delayed until after Sunny’s trial. I hope the government doesn’t bargain with her for a lower prison term in exchange for testifying against Sunny. They’re both equally complicit in this and should both face the same punishment.

Phyllis Gardner (the Laurie Metcalf character) told her that antibiotics can’t work with a patch because the patch couldn’t physically hold the amount of medication required to deliver a significant enough dose. Especially since they may have to be several relatively large doses per day. BTW, look up on YouTube Elizabeth Holmes piece done by 60 Minutes Australia. Great interview with Dr Gardner where she very aptly describes the board as a bunch of old white men thinking with their dicks ( although she doesn’t use that word). Her board definitely had some high- powered Washington insiders. But virtually none of them had no medical or science background, so they didn’t know what they didn’t know. Channing Robertson should’ve known better. He kept defending her to the bitter end. Same with the big dollar investors she went after. Names like Walton, Rupert Murdoch and Betsy DeVos each lost over $100 million. None of them had any science background and were feeling the FOMO of missing out in the tech boom.

How bizarre would it be if Ricken’s Book of Corny Platitudes becomes some kind of bible for the severed employees. A company full of employees spouting that nonsense would be the ultimate revenge.