Featherhat

The disrespect to BC (Laurel version anyway) from Arrow started long before Felicity became Oliver's love interest. Starting with making her a knock off of Rachel Dawes rather than actual Dinah Lance. Although she still had the 4th most screentime of everyone when she was killed off. When they took a character that was actually *better* than fighting than Oliver, who's origins had nothing to do with him and turned her into a flip flopping CW character who went back and forward over a guy who cheated on her with *her sister* and then her sister died literally every episode mere days after he returned.... When I was watching S1 in 2012 I wish they had gotten Laurel right. Especially the casting but oh well. The closest they came was with Sara who became the lead on her own show. And she and Oliver loved each other to the end. Felicity's not really a self insert character for guys and you *can* actually see her comics origins when she first shows up. Even if it's just supposed to be an easter egg. Gerry Conway and Rafael Kayanan were actually paid royalties by the show to use her. Of course they changed and added things just like they did with every other character including Oliver, Barry and Kara. Heh. Way to cherry pick what I actually said. I enjoy Dinah a lot with BOP in other media including comics but not so much with Ollie. However to answer your question: There are plenty of original or "Comics in name only" in the Arrowverse, many of whom became very popular, many of whom clearly became writers favourites, many of whom had some irritating qualities as well as good ones. Many of whom "took over the show". Is she so loathed by BC/comics purists because she's so obviously stand out terribad? No. It's because she's the one who's sleeping with Green Arrow. Many of them say they "liked Felicity when she was the geeky IT girl" ie when they didn't think there was a hope in hell of her actually getting together with Oliver. Laurel was "disrespected" by the writers in many ways (especially making her a sidekick FFS) but many of the arguments for said "disrespect" here and elsewhere focus on "it's supposed to be GA/BC!" meaning that yes, it is all about who's with Oliver for her fans. Felicity fans were *begging* for Felicity to have certain storylines of her own in later seasons and we sort of got them. Felicity would certainly have been a hero if Oliver didn't exist - we saw that in her backstory she already was. She was already trying to save the world via hacking. She didn't stop when he stopped and she carried on for 20 years in the FFs. Every single character in Arrow revolves around Oliver. I mean even Lyla told Dig to put Oliver ahead of her at one point and Laurel ended up confessing that Oliver was the love of her life even though she knew he wasn't the love of hers on her death bed (which sucked for the character but was KC's own personal headcanon). It's the nature of an eponymous show but she certainly wasn't a doormat or a people pleaser. Black Canary lives on and I will hopefully enjoy many projects with her in them but Arrow also isn't the first and may not be the last time that Oliver found true love/comradeship with a different character in a live action show.

Yeah Black Canary keeps getting new content, good for her. "Laurel" doesn't. None of the variations of her that get new projects are with KC or Arrow's version. Of course the comics version is still living. That was never in question even when Arrow/Olicity was at the height of it's popularity. That was never what most fans (at least here) had any objection to. It's that they disliked this TVD and toxicity version of "Laurel" and Oliver together and thought they had negative chemistry. But even in a lot of "new BC content" she and Oliver aren't in a relationship. I'm pretty content where "FeFe" ended up, even if it was not what I would have written. If she never comes up in any new variation of GA again that's more than fine because it was the character as played by EBR that I liked and how she interacted with the rest of the cast. Played by someone else I may not have liked her. Just as I like BC played by JS and Caity Lotz but not by KC or mostly not by JH. I thought I was going to love KC originally but I didn't. I loved Arrow but I can be hit and miss on GA as a whole. I definitely don't demand that because Olicity were great in Arrow that it means they *have* to be together in all future versions. That was always an argument by fans of comics pairings more than show pairings. You know, just like I don't demand that all versions of Ray Palmer now always ends up with a version of Nora Darkh. Felicity has impacted other media though, there were plenty of "Felicity knock offs" that came though TV and a couple of movies where the creators either outright admitted they liked her or reviewers wrote a character "seems to borrow a lot from Arrow's Felicity Smoak". Not that quirky genius beautiful tech girl was uncommon before her but she was a popular example of it for nearly a decade. Also in terms of Arrow nothing takes away from EBR's achievement of shooting her first scenes on August 2nd 2012 as a local day player who worked at a pet shop and August 10th being announced as recurring for the rest of the season and then in Feb being announced as a series regular and by the next year being leading lady. That is truly spectacular and a one in a million leap that never happens.

IIRC Zach was originally supposed to be Gorgamon's final victim but due to the writer's strike they decided to make him the apprentice instead. That and they liked Sweets/JFD and wanted to keep him around and it was "too obvious" that a new recurring character might be Gormagon. I really didn't like it but I hated even more that they reconned it so Zach was the Apprentice but never killed anyone, that made even less sense. If he was the Apprentice then commit to it when he came back, even if he realised that his logic/rationale was faulty and repented. It seems they did right by Eric Milligan though, letting him leave the show and talk about why in his own time. Pelant would have been fine as a 2-3 ep arc but stretching it out for so long completely ruined it for a lot of people, including me. Especially when they tried to make him this omni present and omni powerful character who could do anything. Epps, as all powerful as he sometimes came across, made mistakes and the team beat him before his next ep and that early serial killer arc was just much better written. She wasn't originally supposed to have Aspergers or be neuro divergent, that idea was something of a retcon (and possibly something that stemmed from something her mother once said to her as a teen which also made no sense.). In S1 and 2 she was obviously smart and wasn't shy about saying it but she was a socially functional adult who understood jokes without having to "explain" why she found them funny and knew enough about human social interaction to realise that her ex chose the day she returned from her dig to get his stuff back because he wanted to get back together. She also knew when people were flirting, how to be empathetic and joked about Angela lifting her top up (the pilot). It was only later on that she developed into a character who could only talk about how smart she was.

I mean yeah, giving DP someone to be in her completely separate scenes is probably it but he's not a good option for it even then since we never saw much of his and Frost's relationship, they don't have any chemistry and very few people even care. If they wanted to give Frost a regular or semi regular to play off they should have developed someone like him years ago (but not actually this character or actor) or brought back a different version of Ronnie. I like Nia a lot and will never say no to Iris having an episode but as everyone else has said this was filler and worse the plot was IMO a bit boring and lame. I don't mind characters having met off screen but I do mind if a character is only brought in to only randomly big up one character as the bestest of all time when the writers could have actually done their job and *shown* that via the episode. Also if the audience hasn't seen them connect on screen before *and* we don't have any actual wrap up/update of the other character post show it becomes both meaningless and pointless.

I personally think he does validate the kids, or at least try to as much as he is able. But I think he is often needy and uncertain of his place in the world or his role as a new teacher. It's a part of the reason that he reads/listens to every progressive thing he can and obsessively quotes it - remember the 100 white podcasts on triple speed? I think he was definitely seen as a trainwreck last season, with more of his stories than Janine's coming off as well meaning but clueless. Even this season he was shocked that Story Samurai (where he was trying to validate the kids' lives and imaginations) came off as corny and even potentially offensive (Rosa Parks and Rec) and was completely shocked that he was very nearly Sandra Bullock in Blindside but had to deal with being Hilary Swank in Freedomwriters. He did own it in the end but it was a trainwreck to get there. Last season Janine had more wins and I think the story telling for her was slightly different. I wonder if QB is perhaps following the maincharacter-itis code that thinks it's more funny/meaty for the show if the main character is a mess who has a lot of people against them and fails a lot of the time. All to build her up for later seasons I guess. Zach and Jacob seem to have similar personalities but each has different trigger points for their meltdowns/obsessions and are able to calm each other down or ignore each other's extraneous BS because they are focused on their own personal BS. I like Janine and Gregory fine. I wasn't thrilled when the pilot made it clear that it would probably be a slow burn/WTWT but work place romance is a fact of life, I think I read 1/3 of UK couples met at work or via work (not sure about the US) so I think it has it's place in a work place show. IMHO what makes a lot of people groan when they see it is that it's often the main thing the media will talk about IRT a show even if it's only 1 scene every episode or so, especially if it drags on for so long it becomes utterly stupid or the only audience who are left are the die hards who want to see them get together. We can all name both dramas and comedies in that category. So far I think it's okay but IMO this show would be wise to pull a B99 and have them get together at the beginning of the 3rd season and work on growing up together in a low key way. Jake/Amy were often voted one of the best couples on TV despite (because of) the show often having them in different storylines and barely referencing their relationship in many eps after they got together. I think this ep did do a good job of showing that Janine had only ever been in one other relationship before since 8th grade and maybe didn't even realise that a few weeks dating didn't necessarily mean in a relationship or exclusive. But that's why she needs to listen to awesome Erika in all social related things. Gregory really shouldn't have come and made it a big deal. TV shows and movies really push the idea that "clearing your conscience" is the best thing but it's really not if it's going to cause more drama and hurt to someone else for no reason. It's not like Mo and Janine were married and his friend Greg slept with her.

And yet she still didn't get out of bed. I really do love that ep. More than many people's favourite Darrin Morgans Clyde Bruckman's and Jose Chung's. Speaking of the Morgans, my family has been discussing end of life care with a great aunt and it unexpected brought up a lot of "Home Again" for me, so I rewatched. ;) (X-Files as a way to process emotions, who knew?!, well me.) I really wonder about Scully and Maggie's relationship over the last few years. Surely she should have told her doctor daughter that she had reached a stage where when the time came, she was ready to go with no extraordinary measures? I realise that this is the theme of the ep and no one in the show talks about emotional matters unless they're dying and even then.... The quarter is less of a concern for me (though there are several good fics with explorations) but I guess the point has really been hammered home to me that talking with family members about what you want to happen is incredibly important for a number of reasons, especially so you don't have what ended up happening in this ep. Maggie and Dana lived close to each other, did they ever actually talk post IWTB? I realise that isn't the actual point or even theme of the episode but bugged. It also sucked that Maggie Scully died potentially estranged from 2 of her remaining kids whilst the other was in Germany and was probably not a frequent visitor. Scully family dynamics are fascinating in a way. A "normal" family who were all about Country and Church from the outside ended up as screwed up as the Mulder/Spenders and only some of that can be blamed on the X-Files.

I pretty much love all of WOTC in its entirety. What is going on? I don't really care and that isn't something I said about later in the series. Love the person at the beginning waxing lyrical and scientific about cockroaches being revealed to be the exterminator who get swiftly murdered by them. Love seeing Bill Dow (a favourite HIT Vancouver actor!) Love the whole Men In Black (the movie) feel a year before it came out. Love Mulder sitting in his car on his time off waiting for alien lights and getting mistaken for a drug dealer. Even though he has at least three houses to stay in in New England he just sits in his car. Love Bambi and her improbable but plausible "bugs are UFOs" theory. Love that she finds an improbable meeting of minds at the end. Adore Scully doing personal life stuff: cleaning her gun, defleaing Queequeg (die Flea die!) trying to read and yet she keeps answering the phone but not taking the bait until she hears that he's met another female scientist called Bambi and then she springs into action. I don't think she was consciously romantically jealous but they were both territorial about each other from fairly early on. And that being the trigger to get her there is hilarious imho. Both play it perfectly.

I feel like S3 had stories it wanted to tell, even if it was just "Max the saviour, solving all socio/political/economic problems in 1 hour" which also turned people off, but S4 never knew what it wanted to be at all. Even with BTS challenges they seemed like they were half assing it and clearly never intended "More Joy".

To me there are different types of "hate watching". One is where the general premise is ridiculous and the writing/acting terrible but it's fun to snark along with a lot of others. "Sharknado" franchise was deliberately built on that. Another is where the premise is good but the execution is disappointing but you love the premise so much that you watch along hoping it's going to get better and snarking - this is especially prevalent in franchises or spin offs with popular characters. Then there's shows you genuinely loved despite their flaws that somehow turned to shit either through stupid plots or aging but you've put emotional investment into them and decide to watch to the bitter end complaining about how far it's fallen. I think this show is in the latter category for a lot of people. Whereas something like "Fire Country" is in the middle of 1/2 for me right now. I think it's inevitable as shows age that they start to become the last but this one certainly took a swan dive off a cliff for a lot of fans.

I said before that this episode is a hard sell, even if you take out any shipping. Mulder allegedly has a random soulmate who is never seen or heard from again (and that he doesn't give a single shit about). Really? But KC makes it almost impossible to believe and DD doesn't help even though he's usually a good actor. I think some of the cult stuff is interesting and Scully as Mulder's father in a previous life is worth a ponder considering their dynamic sometimes, but over all, meh.

It's a bad sign when I actually thought her playboy brother showed a more interesting personality subversion by trying to smooth things over with Graydon despite getting put down by both his mother and sister and admitting that he loved his sister and wanted to help her. I know he's the damsel so he's not in as many eps and they needed to show that he's worth rescuing immediately but I wish they'd done a little something similar with Kit. She barely said anything that wasn't a sneer, brag or complaint the whole 2 episodes. I thought it was hilarious that she was so shocked that Graydon didn't want to marry her either, that he wanted to marry for love and wasn't chomping at the bit to marry the woman who mocked him publicly. I get that she's young and I completely understand her hating the idea of forced marriage to a stranger but she never once considered that he didn't want it either but was being dutiful.

Once "Muffin Girl" actually went to the prince and broke it off *and* then joined the quest, including magically not falling in the ravine despite an earthquake, I was pretty sure she was Elora because otherwise they wouldn't have bothered with the character beyond that scene in the great hall where she sees the prince flirting with the noble ladies and realises his insincerity. Kit is an entire book's worth of tropes all by herself, almost all of them played er, straight but I'm willing to give her time to grow more nuanced. I really liked Jade though. In comparison, whilst the story doesn't have a huge amount of respect for him it is interesting that TR's character is the "wrong" guy and he's openly scared of dying and public bathing but he has been allowed to contribute his knowledge and personal beliefs.

I don't generally watch many Hallmark movies anymore but I read a review for A very Married Christmas and I really enjoyed it! I've liked Kristoffer Polaha since Valentine so that helps but I thought it was a very sweet movie. The unhappy couple parts felt very realistic, there was no big drama why they were living separate lives just that they'd stopped communicating, which is what drives so many couples apart. Similarly, there was no real big thing that brought them back together just having fun, remembering the good times and agreeing to try and repriotize their lives. I don't get why her panic at the end, whilst realistic, meant they had to immediately pack up and go back to reality though. Except to give us the big speech, which could have been done without it. I agree with everyone up thread that 2 keys is not a big deal, especially as we saw the need for it in the movie with them running personal errands and walking Gerry. The two room suite for a married couple would have been the bigger deal IMO, if they wanted to make something of it. If the owners are routinely dropping ornaments though windshields and comping those therapy guests (not to mention providing covert marriage counselling) I hope they're getting well paid for it by Lauren though. And since this is still Hallmarklandia no one is going to sue them.

Yes, whilst I was watching it I was thinking of all the thousands of ways that could go badly wrong, even with the best will in the world. But on TV it introduced us to a different aspect and a couple of interesting new characters

There's no denying that this is becoming soapy ridiculousness but I still enjoyed it. It was 100% clear that something was wrong with Sharon from the start when she said that everything was going to be perfect but I wasn't expecting the collapse until she was rubbing her back a lot at the hotel scene. Then I knew the cliffhanger. So Bode will yeah probably do surgery on himself and her to donate a kidney next week. It was Riley's own fault that she died. I get why Bode carries around the guilt, obviously, but I don't get why it has to be either his or Jake's fault officially. Surely an accident investigation and an autopsy should have shown that she wasn't wearing a seat belt and was trying to get out of the car? I do get why Vince was pissed as he and Sharon react to all the issues coming up after so many years but whilst if Jake hadn't cheated on Riley she might not have had a tantrum in that car, that can't entirely be laid at his door. At least Vince and Sharon cut down on openly deal with their family issues and making professional decisions based on family a *little* this week. Compared to Sharon taking over from Sheriffs last week but I'm surprised that more inmates and even Cal Fire aren't more pissed. I know their station consists of about Jake, Eve now Gabriella and Manny but even so. How did G manage to get Bode on the phone late at night. She isn't a next of kin or lawyer. Are they allowed calls as long as they come through the camp staff? If so WTF was Bode willing to risk everything to get contraband in the pilot? I do like Vince and Sharon as a couple though. They project believable energy as a couple who have survived things that most people would have broken up over and who also have to deal with each other at work. Not always the happiest, a little melancholy, but generally lowkey humming along until something pops up. Speaking of I really liked seeing more of Freddy. I think he and Bode have nice friend chem and it was nice of Bode to do something for someone else that wasn't his family. Of course now we have a love quadrangle and it's only ep 4......I did like the lawyer though and I loved the introduction of the female con camp. That will bring some drama. Liked Eve and Ayden. Of course this show is going full on melodrama to get them to kiss. What's next to top that, Eve rescues a bunch of orphans during their first date?! Liked Sharon and Gabriela, even though it was a "your kid, my kid" deal. I guess Manny is projecting a lot on to his daughter. Like he joined Cal Fire and have her the opportunities to leave this small town with two con camps and one bar and be an Olympian and live this "perfect" life away from it all but instead she runs head first for Cal Fire and ruining all his fantasies for her. Kind of like Vince being desperate for teenage Bode to join Cal Fire so much that he sent him in the opposite direction. Just as Vince clearly sees himself in Bode as well as doing favours for his beloved mentor. Bode does suffer badly from maincharacteritis but I can see why people like him a lot. MT does have charisma and is good looking and Bode has a way of looking at people with puppy dog eyes and he seems to reserved to be up to something (unless you're Vince).

I still really like the show a lot but I think it *is* noticeable that it's created by two people who were on Grey's Anatomy for a decade and the star of the show, for better or worse. For me the family dynamics are interesting and I pretty much like everyone to some degree. Like others I do want them to branch out into the other firefighter inmates and not just have this be the Bode drama show. There is a lot of potential there with their various reasons why they signed up for this dangerous work (as well as to get time off) and the various ethics and good points of using inmates as firefighters. Manny would certainly be the one to point to and say "it works, they help save lives and communities and they get a skill they can use for ever" but that's not going to be the case with all of them. And like with that guy at the end, some of them have got to be a little resentful that Bode's family are right there and have the power to visit him as well as Manny clearly taking him under his wing. To the point Bode's own mother points out that she wants Bode to be more like Manny and not the other way around. When they first introduced Riley's death I thought it was going to be a situation where Bode was either drunk or high and that's what made him crash but clearly that's not the case and if Riley hadn't been upset about Jake she would probably be alive. Did Vince convince himself that Bode should have made sure she was wearing her seatbelt though? They were laying it on thick with him going "clearly why Bode punched you is that he's jealous of you because I always loved you and you're who he should have been". Holy projecting buddy. Obviously that was to bring it all around to the convo at the end but yeah. IF Vince was like this before Bode left then I can see why that didn't help matters. Although I do understand all the family's POV to a certain extent and it will be interesting to see how Vince handles Jake's part in the tragedy. And Jake, your unwillingness to ever own up to your part in it is making you my least favourite character. No good telling Gabriella but not Reily's family. I get that it's incredibly hard to do but it can no longer be considered insignificant or a kindness to keep it secret. I imagine it was supposed to be guilt for what Vince said and the secret that made him nasty towards Bode but again it didn't help me like the character because apart from being a competent firefighter there isn't much to the character, especially as he was such a lukewarm boyfriend in the pilot. The only thing I really have liked was his encouragement to Gabriella to consider Cal Fire. I appreciate that this show isn't hanging around with Gabriella. In the first ep she was shown helping out and by ep 3 she's a potential recruit. Eve had very little to do this episode but it was good to see her take no BS approach to training potential probies and that talk with Gabriella. Sharon seems to be able to do whatever she wants without any consequences. I know she's division chief and is well respected but at some point someone's going to question things like her taking control of the hostage situation involving her husband and son from the sheriffs. One would have though anyway. And they planted people finding out about her kidney disease as potentially impacting on her career this week.

I don't really know anything about small town CA besides what I see on TV and read about and I haven't really explored much queer fiction set there so that's interesting. It seems like they might be going for "the only gays in the village" trope to a certain extent. And these days even if they were she could find women three towns over online. Eve can be completely socially awkward whilst having plenty of theoretical options though. And it's an interesting juxtaposition between her being highly competent at her job, clearly social and well liked by her friends and crew but bad at asking women out. Provided it's not used to have her relationships flame out after a few eps and she's mostly single.

Hmm, I think I'm going to get bored of Davidson basically winning all the time. I know it's only the 2nd episode but the conspiracy to control Independence and make even more fortunes off railroads and ranches by killing Liam is already my least favourite part of the show which is a shame since it's the biggest part of it. Followed closely by the various potential love triangles. Although Abby having dinner with her husband's (probable) killer was quite effective. But he's got to know she's really Abby Collins if he plotted to kill Liam right? He's toying with her (the penal code book) and probably attracted to her. I did like Abby trying to hold it all together until she started crying at night. And that is a very large room for a dancing girl in a saloon. The plan for Hoyt to get arrested was kind of fun. Davidson's patsy being killed before he could talk was inevitable but it was interesting that it was Augustus doing it. He really is trying to play everything as straight as possible whilst everyone else is hiding something. Although I do think he should be more suspicious of the new Sheriff, even if he's trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. I do still like Calian and Kate became 1000 times more interesting know we know for sure she's a Pinkerton undercover and that she's on Abby's trail. And Kai was great even though he only had a couple of scenes.

I doubt they're going to try and go "bigger than God." Most shows only end up trying to fight God/The Devil/TBTB in later seasons and they're rarely the most interesting villains. Obviously they set up John and Mary having to save all of existence which is huge but it might be on a less celestial scale than later SPN, to also keep the Buffy comparisons, sort of how Buffy stopped Hell breaching Earth many times with many Big Bads constantly wanting to end the world but it wasn't until S7 that she was fighting "The First Evil" directly. TVD started off with Damon and then go progressively "bigger" until Cade/"some might call him the Devil". The gang could stop the Akreida breaching in the season final and if they do end up coming back for a 2nd somehow then they could try again in a different way next time without it actually topping "God" narratively. Although starting off with "all of existence" IS pretty hardcore if they plan to theoretically go with completely different BBs every season. Some have managed to "power down" and focus on "intimate villains" after a big one. Dean said in the show "that he's going to put the pieces together in a way that might surprise you." It's not exactly what he says in the early trailers about uncovering the real true" but IMHO it's getting at the same thing. Whilst some shows do record voiceovers specifically for trailers (or even scenes) it's possible that they just tried different variations on a theme to see which ones they preferred and one version ended up in the trailer and another in the show. We know they recut the show slightly from one that was given to some reviewers but it didn't seem to have drastically changed things. His ending scene attempts to be both be both omniscient narrator and to keep the mystery of why things are different from what we already know from SPN so that's why he's simultaneously "they didn't know they'd have to save all *everything* and also "but I don't know the full story yet!!" Which makes it a little awkward. But I don't think it means the show has failed simply because it didn't provide answers in the pilot since genre shows never do that. YMMV of course.

So I guess I'm in with this show for now. Whilst I found a lot of plots a bit boring - will Bode stay or go?! (duh) and the Jake/Eve fight over Riley and Bode I still enjoyed it. I like difficult redemption stories and Bode does seem to want to do the right thing in general. I like the complicated issues with him and his parents as they come back into each other's lives and the family business. His parents do seem to have stayed together through a hell of a lot so kudos to them, although the revelations this episode will clearly test it. Not sure why Vince thinks they wouldn't have survived if Bode had stayed around -he said because it would hurt more and presumably they would have kept arguing about him but mourning two kids can't have been much easier, especially with wondering what he was up to. Should someone with chronic kidney disease be drinking beer? Bode changed his name to stop his family (read mother) doing exactly what she did this ep and tracking him though the system. And probably also because Bode Leone sounds a bit silly. ;) I thought the flashback was a slightly awkward attempt to jam in exposition it wasn't quite as bad as the cliche "ah, John Smith my best friend since we were 5, as you already know full well....." but it came close. At this point Jake is right, Gabriella should just join Cal Fire. Obviously she's in those scenes to facilitate the love triangle and throw issues in the tentative relationship between her Dad and Bode since Bode can't go anywhere else but she's been at the fire in both eps so far and in this one went so far as to be the one who found the first hose. I'm actually really pleased that he mentioned it right away because so many shows would have her just continue to show up and help all the time but then never consider actually doing the job for money/as a calling. I really like Eve, loved her awkwardly acknowledging the thumbs up to the bartender and then making it worse by doubly awkwardly asking her out to celebrate her saving someone's life. Ah, being an attractive, generally extremely competent but socially awkward lesbian in a small town. I guess there's also potential for Bartender to have secrets she's running from in SF. Clearly Jake not reporting Bode punching him had nothing to do with a firefighter not reporting that an inmate punched him and everything to do with he, Jake and Eve being ex best friends and the issues surrounding Riley's death. It's also clear that Vince has basically adopted the two of them and even though Vince has disowned Bode and would be fine with him going back to prison that they have a lot of loyalty to the family and their memories of how it was. So with that in mind I think it's narratively realistic that he didn't end up saying anything. I like Freddy and him both trying to not get into further trouble himself and trying to keep Bode on the straight and narrow. I would like the show to include the issues surrounding Inmate Firefighters good and bad that they started to do last week but didn't really get into much this week beyond Bode's plot.

I guess one of the Akrida is the "demon" cupping John and Mary in their hands on that poster, unless that was entirely for artistic effect.

I do get why some are upset/frustrated with the changes right now. When news about the show first broke I thought that these characters had already been thoroughly played out and couldn't they have come up with something else but Jensen and Robbie's insistence that they were well aware that it was different, that they'd both gone back and watched all the relevant episodes but that there was going to be an interesting reason for that got me intrigued. Of course the flipside of that is that ep 13 *has* to deliver both in terms of exciting "this is more than just an angelic mind wipe" non let down and make sense in both shows. Hopefully they'll manage it but at the very least they're taking both shows seriously, taking fans wanting canon and continuity seriously and expressing love for the shows and characters. Which is more than some showrunners and writers did.

Sneak peek of Friday's episode.

Especially as it appeared to be no more than an hour or so outside of Independence. Get there and then have sex! Not to mention she was quizzing him and they were acting like they had all the time and safety in the world instead of night falling in a notoriously dangerous place. Apparently Justin Johnson Cortez is Latino-Indigenous from the Yaqui tribe, so not Apache but nothing like Roswell New Mexico's casting of not Native American Tyler Blackburn for example.

I liked that. I thought it was a really good and not completely obvious way to connect the characters and show John as more than a bumbling but eager "Soldier Boy" who's on a Dad mission. Yes, I prefer it when shows/movies/books move away from the Chosen One/Special One plot device and go with people who choose to do this for no other reason than they believe it's the right thing to do. I thought it was genuinely a very funny moment between the two, as was the whole of Carlos's introduction but I am wary of the CW's habit of completely flanderizing (well most of their characters) but especially the designated "comic relief" until all nuance is drained away.