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I like that line and I love her translation, in the sense that I love the language of her translation - I don't speak Italian so can't speak for accuracy, of course.

Love that song! The look between Lila and Elena killed me. Here's the final passage from the book:

What's particularly rough is that Elena notes earlier how she feels comfortable when he's around, she sees him as a cultured, different type of father from the ones in the neighbourhood, she trusts him to set a different example.

That was a sweet Vulture article with all the four girls speaking over one another. I'll be devastated if we also lose the teenage actresses after this season.

The show is officially renewed for a 2nd season, by the way! And yeah. That was an episode of.. air to breathe, a horizon to see, beauty and comfort, and then of course, in the end, also inevitably the horrid nature of man. A real nice character-builder of an episode for Elena, though, even got to geek out about Dickens and Dostoevsky and all that jazz.

Those were some pretty impressive fictional shoes. I guess they're not fictional any more. Very sweet moment when Lenu insisted on joining Lila in re-entering that cove of macho misbehavior. Those small glimpses of Elena's firmness, resolution, point towards some sort of inner solidity, even if she's largely incapable of showing outwards confidence so far. I guess I have to take back my praise of Pasca as a charmer. That was kinda clumsy. Also he didn't start things but he's complicit in Rino's hijinx. Michele showing up there looking like the most scummy scumbag imaginable. I figure the actor is getting typecast to high heavens after this. Will be nice to have an island vacation next episode. Though knowing this show, it will still play out like a horror movie.

It was nice seeing all those personalities together. Pasquale is one charming guy, at least as portrayed by a charming actor. The final scene was.. beautiful. Something hellish, supernatural about it, and Lila (via Elena)'s description of her brother's "transformation". There are truly intoxicating moments in this series, it's sort of always intense but then builds to these feverish climaxes. There's something very human about Elena, relatable, recognisable, finely portrayed in nuances and suggestions rather than obvious declarations.

Love how the soundtrack and mood is pitched to 'horror flick' - there's the intensity, the anger, the injustice reflected in the the language of cinema, sound design, the performances. How easily the show could've become banal, but instead the flammable emotions suppressed under the surface peek through. The teenage leads are just finding that tone and that pitch perfectly. The men and boys are pretty nasty here, but at the same time you have to appreciate the interesting looks the actors and filmmakers bring forth, the stares, gazes, expressions.

This is brilliant so far! The two main characters.. the actresses performances... they'll stick with me. Yes we're seeing the girls fairy tale perspective. Don Achille isn't an ogre or a lurking monster, but he does throw people to the wall and hold neighborhoods in fear of speaking up. The reality is revealed to be a drearier, greyer version that's perhaps more oppressive than an ogre would be. Elena's father's actor makes an impression in his brief scenes. Tough to see him provoked into violence.

Well a Jurassic World would be pretty cool. Not sure how they'd make it so the big t rex teeth can't hurt you though.

Not to overdo the videogame comparisons, but since the creators have spoken in those terms: In videogames there's a so-called 'speedrunning' scene. Speedrunners do not simply run fast through a game, but break it, exploit glitches to get to their goals, reach the areas they want to go to. This is done through extensive trial and error and poking at the walls of your virtual world. No stone left unturned, no interaction with in-game characters or objects unexplored. A popular game for speedrunning is the 1996 joint Super Mario 64. 20 years later we are still seeing awe-inspiring new discoveries of how to manipulate the game and break its boundaries. A popular video from this year shows how one speedrunner is accessing "parallel worlds" within the game to achieve his goals. My point is, if the MiB is getting secrets from some girl by killing her family, it's not necessarily a scripted mission or a natural reaction for her character to seeing her parents killed, but something MiB has discovered triggers a reaction, a glitch. Discovered by poking around in the world for 30 years as an advanced gamer of it systems.

I will say: Sympathy may be impossible, but I understand Cersei. I felt her intense rage, and even thought it righteous. She's done many an evil act through the seasons, but the way she's been spat upon and mocked for the last few acts, yeah, anyone would go ballistic. Count me in as one who believed in Sansa from the start. Or liked her at least - for a while she seemed the show's least popular character. But she was relatable even then.

Whew! I usually leave the speculation to sharper spitballers and I have to say you guys have been doing a pretty sharp job of it this season. And way back to the stuff in S1 we finally got answered this year. I agree with Fisher King - I was sad to see Maergery go, she was a schemer of the satisfying kind - but there was some solace in seeing her die not of her own incompetence, or because she didn't see what was coming, but because the bloody High Sparrow wasn't all that clever after all and let her down even as she was using him. Men, right? I found myself pondering who the people watching Cersei's crowning were. The nameless crowd. Who's left in that royal circle? Smart buggers who stay in the background, probably. Sharp suit on Cersei, by the way. Speaking of which, how big is the Lannister army now? Anothermi, I think Varys has unlocked the secret to between-episodes fast travel. gingerella nails those magical moments of awe. Let's see if it's not the only 'totally evil' power girl who wins in the end, though. If A Show really wants to have the last laugh. I'm NOT comfortable that Sansa will stay away from Littlefinger and Littlefinger will stay away from Sansa. His tongue is still wormy.

You're probably right. But I think there would be some poetic beauty in her arc still if she were to realize there was no grand purpose to her steely (possessed?) resolve. I talked about religion in a previous season and speculated that while there's certainly 'something' to this Red Religion, it's not certain that it's a god, or a true higher purpose. It may just be magic tricks, blunt sorcery. But as you say, even "simply" magic tricks sure could help fighting angry disco zombies. And as Pallas says, she can still serve an interesting purpose on the show with her new, ehm, improved self.

Melisandre.. maybe her end is coming soon, but what is the moral of her story? She was honestly convinced of her beliefs, no doubt. But she's a different person now. She still talks about serving her God - and the proof that something not quite human is going on is there - but for what purpose? Is it just 'magic'? What IS the endgame for the red god religious plotlines scattered about? And for her? Certainly one point is, you may have certain powers, you may stumble across some real profound shit with galactic implications left and right, but in the end the real world can still interrupt and say, 'for all the good it'll do ya'. There's that pragmatic core of the show. So maybe Melisandre will die for no particular reason.