iMonrey

Nobody tears up like Louis Hofmann. I don't think he had a dry eye once the entire series.

But didn't she say something like "I wish I was born rich" or something? Wouldn't she have been born rich if she was Wilford's daughter?

I've watched several You Tube videos and understand some of this stuff a little better now. But I still never quite understood the "loops" or "cycles." In Season 1 Adam kept saying it was the last cycle, but it's a concept they either didn't explain very well or dropped altogether by Season 3. You're right, there was a Claudia in the origin world, and Regina's father was Bernd Doppler in all the worlds. Which is problematic in and of itself, but neither person was a descendent of Martha or Jonas. There's a photo in the final scene but it's hard to make out the Bernd Doppler character because he was never that prominent and looks a lot older. They explained this too - everything was mirrored to indicate which world they were in. In the mirror world all the sets and people are flopped backwards (the Kahnwald and Nielsen houses, etc., are mirrored) so Martha's cut is under one eye in the mirror world and under the other eye in Jonas's/Adam's world. I don't think Katharina and Peter were "together" together in the origin world. Peter was clearly a closeted gay man. He is seated next to Bernadette in the final scene and that's who he was seeing on the side in the Jonas world so I think that's who he wound up with.

What is mole (SP?) ?

Spoiler alert, skip this post if you have not watched the whole thing. Well, I was worried things would get too complicated this season, and they sort of did. Not that it ruined the whole season - I was able to follow along pretty well, for the most part. I understand the concept of the three worlds and how that worked structurally, but I still feel like they bit off a little more than they could chew. At one point there were like seven or eight Marthas and I lost track of which was which. Also, they layered two different realities on the same world - one where Jonas survived the apocalypse because Alt-Martha zapped him into the mirror world, and one where he just ran down into the basement and survived. Too much. I don't think I ever quite grasped the whole "stuck in a loop" concept. There were other things that sort of went over my head. I also got tired of people talking in circles, or riddles. And I think there were some loose ends too. They more or less explained what Alexander's backstory was, but I felt like that character was not fully developed. It also didn't feel like they knew what to do with Bartosz. And what happened to Investigator Clausen? He was a big deal in Season 2 and was largely responsible for the apocalypse. He was totally absent from this season. I wonder if maybe the actor just wasn't available for this season so they wrote him out. Not sure how I feel about the ending. I think it hit all the emotional buttons but I'm a little confused about who was still around. If there was no Claudia how was there a Regina? Will probably rewatch the season.

I bet Astrid's pretty peeved as well. Now she's stuck in the tail. From the beginning, I've though it was problematic that they introduced the tailees as stowaways who jumped the train. I think it makes their cause less sympathetic. The movie didn't have that problem: the tailees were simply the lowest class passengers. The words "ticketed passengers" were never used in the movie to makes any such distinction. (There was some dialogue at the end that implied the tailees might have been stowaways but it was never explicitly stated so.) Of course I suppose it comes down to your personal sense of morality and what people "deserve" in this kind of situation, but I'm finding it hard to sympathize with or justify their plot. They jumped on a train they had no business being on and now they are demanding equal rights. The world doesn't work that way now, I don't see why it would work that way under this situation. Yeah the alternative was certain death, but nobody said life is fair.

Stephanie said she runs three businesses. What are they? The bistro, and the food truck - although we've not seen it all season long. What's the third? Catering business? Isn't that just a branch of her bistro? Sam does hip replacement surgery too huh? Is there any surgery he doesn't do? Does he do brain surgery? So if you go to that hospital, you're likely to have Sam operating on you whether it's gall bladder removal or heart surgery. Is there a gym in the hospital? Or do Sam and his new boss just keep winding up at the same gym at the same time? Why would there by a gym in a hospital? Do they play a lot of basketball in hospitals? I could see a small workout room or PT room but that's a full basketball court. Who the heck was Olympia? The whole episode was built around her memorial and they never explained who she was. Have I forgotten someone? I wondered if maybe it was Cassie's stepmother who showed up in one of the movies but I don't think that was her name. Finally . . . nobody ever paid for their hot dogs. In the last scene he said they were on the house but I don't know how this poor guy can afford to give away free food when nobody ever pays him anyway. He must be an eccentric millionaire who just enjoys making hot dogs on the sidewalk.

I kind of liked the new tie-breaker. I always wondered how they had time to do a whole extra round, and I suppose they edit a lot out to make room for it. KFC wasn't that bad of an answer to how the announcer at the Kentucky Derby would get paid. Especially since my first thought was "carrots." (And no, p*$$y and tail are not the same thing. I thought chasing tail was the definitive answer.)

So . . . there is nobody to root for? Melanie felt so bad about freezing and smashing Josie's finger it made her throw up? Oh, poor boo! Are we supposed to sympathize with her? When Josie smashed her own hand and attacked Melanie I was shouting for her to kick her ass! Why would they choose a child to intern as an engineer? Wouldn't choosing an adult make more sense? Is this like Willy Wonka's candy factory, where they want a child they can mold into their own image rather than a grown-up who would want to do things their way? Or are they just trying to manipulate the tail?

That would have been a somewhat satisfying series finale if this doesn't get renewed. I do hope it does though, as I enjoyed it far more than I expected to. When Magda reached out and touched the back of Tiago's neck, did her hand look skeletal or monstrous or something? Or was it just that she was wearing a leather glove? Yes! I thought the same thing. You don't tell Carrie's mother you're going to the prom. She'll just stab you. The ending was a little too meta for my tastes. The dialogue about building a wall was just a little too on the nose. RIP Fly Rico. You were such a good dancer, too.

I have never heard of the Chrisleys before. Boy, they sure seem dumb. Although I admit the mother did quite well in celebrity name game. I figured Yvette would have to do all the work if that poor contestant was forced to pick one of the Chrisleys. In fact I would have chosen the daughter just based on the greater likelihood of her knowing more celebrity names than either of her parents.

I've only finished the first three. My main concern for the season was it would get too complicated. I was relieved that the first couple of episodes were easy enough to follow, but by the third I was starting to get a little confused. It was a lot to keep up with three different timelines, it's harder with multiple timelines in two different realities. I do like the way everything is mirrored - literally - in the alternate timeline. I'm assuming they simply filmed them normally and then flopped them backwards. (The Kahnwald house and the Nielsen house are mirrored images of themselves - the staircases are on the opposite sides, Jonas's bed is on the opposite side, etc.) Doing a complete rewatch of the first two seasons really paid off. I was able to pick up on all the little details they were repeating in the mirror world, like Hannah finding the hair on Ulrich's hoodie and smelling it, just like Katerina did in the first episode of the season one. The problem with a show like this is, of course, the younger children are visibly older. There's nothing to say they weren't born earlier in the mirror world, so that's hand-waveable, but they shouldn't look as old as they do in our world. So far they've been careful not to show Mikkel very much but Elizabeth is noticeably more mature.

In non-Vallow news . . . Caught last night's rerun of "The Secret Keepers," about the murder of Randy Baker. They were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. Granted, the show probably latched onto the daughter because she was pretty and she was articulate, but it seemed like everyone else in this story was pretty trashy, including (unfortunately) the victim. They all seemed like they were right out of central casting for Cops. Especially the gun man - Griz? Yikes.

And every time Anthony introduces the Doris Award at the beginning of the show, Doris cackles like it's the first time she's seen it. I'd have to go back and check, but I don't think that was her. At the time it seemed like it was a boy with a similar haircut. Hard to believe the show would make a mistake like that.

I don't even remember a Ben. Wasn't that Adam? And what happened to the food truck anyway? I find it interesting that they started saying Stephanie's last name this season (Borden) for the first time. I've heard them say it more than once, and yet they never used to say what her last name was. Remember back in the first season's October movie when she and Abigail were running against each other for Fall Harvest Queen? She rode around in a car that said "Vote for Stephanie." And when Martha announced the winner she just said "Stephanie." No last name.