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I was prepared to be bored by this one because the Wall story in general just doesn't interest me, so I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging and exciting I found it. I guess part of the problem is that this show covers so many stories and such a myriad of secondary and tertiary characters, that when you're not as invested in certain stories (i.e. The Wall/Castle Black) you're not paying as much attention to those secondary characters so what happens to them doesn't have the same impact as when someone like Ned Stark or Lady Catelyn dies. Plus too much of Season 3 was spent on Jon Snow tramping around north of the Wall and it bored me. This episode really pulled the whole Wall storyline into focus. Something finally happened there. It wasn't just a bunch of talk, talk, talk, like it usually is. But when you think about it, have they ever really had to defend the Wall in the last few hundred years or so? We know that over the centuries people stopped believing in White Walkers etc. and the post to the Night's Watch became more or less a prison sentence rather than any meaningful appointment of duty. There are supposed to be other castles along the Wall that have all been abandoned over the years because the Night's Watch has grown so puny. So I think most of them have been going through the motions, making a show of being there to "defend" the realm, when nobody really believes it's in any danger anymore.

Continuity! When did Kiera find out that Alec knew there was another Kiera? Neither he nor Carlos said anything to her about it, that we saw (as far as I can remember). Alec was kind of snotty to her the next time he saw her, but she didn't understand his attitude and made a point of asking Carlos about it, and he played it off like the kid was just in a mood. Suddenly this week Alec tells her they're having a memorial service for "other you" and her only reaction is to the fact that Carlos didn't mention this to her, not that Alec even knows about "other her." So, is amnesia guy really the guy who killed other Kiera? That's what I got from that video but it was so quick I couldn't be sure. And Alec didn't end up telling her because she got all pissy about the CMR. I wish she wouldn't bite the hand that feeds her.

I didn't think this week was a very good one. Reminded me of the first episode; I just wasn't interested in the stories. I don't care about horse racing, and I don't care about the World Cup or Fifa, so two thirds of the show was kind of wasted on me. The final segment was good but by the time they got to it I had lost interest. Just goes to show, the stories they choose really make or break the episodes. I understand John probably doesn't want to rehash stories that Jon Stewart has already covered, so sometimes he's going to do stories on subjects not a lot of the media are talking about. Six episodes in and I've loved about 3 of them, so it's turning out to be kind of hit or miss with me. Still love John himself, though.

It seems to me Nicholas has to be doomed, one way or another, because they're going to need to give Marisol something else to do next season. And it also seems like they had Zoila's husband leave her just to give her a romance storyline, which wasn't necessary IMO. Things are getting pretty interesting with Rosie's story, though. Apparently that guy just wants to be the sole beneficiary in his uncle's will. Watch him leave everything to Rosie. The part that really bugs me though is Rosie, once again, getting up in her employer's faces about the way they behave around her son. Now, I'm guessing she's a live-in, which means both she and Miguel are both living at that house. That's awfully generous of her employer, and she should be doing a better job of keeping her kid out of their way, not making demands of them WRT her kid. I don't get what's going on with Genvieve; why does she need dialysis? Her kidneys just stopped functioning? At the age of 61? The thing with Ty (sp?) stalking Carmen is really cliche and he's too cartoonish and over the top. I can't believe Evelyn and Tony would just pull over on the side of a main road and start making out in the back seat. How dumb are they?

That's what they always say. It's a big Catch-22; every time there's some mass shooting incident, the NRA pushes for more guns. As if cross-fire is going to improve the situation.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants someone to smack that little brat. And I don't care if it's not politically correct to say so. Where the heck are his parents? Just sitting there letting him terrorize the passengers in the seats in front of them?

The gun nuts drive me crazy. What the hell do they want? Do they really want everyone walking around with AK 47s trapped to their backs, and side arms in their holsters? Where the hell are we living, Syria? These are the people who use "freedoms" as their justification to walk around packing heat like they live in a video game and trumpet how America is the greatest nation on earth because of these very "freedoms." But how great is this country when it's more dangerous to live here than it is in Syria, or Libya, or the Gaza Strip? You're 30 times more likely to be shot to death in this country than you are in most of the terrorist controlled middle eastern states. What does that say about how "great" our country is?

Most of the HGTV shows. House Hunters, and House Hunters Intl' in particular, are completely fake. It says right on their websites, you have to already own a house before you can get on the show. Of the three houses they're looking at, one of them they've already bought, and usually, are already living there (in the case of HHI, they've lived there for a year or more!). The other two homes might be houses that belong to friends of theirs. Property Brothers is bad too; neither of the Brothers is really doing anything. Here again the couple has already bought a home that needs remodeling, so Drew isn't even doing anything and someone else has already come up with a design so neither does Jonathan.

Yeah, who knows if it will ever get made. In fact I think they should have probably ended the series sooner than they did; the novelty wore off after the first few seasons/series. They had done about all they could with the characters by the time they did "The End" at the end of series 3, although "The Last Shout" special was pretty good. After that, they kind of ran out of ideas. There were some good episodes here and there (especially the one where Saffy wrote a play about her life in series 4) but most of series 5 was sub par. In fact while I was writing this I looked up the list of episodes for reference and discovered there have been several specials since the end of series 5 I have never seen. I'll have to search for them on Hulu I guess.

Yes, but they're not any more likely to be scared off by the visage of someone peeling off part of their face to buy a pack of smokes. Because, assuming they've bought cigarettes before, they know you don't pay for them that way.

But who are their "clients," really? The only people who have "hired" them are the folks at HGTV and I don't think their ratings would suffer if they showed us some of their flops. In fact I think it would do the show good because eventually people are going to get tired of every flip being a success. I burned out on Love It or List It after only a handful of episodes because it's basically the exact same story, every time. I don't think it would affect their ability to sell their flips, either. They do good work and use high grade materials. They aren't skimping or violating codes, they really do high-end work. I just think there has to be some cases where they get in way over their heads because of unforeseen problems and end up having to take a huge loss.

The problem with the current anti-smoking PSAs is that they don't make much sense. Some "kid" goes into a convenience store and asks for a "pack of menthols" - like there are no brands or anything. That's like walking into a bar and asking for "a drink." Or "a beer." Then the lady behind the counter says you'll have to peel off part of your face. WTH? I get where they're going with this but they're doing it in a completely unrealistic and silly way. Just show some actual skin damage that's been done to a long-time smoker. Teens are far more likely to be scared off by that. Not that she should go away entirely, but she's too good to be doing crappy TV commercials. Is she that desperate for work?

It would be hilarious if they finally find this Book of Leaves and it turns out to be, just that: a book, with leaves pressed in it.

If that were the case, he could have told her so. As it was he had no idea she was a lousy maid, and since Zoila is a maid, it's not out of line for her to comment on another maid's work, just as anyone else would about about someone who had the same job they did and didn't do it very well. I didn't think it was out of line for her to say his maid was doing a lousy job and he needed to crack the whip. He wasn't going to do that; Marisol nixed that plan and put her foot down, saying either Opal went or she did. That's when Nick confronted Opal and told her she had to get out.

I thought it was hilarious when Coop started a dramatic reading of The Candy Man, but once everyone started singing and they knew all the words and all the verses, it got stupid. It was a joke they took too far and then ruined. Also stupid? The vendor's son knowing who everyone was without ever having met them. What, did his father show him pictures of all his customers and what they liked to buy? That was absurd. Also dumb: Gloria. She's a nurse for God's sake, she knows the score. No way someone in N/A gets pain killers unless they've just had major surgery or something. Jackie can take Ibuprofen for broken toes, or they could have given her a cortisone shot or something. This was definitely a case where they had to dumb down a character in order to make the plot work, because if Jackie had gone to Coop and gotten a legitimate prescription for Oxy (or whatever it was) like she suggested to Gloria in the first place, there would have been no need for all this angst over the mandatory drug testing.

I'm having a tough time buying into Grace's sudden turnaround WRT her mother. I'm not really sure what pushed her away in the first place, whether it was the divorce or learning about her addiction or her affair with Eddy or a combination of those things, or if it was just that she was hanging around with a bad crowd that encouraged her to diss her mother until they ditched her. If it wasn't the influence of her new friends I'm not sure how their abandonment of her sends her back into her mother's arms for comfort.

It's about as close as we ever get Mrs. P., but then Tarek blogged or posted on Facebook that they ended up selling the house for X amount. I would consider a true "flop" to be one where they had to take a huge loss just to unload the property, because it ended up being far more expensive to remodel and repair than they originally thought. This last one (6/3) felt kind of like a cheat. Terrible location on a busy street, right next to a school, terrible traffic there, and houses priced lower than theirs in far more desirable areas. All the realtors come through the Open House and say it's over priced for the location. Then, they end up getting an offer over list price. WTH? When something like that happens they need to explain why, or else I feel like the whole episode was deliberately misleading.

Did anyone else think Lester was going to end up sleeping with his brother's wife, like he did with Hess's wife? I'm kind of surprised they didn't go there. If they don't give us some kind of resolution on the supermarket owner's story, we'll have wasted most of the season on a plot that ended up going nowhere. I know FX isn't the only network that does this, but why do they always go "Only one more episode left . . . until the season finale!" Why can't they just go "Only two more episodes left?"

Please don't tell me the whole make-out scene ends up just being an hallucination.

It's funny but when I saw the first episode of this show I wasn't really feeling it, and now it's something I just can't live without. It has surpassed The Daily Show for quality and laughs. Comparing the new FCC chair to hiring a dingo to babysit your baby had me rolling the hardest. Of course, Oliver has the luxury of a whole week to put together one episode, but he sure makes the most of it. I just wish it aired earlier, or on a different day, or something. Sunday nights at 11:00? Really?

Leave me glazzies! Overall the season itself was hit or miss. I'm kind of surprised it was renewed frankly. I figured out that was Leo's mom in the boat pretty early on. I can't figure out who this new little group is that recruited Riario but I'm sick of all the Book of Leaves talk. Where is Clarice going?

Did JLD really cut her hair or was that a wig? Was this the last episode of the season?

I've definitely been on the fence about this show . . . until now. Holy crap that kiss took me by surprise, to say the least. I mean, the scenes between Ethan and Dorian were rife with the HoYay (especially in the bathroom), but I honestly didn't think they'd go there. Not with Josh Hartnett, especially. Now I just want to know what's going on. Is this some part of the curse Dorian is under, that everyone is so drawn to him they can't help themselves, even totally straight men? Did he put something into Ethan's drink? A combination of both, maybe? I saw Brona becoming the bride a mile away - I think the first time we saw her and learned she was dying it was obvious something was going to happen to her to "preserve" her life or turn her into one of the undead. That play was all kinds of corny. Funny how starved for entertainment people must have been back then. But Brona's reaction just to being in the theater was touching.

Oh, that makes sense Chillen. Thanks. And thanks Lady S for those screen caps of the Eyrie. I knew it looked different. The long, narrow bridge leading up to it was far more impressive looking than the narrow canyon they've been walking through this season. That doesn't really explain about the opening credits, though, because none of the structures in the animation look exactly like the sets.

Ain't that the truth. And if we're including Soaps here, I'll add All My Children. That show became obsessed with adding new characters, all the time, and then focusing almost exclusively on those new characters to the detriment of the established fan favorites. Days of our Lives, too, for almost turning it into a teen show.