Ottis

Yeah, and Eddie even had a line where that was made clear ... when Maeve said to Eddie he would be king and she would be queen, a spinning Eddie said something like, "Exactly what role would the queen fulfill?" That cinched it for me. A week or two ago I posted the show would have one or two endings ... and it had BOTH. We saw 1) that Conrad and Maeve did have some sort of master plan that miraculously worked out, and 2) the decline of Conrad and Maeve via Kevin's sudden blossoming. The thing I'm unsure of is to what degree Harry was involved in Conrad and Maeve's master plan. The show left that alone. WE saw Harry seemingly maneuvering on his own, but we don't yet know if that is what happened or there was a larger plan he was executing. Either way it kind of sucks. Because if Harry did that all on his own, he and Kev should run the family, hands down. Bye Conrad and Maeve. But we saw Conrad triumphantly exiting prison, so I guess they will be around. I still have no idea why he commands respect anymore (nor why he did in the past, aside from just being violent). I wish they would sideline Conrad and Maeve and let Kev and Harry and Saraphina run things. But I suspect if there is a second season, Conrad will force Kev to retreat. A few odds and ends: I don't know why Harry suddenly seems so relaxed after telling Kat to FU - and telling Jan everything is OK. Really? Does that indicate another hidden plan is in play? He isn't that dumb. And we have been led to believe Kat is fearsome. That was a hell of a risk the lawyer took, staying alone with Ritchie, knowing he would find out he was betrayed while she was there. She seemed far too confident as she crowed Ritchie wasn't the smart one. Ritchie could have shot her right then. Turned out not to matter - Harry can't let rats live - but still. I'm not sure why Kev felt the need to step away for an hour to tell Conrad his reign is over. That didn't seem to be part of any plan, unless again the show is withholding info. If it isn't, I guess Kev getting serious was an unintended consequence of Maeve and Conrad's plan, that they assume they can address. I really had no interest in Bella or her scheme through the whole season. Old school shady cop realizes he is screwed, but he is smart and has been around. I suspect he may end up being the real opponent down the road for Harry in cops and robbers. I feel like I nailed both of mine from last week, or maybe two weeks ago. The show di

There was some of that, for sure, but for me, the issue was pacing. This show took so long to move forward. Even as the costumes and acting improved, very little happened each week. It drove me nuts (and I posted about it frequently in the episode threads). As someone who read a lot of the books years ago, I kept wondering how many seasons it would take to finish the show given the glacial pace. Ten? Eleven?

Here's the thing: None of this matters. One of two things are happening, and the details are unimportant: 1) Conrad and Harry, and maybe Maeve, are playing a long con to expose or win over adversaries we as viewers still do not know much about (maybe mousy, old police guy, plus Ritchie, plus others), OR 2) Conrad and Maeve and their empire is declining and we are witnessing it and setting up for a transition (to Harry?). If it is the first possibility, we will learn all the details at the end of a season, and think wow, they were playing us. If it is the latter, we'll see the mechanics of a fall and transition. But so much of what we are seeing just isn't important in the scheme of things. They need to show their hand so we can then fit pieces together as we get new info and events.

If that is the simplistic explanation the show wants us to buy, there are far too many holes for me to buy it. Maeve was Conrad's partner and muse in his past crime life. Since the show portrays the Harrigans as being a powerful crime family, the assumption is that Conrad and Maeve worked well together in the past to make them so. So why is Maeve now making her own moves, most of which put Conrad in a difficult position? She isn't the competition, she is his partner. She wouldn't turn against him just because he is slipping. And Eddie? As family leader? Did Maeve turn stupid? He clearly isn't ready. NO ONE thinks he is anywhere near ready. I posted a few eps back that I thought Conrad was showing signs of dementia, and it was impacting his decision making and emotional state. If they leaned into that a bit more, and had Maeve realize it, helped cover for him and then tried to slowly position a reasonable successor, I could buy into that. Instead, Maeve is as unhinged as Conrad. Are we supposed to buy that BOTH Conrad and Maeve are slipping at the same time? Seems unlikely. Also, the competition Conrad is now flailing at isn't an up-and-coming, young leader with technology and new ideas at his disposal. It is Conrad's long-time counterpart, Ritchie. Who operates pretty much like Conrad does. Not exactly a troublesome new player who should suddenly flummox the Harrigans. And of course none of that that touches on the poor choices we have been shown of Eddie, or Brendan (repeatedly), or apparently Kevin (as we are about to see with the former guard, and already with his marriage). Something is missing in this story. Or it is just poorly done. We have seen nothing that makes the case that the Harrigans were ever smart enough to become a powerful crime family, and what we have seen would seem to indicate that, whatever they were, they are getting worse ... for some reason. Harry is the only competent part of the extended Harrigans (Seraphina shows promise but is overconfident), and they each constantly remind Harry that he is hired help. They don't even handle that well. If the show focused more on Harry trying to work through the failure of the family, that, too, I could buy. But he continues to do what they need, with no real sign of other plans. Maybe I am hoping the show is better than it is?

I agree with you, I don't think Harry knows. Otherwise he would be more interested in the fact he saw the guard and Kevin's response. Nor do I think Rusby raped Harry, though just because. I don't think Harry has any intention of removing Conrad. Of course he has noticed the poor decisions and there is a narrative in his mind about that path, but he won't actually do it. He just uses whet everyone else also sees to his advantage. Here's what I want to know: Given the knee-jerk, bonehead choices the Harrigan family has made all season, with Maeve secretly manipulating things and Conrad sort of allowing it, and Brendan being a Fredo loser and Kev and his wife's issues, and ddie being an ass and sociopath, how did the Harrigans EVER gain power? They are a trainwreck. Were they always a trainwreck? Surely not. So what changed? Are we seeing something new?

I thought this ep was awful, maybe the worst of the season. To wit: Scarlett Johanson seems to be a lovely person, but she hasn't yet figured out how to be funny. She has the nerdy hot girl vibe, not humor. So most of her lines and skits fell flat (even trying to resurrect the Natalie Portman rapper vibe in the Newark skit ... they barely dabbled in it, which makes me wonder if they realized it wasn't working). AM/PM news puns should have been hilarious (though I guessed the skit as soon as they said Scarlett was filling in from PM), but Scarjo's line readings were awkward and not funny. Keenan would have killed in that role. The Bowen is straight skit - was there *any* humor in it? OK, gay guy is straight and sleeps with cast ... what was funny? The elevator skit, again, was there a joke? The only one I heard was "thank God," and Kanye saying "you're welcome." Just tedious. Trump cold open, so, so over it. Horrible person, isn't funny. I'm only up to WU. I hope it gets better.

I wonder when Conrad will realize Meave said Ritchie said he had them, when in fact the cartel has them (I suppose you can quibble that Ritchie ordering the cartel could mean he has them, but Maeve said Ritchie has them as if he physically has them, not ordered someone else to round them up... besides, why would Ritchie tell Meave he has them, and then wait for however long to then start the video where someone else kills them?)? Conrad should already have noticed, but he hasn't said anything. I continue to think he is losing it mentally and while he shows glimpses of his old self, he also seems stuck in patterns that keep him from thinking more clearly. There was one moment there where Jan seemed suspicious. I think it was when Alice asked her if Harry was there as well. I thought we were going to see Jan figuring it out, and then realizing the danger she was in i.e. Harrigans on alert and Jan is slipping away to talk to someone who asks questions, so how does Jan look to the Harrigans?. Instead, she got dumber, while Alice simultaneously became more obvious. Harry is quite the one-man army.

I would have agreed with that in 2016. Laughing today would be like laughing in Europe in 1938. I like physical humor, but it needs to be tied to what is happening and not to what someone imagines happened. The spider web skit is more like a mental health demonstration than physical humor. So was there a skit after the squatty potty skit, the one people hate?

He'll always be Venus Van Dam on SOA to me. https://sonsofanarchy.fandom.com/wiki/Venus_Van_Dam This was a bizarro episode of SNL for me. I actually found most of the skits sweet or mildly humorous, while WU was not great and the WU featured bits (Movie Guy, white woman blah blah, guy who ran into spider web) were terrible and/or monotonous. That opening monologue with Goggins and his mom set the tone. Maybe he's a good actor, but he seemed clearly emotional about his mom. The dogs at a (bad) play was cute. The "last meal" bit was cute and a bit twisted. Tiny baby shoe was cute and had a nice twist. The squatty potty was hilarious and disturbing - Goggins was all in. Founding Fathers and the Brunch were both interesting and fun in different ways. The cold open with Trump coming in pissed me off. Why do that? He isn't funny, and you ruined what could have been a cute MD opening. I've been there all season. Stop trying to make Trump humorous. You're enabling him and his followers. He's a horrible human being. Specifically, which skit? The squatty potty one? I found it hilarious. I expected the new partner to screw up somehow, and instead they used an innocent squatty potty to bring nightmare images to the new partner's head. And Goggins went all out. Beautiful. Note: I see comments about mushrooms or something? I didn't see that skit on the East Coast. What is everyone talking about? My DVR went from squatty potty to the cast goodbye on stage.

And slow. This entire episode basically moved Brendan and Seraphina to a diamond deal and (again) sent all the other Harrigans to The Cotswald. That's it. Yeah, Conrad showed off some more weird dementia by preemtively defending Maeve (some odd psychology at work there) and Maeve made yet another mindless deal to get rid of people she doesn't like. But we already knew those two characters do things like that. I wonder if a fed deal to roll over on all these nutjobs is sounding better to Harry about now? What a good leader would actually do is call out and sacrifice Maeve, and yet Conrad won't. To me that's the more interesting thing than a guy who is slipping trying to look like he is in control. What does she have on him?

This show was so meh (despite a very good host) I'm not motivated to comment. It was alright. I laughed out loud once. As much time as the cast gets off between a show or two, it should be funnier.

Your right, apologies. I actually had trouble telling apart Kevin, Brendan AND Archie at first. When Archie was shot and killed, I wasn't sure if he was family or friend. They need to wear scarves or something. Still, Kev has shown he isn't exactly a go getter, and I think he will screw up whatever he tries to do to the guard and Harry will have to fix it. Conrad is giving in to base impulses, not recognizing Maeve's manipulation or Eddie's liability and choosing to fish vs. address problems. Either he's dumb or starting to slide. Unless he reveals sudden strategic smarts, I'm sticking with showing early signs of dementia. Actually, what we learned was he and the family were going to move into fentanyl, that decision was the reason for the meeting where Archie was killed. But he clearly has already been a family crime head for some time. What did he do before this?

Clearly, the defense attorneys had watched this show. 😀

I actually feel like very little is going on. It's basically the Hatfields vs the McCoys, and we have been introduced to most of the key family members and their roles (the Fredo try hard who screws it up, the semi-outsider sharp woman, the nutso matriarch with her own plans, the somewhat vacant patriarch, etc.). Everything we see them do is through the lens of the family feud (with the possible exception of Busby, but let's see how that plays out ... my guess is Fredo screws up taking Busby out and the family, once again, has to clean up after him). I'd like MORE stuff going on, such as, what exactly are their businesses? Who are their partners? is there someone even higher up than the two family leaders? What else does the gov't know? The one angel that is a bit different is that we are seeing this feud largely through the eyes of the help (Harry). And I don't care about Harry's wife and family, they are a liability and it's a bit surprising he has one. Hardy is terrific in this, though. I don't think she is. I see them as two flawed people who tend to complement each other, but Maeve may be going off the tracks lately and Conrad may be headed toward dementia. Their partnership is fraying. And I suspect the help is paying attention.

And both teams were spectacularly dull. Gosh, Matt, glad that DD has figured out that the city is in trouble in ep 9 - something the rest of us knew in ep 1 or 2. We have been waiting ever since. They needed to show (yawn) that Kingpin was back, so they did. I was surprised at how anticlimactic that was. I actually would prefer just DD take on Fisk, with help from his sidekicks in the real world (using the law). I though DD was smarter than he evidently is. Well, aside from the fact that very little happened. We knew the first two eps that Fisk would become Kingpin and Matt would become DD. Then we had to wait ... and wait ... and wait ... to get to where we should have started.