Ottis

The way I view it, beggars can't be choosers. No, this "show from home" isn't the same standard as normal SNL. But they are trying, sometimes I laugh and it is better than no SNL. So bravo, show. And thank you.

Already answered ... whatever happened with Carrie with Yevgeny during her captivity set the stage. He cared for her, and his judgment was affected. She realized that.. And then because she is such an amazing spy, she did everything she had to to prove she was a traitor to the U.S. She went beyond their suspicions. But somewhere deep underneath, she was supporting the U.S.

I think she realized this, and thus her final plan was born. It might have been only an option for a while, but it became the option she chose, or had to chose. Carrie always took the hard way. The finale was no different. I didn't agree with many of her actions over the years. Some seemed unnecessarily difficult or complex, and there seemed to be alternatives. But in the end, we all must be who we are. Carrie chose the worst possible ending in the eyes of some in that fictional world (a traitor to her country, and all the collateral damage that must have caused), and the only possible ending to her.

Yep, this is where this season goes off the rails for me. I could see Caleb being *personally* angry at being used, and at "the system" in general. But I can't see him being blind to he human cost of a revolution. He needs to find a more selective plan, and it doesn't appear Dolores' plan was very selective. Nor can be Solomon's, given its mental issues.

I love the way this show is filmed, and the little vignettes that are about parts of life. And, lately, the wisdom Sam's daughters are showing. And as an introvert that would be greatly annoyed by having all these people around, I'm a tad bit jealous of the ease Sam has around all sorts of, and so many, people. But ... I also get so tired of the messaging. Women power (of course the mariachi band was all women ... I've seen many a mariachi band, never one that is all female). Men suck, except the gay ones. And I don't know how Sam ever was married to Xander. Xander may have been a dick, or maybe he was simply uncomfortable with all the things Sam wanted and liked around her, and couldn't be like Sam. And he was very bad at explaining that and dealing with it. But the narrative now is, Xander is a dick.

Maybe 3-4 episodes ago, I started wondering if this whole season isn’t a trap set by Saul and Carrie for something. That seems unlikely, given the president and others were killed. Still, it feels like those two are up to something. Or maybe I’m just hoping it isn’t as bad as it seems.

I think that has been the plan all along. I, too, like Tessa Thompson. She definitely seems to be the wild card now. Did Serac make her unpredictable? For being such a genius, seems like the first thing Serac would have done after figuring out Hale was the host mole was make sure she no longer had access to things like, say, robot executive protection protocols. Wasn't the pallet implant an enhancement? I thought Caleb had a military grade one, and the stick up guys said he was lucky to have it, and they had to disable it or access it. So I assumed that William receiving one would allow him access to something (it may also allow others access to him, as the military one probably did/does for Caleb). Also, the show's music is very Bladerunner 2024 this season. Blaring noises and tones over more normal music. The idea that everyone needs allies to succeed was interesting. A sub theme of the show, maybe. Those who go it alone suffer and deteriorate, let alone don't win.

Best part of this episode was the ex-husband asking Sam if she knew about *everything* that happened that led to his divorce. And of course she didn't, nor does she ever seem to think that any other factors exist except those she knows of. I could have done without the guy's parting comment about Sam being bitter. Still, it was one of the few moments in this show when we got to hear from the constant targets of the regular cast, and the guy wasn't automatically a jerk because, well, man.

I think that's the theme of shows and movies about war for decades. I still don't know the point of this season, or what it is supposed to be saying as the last season of a once-rivoting series. The only thread I see running through it is the unhealthy relationship between Saul and Carrie. There is some noise around the difficult and weighty decisions that must be made by people in their, and other, roles. But that's not saying anything new. And then we have another suicide bomber. Is the lesson that this has all happened before, and will happen again?

For kids who grew up in a family with no money, these kids sure are entitled. “I deserve it.” Really? I mean, if you take away the humanity that often comes with having little money and having to watch out for each other, what is the value of this show?

It rains in LA way more than I thought it did. Also, the youngest looked like she had performed at the graduation in some way, given her costume. Then again maybe that’s just how she rolls.

I don’t understand why this episode was harrowing. Aside from the fact we already know what happens later to these characters, where was the suspense? The shoot out echoed the shoot out Walt survived in BB. That was amusing. I spent most of the episode wondering why Mike didn’t do at the start what Saul eventually forced Mike to do at the end. Mike had already taken out what, 3-4 guys? What’s another 2? I greatly enjoy the unpredictability of Lalo. And the show’s cinematography.

The only thing this finale made me think about was where I was at 11 years ago and how much my life had changed. The characters? Not so much. I did enjoy Joe this ep. As in real life, I don't understand people who refuse to move forward when moving forward is the actual goal. Do you want Luke at home forever? Do you want Dylan and Haley in your home forever? Do you want Alex at home instead of in the world, using her gifts? The whole point of being parents is to help your kids be happy, independent people, not to make you feel worthwhile because they need you. Gloria. I appreciate what this show was for the first 4-5 years. Thanks, show!

It feels like this ep is trying to make us feel Big Moments. But the goals of the side are so unclear, I don't care. Is Maeve the good side? Is Dolores the bad side? What do we really know? Does it matter? None of this matters to me, anymore.

Starting with, I kept waiting for Agnes to pick up the synth fix-it device to fix Picard on the bridge. But if she did, they couldn't have held all the heartfelt goodbyes on the planet. Between the AI worms going back into the wormhole because they forgot their wallets, and the Romulans bothering to shoot at all the holoships that weren't shooting at them instead of attack the planet, and Agnes I guess falling in love with Rios at some point I never saw, and Soon not showing the video he had of evil bot killing good bot, and our heroes having to throw a bomb at the tower vs shoot it from the fixed ship, I had to hold in my eyeballs to keep them from rolling out of my head. And I, too, don't get all the sudden Data love.

That ignores the pull of Hale, which through dialogue in this episode the show seems to be telling us exists - and it is in conflict with whomever was inserted into Hale. I don't know how this can be true ... how can a host body have its own essence without its pearl? But that's how it came across to me. So in that case, Teddy makes sense but would not be a twist. It's not that some people need to be removed. It's more insidious than that. It's that some people are shunted down paths with no choice. They can exist, just not successfully, or happily, or for as long as they might have. I actually rolled my eyes a bit because it felt like a political review of capitalism.

Ridiculous and cliched until Data. About 6 things made no sense. From Data on, it was kind of sweet.

I didn't say it was new. I said it was one of the few things this series had established previously. And it gave the Romulans (the presumed villains) a reason to be doing it, if we are to assume what they saw in the past was true (which characters on the show on both sides seem to believe it is). That was the one thoughtful arc the show presented. The villains might not be villains. Sutra is responding to the threat of Romulans attacking her people, Admonition or no. And she is doing it in a cliched and cartoony way. Imagine if Sutra, or someone among her people, had seen the synth attack from the past, understood what today's Romulans were doing, and struggled with the responsibility as a species for what her forebears had done. THAT would have been interesting. And as a bonus, like all good Star Trek, it would have been an allegory to our real world for things like taking N America from Native Americans, and slavery. I know how stories are structured, and I am not mistaking anything. I am responding to what has been shown. I can't assume hypotheticals for what we haven't yet seen. Perhaps, and if so, meh. This isn't the 1980s. While I love ST and its core messages, the *way* the story is told should reflect our era, not 35 years ago. And at this stage, I'm disappointed. I would not be surprised if, in the next episode, someone else from the synths rises to represent exactly what I wrote above - guilt over their past actions. As a counter to Sutra. But the way the show would have made it there was still underwhelming. Pretty much everyone I know who watched last week's ep said something like, "it was a damn ST:TNG episode." And these are people who like ST. It was the same way I felt. If you watched Babylon 5, or can find my post from an ep thread or two ago about how that long arc played out, that's what I had hoped was happening. I suppose it still could be, but not executed nearly as well.

This episode betrayed everything (and it wasn't a lot) that the series had set up so far. We had just found out the Romulans actually had a reason to be aggressively monitoring and terminating synths. Intriguing. The we go to the synth home world and meet a cartoonish bad girl synth who ... well, the Romulans aren't wrong. It would have been far better to let the show make a case around whether we should hold the sins of our ancestors against their descendants. Instead, it suddenly became very cartoonish. Hugely disappointed.

Well, the episode title tipped me off. All this baby talk has officially made this show a soap opera. I pretty much fast forwarded though Cam and Mitch. Being 60 with a kid in high school is nothing. And moving what, down the street? They need to move shelves to Claire? Isn’t she in, uh, stairs? They look an awful lot like shelves to me. Arvin was fantastic. I wish they had kept him around as a regular character to poke holes in this family.

I fast forwarded through most of this. An unlikeable ME leader, a dillweed VP now president, Carrie acting as guilty as possible in incidental circumstances, Max captured and sidelined. Harqquani was the best character in the episode. I only watch because I have watched for many seasons and this is the last one. Ugh.

I assume murder ... face-to-face stuff of specific people vs faceless crimes.

As long as the cards are quarantined for what, 72 hours? More? I can't tell anymore.

I'm guessing that what I got from the Romulan perspective in this ep wasn't supposed to make me understand and like them, but it did. Given what they know happened in the past with AI, why wouldn't they feel this way about AI today? Just because Data was a good guy (Lore wasn't) and now we are led to believe Soji is a good person doesn't mean all or even most AI would be so. You might not like the Romulans methods, but I get their view. This all reminds me of the thing I loved most about Babylon 5, which I will put in a spoiler tag if you, for some reason, have never seen the series: Like I said, based on some lines at the end of this ep, I don't think ST:P wants me to feel empathy for the Romulan view. But I do, I really do. And if I'm wrong and this show is going to go somewhere like B5 but more sophisticated, I will love it.

Add “oblivious” to this version of Picard. He didn’t notice Rios’ reaction to Soji? Thank goodness Raffy stumbled onto it. Seven continues to be the only character dealing with some weighty and intriguing choices. Still not buying the Romulan mindmeld persuasion. But I do very much like the fleshing out of the Romulan dislike of synths, even if it, like the warrior women, is stolen from the Dune books. It gives the bad guys complexity.