LadyMustang65

I don't fault them for that. Unfortunately, it's the big sacks of money that keep the doors open. It's been suggested (at least that's the impression I've gotten) that this firm does a fair amount of pro bono work, and they take on 'cause' cases that may or may not pay off for them. They have to do the work before they find out if they'll get paid. That's why someone like Neil Gross is so appealing as a client - he represents a steady stream of income that allows them to do the work they *want* to do.

I'm so glad I'm not alone in hating Cig's gargoyle. We thought it was just us. Loved Emily's eagle gargoyle. We thought that one really deserved to win. I'll miss Tyler. He is just such a sweet man. And I did mostly like his gargoyle. Didn't care for George's, but I give him mad props for coming up with anything at all. What a weird style to put in there. We liked all of the final 4, so we would have been sorry to see any of them go. But we're really hoping for an Emily win now. :)

We were definitely not happy in our household with Heather's elimination. I enjoyed her a lot. I do NOT enjoy Bonner. That's for sure. And while I like David - he seems like a really nice fun guy - I am over him at this point. His dancing does not seem to be improving any more. If there weren't so many others that I thought were better, I'd be fine with him sticking around a while longer, though. Nick/Peta - I don't watch The Bachelor, and in general I have not been fans of those contestants, but he seems like a nice guy, and he seems like he has some potential. He's not taking himself too seriously, and I've enjoyed some of his dances. This was not one of them, though. They just plain butchered the music, and it was so slow! Yikes! Also, the jive is definitely not his dance. David/Lindsay - I do like David, and I'm glad he made it this far. But it does seem like his time should be running out. He doesn't seem to me to be improving at all, and I'm getting worried about his physical health. He seems injury-prone? Anyway, I thought the AT was okay but not great. The lift kind of scared me, but mad props to him for never having dropped Lindsay. We've seen in the past that even some of the big, strong guys have dropped their pros in rehearsals. Bonner/Sharna - I was just pissed that he wasn't the one leaving. His dancing is not good, and he has zero personality to speak of. And unless I'm zoning out during the broadcast, they have completely dropped the showmance angle with those two. That's a good thing, imho. Anyway, did not like this rumba at all. Nancy/Artem - I am really enjoying this couple. And I enjoy a good paso. This one was decent. Not her best work, but better than most we saw, I thought. Simone/Sasha - Simone seems like she's starting to show a little personality, which is good. I liked her crushing on Rashad. I wish they had given her different footwear, though. That was awful and made the dance seem kind of clunky or something. Again, this was good, but I think she's done better. Rashad/Emma - I adore Rashad. He just seems like a great guy, and he does seem to have some natural ability. He was hands-down the best part of the "Boy Band Team." I liked this tango, but is it just me or does his posture go kind of funky at times when he's in hold? I don't know exactly what it is - sometimes it seems like he's hunched over or something. The judges never mention it, so maybe I'm imagining it? But I do like him and won't be sad if he makes it to the finale. Normani/Val - I love this team, and I think she's doing a great job. I liked the dance a lot. I'm barely knowledgeable on some of these dances, so I didn't think it felt that un-Salsa-like. I would not be unhappy with a win for her. Heather/Maks - It was easy to see why they placed her last. That rumba was gorgeous. I'm very unhappy she left before Bonner and David, at least. Seriously, who is voting for Bonner? And how do we get them to stop? Ugh. For us, Girl Group beat Boy Band hands down in the group dance. The only things I liked about the Boy Band dance was the singing-group imitation at the very beginning, and Rashad as Magic Mike wanna be. The other 3 guys were not good in that part. But I have to admit, even as I write that, that overall I enjoyed the dance, but I think that's because they all seemed to be having a lot of fun and not because I thought they were doing a good job. Too bad about the lighting with the Girl Group, but the quality of their dancing was more than 1 point better than the guys. I agree with the judges that they could have done more with the choreography, but overall I liked it. For my money Bonner needs to be the next to go. After that probably David and then Nick. Right now I see Rashad, Simone, Nancy and Normani as the final four, with possibly an all-girl final three.

This is what frustrated me about this whole silly line. They have no *proof* that she lied about anything. This whole charge is based on the Lynch character's assertion that whenever someone says "the truth is" that it's not the truth. I can just see how ridiculously that would play out in front of a judge. The reality is that Maia did not *know* what was going on. She knew her parents were acting a little weird at times, and she may have suspected everything was not as it seemed with the fund, but she did not actually *know* anything. And the idea that you don't want to mix family and finances is a pretty sound one, so as long as she sticks to her guns, they can't prove a darn thing. Because she didn't actually *know* anything. I had really hoped that her father was going to go to jail, and we could let this subplot die a natural death because it's a drag now. We know her father is worse than the scum of the earth, and presumably her mother and her uncle aren't too much better. But the gymnastics they are going through to try to pin something on Maia is absurd and ridiculous. The only saving grace at this point is if they bring back Elsbeth to defend Maia. At least she's always entertaining.

Laura definitely. Maybe Anthony?

He did indeed. I have always liked Logan as a person - he just seems very nice and low drama (compared to some of the ones who cry and whine at the drop of a hat), but I get frustrated because he's so inconsistent. While I understand what the judges were saying about it not being organic that the flowers were growing out of his face, the sculpt on those were gorgeous. Even my husband, who rarely comments during the show, remarked how beautiful they were. So were some of the other details. He is capable of doing incredibly terrific work, but sometimes it seems like only in bits and pieces. The whole often does not equal the sum of the parts. Cig was definitely our pick to win. That was amazing. We did not like the turtle guy. I don't know why. We just didn't. We also did not like Tyler's creation. I had to laugh at the whole 'water park' going on that the judges mentioned. We thought it was a mess. And we seem to have liked Emily's creation better than most, although it clearly was not her best. Logan was the right pick to go home, as the others have just had a more impressive body of work. But I have to wonder if he would have done better with a different partner. If memory serves, Logan had some good ideas that his partner vetoed, or he just took over the project and basically decided what they would be doing without much input. Sorry - that guy really annoyed me so I forgot his name as soon as he was gone. Anyway, I can't help but think Logan might have done better overall with a different partner.

I love this!!! <lol>

Thanks, Drogo. We didn't get a clear look at the woman in Reid's memory, but this woman in your screen cap certainly seems physically similar anyway. And doing something like that to Reid would seem to be the kind of thing she would enjoy. I was going to say she's in jail, but given that Scratch seems to be able to manipulate jailhouse personnel at will (and I'm assuming he's behind the 'nobody noticed the prisoner slated for protective custody disappeared' thing), I suppose he could arrange for her release. Although I'm not sure how he would know about her. Maybe there's some kind of supersick villains social media site where they trade stories?

I hate to admit this, but who is Cat Adams? Is she the woman Reid met in the restaurant and played mind games with when they were trying to figure out the 12? I'm terrible at remembering the different 'villains.'

That's certainly a good theory. However, I will respectfully posit a different theory. Unless I misunderstood what was happening (and I freely admit that's quite possible), it seemed to me that Negan was trying to get Dwight's wife pregnant before she took off. At least I have a recollection of her talking to Dwight about not being pregnant yet or something like that. So I think Negan wants kids - he seems like the type of narcissist who would want someone to carry on his genes or something - but I think he wants *his* kids, not someone else's. And he'd let his harem take care of his progeny until they were big enough to be of use to him. Sort of the way Trump always let his wives raise the kids until they were around 20. Then he finally wanted something to do with them, but it was to do his bidding and not necessarily be people in their own right. Anyway, that's my theory. Your mileage may vary. <lol>

I'm only bothered by Daryl's hygiene because I think he's a good-looking, sexy guy but not with that greasy, stringy hair. That's just yuck. <lol> That's an excellent analysis, I think, of Daryl. Thank you. I think sometimes we tend to forget that he did not have much of a childhood, and it seemed like Merle pretty much raised him. That wasn't exactly a family situation conducive to either trusting outsiders or talking about (much less actually showing) your feelings. He was pretty well armored and closed off when we first met him. He's had to deal with first his brother being chained to a rooftop and left to die by Zombie attack, knowing his brother got off the roof but not knowing whether he was alive or dead, re-uniting with his brother to not only see his brother turn but have to kill him himself. Then he gets close to Carol and briefly thought she'd died and then she left. And it seemed like he was beginning a friendship with Deise, and she died. And so on. That's not to say that others have also not been through as much or maybe even worse, but they were all more well-adjusted to start with. Maybe one of the communities they come across at some point will have a therapist. You're right - they all need one.

I LOVE this idea. That would be incredibly helpful. I never know how long it's been between events or which ones are happening simultaneously.

I love Daryl - still do - but I agree they don't seem to know what to do with him. I was so psyched when they first got to Alexandria, and he seemed to bond with Aaron. I was looking forward to really exciting adventures for the two of them. But either the writers weren't as excited about that as I was or they just didn't know how to execute it, so they seemed to just give it up. I did love Daryl refusing to become Negan. Unlike Eugene, Daryl isn't about making things comfortable for himself. Daryl, like Rick, wasn't going to bow before Negan. I am hoping that next season we will see Daryl, Rick, Aaron and Carol become a fighting force to be reckoned with.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought this was a weird challenge. Also glad I didn't have to do it because it would never have occurred to me that the ingredients needed for the curse would be anything other than ingredients that would do something else completely. Like when you bake a cake, you don't end up seeing the eggs or the flour separately in the finished product. And I've never ever seen a movie or show with witches where casting a spell using eye of newt made a newt eye pop up on somebody's forehead or something. So that whole thing went right over my head, and if I'd had to do it, I'd still be trying to figure out what the heck they wanted from me. <lol> The DH and I watched together, and neither one of us cared for the rat witch makeups at all. There were individual elements that were nice, but overall we just really didn't like them at all. So we were very surprised when the judges raved about them and appeared to have a hard time making a decision. We were on Team Willow Curse witches all the way. Emily's make-up definitely wasn't up to her usual standards, but it was still good, and we loved both Logan's and Tyler's finished products. I liked Ben, but he seemed like the right one to go home.

I've seen several people say this, and it's interesting to me. It also makes sense. My mind had gone down a different road. I was thinking that the GPK were more like Negan's group than Rick's group in that many of their members were not there of their own volition but had been grabbed, like Gabriel had been, in order to benefit the GPK group. More bodies is more people looking for food and supplies and more people to fight. Because they're not as psychopathic as Negan, people stay once they're there because it beats the alternative of being out on your own. So when they were talking about 12 or 10, I made the assumption they were talking about splitting up the people in Alexandria - that the GPK were supposed to get 12 people but Negan reneged and said 10. But that they were getting back members of their own group makes probably more sense. It also explains how Negan knew what they were planning - Jadis would have told him when working out her deal.

I think you've hit on something. I too have always assumed it was a put-on. I just wasn't sure whether it was done for the benefit of strangers to get them to underestimate them and they talked normally amongst themselves or whether it was an affectation they'd adopted as part of a group identity. It makes no sense otherwise. As you say, you don't forget how to speak proper English in just a couple of years. That is an interesting idea. I would never have thought of it, but it's an intriguing concept. :)

Yes, he does. How could I forget the cobbler? <lol> I don't worry about Judith either. I know that probably annoys some viewers, but I love the fact that there is always someone watching out for Judith. She is Rick's daughter, but everyone - men and women - feels protective of her, so she will always be safe. And they do it as much for her as they do for Rick. Knowing that he doesn't have to worry about Judith's safety makes him able to function as the leader. Plus I always assume that there has been *some* communication somewhere along the line so that Rick knows where she is and who is with her. But I don't need to see 17 interactions per episode of "hey, Rick, Enid's watching Judith at Hilltop" "hey, Rick, she's still at Hilltop but Jesus is with her" etc. etc. etc. And I expect when Maggie's baby is born, he or she will also be well taken care of by the group. Another case of different strokes, I guess. To me it makes perfect sense that by this point in time they are reduced to whatever they can find. Heck, earlier they were driving around in a fire truck. Why not garbage trucks? They live in a garbage dump! Seemed perfectly appropriate to me. Likewise the bicycles. I'm actually surprised more people don't ride bikes. No worries about running out of or having to find gas. And you could get moving fast enough to get away from a herd. Seems quite practical to me in a ZA. Likewise the horses. Gather up whatever ones haven't been eaten by walkers and use them. :)

My 2 cents’ worth (more or less) on last night’s dances: Simone – I liked this quickstep. I thought she did a really good job. I was a bit annoyed with CAI and her ‘lift police’ schtick. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, the entire world knows that Simone can do that leap all by herself . . . on a 4” wide piece of wood, no less. I appreciated that Sasha kept hold of her. It never once occurred to me (nor should it have) that he was helping her – I liked that he was trying to keep somewhat to the rules of quickstep that once you get into hold, you are not supposed to break out of it in the middle. By holding her hands while she did the leap, he was keeping them connected. It also helped keep Simone safe, since, as she pointed out when CAI wanted her to replicate the leap by herself at the judges’ table, they were on a wooden floor and not a cushioned and bouncy gym floor (and she was in heels), and she could have hurt herself on landing. Anyway, I thought it was great, and CAI was being an idiot. Bonner – Way too slow for a Charleston, and he was just lifeless. Did not care for this at all. Charo – This was a sweet and lovely, albeit simple, dance. I liked her toned-down persona as well. She actually moves fairly well for someone who is most likely in her 70s. Erika – Too slow and was there much jive content in it? I love a good jive, so this disappointed on every level. I just cannot warm up to this person. I look forward to her leaving. Rashad – I liked this a lot. Something seemed a little bit ‘off’ – maybe he wasn’t quite as loose as he usually is, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought he was underscored. He is still one of my favorites. Nancy – She was the surprise of the night for me. I did not expect her to handle the latin dances so well. This was fun, lively, entertaining, and she looked like she was having a ball. Good for her! And Artem meeting Ricky Martin was beyond adorable. < lol > Normani – Loved this so much. Right now, she is my pick to win. That may change, of course, but right now she seems like the whole package. She’s pleasant, works hard, doesn’t complain, moves beautifully, has good showmanship, seems to have a good partnership with Val. Great way to end the show. Heather – I really liked this dance as well. I thought she did a beautiful job and seems to be working very well with Alan. I also like that (unlike some celebs in the past) she is more concerned about Maks getting better than about herself. I will always like that. Mr. T – He’s not a great dancer, but I thought this was really nice. It looked to me like he was moving smoothly and actually dancing as opposed to stomping around. And he just seems like a really nice guy. I’d like him to outlast Erika. David – I thought this dance was kind of awkward, but I give him props for going out there and having fun with it. This is the kind of thing where it be easy to get self-conscious and embarrassed and not give it your all, but he did it to the best of his ability and didn’t complain. He’s another one who just seems like a genuinely nice guy, so I hope he goes deep into the competition. Nick – I was underwhelmed. It seemed kind of slow, and he seemed kind of awkward. Still he’s better than some of the others. My favorites are Normani, Heather, Simone, Nancy, Rashad and David. The women definitely seem stronger this season, but I think at least either Rashad or David will make it to the final four at least. I have to admit I did not care for the Derek/Julianne dance. I am not a fan of contemporary in general, and I really hate the overly dramatic, overwrought kind, so this just didn’t do anything for me. :\

Jerry is the heavyset young man who attends King Ezekiel. He's a sweetie. :)

I'm guessing two reasons: (1) it's getting harder for them to find vehicles that run and have gas in them, and no one's going to try a cross-country trip on foot even travelling "lightly" and (2) by this time they may figure wherever they go, there will be a Negan, so they'll stay in the area they used to call home and that is familiar to them. I've wondered the same thing myself, and that's what I came up with. :) He would have known where Michonne was stationed and knew the scream came from the direction she was in. I'm guessing he recognized her voice? We don't actually know which woman screamed - most probably assumed it was the woman who went over the railing, but it might have been Michonne's war cry as she was summoning the strength to finish the fight. At least that's my guess.

Maybe. I didn't read it like that, but you could be right. Would make sense.

I don't think Negan knew it was Michonne. He saw Rick react to the scream, and then he said "you just lost someone." But I didn't get any sense that he knew it was Michonne or even that Rick and Michonne were a couple. He just heard the scream, saw Rick's reaction, and put two and two together.

Maybe for you. Not for me. I loved that at that moment when Rick was about to lose so much, he still refused to give Negan what he wanted most - Rick truly subdued, cowed and afraid. Negan gets off on people being terrified of him, and Rick would not give him that. For Negan it's all part of the game. He doesn't kill Rick because he wants, maybe needs, to break Rick. So he'll kill Carl, he'll chop off Rick's hands, but he won't kill Rick until Rick completely surrenders to him. And I loved that last bit of defiance in Rick. Yeah, he's had zero luck so far, but he is not going to give in, he is not going to give up. As long as there is breath in his lungs, he will fight. And because we know what Rick is capable of, I'm looking forward to the moment when Negan knows he's a dead man.

There were a dozen guns pointed at Rick's head. Yeah, he could have launched himself, and he'd have been dead before he had moved a foot. And Carl would still be dead. And Judith would have no family. Sometimes there is no good decision, but Carl is not the only child he has to worry about.

Thank you!!! I was just going to make the same comment - how did Michonne lose when she killed the other girl? How is that even possible for you to lose the fight when you're the last one standing? So to speak. It was a tough, hard-fought battle, but Michonne prevailed. She won that fight. And when you see how banged up she was, it just proves once again she is a certified bad-ass. As long as there is breath in her lungs, there is fight in her body. My husband laughed and said - they live in a dump; garbage trucks make sense. And they really did. I thought it was perfect. < lol >