DoctorAtomic

To be fair, it was in the book. The showrunners didn't just decide to do it. Additionally, Ned was played by Sean Bean. I mean, the smart move on their part was to do it in the second to last episode of the season. We all knew it was coming.

I loved Kim just throwing down on Kevin. She was correct though, if he did retain them, they'd be walking on eggshells from then on. I think she looked really turned on about the 'being a friend of the cartel.' I always get a kick out of the flip phones.

The whole point of these premium channels is for gratuitous nudity all around.

Going back to Luke rescuing Han in ROTJ, it's a very Star Wars thing to do, but I'm getting impatient. We've all seen the trailer so it's going to happen.

Yeah, I don't 'blame' him either, but the show as an entity has plenty going on for it to continue if they wanted. You figure the younger cast isn't carrying around such heavy contracts. Of course, TPTBs maybe figured 10 years was enough.

Ruth has her shit together though. She's running a casino. I don't see 38 to be that much of a stretch. If that's how old the character was. I had thought early 30s.

Take Frank Jr out of it, why would Frank want to run afoul of a cartel? That's high powered resources. Of course, you want to find opportunities to make money, but he's a construction, union, trucking guy. Taking a cut of casino profits is rather low risk, so I'm not buying he thinks Darlene is a good investment. Unless he wants to stick it to Marty, which I don't see why he'd waste his time, or he's plotting to get Darlene.

I know he was older, but I didn't think he was 40s.

Oliver aired a new episode this past Sunday.

She should have been dead in season 1 when Helen first showed up. I mean, she had the therapist whacked after 5 minutes. I know they made the deal to lay off with Jacob, but once he went, all bets are off. She goes, what happens? The local cops aren't going to dig too much. So what if they do? They're wetwork guy isn't from there. Look how easy he took care of Ben. She's got plot armor like she's Jon fucking Snow ffs. I'm assuming (hoping) that Ruth does her in to protect/save Marty. Even when she stormed out she told Marty she was grateful for all he'd done for her. Now if they're going to sell their own product, how is that not going to run afoul of Navarro? That was the whole point of the first season.

The actor being good and the plot being shoehorned are mutually exclusive. The growth she's had to this point where she's running a casino, basically considered a made man, and scheduling the laundering drops really strains me to think she's getting into this guy. I guess the choices are slim in the area or she's lonely, but they aren't really selling it.

Mother. bwhahahahahahahahaha I know that the entire episode is cliche 80s, but it is still awesome. Corky is the perfect trophy political wife name, and her going on about Reagan surviving the divorce was a brilliant take. Dawn completely stole everything. The server 'who the fuck they think you are' killed me. What was great was that Dawn knew what was going on and Corky chimes in - We do that. I was dying with everyone struggling to conceptualize 'dick pic'. Genius Mo.

Oh no, he totally dug himself the hole when he got out with not leaving well enough alone. I would have probably set up to whack him in the hospital tbh. I kind of call a little bs on the police chief not giving them leeway to get him to the private facility they already had set up. I get they were having the cop play hardball with the Byrds, but it's a big difference between not letting the kids off and having them do the community service than this. Let him spend the night in jail while Helen finagled to get him in the facility.

Two separate issues.

He kind of was right though.

As much as I wanted more scenes with Maya and Marty, I do like that he wasn't able to flip her so easily, but still, again, he's indispensable because no one else would have the stones to tell Navarro he could flip her, and he spikes the profits to keep her there. Yes, he got lucky with the phone call, but I'd say she was already marginally compromised at that point because she was getting more casual with him, bore the brunt of her boss for not taking the information, and knew damn well Ruth was there and looked the other way. I don't want her to be all in (see how clever I am) with Marty, but I am going to enjoy the pay off that she's kind of a victim of her own circumstances and Marty gets what he wants out of her.

At this point in television history, is there anyone that has been watching tv for more than 5 years who thought it actually is Roger? I don't get why shows do that because it's so derivative at this point. I mean, I will laugh if it really is him and he's most truly dead, but yeah if it is, Claire will of course save him. I kind of hope that does happen and Roger tears into Jamie for shitting on him so much that he's taking huge risks to prove himself.

With hindsight, the plot with Ben bothers me because its sole purpose was to get Ruth to quit. I wasn't really buying that he was this great love of hers and it certainly didn't come across. Further, it wasn't like there was growing resentment with Ruth to Wendy until now either. And to be fair, it was her fault. If the show wanted Ruth to quit it seemed like the lack of retaliation to Frank Jr could have been sufficient.

I think Wendy said it - they end the war for him. Wendy's been thinking big all season and Helen was trying to get a casino license. It turned personal with Helen and even though he said 'you only did what was required', she still did it, while the whole season she was all business (to Navarro). Marty even showed that in person to him. I hope Wendy gets rid of Darlene next.

HOLY FUCKING FUCK. That's how you end a show.

70 years old for 1770 is quite good.

He still doesn't want to launder and make moves yet because he thinks it's too risky. That was the gist of his 'law of large numbers' speech.

I said as much in the E8 thread. I don't know that he drove the plot as much as it's manufactured drama - just throwing him in there and then characters have to act OOC. It's hard to grasp how Wendy would clue him in to anything. Granted, he may have found out anyway and that's fine, but he shows up unexpected and you know he's unreliable. Not to mention it's Darlene *again* fucking everything up for the cartel. Helen should have dealt with her. I'm not sure Helen would want to off Marty and Wendy though. It was clear to me when he was in Mexico that he brought value to the cartel. With Wendy trying to establish legit businesses and the charity, the FBI breathing over them, and the complexities with the mafia - as well as the family drama of the Byrds trying to navigate their marriage, which was developed over these three seasons, adding in the brother doesn't seem really necessary. You cut out all this with the brother and you've got tons of time to spent on Marty flipping the FBI agent. That's way more interesting to me. I have zero problems with Helen though. I'll give the actor credit - he can really fucking cry. I did like how when the FBI called Marty being all smug about the receipts being up I was like 'uh oh' and then they cut to Marty with just a small smirk on his face.

Wow Ben's monologue in the taxi was interminable. I'm amazed at how much I don't care about this character. I had a great laugh though when Ben is ranting how about he 'spoke to the bitch lawyer' and Marty and Ruth are all, 'uh, what?'

Which - why would you buy an uncomfortable couch for yourself? Ok, you're living in an apartment in your 20s, someone probably gifted you a couch, and you take it. You're buying a house. Why furnish it with garbage?