DoctorAtomic

I think the mom wasn't actually feigning. She seems genuine to me but just misguided there. I'm guessing she adopted Jules under false pretenses; doesn't know she's printed. The grandfather was supposed to be Jules' grandfather not the mom's (Ellie? I forgot the name). So the mom isn't going to know he's a fake. The whole cover story about the accident from the psychiatrist could have been sold to the mom too. They already adopted Wes, so for all the know, they went through the same process to adopt Jules. Coming in to offer the ice cream seemed tone deaf but also seemed like a weak attempt to make up for forcing the pills on her too. Not anything to do with the whole printing deal.

I think she took advantage of the situation with Sol already dead to pin it on him to close the case. Very realpolitik of her. I don't see her playing a long game with Sol because she didn't want him to go on the mission (in the present day) in the first place. She's got Mae with the mindwipe in her pocket, and she knows Smilo is out there now. She seemed surprised to sense him on Brendock imo. So she can use Mae to get to him. If she's the reason why he turned to the dark side, then that's probably a loose end she wants to snip. Certainly calculating, but I just got that she was smart enough to take advantage of the situation. I don't think she's pleased about the Jedi Audit though. She was terse and sharp with Senator Dave Harewood.

That Lee Greenwood bit was everything though.

That's a surprise he didn't want to go through to the World Cup. They're a strong favorite for the semis. Unless he means that the current players just can't go any further than this.

Technically, though, Vader said to Kenobi - "You didn't kill Anakin Skywalker. I did" in the miniseries. Vader found out who Fulcrum was in Rebels he said to Palpatine that "the padawan of Anakin Skywalker is alive". Whatever you want to call the guy, he had some serious issues. I think Luke was eventually able to figure out what they were saying conceptually because he says "I am a Jedi like my father before me". Smilo never said he was Sith either. He said to Sol - "You might call me Sith."

Even though he had a good point to make, he still was being assy about it, and it was clear he just doesn't like the Jedi. Again, just make a character reasonable. No need to throw the attitude in. Politicians aren't great, but there's actually some that are trying to work hard. I don't have a problem rooting for bad guys in a show but you still need some people trying to do the right things for the right reasons.

That's what I was thinking of. Clearly, the use of religion was deliberate. Again, some more run time, we could have seen a little more about this 'review' and the motivations of the senator. Funny part there is the guy saying 'how is everything going to run without the bureaucracy?' Totalitarian states need the civil service too. I mean, you got to send the mail out. People need their prescriptions. Ancient religion. Barely 30 years. And Tarkin totally shuts Vader down! Given the wealth of content, why hasn't think guy gotten a show?

I forgot to mention that too. I didn't know what he was doing at first until he flipped up the guard on the switch. There, he's made the decision. But, I think my point is still valid in trying to make him sympathetic or 'flawed' was a miss. The show had him beat Smilo when he offed all the Jedi, and he pulled back. You're laying the groundwork there that he was willing to go against 'code' to just kill. Let Sol go all out in the end. Give him a scene where he catches up to Mae and tries to off her, but she gets away. You can still have Mae say he needs to answer to justice. Osha still can choke him out. You end up in the same place. His obsession with Osha wasn't quite earned, and I don't get how if "they're the same person" how he justifies trying to shoot Mae out of the sky. Unless he thinks she doesn't matter. Which is fine, but, again, make the show in chronological order about him unraveling. Show us why Osha had to leave training. Nice catch. That's got to be the only other time. In this episode and in ANH, the Force is mentioned as a 'religion', but I think that's it.

I will be much more interested in a second season. It's too bad this season was basically all set up. I think they could have structured it a little tighter around Brendock. It's quite clear how they wanted to end, and I think they stuck the landing, but it's almost like they worked backwards from that. It might have been tighter to start with E1 the same; whoa, someone killed a Jedi?! And then go in chronological order. I'm disappointed Sol let Mae escape so easy. Probably could have said "I'm sorry" to Mae rather than "You started the fire". Yes, let's dump the blame entirely on a scared girl. Has anyone in Star Wars said "hell" before? Do they have that concept? I don't recall Anakin or Ahsoka saying it, and they'd be the likely suspects. They pulled out all the stops with Smilo v Sol. Say what you want about the show, but there's a lot of us who are always talking about why they don't fight with the Force more. The whole fight was really great; you don't see grabbing each others' hands much either, if at all. I can't recall any of the big duels doing that. Well done. Nice switch with Osha being angry and Mae being calm. Not really blaming her though. Sweet trick on the bleeding into the sabre crystal. I mean, I wanted Osha to be the Acolyte, and plenty of us were talking about her going dark side, so all right with me. She gave into the training under duress, but still. Good for Mae copping to starting the fire too. Good call on everyone with Vestra (or whatever, Force Whip) being Smilo's master. Obviously. Cameo, killer that was! Overall, I think it was a poor narrative choice to make the Jedi *all* jerks. If they're trying to portray Sol as "good but flawed", or he made an honest mistake, I don't think it worked. If they thought they were getting any sympathy from me, no dice. It's not like Osha choked him out like Vader was choking people out who were just trying to hide from him in Kenobi. He killed her mother and lied to her for years. I'm thinking it's Western justice. I don't think they did a good enough job in setting up Sol's motivations well enough either, since the entire season really flowed around his choices, but we didn't get to them until the second to last episode. I don't get why the episodes were so short, when this was easily remedied by some extra minutes. The other is that they didn't give us anything from Mae escaping to meeting Smilo. There needed to be a couple of scenes there. I've said before that I get why we're in a deconstruction phase of the Jedi, but it's really the Council, as an organization; here, Vestra is that, but they're overlooking the the people. They're missing the point that there were still decent and good Jedi. Fundamentally, yes, Order 66, the Empire, Vader, is the fault of the Jedi, conceptually, but not quite in actuality.

This is why we can't have nice things.

I don't think so because Mae only got the markings, but it could have meant when Osha was ascended the mother did die as part of it. I don't think the kids would be sacrificed because they were created out of the force. I think they were intended to lead the coven. Sol jumping to that conclusion is fair, but it wasn't fairly earned imo. We need to be tipped off.

It's a bit much to not only force pills on Jules, but they don't even know if there's legitimate side effects on a print out. Then let's go get ice cream. Read the room, lady. I think they need to get to why Kira either agreed to print out people or came up with the idea herself sooner than later. Last episode, Josh was kind of implying she went along with it in some capacity. It's also not clear Kira just printed Lucy and someone else printed Jules. She's only been focused on Lucy so far. Unless she assumes Jules is ok. Seemingly everyone knows sign language in the future. I also liked that Lucy and Jules tracked the house down so quickly. More shows need to not mess around and just let the plot unfold. They're doing a good job on the pace and keeping up with the world building. They certainly unraveled a lot of information. I knew Wes was going to cave. I was hoping he'd hold out a little.

Probably, but there's also liability issues to consider with the increased security.

Why would you blow up a tree instead of just cut it down?

Credit to Columbia too. They came out strong in the first half, but in not getting a goal, I think they got a little frustrated. Argentina knew they could play a 120' game because of they're depth. Plus, they showed they can win without Messi, which makes them even more dangerous. I was surprised James got taken out after 90' though. I could see Columbia getting into the quarterfinals. No idea why current odds have England, France, and Brazil over Argentina though.

They may not have been their decision and maybe came from higher up.

Probably not the best soccer game for a general audience; not much shots and up and down, but Spain was masterful tactically. Bickford came up big to keep the game tied, but Spain had too much movement up front. You have to think if this squad stays in tact, Spain has to be the front runner for 2026.

I'll tip my hat to Canada. I think they got tight in the 85th minute, which again, my theme for the Copa was this was really about managing results. They still made it to the wire in a major international tournament. Right now, out of the CONCACAF, they are the premier squad going into 2026. Had the USA ended up here, it would have been an unqualified success.

I'll go with that. Still Power of Two.

I don't know how true, but I read Klopp turned it down. Everyone knows they need to go back to the Klinsmann model, and give them 6 years carte blanche. But they're also not willing to pay for that level of talent. They didn't get out of an eminently advanceable group. They probably weren't going to beat Columbia, but it would have been a good test. And with no extra time and going right to penalties, and all the red cards, who knows? It's two years till 2026. Who can step in and elevate the squad? What's the expectations here being the hosts of the World Cup? I don't think squeaking out of the group and losing to a second tier European squad in the 16 is going to be a satisfactory outcome. Is quarterfinals good enough? They need a coach that can manage results and get the players to stop shooting themselves in the foot. Basically, literally the same plan since 2002. At some point, they're going to have to beat a better team, and they won't be playing a meaningful match until the WC opener.

I would say they think they're the only ones who know how to use the force correctly. Or, they think their way of using the force is the right way. With the 'right to test'. They're nothing if not disciplined to their own demise. However, we've had a lot of discussion to the end of some training might not be that bad if only so you're not a danger to anyone. They don't do that though. You go in for training; you're working for them. They needed a certificate program where you can leave after completing your four course sequence. I've said before, while the deconstruction of the Jedi is interesting enough, they've taking a beating to the point where it's like Order 66 did everyone a favor, and it's getting kind of tired for me. I don't need everything black and white, but it's been a lot of the one way. I think it was a narrative mistake to have Sol go bonkers. I don't need Jedis to be boy/girl scouts, but one out of them needed to be just fundamentally decent.

+ Sol

That's a little compressed. I think we're all in agreement that stomping in there and saying 'it's our right to test' was out of line and arrogant for sure, but they were there investigating a legitimate Force anomaly on what they thought was a lifeless planet. "Hey, people? Let's check it out." All that is fine up to the 'right to test'. Trinity could have easily said, 'we thought this place was lifeless from the hyperspace explosion last century. Hello.' Things didn't really go sideways until they found out the twins were literally created out of the force. I would infer that Sol, seeing them the only children and hearing of an 'ascension ceremony' thought they were going to be sacrificed, then went off the rails. The problem with the show is that what I think is a reasonable inference isn't really backed up by anything on screen because Sol's motivations are not earned. Yes, even when they learned that, they still could have handled it better and what happened is largely on them. The other mother was spoiling for a fight; she didn't help either. Is this a one off or is there a second season? Because Smilo/Osha could be the second season after all this. I assume in the end the Power of Two defeat Smilo because that would seem the obvious outcome.

That's kind of a theme in the Cobra Kai series.

I think he qualified by saying Taggart used to tell him. Taggart said later that he trained Bacon, when Axel suggested Bacon might be dirty.