BC4ME

IIRC when they offered to let Toby see the (I suppose) dying Rebecca, he said something to the effect of, I'm not sure she'd want to see me. Which I took to mean he and Kate weren't together. Then there was the close up in the flash forward of Kate signing that police form or whatever when they found the lost Rebecca and brought her to the 40th birthday party that Randall wasn't invited to. She signed Kate Pearson. Sure, she could've kept her maiden name (hell I did it in 1980 when it wasn't well accepted) but why bother to show that close up of her signing Pearson?

As soon as I read this from you I knew what you meant. It was like he had to keep affirming to himself that Jack was his son to help him feel the attachment he wasn't feeling.

It's been a while since I had a young child but those triplets seem a bit old to me to just be getting out of their crib. I mean, Kevin's just now moving past an overhead mobile but he's old enough to discuss it being gone?? Kids that age seem old enough to being climbing out of cribs way before the age they appear to be. I understand they need actors old enough to talk and take acting instructions but it's stretching it for me to have that first, big kid bed storyline be with kids that old. I think it was pretty mild the way they portrayed Rebecca's "bad" parenting of Kevin. They could only make her so bad because it is Rebecca after all. I disliked both the actress playing Sophie's mother and the mother portrayed in the show. It was too tidy for this week's plot. I have no use for Kate. I barely watch her parts anymore. I'm not done watching, but I wish the show wasn't so cheesy. I know they spend a lot of time telling us how much Rebecca and Jack loved each other -- a love for the ages and all but there's not enough (for me) to actually see why. I feel like there's some lack of substance there.

I feel like Randall has known he was different from the beginning. I mean, being a different race than everybody else in the family could make you prone to pick up on things that would make you fit in better. So early on, he decided that role was as the dependable, stoic, protector (as he was with Rebecca after Jack died). Yes, he was probably hard wired to some degree to take on that personality, but his situation brought it out more. His role was to be the perfect kid that didn't cause trouble. After he beat up the mugger, he probably realized he was strung a little too tight and that, no, running was not going to take care of his anxiety. He was uncomfortable being called a hero because he knew he sort of lost it with that guy -- cutting loose with a lot of built up tension he had fooled himself into thinking he was dealing with. That fight showed him he was wrong and he didn't like the attention it brought. Im confused about how the robber got that jewelry. IDK if he had broken in there before and got them then, and was coming back or if he came back later after Randall confronted him. It seems unlikely to me that he could have done it the night Randall confronted him. Plus, they made a lot of noise about how robbers will often hit the same place twice.

All I could think while I was watching it was that I need a Beth. And Sterling K. Brown. Well done.

I feel like I'm missing everything. It's just so dark I can't tell what's going on. How did they tie it in?

I think there's a strong possibility of this one being in a future show because it was covered in the book, Mindhunter. And he spent a lot of time on it in the book. Can we assume all of the stories covered in the show come from those in the book, since that's what the show is based on?

IDK whether these BTK scenes in the first season were supposed to be earlier than the actual show's setting, which was late 70s, but BGK's first victims were in 1974. So he had already started killing people before the time frame of the first episode.

You touched on this but I also feel he represents that person who underestimates the talent others like Holden are bringing to the table. You see this in life a lot. They think if given the chance that they can do a better job because of whatever more important (in their mind) things they think they're better at. At first he and Wendy both wanted to stick to a more regimented script to make things more consistent and reproducible. Wendy quickly adapted; he didn't. I like the way the show shows how each of the three main characters contribute in very different but needed ways to make their efforts work to a common goal going forward.

I too am reading Douglas's Mindhunter book. He seems contradictory to me about his thoughts on how many of the murders he thinks WW did from place to place. The book was from 1995. Things have gotten more sophisticated. On WW's wikipedia page, they list other, subsequent determinations done on the fiber and hair evidence and it sounds convincing enough for me that he did a number of them. At the end they say, "On March 21, 2019, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields announced that officials would re-test evidence from the murders, which will be gathered by the Atlanta Police Department, Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation." So it sounds like it's not over and the most advanced techniques will be used to look at this again.

Although there are fictionalized parts or parts loosely based on real characters and events, the crimes and surrounding scenarios are pretty exact to what actually happened. I've been looking some of this stuff up. Are you thinking this happened IRL?

I'm not going to comment on much partially because I'm not smart enough to follow the shrewd business stuff well enough. Shiv and Tom caught my attention. I felt a little sorry for Tom at the end of last season, seemingly willing to take whatever Shiv would give him, however little. This episode drove home what a dick he actually is and how much he's using her too. I can certainly see how he would have a reason to stay with her to further his ambitions but I'm not getting as strong of a reason for why she would stay with him. He doesn't seem to have as much to offer, especially since she doesn't really even seem to love him. I understand there are some reasons just not as good as the other way around. I mean, they're all users obviously, and deceit, especially involving family members is what the show is about. I just keep trying to keep a running tab on what the motives are in all of the relationships and don't see the Shiv/Tom ones as equal. It's an interesting show in that there is some love/duty that comes into play sometimes but I don't really see that with Shiv and Tom on her part.