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Fitz made a comment about wondering what would happen that would prevent May from going on the mission. I was wondering that too, but Andrew turning himself in was not even remotely on my list. That was a nice surprise to see him again, and for May to reach some sort of resolution to some of her issues. Rogue in the X-Men has to wear gloves to prevent unintentionally putting the whammy on someone, and she seems to cope with it. But X-Men are owned by Fox, and they probably have the patent on wearing gloves... yeah that doesn't make sense. I realize the dude was seriously traumatized by his new abilities, but he didn't have to abandon his family if he'd taken those kinds of precautions. "He'll never hold his daughter again [tears]". Well, maybe not, and he certainly shouldn't touch her until he's figured out the right precautions (e.g., are wool gloves enough or does he need neoprene), but not being able to physically touch her doesn't mean he can't be part of her life. I wonder if Daisy will reassess her "being Inhuman is awesome!" attitude now that she's seen yet another person whose transformation wasn't all puppies and rainbows - there's some opportunity for character growth there, though I doubt it will happen. I'm guessing that the only thing that carries forward from this episode is her vision of the reused footage from the mid-season opener flash-forward. I really hope this is the last season for any incarnation of Ward. I thik Brett Dalton is going for the "zen-like deadly calm menace" thing, but he's just not getting there.

I disliked Talisa because of her raging sanctimony. Virtually her first conversation with Robb was "war! huh! good gods, what is it good for? Absolutely nuthin'", and Robb didn't give an adequate response. She came across as an antiwar mouthpiece for the writers, and I didn't like being preached at. I wouldn't have minded her chastising Robb for the horrors of war that are inflicted on the common soldiers, if they'd had a real conversation about why it was necessary. But no, we get an author filibuster spewing from her mouth. Robb had real, justifiable reasons for the war, and he should have articulated them. Instead, he was just awestruck by her pluckiness.

Kit Harrington, Richard Madden, and John Bradley (Sam) all look waaay too old to be portraying teenagers. Even clean-shaven. In the books, GoT started 13 years after the end of Robert’s Rebellion. The show changed that to 17 years. I think it might have been wiser to make that 22 years or so. As far as I can remember, the only characters whose ages are tied to the war are Jon, Robb, Dany and the non-existent fAegon – making them early 20-somethings wouldn’t have changed the narrative much, except maybe having to explain why Robb hadn’t been married off yet and adding a line that the Nights Watch doesn’t take teen-agers because they’re not mature enough for a lifetime commitment. They could have just increased the age gap between Robb and the other Stark kids and kept them their current ages. It would also have eliminated the continuity error of Cercei and Robert having a child that died young before Joffrey was born. Same thing with Tyrion in S4 so Peter Dinklage could work on that X-Men movie. At least he was on-camera for that; Gwendoline Christie could have done all her work on Star Wars in an ADR booth in one day. [/tangential rant]

I hope they explore this attitude, and let more of her team-mates call her out on how wrong it is. I loved that Mac immediately told her off for it, and even Fitz got a "ugh" look on his face when she was interrogating that guy. (Incidentally, great was to reinforce that poor guy's hatred of Inhumans, Daisy. Winning hearts and minds by blowing out his windows.) She's basically doing the flip-side of Jemma's 5-minute "round up all Inhumans" attitude.

[very obscure reference to follow] I fear the eventual explanation of Zoom and the multiple Jays will make about as much sense.

One of the S5 commentary tracks (I think it was Natalie Dormer, Dean-Charles Chapman, and the director), someone pointed out that the actor for Mace Tyrell is basing his performance on I, Claudius during the reigns of his predecessors: i.e., the bumbling idiot façade is a cover. That may well be his acting choice, but the script doesn't support it very much -- except for once scene in Braavos. He called the Iron Bank gamblers. The banker he was talking to took exception to this, and he pointed out that lending people money made them the biggest gamblers around, and it paid off handsomely. It was a pretty shrewd observation for a buffoon to make. Then he started singing. So, genuine idiot, or pretend-idiot? It's hard to tell. I kind of think the actor is just trying to make the best of the writing.

His reaction after she clarified that it wasn't a date was really irritating. Their conversation, as much of it as I could pay attention to at least because I generally tune Iris out, was focused on the Flash and the boss's "everyone is evil at heart" attitude. I got no flirtation vibes at all. Then he dropped the "disliking Flash is a deal-breaker" comment and I said "wait, where did that come from?" Worse, he then negged her. "Oh, I completely misinterpreted this obvious business conversation with your boss as a date. You should feel bad." Worst, the negging worked and now she's interested. So now she's going to date her boss, which is wildly inappropriate, and their inevitable breakup will damage her career. Ugh.

Regarding the trial by combat: Season 6 spoiler

No Lincoln, no Ward, so that's a plus. I didn't understand how General Melisandre's Shadowbaby assassin worked -- the attaché's neck was crushed with no signs of physical trauma -- the shadowbaby looked like it was putting some serious physical trauma on Bobbi / Daisy etc. I liked how they portrayed the Russian police as basically competent guys just trying to do their job. Usually in these sorts of stories Bobbi and Hunter would have been interrogated by a moustache-twirling evil counter-spy who would have threatened torture, etc. I don't know the comics: were we supposed to recognize Malick's daughter? Is she going to turn out to be an Inhuman, or is she going to be the next head of Hydra when they inevitably kill off Malick Sr so they can stop paying Powers Booth's high salary?

The cherry on top was May's sly smirk when he said that.

Regarding the unaired pilot -- you can see the parts that they reused in the real pilot, because they switched from 35mm film to HDTV cameras. The scene with Ned and Robert in the crypts is pretty obviously from the original shoot -- the grain pops way up as soon as they go down there. Unintentionally hilarious scene -- Jon, Robb, and Theon shirtless at the barbershop desperately trying to keep their abs flexed throughout the dialog. (KH wins, IMO).

I blurt laughed at that. It's the Spanish that really makes it. Now I'm wondering what it'd be in French. Notre Dame de Muetre Perpétuel? I'm listening to the BrosWatchPLLToo podcast... it's 3 hours long. So far they have liked everything I detested, and vice versa. Sigh.

What should have been: Elliot (disguised with his super elaborate mask as Wilden) drapes his arm over the sleeping Alison. Ali grabs the stun-gun from under her pillow and zaps him. You know old-school before season 5 Ali would have done that. When she checked in to the new mental hospital, wouldn't the first thing they do is get a medical history? "Oh, you fell down the stairs and had a concussion less than 72 hours ago... we'd better get you an MRI / CAT scan to look for brain trauma. You might have a blood clot and this isn't psychological at all." I guess they just rolled the incompetent staff from Radley over to this new joint.

Another good choice would have been Ian. You know, the guy she actually pushed off the bell tower. The same bell tower that Charlotte was flung from. Nice thematic connection there. I'm guessing they picked Wilden due to actor availability. We're lucky it wasn't Garrett or Shana or someone even less connected to Ali like Maya. I guess what really bugs me is how abruptly this plot was introduced. "Ali is seeing things" just started last episode, and already they've driven her to the sanitarium. I would have expected a slower build, starting with Ali catching glimpses of Mary/Jessica in a crowd, etc. First she'd be dismissive, then maybe have the conversation with Emily about seeing her mother and Em's "I dreamt of my dad after he died". Spread this crap out over the course of 6-8 episodes instead of cram it in at the end.

Exactly. Why would Kenneth omit this relevant piece of exculpatory information? "We adopted him from your Aunt Mary. Who is Aunt Mary, you ask? Your mother's sister, who is in a mental ward. We put Charlie in Radley because he was showing the same signs of insanity that Mary has, and we were afraid he'd hurt one of you." It's an additional justification that Kenneth could have used to explain his actions, but didn't. Having another plausible reason for locking Charlie up wouldn't have served the narrative line in 6A: Kenneth = transphobic monster.

6A had a scene where Jason and Ali confronted Kenneth about "who is Charles?". He broke down and told them the truth. Apparently now that emotional confession was also a lie. Wow, Kenneth really is the ultimate villain! [/sarcasm] I wasn't clear on that. It seemed like Mary and Elliot were gaslighting Ali to take control of the Carassimi group for Charlotte, in her memory, because that's what she would have wanted, blah blah. Also, Mary showed up at the Lost Woods Resort after Hanna sent the "come and get me" text to EmojA. I think we're supposed to conclude that Mary and Elliot are EmojA, seeking control of the money AND vengeance for poor dear Charlotte, while there's another party who actually killed her. Seems like multiple groups of bad actors, possibly working together or at cross-purposes: 1. Jessica's murderer (maybe Mary?) 2. Mary and Elliot gaslighting Ali 3. EmojA seeking revenge for Charlotte's murder (possibly Mary and Elliot?) 4. Charlotte's murderer 5. Person dragging Hanna up the bell tower (either 2 or 4, or a completely separate person) I have no idea really. and apparently neither do the writers. I wouldn't put it past them to end the show with a zoom out from a snowglobe showing Aria as a patient in Radley talking silently to Pigtunia. It was alllll a dream...

We've seen her alive and well in a flash-forward, so what's questionable about her fate other than the writers' retconning that out of existence? "Oh, that was a dream / alternate reality / different timeline and shut up!" Shockwaves of revulsion and nausea maybe. Though to be honest I don't frequent the cesspits of Instagram or Tumblr or whatever where the tween shippers dwell, so I don't know what the target audiences' general reactions were. I tried listening to the Cabernet-and-A podcast but its production values are so bad it's unlistenable, though I gathered that they were not pleased. I do look forward to the Bro's 3 hour pontification on how this episode was a brilliant because reasons.

One theory I've seen (with little text to back it up) is that Rhaegar's distinctive silver harp is buried in Lyanna's tomb. That might count as evidence (though not hard proof) towards R+L=J. I'm not clear on how it counts towards R+L=J(legitimate)

I get confused over who owns the rights to which. It is annoying that they can't cross over, especially considering the general plot of the upcoming Captain America movie is similar to the Mutant Registration Act plot of the very first X-Men movie. It seems like Marvel Studios has written off ever regaining control of "Mutants" so they're going with Inhumans instead, which are functionally equivalent: genetic anomaly that can result in unusual powers and / or physical appearance. Basically "Mutants with the serial numbers filed off".

It makes me wonder about when this episode was written and produced. We know that the first few episodes of 6B were finished before the 6A finale aired. You can tell that the show runners did not completely anticipate the backlash the finale would cause, because they had to ADR one of Ashley Marin's lines in the 6B premiere (she said "what that person did to you" but you can lip read that she actually said "what that monster did to you.") I wonder if some of these ludicrous retcons were written in to try to paste over that. "No, Charlotte wasn't older than Jason, that's how she could get in his highschool yearbook. And they weren't siblings, they were kissing cousins that dated for 3 years but never had sex." I'm guessing that Mary was released (or more likely faked her death) sometime before Charles was committed to Radley. Charles (then Charlotte) was in that joint for nearly two decades; at some point they would have run into each other, or a third party would have said something about how "there's a lady who looks just like your mother in a room in the west wing" or something. That scene where he admitted that he'd never see Nicolle again was the only Ezria scene this season that I liked. It felt like a genuine emotion from Ezra rather than his usual display-of-emotion-to-manipulate-Aria move. One of Toby's tasks when breaking in to the secret room was to seal the side entrance so Shower Harvey couldn't get in that way. Apparently he failed at that since Mona came in that way. You had one job! Actually, that whole plot didn't make sense. Toby broke into Sara's room, cut through the wall, lowered a rope ladder and he and Spencer climbed down... why didn't they just go through the side door?

From what I gathreed, he's not an Inhuman but not a human either, and something in his DNA couteracts the diviner metal and the terragenesis stuff. He's one of those "M"-word types they can't mention because Warner Brothers still owns the rights to the X-Men.

They resolved one minor mystery that a lot of people expected: Elliot was gaslighting Ali in order to get control of her family's money. Jessica's twin being Charlotte's mother was just a twist. A weird, dumb, nonsensical, "hey we finally included a twin" twist. No resolution on who was sending all the Amoji texts. No resolution on who killed Charlotte. Not that I really cared that much, but I was slightly interested. Marginally. And the flash-forward definitely deflates what little tension the cliffhangers might have had. One more "fuck off" -- Caleb says he felt like a character from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which was one of the movies they were pimping during the commercials.

It's been a while since I said "fuck you" to the TV so much in one hour. Ezra and Aria banging, Hanna and Caleb kissing, fuck that. And the reveal at the end was stupid.

Not spoiler tagging this since it's about book 5: I'm pretty sure Tyrion saw a bat. They were in the Sorrows surrounded by fog. They couldn't see from one end of the pole-boat to the other because the fog was so dense. Anything Tyrion saw would have had to be very close to even register. Unless it was a hatchling, it wasn't a dragon..

n his delusional mind, yes.