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/Smacking my forehead. It was the plant he found a couple of episodes then stuck in a safe, right? That makes much more sense than what I came up with. I saw the yellow bullet head and thought "what is that supposed to be, Polonium 210 or something?"

Wild and completely off the wall (no pun intended) speculation about who could be used as Fake Arya: how about Meera? It would combine two minor characters, as the show is prone to do, and would give Meera something plotty, since otherwise she's just hanging around in Bran's cave catching fish. Theon doesn't know her already (like he does with Jayne Poole), but the audience does, so the audience already has sympathy for her. Major problems with this: getting her back south of the Wall would be pretty contrived, and I have no idea if the actress is coming back for S5.

I admit, I cheered a little bit when the Calvaras Cavalry arrived. That was a nice little surprise. How the hell Chris Argent isn't in the hospital considering he had a 2" rebar jammed though his guts just the day before is harder to understand, but I'll go with it because of the Big Damn Heroes moment. I loved that too, but my immediate though was "why aren't the Calvaras' using explosives?" As much firepower as they were packing, you'd think they could get access to C4 or a grenade launcher.

She's becoming a Mary Sue. She was clever getting the Sherrif to spill the beans, she was more level-headed than the Doctor, looked perfect in period clothing, said all the right things to Robin, etc. I do like the suggestion someone made above that the reason the Doctor is so bitchy to Robin Hood is that he sees himself in the same light. It made Robin's speech at the end seem relevant. I still don't like the Doctor being the last person to figure shit out though. Another annoyance: more "eww, you're OLD" jokes (and I use that term loosely). I will admit, however, that I did laugh about Robin's crack about the Doctor's sallow complexion. "Scots aren't that familiar with vegetables."

Dr. Who and the Episode Title Spoilers. Good grief, I thought that went out with the classic show. Not a bad episode, and I could actually understand 90% of the dialog over the background music for once. I didn't care for the Doctor being such a dunderhead and Clara being little miss perfect. I really thought having the Doctor be all petty and bickering with Robin Hood was character assassination. He should be above that. Promised Land again. It's like Amy's pregnant / not pregnant thing, but less interesting.

I think we should be alert for characters with other color names, it might be part of the Missy arc somehow. If he was really clever he'd use names that are colors in other languages to try to throw people off, like Blanc or Verde. Maybe its a giant game of clue. "I accuse Mr. Green, in the library, with the candlestick".

Could be he was just trying to be ironic with the color / gender swap: "blue is for baby boys, pink is for baby girls, but I switched them! Isn't that clever?" [eye roll]

It's a good theory. Do you think Ali set up Bethany's murder before hand, or just took advantage of the opportunity that Melissa's accidental "buried someone alive" situation provided? There are problems with either of those. 1. Ali set it up ahead of time. This would explain the red herring Yellow Top of Deaths; she arranged CeCe and Bethany to be wearing the same clothes to provide disctaction and confusion. The problem is, how would Ali know ahead of time that Spencer (or whoever) would physically attack her that night, and that Melissa would idiotically try to bury her. 2. Ali improvised after Grunwald exhumed her. That would work if she left Grunwald's car and liberated Bethany from Radley, put the YToD on her and buried her alive. The problem with that is Bethany escaped Radley much earlier. Mrs. D was upset on the phone with the authorities prior to the PLLs meeting up at the barn. Granted that was an Ali flashback so is horribly unreliable, but there would be records that could prove or disprove if that phone call happened. I think the writers would paper over the "Bethany escaped Radley" plot hole in option 2, and even in her unreliable recount of that night, Ali would have had time between ditching Grunwald and meeting up with Mona, because she can do 100 things in the space of an hour. Another potential problem is that Melissa's flashback showed her rolling an unconscious body into an open hole. The burial site was under the gazebo; the foundation was being poured the next day. There wouldn't be a gaping 6 ft x 3 ft x 4 ft deep hole if the contractors were pouring concrete the next day. Someone had to dig the hole. Melissa's flashback indicated that she didn't do it, so it was likely the pre-existing hole that Ali was in. According to Ali, her mother would have had to dig the hole. Alternatively, we're putting WAY more thought into this than any writer or producer of the show is.

Four was also shrunk in the sixth serial of the Key to Time season, Armageddon Factor.

Amen. I can't follow Kate's or Peter's motivations and I don't understand their goals. It doesn't help that I can't stand either of the actors. There were some good character moments, like Scott and Melissa discussing the money. I really liked Liam's story line, because it's pretty realistic that he'd be so traumatized by what he's experienced. I could have done without the scene where Big Pecs Lacrosse Player shilled how wonderful Scott was: "He's a true alpha; he wasn't born with it, he didn't steal it or kill someone to get it; he earned it." /eyeroll I felt like there were several scenes with Deaton and Lydia that wound up on the cutting room floor. Who or what was Hannibal Lecter, what did Deaton see when trapped in his mind, how did Lydia reach him and bring him back, etc. Maybe that'll be addressed next week.

I'm expecting that Mona's killer will be unrelated to the A plot. Maybe Mike slipped off his meds, had a psychotic break, dressed as a girl and murdered her for reasons. Alternatively, Mona build an android replicant out of spare parts (you know she could do it) which took her place after Radley, and she's been hiding out at the Creepy Woods Motel all this time. I think the best we can hope for at this point is a complete mind-screw ending, like the final scene will be of that snow-globe A assembled today. The camera pulls back to show a catatonic Maya at a nursing home staring at it blankly. In the background, Dr. Bob Hartley comments to Dr. Jack Shepard, "She stares at that thing all day, every day, without saying a word. I wonder what is going through her mind?"

Further to that, since we can't trust any of Ali's stories, We don't really know that her mother buried her or even that she was hit on the head by some assailant. We do know that she was buried, because Gruwald corroborated that, but it's possible that Ali arranged that as part of her escape plan. (Possible, not plausible, but this show is unfamiliar with the meaning of that word). Another possible "twist" they could go with: Mrs. D witnessed Ali get hit on the head, then buried her alive all the while saying "what did you do?!?" She could have been assuming that Bethany hit Ali, and was trying to protect Bethany. Alternatively, since she was hopped on on liquor and pills, it could have been the other way around. She might have thought Ali hit Bethany, and in a haze mistook the unconscious Ali for Bethany. It just makes more sense to me that she'd do something so stupid to protect her actual daughter than to protect her lover's mentally-unstable daughter. Of course, this show is as familiar with "makes sense" as it is with "plausible". Regarding Ian, Ali said that she saw him leave the church under his own power, but that could have been a lie also. She might have dragged him to that building where he later "committed suicide". Adding to the list: Marion Cavenaugh was likely pushed from the roof by an Unknown. It'll probably turn out to be Mrs. DiLaurentis who is conveniently dead. Marion found out about the affair Mrs. D and Mr. Young were having, so arranged Mrs. Cavenaugh's appointment with the pavement.

Classic Death = Redemption story line. Too bad, I'm going to miss Mona. Fourteen-year-old Alison really was a criminal mastermind. She somehow arranged for Bethany to escape from Radley, dressed in the same outfit, because she somehow knew that her stalker was going to attack that night and hoped that he/she would mistake Bethany for her and kill her. This would a) allow Alison to escape and b) get rid of Bethany. Now I'm beginning to think "Alison stalked by A for a year" was fake also. Alison got her first A messages in that first Halloween episode. Maybe that was the only incident, and everything from then until her disappearance was an elaborate game on her part. Lucas is suspect number 1 for me. Mona's killer was wearing a wig and bulky clothing. I assumed that was to hide "her" body shape so they can then go back for the twist of "it was a guy!" Even weirder, Alison got in the driver's seat. I guess she was borrowing the twins' car, but being the Queen she had to drive. I loved Emily's reaction when Alison confronted her about Hanna's text. Probably for the first time in her life, she stood up to Ali. I hoped for a second she was going to go full-on Emily Smash! like she did with Sidney, but this was still good.

Yeah, I didn't care much for this episode. I thought Capaldi was great, and will make a intimidating Doctor than the past two. Other than that, ugh. Moffat is really good at creating creepy disturbing villains. He's just awful at reusing them, because he seems unable to expand on something without changing it drastically. I guess it's because he can make something nasty and mysterious, but once the mystery is revealed he can't think of anywhere to go, so the next time they pop up they have a new backstory, motives, and abilities. The clockwork robots originally were creepy because they wanted Madame de Pompadour but we didn't know why. Turns out they wree trying to repair their ship that was named after her. Next time they appear, they're no longer robots but cyborgs who have been living on Earth for an eternity stealing parts from animals an humans to continually repair themselves. Umm, ok. Same thing happened with the Angels, probably the most unnerving thing I'd seen in a while. their motives and abilities changed every time they popped up on screen, to the point where I think they're pretty stupid. Here's hoping he never decides to revisit the Vashta Nerada because he'd probably make them into something bent on consuming all life in the galaxy, with the Doctor having to ally himself with a renegade faction of VN vegetarians or some nonsense. Jenny told Clara something like "we're married, but we have to pretend to be mistress/servant because of society". Yeah, no, Jenny, as far as I can tell, Vashtra isn't pretending. She treats you like her servant in public and in private. Maybe I'm being speciesist acsribing human morality to an unfrozen primordial lizard, but Vashtra comes across as border-line abusive. I'm definitely going to have to watch with the closed captioning turned on. Loud background music, fast Scottish accented dialog, I have a hard time following.

So I guess Scott was the person who "showed a new form" as one of the show-runners teased. It was more wolfish, but not quite there. I'm guessing they'll save "Scott goes full-on wolf" for the finale. Obviously the writers didn't do a lot of research about 70's era computers. The reel-to-reel tapes are data storage, not processing. They wouldn't be spinning continuously like that. Still not sure how shutting the computer off sent the "stop killing, yo" signal out. I guess I'll have to lump it in with the Evil-Nazi-Scientist-in-a-computer from The Winter Soldier. Worst. Assassins. Ever. They unloaded hundreds if not thousands of bullets yet didn't kill anyone. Hey, if you're using laser-sights on your guns, perhaps filling the room with smoke grenades thus obscuring your targets isn't the brightest idea. I'm glad they haven't had any quick resolution to what Parrish is. It gives me hope that he'll be sticking around longer. I thought the acting was really good. Too bad it was in service of such a lackluster and anticlimatic story.

The story isn't entirely from Ali's perspective: Grunwald pulled her out of the ground so Ali was definitely buried. It could be that she set that up, though, if she (somewhow) knew that Grunwald was coming andtrusted that her breath-holding skills would keep her alive long enough for Grunwald to unearth her. Seems pretty risky. Maybe she was "buried" in such a way that she wasn't in any real danger of suffocating. So the string of events becomes: 1. Ali's night of a thousand encounters. 2. Ali and an accomplice "bury" her (with adequate protection so she won't die) 3. They somehow lure Grunwald there, who "rescues" Ali 4. Ali ditches Grunwald, and she (or her accomplice) hit Bethany 5. Melissa buries Bethany, and Mrs. D (in a pill-and-alcohol induced haze) sees it Yeah, no, that falls apart at step 4. If Ali was using Bethany as a stand-in to fake her own death, why leave her in the open rather than bury her? Bethany's corpse was mistaken for Ali, but that was after a year of deterioration and a sketchy ID of her clothing. Freshly-killed Bethany wouldn't be mistaken for Ali if her body was found that night. I mean, the police are incompetent, but not that incompetent. Also step 5 doesn't make sense. If Mrs. D saw Melissa burying someone, she would have told the police immediately, not covered for her for two years. On a meta level, saying Ali's flashbacks were a lie seems like the showrunners are violating the ground rules they've established with all the other flashbacks been true in content even if the visualization was dubious (e.g. Toby's do-rag)

Good point! I think Ali's exposition / flashbacks to the Night of a Thousand Deaths was incomplete and misleading. After Grunwald rescued her and she absconded from the hospital parking lot, she said that Mona picked her up alongside the road and took her to that hotel. Ali made it seem like it was Mona's idea that she should disappear, so that whoever whacked her in the head would think she was dead. (Unintentional rhyme, sorry). That just can't be true, because Ali was waaaay too prepared to disappear for it to have been a new idea. Leading up to her disappearance: 1. Scene with Spencer at church where she told Spencer that she'd need the info in her journals for after Ali was gone. 2. Desperation to get money that the Mask Maker owed her 3. Renting a storage locker for the NAT videos she'd stolen and hiding the key in the snowglobe she gave Emily 4. Trying to blackmail more money from Byron I'm sure there were other instances showing she was preparing to vanish. CeCe was probably dressed like her to provide some erroneous "I saw Ali in the woods / behind the barn / dancing the fandango" sightings. I just wonder who dressed Bethany the same way: was that part of Alison's plan or someone else's? I'm expecting some post-finale weasel-worded quibbling from the creators. "Well, you did find out who killed Bethany: Melissa accidentally buried her alive, so she technically killed her. Sure, Melissa didn't hit her, but we did answer who killed her. Nyah Nyah" I'm flashing back to S2 finale. "You said it wasn't like the books, but Mona was A in the books and she was A on the show." "Yeah, but Mona died in the books and didn't in the show, so it is different!"

Mike, on the other hand, was smoking in that period outfit.

Assuming what Ali told Spencer when they were in New York is true, I think it was like this: 1. Ali drugged the girls 2. Ali had her various meetings / hookups / etc. 3. Spencer woke up, and got the shovel. From tonight's episode, I think this was what Melissa saw. 4. Spencer had her confrontation with Ali, who talked her down and took her back to the barn. [if memory serves, Spencer was actually dragging the shovel at this point, not previously, so maybe Melissa saw her on the return trip to the barn] 5. Ali watched the girls (including Spencer) sleep for a while, then left and got conked on the head. 6. Mrs. D saw it, yelled "what did you do??!?!?!!?" at Ali's attacker, then buried her alive. 7. Grunwald rescued Ali and fled the area 8. Someone bonked Bethany on the head 9 Melissa saw Bethany, mistook her for Alison, concluded that Spencer did it, and buried her (also alive). So unless Spencer did the shovel-drag twice, and Melissa saw her the second time, she didn't do it. As far as who bonked Bethany, I have no idea, because any possible suspects (Ali, NAT people) wouldn't have just left her lying there unless they hit her then panicked and ran. I guess Jason (or the twin) could be the attacker both times. Mrs D. helped cover up the first attack. Jason (or the twin) later saw Bethany, dressed like Ali, and attacked again. Then he/she realized it wasn't Ali, so left unconscious!Bethany lying there. Alternaitvely, it was Tipi the bird and Pepe the dog in cahoots who orchestrated the whole thing, including having Bethany dress like Ali.

And it was a tie-in for that fucking movie. That was worse than "Oh look, a commercial for Insidious 2!" on the Jake / Aria date. Which one of the Liar's had a freudian slip and referred to Ali-in-the-picture as "A"? Tanner was totally playing them. You'd think Spencer at least would have heard of The Prisoner's Dilemma. I'm glad they didn't turn on each other but immediately turned on Ali. Seriously, they should send that picture of Ali to the cops and just let the shit hit the fan. ETA: I don't think Spencer hit Bethany either. I think Melissa saw her with the shovel, then found what she thought was a dead body. She put two and two together and got 5. I really hope this isn't the actual answer, that Bethany's death was unrelated to the whole thing. One of the Liar's pointed out Bethany's clothing matched Ali's, so is the theory now that Alison set up this poor girl's murder? If so, she did a crappy job because a) she wasn't dead and 2) she was lying beside the grave that Ali had previously occupied. I'm so confused.

The episode isn't over yet, but I had to come on here and repeat what I just said to the TV: #WatchOuija -- "oh, fuck off!"

Also, pick a story with a happier ending. The book is not like the movie. Yeah, I assume that Beacon County sheriff's department has some sort of worker's comp. Though to be fair, it wasn't stated out-right that there would be treatment he'd be on the hook for; the hospital functionary just said "that's between you and your insurance company." They left it open enough to resolve with "everything was covered because I was injured while on duty." I think that scene was there more for the father/son talk about their financial troubles, rather than to actually add to them. Speaking of money, what was that scene with Scott and the gym-bag-o-cash about? I thought he saw that the zipper was open, and figured that someone had taken the cash. He counted it, and (I think) it was all still there, so what was the point? Reminding the audience that Scott is sitting on a pile of cash that could solve his and Stiles' family financial problems, but he's too noble to use it?

Emphasis added. I think that nails it: they are a religion so their price structure also includes an element of sacrifice on the part of the person hiring them. From the description of the Waif at the Ice & Fire Wiki: The MFG asked for a sacrifice, which probably entailed more than just money, and the step-mother balked. The price the FM subsequently asked the father included losing his daughter to the service of the FM; They may have asked something similar of the step-mother. I think price includes an element of pain for the purchaser. The Waif's father lost 2/3 of his wealth and his heir. They might require something similar from Robert to go after Dany, or from Cercei to go after Tyrion. "Yes, we'll kill your brother, but it will cost 1 million gold dragons, and your daughter." It just dawned on me that the Faceless Men are like Rumplestilskin. I also wonder what price Euron paid, assuming the Ghost of High Heart's "I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings." means Euron hired a Faceless Man to kill Balon. I've seen it suggested that he gave them his dragon egg; maybe he believed his sorcerers could hatch it, so the price of Euron's death included giving up that possibility.

I literally WTF'd at the Meredith reveal. That was a good twist. I hope her motivation is more than "those mean paranormal scienticians hurt me and it drove me homicidal so I'm lashing out at all supernaturals in revenge!!1!". That'd basically a rehash of Jennifer's plot, but even sillier because the targets of Meredith's revenge!!1! didn't have anything to do with it. The music debilitiating the wolves didn't make a lot of sense. I guessed it was the smoke from the "bonfire". When the evil security mercenaries dragged the wolves into the school, they were much further from the music and it was dampened by the intervening walls. That should have weakened its effects on them. Also, Chief Evil Securtiy guard had his open lighter about a foot away from Scott, after dousing him with gasoline: they should have all exploded in a fireball. #WiseDerek was smart not to shoot a gun amongst the fumes; the director, not so much. Naked sooty Parrish.... I'll be in my bunk. Other than "because it's creepy" I don't get why Liam's priner kept spitting out the revised deadpool list, nor why his pricetag got revised. Presumably as misdirection. She probably thought she was pretty safe in Eichen House, and planned to fake her death relatively early, so she'd be off the list pretty quickly. Being a "victim" puts her beyond suspicion. When Davis borrows plots from other sources, at least he's borrowing from the best.

I think they (generally, not Targs or Dorne) follow male-preference primogeniture: basically all sons are ahead of all daughters, who are ahead of uncles. It's why Alys Karstark was her brother's heir before her uncles could claim Karhold. It's the same system that in real life had Elizabeth II inherit the throne after George VI died, instead of his younger brother.