Biggie B

I feel as if I'm missing something; was Dr. Castro ever shown last season? I get who she is, and what's happening, but I felt as if I were joining the scene between Helen and her midstream, without any prior context. I may well just not be remembering her.

I like Helen very much and it looks as if she and Bloom are finding or will find a way to restore their relationship. Agree. If Bloom had been the one to die, I would've been OK with that, though. Very glad that Georgia is no longer on the show, although in a way, she's even MORE "present" than ever, as I suspect Max's trauma over losing her will become another character in and of itself, and I am not looking forward to that.

Finally catching up with the wrap up of this season. So, has it been confirmed that the actress who plays Helen is not returning? If so - I am very disappointed, as she and Iggy are the two characters in whom I'm actually invested. I like them (even if their story lines are sometimes inane). I never warmed up to Dr. Bloom, and really didn't like her with Dr. Reynolds, so if that character isn't returning, I'm OK with that. Although she was great in this episode, I'll give her that (putting aside all the medical and technical inaccuracies/impossibilities - I'm only talking about her demeanor and her ability to work under such conditions. Good for her). While I am no fan of Max's wife, it would be just TOO over the top for her to die, leaving Max as a grieving widower/single father/cancer patient. I actually want the wife to live, so that she and the baby can simply not be seen again (a mention here or there is fine). Max has enough craziness going on - I don't think I could deal with him if he lost his wife. I laughed when I saw Dr. Reynolds mom, the beautiful Leslie Uggams - as I think of her right now as the evil mother of Lucious Lyon on 'Empire.' While his relationship with the attorney girlfriend is hardly that compelling, I'm glad that Dr. Reynolds is breaking away from the expectations he and his family had put in place decades ago. I have no problem at all with him being super-close with his family - I did very much like his sister - but he's a grown up who can and should make his own life, whatever it may be. Doesn't mean he has to cut his family off - that would be weird, given how much he loves them and vice versa - but he can and should create some balance between his family and the life he wants to create with his girlfriend. Mix 'n match - if they have kids, they'll have a fabulous family to support them. I'm sure the engagement/marriage is doomed, this being a DRAMA and all, but...I'd like to see it work.

I finally got around to watching this episode as well as the finale. When Helen told her beau that she couldn't go to Belgium with him, in part because she couldn't advocate for typical treatment that was basically killing Max, I thought the boyfriend smiled slightly, as if to be thinking, "Ah - so perhaps you'd be open to trying my methods!" I thought Helen was going to ask him to collaborate with her to come up with a new treatment for Max. So I was slightly surprised and disappointed when he turned and walked out without a word. I guess it was too good to be true - I liked them as a couple, and they are both very pretty. I can't help but wonder if Helen will end up pregnant as the result of the little tryst the two of them had after appearing on TV.

When Agnes entered the apartment, she happily cried, "Mommy!" and ran into Liz's arms with a big smile on her face. At that moment, we knew that Liz has been seeing her the whole time she (Agnes) lived with Grandma Scottie. It would've been nice if there'd been reference to that now and then but that was apparently asking too much of this show.

He and Amy do have children. As the narrator of "Young Sheldon," he has mentioned his children at least once in one of the episode's voiceovers.

I very much enjoyed the finale. I think no matter how the script had been written, people would have been upset/disappointed. It just is what it is. While I don't necessarily think Raj had to end up with Anu - or anyone just at this moment - I've always felt that he very much wants to be in love and have a partner for life, so I was hoping he'd at least have one or two lines saying something to that effect. OTOH, I guess it's understood - in my mind's eye, I see him eventually finding the right person, one way or the other, because I think that's what would make him happy. As far as Penny being pregnant - I'm OK with that. I think if she hadn't gotten pregnant, she and Leonard would've been totally fine - but now she is, and if she's OK with it, then that works for me. I didn't construe it as "women can't be happy unless they're mothers." I took as: Penny is totally fine not having kids, as is her husband, but now she has changed her mind. I respect that. Either way is fine with me. It doesn't make Penny any less independent nor does it make her more worthy. That child is very lucky. And again, if they hadn't had kids, that would've been great as well. I have no idea why the writers chose that route for Penny and Leonard, but it worked for me. I never expected to see Sheldon's mom in the finale, even though I adore Laurie Metcalf. Her character's absence did not affect my enjoyment of the finale at all. Sure, it would've been icing on the cake, but there are probably a dozen other characters that also would be icing - and they only had an hour to work with. I've always seen Sheldon as on the autism spectrum, and often wondered through the years why none of the other characters ever wondered about that, even in passing. I guess that wouldn't work within the confines of a comedy, as it might provide a logical explanation for much of his behavior, thus eliminating various humorous moments throughout the show's history. His speech at the end was touching and profound, especially calling Howard an astronaut. This show provided much enjoyment through the years, and there's a lot to be said for that. All good things come to an end but I'm glad I had some great laughs along the way.

Very unpleasant episode. All it was was "whatever can go wrong, will." That doesn't excite or engage me - all it does is frustrate me. I didn't watch this episode live, so I was able to fast forward quite a bit. I skipped pretty much all of the agoraphobic woman on the plane. I just simply did not want to see Contacts' frustration with her, and her paralyzing fear - it was the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to me. When Owen got there, I yelled at the TV, "Just knock her the hell out and take her!!" Also - of course Owen drove there himself and I guess he left his car behind? I sort of wondered why they all went in the limo. I suppose it was to provide the woman with a more comfortable and seemingly secure environment. But like everyone else has mentioned, as soon as the fog was mentioned, I knew they'd be grinding to a halt one way or the other. I know I'm a monster because when the chain reaction accident began happening, I started laughing like a hyena. I am surprised that Maggie didn't have a really severe reaction to the bug bite/sting on her neck - like, needing an epi-pen - because that would've laid it on even thicker. OF COURSE they are now stranded!!!! I'm pretty sure even Stevie Wonder saw that coming. I don't even know what to say about Andrew falling on the sword for Meredith. Part of me (the monster part) was glad - BYE BYE!!! The other part of me was very pissed off - of course Meredith gets away with something...of course every man just throws their career down the toilet because she is SO AWESOME. What a load of shit. I'm struggling to find even one moment of this episode that drew me in. Perhaps Linc asking Amelia where she saw their relationship going - I give him a bit of credit for that. Shit or get off the pot, Amelia. Jo...whatever...I'm glad she finally used her words. Still, Alex doesn't yet know and in light of the 875 sudden crises now happening, will probably not find out any time soon. I found it a bit odd that when Jo and Meredith arrived back at the hospital, Meredith instructed Jo to fill Bailey in, while she (Meredith) would tell Alex. Shouldn't Alex hear it from his own wife?? I broke my coccyx two years ago, and while I didn't require surgery, it was somewhat agonizing, especially since a week after I broke it, I had to fly from New York to San Diego on business, and was horribly uncomfortable the entire time. So my heart went out to that guy. Good thing he didn't die (I assume) - his wife already is on the verge of a complete breakdown. I suspect the finale next week will be even more frustrating - if we think things are bad now, clearly they're only going to get worse, and will be left hanging. That doesn't motivate me at all to watch. What's the point?

By now, yes. It's been more than just a day or two. I don't care if she has to say it in tears, but she can choke out, "I'm very messed up from finding my birth mother," or even, "I am so fucked up from finding out some shit." I guess the woman with two uteri served no purpose other than to show that DeLuca likes kids. What an odd way to show that - and not even a follow up line from Bailey or anyone about her unusual physiology. It would've been interesting for one of them to say, "Only 1 in xxx women have two uteri - it's amazing we got to see this!"

Totally read this as "puke bowl." I now hate Jo more than ever. Good god - would it be possible for her to say, "I found out something extremely traumatic from my birth mother, and I am struggling like all hell to process it." ? Apparently not! That's still not enough of an explanation for her HUSBAND, but if she said that to 99% of the other people in her life, they'd likely back off and respect her space. But to not say one single word to Alex is completely insane. Alex should've just gone to Pittsburgh directly! For crying out loud, Jo - take a pencil and write, "My birth mother revealed that I'm the product of rape." Slide the paper over to Alex. Then at least he will UNDERSTAND your severe traumatic state - which is actually understandable. But to completely leave your husband floundering in the dark is just incomprehensible. At this point, I'm almost actively rooting against her! Yes, I may have ice water in my veins, but to leave Alex twisting in the wind, when he's the one person who will be the absolute MOST supportive is not something I find in any way interesting or compelling to watch.

Brookside, you're right, Ella did put two things down on Dr. Kapoor's desk - I didn't recall that until you mentioned it. I, too, initially thought the son was gay, and that that was one of the things that was causing problems between him and his father. Guess not! As for how the son and Ella met - I can't recall the specifics (even though I've seen all the episodes). Wasn't there a time when the son came to the hospital to meet up with Dr. Kapoor or something to that effect? If so - perhaps that's when he was introduced to Ella. I agree, it does seem a bit odd that the son would give Ella the jewelry, as they're so emotionally significant, and their relationship is still pretty new, no matter how close they are.

Dr. Kapoor approached Ella (the coffee lady) at the coffee place, ostensibly to buy a cup of coffee, but also to again apologize to her (for previously saying a few episodes ago that the only reason his son was interested in Ella was to anger him). He spotted Ella wearing the bracelet (no ring was involved) and had a very visceral reaction, which Ella picked up on. She later went to his office to return it, correctly surmising that it belonged to Dr. Kapoor's wife. She said that whatever was going on between him and his son, she wasn't getting in the middle of it, and that even though she and Kapoor weren't in a good place, she'd never hurt him by keeping the bracelet. He took back the bracelet. Later on, he went back to Ella with a jewelry box that contained a full set of matching jewelry, including the bracelet. He explained that the set was an heirloom, meant to passed down from one generation to the next. When the bracelet went missing after Kapoor's wife died, Kapoor accused his son of stealing it and probably hocking it to get money to buy drugs, never imagining that his son kept it as a cherished reminder of his mother. Kapoor told Ella how very wrong he'd been about his son, and asked her to give his son the full set of jewelry.

My guess is that it will be Kingsley who dies. Just as he and Lucious are establishing a relationship, someone will kill him, perhaps. Or maybe just an awful accident. But his character is superfluous. And his death would profoundly affect Lucious in a bad/sad way, while leaving Cookie somewhat relieved (as cold as that would be). She won't grieve for Kingsley, and that could serve to drive Cookie and Lucious apart. Or not. But that's my thought on who's in the coffin. Who else's death would Lucious be so emotional about? If Jamal is still being written out, that leaves Andre and Hakeem - so I doubt Andre would die, since that would leave one son, Hakeem - and I think that scenario would compromise the whole family aspect of the show. I am bothered by Andre's apparent miraculous recovery. As a cancer survivor, albeit only Stage 1, I know too many people who are Stage 4. You do not recover from Stage 4. You manage it, in the best of cases. Some of my Stage 4 peeps have been living with cancer for 15-20 years. But they will die from it, period. Why can't Andre's story go that route? He can still be a character for many years, just a character who's got Stage 4 cancer. Plus, it could worsen at any given time, making for good drama.

I took an instant dislike to DeLuca's patient. When she came on to him, hard, and then told him not to leave a scar, I was hoping hard that she'd end up with the equivalent of a road map on her abdomen.

I thought this was a pretty decent episode, especially compared to some others this season. I thought it was also relatively positive in spots - Beth and Randall are trying to get back on track, which is fine by me, I like them when they're in step with each other; Kate and Rebecca had a true moment of honesty and closeness, even after a very tense situation; and even though Kevin and Zoe broke up, it was the right thing to have happen. Uncle Nicky is alive and seemingly well (at least from the glimpse we saw). So even though there's still PLENTY of drama and setbacks to come, I appreciated the few glimmers of positivity. I thought the young actress who plays Tess did an outstanding job in her scene with her uncle Kevin. I hope the writers give her a decent story line next season, and may it NOT be one of torment and bullying, please!! As for the future scenes - I think they were a mix of red herrings and what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Or rather - as next season plays out, we'll look back at these scenes and go, "Oh, so THAT'S what was going on." When the camera zoomed in on Beth's wedding rings, I initially figured she and Randall were still married (and yes, the kiss on the lips and the endearment, "Baby" backed that up), but with this show----who knows! That zooming in was extremely intentional, so either the show was hitting us over the head with obviousness or purposely setting up some confusion. As for why certain characters weren't shown, I just figured it was because they were each coming from different locations and hadn't all arrived yet. In those future scenes, each of the main characters is well into adulthood (I don't count Baby Jack as a main character yet), and they may be scattered around the country/globe. Whatever's going on with Rebecca, we can guess until the cows come home and all be totally wrong, so I'm not even going to speculate, based on the two or three moments we saw her in that scene. Yup, she's old and has some serious medical issues. That's all that you could determine with certainty. It's a good old-fashioned cliff hanger of sorts, and sure, I'll be curious to know how she ends up in that state, whatever it is. The pin the tail on the donkey and sidewalk chalk may related to something already shown, or may be connected to something we haven't even seen yet. I fast forwarded through the Rebecca post-car-accident-hospital-and-home scenes. Just utterly not interested, and from reading all the comments, I'm glad I skipped it. The woman was hurt and while not at death's door, needed one freaking night in the hospital - why the f*ck can't her family manage for one night? Get over it. Maybe I'm a nasty old bitch, but I had no sympathy for the kids getting freaked out seeing her in the hospital. She had broken arm and some facial cuts and bruises - hardly the stuff of nightmares. As for Jack's apparent inability to prepare food - WTF? What about the episode where he had Randall and Kate order a pizza on their own (using his money)? Why couldn't they have done that? I didn't let the literal logistics of Randall and Beth's move to Philly bog me down, I just rolled with it. Overall, I was OK with this episode.

I think everyone is posting in the wrong thread. I don't think this episode has aired yet. Here's the description of last night's episode, which has its own thread (Episode 12, "Shift and Save Yourself"): "Cookie is offered a career game-changer that would put her future in the family business in jeopardy. Jamal works diligently to try to make Tiana and Treasure's track a success, as Lucious, Cookie and Giselle deliberate future plans for Hakeem and the rest of the artists at Empire. Meanwhile, the feds pressure Thirsty, due to his affiliation with Lucious and Damon Cross, and Andre receives startling news."

Wow, no comments at all on this episode? OK, I'll start. The outfit Cookie wore when that agent came to talk to her was atrocious. I loved the breakfast scene with Cookie and Carol, when Carol said, "These pancakes are dry." It was so...random! What's all this with Thirsty now? Where'd this girlfriend come from, have we ever even seen her or heard mention of her? I get that he spelled it out for the FBI agent, as to how they met, but if that all actually happened, why have we never been so much as a passing reference to her by Thirsty or anyone else? I was sort of confused as to what Thirsty's doing...is he pretending to throw Lucious under the bus for Damon, or is he really doing so? Damon is a bad guy! I don't even know what to make of Andre's situation. Unless the actor is leaving the show, I can't imagine he's going to die. And with the Jamal situation, the show will be down to Hakeem as the only available son! I'm glad Treasure and Tiana aren't at each other's throats any more (as entertaining that was at times).

When Beth said she and Randall were the only two black students at the school, I didn't think that was literal. More like, such a small number of students that they all know of each other.

When I saw the title of this episode, "R&B," I thought it meant "rhythm and blues." At one point, current day Randall said to Beth that their rhythm was off and had been off for some time, and certainly both of them are experiencing the blues right now. It wasn't until reading this thread that I saw that "R&B" meant Randall and Beth. D'oh!! I'm intrigued by the lavender-scented toilet paper that Kevin likes. I'm old enough to remember when toilet paper came in different colors (pastel yellow, pink, blue, or green) in addition to white, but I've never experienced scented toilet paper. Interesting!

It came late in the game, but at least Lee and Ed finally came face to face!

Thumbs down on this episode. No one in my family cared for it. Yes, the Bortus and Clyden storyline was really fun and funny, but the love story was just flat out stupid. Is Gordon really that dumb to think that Laura is "real"? What did he see happening down the line, that they'd get married? How would their relationship exist outside the "holodeck" (I can't recall what they call it on The Orville)? It was almost as weird as Claire and Isaac's relationship, wherein he's only "human" on the holodeck. At least, though, Isaac exists elsewhere. How did Laura - who was, what, a hologram? - communicate with Gordon's phone, which was located outside the holodeck? On DS9, was Vic Damone able to communicate with the crew when they weren't in the holodeck? It was just too ridiculous to enjoy. I lost track of how many times we all rolled our eyes. When Gordon deleted Greg, I screamed at the TV, "You can't DO that! You've explained several times that the program isn't written by you, it's written by Laura's data - and her data does NOT exclude Greg!" However, I love this show and can happily let one crappy episode sail right over my head. It was also great to see Tim Russ! Yay!

Giselle and Becky are hilarious together.

Sorry, PepSinger; I highlighted the sentence in question and clicked on "quote selection." I do see that it was originally written by JudyObsure, who you quoted. So I quoted you quoting her, but the system didn't quite understand that, I guess!

I think we're all over-scrutinizing this! I recalled the scene as follows: doorbell rang - hostess answered door - there stood Beth - a flurry of explanations ensued, while hostess, Beth, and Randall (I think) were all standing, with Beth shedding her coat and such - hostess offered a phone charger to Beth after Beth mentioned her phone had gone dead - hostess and Beth walked off-screen, presumably to wherever hostess had the charger. I imagine that Beth plugged in her phone in another room, left it there, and then took a seat at the dinner table. Look, we all know the dead phone thing was a total plot device to exacerbate the already frought situation between Beth and Randall. Whether or not Beth keeps a charger handy 24/7 or not and the logistics of this one particular situation isn't worth the time spent arguing over it. The larger point is - - the stubbornness of both individuals, the incredible anger they're both harboring, the severity of how they're currently treating each other, and the tsunami that's about to occur between them. They have both said and done horrible, hurtful things to each other, with more to come. The heck with the phone charger already!

As it was playing out, I imagined that when the hostess of the dinner offered Beth the use of a charger, Beth was able to access and listen to her voicemails as soon as she plugged in her phone. So while it did seem a bit odd to me that Beth doesn't have a phone charger in her car (again, agree with everyone who's mentioned that with having 3 kids, a job, etc., it would seem likely that Beth would want/need her phone to be charged 24/7), I just have to sort of suspend disbelief that at this one time, Beth didn't have the charger in her car - her phone died - she got to the dinner party and was able to fire up the phone using the hostess' charger - and was able to check her texts and VMs before sitting down at the table.