Chicago Redshirt

Got inspired to watch at least S1 of OG Dexter. Episode 3 has the story of Dexter's first kill and although the broad strokes are the same, a lot of the details are different. Harry was much more a part of pointing the finger at the nurse and far less out of it than in Original Sin. Dexter here did a fair amount of homework that OG Dexter didn't do to confirm the nurse was a killer, such as analyzing the drugs that the nurse was giving. The nurse in OG Dexter (played by Denise "Tasha Yar from Star Trek: The Next Generation") only expressed the "I'm taking away their pain" part and didn't go all into the "they don't deserve to live because of their bad lifestyle choices."

I've dealt with a number of attorneys who were appointed pro bono to represent plaintiffs, and they've ranged from being very excited to do that work in particular, to very excited/nervous to get to do more than doc review, to frustrated with how much additional work they'll have/their clients' personalities or issues/etc. I'd imagine that real-life law firms genuinely value pro bono work on the whole, as long as you can still meet your billables on "real" work. In a scenario involving Our Heroes that I would envision, they'd have enough of a financial/time cushion that they wouldn't have to worry about taking cases on behalf of the Wellbrexas of the world.

Even though Matty is likely guilty of fraud and hacker-related computer crimes along with conspiracy with Edwin and Alfie, the notion that she as a rich old white woman would get what would be effectively a life sentence is not something I foresee the powers that be doing. Same with Alfie going to juvie for his own crimes. Much as that might delight some of the Alfie-haters in the house...

Hypothetically, a foundation could be set up to pay for overhead and salaries for the staff. Grants or donations could support such work. It is not inconceivable that some of the people that they've already won millions of dollars for in the short time since Matty joined would be able to pay their success forward and bankroll such a venture. Depending on how rich Olympia and Matty are and what scale of an operation they want to set up, they could pay for the business expenses out of their own pockets. There is also the possibility of the court awarding reasonable fees to a firm if the appropriate statutes allow it. https://www.probonoinst.org/2022/12/13/attorney-fee-awards-in-pro-bono-cases/#:~:text=Under the relevant state statutory,were incurred by the client. In real life, it probably would not be sustainable as it would take years to take cases to trial, and the big bad law firms they would face could just conduct asymmetrical litigation to drain resources. But in the universe of Mattlock where Matty has in less than a year been responsible for tens of millions of verdicts/settlements, it's at least somewhat a possibility. I also suppose it does not have to be literal charity work but the sort of cases where it is not about necessarily maximizing profit for the firm. A boutique firm where they take on just a handful of vetted cases and specialize in sticking it to The Man or standing for the Underdog. For practical purposes, we only see a handful of employees at Jacobson Moore on week-in, week-out basis, and the efforts of Our Heroes are largely independent of the firm's infrastructure. Matty is presumably signing various documents and appearing in court using her fake name of Madeline Matlock in every case we've seen as well as others that don't rise to being worthy of an episode. Even if Olympia is the lead in virtually all cases, and there was the one case where Matty took the lead, she has to formally appear as Madeline Matlock in each case to do work on the case. It would be likely that Olympia files most documents in the case under her name as the signatory. But it's not an uncommon practice for a firm to list the names of all its lawyers on the case on every documents filed, and also for junior attorneys to file documents in the case as well. I don't know if there is a real-life case that would serve as any sort of precedent for what happens to her cases once it's found out that she's been operating under a fake name. I suppose it in part depends on how she has set up "Madeline Matlock." She could have legally changed her name to that, and legitimately taken the NY Bar and passed it as "Madeline Matlock." Then technically, she would be good or at least good-adjacent. She could have not taken any affirmative steps to deceive but just relied on Jacobson Moore and the NY Bar sucking at doing background screenings. She could have submitted false papers to the NY Bar indicating that Madeline Matlock passed the bar in Florida (or wherever) 30 years ago and gotten "waived in" to the NY Bar (i.e. having been a valid member of one state's bar with no discipline on their record means that you can get admitted to another state's bar without having to retake the exam and with not that much scrutiny since you come pre-approved.) She could have had Alfie hack stuff to suggest that Madeline Matlock passed the bar. But I would have to think that if it came out that an attorney had faked her credentials, it would cause a look at all their cases. Attorneys do need to generally file appearances in their cases. So it could be as easy as going to the computer systems for the various New York and federal courts and entering "Madeline Matlock" into their respective databases to see what cases Matty had appearances for, and what was her role. It seems to me in some cases, she would have had only a minor role. In others, like the sexual harassment case in which she won a $9 million verdict, she had a major one. In most cases we've seen, she's developed the theory and /or procured evidence that turned out to be central to their wins. On learning that she is a fraud, wouldn't that bring into question some of those cases? Yes, there were other valid licensed attorneys on most if not all of those cases. That would not stop parties on both sides from trying to reopen and litigate the cases by saying that Matty tainted them. Perhaps the winner would think that she'd have gotten $12 million if Jacobson Moore didn't put a fraud front and center. Perhaps looking at her tactics in individual cases knowing she had been fraudulent would raise questions.

We're in 1991 -- Dexter just graduated as part of the Class of 91. so more specifically we are presumably in the summer of 1991. And while we certainly had strides to go, and one of the watershed moments to push sexual harassment discussions to the forefront is still about a year away in the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, there was some awareness of and consequences for sexual harassment back then. But then again, Masuka's sexism was played for laughs mostly in the original series which IIRC is basically set against the time it ran starting in 2006. Then again, of course it's not like we have eradicated blatant sexual harassment in 2024. I know that there's no easy solution to Dex's mental issues but surely a realistic version of Harry would have tried other avenues before "I guess I'll teach you how to murder other serial killers and get away with it." With OG Dexter you sort of had to handwave why anyone, let alone a cop, would do that. And it sort of didn't matter, because Harry was only a character in Dexter's mind. Dexter could be lying to himself about what his Harry thought and did. By choosing to focus on this time, it makes Harry's decision-making more central. This series reaffirms that Deb is about 5 years younger than Dex, through showing her being eager to be recruited by college scouts. So while Dex just graduated college. Deb is a high school junior or senior. Which kind of makes Deb trying to set Dexter up with her friend a little gross. I'm tending to doubt that she's over 17 and Dex is presumably 21 at this point I think this is the first that we had been told about another Morgan who had died or of any difficulty of Harry and his wife conceiving. I guess that raises the question of whether Deb is the child of Harry and wife, or Harry and an affair. I don't think we have been told how wife died, have we? I find it interesting that they went out of their way to establish Deb as a Sagittarius and Dexter as an Aquarius. As a fellow Sag, I'm like "Checks out" for Deb. Not sure if ALL Aquarius are latent serial killers, though....

During the original series, Dexter found out that Harry was indeed boning Laura. I confirmed by looking up a wiki that mentioned that Harry was also boning another CI of his. I just watched New Blood, which was decent. I might be tempted to rewatch S1-5 of the original series. Since we see him through Dexter's fucked-up viewpoint, we often forget that Harry is pretty objectively a ***********. Instead of getting Dexter the mental health he so obviously needs, he puts him in a home with his own daughter, putting her at risk. One of the things I'm curious about is if we're going to get more first-hand insight into why Harry came up with the Code and how much Actual!Harry knew about what Dexter was doing. Up till this point in Original Sin, he knows about Dexter's first two kills and he was not really in a position to stop the first one because the nurse had him on death's door. He said that Dexter wasn't to make a move without running it through him, but the kill was super-sloppy. I wonder if Harry is going to be critiquing Dexter or going to his crime scenes, helping him cover things up, etc. I feel like the show was out and out lampshading when it had one of the characters say that Masuka is best in small doses. I do wonder why the SMG character hasn't bothered to shut down that one-person sexual harassment campaign. With famous guest stars like SMG and Patrick Dempsey, it seems like there's a good possibility that they are either victims of the Big Bad or the Big Bad. In the case of a prequel in particular, where we never AFAIK heard of either SMG or Patrick Dempsey's characters before, it seems especially likely that their fates will get wrapped up by the end of the season. (Especially if they are going to not do a S2 with Young Dexter and instead focus on Dexter: Resurrection). My money would be on Dempsey's character being a killer behind a bunch of the NHI cases and trying to parallel other crimes (such as the similarity that Dexter noticed that were not actually the same killer) and SMG being one of his victims when she notices something that points to him. Brian being older was more freaked out and was sent to a mental hospital. Maybe this show will establish if Harry even tried to look out for Brian or what was up with him. I think someone speculated about how the person who wondered if there was space at Dexter's table (ha! Always room for one more) may have been a young Brian.

Glow-up? More like NO-up. The goal was more along the lines of "to be the most famous contestant on LIB history." Which Hannah and her pod-sisters spun into the dreaded being on the show for the wrong reasons, while Nick spun into "not really a goal, just something I threw down on paper to appease a friend who suggested I write a bunch of 90-day goals." Taking it as true that he wrote it and that when he wrote it he didn't even know if he was going to be cast, I don't find as sinister as Hannah tried to make it. Who would be the most famous LIB cast members? I'm guessing: Lauren and Cameron from S1, without whose lightning-in-a-bottle this concept never would have worked. Amber/Barnett also from S1 Shake/Dipti from S2 Shane/Natalie from S2 To unseat those and any other of the contestants would probably require either epic dickishness/crazy like Shake/Shane or a potentially epic love story like Lauren/Cameron. Presumably, Nick does not think of himself as an epic dick. I definitely would prefer the occasional hour special following various LIB cast members or even the occasional SX-cast Y years later coda. Because it is very hit or miss. I enjoyed seeing AD even if I didn't instantly remember her on seeing her. Didn't really care too much about S1 Jessica but might have in the context of seeing her with her other S1 castmates. But giving a plane ticket, a weekend hotel stay in L.A. and a few K is probably cheaper and less work than it would be to do a more interesting followup to any of the previous seasons. Marissa is one of the contestants who would have to do a lot to lose me. I think she didn't have to spend much energy pointing out what a douche Ramses was -- the show made it clear in and of itself, and Mama Marissa also pitched in. (I am considering a breach of contract suit for her failing to follow through on her castrating of Ramses. Maybe I head-canon that she tried but only succeeded in cutting off his mini-locks instead). Marissa did enough to put Ramses in his place IMO, including the bit were in talking about how everyone made mistakes, "I used to have sex with that man." Hannah was determined to try to drag Nick down in the dirt with her, and who knows if it worked. I think I would tend to believe it if any of the more credible men (i.e. Garrett or Tyler) confirmed it, but since the best they got for support was Frederick and Ramses, I'm not going to give their statements all that much weight. Those guys for all we know could have decided to shit on Nick's reputation to help salvage their own. I think Nick calling her "a grenade," and saying she looked average are pretty hateful to do in general on a show that is premised on looking past the superficial in general and more importantly are pretty two-faced when he's supposedly IN LURVE with Hannah at this point. Depending on your perspective, it's hard to say you love someone who is only a 5. Like if you love someone that automatically curves that person up to like a 6 or a 7. You shouldn't be saying that she's the sort of person that somebody has to take one for the team and engage with her so that others in the crew can have a chance to date her attractive friends. I wasn't clear on when the diary snooping and picture taking happened but that's unacceptable. Not sure why neither Nick nor anyone else called Hannah out on that invasion of privacy. I'm mixed on Tim. He clearly has problems in general. He clearly was shitty to have done that staged letter-to-Alex's-dad bit and undercut it almost immediately by talking about how he had doubts. He seemed to be more on a mission to bring home a daughter for his own parents to replace his dead sisters. I do think in that context, he did probably get an earful from his parents about how Alex had that nap before her shift and he decided that was the back-breaker. But I do think that if I had an argument with my "fiancee" where she never clearly says "I just need to have some space" during an hour argument, gets me riled up so that I'm looking to fit in the stereotype of "angry violent black man," and she calls me a pissy little bitch, I'm probably not much longer for that relationship one way or another.

From our vantage point, the boy is just a kid and the toy was relatively harmless. But from the vantage point of Dune society, at least as I understand it, there is no question of the boy's guilt. As Hart said, it was less a murder and more an execution. It is (apparently) a death penalty crime to have/harbor any form of AI. given that AI nearly wiped out humanity. The boy clearly had an AI, even if it is a relatively benign one. From my perspective, no 9 year old should even be eligible for conviction of a crime. From my perspective, the death penalty should be eliminated. From my perspective, the better course would have been to do an investigation. The boy didn't create the AI himself. So who gave it to him, how long had he had it, why did they supply it to him, did they supply it to others? There are a lot of questions to be answered along those lines. But Dune society isn't particularly just from what we've seen, nor does it operate on real-world morality outside of Machiavellian motives/realpolitik dialed to 11. You're right that Hart does not have any particular claim to be judge, jury or executioner. But at the same time, the entire society was going to sweep the boy's public ownership of AI under the rug because his family is rich and powerful (and maybe because of his age). And I should add it's possible that some of the people that Hart has killed on or off-screen has been factually innocent. But he seems to have been working hard to investigate people and we don't have demonstrable proof of complete innocents having died or suffered at his hands like we do the Harkonnens. I should add that there is also the dimension that Hart apparently either realizes/suspects on some level that the engagement is part of the Sisterhood's plans and/or picked up on how the boy/engagement was being used by the boy's family to the detriment of the Emperor/the Imperium. Killing one boy to prevent the longterm threat the boy represents is another factor. The boy is not guilty himself in his respect, admittedly, and is just a pawn. But it is a moral justification that reasonable people can disagree about.

The way it is described in the episode, he "donated sperm" to people he knew. It's conceivable (pun not originally intended) that he did indeed just agree to donate sperm for someone he knew with either fertility issues or a lesbian couple or something, and because he knew them he shared a Christmas pic with the kids but has no financial ties or other responsibilities. It's obviously more probable that he is trash. Hell, even giving him the benefit of every doubt, he's pretty trashy and should have said in the pods "oh yeah, I technically have three biological kids out there who I was a sperm donor for, but I'm not really in their lives and I can't wait for US to start a family." But here's the thing: how do you go on a show like LIB seven seasons in and not expect to be outed about having 3 kids? For someone in Ashley's position it would have to be a dealbreaker. It seems very weird that these pivotal things like this baby daddy drama and the Tim/Alex fights are just being shown to us in media res rather than us not being shown how they began. I agree. I think Cade is more into Nick than Hannah is at this point. Also, I can see where Hannah gets her issues about weight from. Mama Hannah is pretty thin and Daddy Hannah looks like he was a beast back in the day. The show has had a pretty good history of getting its key players to come to the reunion show even when common decency/sense would have suggested the villains in question would stay out of Dodge. Either their egos or LIB's contracts do an excellent job of getting most of the people to show up. So fingers crossed! Abrasive, but no lies detected! Calling Ramses out for looking like El Debarge, having hesitancy about this rush to the altar business, pointing out how Marissa's exes and other men in her life have screwed her over so he better not or she'll castrate him, firmly acknowledging it's Marissa's decision even though she disapproves, and fiercely wanting Marissa to be happy...I stand with Mama Marissa on all these points. I think more LIB parents probably wish they could be as upfront about their disdain for the match, but Mama Marissa has no fucks to give. It is somewhat of a shock because Marissa is so upbeat and sweet and Mama is very much not. But I see it as Mama having gotten bitter through at least two shitty relationships and wanting Marissa not to end up like her. The prenup insistence doesn't so much make sense to me as Marissa's not a lawyer yet, and I think prenups protect premarital property primarily. I guess you could draw one up to be advantageous to her should she go and become a rich lawyer during the marriage and then they divorce. But if she's like most law students, she will be acquiring quite a lot of student loan debt, which would also become his debt as she will be doing it during the marriage. I am spacing out on what Ramses does for a living. Wasn't/isn't there a condom brand Ramses? Ironic given him being a jerk about condom use, but if it's still around maybe he should go for an endorsement/spokesperson deal.

They may not be. But at the very least, Valya and Tula have demonstrably been shown to be cool with coldblooded killing and galactic manipulation if it gets them what they want. They may have a noble end goal. They may just want personal/Sisterhood power. But they have shown that they truly believe their ends justify any means. Hart (so far) has only been shown to punish the guilty, largely works within the system with some amount of due process, and although his rigid "I only serve the Imperium" may be a ruse, or may even be self-deception. And it also may be that Hart was a more traditionally moral person but has decided that to fight monsters, one has to become a monster. People's mileage will vary as to whether a series with all villains and no traditional heroes to root for is worth watching. For my money, as long as it's done well, it is. And I feel like Dune: Prophecy is done pretty well.

Fair enough as to the additional functions of the Sisterhood. Again, haven't read the books, just the show. But it seems like the mission to improve society by focusing on truth is inherently corrupt, at least from what has been part of the show. The Founder based the order on a huge secret and violation of the law. Valya exponentially expanded that by committing murder to win over the leadership, and has kept that murder quiet. It wouldn't be the first time an order of mystics pledged to truth and justice had shadiness and secrets at its heart corrupting it, won't be the last. As to Griffin Harkonnen's death, all I know is what the show has presented, which was that an Atreides killed Griffin and Valya (and by extension, Tula) blames the Atreides family for it. I'll take it at your word that it's not in fact true, which makes sense since the Atreides family is apparently super-noble, and the Harkonnen family are scheming lying scumbags.

How dumb/brazen do you have to be to sext people when you know there's a reality TV crew is filming most of what you're doing? It is awfully cocky to think that being on a show like Love is Blind is a trip to plenty of hookups. (In this particular case, getting your dick compared to a tiny acupuncture needle seems like it wouldn't help). But it seems like even if you are cocky enough to believe that, probably should keep that to yourself. Monica did seem awfully straight-laced when it came to sex. Did they not talk about fantasies and kinks while in the pods? Sometimes I think I would like it if there were Love Is Blind - Extended Cut where you would get to watch 100 percent of the pod conversations with the couples who make the resort level.

I wonder how they did not have that conversation or some variant of it while they were in the pods. Marissa is seemingly pretty clear about her military service and if this is such a deal-breaker for Ramses that she would possibly re-enlist, that possibility and his feelings about the military in general should have come up. In other news...I'm surprised that Alex's parents are way more light-skinned than her. Tim's letter can be read as sweet or it could be read as a gross paternalistic ploy. With Alex's dad apparently grappling with health problems, I'm hoping my sense that Tim/Alex are doomed is wrong.

I haven't read any of the Dune novels and I have only seen the 1980s Dune movie (which I had trouble following) and Part I of the recent movie. But I seem to understand what's going on here OK. Hope this explanation makes sense: In the distant past of the Dune we are familiar with, many of the broad things of that society still existed: the Houses, spice, the Imperium, intrigue etc. But in the time period of the show, humanity was just out of a devastating was with AI, or thinking machines. As a result, thinking machines were outlawed. But people like their computers too much and sometimes skirted the law. The Sisterhood was formed in part to improve human nature and society both by breeding better people, unlocking abilities in humans and by manipulating society in ways both large and small. House Atreides portrayed one of their ancestors as the George Washington of the AI-war, and House Harkonnen's ancestor as the Benedict Arnold of the war. So Atreides as at a high power level and Harkonnen was at a low. Valya was salty about this, riled up her brother, her brother got capped by an Atreides. Tula executed a revenge plan in which she mass-murdered most of the Atreides clan while sleeping with one of them and apparently getting pregnant and giving the kid up to be raised by wolves outsiders. Valya had joined the Sisterhood and Tula came along with. The Sisterhood founder secretly had used AI to try to figure out how to manipulate society to its betterment. This is a point on which Valya was supportive. The next in line was deadset against it, so Valya in her takeover of the Sisterhood used one of the superhuman abilities, the Voice, and forced Dorotea to cut her own throat. This left Valya free to remake the order in her ruthless gene-manipulating/AI-using image. With control over the Sisterhood, Valya and her lackeys determined that they could make themselves into advisors to all the great houses and were secretly manipulating the levers of power. But they also thought the best way forward was to get a Sister to take the throne, and the best Sister to get on the throne would be the offspring of the present emperor and empress. The enacted that plan and were well on their way to getting Ynez, the current princess, to train with the Sisterhood. Once indoctrinated by them, she would eventually rise to the throne and the Sisterhood would more directly control everything. The Sisterhood were about to execute a next step in this plan by having Ynez get engaged to a 9-year-old, which would leave her with roughly a decade of being free to train with them. They also were pulling various strings to give the Emperor legitimacy and to undercut that legitimacy, including giving aid to the rebels at times they deemed appropriate. All those plans went awry when Desmond Hart entered the picture. Desmond was a wild card with a strange power that Valya didn't understand and with a complete hatred of the Sisterhood and a claimed loyalty to the Imperium itself. Valya tried to adjust to these fast moving changes to the plan, but wasn't very successful. Someone apparently set him up to check/kill the Sisterhood. But who? He could be the one prophesied to be the key to the Reckoning, an event foreseen to tear the Sisterhood apart. But it would seem that an acolyte who got prompted into a ritual to channel her foremothers is that central figure. Even though she died, she was born again through use of spice and tech.

I too independently thought of Nick as looking like store-brand Chris Evans, so good on whichever cast member made the comparison. I find the Alex/Tim thing to be bizarre too...it seems strange that the whole thing happened out of the prying eyes of the cameras or the editors had the restraint to not spill the tea directly. But it seemed like it had to have gone on for some time and to be pretty intense for them to have ended up requesting separate rooms. It's always hard to reconstruct who might have been in the right from a limited set of evidence, but Tim struck me as a generally level-headed guy and he seemed to be saying reasonable things in the argument, so for him to be like "I went into this thinking this was going to be the last time we'd speak." seems like it's more likely Alex crossed the line. Unspoiled speculation: G/Taylor and Marissa/Ramses are the only ones who seem to have prospects for an actual marriage beyond 2-6 months. Hannah/Nick are an obvious hell, no. Writing out a list of things you don't like about someone is bad enough. Referring to a supposed life partner as delusional as one of those things is worse. But leaving the list out in the open is passive-aggression to the highest degree. Also, it is very weird that either they have been having sex and Nick doesn't want to talk about it (which I think is Hannah's story) or they haven't been having sex and Hannah is lying about how they are having sex and Nick wanting to pretend like they are not. I will say that random woman, if she was 60, was indeed a "baddie" and I hope that I am equivalently that hot when I get that age...which doesn't leave me as much time as I'd like, lol. Stephen/Monica could make it if Monica decides to stop making stank faces when Stephen blabs too long for her liking and/or Stephen learns not to blab too long. (And for the record, it seemed like Monica was being unnecessarily bitter about the length of time he took in the one conversation shown, unless there was editing mischief. But if it was just the latest in a series of longwinded conversations, I could see it grating more.)