Chicago Redshirt

Hero in the comics didn't murder her boyfriend. There was a scene in which she was sleeping with another paramedic and there was a catty discussion between a couple female paramedics as to whether she'd slept with every male firefighter or some such. I think giving TV Hero the trauma of killing her boyfriend better explains the journey that TV Hero is on than the comic explained the journey Comic Hero is on. It's sort of a strange thing to talk about because this involves things from the comics and the TV show beyond the first three episodes, so I will put it under spoilers just to be on the safe side:

I'm still trying to recover from the whiplash of: Kara: We should intensify people losing their humanity so that Nyxly will be even more human and come and fix everything! Lena: That's crazy talk and crossing into darkness and we're not going to do that evil, evil thing. Kara: You're right. Lena and Kara seconds later: OK, let's do this intensifying this loss of humanity thing! Also, it seems like it would have been fairly simple for even just Kara and Jonn to have contained the rioters themselves through super-speed/strength/invulnerability. They must have access to some sort of tranquilizing darts/gas that could make it so they could have intensified the humanity loss without causing more chaos. One little bit stuck out: J'onn phases into a car to stop a carjacker, but then he breaks the car door's window pulling him out. Why not just phase the carjacker out of the car, or even simply open the door and pull the carjacker through the open door? Once Nyxly returned to normal, why didn't she just immediately get the Totem of Hope from the Hague? Also, Mitch raised a good point: Why can't they come up with a plan to get the totem without killing anyone? Seems like with a transporter it should be a fairly simple matter. Considering the danger of the Totems, it is rather silly that at least three of them seem to have been hidden on Earth, and presumably all 7. The hiders had 5th Dimensional powrers and could have placed them anywhere in the universe. Are we heading to a place where Kelly and Alex adopt a super-powered alien? Remember when Alex was baby-crazy and that in part helped undermine her last serious relationship with Maggie? (Pepperidge Farm remembers) Whatever happened to that plot line? The trade of William for Brainy is not one I would make. Andrea will never cease being annoying. It seems like the concept of "embedding" with the Super Friends needed work. They probably should have worked things out. such as "don't reveal the location of the Tower," before taking William to the Tower. Why Alex revealed her secret identity to William seems...unclear. Had William ever met Alex as a civilian? Why didn't she just think hoodie + eye make up was enough secret identity protection? Lois and Clark had a villain call Lois "galactically stupid" for not realizing Clark is Superman. William is like, "hold my beer1" because he doesn't recognize either Kara or Nia. At least Clark wears glasses and changes his voice somewhat when he's Superman. Whoever would put together that the trans woman who randomly falls asleep at work and has mysterious disappearances is a superhero whose powers are dream-based? Shouldn't we be troubled that J'onn threatened to mindwipe William if he found out their secret identities? More to the point, shouldn't William? If I'm a reporter with any sense of independence and self preservation, I would walk away from a story when the super-powered alien says "I will mess with your brain if I decide to." I couldn't even with William being like, "I'll take this fight. You continue to protect Lena!" Don't herosplain to Supergirl! it will literally take her 2 seconds to stop the person it would take you at best a minute or two. So why not let her?

At least in this episode, Yorick had a semi-rational reason for running off. 355 had lied to him about having spoken to his mother, and in his mind could no longer be trusted. Most of the other times he has run off so far were more laser-pointeresque, to borrow your term. The bathing ritual has Big Cult Energy. It is essentially a secular baptism, up to and including giving up the old name to be reborn in a new one, in this case, Athena. Sam is most definitely IMO not in a safe place. Given that woman got beatdown just for talking to him, I think it is strongly implied that he doesn't have a long-term Costco membership in his future. It's also worth pointing out that the leader made a point of telling Hero that she is welcome but mentioned nothing of Sam being welcome. The show touches on a lot of potentially interesting concepts but then does not really do all that much with them. Maybe that's unfair and it will work on them in future episodes. The latest episode (#6) includes references to Abortion: Does the notion that the human race may not be long for the world change the debate on personal choice? Is it right to bring a child into a world as messed up as the Y-verse? Religion: How can one still believe in the face of the deaths of half the world and the prospect of the death of humanity in general? Or does one have to develop new beliefs in the face of such a tragedy as the Costco women have? Politics: Can we ever get past our ideological differences and focus on working on actually improving things, finding common ground, etc.? Or are we stuck looking for partisan advantage?

"Massacre" is far too strong a word for what is happening either generally to the people of the Heights or the specific people who were afflicted by the collapse of the building in this episode. Also, the Super Friends had no reason to think that the staff at the hospital wasn't taking the very best care of the people of the Heights in this episode. So they didn't have any particular reason to think that there was a problem that needed their help until about the time that they intervened. Putting Kelly's unfocused request to do something on the front burner when universal armageddon was a realistic possibility doesn't seem prudent. There is no reason to think that the problem of Nyxly "for now simply isn't fixable" from the perspective of the characters. From our perspective, we know that because there's X number of episodes left, the Super Friends cannot and will not fix this problem in the immediate future, and we also know that Nyxly cannot and will not succeed in her objective in the immediate future. But the Super Friends cannot know these things and should be operating under the premise that Nyxly has the means to find the Totems, unite them and become all-powerful. They took a rational step in trying to figure out a way to figure out the Nyxly problem: develop a way to detect Fifth Dimensional energy in the hopes that it could either lead to Nyxly or the Totems. The well-being of the 100 or so Heights residents pales in comparison to the well-being of all denizens of at least two dimensions (3rd and 5th), as does pretty much any of the other situations that the Super Friends could be helping with but aren't in National City and around the globe.

We had Kryptonian witches in the Reign storyline, including, apparently, Vita.

No one is saying everyone, or anyone, has to be linked up. I am saying that Lena and Kara have chemistry and Lena was acting a lot more like a lover scorned at the supposed betrayal of Kara not trusting her. Some others agree, some obviously don't. I am saying that I would like Kara to get a happily ever after romance to wrap up this show, and of the people currently on the show, Lena is really the only plausible alternative that would work for me personally. They may try to revisit William/Kara but I hope not. Every other current regular is in a relationship with someone else except for Andrea, and that would obviously not make sense. I suppose that in the finale, they could bring back a past love interest like Winn, Jimmy or Mon-El, and I think that's a fair possibility. But none of those relationships had the chemistry IMO as Kara and Lena. As to the argument about men and women just being platonic friends, it's been a while since I've seen "When Harry Met Sally," but it seems like that movie did come down on Harry's side of the argument that hetero men and women can't truly be friends. Regardless of how one comes down on the broader argument, it has little to do with whether Kara and Lena do or don't have romantic feelings for each other. This is probably true on top of TPTB not wanting to have Kara be queer. At the same time, as the spoiler above mentioned, they are willing to have a Lex/Nxyly romance subplot even though the two have never met and have nothing in common beyond enjoying being pains-in-asses. They probably will throw together a late romance for Kara with someone.

Unlike Alex and Kelly and Sarah and Ava (and various heterosexual couples in the Arrowverse), Melissa and Katie have chemistry and the attraction between the characters makes sense to me based on what has been shown on screen and the respective characters' history.

TOS's The Naked Time, despite its title, did not have any nudity or sex even alluded to. The closest it got was Sulu holding Uhura and saying something like "I'll save you, fair maiden!" and Uhura responding "Sorry, neither!' (i.e. not fair (or light-skinned/blonde) and not a maiden, or a virgin); a random crew member trying to seranade Yeoman Rand with a twist on "I'll Take You Home, Kathleen," and Nurse Chapel confessing her love for Spock. TNG's The Naked Now has Data and Yar having sex off screen, but of course, miles away from what Lower Decks showed where there was a shipwide orgy (except for Billups) Trek has been pretty reluctant to show anything adjacent to actual sex beyond first-base kissing, contextual clues that could be read in a different way if one wanted to, or people out-and-out saying they had sex..

Frank Miller's Batman seemed to have a death wish for most of Dark Knight Returns. which was why he kept thinking to himself "This would be a ______ death." So I don't know if it's altogether new as to him being suicidal. (Also, mildly hate going all Comic Book Guy but can't....resist, DKR was four parts). Anyway, when I first was watching I missed Bruce dousing the place with gasoline (doing other stuff) so I didn't get that he was trying to commit suicide until I came here. I could buy that Bruce, driven to despair over the supposed loss of Jason and breaking his vow to not kill over the Joker, could be suicidal. The problems I have include: 1. One would have to presume that Bruce Wayne had a will in place long long ago. He's the goddamn Batman so he plans for everything. Even if he were just a billionaire playboy, it's pretty inconceivable that he would not have one. So is he revising his will just now? What for? 2. Why hasn't anybody let Bruce know that Jason is alive, that he's been compromised by Crane, that Crane knows the Bat-secret, and that Jason has broken bad? Or if someone has, why hasn't a) it been shown and b) Bruce gotten the heck back to Gotham to try to straighten things out? 3. Given that Batman is suicidal, why burn down a million dollar castle rather than any of the many methods of suicide available to him (drugs, wrist-slashing, etc.)? I mean, other than there needing to be a way to intervene to stop him from carrying it out? 4. How the frak does Donna Troy somehow know that Bruce is suicidal, let alone manage to get from Themyscira to wherever Bruce is keeping himself, in time to intervene?

Let me try to rephrase. Either Yorick or & could have a genetic, inherent immunity to the virus, correct? Not one that they developed from having been exposed to a version of the virus and developing antibodies or some other reason. If so, that genetic mutation could allow Y or & to create antibodies, which then they transmitted to the other. Also, the assumption that this is all a virus may be ill-founded. Normally viruses don't just strike everywhere at once equally like the one in the show does. Finally, even assuming that it is a virus and a virologist/immunologist should be the first line of investigation, a geneticist might still be useful in order to make sure that the X factor that protected Y/& can be passed on to fetuses so that there could be male children again.

I was going to say that Andrea doesn't, but then I got reminded from reading the article that she had/has shadow powers of some sort, right. I have no doubt if the series were to have another season, William would have gotten a suit and we'd see the return of Cat Grant as the Pink Cougar or something. I hope that they do not shoehorn a romance between Kara and William. Yes, he had a girlfriend but they can break up. Part of me hopes that they simply go there and have Kara date Lena.

He has nobody else in his corner as things stand on his tribe, and Evvie can proclaim she had not much in the way of other options, which is semi-true. The realistic choices for her were Tiffany, Voce and Xander. (It absolutely would not have made sense to go after Liana both from an alliance perspective and a let's try to win challenges perspective, given how she beasted her round of the immunity challenge). She couldn't really risk voting Tiffany because it would have been a 2-2 tie. with Voce and her going for Tiffany, and Liana and Tiffany going for Voce She can say it was then either Xander or Voce, and she wanted to save Xander. I think Xander would buy that logic.

Evvie could and did assert that the shared idol was powerless and that Xander had no vote. What I believe Tiffany was worried about was not so much the possibility that Evvie was lying or mistaken but the possibility of Xander having found ANOTHER idol that was active that he could then use. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that production would have put multiple idols in play, and Xander somehow found it in addition to the shared idol. Maybe I am giving Tiffany too much credit, but she is correct that in that scenario, Xander could play his idol, and the only vote would be Voce's writing down Tiffany, sending her home.

I think the Risk Your Vote is straightforward enough. It's a prisoner's dilemma situation: If all people choose "protect," they retain their votes as normal. If all people choose "risk," each will lose their votes at the next tribal they are at. If at least one person chooses "risk" and at least one person chooses "protect," then the riskers get rewarded with an extra vote that can be used up till some point (I think someone said F6, but I don't remember). So it takes trying to put yourself in the mind of the other people who are there. Do they seem like they would take the conservative approach, in which case it might make more sense to risk? Are they unpredictable, in which case it's probably better to protect? This minigame is of course different when players can anticipate it coming. Evvie was able to straight up tell Deshawn she was gong to protect her vote, so his choice to risk his vote was really no risk at all. (I mean, it would have been pretty crazy and stupid for her to say she's going to protect and then go PSYCH!) Which I guess is another way I think Evvie was smart and built trust with Deshawn -- she showed him she was truthful and conveyed on him an advantage. Presumably, at some point he might reciprocate. It also will potentially make vote counting much more complicated. It will presumably be hard for the players to know who risked and got rewarded, versus who protected. I imagine there will be people bluffing and saying they got extra votes when they didn't, or saying they chose protect when they have extra votes. And there will always be the issue of when do you think you need to use that extra vote. Add to the mix the notion that the shared HII might mean up to two players are voteless until all three are discovered, and it seems like a fun mixup.

I don't know if it's ever too early in the game to be thinking very far ahead. And I think Evvie deserves some more credit. She has basically guaranteed that she's surviving next tribal assuming no merge. Even if Xander does get his vote back, it's three against one. I think Liana could safely be considered a low-risk to backstab her at this point, and Tiffany is unlikely to go after Evvie right now too. If anything, Tiffany is an easy vote off for next time, because her sucking at challenges is not redeemable. Evvie can probably get back in Xander's good graces by explaining something semi-true: Tiffany was the ringleader who wanted Voce gone, and the only reason Xander isn't gone instead was because she thought he might have an idol. Evvie was afraid that it was going to be two votes for Voce and two votes for Tiffany which could force drawing for rocks, so the only way to make sure Evvie was safe was to vote for Voce. Heck, she can even spice it up with some lies: Tiffany wanted Xander gone, but Evvie took the target of his back and suggested Voce because Evvie wants to be Xander's ride-or-die.

I think it depends. Evvie had been trying to juggle two alliances: the all-girls one and the Voce/Xander/her one. She could have the option of skipping the all-girls alliance due to Tiffany's horrible performance, even saying to Liana that it's time to bail on Tiffany because she did so poorly and they can only expect to be back at Tribal in a couple days. Telling Deshawn what's up is positive for Evvie if she makes the Voce/Xander alliance her true one, as the sooner Xander gets his vote back, the better it is for Evvie/Voce/Xander. Telling Deshawn what's up is positive for Evvie if there is a mini-tribe merge/swap soon, which there almost has to be soon if the current tribe she's on keeps on sucking. Or even if the merge happens further down the road. Because, as she said, it possibly means that Evvie has a potential friend in Deshawn when it's one tribe. Telling Deshawn what's up is positive for Evvie in the short term because she can tell Xander that she's working for his benefit to get his vote restored as soon as possible. (I guess she could have just lied and said she told Deshawn, but Evvie doesn't strike me so far as a particularly good liar.)

Interesting theory. I will give the show credit whatever it might take to pass the test because it's not telegraphed. My thought was that she lacked the courage to be revealed as the beacon of hope she eventually has become. Thank Beebo that they did not drag out Lena being a secret witch and/or will she use her witchiness to help the Super Friends. I think that it made it easy to overlook the ridiculousness of this plot because at least the actors were enjoying themselves instead of seeming like they were running out the clock as in some recent episodes. In most incarnations of Kryptonian crystal AI stuff, the crystals have a program that acts as though they are living. and have the attributes of the living people...so I will accept that. Her "Hand of the Soldier" apparently can't make a decent mask for her. In terms of "doing what the plot requires," Kelly's shield can apparently absorb with no problems whatsoever lightning strikes of 800+ megajoules. (Apparently the Back to the Future 1.21 gigawatts is 1200 megajoules, in case you were curious like I was). Is it just me, or did/does Kelly have way more chemistry with Orlando than she has ever had with Alex?

I think that Yorick was lying about rescuing & from a lab. I don't remember if they have explicitly said or shown how he got &, but it does not really seem like a Yorick think to do. I think he was trying for an explanation that was easy to accept and that would impress the woke women he was talking to. Also in the graphic novel, how he got & is different from that. Although it is entirely possible that the show will diverge on this point, as it has on a number of things so far. 355 referred to herself as CR355 in some radio transmission before, so yes, she is a member of the Culper Ring. I don't think that it had a female commander before the apocalypse, although presumably the highest-ranking woman who survived is now its commander. I took it that the woman that 355 and the other agent were looking for is not the commander of the Culper Ring, but rather the woman who trained 355 and apparently the other woman.

All this "guys" discussion made me flash back to my childhood and the obviously sexist intro from this show/sarcasm:

I think Yorick doesn't necessarily act like how I would expect a real person to act. Which is fine to a certain extent. I get that TPTB want to make their points and that they are going to stretch plausibility along the way. But for instance: I don't see any man being so monomaniacal about their "fiancee." Especially when, as far as we've been shown, the last time they spoke, Beth pretty much pissed on his proposal and said that she was looking forward to going to Australia to meet other people. Especially when Yorick (presumably) had been looking for her for weeks in NYC and found no sign of her. Meaning for all he knows, she is dead or injured. There is pretty much no reason to think that even if she is alive that she is in Ohio (other than they presumably are both from there originally). That is a long way to travel post-apocalypse.. And as shallow as it might be, I don't think most men would not use the fact that they were the only known man in existence to get laid left and right. I think most men, as shallow and stupid as they might be, would probably have learned not to fuck with/ignore 355's instructions as much as Yorick has. I enjoyed the introduction of Allison and look forward to the dynamic between the three of them.

It could mean that there was something in one of the environments that they were both in that caused both to become immune. Or it could mean that one of them has a genetic immunity that they passed along to the other somehow by being together. Even if it were the former, it only really matters if the immunity can be detected and duplicated on the genetic level. You probably would never be able to tell what combo of environmental factors caused Yorick and & to become immune, especially because you wouldn't necessarily know all the environments they'd been in. You could start with the obvious ones, like Yorick's apartment and wherever Yorick picked & up from. But what if the environment was a random subway car that they traveled in, or a friend's house they were both at? What if the X factor was something one of them carried on their person but faded away now that it's, what, two months after the apocalypse? I don't disagree that it is a lead that was worth potentially exploring but it might be a lot of spinning wheels for no direct gain (even factoring out that apparently Manhattan was about to be submerged.) Also, Alison's reaction seems to in part justify why they didn't split Yorick and & up. Having the same scientist examine both of them might expedite identifying what the X factor that allowed both to survive, whereas having separate teams examining each of them might be better in some ways, but also could lead to things being missed. Also also, I think she is using "meaningful" in the sense of statistically significant. It is conceivable that there are is an anomalous situation where a male mammal survived where 4 billion humans and let's say another 3 billion male animals died. But for two male mammals to have survived in close proximity an event that killed the other 7 billion has to be relevant as a pure number crunching thing.

You just jinxed it! Watch him get airlifted in around Day 25, or it getting revealed that he has been hanging out in a new Spy Shack All Along.

One thing about the series, like most post-apocalyptic fiction, is that it cheats. The transition between the normal world and the post-apocalyptic world had a bunch of things that get skipped. It seems to me, for instance, that it would take a while for power and cell networks and the Internet to go down. In that day or so, Yorick should have been able to leave phone messages, e-mails, etc. for Beth, Jennifer, Hero and everyone else in his life that he was alive.

I happen to be a black man, so I do understand the notion that someone might argue that one merely stepping toward her was a "threatening" gesture. What I am saying is that kind of logic doesn't hold up very well in the face of multiple witnesses and the event (likely) being captured on film through the news crews at the press conference. I'm sure there are plenty of real-world examples to be found of cops/security guards doing things like pushing people out of the way during events in full public view. The notion of them taking a full-on swing at someone who is just loud, who displays no sort of weapon, and while being watched by a dozen members of the news media seems unrealistic to me.

I was under the impression that the braids are part of the helmet. But then again she could be a student of the Mr. Terrific School of Hair Design and Secret Identity-Keeping, where before going into battle he apparently would get his hair did.