Chicago Redshirt

I mean, Obie is handsome enough. And he's rich. And he was/is good for her brand. And his powerful and rich mother loves her. If I was a teen and someone made sure that they had monogrammed towels for me at ALL their properties, I might be a little wowed. I didn't put it together that "Obie" is "O.B." as in "Otto Bergman" -- don't know if we knew his actual name. One of the issues with the show is it's unclear what there there is under Julien. Is there any substance to her, or does she just want to be the top cool kid? Papa Zoya=Nick Nerdy Teacher=Jordan Aki wasn't present for the actual outing, and Audrey didn't come out and say close to "I outed you," and Mama Aki was hovering generically enough so that Aki would not be able to read it was about him being bi. Once Papa Aki did out him, I guess the pieces of the puzzle came together and he didn't care all that much that it was Audrey? Or maybe once the shock of having been outed on TV subsided it paved the way for threesome action, so he didn't care at that point? But I would have been supersalty at Dad, even if I weren't closeted. Because it's such a BS approach to say "How could I discriminate when my son's gay?" People make exceptions for those close to them all the time. Wait, I haven't noticed Carla Hall, as in Top Chef's Carla Hall? When did she pop up?

But many of those thousands of kids who get told by their parents that they are moving get upset about getting uprooted just like Sarah did. And maybe I just read it into things, but I thought there was a component of being upset about the hypocrisy of cutting and running after previously being like "we're the Cushings" in addition to not wanting to leave her sweet baboo and in addition to general teenage angst. I imagine the average 14yo is not exactly going to be brimming over with maturity. Sarah and Jordan addressed the long-distance thing. Sarah fears that being two hours apart is going to be a problem, and cited to Eliza and Jonathan's breakup. Jordan tried to reassure her that doesn't mean that they will be breaking up. There'd be no way to know who would be right about that. Jordan and Sarah are relatively new, so who can say if the relationship would survive the relatively minimal drama of only being to see each other in person on the weekends? It's hard to say how much time would have passed since they first started dating, but let's say it's been a month. Seems plausible that a first love for Jordan could stand the test of time, and since he's basically been smitten with her since coming back to Smallville. It's equally plausible that as it's at least Sarah's second relationship and she and Sean broke things up after almost certainly dating for longer, that maybe there's reason for her to be insecure. It could be that Sarah focuses a lot more on Jordan as a positive constant in her life, making him more important than he might otherwise be. Remember, Sarah had mental health/pill issues before Jordan, friction between her parents, feeling abandoned by Kyle, dealing with his apparent alcoholism. Then she has her breakup with Sean and her apparently not having much in the way of Smallville friends beyond the Kents at this point It's been portrayed that Jordan's basically been one of the few things that has gone right for her recently and he's one of the few people who seemingly understands some of what she has gone through. So I could see her being even more clingy than even a stereotypical 14yo girl might be to her newly discovered love rather than recognizing the potential move as a fresh start. I think the real world issue of not being able to get the Emily actress is probably the main reason she wasn't there. But that brings up another point: in a real-world scenario, no way does the DOD let all these people who recently been possessed by evil Kryptonians walk around free and unmonitored. They would be quarantined and kept in seclusion in case Edge or Larr or someone tried to re-activate them.

I would say that Sarah probably has somewhat of a point. But that may be because the show hasn't done as good a job showing what the Cushings' situation actually is. We saw that Kyle was asked to take some leave time and that some of his fellow firefighters don't like him, that the mayor was dissing the Cushings behind their back and that others have socially ostracized them to the point of vandalizing their home. Does Edge's disappearance mean that Lana is out of a job? Is Kyle able to get back to work? There's some level of whiplash from "We're the Cushings and this is our town and we can make it through this" to "Pack your bags, we're moving to Bristol!" Of course, on the flipside, I suppose if a family member got possessed by an alien consciousness and a large portion of my town hated us, I would pack up as soon as I could too. I see things from JHI's perspective: what he's doing is no place for a kid, and having Jonathan getting mixed up in it is almost certainly not going to end well for Jonathan. There might also be some conflating/PTSD over Natalie's fate factoring in to wanting to keep Jonathan at arm's length. To me, the problem with the Smallvillains is that they should know more than they do and act accordingly. There were at least a dozen, and probably more like three dozen, who were turned into Kryptonians. From Kyle's experience, the people who were changed have some memory of what happened to them. A lot of people presumably would have seen Superman fighting with them. So the fight from the Smallvillains should be more "How come we don't have MORE DOD personnel here in case that happens again?" rather than DOD get off our lawns.

Most of your questions probably don't have easy/clear answers. My theories: I don't think Zod is in Edgeradicator. I didn't hear Dad reference Zod in this episode. The last reference that I remember to Zod was that Edge forced Zod's consciousness onto Clark, who beat it. It's not clear what that meant for "Zod." The show seemed (to me, anyway) to suggest that a consciousness was a singular thing. In other words, the Eradicator did not seem like it could produce 1,000 Zods even though "Zod" was a digital thing. So my theory would be that once Clark shook Zod off, there was no more Zod to be downloaded. Presumably, Edgeradicator can force downloads on unwilling people in a way that Original Recipe Eradicator couldn't and they remain Kryptonian indefinitely. I don't think a simple punch from someone not at Clark/JHI's level would tend to knock one out, and I would assume that normally they would not be back to normal after being knocked out. Different versions of the Superman story have had different levels of how quickly Kryptonians adjust to having super-powers on Earth. Man of Steel had the plot line of Clark gradually adjusting to his powers, particularly vision and hearing, and Zod needing a little bit to adjust as well. Superman II had their versions of Zod, Ursa and Non almost immediately being able to do what Superman could do (with Non being a little slower because he's dumb). It makes sense to me that Edgeradicator instills in them some level of basic training as to what they can do.

Technically, a chain called Philly's Best has a branch in Greektown. I think I may have gotten a cheesesteak from there a couple times when temping in the area. It is hard to go wrong with steak, cheese, onions and mushrooms. In my memory, the steak was good, but nothing to make you drive out of your way to a particular neighborhood to get it. So hypothetically, Lexy could have gone there or toother places that happen to be in Greektown.

I don't begrudge the non-elimination week (presumably caused by Zippity Doo-Dah having to withdraw for medical reasons weeks ago).But trying to act like there was additional drama around this non-elimination when the chefs could have done anything but literally shit on a plate was grating. That made Kelsey being in the weeds for a moment dissatisfying because the worst that would happen is she wouldn't get first. I find her pretty insufferable and I am sad she will probably win. Lexy also irked me with her "Chicago Philly Cheesesteak." If the idea was to pay homage to hometown food, she should have done a variation on Italian beef. She probably should have audibled to that and ditched the cheese sauce, which seemingly looked foul in every incarnation.

I do wonder what in-universe reason he doesn't go someplace random and create as many Kryptonians as he wants rather than revealing himself slowly and practically daring Clark to try and stop him. Or why JHI is not quite as thirsty for Kryptonian blood as he was in the past. Not that it matters, but I like the interpretation that JHI Kal-El simply joined because he didn't have the steady influence of Lois and possibly the Kents to tie him to humanity. I think we have to assume that Barry is responsible for Tegan's dad getting busted, that he has powers/super-tech and that at some point, he will show up in Smallville to be a problem for the Kents. It would be kind of fun if Chrissy takes the traditional Lois role of trying to find out just what's being hidden anyway. I don't know if I like the subplot of a big company trying to buy out the Smallville Gazette for several reasons. 1. It doesn't make much sense that anybody would be interested in buying it because it's a failing business in a failing industry in a failing town. It's not even like it has parts for a giant conglomerate to ship -- the real estate and other assets can't possibly be valuable, and it's a two employee shop as far as we've seen. 2. there is a good chance that the thread will either be dropped or mishandled. I am just grateful that they have given no signs that either Lana or Clark wants to rekindle their old flame. But I did get the vibe that Kyle's fellow firefighter might want to handle his hose.... The Kents really need to make more than one pager. Between Jordan, Jonathan and Sam each of them should have been able to ring Clark with Edge just sitting there for as long as he was. Again, other than "because drama!" any reason why Edge used Jordan to download Papa Edge? When Jordan gets to be himself again, wonder if he will retain full KryptonIf ian powers? I was expecting Jordan to feel weakened by being near the kryptonite gun and for Sarah to possibly get a clue of a connection. If we are to assume that Tegan's dad was a named villain put in prison by the Flash two years ago, that would be in S4 (the Thinker season). Obviously she's not the Thinker's kid, but I'm sure there re some lesser villains it could be.

So I did go back and watch the first half on demand. Yes, I need to get a life. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that this was a rare lopsided challenge. Usually, they try to have it that the two teams are basically tied and it comes down to the last person. But this was a blowout. I kind of liked the stupid Spells Kitchen thing too. There should be reward equalization along with punishment equalization. I don't think getting drunk in a hot tub with appetizers ranks all that high in terms of cool/fun things to do.

Yeah, there might be a more innocuous explanation, like contestants have a limited time to defend themselves. But it does give a sense that he's bored and so should we be. According to the Google, the last male chef to win was S12's Scott, so 6 seasons ago. I think Brynn has a shot at winning. It seemed like this episode she got a glowup. Maybe her w/o glasses looks nice for her.

The worst punishments are the "eat/drink something that will make you vomit." At least one can pretend that "hey the trash needs to be taken out, might as well make the chefs do it." On top of how miserable it is to literally sicken someone, there is no need for it.

What I thought was the case was that Zari 2.0 agreed to live in the totem indefinitely to let Zari 1.0 exist in the real world indefinitely. Even if it is the case that it is just that Zari 2.0 agreed to allow Zari 1.0 to have 24-hour real world stints from time to time, that doesn't seem like a "long-distance relationship." Any time Nate wants, he can go to Totemsville, and there does not seem to be an obstacle to Zari 1.0 coming to the real world.

A lot of this episode was pre-empted locally because of weather. What happened in the first half?

Isn't Zari 1.0 the primary one who's out and about now, and Zari 2.0 the one who lives in the totem? That's what I remember but it has been so long. If so, the notion of "there's only 24 hours out with Zari 1.0 and long distance relationship stuff" doesn't make sense to me. Also, is Constantine in the know that his girlfriend in Zari 2.0 is making that switch, and is he OK with that? I don't know if the writer have thought through the message that they are giving about Ava as co-captain in having Gary and co. go to such extreme lengths to hide from her that Earth was literally missing and the Waverider was stuck in the Temporal Zone. Would Sara or Rip or pretty much anyone need to be kept in the dark and distracted? Would they have been as non-essential as to the solution? I was sort of disappointed that the Pin Killers just got to walk out of the alley without having to pay for apparently killing several worlds, without having to face the same stakes that the Legends did, or even having to make good on giving the Legends a ride back to Earth as the original promise was. They should be imprisoned in a trophy case at least as the poor Redshirts were. (Maybe I'm overly sympathetic because of my screen name, LOL). Pretty much nothing stops them from coming back as soon as the Legends leave and bullying people once more.

A few possibilities: 1. Like you said, the women might think they can reform the Fboys into nice guys. 2. There really isn't a choice since there were like only 4 nice guys if I'm counting right: Chaun, New Jared, Fernando and Josh. There were like 11 guys so even if they ditched like half of the herd, there would still be some Fboys in the mix. 3. The girls are realistic and not looking for love despite the premise of the show and are just looking to hook up, so might as well have fun hookups. 4. The producers made them keep the worst Fboys (Garrett, Collin and OG Jared) for teh drama!

I think CJ is the smartest of the three (which. low bar), and she was the only one to basically be like, well, now that I know who the self-proclaimed nice guys are, I am going to focus on nice guys. I would not want to waste my time trying to reform someone who was willing to come on a dating show specifically as a Fboy.

I think she correctly read the subtext there: you don't get to tell me not to be friends with a lying cheating scumbag if that's what I want because you're not the boss of me. And while he has a point, particularly in a real-world relationship setting, in the game setting, she is the boss of him and can choose to send him or anyone else home when she wants to.

I generally understand the criticisms of supposedly "woke" TV and reject them as the BS they are. Sorry if this comes off as mansplaining wokeness or complaints about it, but basically, the theory goes that Hollywood is pushing a liberal agenda wherein women are given all the positive characteristics like strength, intelligence, humor to an extreme degree, while male characters are sidelined, sapped of traditionally "masculine" characteristics and have to play second fiddle to the women. Even though at least some of what the women do could and probably should be thought of as problematic, the story praises what the women do uncritically. Even though at least some of the women do doesn't make sense, the creators bend the plot to make feminist statements. And there's general attack on the notion that women have certain personality traits and men have others and never shall the twain meet, that there is an undue emphasis on gay/bi characters and the notion that there might be more than two genders. Again, I personally reject all of that and watch a number of shows that regularly get criticized for being too woke -- Batwoman, Supergirl, Star Trek Discovery among them. But some of the reason people are up in arms about this is because they feel like this cartoon fits in a longstanding pattern of Hollywood wokeness. And I can actually see some of their point in this particular instance. Teela takes center stage from a character literally called He-Man and takes the title Man-At-Arms, then immediately abandons it. Her flaws are portrayed as strengths. Most of the characters that are the focus of the show are women. The male characters are largely sidelined, sidekicks or the like. A quick sampling: Man-at-Arms: He does get to kick ass in a fight. But he basically takes orders from Teela and never has the "Calm the hell down about not knowing Adam's identity" conversation or the "How dare you walk away from Eternia? Didn't I raise you better than that?" conversation with her. Orko: Admittedly, he has been traditionally depicted as ineffectual and he got a moment to shine. But still, he doesn't embody traditional masculinity. Beast-Man: Again, as in the original he is a powerful lackey, but not much more. Mer-Man: Despite having numbers and home field advantage, he soon gets captured and forced to do Teela's bidding. The various bad guys (Triclops/Trap-Jaw, Whiplash, Stinkor etc.): Easily beaten villains by Teela and Andra despite the relative differential in size, resources and power. Are any of the male characters depicted as Teela's equal (other than Adam/He-Man) in the way that the show portrays and respects Andra and Evil-Lyn as Teela's equal? I would say no. Speaking of Andra, I could see people being uncomfortable with the notion that Teela and Andra have a romance going on. I am personally cool if they are just close friends, or dating or anywhere else (other than I don't think it's nice of the writers to ship-tease if that's what they are doing). And I am fine with homophobes getting upset about such things. But I understand where that might come from.

Thank you for articulating that better than the show itself, IMO. I think I would have liked the show more if it had done more to portray that Teela was acting from an inability to process these complex emotions. Like if she were haunted by flashback's of Adam's actual death, or if she had flashbacks to all the times she undercut Adam, or if she expressed concern about the future of Eternia until Andra got her to go on the quest of the show., or if she expressed regret about her mistreatment, or if she were actually willing to listen to anybody about why they didn't let her in on He-Man's secret identity. Instead, it portrayed her as having righteousness for essentially abandoning Eternia in its greatest hour of need. He-Man is gone, but numerous threats remain. So what does she as Eternia's second-strongest protector do? Throw a Lana Lang-style fit about secrets and lies and goes on her own way, letting the people of her kingdom to fend for themselves. The show (it seems to me, anyway) wants us to think of this as a positive step by Teela. But for me, it's clearly not. My problem is that the character is also a hero in her own right and one who has as one of her defining characteristics loyalty. It seems completely against the nature of the character in general, let alone a version with abandonment issues, to then go and abandon others over this. Now it may be in Part Two of Season One, she will have a continuing arc of growing and the titular revelation. I didn't watch a ton of the original cartoon, but figured that part of the revelation is that she's the Sorceress's daughter and she has untapped magical potential. But for now, I am finding myself seeing some validity to the critics' point of view, which makes me feel uncomfortable.

In the comic, Dan had kept Archie submerged underwater for a long time just prior to going to Karnak, and so that residual water froze a bunch of Archie's mechanisms and forced them to crash land. So they took scooters from where Archie crashed to Karnak. Jon said he was going to leave in a conversation with Adrian. I don't think the comic showed when he actually did leave. He could have taken Dan and Laurie back before doing so. Or given that he's Jon, any number of things could have happened -- he could have split himself into multiple parts, one of which teleported Dan and Laurie and then reunited with the rest of him, or he could have left to another galaxy and came back in time/space to teleport Dan and Laurie. Not to mention that HBO Watchmen is not a perfect fit sequel to graphic novel Watchmen, so even if the gn had had Jon leaving before being able to transport Dan and Laurie, HBO Watchmen could retcon that part.

I think that we saw someone rank more than one person, though I can't remember who it was. In any event, it seems implicit that he asked them to rank all 4ish other members of the contestants' teammates and just did the averages of those rankings.

It seems like they give everybody they talk to plenty of feedback. It's a question of whether the chefs actually listen to it and are able to pivot. Sometimes people just stick to their guns, and sometimes they make mistakes that either come too late in the process or are just too catastrophic to fix. I think the problem isn't from a fairness perspective but a boredom perspective. Now for most chefs, there's the following scenes: 1. Chef running around to get ingredients and actually cooking 2. Talk with judges about what they are making 3. Talking head about what the judges said about what they are making 4. Talk amongst the judges about what the chef is making and the strengths/weaknesses of the approach 5. Judging of the top and bottom people 6. At least one additional talking head about how it's good to be in the top or scary to be in the bottom It kind of sucks most of the drama out of it to have all these steps before the actual decisions are rendered.

It doesn't have much to do with her actual performance, but given the producers/judges seem to pretty frequently beat the "she feeds a family of four on $40/week" drum and she has used her budget cooking as an explanation for why she hasn't cooked with X ingredient a couple times now and likely will continue to do so, I don't think you can say it's got nothing to do with the show.

The dinner at Jonathan Waxman's place was a dinner for four. At least some, if not all, the previous ones were dinners for two. I wonder why Chef Waxman was willing to splurge (or the others were stingy, depending on your perspective.) Fair enough on the pasta. I know that there is a dish "rasta pasta" or jerk chicken alfredo which mixes jerk spices with chicken alfredo that is pretty tasty but has nothing to do with authentic Jamaican food.

I was no fan of Tay's kind of grating voice, but was a little sad that he went out on a technicality. I also noticed that he toned himself down quite a bit both in his actual performance and the talking heads to not have HIS VOICE AT 11 THE ENTIRE TIME HE WAS SPEAKING. It was also good that God's gift to the culinary world, aka Kelsey, just was in the middle of the pack somewhere.

I don't remember Lois making the point that there are other aspects of the story to cover as much as "No I won't force my dad to make an official statement." But I'll take your word for it. It would have been interesting to have Lois actually report the above stories as opposed to have a passing reference to journalism for a plot point. The thing is that Chrissy is right. We don't see Lois actually working on the biggest story (as far as the general public knows) to happen in Smallville history and one of the largest on the planet. She does an interview with Kyle, but as far as we know, this was simply to get "proof" that someone can shake off the mind control that Edge was using. (Never mind that in fact Kyle was not able to shake off the mind control in his case, that Kyle was not necessarily subjected to the same process as Clark, etc. etc.). It is precisely because Lois has two decades of not taking no for an answer that Chrissy is right to say, "WTF, why are you accepting the lack of a statement from the military?" If it was not for the personal interest/involvement in the story, Lois would have worked her sources at the military beyond Dear Old Dad to get to the truth. Indeed, she would have likely interviewed Superman and he would have explained more of what was going on than what they had. One thing I did like was that they touched on how ethically compromised Clark and Lois are as journalists.