MissLucas

The main problem with Sister Julienne's dumb question is that it denies so much backstory. Call the Midwife featured plenty of stories where racial prejudice played its part - not just with Lucille (basically a perfect mirror to what happened with Joyce) - but in many, many other iterations. I've once met a cloistered nun from an order with a very strict observance. She was on her test-run for leaving the order after several decades of cloistered life (they are supposed to spend some time 'outside' before making their final decision and she spent those weeks with my family). And yes, watching her deal with modern life was quite the experience. For her asking that question would have made some sense, but not for Sister Julienne who spent decades as a proto social worker in one of London's poorest districts.

The quote is normally translated to 'let them eat cake' - but there's no historical evidence she ever said that. It can be traced back to Jean Jacques Rousseau who used in an anecdote and attributed it to an unknown princess - Marie Antoinette was 9 at the time that book was written. Some authors claim the phrase and story are a even a lot older. The phrase was then used in the aftermath of the French Revolution when painting Marie Antoinette in as bad a light was part of the ongoing propaganda. Interpretations of her character vary over time, I consider her a bit of an airhead (no worse than others) who was placed in an impossible situation. France was a powder-keg even before her marriage but the 'Austrian' (as she was referred to with a chauvinistic whiff) made a perfect scapegoat regardless of what she said or did.

Oh, I'm so glad I went into this completely blind - i.e. not spoilered! Great episodes require a list of things I loved. The heist music which reminded me so much of French 60s movies and that I can't identify. The nutcase idea of basing a fundraiser on Marie Antoinette (to be fair, she never said the thing about cakes). The horrible speech that lady gave. The atrocious Marie Antoinette costumes - the costume department must have had a field day sourcing those monstrosities. Parker randomly muttering 'baguette', 'croissant', 'macron' and my favorite 'french fries' to other guests LOL! Sophie's bracelet. Bringing back RIZ. Tara!!! Brianna fangirling over Tara! The cake fight. The whole 'Girls Night Out' callback. I really hope they follow this up next week with 'A Boys Night Out' homage.

Hmm, they could pull of something clever here - I know, I know... but hear me out. What if Laroche is a 'problematic' good guy? Like he went rogue to find proof for some nefarious deeds because he just could not let go/was too close? So, that in the end, he brought the bad guys down but also his career? That could be a warning for McGee. Speaking of McGee, I was getting annoyed at everybody telling him to go home and get some sleep and then immediately pulling him back in. (I'm sure Delila is also over the moon with that.) Guy was hallucinating a whole pickup! I was waiting for Linda to bring up some Excel sheets! Also: 'Gibbs's rules always come at a cost' should be officially rule #100.* *Don't come after me, fandom wiki says there are 99.

I dunno - the discussion about Murderbot's genitals was ridiculous. The show looks great but seems to go for a sledgehammer where the books were going for a scalpel.

I'm with Parker on this one: Nana scammers are the scum of the earth!!! If Dante were living today he'd give them their own special circle in hell. The one element that did not work for me were the Eastern European geeks - that was way over the top almos sliding into a condescending cliché. The mark was not stupid - he pretty much tagged Sophie as the one who pulls the strings - he just wasn't clever enough for Sophie/the writers (because once you analyze the con it's clear that she anticipated to an unrealistic degree - which is par for the course). I loved her dedication to the con: Georgie is a Gemini and therefore she has to wear emeralds LOL!

Get Sam Hannah, get the fight scenes/choreography ramped up. I liked the little shout outs to NCIS LA and NCIS Hawai'i. Callen and Anna becoming parents, Tennant baking and Hetty meandering through the DMZ (of course she is). Fun episode even though both Parker and Sam absolutely butchered Apfelkuechle. I'm glad Vance knows what McGee is up to and decided to give him some leeway.

I dunno about the soap opera thing. Alfie's dad was a Chekhov's gun for a while now and it was pretty clear he would show up one day. As for Billy's plot - I'm willing to wait and see where that goes. When Sarah's going rogue plot started I was mildly annoyed at yet another side plot going nowhere and they tied it pretty neatly into the main plot.

Judge Gannon wasn't exactly subtle but I'm not mad about it.

Do I mind a Christmas episode at Easter? No, not at all! Yes, the con was really over the top even for this show but it's not the first time they went that far. The 'White-Rabbit-Job' aka the 'un-grift-able-grift' was equally ambitious/impossible, that's why I remember the episode (well, and for introducing me to 'White Rabbit' by Jefferson Airplane). It was still fun, the only thing missing was Parker watching 'A Christmas Carol' at the end with Hardison. Oh, and a follow-up for the lady in the wheelchair. That was damn smooth and at least the end was not part of the con.

I think she's still freaked out by what she saw in her trial visions. She also had the strongest reaction to him channeling to bring back Alsera. In her mind every time he channels he gets a step closer to the Rand she saw in her vision who had killed Mat and Perrin (and countless others I guess). She's still struggling with that image - some therapy would help. I don't see her asking him to stop so much as foreshadowing confrontation or outright defiance but more as denial - maybe a bit of both.

Welcome back, show! During that last scene with Hardison and Parker I thought how beautiful their relationship has been handled and how I'll never forget the pretzels scene and *bam* they went there! As usual the heist details better not get too much scrutiny but I loved all the little grace notes when it came to the characters. Most have already been mentioned so I'll just add Elliot's outrage about having to toss Limagne Valley Flour on the Russian henchmen. (I checked flour from Limagne - it is considered to be high quality.) Another detail and commentary on current events: the tiny owl being robbed from Ukraine.

I posted an interview with Sharon Gilham in the media thread. They talk for a quite a while about the Eelfinn design and costume and she mentioned that Donal Finn had not been allowed to see the Eelfinn before they shot that scene.* It felt a bit rushed to me but they had to cover a lot of ground. I'm glad Nynaeve finally resolved her block but I hope that we will get some dialogue/flashback next season *fingers crossed* what exactly happened there. To what did she submit? Death? Her ability to channel? She talked to her daughter in the flashback about trust - which is a form of submitting. I just don't think it was very clear what was going on - especially for such an epic moment. Mat got a cute fox pendant. And we finally got more info on Elaida's bracelet. Does every pendant/charm on that thing stand for a deal she did with the Eelfinn? No wonder she's get tremors. Not sure why but Rand throwing the truth into the Aiel's faces fell a bit flat for me. And why did Bair and Melaine know about it? I thought the Rings showed the future? The best scenes were Rand thanking Moraine and Siuan's speech of defiance. Sophie Onokedo acted the hell out of that scene. It was a fantastic ride and I really hope the show gets renewed. You can tell that all involved were putting their heart and soul into making it. Not that such considerations matter when it comes down to business but AFAIK the viewing/streaming numbers are good. So, off to Tear we go! *Some other tidbits from that interview: Lanfear's headpiece during the gruesome scene when she and Rhavin study Moghedien's handiwork had a print that showed the lunar landscape (since she's connected to the moon). The chest piece on Moraine's gown during the battle with Lanfear was made of stylized script in the old tongue featuring the same quote over and over again.

Well, as someone who kept asking about Alfie's Dad all season long, that wasn't a big surprise. Especially not after Alfie brought up the whole legal guardian issue. I was actually happy to see that the betrayal of Sarah was not forgotten. Did not expect its ramifications to be quite so dramatic but at least Matty realized that Sarah's overstepping had a lot do with herself. Not quite so happy to see how Olympia was eager to learn all the con tricks to manipulate people. This stuff looks a lot more charming on 'Leverage'. Julian being the culprit (on Daddy's orders) isn't the twist most of us were hoping for. But it's a real gut punch for Olympia. I think the fact that Julian left the firm will probably come into play next season. Maybe he'll play whistle blower. The conflict between Matty and Edwin was interesting. It has been clear for quite a while now that Matty is enjoying herself by just doing her job without all the spy shenanigans. And if Edwin was the one who got a slow retirement whilst she had to leave her job to take care of Alfie it's not surprising that there's some lingering resentment. I appreciate that their marriage is certainly one with a lot of love yet there are conflicts and cracks that show up from time to time.

For all the costume aficionados - this is a great interview with Sharon Gilham. I would however advise to not eat during the discussion of the Eelfinn costume. Her Instagram account is also great and full of shots showing details that you often can't see during episodes.

My apologies! I was pulling a Sister Monica Joan. All that's in the next episode which has no thread yet *hangs head in shame* I'm going to edit my posts now to keep the thread spoiler-free.

nothing to see here

Was it just me or was there some unusually fancy camera work in this episode? I thought that was pretty good - combining several dangling plotlines. I also wonder if they just started yet another plot that would bring Delilah out of her wheelchair. Speaking of Delilah: I'm so glad she was back to her original personality, competent and cool under pressure. Also: Michelle Lukes has a mesmerizing voice, I wish she'd do audiobooks. (She did voice acting for Resident Evil and Halo 5.9

One thing that hasn't been addressed (correct me if I'm wrong) was how Ellie's opioid addiction started. Was she prescribed opioids after an injury/surgery and - partially due to her genetic disposition - got addicted or was it the end of a journey into addiction that had started 'harmless' by some experiments?

The heroin story was tragic and bleak.

As I said I'm willing to give the parents some grace. But yes, even if they felt overwhelmed and were not willing to care for June at home (which may or many not have been even possible) they could have handled this better. Not just for June's sake but also for their own. Make no mistake, June's story will turn into one of these family secrets that will fester for decades and have the potential to destroy marriages and rip families apart. I would not call this karma or comeuppance since their future children will also get entangled.

I live in continental Europe but I remember visiting an aunt and one of my cousins had a black baby doll which I found so fascinating I talked her into gifting the doll to me. That was in the early 70s, pretty close to the time frame the show is now in. And it was a regular black baby with curly hair (I don't even know what a golliwog is but I've seen the term enough times to not want to google it).

No, I saw the UK version and I can't recall such a scene. By chance I came across an article of Spina Bifida the other day. A surgeon who oversaw (and performed most of) 230 surgeries gave the following numbers: 84% of patients were able to walk, a third have bladder and bowel control and 40% require a shunt for cerebrospinal fluid. (Two children did not survive.) He said that before prenatal surgery was an option almost all children required a wheelchair and a shunt and were without bladder control. There are also plenty of other complications - depending on the severity - that can't be fixed by surgery and physiological and neurological problems remain. From the short look we got June was probably a severe case. That's a lot to pack into a short scene and I'm not sure that back in those days such consultations were even advised. It's not that long ago in show-time that cancer patients were not being told the true nature of their illness.

It's a big nope from me from here on out. I'll check out episodes dealing with the Shaw family mystery but that's it.

I'm also a bit concerned about the comedy approach but the set design is fantastic, Mensah looks just like I had envisioned her and THE RISE AND FALL OF SANCTUARY MOON!!!