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Maybe the bagel incident is a metaphor for how Kendall goes for showy wins but can't follow through. He was a hero to his kid for getting the rabbit and having a web cam for the kid to watch. Certainly he was distracted so he told the nanny to feed the bagel to the rabbit, to get rid of her. Then getting another call about the rabbit being sick, at a crucial time for this shareholder meeting, was another distraction to him. But he hasn't been able to choose a path and stay with it all the way. It's been the story of his life as depicted on the show. Shiv obviously doesn't trust Logan, despite what she said an episode or two ago. So she takes advantage of the situation to carve out a board seat for herself. She also tries to establish a relationship with Sandi, suggesting that Sandi convince Sandy. Really Sandi could make up anything since it's only her that Sandy is mumbling to. So girl power, take advantage of their incapacitated fathers! Greg can't be surprised, he's being batted around as a punching bag by gramps, Logan and now Kendall -- "I like you" but I will burn you! Still he can't be any less crafty than the Roy kids. Maybe like Bran Stark, he will be the one who unexpectedly ends up sitting on the throne. Shiv and Tom I don't get. At the end of season 2 and the start of this season, Shiv was trying to convince Tom that she loves him. Maybe she got over that once he offered to go to prison for Logan. She obviously has the upper hand again. All Tom did when he had some hand was to try to track her menstrual cycles? Shiv isn't going to be sidelined by a pregnancy. She's probably on the pill, since she was sleeping with whoever struck her fancy. Tom said he didn't like the arrangement but I don't think Shiv considers the arrangement to be over. So if they held the vote and the Roys lost company control, the show would have no reason to continue. Now, it's pretty much status quo. Roys made concessions but they will try to wriggle out of any restrictions. Guess we'll see how big of a player Sandi becomes. Looks like Kendall is going to up the ante by cooperating with the DOJ, possibly throw Greg at them, since Logan shut him out. Otherwise he might have some time to organize a funeral for the rabbit and get another pet.

Really? I don't recognize any Billions character in Succession, which is a superior show. Axe is just a blowhard, who peppers in some cultural references, just like every Billions character does.

There are oil tycoons in rural upper state NY? Ghost Deb screaming at him in the truck was very annoying. Guess Dexter has still has some rage in him, even if Jim Findlay is mild mannered on the surface? Dexter/Jim was marking off days on the calendar in which he didn’t kill — has to start a new streak but there will be more interruptions. so the local PD is pretty well equipped. When they crash the drone, they can borrow a helicopter. but they’re searching for someone and they don’t have blood hounds? Or they can’t smell in cold weather or something? Maybe they could borrow a canine unit from a nearby PD or sheriffs dept? because obviously dogs would find the blood stains and the amputated body parts right under the “base camp.” Clancy Brown as the prick’s daddy is going to be a problem. but looks like there’s a serial murder or kidnapper of young women in town so that will take the heat off Dexter, though he will have to find and kill him. ok who was it that gave the young woman extra money? And how many hotels can there be in that little town? But the rooms have obvious cameras in them and they lock people inside? You would think a series of missing girls would attract a lot of attention, enough for them to call in state police and FBI. So if the perp is a local, it’s a matter of time to catch him. but you’re in a small town and money is tight but you get out of the shower of the hotel room and there’s a bottle of champagne and some treats of some kind. Someone’s been in her hotel room while she was in the shower. She doesn’t ask questions, just chugs out of the bottle. Doubt that dinky hotel had some very generous turn down service which included booze. At most you get a small piece of chocolate and that’s just on the first night. dexter covered his tracks quickly enough but a missing local is going to get the whole town looking because the daddy doesn’t buy that he will run away. Indians are salty that when young Indian women go missing they don’t get nearly the same attention. Yet the missing girls just rate a few posters?

What a surprise, that Brad would be a beard bro.

She lost, why would she get to infiltrate another team, choose which team to join? She's fortunate to be staying rather than going home.

Yeah did he decide to sell their NY home and move them into a van? Then to Mexico City? Without her having much or any say? They were constrained by having to find the best place for their dog. That’s a $200 a month balcony versus $275 for a second bedroom, both with windows and a second full bathroom. The place they chose has a windowless bedroom for just $75 less. Still looked like nice places for around $1000. The windows weren’t barred like you sometimes see in Latin America.

I wonder why MTV keeps casting Big T. Maybe she's put as an obstacle for others to navigate around. They don't want to be teamed with her at all, especially for Final but even for the Daily. They really played up how her teammates are working out intensely while she's lounging and not trying hard.

Yeah it seemed like she was going to get her way in Quietsundays or whatever that place was called. That place was spacious but too far away from school and from town. Sea views for under $2000. But maybe not much work other than tourism.

Emerald should have had the advantage in the Daily, with 2 extra people so they could have retrieved the tiles faster, relay it faster to shore. But they read the puzzle key backwards and had trouble calling out the symbols? Sapphire had problems getting all the tiles. Ashley actually had to swim back to the jet. But apparently they never had problem getting the orientation of the puzzle or knowing what to call the symbols. Otherwise it was a very well designed team game, though it was also mostly a commercial for a big movie from the same media conglomerate as MTV. Seemed like the challengers were coached to really express excitement about the movie. Some of them may really have liked Tom Cruise but they were all suppose to be big cheerleaders. Amanda had a good attitude, accepting that she would go down to the Lair either way. But she's easily riled up. She's always alienated other players from her first season on. When she first appeared, the rookies were easily picked off. Now they usually have bigger numbers but they don't organize or know how to play in their best interest. She always has to get the last word in and it's surprising she has friends considering her defiant personality. She said she was going to blow up the Emerald Cell and got Josh to name Tori as the one he could live with being replaced. Then at the deliberations, the idiot brought it up again. Amanda doesn't owe them an explanation nor do they have a right to keep their team indefinitely. In fact, though she talked about blowing Emerald Cell like Cory did the week before, she seems to think she can complement the team in ways Tori couldn't. Or so she said after she had infiltrated. So she was way more focused and not bent on revenge like Cory was. She had an advantage over Big T but she came up with a good strategy and sustained it all the way. Kind of interesting because she gets emotional -- presumably the way she gets into yelling matches, being defiant and sarcastic. But at least in this elimination, she was pretty poised.

I don't think it's these guests who came up with that idea. I think the preference sheets are mostly producer-generated, all to cause stress on the cast so that they have some drama to film. This whole dinner, with the white clothes and the bourbon is what the producers wanted. Same thing for the luau they are going to have in the Caribbean.

Is bourbon commonly consumed with food? As opposed to wine?

Teja chose the one with the most rooms, probably most bang for buck. But he wanted to be close to work and the city center? Rotterdam is not that far from Amsterdam or Delft or the Hague so they could have had Sarah or Floor as the agent. Maybe this is a case where the house hunter knew the agent?

Eddie has NOTHING to apologize for but that convo was some TV BS anyways. You can tell the guests weren't really that into the white party. That was producer checking off a box. As was the luau. Do people really go to the Caribbean expecting a luau? Why didn't they provision some hula dancers? Because they're not fucking anywhere near Hawaii! Producers print out those preference sheets after they've massaged it. And they probably didn't look too far to find these drunks. Endless booze! You'll look like jackasses on TV but the booze is free! Fraser said they're not yacht people. But they are BD people! Jessica is low drama, took the shit job of laundry but she agrees with Fraser that Heather sucks as chief stew. On WWHL, Fraser was asked what Heather could have done to be a better chief stew and he said "do some work." Fraser also said he used to watch BD before getting into yachting. Probably had a warped view of yachting at first.

At the end of the Hulu scene, the exec invites him to Shabbos dinner. Mentions that Bari Weiss was a guest. That's what LD slams the door on, so it could be political commentary.

How does the law work though? If the mother doesn't want the father in the kid's life, can the father sue for formal custody arrangement? Or are the laws biased towards mothers in such disputes? In fact, can mothers sue for child support but still lock the fathers out? Lawrence is trying and he's presumably contributing financially. But when he made that threat, what is the likely outcome? Is the family court going to make Condola let him have custody for a week and they would swap weeks, while he's still a toddler? When Lawrence was setting up the crib at his place, it's his place in San Francisco, right? So was he going to fly down there, pick up the kid, fly up to SF and have the kid overnight, then fly him back down? OTOH, when he went down, he talked about his place being right down the street. So maybe he rented an apt. in LA. It wouldn't be good for the kid, to fly him up, just for a day or two, and then fly him back down. Would have to be at least a week. Now imagine how much friction there would be if Issa didn't break up with Lawrence. Is he going to fly down and then spend time with the baby and Issa? Issa may not be too into that but Condola would resent that situation even more. Realistically, if Lawrence wants to be more present in the kid's life, he's going to have to choose between that job and baby. He'll have to give up the job in SF, move back to LA, to be close by. Probably what's ultimately going to happen. And I presume the show is following Lawrence because the end game is to have him and Issa reconcile. Or at least they're making it look that way.

On his way to the shed, JP almost tripped over a hole. They showed the hole. Then Will tripped over the same hole. He ran back towards where Emma was in the car but he entered the shed from a different direction. In any event, I was surprised he decided to go check things out. He might have run into a bunch of the terrorists, not just Will. These terrorists killed with impunity so for him to go in there unarmed made little sense. In the seasons of The Missing, he was rarely in personal danger. But in season 1 of Baptiste, he was dealing with organized crime, which represented a threat to him and his family. Now, he's dealing with people willing to go on shooting sprees so you wonder if one of these days, he's going to get in over his head. They are raising a lot of questions as the story unfolds. Hope they answer all of them.

The girlfriend, who turned out to be in an open marriage, had that Fargo accent. I don't get the ending though, Homer is still in danger and they said to tune in for the next episode? Are they going to continue with this? If this show within a show was really on some streaming service (forget the name, something-flix), there would be wait for the next episode, it would be binged. I thought when Disco Stu got killed it was going to be some deal. But then all the local mafia gets killed so this isn't part of the regular Simpsons-verse.

It's too bad Julien didn't get to see Emma and her sons interacting before they disappeared. He might have been able to detect that the sons were secret right-wing terrorists who were willing to get their father killed and leave their mother, leading to her becoming paralyzed. Also that the young son never talking was probably some kind of an act. After all, Julien could tell that one hotel guest was cheating on his wife after seeing him once and also that couple in the restaurant was going to break up, after observing them for a few minutes. 😏 Should be interesting exposition, how the boys came to be like that. The theory that the husband was terrorizing immigrant communities to drive them out and buy up properties for cheap didn't make that much sense. A little vandalism and maybe threatening immigrants would be one thing but killing them, plotting a shooting spree which killed 21 people and wounded dozens more would be a bridge too far for a real estate strategy. That shooting spree would be international news, 21 dead and many more wounded, especially where shooting sprees are uncommon. This was Budapest, not Florida, after all. It would bring way too much heat for the real estate developer. They would have found out about his racist leanings, complaining about the smell of immigrant foods. But a Brit living in Budapest is complaining about immigrants there? He could have gone back to the UK if it bothered him. Even if he wasn't involved in the shooting, him buying up properties in that area would have brought condemnation, exploiting a tragedy to enrich himself. Also doesn't make sense the boys would feel strongly enough to join up some anti-immigrant terrorist group. Not sure why Julien went back to Paris, saw his wife through the window from outside his house, and decided to turn around and leave. Because she's too linked with their daughter?

The latest episode of the Prestige TV Podcast from The Ringer is mocking TMS mercilessly.

No it was a political figure or LD slamming the door at the mention of the name could be seen as a political comment.

Who was it that the executive was talking about when Larry walked out of the office and slammed the door? He denied he intentionally slammed the door but I think it was meant as a joke, him slamming on whichever name was mentioned.

It's Mark Ravenhead, the suspected Nazi sympathizer. He gets huge ratings. Shiv referenced a $30 million salary. They didn't show it but Ravenhead bullied Tom when he tried to deliver the message. So Shiv went to him, told him "you're going to do what we say." Apparently he wasn't willing to walk away from a $30 million salary.

Did Larry have a contentious divorce in real life? I thought his ex wife got a generous settlement. I think the little sore look about prenups was for comedy and doesn't represent what he feels about his divorce. But it wasn't even the main point of the episode. It's surprising Larry didn't press Marco about their deal only being for Netflix. Now did they have stunt people for the fight scenes? Because it seems unlikely that Cheryl Hines would be wrestled to the ground, rather forcefully like that. I'd also forgotten that Larry kind of fell out with Ted Danson because Ted and Cheryl became a couple in season 9 or 10. So I was surprised to see Ted jump in there on the fight. They threw in a lot, had a lot of guest stars in this episode.

So Dexter lives in a cabin out in the woods and even though he hasn't killed anyone or anything (apparently not even killing the deer that he hunts) in 10 years since living in Miami, he just happens to have a little shed to do kills, as well as supplies of duct tape and rolls of plastic sheets. Yet apparently he has this chipper outer persona in the little town in upstate NY. OK, could have sworn he went to the Pacific NW at the end of the OG series and he was a lumberjack, not a gun store clerk who raises some livestock out in the middle of nowhere. He's going around putting on big smiles and waving at just about everyone in Podunksville. He has to have a cover yes but isn't this completely alien to his nature? He talks to Dead Deb, like David Fisher used to talk to the corpse of the week. Guess he's jonesing for a kill because he dreams about killing that punk before he eventually does it and he's shaking in bed at night. Why isn't he cuddling up with sheriff mom on these cold winter nights? Is folksy Jim Lindsay going to revert to the socially awkward forensics nerd Dexter Morgan? Well as a killer yes but his outward personality? Because everything we knew about Dexter from the OG series is that it would emotionally drain him to maintain this cover. So the kill of the weeks was so asking for it but the death of the deer seems to have flipped a switch inside. Now why did he go back for Harrison? Parental impulses or maybe he's trying to see if Harrison also has a Dark Passenger? I don't know how dropping a lot of bodies in a small town would work, compared to Miami. It would be a rare occurrence to have murders out there. We heard what kind of things the police deal with on a daily basis there so they'd be completely incapable of investigating serial murders. But the punk kid's father is apparently some heavyweight. OTOH, there are several girls missing so you'd think the state police would come in and if not them, the FBI might be enlisted as well. If Dexter starts adding to the body count, it's going to be noticed, not just in that little town but maybe even nationally. Dexter will probably solve what's been happening to the missing young women.

Tom is really starting to panic about going to jail. He talks about how much he loves the cold white wine on an empty stomach, which is a callback to the episode where he boasted to Greg about how to live like a rich man, eating obscure French songbirds. Greg has no choice but to sign the JDA, since he needs his job and is angling for a post away from ATN. So what happens to the papers that he saved? "Lion in the Meadow" refers to what, a predator lurking nearby, ready to pounce at any minute? Is that suppose to be Josh? He tried to get Kendall to drop his accusations, so that he doesn't have to worry that Logan's faction is divided but Kendall couldn't do that. It would destroy his credibility when he's trying to take over. I think Josh had Stewy coming anyways, probably was going to have both sides pitch to him -- his daughter wasn't sick, he wanted them to come to him. Kendall's refusal alone may have clinched it for Josh to decide to go with Sandy and Stewy, instead of Logan getting sick and refusing to ask for help. Even if Shiv proved herself to be very capable, there's no way those old guys were going to accord her respect right off the bat. Even though Logan said to stay on top of Frank and Karl, he then told her she wasn't doing it right. She laid the law down on Ravenhead though, so she may yet earn respect. Conor tells Shiv he could expose Logan unless he got some Waystar executive positions to pad his resume for a future presidential campaign and Logan tells Kendall that they have the Tattoo Man in his pocket. Great the family that blackmails together.