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Asriel seemed to have more of a reaction that Roke was dead than Lyra being dead. So it turns out Land of the Dead wasn't just a detour to "soothe guilt" for Lyra. It was part of a larger prophecy and the Great War when Lyra and Will freed all the ghosts. If they explained that the ghosts would just meld into everything, not become corporeal again, I must have missed it. But all the ghosts had this white makeup -- was it suppose to make them appear to be glowing? -- but Lyra and Will didn't get that hue. Yeah the adult actors had to emote some in this episode. The children also had tearful reunions and goodbyes again with their lost loved ones. Only two episodes left but you don't sense this narrative momentum heading towards a climax. I guess the abyss is suppose to make it seem that there's urgency and there has to be a resolution soon or the abyss is going to swallow all living beings eventually, though you don't feel a dramatic loss with Ruta's demise, because she's relatively a minor character.

The Mulefa parts were interesting, beautiful landscapes and scenery design. No sense of time but I guess Mary is suppose to be picking up the language quickly enough to understand what's happening. This show goes from one wondrous landscape to another. That hall with Metatron floating in the middle was another one. Purgatory was dark and so it seemed they didn't put a lot into it. Interesting mythology at work. Sounds like the books are full of allusions the the reader is expected to dig into. Coulter destroyed the aiming mechanism but the bolt of energy still made it towards Purgatory? Lyra to Roger -- you've changed. No kidding, Lyra used to tower over Roger and now he's taller -- though the actress has entered puberty since the earlier seasons. Lyra and Will go into the Land of the Dead, which is neither heaven nor hell, without a specific plan other than hoping they could cut their way out with the Knife. They find reminiscing with the dead helps them remember their lives, making them want to return. They also figure out somehow that the Knife would only work if they climbed to a high point. They could have been there for years before figuring out any of this.

I don't get the sense that Harper would be interested in spending time with Cameron and Daphne again. She called him "fucking idiot" that morning and Ethan tried to drown Cameron that day. Yet at night they don't object to dining again with Cam and Daphne and they just go along with the toast. If Ethan did mess around with Daphne, he's probably not eager to spend more time with them either.

The guy who's the show runner is named Will Smith. Not clear how much he's collaborating with Herron but people say there have been a number of deviations from the books.

Ostensibly the show was about Toby. So it’s kind of jarring when the focus of this episode was squarely on Libby, her discontent. Earlier, she had given up her dreams, her career, when she couldn’t make the breakthrough, and they implied that she just fell into the role of housewife. This episode, she’s regretful, being young, single, being desired, or having desire or this longing that she gave up once she married and became a mother. You wonder if this narrative is mainly about Libby but she’s seeing her life or measuring it against what Toby has been going through.

They could easily spend $200 a head at a place in Norway like that. Some crew might prefer to just get a burger, save some of that money. But production want you to go to specific restaurants, since they arranged to have cameras set up there. So in that case, it would suck for the to spend more than they would otherwise, because production wanted the in a certain place.

Just a sense that most of the time over these episodes have gone to Leighton and Kimberly. They seem to be featuring Pauline Chalamet the most. So the two persons of color are featured less. They get a good amount of time but still seems less than the other two.

That was really something, Allie belittling Dina for wanting to go to college, maybe having a normal life. Recall that in season 1, she had a phone he didn't know about, so that she could stay in touch with her friends, trying to have a normal life. Allie mocks her for wanting to have a career and order a lot of useless plastic stuff for her apartment, going drinking with her friends. Well it's her life. If she wanted to live in the jungle, in third world conditions without electricity, controlled by a drug lord, she should be able to make that choice for herself. Dina doesn't make those arguments, just tells him repeatedly "fuck you!" So Allie's idea of paradise is dealing with drug lord Guillermo, who wants to screw over his sister Andrea, who want to develop a resort in the jungle, which would mess up his drug trafficking routes. While Richard and Margot look at screwing up the construction of the resort some way. Guillermo somehow knows about Allie's Sandpiper bird migration prediction algorithm and demands he use it to show where the cops will be. OK, the science probably doesn't work like that but whatever. While Allie is entering data for Guillermo, he comes across a document about the true Mosquito Coast, which is some beautiful, unspoiled stretch of coast, somewhere. Are they fucking serious? After almost 2 full seasons, now they're probably going to try to escape to The Mosquito Coast, probably as a cliffhanger to the season 2 finale?

Or, River suspects that the mother and Kelly are also in on it but he's not sure so he's trying to make them reveal themselves? If he really did get fooled, it would be inconsistent with what's happened so far. After all, he's the one who posited the cicada theory in the first place, convinced Lamb.

Well Sid kind of died suddenly in season 1 too. She looked like she was going to be a foil for River but they got rid of her. Maybe in the books, agents dying is a common occurrence. As for River's plot, they said the goal was to walk into the trap to see who sprung it. So it seems like they want to try to draw out the cicada or sleeper agents. But River learned the hard way that the mother is in on it when he thought only the father was. Kelly, the younger woman who took him up for a thrill ride, may or may not be a cicada as well.

Yeah you never hear about Baked Alaska any more. But it doesn't need to be so difficult to make, a lot of people would be happy with tiramisu and such.

Within each region, he could go to so many other places. Like Tuscany, he can go to a number of scenic hill towns. It's hard to fit one region into an hour of TV so they pick places but not sure it's always representative of the place. Like in Piedmont, he went to that place which specialized in risotto and served it in cans. Well that's a very specific restaurant and I don't recall but I think it was a small town, relatively out of the way. I think he went to Turin in that episode but maybe not Aosta.

So they're definitely casting single people who are down for hooking up. First thing the women talked about the new guy was his looks and height, not his experience, how he might help alleviate the work load they have. Seth has already ranked the women, decided he's most interested in Faye. They had him arrive just in time to go out with the crew but they went to some laid-back place, no bars and when they came back, the women decided to skip the hot tub. The producers maybe wanted the different groups to talk about each other? Yet for some reason, they have a couple of the guys in their shorts go into that room where the women were, so they could check out the new guy's body. Kerry was losing it because of the shitty radios during docking. I stayed in Alesund once, didn't see big yachts. But I knew that was a big cruise ship port because a lot of the tours and restaurants based their hours on cruise ship schedules, like when they docked, a lot of these operators were ready to offer tours of the city on buses at those times. But it looks like they choose to dock this yacht near town, in relatively shallow waters, compared to docking outside of town more, where they have space for cruise ships. I don't know if that's an option for them. It certainly looks more scenic to be docked with all those buildings in the background. Faye said she was going to pay the bill so they could leave. Well in Norway, meals are very expensive. So it'd be surprising if she's picking up the check for everyone. It would eat up most of her tip. My guess is production pays because they arrange with the restaurants to set up space and lighting for the film crew.

Yeah I was thinking of that too, they have to be careful whom they send down because he or she can call down anyone, including those on the winning team. I guess they plan at least a half dozen more episodes this season, which has all been 90 minutes so they've filled it with all the politicking and non-competing drama, like the hookups and such. So they can't whittle down the teams too quickly. You figure the Final will start with at least 6 or 8.

Yeah probably the most responsible choice to go for that studio. Maybe when one or both start to work and he's recovered from his knee, they could go for something like the first place, which was roomy, modern and had that rooftop terrace. Been to Taragona and that Roman arena. Is the grad school program in English? Don't know what global health is but apparently she's planning to work in Spanish-language countries? While it's good to save money, it must be an adjustment to go from that large home in Oregon to a studio.

Russians were ruthless with Min. So he followed them around and maybe he saw them in places where they set up the radioactive poison used to kill Nevsky. Otherwise, how do they kill an MI5 agent and expect not to get a lot of heat? Louisa was going to go after Pashkin with a box cutter? Is she a field operative with combat skills? Desire for vengeance is one thing but it wouldn't be seen as professional. She's the one who had talked about assignments like this one possibly leading to her getting out of Slough House. I don't get how River wasn't suspicious of the whole family. He wanted to believe Kelly and her mother weren't operatives, only the father? Lamb slags off his agents, constantly mock and belittle them, repeatedly invites them to quit. But he's fiercely protective and will come after those who kill any of the slow horses. So his demeanor at the office is an undercover persona. Standish tries to work a Russian source, gets out of the office herself. But now I can't recall the whole dead guy in the bathtub plot from season 1, which seems to constantly weigh on her mind.

Leighton has shown the most growth over the 2 seasons. She stopped being a snob, became more empathetic with people who didn't grow up with the privilege that she grew up with and she came out. She made mistakes like the chlamydia thing. She's not consciously trying to be a better person but she's trending that way. Maybe too much too fast though over the course of her freshman year. But the other girls probably would have shunned her if she didn't change. Kimberly also has come a long way since arriving as the small-town girl and Whitney went through a lot with her affair with her coach. But Bela has gone the wrong way, burning people along the way. She has the self-awareness to know she's been bad but has she really faced consequences which would lead to self-examination? I guess being fired from the magazine she founded is suppose to be that moment. Not sure why Kimberly all of a sudden falls for Canaan. She saw him after he walked her to her building and saw him walk away? So purely physical? Of course she sees his abs when he changes his shirt in the locker room. She learned that Canaan hadn't really asked anyone else to go with him to the awards event. She was impressed by his accomplishments and taking care of his mother. She certainly wasn't thinking about how Whitney might feel. It might actually be good to have some conflict within the group. Will the other girls take sides? Looks like Whitney isn't going to hide that she feels betrayed. Or they might not dwell too long on it, maybe Kimberly and Whitney avoid each other for awhile. If the bridge is burned, Kimberly and Canaan should be a thing for awhile. It would be tough for them to remain even civil, especially if Kimberly and Canaan split and they still work together. Actually I can't recall right now why Canaan broke it off with Whitney.

Is it really surprising from an older woman with the nose ring?

Daily was dumb, size/mass was the overwhelming factor, made for little suspense. Was the Daily bad because the people who designed and chose it for this episode had a bad week or because of the movie tie in took so much time, TJ couldn’t explain a more elaborate game? Free tix to the premiere? Cheap sponsor. So the winning team wasn’t on the same page when they had to vote in. In previous seasons with teams, did they ever negotiate which members of the losing team would go to elimination like Tori tried to do with Jordan? Devin and Jordan dodged a bullet that Kenny didn’t pull the safe dagger. Hmm, so there will be some secret house again so they won’t know that the eliminated hasn’t gone home? But teams are going to try to keep their best players while keeping the opponent team’s weakest player around. So Kaycee and Kenny are going to be around. How many ways will the prize be split? Maybe Johnny will have another chance to take all the money for himself again.

I got a year of Apple TV + back in October for $45. That was before the price increase.

So now the thinking is, a lot of these former HBO and Max shows would end up on a free, ad-supported service or FAST. Some of it could be run by WBD themselves or they could license it to some third party. So you wouldn't pay money but you of course would pay in time watching ads.

Yeah I think I read somewhere that some exec was complaining about the cost of some of the shows, in particular Searching for Italy, because it's owned by some other entity that CNN was paying through the nose. Ratings would have to be great because in addition to all the travel costs, Stanley probably has high salary expectations.

The parentage of the kids don't matter. The point is, Daphne doesn't see herself as a victim or will allow herself to become a victim. So she will get vengeance on Cameron for his extramarital affairs and that vengeance may or may not include bearing another man's child or children and making Cameron pay to raise them as his.

The way HBO is taking shows off the service, to avoid paying residuals, like they removed all the Westworld episodes, you might want to make sure to watch them as they air because in months or weeks after the finale airs, they may pull it off the service.

What about the young couple from season 1? Rachel had good reasons to leave her husband, the rich, entitled tool. But she'd become destitute so she swallowed her pride.