Bastet

I love that Fatima's eyebrows started growing back first. And it's sweet that by doing the show (because it doesn't seem they knew each other before) she and Padma became close enough that Padma is there as she heads into the OR. There's a brief article on the Bravo website about Fatima's surgery.

It was so obvious, and repeated, I think it has to mean something, but damn if I know what. I'm not real sure what maybe half this episode means, really, but unlike the utter piece of shit that was MSIII, this one provided me with the type of "wait, what's happening?" feeling I very much enjoy with XF; I don't understand everything, but I'm intrigued by what I don't get, and what I do understand I love, and I find it all smart, a little spooky, a little quirky, and in character, and sometimes flirty and sometimes funny. I'll take that any day of the week over the mytharc mess. This episode was a relief, fundamentally, and a bonus on top.

I'm very familiar with the area, and couldn't spend 50 minutes getting from Burbank to Sunland unless I ditched my car halfway in between.

It's 15 minutes away, max, without traffic, and has a good surface street option for the times the freeway needs to be avoided; at the height of rush hour, the travel time between the house they got and the Sunland house wouldn't even be half an hour; maybe 25 minutes at the worst. Now, if he worked south of Burbank and that extra 15-25 minutes would have been on top of a commute that was already at the top of their acceptable range, that's a consideration. But if it was just that work and family were in Burbank so they wanted to be there, too, well, suck it up, buttercups, and wait until you can afford to buy in a better part of Burbank; in the interim, drive 15-20 minutes rather than living with a train practically running through your front yard (and it's not just commuter trains, the cargo trains run all the time, and there a bunch of crossings at which trains have to honk for safety) plus airport noise (they didn't really get into that in the episode, but I know the area). But they did get themselves into the Burbank school district rather than LAUSD, so maybe they were just looking ahead (because, with their low budget for a home, it's highly unlikely they can afford private school).

I use it in writing but generally avoid it when speaking, because I will not join the masses and pronounce it incorrectly, but I can't deal with 99% of listeners thinking I've said it wrong. The zipper merge, though? I don't care if nearby drivers think I'm rude, I'm doing it the right way.

I think in general this is meant to be a transition, not a permanent job, so most of the time, yes, it's better to move on to something else after a time (assuming something else is available; even off parole, opportunities don't exactly abound), but given the level of responsibility they have given Earl and the stage he's at in his life, in his case I think it's good to still be there after all this time. It's not just about the dogs, he's also largely in charge of the parolees, so he gets the benefit of being a mentor to some of those guys. Plus, the consistency and stability is good to help him deal with his addiction.

I just watched the two episodes that constituted the mid-season finale, and they were good (and further fleshed out D'Anna's quest in returning over and over to the space between death and resurrection, plus more about how the cylons function as a group). I'm so curious who D'Anna saw as one of the final five cylon models, the one to whom she said, "Forgive me, I didn't know." It has to be someone with whom she has interacted, and badly. Unless rather than the apology being about a specific direct interaction it's about what the cylons in general did to this person on New Caprica. I have to ponder this. It was really a group decision to box D'Anna's model, right, and not just Cavil keeping her from revealing the final five*? Because they (the Sharons, Cavils, Leobens, and Sixes) were already talking about possibly needing to do something when two different copies of her model defied the group in the decision about calling the raiders back once Galactica prepared to fire its nukes, Caprica Six knew D'Anna thought she (and Baltar) had a different destiny than the rest, no one is supposed to inquire about the final five, etc. So her having pulled away from the group so much was what led them to eliminate the model. *Cavil being the guardian of that information is only something I know from a post in the season two thread, and then again here; otherwise, I wouldn't have thought of it at all until Rapture, and even then I think I'd have just been wondering about it, thinking he seemed to have ulterior motives, rather than picking up that's what was going on. And, by Moore's brief comment about a "notion" that Cavil is the "keeper of the secrets in some ways," I think it is just supposed to be a hint at this point. And how did the Cavil on the algae planet (who was going to shoot the D'Anna in the temple, only to get shot by Baltar) get down there, when the D'Anna and Baltar were the only two on that one raider that kept going when the others turned back? He just grabbed his own ride at some point after that and jetted down there to stop her from doing her thing, and Galactica didn't care when that showed up on Dradis, because it was just a single ship, even though that meant there were now two on the planet? I also wondered how Athena and Caprica Six managed to just grab the raptor and take off with Hera without any of the other cylons noticing, and then listened to the commentary, in which Moore admitted, yeah, that's one of those things you just have to ask the audience to go with. It's interesting how much has changed in Boomer since she first resurrected; from so upset about being a cylon and refusing to let go of her human identity then to now fully in as a cylon. On the flip side, Athena - who, unlike Boomer, always knew she was a cylon - is fully entrenched as the human she was programmed to pretend to be. And so now Athena, not Boomer, is the one Caprica Six is aligned with. Good stuff. So they'll have Baltar and Caprica Six in the brig on Galactica. Plus they have Hera on board (and, wow, with Helo having to kill Sharon so she can access the basestar; he knows she's going to download, yeah, but to put a bullet through your wife's chest - that was a great scene). That should all be quite interesting knowledge as it spreads through the fleet. And Baltar still doesn't know whether he's a cylon; I love him stepping over D'Anna's body to place himself on the circle and try to see what she saw so he can know before he dies, only to be foiled by Tyrol putting a gun to his head and capturing him. Did Adama really think Hera just conveniently died? When they (Laura, Adama, Tigh, and Baltar) were discussing what to do with her if she lived, Adama was the most vocal about the dangers that would be created by her existence, and by the fleet finding out about her. So he knew that if she lived, there was realistically only one thing Laura could do with her (unless she wanted to toss a baby out an airlock, that is). So when Laura didn't tell him what she did, I wonder if he believed Hera's death was real, or if he just very carefully avoid thinking about it. Dee having to rescue Starbuck certainly made for an interesting dynamic. I love Dee getting to slap her. And I have to laugh at Starbuck's moral code that forbids divorce but allows cheating. And then Lee's is the opposite, so they're at an impasse. Kara thinks maybe the reason she's been drawing the Eye of Jupiter symbol her whole life is because, as Leoben said, she has a destiny. But she's religious. Tyrol was raised religious (and, by the way, him running around the prayer room naked holding porn magazines as an act of defiance is my favorite thing about the algae planet episodes) and when he got in the temple he recognized stuff from drawings in the books his parents had. So Starbuck could have seen that symbol in a religious text, too, and that's why she started drawing it as a kid. But I really like the scene between her and Helo about it; I always like him best when seeing his friendship with her.

I'll see if I can rent The Plan on its own when the time comes, then, as I have a DVD rental subscription with Netflix. Thanks.

Oh, boy, I was just going through IMDb - I know, not the most reliable source of information - for who wrote what episode going forward, and it has episode seven, which was reported to be the only Mulder and Scully/hardly any dialogue episode, as having been written by Kristen Cloke (Melissa from The Field Where I Died, and Glen Morgan's wife). If true, that's either going to be an embarrassing fail or an epic success. I certainly hope she writes better than she acts, but she doesn't have much of a writing track record to judge - a couple episodes of some show of Glen's and being artistic director of a small theater company in the L.A. area I'm not familiar with. That's a seriously big risk for her to have taken, so kudos, and I hope it pays off big time.

Yes, and yes. Re. Carter and Benton, I liked their moment after Carter's speech, too, when Benton tells him he did well, and Carter asks, "I didn't embarrass myself?" Benton, of course, says, "I wouldn't go that far." I just wouldn't change a thing about their relationship, my favorite of the series. I couldn't remember if it was her or Haleh in the pilot, but was pretty sure it was her, and either way it was completely reminiscent of the "Dr. Greene ... Dr. Greene!" wake the fuck up scene that started it all. Nice touch. I really like that in the end, 15 years later, a lot of people are gone, but many are still there, one is coming back in some capacity, and one, though gone, will come back through his daughter. Life goes on, but there are links to the past. And those who've left will always hold their time there, and with each other, in high regard. It's why I like even a pairing like Kerry and Elizabeth hugging goodbye after enjoying that great little night together after the Carter Center's opening; they had a lot of issues along the way, but they've moved on, and that shared time in their lives is special, and they honor that. They aren't buddy buddy, they won't keep in touch other than hearing through other people, but when circumstances put them back together for a moment, they'll be glad of it. It was a lovely finale. A lot of so-so seasons to get to it (although, admittedly, better than many shows would have been had they even had the opportunity to go that long), but a nice low-key yet moving way of saying, "You won't see life at County General anymore, but it will carry on in perpetuity," which, with a few exceptions, is my preferred way of ending a show. We left them on another mass-casualty trauma, and we'd seen another heartbreaking case in the mom of five little kids who'll now grow up without her, but it was just another day at work, and there will be others -- a tank didn't plow into (or a helicopter fall on) the admit desk and curtain area wiping out a big chunk of the characters, the county didn't cut funding in half, or anything drastic like that.

Especially since he is an armed federal agent, is he not? But instead of using his FBI voice and weapon, he instead grabs a scalpel - that is there for reasons, I guess - and slits someone's throat?

I'm not either, because I didn't like any of those episodes; I like Skinner, but as very much a secondary character. I don't care about his backstory. When they did that with CSM or the Gunmen, I didn't like those, either. They're like the Miss DiPesto episodes of Moonlighting - not what I'm here for. So that one may well wind up being a miss for me, but if I like the rest of the stand-alones, including love the Darin Morgan one (as I always do), and maybe really like another one or two, then, hey, this was all worth it for me -- pending, of course what CC does with the end. Because I quit trusting him a very, very long time ago, and wish FOX would ban him from his own show. I'm curious to see what I think of the stand-alone he wrote this season, because while I've liked some of his (unlike most of his mytharc episodes), I've also really disliked some.

The Sound of Windchimes (fanfic) author? That's funny. I wasn't disappointed with season ten as a whole, although the My Struggle bookends were bad and Babylon was just awful, because of the other MOTW episodes. With critics saying the MOTW episodes this time around (at least the half they've seen) are better, I'm enjoying this second season of the revival, but I truly dread how it's going to end. I'd like the franchise to go out on a high note, but I just don't think CC can ever get out of his own way to do that. We'll find out. I think that episode with almost no dialogue sounds very interesting. Potential to go embarrassingly wrong, certainly, but for some reason I think it will be cool.

Holy crap, I remember that one. I read a lot of XF smut back in the day. A lot of it's a big blur, but snippets of the really good and the really bad remain in my head. I just remember that one being surprisingly good for the scenario, but no specifics. What's the title? I may have to re-read it.

The one where Roseanne is helping plan Crystal and Ed's wedding is on right now, and when Roseanne says she'll finish the seating chart for the reception on her own, Crystal objects that she doesn't know half the people, as a set up for the "Well, then it won't take me long" joke, but reality is they know pretty much all the same people. Unless Crystal has a huge number of out-of-town relatives coming, Roseanne knows far more than half the guest list; she will know even more of the people Ed has invited than Crystal does, and she must know a significant number of the people Crystal has invited. Especially since it's not a big wedding. Crystal's mannerisms that bug me so much are on full display in this one (not to mention her personality). I love Becky's reaction when she realizes them wearing those hideous dresses is going to be captured for posterity. (Uh, duh, Beck, yeah, there will be wedding photos.) And Jackie's drunken speech is pretty much the perfect response to some annoying videographer sticking his camera in your face at a reception.

They've put people with immunity in the bottom group before, but was that only where it was a team challenge? (Like the controversy one year where the cheftestant with immunity was the unequivocal last-place finisher, and it was suggested he should give up immunity and go home rather than letting one of his teammates who did not deserve to lose go home.)

Is that the one where they have sex in an airport restaurant?

Watching these old-school actors and their characters say hello, again and goodbye to each other is totally doing it for me. Not to mention the show that started with Carter learning from Mark ending with Carter teaching Mark's daughter. I don't regret quitting the show the first time around, because this show became a shadow of its former self, but I'm also glad I saw it through this time. I got a little choked up when the music started playing for the last time. Nice ending.

What is this, Love's Labor Lost Part Two? I can believe the Carter money was enough to get the doors open, but to also keep it running for the first year? And that he’ll be able to maintain it through fundraising after that? No. But no bother – him giving Kerry and Susan the tour was a nice scene. This is fun; I can't believe I didn't tune in for this back in the day, given how many years I'd watched the series. I must have been traveling or something. I'm enjoying it now. I'm even happy to see Rachel Greene all grown up.

I thought they said this slumber party patient is 15; how would they be out driving? (Per the parents' "Kids are going to drink anyway, I'd rather it be at home than out someplace where they'd be driving" defense to serving them vodka.) Maybe they said 16, or maybe she's 15 but some of her friends are already 16. At any rate, I think that's too young for letting kids drink at home, never mind letting them play drinking games with hard liquor! That girl wound up with a sky-high BAC.

Yeah, there is often a themed marathon on a holiday, but this seems to just be adding extra airings to make a clear delineation between the end of this round of syndication and the start of the next. I wish they'd done more than a banner advertising it; if they'd done something I'd have heard, I'd have probably caught it (I generally have the episodes on as background noise, and turn to look - the TV is to the right of my desk - if something catches my ear, and otherwise only sit and watch if it's something I know I wanted to see or while I'm taking a break to eat). Oh well. But, yay for the return of the credits in the finale!

Yep, they did. I get the East Coast feed via satellite, so the show airs from noon through 3:30 for me. But, today, they started at 10:05 in the morning, so by tuning in at noon as per normal, I had missed all of Old Times and almost all of Shifting Equilibrium. Now, having started at 12:15, is I Feel Good, and the series finale, And in the End will start at 1:20 and run through 3:30. They must have done that to wrap up season 15 (and the series) today and start anew with the pilot tomorrow, but I don't check the schedule (either on Pop's website or by looking ahead on my program guide), so I didn't know anything would air outside the usual block.

No, I don't; I don't do any streaming stuff, because none of my TVs are hooked up to the internet and I don't want to watch programming on a little 19-inch monitor. I can check at my parents' house, since they have a smart TV, but I think they just have Netflix. I guess I'll just have to remember to check the Saturday schedules to see when they get to it.

It doesn't even need to get that deep to necessitate them supporting him -- he's far from the only Saints player who made a mistake in that game. His was the last one, and directly tied to those particular six points, but it wasn't the only one that resulted in the Vikings having more points on the board when the game ended.

Wait, why did things start early today? I tune in at noon and find myself near the end of episode 20, already in progress, with episode 19 having already aired? (Or did that happen Friday and I missed it then?) So that means I missed the Carter/Benton stuff? (Can I use any more question marks in one post?) Grrr; I should have read this thread more closely about what was going to air when, but I had in my head that the episode to watch for (return of Doug and Carol, which I don't care about, and nice moment between Carter and Benton, which I do) was going to air Monday (today), and I just assumed it would be in the normal slot.