Bastet

What did Brother do?

Hers was an impressive entry, because I do not like black forest cake - I hate cherries, and while I love chocolate, I don't like chocolate cake - but watching her making it and seeing the final result, I nonetheless thought, "If I liked that, I bet it would be really good."

Well, it's pretty convenient that Tom supposedly decided on the spot to let two, not one, people from LCK into the competition, and then someone decides to go home. So even if that all happened completely organically, there would be no reason to do a "no one is going home" thing, because that would have kept them in the position of having one more cheftestant than expected at this point in the competition. But that's always an issue in cooking competitions - challenges arises in which a contestant, because of medical condition or personal choice, cannot taste an integral ingredient, and they have to work around it. Especially for a full-season challenge like this, if you cast a group of contestants, and wind up with one who's an alcoholic, one who's a vegetarian, one who's allergic to wheat, one who's X, one who's Y, etc., do you structure the entire series of challenges so that none of them will disadvantage a given contestant if they happen to still be there at the time?

When Tanya got the call home edit, I was afraid she was done for, so I was hoping it was misdirect and very happy to be right. Making a 30-minute version of your most-complicated dish is a cool QF challenge. I wouldn’t have wanted it to be something one could go home for, but for immunity and some Buzz Feed honor? I dig it. Well, other than the presence of Blais, of course. In the same episode with Graham Elliot? That’s just asking too much of me. Chris’s shrimp looked delicious, and I loved him shutting down Blais’s “too spicy for home cooks?” crap. I thought his original dish was going to be the easiest to do a quick version of, so I’m not surprised to see him get the win, but it was also the one I most wanted to eat, so good for him. (I think I saw Lee Ann’s dish on the board, but didn’t get a look at what it was she’d have had to tackle had she been there.) German is a big part of my ancestry, but it’s pretty far down my list of favorite cuisines (but the sausage from my mom’s line of Germans from Russia is one of my favorite things; I really ought to learn how to make it before the last person dies); I’d have liked to see more of the dishes they were served by the guest judge. Brother’s “Big Guy Heaven” line about pretzels, sausage and beer was funny. For the top contenders: Bruce’s looked like my least-favorite of the top three. I know we don’t taste it, but he was as clear third for me. Claudette’s sounded great with the little bit of heat she added to comfort food. Tanya’s looked great and sounded like a great pairing. Good for her winning! I liked her statement on the importance of seeing women who look like her succeed. For the bottom: Mustache’s Joe’s looked dry, so I can’t imagine how dry it tasted. His drink sounded bad, too. Adrienne was one of the “you need more salt” victims, and I always feel sorry for them, as I think these judges – especially Tom, whose restaurants’ food is hideously over-salted to my palate – have an expectation that is out of bounds with what the average diner wants, so for a challenge like this – serve a bunch of random people at a festival - I’m glad she was safe if that was the big criticism. Brother’s roll just was not at all German, and I knew it was a mistake from jump; add your own twist, sure, but that was ridiculous. I can’t see the decision having gone any other way. That was just dumb. Chris picks up pre-made Italian sausage and pretzel rolls to make his sliders? Thank his stars for immunity, and I hope he shakes off the bad head space he got into at the bar. Tom’s reaction to Carrie’s David Hasselhoff weirdness was wonderful.

Morganstern and Rance Howard's character are killing me in this episode, and I got emotional with the mother/son storyline, too (when he told her he nailed his audition).

I have a problem with Helo not suffering any consequences for sabotaging the mission to infect the cylon fleet with the virus. As always on this show, the debate over what was justified was well done, with great points on both sides and no clear answer as to what was the right decision, but a decision was made, and he was obliged to abide by it. In a deleted scene, he asks to be relieved of duty during the mission, and Adama freely grants him that. So he wasn't even forced to be part of it. I said last season that he was going to be more dangerous to the fleet than Athena, and yeah -- she upholds her oath to the point of actually participating in the mission, even though it's going to make her the last cylon standing, but he doesn't. (And I find it interesting that, for all the hand-wringing about what engaging in genocide, even against a mechanical race, could do to people's souls, everyone else is totally into it, even those who are going to go execute the prisoners.) There's something about Helo's righteousness that bugs me in a way it doesn't when other characters take principled stands, and I'm not sure why. The actor, maybe - maybe I just don't like him when he's playing righteous the same way I can't stand the actor playing Cally when she's playing (or attempting to play) tough. Whatever the cause, Helo bugged the shit out of me in the two episodes about the virus. He's lucky Laura didn't airlock him when he said the cylons tried to co-exist with them on New Caprica. She handled it perfectly, which is why it's good she's president and not me. I like the way they explored the natural division between those who experienced the occupation and those who didn't, and also the way Starbuck and Tigh were exploiting it to the point it was causing a serious problem among the crew and that could not be allowed to stand. (And, man, did I love those two adversaries sharing that look and raising their glasses to each other when they bonded over telling Helo and Kat to get stuffed with their "we all sacrificed" false equivalencies.) This show does a good job showing the repercussions of things. I'm kind of ready to get off the cylon base star already. I think it's because that set is so typical sci-fi, and I much prefer the familiar, reality-based world of Galactica, because I have a hard time getting emotionally invested in something so far removed from reality; it's why I generally avoid sci-fi. But Baltar fearing he's one of the five unidentified cylons was good, and I'm glad the humans now know he's alive, and helping the cylons find Earth; now they know it's a race. I continue to love the relationship between Adama and Laura. They're always so intimate and comfortable with each other when it's just the two of them wrestling with an ethical dilemma (consistently my favorite scenes of the series), and I'm really glad they have each other. I'm also impressed at how well they handle disagreeing.

Yes, even though it was a different car, and I think maybe only one Peacock brother was alive by the end of Home, as soon as this episode started, I thought of the Peacock brothers.

Because they're wanted for arrest by this private security contractor that has been given national security powers? I honestly don't know, since so much time has passed since the last normal episode after them regaining the X-Files last season; we had case, case, case, delusion, crazy-ass apocalypse, oh wait, that didn't really happen, and then here we are (or something like that). So I think it's just the events of this incident that position them outside the FBI again, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, this is how I like to ask my TV, “What the fuck is happening right now?” while watching XF. Mulder and Scully’s teamwork on full display, bizarre events, a Mulder theory I don’t really understand, lost evidence, dry humor, cartoon villains, and allusions to previous cases*? Yes, please. (*Another “Who needs Google when you have Scully?” Yay. And repeating the fact Mulder watched Deep Throat’s funeral at Arlington through binoculars is an even better callback. And I loved the reference to a “kill switch” as the villains tried to trace the connection, since the Langly/Professor stuff is so reminiscent of the Esther/David agreement in Kill Switch.) Mulder having a picture of the Gunmen on his desk is cute. As is Mulder and Scully falling asleep watching … music videos on mute? So they take care to have her reference the address as Agent Mulder’s house, but later she says “our home”? I don’t particularly care; I actually have no idea how those two would live together long-term, so living apart works for my idea of how they can best translate their love for each other into a relationship, but I am curious. I’ve been excited for the opening action sequence since I saw clips of Scully’s table slide in the early promos; it lived up to my expectations. And then the crime scene processing (Mulder putting the phone in the oven, heh), the second invasion, the escape, and the Skinner appearance – I was all in. But can someone get Scully a throat lozenge? Oh, and “Accuse Your Enemies of That of Which You Are Guilty” is one of my new favorite taglines, because that’s timely as hell. “Better call it in from a landline” set the tone for an episode that a semi-Luddite like me finds quite interesting – and simultaneously doesn’t fully understand. “Frohike looked 57 the day he was born” is my line of the night. Scully calling Skinner "Walter" I can do without, but I otherwise like the parking garage scene. What happened to the simultaneous, “Wait, what?” by Scully and Skinner from the promos, though? “Spank Bank” with Scully’s picture as a way to attract Mudler’s attention to the file? Effective, but gross. Scully startling awake at the skanky bar and Mulder having to stop her from attacking, was fabulous. The AI Langly’s confusion over who’s real and who’s not is poignant. (And a world in which the Patriots never win sounds great to me, heh.) This was a good way to integrate a dead character. Scully’s reaction to the kids on the bus is everything. Gillian's sons were there, right? Scully bringing Mulder into custody and winking at the guard? And the little flick she did with Mulder when the guard looked away? Mulder’s imitation of Lechter? “Sorry, Bro, married to the Bureau”? Love it all. Just please keep CC away from the characters he created, and all will be well. The Barbara Hershey stuff at the end was seriously weird. What happened behind the stairwell doors during the scenes intercut with that conversation, with Scully going in, some guy following her, and then her coming back out? Did she take him out and the rescue is real? Or did she not and everything after that is a simulation? Or it was all a simulation, since they wind up where they started, on the couch? They do love to make the times in which Scully saves the day turn out not to have happened.

Responding to this post from the episode thread here. I think it's just a function of having played this role for about 100 years now, and being ready to finally wrap it up (that it films nearly 5000 miles from home is probably a consideration, but I think it comes down to wanting to close an important, but long, chapter). She agreed to the season 10 revival because I Want to Believe didn't provide any closure and it was pretty clear they weren't ever going to get a third movie, and then CC wrote something that did the exact opposite of closure, and the whole thing felt a little abbreviated and shaky. So she came back for these ten episodes of season 11 to build on the foundation and correct the shortcomings of season 10. I understand not wanting to play the same notes over and over in perpetuity, no matter how much she enjoys working with the old gang, but instead say a nice good-bye to the character and production, and just focus on the many non-XF aspects of her life going forward.

Especially because, other than dating Benton, her best relationships were all with her female colleagues. The way she actively sought out friendships and supportive professional relationships among women was one of the things I loved about her.

Does anyone not? (Or: Yes, yes I do.)

I like him, and I like that he was honestly sucked into things. He genuinely believed in the dream of New Caprica Baltar - whom he'd so long admired - sold him, and then when he realized Baltar only believed in "the dream of Gaius Baltar," he tried to use his position and access to work from within to make things better. Then he was a bit between a rock and a hard place during the occupation, and did what he could to help the resistance movement. And he was about to kill Baltar (which, by that point, Baltar welcomed); he only spared him so he could go stop D'Anna from nuking the place. So watching The Circle deliberate his case, even based on the limited information they had, was interesting enough, but especially knowing all we knew.

I only watched one episode last night, as I was a bit emotionally wiped out from Major Crimes ending, and it turned out to be an incredibly dark exploration of the line between vengeance and justice. Oops. Collaborators was well done, in that The Circle was clearly not the way to go about things, but it wasn't some one-note vigilante storyline; The Circle exists via executive order*, and they take their responsibility to consider the evidence seriously -- they're not just rubber stamping executions based solely on allegations. *I did not understand how Zarek, who spent the occupation in detention, had so much information so as to produce the list of the "worst of the worst" collaborators, but in the commentary Moore revealed that there was scene cut for time that revealed Tory had taken Laura's journal and given the information to Zarek. It was incredibly dark, of course - I mean, damn, it opened with Jammer's execution - but a good examination of the issue. I liked the conversations The Circle had, about whether Jammer saving Cally would negate his culpability for the 20+ people who did get killed, whether Gaeta qualifies for treason based simply on his position in the Baltar administration, or whether there needs to be evidence of his, not Baltar's, specific actions. I thought it was interesting that in the original script it was Zarek who issued the general amnesty, as his final act as president, in a spiteful move - in that version, Laura and Adama had basically wrestled power away from him, so his final executive act was to leave them unable to deal with the collaborators. But then Moore decided it was more interesting this way, for Zarek to think it was better for the fleet if the crimes were legitimately examined by a jury, but this secret one that acts swiftly, rather than bogging them down in trials and accusations for years, and for Laura to take his point about what life as a series of accusations, investigations, and trials would be like for the people, but use that not to say, yep, forget about the accused's right to lawyers and a jury of their peers, but to say, okay, we document our stories, but then we move forward together. And, given how she felt about the collaborators while she was a civilian living under the occupation, I agree it is interesting to see the decision she makes now that she's president again. But I want to see what she and Adama think about whether this amnesty applies to Baltar if he turns up again, heh. Speaking of Baltar, his dream cracked me up. I knew it was a dream right away because Laura and Tigh were in their New Caprica clothes, not what they'd be wearing as president and colonel, and I got a kick out of the "no harm done" conversation in the beginning, laughed when Adama said of Six, "You wouldn't like her when she's angry," and guffawed when Laura said, "I've always wanted you," and Baltar replied, "Oh, no - I'm dreaming, aren't I?" Having his actions excused by those three? Adama hearing the Six that exists only in his head? Nope, these are not the things that make him realize he's dreaming. It's Laura Roslin telling him she's always wanted him (it works even better with the deleted scene from one of the very first episodes of the series, when we learn from the Six in his head that in the midst of all the shit going on, he's wondering what it would be like to have sex with Laura). It was scripted that Laura pulled a gun on him (getting shot in the head was what made him jolt awake), but Mary, James, and the director came up with it being the kiss instead, and good for on-set changes, because that was funny.

It's not even a queen; per the episode when they go shopping for a new mattress, it's a double. Which I couldn't even sleep in with pets, let alone a second person. In any other administration on this or probably any other planet, yes, I could. This one? Nope. It doesn't bother me. A majority of marriages of their duration would be over by now, and certainly most that came about because two late teens in their first/only relationship got knocked up and decided to marry and parent.

Oh, please tell me no.

Who is after them? Between watching this on my computer and how dark XF always is, I can't see. Even though it's a different car, for some reason seeing it made me immediately think of the Peacock brothers.

I assume so, since Darlene and David named their son after him. I don't think they'd have done that if he was alive; I think it was done in honor of his memory.

Damn! I don't care about missing Doug and Carol (I wouldn't mind seeing them, certainly, but I'm not clamoring to), but now I'm pissed about that episode being skipped. Hey, look at that - my anger was short-lived. Cool. Before it began filming, or before it began airing?

I watched through the two-part Exodus last night, and so much happened over those four hours it's hard to remember what to comment on. I like the pace at which it all played out; we join them four months into the occupation that started at the end of season two, get the info we need on what's been happening in that time, and get right to exploring the resistance movement and then the escape plan. It was the perfect amount of time to spend on New Caprica, I think. Tigh is not someone I want in command of a ship, but he's pretty much the perfect person to lead an insurgent resistance movement against occupation. I like that there is truth to what both sides - in the argument over using suicide bombers - are saying. Tigh saying sending someone in a uniform out in a viper to what is a certain death is no different is not a point easily dismissed. But nor is the "collateral damage" aspect of such attacks. The amount of acting going on with just one eye by Michael Hogan when Tigh realizes what Ellen did was amazing. And then when he has to kill her? He's not coming back mentally from that any time soon. Adama catching sight of him as he got off the raptor was an incredible moment. I am officially registering my complaint at the lack of a reunion between Laura and Bill, but his reunion with Saul was perfect. I've said before I have a low tolerance for action sequences, and thus far the times they've done what amounts to action/adventure episodes I have enjoyed them. Galactica falling through the atmosphere to launch its vipers before jumping away feet from the ground and Pegasus going out in a blaze of glory was no exception. In the season two thread, the version of Sharon who's on Galactica was called Athena, so now that she's a member of the fleet (wow!), I assume that becomes her call sign. Good, it will give me an easy way to refer to her as distinct from the other Eights. The Hera storyline is obviously going to continue; right now, Athena doesn't believe Hera is alive ("Adama wouldn't lie to me" - well, no, because Laura took care of it herself), but the cylons have the baby, so something is going to happen there. I hadn't thought to wonder where Zarek was, but it's interesting that he was in detention the whole time because he defied Baltar immediately after the occupation, objecting to cooperating with the cylons. He's such a complex character. I really liked the light little moments between him and Laura, especially when he asks if she tried to steal the election. "Yes I did/I wish you'd gone through with it/Me too" was great. I love that Laura's ride home is Colonial One, and that she just sits down at her old desk, takes a minute, and says, "I'm ready to go now." Baltar confronted with the death warrants was an interesting scene; like Zarek, he is a complicated villain. I like that he initially refuses to sign, even with a gun to his head, but I especially like that once he retreats into his psyche and imagines Six telling him sometimes you have to do something awful to live to fight another day, he has no conscious memory of signing; he just looks down and his signature is there. His mind is quite a place to visit. I cannot decide which cylon model I find the most evil. The Cavils and Dorals are definitely contenders, and I just love them sitting there getting their righteous indignation on that the resistance left a Cavil to suffer and die. Yeah, after you were injured in the course of attempting to execute over a hundred people, people who don't have the option of opening their own carotid arteries secure in the knowledge they'll come back almost as good as new. And what the Leobens did to Kara over those four months? Holy shit. I'm glad everyone (well, almost everyone, and I certainly don't miss Ellen Tigh, but I'm sorry for Tigh) is back home. And I like that the Pegasus is gone, even though I know they were better off with two battlestars, and that Pegasus was more advanced. I can't help it; I like everyone being on Galactica. I didn't get enough sleep last night, but I couldn't quit until they got home!

Yes, before and after. It's why Tigh told Boomer and Tyrol to knock it off once the attacks happened; they'd been looking the other way when the ship was about to be decomissioned, making it a moot point, but now that they were going to continue serving together, it had to end. And he didn't even report to her, it was simply that she was a superior officer. I can see letting that type of thing slide at the end of the worlds, but I can't imagine it ever being appropriate for the commander to date anyone on his ship given the rules in place, so Dee popping up on Pegasus is jarring to me. Yep, I didn't care how convenient it was or how thin the science behind it was, it kept Laura alive and thus it was A-okay with me. And, hee, a magic bullet that shoots her in the cancer. When I re-watch Epiphanies, that's what I'm going to think of. Ah, okay. I know Boomer was dead by the time the other Sharon talks about having memories of her life, on Kobol, but I thought there was something on occupied Caprica, when Boomer was still alive, that the other Sharon said or did that indicated she already had access to Boomer's experiences. But, even if she did, maybe it's as you said - Boomer being a sleeper agent meant the other cylons had access to her mind in a different way.

But Athena (assuming that's the Sharon who fulfilled her mission by getting pregnant by Helo but then sided with the humans against the cylons) already exists by the time Boomer dies and downloads. What matters to my confusion is that her memories of Boomer's experiences in the fleet, with Tyrol, etc. pre-date Boomer being killed by Cally, right? I'll have to study the Caprica/Kobol events again to confirm. Because, if so, that's the one time a model shared memories of one copy prior to that copy dying and downloading, which is what I don't get. But if Athena doesn't have Boomer's memories until Boomer downloads, then it's not a problem - we can say not only the specific new copy of Boomer (the one with whom Caprica Six aligns with to combat the D'Anna model [I don't know her number] who's trying to "box" them both) - gets that Eight's memories upon download/resurrection, but all Eights do. Yes, McDonnell was nominated for her guest turn on The Closer. And the production company/network submitted her for Best Actress consideration this second season of Battlestar, with Lay Down Your Burdens Part 2 as the "For Your Consideration" episode. In which she is astounding, even considering her norm, and for which she was not even nominated, while network dross like Mariska Hargitay was. It's a disgrace. Well, shouldn't he? Isn't this just more of the "the rules don't disappear in times of crisis, in fact they're more important" thing? We don't hear her role on Pegasus, but she's standing there like Tigh to Adama. There is no way that kind of close reporting relationship should be okay between Commander Lee and Whatever Dee, no matter how skeleton the crew, when the rules have always been that even just being a superior officer makes a lower-ranked fleet member off limits. I know they need to start having babies, but even under the new world order there's a major difference between Random Fleet Member on Pegasus and Random Fleet Member on Galactica hooking up and the frakking commander of Pegasus and someone directly under his command doing so. She should have been kept on Galactica. No clue, as we've only ever seen it in wide shots of the fleet, never been on it. It looks like a wheel with spokes and something pointing out the center, all of which spins, but I'm hard pressed to see where people would live on it now or what the hell it purpose as a pre-Holocaust ship would have been. Pardon while I look at Blu-Ray set ... Okay, it's "The Complete Series," four seasons. There's a broadcast edition and an unrated extended edition of Razor on the first disc of season four, but I don't see anything called The Plan.

I hate everyone.

Same here; I like that the timeline of Mayhem's "resolutions are made to be broken" coincides with so many resolutions that wind up broken. Sure, there are those that last longer (and those that stick), but I think - as someone who doesn't make New Year's resolutions or do anything else superstitious, but who listens to others - he's comporting with the average, and I'm glad of it. The "I'll be good" commercials were okay, but were just placeholders to me before we got back to mayhem scenarios, which are truly funny.

I'm not bummed Crystal is appearing, as she was a big part of the show, but I'm not excited, either, as she bugged me. But I am happy, because I think a small dose of her will be perfect, and I'm glad that's happening. And, yay, Anne Marie! Love her, and glad she'll be back along with Chuck. I've been waiting for that news.