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Yes, I think gender played a big part in why Anne wasn't resentful of Charles being the heir, as well as having a very different personality from Margaret and Harry.

Tracy was looking at a snow globe? She'd never stoop to something SWSNBN territory. Ava, get a peephole installed in your front door. Good grief. "I see you know my secret." If your new job and photo is plastered on the web, it's hardly a secret. Unless a set falls apart or an actor drops dead, it's one take and move on. It's also a bit late in the game. Drew is out of Pentonville, and there's no threat to him and Carly now. Plus, he doesn't care anymore who dropped the dime on them. So that's it for Brennan? TFGH to end a story with a gigantic thud.

Adoption isn't necessarily a faster route to a child. Robin was precocious, but I think the show treated her with more respect that the younger kids get today. It helped that KMcC didn't have a lisp, and the show didn't give her ludicrous story lines that forced her to vamp around like the Phantom of the Opera. Casey the Alien was a ludicrous story, but didn't they play it fairly straight? (I wasn't watching during those years.) I thought the donor egg was always there? We never heard about Molly giving herself hormone injections or anything like that. The baby would always have only TJ's genetics.

I agree with most of those, but the only reason Epiphany's death is mentioned is because the show hasn't yet dealt with JZ's. Bobbie's death will (should) have much more impact, with no disrespect meant to what SE meant to the show.

I wonder how many of those jobs are full-time, and even if the majority are, I doubt the salaries are huge. The rest probably get some sort of honorarium when they have to perform their tasks. Getting rid of those people is a drop in the bucket of royal expenditures.

Eden McCoy must have taken some bereavement leave for her mom; hence the temp. LOL at Spencer's gift to Joss. Ugh, more misplaced guilt from BLQ about Maxie's financial problems. Soccer mom Carly gives off a "distinctly unconventional vibe"? LOL. Anna's story is so boring. A complete snore. TJ and Molly are so stupid. Did they really think that just because they had a new surrogate lined up that the usual protocol didn't have to be followed? Do they want a good chance of having a baby that way or not? Gah. I really hope this doesn't mean they decide to take matters into their own hands. Isn't the WSB supposed to be a semi-secret organization? So why is there a press release about its new director? Such a blatant plot point.

Same, but there's no way Elizabeth at any point in her reign would have seriously considered abdication. The scar from Uncle Nazi was always there. And she did truly believe her coronation was a divine rite, what with the anointing of oil. That's why that part of the ceremony wasn't visible to the people in Westminster Abbey or televised. I can believe that occasionally she did have a what-if fantasy where she wasn't queen.

Some people are always first name–last name. I had a friend like that. There was something innately pleasing about how her names went together that we rarely called her by just her first name.

Which for me makes Robert Gossett's win more inexplicable, because Hat Man's introduction was terrible. I couldn't stand him for at least six months. I don't really like him now, but he's much more tolerable than when he was skulking around town making cryptic statements and intimating shocking secrets that were garden variety, especially on soaps.

I actually gasped at that. That was amazingly selfish, even from Charles. And just utterly thoughtless to say that to the sons of Diana. That scene was perfection. The combination of terror and WTF? on the store employees' faces and then Philip having a satisfied laugh afterward.

I hated the lunch scenes where the Queen Mother rather rudely asked what Margaret was saying. Did she (the QM) not understand what a stroke could do? I found her reactions OOC, to be honest.

She also didn't want another Edward VIII situation. I wonder if the queen was the one who told William and Harry that Charles and Camilla wanted to get married. I loved that the queen wanted a quickie funeral service in Scotland. My mom and I always joked that if I ever got married, I'd have to have the 20-minute Presbyterian special or my dad would never last. The queen's needling about Iraq to Tony Blair was razor sharp. I wonder if she really made those kinds of comments. Ugh, the amount of emotional propping Camillia seemed to have to do with Charles was endless.

Dodi's death irrevocably broke al-Fayed, and I think a lot of his insistence on those unhinged theories was a way to keep Dodi's name in the press. It had to be galling for Mou Mou that his son's tragic death was basically a footnote. Morgan trying to make the connection between Carole Middleton pushing Kate toward William and Diana's family pushing her toward Charles was overdone, as is his wont. Diana was not Kate; Kate was not Diana. Harry was responsible for his behavior, but I also think he was completely let down by his family and advisors. It didn't seem like anyone sat down with him and asked him what he wanted to do after Eton, or even while he was still at Eton. Did he want to go to university? If not, what interested him? Were there any charities or causes he wanted to get involved with? William's chat with the queen about Kate and her family was pretty funny. Elizabeth really had no idea how most people lived. It's not her fault, but she was completely clueless. And the idea that families enjoyed being together!

Same. That casting was uncanny.

I feel like Tom Hanks was just on the show. Julia Roberts's acorn story would not have been better if we were at dinner, at least for me.

I never saw RobertFucking!Scorpio as needing reassurance about his sexual prowess. What has Diane done to him? With all of this recent talk about Mike, I hope we don't get a ghostly visit from him. Mo really lights up with the little actor who plays Donna. Cody teasing Sasha about the gift was pretty charming. I can't help it; I loved Cody darting around the stable trying to find Sasha. I'm confused: Didn't Cody tell Sasha he hadn't gotten her a gift? But then before she left he said he'd ordered something. Which is it? Maxie was never a financial genius, so the loss of Deception merely added to her problems. BLQ shouldn't feel that's her fault. Good for Alexis for telling Jordan to MYOB about the surrogacy.

Airs 12/19.

In the show Carole Middleton is presented as someone very aware of social status and signifiers, and I don't think the British aristocracy generally asked its offspring to work if they didn't have to. But it was also a way for Kate to see William flirt with Lola, so whatever, Peter Morgan. They're in the Christmas dinner scene, and that's enough for me. They weren't a part of the beginning of the Kate/William relationship.

That was very good physical casting; you could believe Smith would age into Pryce, or at least I can.

I doubt William signed cards and pictures; the BRF doesn't do autographs. They leaned very heavily on Harry as the wild child. Kate's parents were loaded, so why did she have a job at a restaurant? LOL that Lola and Kate end up as temporary allies because William was being a jerk. I enjoyed that.

Again, any actor not Michael Sheen who plays Tony Blair leaves me briefly wondering, "Who's that?" Hee.

At least someone is telling Charles it's not all about him.

Because she's working at Julian's gastropub. Even though he's no longer involved with it (and dead), the stink of him clings to the bar and was passed on to Kristina. I think you misread things. Amy helped Finn on the case, so that's why she was asking Portia about it. Of course she didn't tell Portia that, so it came across as gossiping. When Donna opened her menu and Sonny started laughing, that looked like Mo more than Sonny. It was very cute. Leslie Charleson looked propped up in the chair—the camera was very carefully blocked when it showed her. It was nice to see her, but I wish they'd figure out a way to gracefully write off Monica. I hate to see her become a prop who's trotted out for five minutes to prove she's still around. LC and Monica deserve better.

So now GH is trying to launch the singing career of Mo's son? Ugh. Please, no. Stahp. And of course guitar is Adam's true passion and his dad thinks it's for deadbeats or whatever. I'm bored with Adam's story. If he's going to crack, do it soon. The lighting in Ava's apartment was terrible—you could practically see the layers of MW's makeup. Weird that Sonny talked to Felicia and Stella about funding all of the holiday parties and things. They don't have anything to with that stuff. He explained that today! He didn't want anything in the cloud and hackable. Carly has learned how and when to compromise? What?! Only if that means learning how to force others to compromise. That she's got down. "I'm not here to manage other people's lives." What?! Carly's self-awareness is extremely limited.

LOL that the lockers are in a large storage room. And Dante doesn't look conspicuous at all holding up that wall. And then the safety deposit space at the bank is the PCPD interrogation room with a few panels thrown up. Hee. Dante should have taken pictures of all of the stuff he found in the locker. Isn't the point that Willow and Michael and the kids are spending Christmas Eve with Sonny and Nina so the kids can open the presents from them there? (Sorry for the garbled syntax.) Ugh, I know, and it would save Nina from being dumped on by yet another person. It's no fun to watch her being constantly on guard and skittish. I also hate that Ned is as idiotic as the rest of them about the fact that Drew and Carly COMMITTED A CRIME. But no, it's still all Nina's fault. Yeah. So much for the Bensonhurst "Family is everything" chorus. I guess family is everything only if you approve of them. Olivia's always been that way with the Qs. When family unity works for her, she's all for it. Otherwise she'll just whinge and whine about how terrible the Qs are. Olivia sucks. I had to rewind and listen to that again to make sure I heard it properly. I think it's probably more about Gregory (though yes, they want Lois there). How widely known is his illness? Family and close friends know, but it doesn't seem to be common knowledge. Not that he'd go around with a shirt that says "As me about my ALS" on it, but if more people knew, I feel like we'd hear at least passing references to it from them.