WearyTraveler

The drugs were hidden. The police found them when they searched the house, the perps didn't. I'm going to guess one of two scenarios: 1) The killers had just murdered Matt when the meth-head showed up. They left just as the meth-head went in. Meth-head, upon seeing the scene, took off immediately. 2) Meth-head came in and bought drugs from Matt, then he left, but not before noticing the real killers pulling up to the house. The real killers didn't want the drugs in Matt's house because the motive isn't drugs. You're in a minority of two :-) I like the performances of the actors portraying the parents. Huffman is making me dislike Barb a whole lot, so kudos to her. TH is doing an excellent job too. I have to say the meth-heads are a let down. I don't like the characters, they are so stupid, it makes me want to shake them. And I don't understand the music choices during their scenes. It's the kind of music TV shows and movies use when they want the audience to "feel" how amazing, one-of-a-kind, the love of the OTP is, and I really don't care for meth-heads, as great as their love might be. That said, I think whoever is financing blondie right now might be connected to Matt's murder and that's how blondie's boyfriend knew about Matt and ended up in his house. Maybe when they make this connection on the show, those characters will be more interesting. As of now, they are just a couple of stupid meth-heads who'd do anything for a fix. I feel for the Mexican family. As bad as racism against blacks is in the USA, I think, in some ways, Mexicans have it worse. At least black people can claim American citizenship, while Mexicans (and even Mexican Americans born in the USA), are always treated as foreigners, strangers, illegals, etc. If I heard correctly, I think the thing that got the young boy in trouble was his admission that he knew the guy who rented the car from him was in a gang. That means (I think) that they can charge him with facilitating a crime and accessory (because he should know that the guy from a gang would want to use an untraceable car for a crime). Since the crime was murder, it's a big deal to facilitate murder. That said, I think the police threw the book at this kid way too hard, and the reason might be some kind of racial bias. Sadly, I think we're heading for this boy starting as an innocent and then turning into someone terrible because of what he's being put through in the juvenile system; thus making the racial stereotypes about Mexicans a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I'd be interested in a re-read too. However, I must confess that I'm a greedy reader, and I find it hard to stop at an agreed point. I've read the books twice, both times in the space of one week, so, full disclosure, if we start a re-read I might just run ahead and then lose my interest to post, but I'll give it a try if you guys want.

Well, I find that if I'm going to suspend disbelief for immortality, I may as well go all the way :)

Well, Manderly's role in the books goes beyond Frey pies (he only made pies out of two Freys, IIRC), but I can see how people mostly remember that because it's such a powerful image. Manderly was sabotaging the Boltons and the Freys in other ways too; and I think that's the part of the role that Sansa might play. I know this is HBO and all, but I don't think they'll have any of the "good" guys resorting to cannibalism.

I never said she would use her sexuality. I just said she might instruct the soldiers she has to act a certain way; for that matter, Littlefinger could be the one giving the orders. They could show up there pretending to be on the Bolton's side, to lend their support, while behind their backs they kill Bolton soldiers and incite the birth of the "ghost of Winterfell". Sansa doesn't have to reveal her identity; she could work with Littlefinger, fully in on the plan, and perhaps contributing to strategies for the execution of said plan. She can tell LF where the secret passages are, she could reveal her identity to the servants that are still loyal to her family and have them work for her too. She can reveal to a select few that Fake Arya is not Arya at all, and since Bran is confirmed to not be in this season, she could be the catalyst to Theon's redemption (instead of Theon hearing Bran's voice in the forest). We know that in the books the Boltons get sabotaged from within. This is necessary to weaken the Boltons before the Battle of Winterfell. It seems to me that in the books, the Boltons' descent has started, they are losing Freys to Manderly's pies and Manderly's men and they are losing their own men and resources to the harshness of Winter, the lack of food, Ramsey's cruelty, and the "ghost of Winterfell" (this last one affects morale). The show will have to do something to weaken the Boltons as well, but they have not cast the role of Manderly, and the storyline at the Wall is significantly behind that of the situation at Winterfell, which means that perhaps Mance doesn't make it down there to wreack havoc in the Bolton lines. So, it makes sense, to me, that they would use Sansa as a vehicle to get some of these things done.

I'm going to make my prediction now that none of the people in jail for Matt's murder will be the actual culprit. It will end up being some white dude involved with Matt and his wife in the drug business.

He wants a big place in history. Much like FDR with the New Deal, he wants AmericaWorks to become his legacy. He doesn't want to be just another president in a long list to be memorized by students in years to come. He wants to be one of THE presidents that people remember on their own. He wants to transform the system, not for the good of the people, but to ensure he gets a place of honor in History.

I don't think that would be a problem. Although females draw the short end of the stick most of the time in this world, we have some women with agency such as the Mormont women. Sansa is coming to Winterfell, presumably with knights and fighters from the Vale. She can instruct them to kill Bolton men and spur the legend of the ghost of Winterfell just as easily as Mance and his women did. She doesn't really have to do things herself, she can have others do them for her.

I don't think the writers/creators are portraying homophobia and prejudices against mental illness as characteristics of the entire black community. Neither are they saying these problems are exclusive to the black community. Let's take Homophobia. Andre, Hakeem, Vernon, Delphine, Cookie, Tiana, and the guys at Ghetto Ass Studios all seem to have absolutely no problem with Jamal's sexual orientation; so, it seems that the writers/creators are saying some people in the black community have a problem with this, not all people in the community. Regarding Mental Illness, Vernon is a big Andre supporter, Jamal and Hakeem seem to love and support their brother, and Cookie was getting more information and educating herself on his son's illness (despite her original reaction). To me, that seems to be another indication that what the writers/creators are trying to say is that some people in the black community stigmatize and/or live in denial when it comes to mental illness, but not all people do. As for the show implying that these views are exclusive to the black community, I think it's too big of a leap. There are barely any white characters on this show, so, it's difficult for the writers/creators to represent the white community's views with regards to these issues. Unless they start adding white characters with the sole purpose of trying to convey an accurate representation of reality, there's not much that can be done (and I hope they don't do something like that). I don't think we should assume that because there are no white people with prejudices against mental illness on the show that the writers/creators are saying that this issue is exclusive to the black community. They simply don't need a bunch of white characters, and so, we don't see the views of the white folk on this show. I'm perfectly fine with that.

Ok, so maybe she takes on bits of Mance and Manderly's roles.

The only thing that's coming is winter (he, he!) I'm leaning toward Sansa having the Manderly role and I think it might not be a big deviation from her final destiny in the books. Maybe in the books Lady Stoneheart somehow finds out that Sansa is in the Vale and sends Brienne there to get her to Winterfell and that's why we'll see her going there on the show.

Is that a movie or a series?

I think you're absolutely right, Muffyn!

Whatever is going on behind the scenes, I feel compelled to agree with the poster above who mentioned the lack of professionalism. I don't have any favorite characters / actors in this show (wait! Christine Baranski is awesome, so I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be her). I never liked nurse Carol on ER, but I liked Margoulis' acting in the pilot and on season one enough to continue watching, not mind-blowingly good, or anything, but good enough. The first time I saw Punjabi was on this show and I never thought she was super talented either (although that might have been more the character than the actress - I've never liked the over sexualized, kick ass female trope, with the dove eyes, and the sexy voice). So, I'll precede my next comment by saying I don't have a horse on this race. I do think it's very unprofessional that two characters have to be written separated, to the detriment of the organic development of the show because the actors don't get along. Take Dexter, for example, Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter got married and then divorced (because he cheated on her with a recurring guest star) during the run of the series and they shared scenes until the very last episode, without their personal lives, good or bad, affecting the storylines on screen. They even had to make out a couple of times, after they had already divorced, and they handled it brilliantly (that particular storyline, sucked really hard, but the actors handled it very well). I think it's ridiculous that two professional actors, who have both been praised for their work by their industry peers (through nominations and actual awards), can't find a way to put their differences aside and do their jobs. Or, if the problem is someone else, other than the actresses (producers, pissed off network executive, whatever) that they would let their personal feelings dominate them so much as to affect a show that used to bring with it great ratings and media buzz. It's absurd.

I saw this last week and have been waiting for you guys to catch up for SO long!

Yes. They were pretty consistent with Alicia's voice. When the scene was in her head, she spoke in her normal voice. When the scene was in the real world, her voice was a raspy whisper because of the laryngitis.

I think they discussed several risks to the operation in previous episodes. Anything from leaving Herman paralyzed, deaf, blind or mute if Amelia cut too much. From what I gathered during the episode, Amelia was not expecting blindness because she was sure she had cut out the tumor and nothing else. I thought they implied the stroke, and not the tumor, was the cause for Herman's eyesight problems before the surgery, in which case it wasn't anything Amelia did during surgery. Herman was going to end up blind or with a diminished eyesight anyway. Also, I think another implication might have been that because of the stroke, parts of the brain were not receiving enough blood during the surgery. But I'm not sure about that last one.

I have never followed the BTS on this show. What started this feud? Does anyone know?

Yes, it was, but I think the show is heavily hinting that Caleb is someone else. Someone who also existed 30 years ago, and for that to pay off to the audience, it has to be one of the children we meet in the present timeline. So far, we have two possibilities: Soren and Sarah's baby. Soren makes sense because he survived the virus as a child, silver eyed fetus makes sense because we've been hearing about this baby the entire season, and with Julia's comment that the immortal baby's stem cells could be the solution to whatever is killing the immortals in the future, there's a strong chance that Caleb = Sarah's baby. Aren't they doing that right now? The reason Julia is on the island is because she's one of the immortals dying from a virus. She's there to find a cure. I think that Julia has indeed done some dumb things. And I think we're supposed to think she went to the immortals as a way to try to stop them from within. At the end of season one it was clear that Ilaria was developing a virus to kill non-immortals, as a way to do their cleansing. They wanted a virus and a cure, so they could stop the spread when it had achieved their population culling goals and that's why they called the CDC (to speed up development of the cure). We're supposed to think that Julia went with them to stop them from doing that (releasing Narvick into the world) and this season we saw her voice her disagreement with that option and talk to the French immortal girl who told her Michael had been working on a better solution to over population (infertility). It might be confusing because Julia has two agendas: one in the present timeline (stop Ilaria from committing genocide), and one in the future (find a cure to the virus that is killing the immortals). Given the female soldier's comment that "I don't want another Narvick". I think Ilaria did start their genocide plans. The immortals were created hundreds of years ago in a single event that turned 500 people immortal. Michael is one of those. When he finds out Sarah is immortal, he says that it's impossible because "she wasn't there". But we know that it is possible to make someone immortal, as Julia and Sarah were made so last season.

I guess one possibility is that Kalinda dies protecting Bishop's son. After all he didn't hire her just because of a bully.

I thought it was interesting that Julia mentioned to Michael that she had come looking for him before. I think we might be getting Julia in the present timeline next episode, stirring the pot between Peter and Alan again. In other news, who do we think the mysterious guy who sliced Michael's head off is? Soren (the boy who survived the disease and was left outside the compound) or Sarah's baby all grown up?

I think the parameters of every challenge get explained in more detail off camera or the editors cut some requirements away or a combination of both.

I don't think they put that in a contract either. Maybe Disney has some provision on their contracts about acting in ways that would negatively affect the brand, but I don't think FOX is the kind of network that would do that. After all, it was Married with Children that put them on the map. As far as I know, acting contracts have the type of billing the actor will get (regular, guest star, etc.), salary, and length of the job. It probably also has clauses that protect the actor in case of injury (or death) on set, stipulations about how much stunt work the actor will do, royalty payments for syndication and merchandise, and whether the actor is willing to do nudity. As for the show itself, they probably put in confidentiality clauses and copyright clauses to ensure the actors don't spoil the show in interviews or profit off of the material unduly. I think most actors are very careful when criticizing their shows; not only because it's the hand that currently feeds them, but also because other potential employers might not hire them in the future if they think that the actors are going to go off badmouthing their show. They will put up with some actors, if they are insanely popular and bring in the money, but that also has a limit (see Charlie Sheen). Orlando walks a fine line and he does it smartly. I think one of the problems is that the TV business hasn't still grasped the full implications of the internet and Social Media and it has been very slow to adapt to these changes. They still want to do business the old-fashioned way and they forget how much of what they do is scrutinized in real time.

But that's the thing. They didn't have to do either one of those things. When Clarke and the 44 first showed up, the Mountain people were all secretive and with shades of evil when they didn't need to be. The 44 were very happy to have food, a shelter safe from the Grounders (who had been attacking them back at their main camp), and other amenities such as showers. The Mountain men could have approached Clarke right then and said: "Our people can't go outside because of radiation, we have done some experiments with grounder blood and it turns out that it helps us. We think your blood is a lot stronger and we would like to run some tests. Here's the deal: all your people can come and live here, safe and sound; they can come and go as they please, with some protocols to protect our people; they can eat as much as they want and use our resources as much as they want; in exchange for all of these, we need a blood donation from every member twice a month. How's that?" If they had done that, Clarke wouldn't have escaped, and there would have been no need to jam the signal that caused the crash. Later they could have asked for bone marrow, when the rest of the people landed from space. It just wasn't this logical because they needed the Mt. Weatherites to be ev0l.

So far in the books, I don't think Sansa is a threat to anybody, but she certainly seems to be learning quite a lot from LF while either losing or temporarily shutting off empathy and compassion. During the battle of Blackwater, Sansa comforted all the other ladies and prayed with them, even though these were the same ladies that presumably watched Joffrey humilliate her in court and did nothing to help her. Her internal monologue is quite interesting during that battle. She's scared too, but she's the one keeping calm and she has compassion for the fear the other ladies are experiencing. Fast forward to her latest chapters and she's shunning and actively despising Sweet Robin. Not that the child is any kind of jewel, mind you. He's definitely creepy, moody and egotistical, but a lot of that is the result of Lisa's influence. Sansa doesn't seem to feel an ounce of compassion for Sweet Robin, or at the very least, she's pushing that down. I'm not saying she should give in to Robin's demands, but her internal monologue never addresses the fact that he is still a child, innocent of many things, and very sick. Nor does she mind that LF seems to be going against medical advise and overdosing him. What we last saw on the show might be an indication of the evolution of the character in TWOW. I think it's quite possible for Sansa, under LF's tutelage, to become a scheming, treacherous player who might follow not only LF's teachings, but also Cersei's suggestions to use her body as a tool. I think Sansa's controversial chapter will be her having consensual sex with LF and becoming her partner in the game too, while secretly plotting to kill him when the time is right. In a way, I think all the surviving Stark children need saving. In the first books they needed to be saved physically: Arya from the ravages of the war-torn Riverlands, Rickon and Bran from Theon and the Boltons, Sansa from Joffrey's perverted attacks, and Jon from the Wildlings and other assorted mythical creatures North of the Wall. In the latter books, the Stark children achieved physical safety but it's their souls that are compromised now. Rickon is probably much more of a savage, Arya is a detached murderer for hire, and Sansa is (going by the hints on the show) becoming an unscrupulous player. Jon needs saving from death itself. I'm certainly looking forward to the reveals that the show is bound to make before the rest of the books are published. I think many things are bound to be different, but certain major arcs and character traits, particularly for the Stark children, who I think are the main protagonists (we started with them, after all), will probably stay the same, if not verbatim, at least in essence.