McKinley

Well, I feel like these final episodes encapsulated all that was best, and worst, about Supernatural. Seems fair enough. I am really, really glad that they fixed heaven. I was prepared to be super upset if they did not do that. Having Cass in charge there is perfection. Did not like the ending, though. My personal ending for the boys is this: I can stay with the writers' vision up through Jack taking over as god, and fixing heaven. Jack seals heaven and hell so demons and angels may no longer come to Earth. Jack wipes out all of the monsters on Earth. So the boys have literally saved the entire world, forever. The boys are then free to move on with "normal" lives, explore new jobs, new passions, build families. Given how male-centric this whole universe has been, I imagine Dean raising a whole gaggle of beautiful little daughters. The boys grow old together, enjoying one another's families. The end. Thank you to the cast and crew for the ride! It's been fun!

I thought the fact that Coulter is Lyra's mother was telegraphed when she had her outburst that revealed to Lyra who her father is. There was just too much emotion there. I figured that either Coulter was her mother, or Lyra's father left Coulter for Lyra's mother. I, too, wondered how Boreal was paying the computer guy. I had hoped that they would show us the payment. I'm also curious how they first met. How do you find such a useful ally in a foreign world? I appreciated the info about the dæmons. It is interesting that their final form reflects an aspect of their human's personality, and is not a fully independent choice. It looked like Ma Costa and Tony's dæmons both had the shape of the same type of hawk. Is that common in families? I am assuming from what we have seen that the members of the Magisterium have somehow severed their physical connection to their dæmons so that they are not compromised if their dæmon is injured or killed, and so that they can be at a longer distance from their dæmons without harm. I think we've seen that with Coulter and her dæmon. I'm not sure if it is unique to her or if it applies to all Magisterium members, but I would assume they would all want that ability. I haven't read the books, so I'm curious about the window. Do others know it's there, but are too afraid to cross, as Boreal suggests? Or is its existence a secret, too? It's inside the College, right? Makes me wonder if the College was built around it to protect / hide it. Are there many other windows? Or is the number and location of all windows an unknown? ETA: I had missed the fact that the daemons are actually the person's soul externalized and personified. My daughter tells me that was written in the first episode, but I missed it. I thought they were two separate souls that are somehow connected. So that changes the dynamics.

I come here and read everyone pulling out the highlights, and I really wish I was enjoying this season as much as all of you seem to be. This whole experiment thing has been dragging, IMO. We simultaneously get not enough of the new recruits to really have a sense of who they are beyond caricatures, and at the same time there's too much of them for us to have time for our base group to have any really interesting developments. I'm sooo glad it is over and we will hopefully be moving on to some new and interesting twists. I hope Chidi is given his memory back, since it's clear that he and Simone are not compatible.

I'm super late to the party because I'm just watching the final episode tonight, but I just wanted to note here before I watch the final ep one possibility that I don't think has been mentioned yet (apologies if I overlooked it) re whether Joan knew what Sherlock's plan was. On the one had, I hope she did. Sherlock faked his death once before and I hope that he would not do that to her a second time. And actually, I think that she did. I think that they together plotted a murder - Sherlock's, of course, not Odin's. But it is possible that Sherlock told her that Odin texted him with an invitation to meet, and so this might be the only opportunity for them to stop Odin. He would then tell Joan his plot to confront Odin on the bridge, she would argue against it, and then he would leave and she went to the police station for help and everything else played out as we saw. Sherlock from a few years ago would have totally done this, if he saw it as the only way to protect the people that he cares about. But then Sherlock of a couple years ago probably would have killed Odin. Sherlock has grown. He did not murder Odin, but brought him to justice (hopefully). Likewise, I don't think he faked his death without telling Joan.

Totally missed that on the phone. Thanks!

Yeah, whatever happened with Gregson's girlfriend? Did they get married? I don't think we saw a wedding and I don't think she's been mentioned since. She wasn't in the house when Sherlock ransacked it. He definitely let Gregson know how pissed he was. He could have searched and left everything appearing untouched.

I loved that episode WAY more than I thought I would! I was highly skeptical after the last episode how anyone could think that Joan was capable of beating a man to death with the injuries she sustained. But with that tape, I can totally see them believing it was her and focusing all their resources on her. Sherlock laid it out. Joan was in legitimate, believable jeopardy. I don't think Sherlock did it for Gregson. Joan did. She was protecting Gregson and perhaps a little bit Hannah. But Sherlock was doing it for Joan. They are partners; he has always respected her choices, even when he has disagreed with them. He could have gone to the FBI without her, but he didn't betray her choice. I liked the confrontation between Sherlock and Gregson. It was totally believable to me that Gregson blamed Sherlock. Gregson was in deep distress. He knew he was hurting Joan and Sherlock; the only way he could live with that was by transferring the blame to Sherlock. I also liked that Gregson and Sherlock both did the exact same thing to protect the ones they loved - destroyed evidence. They are more alike than Gregson may like to admit. I was so relieved that "Michael's body" was a photograph! It was totally believable that he would have brought the actual body. At the end, I was excited to imagine next season set in London! I loved the 221A / 221B house and Joan looked so bright and cheerful! I've loved seeing the locations in NYC - they even filmed several eps in the area outside of my hubby's office. (He saw Lucy Liu one day on her way to the set.). I would love to see their portrayal of London. I am disappointed to hear they'll be back in NYC in short order! Although I'm glad we'll still be seeing Bell. I'm sure I'll eventually forgive Gregson and be happy to see him too. My only quibble with the episode was that Joan was moving too easily in many of the scenes. She should have been holding her upper body more stiff to protect her healing ribs.

I really wanted to like this ep. The premise was fun, loved Watson and Holmes all dressed up! But the conclusion was too much. A person who presumably never killed anyone before, motivated by greed, kills his brother and then stages the serial killings of people while: (1) making the killings look like non crimes while constrained in (2) choice of victim (3) choice of date and (4) method of killing. Even if you assume he chose the “easiest” killings to carry out, and destroyed any intervening obituaries, this really stretches credulity. And they didn’t explain the car wreck but I assume it was under the influence of the drug also ?

There are only a few possibilities for how the meeting was set up. (1) Fred and Hannah's "father" set it up together. (2) Fred is in a position of power over Hannah's "father" and demanded that he acquiesce to the meeting. (3) Fred used his power to order Hannah and her Martha be brought to the meeting without Hannah's "father" knowledge/approval. We are shown that the meeting is secret - Nick is told to make sure they are not seen, Hannah's driver is equally anxious about them being caught. That rules out options 2 and 3. Fred would not have wanted to sign any orders recording the meeting, and he would not have wanted anyone to know about it that he could not trust to keep it secret. The only way he could trust Hannah's "father" to keep it quiet on his end is if they were equally involved. Hannah's "father" would have had no reason to agree to such a risky meeting that posed no benefit to him; thus, Fred must have been able to compel him in some unofficial way = by calling in a favor. Re the Guardian patrols, I rewatched and I take that part back. I originally thought there was no way for Hannah's driver to know that they had to get out of there at that particular moment unless the patrol was predictable. But Hannah's driver had a radio that we could hear squawking in the background a couple of times. So either he had a lookout stationed to warn him if a Guardian patrol was headed their way, or more likely he was simply monitoring the Guardian's communications to listen for any indication that a patrol was in their area. When he realized that a patrol was coming their way, he got them moving. The part about the Guardians' reaction to Nick is more speculative, but unless they were hurrying off to try to pursue Hannah's car, there is really no reason to explain why they would not have searched and secured the house. As for the part about the Commanders not to have contact with the Handmaids outside of the Ceremony, I drew that conclusion based on how other historic and contemporary patriarchal societies have handled the setup of households, combined with things that we've seen in the show. Serena is responsible for the home, and thus for managing the female servants. Nothing good could potentially come from Commanders and Handmaids having any type of relationship outside of the Ceremony, and given how the men regard the women, a Commander couldn't have any legitimate interest in a Handmaid outside of the Ceremony. She can't be his intellectual equal, so there's not going to be any interesting conversation; and lust is a sin so the Commanders should not be placed in a position where they could be tempted. June's visits to Fred's study certainly seemed secretive, as were his visits to her room. ETA: It just occurred to me that Fred told Nick to be back within 3 hours, so the drive could have taken over an hour each way and Nick was able to make the drive without passing through any official checkpoints? That seems surprising.

We'll see if the writers address the situation in any more detail going forward, but here is how I am currently understanding what happened in the closing scenes. Because of the super-secret nature of the meeting (Fred turned to Nick to handle this; Nick is the person Fred trusts most to keep his secrets, such as driving him to Jezebels), I think it's most likely that Fred arranged the meeting by calling in a favor with Hannah's "father" (who also turned to the subordinate he trusts most). The area where they were sending them had known, regular Guardian patrols, so they had a small window between such patrols to hold the meeting and get out unseen. Fred and Hannah's "father" did not want to draw attention by changing the Guardian patrols or alerting the Guardians that people would be in the area. Thus the admonition not to be seen. But they failed to get out without being spotted by the patrol. The patrol intended to arrest Nick and take him for questioning. He fought back but got knocked out and thrown into the van. The patrol saw the other car leave the site and were going to pursue it. That's why they did not immediately search the house. They could return to search the house afterwards, because if anyone else was at the house, they had nowhere to go in this remote location in the dead of winter without Nick's car. If they tried to make their way on foot, they could be easily tracked in the snow. Why would Fred feel the need to hide this plan from Serena, since he is the head of household and has final say relating to everyone within it? We've seen him do several favors for June behind Serena's back. I think that most likely the Commanders are not supposed to have any contact with the Handmaids outside of the Ceremony (and ritualized meetings, such as when they all stood in the foyer to welcome the Commander home from the hospital). It is the Wife's job to manage the Handmaid. So everything about the Commander and June's relationship - not just the extra-Ceremony sex - is breaking the rules. Fred probably gets off on all of the clandestine interactions with June as much as the sex with her.

Well, if we look at it from Gilead's perspective: First, they did not expect to use Emily or Janine as handmaids again, regardless of their fertility, because they had shown themselves to be too great of a risk. This was intended to be their death sentence; a slower version than stoning or the Wall. The fact that they retrieved them helps to illustrate just how desperate they are for handmaids after losing around half of the handmaids who were at the bombing. (Was Gildead's entire contingent of handmaids present at the bombing? Does the Red Center process all of Gilead's handmaids?) Second, the primary purpose of the Colonies (at least the nuclear cleanup colonies) is not to actually clean up the nuclear waste, but is to provide death camps to threaten the citizens of Gilead to keep them in line. The nuclear cleanup that happens is a secondary benefit. Lastly, we don't know if there are any other logistical factors playing into the decision. For example, Gilead may have only very limited gasoline supplies and priority is probably given to the military, guards, transportation of essential items like food, emergency vehicles, and the Commanders' personal use. There may not be gasoline available to run bulldozers.

I didn't think the binders contained information about dead children, but about stolen children like Hannah. I thought they were cataloging whatever information they had about the stolen children with the hopes of helping with reunifying them with their parents in the future.

I have lots of questions after this episode. I feel like the writers are giving us a ton of clues. Just not quite sure what they all mean. The red and green door lights in the upside-down interrogation room were wrong. The green light meant stop (door was locked) and the red light meant go (door was unlocked). A throwback to the red/green lesson from a few eps ago and a hint that what we are seeing is not reality? Is Admiral Fukuyama related to the SK? Ptonomy, in Lenny's memories, looked into the basket and saw the creature. When Oliver and SK were changing David's sister into Lenny, we saw the SK's face superimposed alternately behind and over what looked kind of like a bead curtain - the bead curtain looked the same as the ribbing of the basket, as if to imply that SK is Fukuyama. Why was David's sister dreaming of Fukuyama and Vermillion? Why did she dream that she is Vermillion? Is it a foreshadowing that she will be taken over by Lenny's mind, and Lenny's mind is still an extension of the SK (David says he can't tell the difference between her thoughts and SK's thoughts)? Is what we are seeing a false reality being controlled by the SK? ETA: Maybe not a false reality, but a red/green one: District 3 is not a place where everyone is working to fight the SK, but is actually controlled by the SK. I think the odds are good that David's sister is still intact within Lenny. I think what we saw, through both Ptonomy and David looking into her mind, is that the two are fighting for control. And I think this plays into Oliver's cryptic "1 + 1" message to the SK. Two minds sharing one body, so 1 + 1 does not equal 2. Will Oliver emerge and take over control from the SK at a key moment, leading to his downfall? The interrogation room was also room 2 (based on the large upside down 2 on the wall), which could imply the 2 minds in 1 body. Today's lesson was about coincidence looking like conspiracy. Intention assumed where there was only chance. So, what was the coincidence?

Was he the only one to know that she was stuck there? The other driver knew that he dropped her off there. And Omar got a text from somebody who would know he was warned not to move her on to the safe house. So at least the 3 of them would know what happened. Nick and the Resistance have made sure that she has been taken care of for two months now. I think that as soon as they realized the safe house was compromised, the Resistance would have been working on alternatives. It seems to me that it would be safer to wait on an alternative plan than to go somewhere unplanned. What really surprised me about Omar taking June to his home was the fact that he had such a young child. Young children are not good at keeping secrets, and his son could easily let something slip about the lady at their apartment. I don't think we saw Omar or his wife even instruct the child not to say anything about June to anyone else.

While it is true that average people can be persuaded/pressured into doing horrific things (e.g., Milgram experiment, Stanford prison experiment, etc.), I went to check this title out at Netflix and it is not a documentary. It is a show featuring Derren Brown, a magician/illusionist who uses "mentalism" as his schtick. It is certainly staged and faked.