Sandman

I'd agree: Wanda is messed up, and wilfully blind at some point, but it's hard for me to think of her as evil. The other two, certainly. Did the US government in the MCU learn absolutely nothing from the history of S.H.I.E.L.D.? S.W.O.R.D. (and, boy, somebody really, REALLY wanted to name that agency S.W.O.R.D.) seems even more corruptible and dependent on the agenda-slash-whims of one man.

I thought it was more a representation of how capable she is (still) of maintaining focus on a few different things simultaneously; she's multi-tasking, essentially. She could maintain the whole town full of separate illusions or creations, until things began to fray. Now it seems she can hang out in her lonely cabin of exile, enjoying the view, while at the same time studying the Darkhold (I think it was the Darkhold). Their chemistry is remarkable; enough to make me forget how ooky I usually find the thought of mutant (or whatever Wanda is)-synthezoid sexytimes. Elizabeth Olsen is fantastic in this.

This is unfair -- even I have only so much "Ew" in me, show!

You're probably right about that -- but I still say they're wrong. All I got from the Vanity Fair article was: I will never be a Snyder fan; I don't appreciate his aesthetic, and to me he never fails to sound like a pretentious, self-glorifying asshat; and The entertainment press is almost incomprehensibly fickle.

Pretty sure OTT is her baseline.

To which my response would have to be: Thank God! I agree; on its own terms, Justice League is a reasonably entertaining movie. I feel like it's now being excoriated because of Whedon's involvement. (And it does sound like the set was not a fun or healthy environment. But there were stories in the press about how awful Snyder was to work with around the time of the movie's release, as I recall. I know this says more about the fickleness of the press than about either director.) I see the enthusiasm for The Snyder Cut, but I don't truly understand it. Do these fanboys not remember that Batman Vee Superman was an awful, infuriating movie? Allow me to provide a five-word reminder: "MY. MOTHER'S. NAME IS. MARTHA!"

Again with Orpheus?

Hee. Perfect!

I'm no longer surprised that these two are longer married; I'm astonished that they ever communicated well enough to get married -- and raise a child -- in the first place.

It's almost like she's a member of Salem PD!

This should not even be remotely possible.

Words this show appears determined never to live by.

And I'm okay with that, since "Angry!" does not in itself constitute a personality. Actually, I think the show has done a ... reasonable job of showing Nyla growing from a place of stress and fear, being unable to really relate to anyone else in a genuine way, to beginning to be able to trust herself and a few others, little by little. She still finds Nolan annoying, but she doesn't consider him a powder-loaded idiot filled with stupidity shrapnel who's liable to blow up in her face at any moment.

I would have commented on how Cady McClain and Jamie-Lyn Bauer share a slightly more believable family resemblance than Reeves and Bauer did, except the show went an' wrecked it with that ridiculous 80s-themed flashback (points for the ruffle-clogged sweater "Jeniffer" (like Jennifer, but not really) was wearing!). Shoehorning Gwen into the show this way, wrecking backstory and Jack's character in the process, displays more than the show's usual level of ham-fisted idiocy. I had to turn off (and delete) the episode at that point. Hint to the showrunners: If the "flashhijack" (like a flashback, but not really) makes your audience say "Nope! Nopenopenope!" out loud to their televisions, you're doing it wrong.

I see the "writers" are no longer satisfied with just making this show horrifically stupid, and are now determined to make it full-on horrific. (That sequence turning the pool into Chad Soup made me physically recoil, too; and then it made me angry -- mostly at myself for watching it.) Gina Torres is too good for this dreck. Points taken off for the anvillicious use of Jeff Buckley's cover (which I kind of detest now, for lazy tv music producers' over-reliance on it).

Maybe "convent" was a euphemism? Maybe it wasn't so much a convent as a Home for Wayward (Old) Girls? Or maybe it was one of those horror sorority houses? Where everyone's got a couple of knife-wielding alters under her belt, er, psyche?

We should get t-shirts.

This show just makes me miss Miracles. I think I soured on the Kings long ago, but the writing on this show is truly wretched: Confused, unrealistic, illogical; it all feels cheap to me somehow. The handling of the incel plot strikes me as sensationalism dressed up as timely, and bordering on irresponsible. I think Michael Emerson is an unbearable ham. Yeah, I said it.

I'm going to have to insist that the child be a girl, to be named Cherry Forrest Black. Thank you and good night!

Oh, good grief, yes! THIS. But I wouldn't mind if "Big Wedding Next to A Couch" were the (acknowledged) theme for all Salem weddings from now on.

And I think this, boys and girls, was the point at which your faithful correspondent officially gave up on this wreck of the show. It's bad enough that Jack has been retconned into an affair with Kate (at least I think it's actually supposed to have happened; who can say for sure?) and that they're hamfisting their way through a consent storyline that's going nowhere good, and taking forever to get there; and that the show runners have decided now is the time to un-fire Banus and Gering -- because why not bring them back when they have almost no ties to the canvas left? And Kate is now randomly sleeping with Jake (which I would think Kate would be almost as likely to do as to sleep with Chad, but no one asked my opinion on the matter). But for Jan Spears just to show up at a wedding and demand to be married to the man of her dreams (Shawn, for reasons that would escape me, except it's more accurate to say I just don't give a damn) and Shawn just stands there with his mouth hanging open? I didn't get the sense there was any danger to Belle (again, it's possible I don't care at all), so why is anyone putting up with her nonsense? Escort to her to jail. Stop humouring her. Stop listening! Say something, Shawn. "No" would be a good start. Ughh. I can't with these fools anymore.

The same kind who would turn up at the door of her new accommodations without knowing the merest detail about her new living situation other than the new roommate's name, I'm guessing. Maggie, after all, is a newbie college freshman who's never been outside of her home town, let alone out of the country in her life, right? Oh, wait... There's no way the time line of this episode makes sense, either: Gloria the social worker is in her office 24/7, and calls clients with potential matches after 11 p.m. (I'm guessing again)? "Hey, I know you just got screwed over by the birth mother I set you up with, but here's a do-over; let me know. You have a quarter of an hour to make a decision. 'Kay, byeee!"

The cost being, of course, having to get married at Doug's Place. If my choices were the church possibly blowing up, or a crevassse opening up in the floor and swallowing the entire wedding party, a gun-waving lunatic barging in and kidnapping my beloved (in other words, Salem Wedding SOP) or getting married at Harpy Headquarters, I'd pick any of the first three options over any proximity to Darling Julie.

I can see that, especially where certain tasks are traditionally expected of women in the workplace (clerical work, organizing meetings, social convener...) but in this case, it seemed to me that Hermann's approach had the opposite net result: passing off tasks to his woman co-worker/employee the tasks he found distasteful, beneath him or too trendy (possibly too girly?) or just uninteresting. Maybe it's the boss's prerogative, but I wouldn't mind seeing Kidd adopt that approach and see what happens.

I thought it was kind of passive aggressive, honestly. Learned helplessness is never a great response, even if you own the place. Hermann's advice is often just plain boneheaded, and this didn't seem like a notable exception to me.