Sandman

Well, Halle the Pretend Astronaut and B.E.N. seemed to be getting along just fine. That was Annie Wersching, and I'm sure she'll be around to give "John Woods" (... Seriously?) a hard time. I didn't really buy that the garbage vaporizer / transporter or whatever it was still had to be outside -- that was so clearly arranged so that Haunted Harmon and Halle the Pretend Astronaut could meet in the shadows. Also: I fully expect a reveal that "John Woods" is himself an AI, and that's why (a) he has that name; and (b) Goran-droid and Halle have zero chemistry. Was Sanada's character being reanimated, or was he getting out of cryosleep after visiting their future alien overlords on their home planet?

So, Original Revenge Sensei is underwriting the husband's creepy childbot experiments? All right, I'm just going to say it: Molly, you in danger, girl! I don't like the idea of Agent Ron Butterfield being all Fritz Weaver-y and evil. (I still haven't forgiven Almost Human for making the not-quite-human dude be the black guy. Wow, progressive!)

Is it too soon to take bets on the throwdown which already seems inevitable between the creepy AI child and the scary space alien baby? My money's on the destructive mecha-moppet. Unless it's a lizard baby.

Why is no one ever properly prepared for any kind of activity on this show, other than dressing up like a pretend whore, or Fite Nite? Everything's always last minute chaos and bad decisions in hours, where there should be weeks of preparation of testimony. ETA: So, Dumb Duncan's eventually going to get someone killed, right?

Because arrest warrants have been so effective against Stefano in the past. (Lord, this show.)

Well, maybe it wasn't one of the good forks.

You know what? That part I had no trouble believing. None. Denial is a force to be reckoned with, people. Especially if the parents cast her illness in terms like "My daughter's not crazy" (which is another way of saying "You're implying this is my fault"). I was more skeptical of the idea that no one noticed Nina had cutlery jammed in her gullet until they reached the hospital. Wouldn't the EMT/first responder types have picked up on that relatively quickly? Isn't "Airway/Breathing/Consciousness" the ABC of urgent care? It doesn't even bother me that much that Dr. Mo -- er, Krista can empathize with Nina because of her own struggle with bulimia. (I don't really think the actress looks like a long-term survivor of bulimia but this is the only trauma centre in ten counties ... to be staffed entirely by the breathtakingly beautiful.) I think Krista's emotional connection to her patients is sure to become over-used, but I did like the way the actress played the scenes with Nina. ::handwaves:: I do wonder, given her sudden turn for the suicidal, whether Nina had more happening than just bulimia. Borderline personality disorder, maybe? (I'm using my advanced degree in TV Psychology, of course.)

I think the actress playing Dr. Mole is actually pretty good. (That would be more persuasive if I actually remembered to call her "Krista," wouldn't it?)

One of the only good things, even?

That was Steven Bauer? Has he always been that bad? Jeepers.

What if she does realize it, but her concerns are brushed aside as (say it with me now) "the hysterical fears of some excitable WAC." Or is that too on-the-nose?

I was surprised that the show dispensed with Dwayne so quickly. I mean, he's Annoying Tertiary Character Guy, he's not a redshirt! I will be truly shocked if Topher dies. I just don't think the show would go there -- especially since it would most likely send Tragic Consequences into a permanent tailspin that even Doctor Sexy couldn't fix.

Well, shit.

Pretty sure Caroline has more self-awareness than Abigail. Come to think of it, Caroline's purse might have more self-awareness than Abigail.

No. I've never understood this kind of hairsplitting, the kind that says the unmarried person involved with a married person is not the one committing adultery. Not to say that "the other woman" (or man) is more responsible than the married person (or that the unmarried person "convinced" the married one to cheat), but marriage vows are not a private matter between the spouses, they're public; they're not valid without a witness -- standing in for the larger community. It's unethical for an unmarried person to get involved with someone already committed. If Abigail is absolving herself of guilt because she herself made no specific commitment to Sami, she's deluding herself. She's not responsible for Elvis's choices, but she is for her own.

A sense of proportion has been seriously lacking in the show for at least the last couple of years; time after time, the various baroque revenge plots have lacked either any sense that the scale of the revenge matches the hurt being avenged, or that all the scheming will actually achieve anything meaningful. Look at John's and Kristen's ridiculous scheming to achieve revenge sex: both of them claimed to care about Brady, and each of them was doing to the other exactly the same thing (or perhaps I should just say doing the other) in order to "destroy" the token object of their revenge. (ETA: I barely remember the purpose of Stefano's complex efforts to reawaken or reconstruct the Princess Gina and Pawn personalities in Hope and John, but it had something to with one of Stefano's little earth-shaking tchotchkes, and also because Marlena.) Nick's various plots and Gabi's counterplot against him were no more coherent than Sami's and Kate's elaborate-yet-rickety ruse to jail, defraud, or just embarrass Elvis and/or Stefano. It's as if the writers believe that all that is required is that the "avenging" party do something completely unexpected. It doesn't have to be a smart, effective, or even rational plan. It just has to be "shocking."

Well, they do wear all that blue and yellow. (Or at least they used to.)

Wait -- so Audrey and Jack were both tortured by Cheng Zhi? That's a hell of a thing to tell your future couples' therapist!

I hope Sami sets Kristen and her obviously flammable Day-Glo beach wear on fire.

I'm actually beginning to think that Ginger Ale Ben/Ben Gay wasn't that bad. (Hold me. I'm scared!) Pop-Up Stefano's such a wannabe.

Don't forget his lack of any discernible ability to act.

Cognitive dissonance? Elvis? Scott isn't incapable, but there isn't much subtlety in his performance; I've never thought Elvis was drowning in remorse.

Is the graduation in July a product of the shooting schedule that's five (nearly six) months ahead? Or is it just the writers don't care that sometimes a day takes the better part of two weeks to unroll in Salem, and a criminal arrest, trial and verdict can flash by in a matters of weeks, if not days? The timeline of the show has been messed up for years.

The promo monkeys think counting is hard.

Not to defend Mansi's acting choices too much, but I think it's in character for Abigail to react with shock -- I am quite sure she thinks of herself as an innocent, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. Abigail can be judgmental and smug. I don't that's a failure on the actress's part, at least not solely. The writing, performance and direction don't really acknowledge what Abigail is; that's a problem. Mansi's interpretation of the storyline in the press comes off as wrongheaded to the point of inanity, but that's a bit of different problem. If the writing or the performance gave us some reason to think well of Abigail, this story would be unfolding very differently.