Danielg342

The return of Mickey Fox. Another backdoor pilot I assume. How was this show? Well...sum of its parts, really. Kind of think the drama between Bode and his parole officer was a bit messily resolved, even though it was the right choice. The beginning also felt really, really strange- and implausible too, even if Sharon made a snarky joke about it. Still, at least the show had a believable reason for Bode to tag along with Mickey (who even told Bode that he's not an investigator) instead of making him "superhuman" again. I also thought Vince was very Vince with Jake. Their drama rang true and even Jake has to admit Vince is right by simply saying "I'm not dead". I also have to say that I think that while I disagree with Bode, it's completely in character for him to be mad at his mother for making that kind of a deal. Bode sees things through the lens of honour and moralism, which can allow him to see the good in everyone but be bad at noticing the optics. That's why Sharon is Division Chief and he's not. It did make the Exalta (Oxalta? Don't know how you spell that) plot resolve quicker than it should, even if it was one-dimensional. At least they didn't make Jake's girlfriend evil like they could have. The other big thing is, I guess this is it for Three Rock. Maybe it's for the best, because Three Rock hasn't factored into the show for quite some time.

First, Jay Harrington gets an He's always up there, the show's emotional anchor and its quiet counterbalance when things get heated...but tonight was whole other level. The way he cared for the football players was not just fatherly but coach-like too...I felt motivated and reassured after his speech, and I wasn't tortured like those two were. This show, though gets a Not exactly a barn-burner. Two sports-related cameos in Kenny "The Jet" Smith and Jerry Rice, two people who show there's a reason why they went into sports and not acting. Though at least I'll give Rice credit in that he at least tried to emote. I could go through everything that was wrong with this episode- including the fact that the two football players would likely be dead if this was real life- but I think it's better to just see this episode as the sum of its parts. Wonky, with several moments that just flat didn't work, but some parts that still made the episode, overall watchable. Like Miko and his charm. Hicks being a true parent and Hondo learning from that. Cousin Andre actually having some character growth for a change. ...and of course, Jay Harrington. The poor lady didn't know Deacon was a married man...but, hey, like she said, "can't fault a woman for trying". Of course, I could rant, "why don't they just go to dinner as friends?", but Hollywood has outdated gender standards, so it's frutile.

I hate what they've done with the character. Not only do her flaws just come out of nowhere- as if the writers have no idea what her character actually is- there's just no depth and it strains credulity. DeShawn Jackson said it himself when he wondered how someone could make it to NCIS without knowing how to swim, and I will add I have to wonder how someone made it as far as she did in the Australian National Police if she's too tepid to fire her gun. The worst part about Evie Cooper is that Tuuli Narkle in real life is built like a tank which makes Cooper's characterization as this vulnerable damsel even more confusing. Yeah, maybe the writers were thinking they're "adding depth" to the character which why they justified it, but it was the wrong choice. Not only is the "damsel cop" an overused cliche, it really undermines what Tuuli can really offer for the character. Yeah, I know the "badass female cop" might be an eye rolling character for some people, but, in this case, it's totally justified, because Tuuli can easily pull it off.

Here's what I'll say about this episode. It's really sad to see a show you once enjoyed so much become so bad that it's not just a shadow of itself, it's a shadow of the shadow of itself. Long running Hollywood series are prone to this because, eventually, the writers run out of ideas, and this show is not immune to that. This episode was an attempt at a novel idea for a hostage situation, but it flopped so badly that, like the criminals in this episode, the writers had no idea what they were doing. At least the criminals were being honest, I'll give them that. Compounding the stupid criminals were the stupid police officers, including Stupid Hicks and Stupid Bennett. Right now, there's just nothing redeemable at all about the characters and the narrative at all. The only way the narrative moved forward was by Hicks being so stupid that he sabotaged his whole career by giving in to his emotions, a stark contrast to the calm, composed Commander he used to be. I guess Hondo's hotheadedness rubbed off on Hicks in the worst possible way. Then again, Bennett was the classical "obstructionist bureaucrat" whose own stupidity nearly blew the case wide open. Once again...if it weren't for 20 Squad miraculously figuring things out...the case would have went sideways very quickly. Maybe it ought to have been. I have always complained that this show struggles with providing the team with real adversity, usually because they're too chicken to put the characters in actual peril. This just reinforces the idea with an episode that, in real life, likely goes sideways because the cops are never this good. Sure, there's the ongoing plot of Hicks' job now hanging by a thread...but Hicks had to be stupid to get to that point. What would have been better was, in the show's final (?) season, to have a case blow up in 20 Squad's face and have the team deal with the fallout. You could still wrap it all up with a nice bow at the end...but tough cases and adversity would be a real reason why officers might re-examine their career choices and thus opens the door for possible stories for the finale. If nothing else...I would expect, eight seasons in, for the show to rock the boat a little and try things it never did before. Instead of doing what it's doing now and just recycling the same old shows with the same old tropes, throwing in lazy twists to make us think the writers are "still trying". Maybe it is time for the show to call it quits once we've reduced it to that.

I'm sure someone in the writers' room- maybe even showrunner Tia Napolitano- looked at this episode and said, "This is gonna be good!" They couldn't be further from the truth. I won't really bother with recapping the episode because it was pretty much filler all around. What I will do is raise two topics. One, as much as I hate the "shady obstructionist company" plot (which is not just cliched but also patently stupid and terribly unrealistic), Violet may be a wild card here...though I don't know if it helps the story. Violet will either side the company and break Jake's already multi-time broken heart again, or Violet will be the one to make the shady company less shady...making this story predictable. Do writers even try anymore? Two, I'll just lay this out there: Can the show survive another edition of Stupid Bode? I've said it before and I'll say it again- Bode refusing to give up his criminal past isn't a character flaw, it's a sign of narrative malaise. Because it's a clear sign that the writers are so bereft of ideas that the only way they can see a path forward is to just go down the same paths they went through before...and for what? Sure, recidivism is a thing...but I feel like Bode has come along so far that Bode getting back into crime is just a regression of the character. There's no growth, nothing gained...just a character going through the motions, setting the cycle for rehashed storylines because the writers can't come up with new ones. I feared that, when Manny was only going to be at Three Rock for a year, Bode was going to be the show's target to put back in there, because this show seems to think a main cast member needs to be a Three Rock inmate at all times. Please show...I would hate to be right.

I should make an addendum to what I previously wrote, in that the idea of the title of "Count" being associated with vampires is a modern invention. In real life, "Count" was a noble title used throughout Europe, not just in Transylvania (which is now in modern Romania but historically has ties to both Hungary and Romania). The man most commonly associated with "Dracula"—Vlad the Impaler—was never a Count. He was a Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia (modern southern Romania), not Transylvania. However, Vlad was born in Transylvania, spent time there, and used the title "Dracula", which originally meant "Son of the Dragon"—a reference to his father’s membership in the Order of the Dragon. Over time, the name Dracula was also interpreted as "Son of the Devil", due to Christian associations between dragons and evil. Most of the modern vampire imagery does not come from historical Vlad but from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel "Dracula", later made famous by the 1931 Hollywood film. Stoker drew from a wide range of folklore—not just vampire legends—when creating Count Dracula. There is no definitive real-life inspiration for Dracula, though some scholars believe his physical appearance was inspired by Henry Irving, a British actor who was Stoker's employer and a major influence on his writing. However, there is no direct evidence that Vlad the Impaler played any role in shaping Dracula’s character. In fact, Stoker never once mentioned Vlad in his extensive notes. The connection between Vlad and Dracula was made years after Stoker’s death, when researchers noticed the shared name and assumed a historical link. Instead, Stoker came across the name "Dracula" in a history book about Wallachia, where it was noted that the term was linked to both dragons and the devil. As for why Dracula is a Count rather than a Prince or Voivode, this was a common convention in Gothic literature. Writers often used aristocratic villains, and Counts were the perfect choice—wealthy and powerful enough to be intimidating, yet not burdened by the responsibilities of higher-ranking nobility. This made them ideal for mysterious figures who lived in isolated castles filled with dark secrets. Stoker likely followed this tradition, making Dracula a Count for narrative convenience and because noblemen were already linked to supernatural horror. In short, modern vampire stereotypes, including Count von Count, largely stem from one man- Bram Stoker- who combined history, folklore, and Gothic tradition to create the definitive vampire archetype. The real history behind Dracula is far more layered and nuanced than the popular image of a caped, fanged Transylvanian nobleman.

Count me in (pun may or may not be intended) as among those who thought "Count von Count" was simply based on a clever play on words. While I'm not sure if the vampiric folklore played a part in forming the character, it's wild to think about that added dimension, intended or not.

I really believe viewer outcry led to the S6 cancellation reversal, since I think that decision wasn't really grounded in the numbers. In S6, it was still among CBS' highest rated shows, so it was not a cancellation that made sense. The only reason why it was cancelled then was because the two studios that produce the show (Sony Pictures and CBS) stopped their renewal negotiations before reaching an agreement, when both knew if they could make the numbers work, the show could still work for them. The fan outcry forced them back to the negotiating table and made them figure out an agreement. Now? I'm not sure there's a case to say there's a way the negotiating math works. S.W.A.T. is among the lowest rated shows. It deserves cancellation. There's no amount of studio math that will make it work for another season. If another network picks it up, it's only doing so as a PR stunt. Whereas, perhaps, in S6 was in a case where losses could be reversed, that situation doesn't exist this time around. EDIT- I don't mean to be trashing the show too much. It had a great run, since a lot of shows don't ever get close to a sniff at eight seasons. However, I feel like all the posturing by Shemar Moore and its producers are just theatrics at this point- Hollywood math has spoken and there's nothing to save, so they're wasting their time.

Well, if the show is going to bait other networks to save the show by using the obvious manipulation tactic of making its audience angry that the show doesn't have a proper ending, then maybe it really does deserve to get cancelled all along. I get it. They're mad that CBS pulled the rug out from underneath them and cancelled the show basically without warning. However, it is the highest mark of pettiness and creative bankruptcy to exploit the audience's anger by using it to dare another network to continue the series. Not only is it risky- because you have no guarantee that another network will save the series- it's the ultimate show of contempt for the audience because you didn't think we were "worthy" enough to get a proper ending for the show. That's no way to say "thanks", especially to the people (like me) who were there since Day 1.

Do any adults write for this program anymore? Because, I gotta say, Deacon, Tan and Dobes all sounded like overgrown tweens in this episode, crying and whining to each other in a failed attempt at "showing emotion". Oh, and how convenient that Bakersfield PD just happen to be so cheap that Deacon and Tan have their out with a cheap detonator so the show can avoid doing any heavy lifting and providing some real adversity for the team with Dobes' lawsuit. The case- and Devin Gamble's subplot- were no better. I'm sure that what Hicks did- which was interfere in an Internal Affairs investigation- would get him fired in real life. That may be where the show is going anyway, but it's frustrating because you'd expect someone as experienced as Robert Hicks to know better than to literally strongarm an IA operative just to quicken the resolution of an investigation that was likely going to resolve in his favour anyway. I know they want to make Hicks look like he's some kind of savvy "dealmaker" but what he did was essentially a career suicide mission. Well, considering last week that Gamble went on a literal suicide mission, I guess I shouldn't be surprised anyway. As for the case itself...what else is there to say other than "blah"? It's the same cookie-cutter case, with slightly different details and slightly different baddies. They're still after shiny things, they're still so ruthless "they don't care who they kill to get what they want", they're all still stupidly loyal to their cause and their group, and they all still have the situational awareness of a deer caught in the headlights despite being "highly trained operatives". It's like this show doesn't even try anymore. Should I give the show credit for its swerve involving the Russian Columbian museum official who wanted to bring the artifacts home to her unnamed indigenous tribe? No, because it was still contrived, it was still ultimately stupid and she was still a criminal who killed people in her wake. How Hondo could have a lick of sympathy for her, I just don't know. I know this episode aired a day after the unfortunate news that the show is cancelled and won't be back next season (it's a good bet on that front), but with writing like this, I think the writers have already mentally cancelled this program and they're just riding out the string so they could move on to bigger and better things.

"Is that the light at the end of the tunnel or is that the light of an oncoming train?" Before I go on, I do actually think this was an enjoyable hour that mostly kept my attention. It was nice to see Jake and Violet and Bode and Audrey blossom and Gabriella maybe has a new partner in Finn. I also have to say that the show is playing all the right beats in the tragedy of Walter Leone. Man, is Walter's decline just absolutely heartbreaking. There's no other way to describe it. ...but... This episode seemed to set up some potentially perilous storylines for Bode/Audrey and for Manny, and I'm not sure it's just those characters who will feel the peril but the show too. For one, I doubt Manny is going to die, but the show seems to want us to think that. Even then, I'm not sure it's a great narrative choice- a death for Manny in this way feels random and sudden, and it would feel very cheap. Not a worthy end for a character who has been integral to the show from the start. The bigger problem is Bode and Audrey and those drugs. I have to question Bode's wisdom for carrying the drugs on him as a way of making sure he doesn't relapse. It's kind of like a recovering alcoholic who keeps a bottle of wine on their desk without ever opening it- being so close to the source of the temptation is not going to make you resist the urge to give in to the temptation. It's just going to be a constant trigger to get you to give in to the temptation once more, because your brain sees what is being tempted with all the time. Now, maybe I'm wrong and this will all work out...but the show laid the prospect of a relapse heavily for both Bode and Audrey, so I have my concerns. In principle, a relapse storyline may not be a bad thing. Anyone battling addiction knows relapses are possible and many who try to break from addictions will suffer a relapse. There's nothing wrong with that. ...but... This is a show that has already torpedoed Bode with him making a terrible decision before. A show whose writers derailed their positive momentum previously with a completely imbecilic storyline choice. So, while a relapse storyline can be great in the right hands, do I trust that the writers are great enough to write a relapse storyline that doesn't derail its characters and doesn't send this show down the path of a recycled storyline that it had already tried- and failed at- before? (Oh, and Audrey relapsing instead of Bode doesn't mean the show has learned from its mistakes...it just means they're transferring them to another character) What this all means is that, with eight episodes (I presume) to go, the show is now at a crossroads. One where the writers have to decide if they're actually capable of writing newer, engaging stories with its characters that charts new territories for them or if they're just an also-ran production so bereft of ideas that the only storylines they have are the ones they constantly recycle. We will see.

I guess that's it. Makes me wonder why they didn't just end it last season. This is a mess. 😭😭😭😭 'S.W.A.T.' Canceled (Again) By CBS After 8 Season

So Season 18 will tell the story- or is supposed to tell the story- that S16 was supposed to tell? Do I have that right?

I find a lot of the team interactions these days to be pretty forced. It's like the writers pull two characters out of a hat and then they write some awkward exchanges that are supposed to make them look like friends but everything sounds contrived. The actors don't even seem to be trying anymore because they just keep talking robotically to each other. I don't even pay much attention to the side stories anymore since they add very little to the episodes, if at all.

Yikes. That was bad. Really bad. Really, really, really bad. We're not just talking "worst of the series", "worst of the year", or maybe even "worst of the decade". Oh no. I think this is up there with the absolute "worst ever TV episode ever". Yeah. That bad. Before this one, the episode that held this title was the pilot episode of the 2013 TV series, We Are Men, the ill-fated attempt to create a Sex In The City kind of show for men. Now, I'm still not sure "High Ground" is actually worse than the witless, hubris-filled junk that was We Are Men, but it was sure written as an episode that competes with We Are Men's level of shoehorning. Let's start. First, Zoe Powell and Devin Gamble are out on a hike. They don't have their SWAT gear, they don't have their usual equipment...what they've brought with them is the usual hiker's gear. Plus each have a gun. Not a big gun, just a pistol, but still a gun. Reasonable for what they were doing. ...but then Gamble stumbles on a marijuana drug operation and her and Powell stumbles on a pregnant woman who just happens to work at that operation. The pregnant woman's partner shows up, flashes his gun at Gamble and Powell, takes Gamble's cell phone and one of their guns (can't remember which one) and tries to get them to come with him to the grow op but Gamble and Powell make a break for it, as they have that opportunity. At this point, there's nothing at all sideways about the episode (well, sort of...but I'll get to that later). However, things take a nonsensical turn once Gamble and Powell are in the clear. Once they are out of danger, Gamble wants to go into the op to save the pregnant woman. Powell- who is a strange choice for "the voice of reason" in this instance given her own recklessness- then reminds her about all the disadvantages they face: They have one gun with two bullets They have no communications devices except for one cell phone that is out of signal in their area They have no tactical gear or other supplies They are simply two women who, while very trained at physical combat, are still going up against a well-organized, well-funded and well-trained cartel Powell further explains that six miles down the hill is the highway where they could call in for help or get a driver to call in for help. In other words, going back to the grow op to save the pregnant woman is a suicide mission. No other way of putting it. So, what does Gamble do? "Naw, we're SWAT! We can take them on all by ourselves! Plus the pregnant woman won't survive without our intervention!" Uh...Gamble...you're SWAT. You're not Wonder Woman. There's also no guarantee that the pregnant woman will survive if you intervene, or that she won't survive if you don't. However, this writer really wanted a "you go girl!" episode so badly that, instead of making Gamble and Powell smart, the writer had to contrive an episode full of luck so badly just so Gamble and Powell can play the hero and come out not worse for wear because of it. There are just no words to describe how stupid that all is. In real life, Gamble would be leading herself and Powell into a death trap. ...and all for what? A pregnant woman they barely know? I get it...this is Hollywood. Pregnant women are a small slot below children in the hierarchy of "we have to save them". The kind of distressed victim that writers will do everything in their power- even if it means sacrificing the integrity of their characters, the storylines or any kind of rational sense- to get those victims alive, safe, and relatively unharmed. ...but, here's the thing. Gamble and Powell didn't have to be stupid just to save the pregnant woman. Fleeing to the highway and calling in backup could have still given us an episode where the pregnant woman- and the rest of the cartel's workers- get saved. The only difference is that Gamble and Powell wouldn't get to play "hero" all by themselves...but, we don't need them to play hero just so they can look badass. In fact, being stupid, reckless characters who get by purely because of luck is about as un-badass as you can get. They weren't the only ones carrying around a massive, giant Idiot Ball for this episode. Let's go back to that pregnant woman's partner...the one who decided it was a good idea to flash a gun at two civilians. Yes, Gamble had, just seconds before, discovered the grow op...but the partner didn't know that. In fact, he could have avoided the officers sniffing around by pretending that the pregnant woman is his wife and he's just a hiker like they are. Now, the officers might still get suspicious and get on his trail anyway...but if I was pregnant woman's partner and I was running a cartel grow op, the last thing I'd want to do is draw attention to myself. Sure, there's a good chance the police might still find me suspicious and start digging anyway...but, by at least trying not to draw attention to myself, it might help the cartel buy some more time, it might make the cops not believe I'm a part of it, and I might get lucky and the cops don't pick up the scent of a cartel at all. Of course, pregnant woman's partner wasn't the only dumb one in this episode. I could get into the cartel's skeleton operations where, seemingly, patrollers looking for Powell and Gamble are too lazy to actually do their jobs and have awareness skills worse than the village idiot. For a supposedly "well funded cartel", Powell and Gamble sure were able to sneak around in the open almost unopposed. Then there's the boss...who has to be the stupidest cartel boss in the world. Let's recap his method for "staying in the wind": he takes all of his workers (which I presume also includes the ones who were supposedly looking for Powell and Gamble) and he kills them all right after harvesting the product he's going to sell. Now, such a "scorched earth" policy might make sense if the grow op was compromised, but this cartel guy didn't just torch this grow-op- he torches all of his grow ops, meaning that whenever he wants to set up a new grow-op, he'll need to find a new location and hire a new batch of workers. What does he think he's running? A McDonald's? You can't just pick people up off the street- finding the people needed to run a cartel (especially the ones who do the heavy lifting, such as smuggling, surveillance, counter operations against law enforcement, accounting, etc.) are very hard to find, not just because finding people in the criminal underworld is inherently very hard to begin with. No, the cartel's heavy operators are people with certain skills, ones that are not easy to train or to find even if you were looking for them for legal operations. I know the show tried to justify it by arguing "dead men tell no tales", but in this case, that reasoning is completely erroneous. They do tell tales, because in the 21st century, they leave forensic marks (especially when the dead bodies start piling up), and when the cartel boss starts new operations, he's leaving behind a trail of shell corporations and front businesses that will eventually get picked up. Besides...how many open fields available for grow-ops can you even find? It's not like you can just pick them up off the shelf at a store. Those fields are hard to hide, even when your operation is perfect. Doing it multiple times means you'll just increase the chances that you'll be found out. I mean, to be fair, a cartel boss who frequently torches his sites isn't necessarily a terrible narrative device on its own...for a paranoid cartel boss, it'd be in character and if he's got some skill, he could cover it up for a while, but his operation would still be under a ticking time bomb and he'd likely still leave a pattern that would expose him. ...and besides, "our heroes being in the right place at the right time" isn't also, a bad narrative device in of itself. This show has used that device to great effect. The problem is that here, within the context of all the other stupidity and contrivances that occurred in this episode, the cartel boss being reckless and paranoid is awfully convenient writing and just amplifies just how stupid and reckless everyone else was in this episode. Small wonder that Gamble and Powell could be stupid and reckless and get the chance to "play hero"...the villains they were up against were just as stupid and reckless as they were, with a big side of utter incompetence and laziness, because our cartel boss "got what he paid for". In short, this is just a mess of stupidity all around that requires so many "saving throws" from the author just to work that it blows up the entire concept of the "suspension of disbelief" utterly and completely. There is just nothing at all redeemable about this, and because of that, this episode has to rank as one of the worst episodes TV has ever made. Not since We Are Men has a TV show exhibited this level of hubris and wilful obliviousness. The only difference might be that, while We Are Men forgot that comedies require levity, it didn't try to pass itself off as a serious endeavour. S.W.A.T., on the other hand is trying to be a serious endeavour, which makes this episode's failures so glaring. Because there's no way you can at all take this episode seriously when there's just so much stupidity gets to pass within the episode.

This was a bit "ho hum", though it was a watchable hour and a stark improvement over what we had been getting before. Did the show get a new directive at some point this season that has led to dramatically improved writing, or are we just getting lucky? I bring up that last part because of this episode planting the seeds of a Bode relapse, of which I will say, in no uncertain terms: NO. DON'T EVEN GO THERE SHOW. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. Look, Bode's already backslid once already. We don't need to play that story again, and this show is getting far better because they're not retreading the old stories and they're allowing the characters to create new ones. That is what the show should be doing moving forward. Not backsliding. Still, it was nice to see some context to the moment it slipped all away for Bode in the first place, and making it up with his old coach was nice, even if the coach gave him drugs when he shouldn't have. I also quite enjoyed Jake's awkward attempt to come out of his shell and finally ask a woman out. I suppose we'll see where this goes, because Jake said he didn't want a one-night stand, so we'll see if this new love is more than a one-episode wonder. Then there's Vince, learning to embrace his vulnerability. If I was Sharon, I'd right to question his motives after Vince proposed to her so soon after he proposed to his ex. Vince patching things up by exposing more of his damaged side was a nice touch. Finally...I guess the guy with the guano was sacrificed to give Bode- and the team- another painful reminder that the reality of emergency work means not everyone makes it. I guess it works. Feels a little unceremonious, but...I suppose I should commend the show for using a male death to provide some angst instead of using women like many other shows- including this one- did before. Oh, and one more thing... I know I talked about backsliding before and Luke brought up Bodiella...well, I'm OK with that because, as much as I want Bode to go with Audrey (sadly MIA in this episode), Bode will have to figure out his love path at some point. I just hope that when he makes that ultimate commitment, it's with Audrey, not Gabriella...so that, at least, maybe Gabby can move on to more meaningful plots.

Cabrera (played by Brigette Kali Canales) is only a recurring character. Canales isn't a member of the main cast like Annie Illonzeh (Devin Gamble) or David Lim (Victor Tan) are. So it's not as unexpected that Cabrera misses a few episodes, unlike Gamble and Tan who, as main characters, should be in every one.

I agree with your points, @possibilities, and I'd like to add that of the two big tragedies the show has given us- Rebecca in S1 and Cara in S2- they have both been women, so killing a third woman off is not a good look (and not just because it feeds that long running cliche of how Hollywood treats female deaths). I just think that an Audrey tragedy could actually work if that's the narrative choice, simply based on how they've built it. It doesn't mean I would actually want them to do it- just because you can doesn't mean you should. Besides, now that I think of it, Walter's impending tragedy might be the more interesting story. Seeing the Leones go through those final moments of joy before the inevitable end could make for some nice stories, and Audrey could help them get through it. ...and help them write a new chapter once it's all said and done. I suppose the wildcards in the Audrey story as "Bodiella" and Leven Rambin herself. On the former, it will all go down to whether or not the writers are still convinced "Bodiella" is the viable endgame. I'm not and it looks like the writers may be realizing this too, but you never know with Hollywood. The part about Rambin is less certain. I'm going to guess the show may hold off on announcing if she'll join the main cast until this season wraps up, but I think Audrey's future depends on whether or not Rambin wants to come back. She may want to leverage her Fire Country fame into a TV series or a movie of her own, and I'd say Rambin has earned that. So I guess we'll see. Maybe all I'm doing is steeling myself for Rambin's potential exit because her future is unknown and anticipating the disappointment may soften the blow. On to another topic. The past two episodes have dealt with the theme of "coming out" in a roundabout and interesting kind of way. In the last episode, it was all about Eve proclaiming about how much love she had for the fantasy genre and how much it was a part of her and how people need to accept that it's a part of her identity. The speech gave me "coming out of the closet" vibes, which were further cemented by the speech allowing Eve to win Francine's heart. In this episode, Eve helps someone else come out of the closet to his own father and, though we missed the crucial moment where Cole's son declares his orientation, we at least got to see the son's relief at his dad's acceptance. As well as his dad get further into it by giving him dating tips. I find it interesting because Eve's sexuality has hardly been touched upon on this show, a decision I agree with because the show is treating Eve and her lesbianism as completely normal (as the show should). Eve's characterization bucks Hollywood's trend to make a character's queerness the central part of the identity of a queer character, which is something that is long overdue in Hollywood. Furthermore, we've seen Eve go through struggles and pains and rejections and none of that has anything to do with her lesbianism, as we might expect. So I have to appreciate the writers showing a great amount of restraint in that area. Having said that, I have wondered how they might incorporate Eve's sexuality into the storyline, so by doing it where Eve's love of fantasy is an analogue to "coming out" and then by having Eve help someone else come out is a clever and well-played way to broach the subject without compromising the integrity of how the series has gone. In this way, Eve's normality is preserved and the show still gets to broach a very important subject. I have to commend the show on how well they've treated addressing that subject.