dwmarch

The performance review told him to stop using long words. The lesson was not lost on him. Mark snarking "praise Kier" at him was comedy gold.

The innie isn't used to the air the outie is breathing and/or vice versa? I doubt it but it could be a sign of Mark's reintegration manifesting in a subtle way.

I was surprised we didn't get any followup on Kreese and Silver getting blown up. Nice to see Devon again, if only for a second. I think the story in part 3 benefits from narrowing the focus down to the core characters but Devon is still a favorite of mine. Loved the moment with Daniel and the whole Miyagi-do crew coming out in Cobra Kai uniforms. Having said that, these tournament rules seem pretty flexible with the dojo soap opera which has contestants changing teams and dojos changing owners between almost every match. Apparently Miyagi-verse karate inherited some of its rules from WWE. The one thing that took me out of the episode more than anything else was Miguel deciding he wanted to go with Sam and somehow managing to get a ticket on the same flight. Maybe I'm just unlucky but I have ended up on a different flight several times when I was the only one on the ticket! Alas, karate privileges probably suffice to hold a plane and we already know karate privileges suffice to have someone forcibly ejected from a flight!

But of course Silver has tanks of high explosives sitting right next to a loose canister of accelerant on the deck of his boat. And of course this is easily lit by the cherry of a cigar. It seemed like Silver and Kreese were both down and out when the fireworks happened but what do we suppose the chances are that one or both of them jumped clear at the last second? Hollywood explosions can be dodged by being underwater. There is probably a karate move that blocks explosions too and both of them know it.

I'm counting that as more evidence of my theory that karate forms the literal basis for law in this universe. We even had a reference to it being "the old ways" which are apparently still a valid way of settling your differences with a coworker. In most places if you kick a coworker in the chest you get arrested for assault! The part I loved the most about that was that the center piece on the chest was a sensor from the OG 1980's Lazer Tag.

That was hilarious. I love how this show gives us representations of weaponized bureaucracy. And now I'm rethinking this scene. At first I thought she was a die hard true believer. But as you have reminded me, she didn't say anything. A true believer would have said they loved the paintings or some other ass-kissing remark. Natalie choosing to just dismiss the question tells us she also has "complex" feelings on the subject. I think this also ties into what Milchick was getting at with Natalie. He basically asked her "do you also have to put up with this bullshit?" and the paperclips thing is a great example. Are you trying to tell me that Lumon employees have trouble telling how to read something because the paperclip is backwards? God forbid these people should ever encounter a toilet paper roll that is put on the wrong way! I have a feeling they'll figure it out soon enough but now that they know Helly is an Eagan, why aren't they trying to use that to their advantage? If Helena can pretend to be Helly, Helly can pretend to be Helena too. I thought this actually happened in the first season when they encountered the goats for the first time. The guy who was herding them was deferential and scared he was going to be in trouble and after the season 1 finale, I thought back to that moment and thought it was because he thought he was in the presence of Helena Eagan rather than Helly R. Here's hoping Devon divorces Ricken. That is one of the great mysteries of the show to me. How does she put up with this pompous prick?

Yes, they are all wearing the exact same style of coat. They are also all wearing pants which should have raised suspicion since Helly shouldn't really know what those are and should be somewhat amazed by them. Then again, this episode showed us that the innies aren't quite as child-like as we would expect them to be and they seem to know some things that definitely shouldn't be in the company handbooks. Mark did reintegrate but as with Petey, it's not just combining the two identities into a single one. It's more of a process of flipping back and forth but outside of Lumon's control. Mark briefly switches back to Scout when he's knocking boots with "Helly" but I'm pretty sure he intentionally shook it off. That raises the question of what will happen when the innie and the outie don't agree on which way to go. I think every member of the team is going to struggle with this.

What are they so mad at Irv for? He's just helping Helly practice for the "bobbing for pineapples" activity! I'm curious to see what the logic ends up being for this excursion. Was Lumon trying to drive the team apart? Or maybe bring them together by giving them a chance to air out their dirty laundry? In any case, epic fail on Lumon's part. So there is a barrier that can keep an outie active during innie time. Interesting, I imagine we'll be seeing that in action again soon enough. Helena having sex with Mark is going to be an interesting conversation with HR. Yes, she is an Egan so she presumably gets a lot of leeway but that is taking it a little far.

Saying that she got the exact same gift reads to me like a half-assed attempt at solidarity but also a subtle plea for Milchick to go along if he wants to get along. Milchick was wise enough not to verbally respond with "bitch, please" but he thought it loudly enough that she got the message. It'll be interesting to see what side Natalie lands on. I think she's a true believer but there is a tiny bit of empathy there, buried deep beneath the combination of fear and privilege that comes with being a higher up at Lumon.

What the glorious fuck is going on?! The goat herders are an eclectic bunch and they seem to be concerned about human-kangaroo hybrids. They also know Ms. Casey. We finally encountered someone else who knows what that spooky elevator is all about. Something to do with "exports". O&D used to do it themselves but now "a guy" is sent. Lumon re-did all the old Keir paintings to make Keir black! I get the impression that Milchick is not as impressed by this as he is supposed to be. Not sure if they fixed his screensaver yet. Lots of Natalie in this episode, she seems to be playing a bigger role this season. Nice to see that Dylan's visiting wife is his actual wife. I thought they'd trick him with a fake wife. And how exactly did they pull all that gear out of the security office to turn it into a little lounge so quickly? Loved Mark (outie) dunking on Ricken's book and Devon kind of agreeing. Also loved Mrs. Cobel getting an invite to speak to the board and noping the fuck out of there. Reminded me of a similar scene in Goodfellas. That end scene was awesome. Same thing as a Lumon orientation but in reverse and now presumably Mark S and Mark Scout are one. Very well done visuals, music, everything.

When S31 first appeared in DS9, it was a Federation black ops outfit, entirely separate from Starfleet but able to infiltrate them at will. Enterprise may have retconned some of this in their brief appearances there. Disco made S31 part of Starfleet and even gave them shiny black combadges. But even in this movie they kinda sorta differentiate them by having Garrett there as an outsider. If S31 was just some distant branch of Starfleet, she wouldn't be an outsider. I think this is a problem that has carried over from Disco, which suffered from writers who didn't really understand organizations all that well and who squished a lot of separate structures into interchangeable things (such as the Federation President micromanaging Starfleet). This movie started life as a series but then Michelle Yeoh had to go and win that Oscar. Speaking of which, we could have avoided this whole situation in this movie if San had just told Georgiou that he wanted to do laundry and taxes with her. I am also curious when San had time to watch The Princess Bride which seems to be where he got his "build up immunity to poison by taking tiny amounts of it every day" gambit. Strangely enough, there is a DS9 novel called "Control" about Section 31 and its rogue AI. This was published long before Disco did the exact same story in season 2.

I think we have our answer right there, in Papa Egan's very bitter words. Between that and their weirdly tense bathroom conversation in 1x10, I get the impression that Helena is just as rebellious as her innie but in some other way that brings disrepute to the family/company with this incident being just the latest in a long line of previous ones. And we do see how good Helena is at giving an apology. In any case, long story short, I don't think she's there entirely by choice.

That new opening title sequence is... intense. I had to skip it in the first season, my brain did not like it. I'm glad we got to see what was going on with Helena so soon. I thought that was going to be held for somewhere around the end of the season. Speaking of which, I haven't counted but I feel like we have seen almost as much of Helena as we have of Helly now. Mark's outie was engaging in some strong denial there, insisting "SHE'S ALIVE!" meant the baby. Umm dude, no one thought the baby was dead. Another entry in the Milchick-as-OJ-Simpson file: Milchick in a leather jacket riding around on a motorcycle terminating people. OJ Simpson was almost cast as the Terminator. Having said that, I have worked for a few employers who would absolutely be fully onboard with severance if it was a real thing.

They still understand the importance of it though, as shown with Dylan asking Irv "you poor up there or what?"