KerleyQ

Didn't HWR say something to Loki about reincarnation when he was explaining why he'd just let Sylvie kill him without fighting back?

What gets me is how much every character buys fully into it. The main thing that pissed me off about this most recent Bridge reunion was Ridge allowing Taylor to spew her lies about Brooke, while hiding her own culpability in nuking their friendship, without calling her out on it or standing up for Brooke. Ridge knew damn well that, before Brooke even thought about going after him, Taylor had already thrown herself at him without even an ounce of subtlety. I get that Taylor is always going to be a big part of his life, and he's always going to have some level of affection for her, but if he's truly choosing Brooke, and only Brooke now, then he needs to have her back. I may hate everything about Hope letting Thomas into her life, but I really loved when Steffy, thinking she was playing some trump card to shame Hope, said "I guess you're turning into your mother after all," and Hope had zero fucks to give about that and said she realizes there's nothing wrong with that after all. After who knows how long of Hope always thinking she had to do some kind of karmic good girl routine to atone for her birth, and Brooke thinking that Hope is better than her, with Steffy/Taylor happily helping that bullshit along, it's nice to see Hope take that bullet out of their guns. You could see how much at a loss Steffy was when it happened. Liam: "Um, who?" Related, if Liam ever tells Steffy how much he loved living with her and raising Kelly and "Phoebe," I'm going to have a rage blackout. Sadly, I feel like that's not something that is out of the question for who Liam is now.

I think it would stand to reason, then, that if he wanted to see her, she'd be able to get through.

He really is. "I can keep you safe" is the new "you're the only woman I love." I'm kind of dying for someone to point out to him that he's acting just like Thomas.

It was so good, but I feel so sad. I'm hoping we've got one more season coming (at least). For one thing, I need my Loki/Thor reunion. I need Thor to see how truly good and heroic Loki was. That relationship is such a big part of both characters, that it would be a shame to not have that moment. It wasn't until a while after we finished watching that I realized they left some threads dangling. I think they have some groundwork laid for a third season. We've got the return of Miss Minutes. Ravonna is at the end of time and could potentially have a conversation with HWR, where she finds out that Miss Minutes's version of events does not match up with his version. (That part is just my theory. I think that Miss Minutes was threatened by the Ravonna/HWR relationship, and she erased her memory of her own accord, not on his orders). Oh, and while this reset appears to have left young Victor Timely alone, his name is still in the TVA manual, which makes me think that he could still end up getting dragged back into things somehow, if someone were to go looking for him. But, like I said, I feel sad. Loki wanted his friends back. He wanted to hang out with Mobius and the rest of the gang. And he gave it all up. And, as someone who has never liked Sylvie very much, it irks me that she got to go out to a world of endless possibilities, getting exactly the happy ending she wanted, and that was on the back of Loki making such a huge sacrifice and not getting his happy ending. Oh, and I wonder why the new TVA didn't find some way to allow people to go back to their own timelines and lives while still working. Like, just make it a normal job (with travel, obviously). I'm thinking a situation where Mobius can still work there, but he can also still go home to his boys. It wouldn't be quite a routine 9-5 situation, but with the abilities TVA agents have, couldn't they kind of straddle both their TVA existence and their "real" lives? God, Tom Hiddleston was incredible, in every episode, really, but especially in this one. Give him all the awards. I was a little bummed we didn't get some post credits outtakes of Loki's science lessons with OB.

Since Liam found out about Sheila/Deacon, has he expressed a single ounce of concern about Hope and Beth being dragged into Sheila's life? Or is it solely just another vehicle for him to try to break up Steffy's marriage because, dammit, it's been too long since he got laid? This is one of the main reasons I wanted to punch Taylor when she was whining about Hope having custody of Douglas. I don't know if it was directed, or if it was how KA chose to play it, but those scenes really had an undercurrent of Taylor being angry with Steffy for spilling the beans before they got married. I've never been able to understand the whole "Saint Taylor" thing. I wasn't around for much of her early years, but everything I've seen since I started watching the show flies right in the face of the idea that she's some pure and good character. It's just that all of her sins get swept under the rug, with nobody ever allowed to bring them up or call her on them. And if anybody dares to try, she just gets all condescending and projects her own bullshit onto them.

I'm half-expecting some future scene where the two of them are going at it in the living room, and we see Liam and Sheila angrily looking in from two different windows.

Today's Bill/Liam scenes suffered the absence of Wyatt. He would have been the one to point out to Liam that Steffy didn't let him know she was home, because she went right to her husband. And Liam trying to pretend he wasn't trying to steal Steffy from Finn until he started calling Sheila "mom" was all kinds of bullshit. He started sniffing around her the second he saw Hope kissing Thomas. Sheila is just the excuse he tells himself so he can pretend to be a good guy.

"But nobody's heart is breaking more than Ridge's." Oh, for fuck's sake. Is that really what we're going to do here? Eric is dying, but everyone must prioritize Ridge? Brooke won't be able to deal with her own grief over someone who is one of her best friends because she has to focus on soothing Ridge? Her son is standing right next to her, obviously in anguish over his grandfather, but it's got to be all about Ridge? Her sister is going to be devastated by losing the love of her life, but it's got to be all about Ridge? Two of her children are going to lose their father, but Ridge's stoic man pain is going to be the only pain that counts? I can't hate on Steffy for decking Sheila. That's the least of what she owes her for shooting the two of them and leaving them to die in an alley. Also, Deacon should have to keep dealing with and witnessing everyone in town telling her off, asking him what the fuck is wrong with him, and reminding him that he cannot, in fact, keep her in check with his love. Maybe it will finally rattle something loose in his brain to get him to wonder what in the everloving fuck he's doing. He's a successful restaurant owner, he's attractive and charming. He can find someone without all of Sheila's baggage to rock his world in bed and call him "daddy." (Gag.)

Either that, or he'll tell Katie, she'll tell Donna, who will decide to keep it quiet, and then Donna can be the bad guy, instead of Ridge, when the truth eventually comes out.

I think this is what Loki was leaning on, that Mobius would come with him, they'd fix everything, and then he would be able to drop him right back to that exact point (similar to Hulk's assurances to The Ancient One in Endgame). He was being kind of simplistic and optimistic in his explanation, but, to be fair to him, if Mobius didn't go with him, and they don't fix it, he and his boys would just be spaghettied right out of existence, so... I thought it was cute that Mobius's kids were basically Loki and Thor. You have the mischievous one causing trouble and the more responsible one who likes snakes.

OK, so, Charlie and Pam never married, but it seems they were still in a relationship, right? Pretty shitty of Charlie to be flirting with, kissing, and making plans with another woman without ending his existing relationship first. I liked the fashion show, but really could have done without Esther and Marie Osmond. If they hadn't been so annoying, I might have liked Ridge for a minute when he put Countess Botox in her place, but they were, so, meh. I know they were keeping the "who designed what" thing from the guests, but I wish they would have made it a little easier for viewers to figure out who designed what. I think, of those last two white gowns that were side by side at the end, the more pure white one with the full skirt was Eric's, based on his expressions when it was out there, so I'm guessing that the more cream/champagne strapless dress was Ridge's? (I also think that's the one Esther chose). I can see Ridge winning but finding out about Eric's health and cooking the numbers so that it looks like Eric won. But, I can also see Ridge refusing to sell two of that dress (if it was his) to Esther and Marie being the thing that loses him the competition. At least their appearance and sniping would have some storyline relevance that way.

And they said she was going to come back for a fitting, so why wouldn't she just leave the gown there instead of bringing it back and forth?

I'm predicting Brad is going to have a Skurge-like ending at some point, sacrificing himself to save others, as he feels too much guilt over everything he's taken part in. I've thought for pretty much this whole season so far that Miss Minutes is the real villain. I don't think anything she says about HWR or her own creation is true. I think she created TVA and she recruited him to be her figurehead. I kind of go back and forth on how I think she existed to start with, but my most recent thought is that there is actually a real person behind her, like someone's consciousness that got trapped in the cloud (this may be heavily influenced by the fact that I've been watching the new season of Upload), or something similar. I don't think HWR wanted Ravonna's memory wiped, I think that was all Miss Minutes. She obviously sees Ravonna and HWR (or any of his variants) teaming up as a threat, as evidenced by her turning on Ravonna in Chicago and getting Timely to cut her loose. So, she likely saw how close they were and went and wiped her memory to split them. I give the show credit, Timely turning into spaghetti was definitely a shocking moment. I'm wondering if maybe the TVA imploding will dump everyone back to wherever they were picked up from, leaving them all trying to figure out how to get back to each other. That would serve the dual purpose of being the conflict for the 5th episode along with showing us Mobius in his timeline existence. When I suggested that was what will happen to all of them, right after we watched this episode, my son said "so Mobius will be zapped right onto a jet ski?" Yeah, she can stop whining any time now. They're all running around desperately trying to save who knows how many people from her fuck-up, and she's just being super shitty to everyone about it. Like they're all supposed to bend over and kiss her ass because she didn't compound her fuck-up by also killing Timely, and because she finally deigned to come help them, after refusing before. I know a lot of people saw that scene where Loki talked about how caring about someone didn't make Thor weak as some grand declaration of love about Sylvie, but I think he was just talking about caring about people in general. Because he cares about Sylvie, sure, but he also cares about Mobius, OB, and the rest of the people at the TVA. And, hell, humanity in general. And, I may be in the minority among most viewers, but I see zero romantic tension/chemistry between the two of them this season. They seem far more like siblings now. I'll fully admit that I was never on the Loki/Sylvie ship, but I an acknowledge that the romantic tension and chemistry were there in season 1. But I really don't see any of it this season. He cares about her, absolutely, but, like I said, it seems more like a sibling kind of thing. And, from her end, I don't think she's into him at all. I think she just wants this all to be over so she can go live some quiet life somewhere away from all of it. He's the person she trusts most there, but I don't think it goes beyond that. Hell, at some points in time, I think she resents him. And I don't think she'll ever understand how he got so on board with the TVA. They had something in common in season 1. They have nothing in common now. (Other than, you know, both being Loki's).

I wonder if it has something to do with the strike and with needing to work a certain amount to maintain insurance. Since soaps seem to be the only gig anyone can take while the SAG strike is on, maybe we're going to be seeing people taking one or two day stints on the soaps for a while? (I'm not one hundred percent sure how that whole insurance thing works, and if there's some kind of grace period for strikes, so I may be totally off, this is just speculation.)

Did Charlie and Pam ever get married? And they couldn't come up with a less ridiculous reason for her to miss her brother-in-law's and nephew's show, at the company she works for, than she was baking lemon bars? I mean, I know they like to lean into the lemon bar thing and all, but that was just lazy.

"A complete deficit of self-awareness." Nailed it.

I thought initially, before the competition idea came about, he was in the office, seemingly feeling nostalgic, and asked Ridge about working together on a line. Ridge was really dismissive, encouraging him to just spend more time with Donna and more time at the club playing pickleball, and that was what led to Eric deciding he wanted to do his own line and compete. After that, they kind of dropped it a bit, in favor of focusing on Thomas/Hope/Liam/Steffy/Finn. But then they picked it back up with the competition and showed RJ helping Eric, and it was like everyone involved forgot all about those initial Ridge/Eric scenes in the office. As an aside, the glimpses we've gotten of Eric's designs so far are probably the only designs I've liked on this show in who knows how long. Unless he's really upped his game this time, or RJ is somehow making his designs better than his vision, I'm failing to see how buyers prefer Thomas's designs to when Eric and Zende were designing for HFTF. I typically cringe at most of Thomas's designs that everyone at FC ends up heaping praise on.

It's like without Wyatt, they still need someone for Liam to talk to who will lay some truth on him, so they just gave Thomas the Wyatt role in that conversation, listening to him whine and then getting in some sarcastic digs. They could have just dragged Bill out of mothballs so he could play that role, though.

"I think my dad should know." Well, don't worry, RJ, because Aunt Katie knows now, so the entire state of California should know by the end of the week. Am I remembering wrong? Didn't Eric originally tell Ridge that he wanted to design one last line and ask him to work together on it? And Ridge all but shooed him out of the office? I roll my eyes every time Ridge acts like this is something Eric is doing to him, and he doesn't get why his father is insisting on this competition instead of working together. Ridge acting like this is something Eric is doing to him out of the blue, and his thirst to bury his father in this competition is really off-putting.

And, really, the story makes Li look like a bigger bitch. So, the more powerful married (and I'll bet older) man started an affair with a much lower on the totem pole gift shop clerk, possibly got her pregnant, and then blamed Li for the affair, and Li's ire is for her sister and her sister's completely innocent daughter?

In an earlier episode, when Loki heard that recording of Renslayer and HWR, it kind of sounded to me like they were romantically involved. So I'm wondering if the secret Miss MInutes is going to tell her is that they were but then, at some point, Renslayer's memory got wiped, and he was done with her. I could see Renslayer having a previous romantic history with HWR being the reason that Miss Minutes was so quick on the draw to separate her and Victor as soon as she saw them getting cozy. Maybe she was the one who wiped Renslayer's memory, not HWR, because the two of them being involved puts a crimp in her plans. At this point, I'm honestly wondering if he really created her, or if she kind of created him, so to speak. I think she's the real "big bad" when it comes to the TVA. I'm sure that his variants being largely evil is true, and he was helping keep them at bay, but I also think that it's possible that he was working for her at the TVA, because she needed a figurehead. I still haven't fully worked through my theory of how she came to exist, but I think she did exist somehow before HWR became a part of the TVA. I'm also working on a theory that the TVA workers actually aren't variants, in the sense that they weren't timeline hopping and got picked up and turned into workers. I think that Miss Minutes has just been identifying people who have certain skills or fit certain needs, and having them brought in and their memories wiped. Or maybe its a mixed bag of some variants and some people who were just plucked out of their lives. I feel like we're going to find out that Mobius was not a variant. Since she's been living in Oklahoma in the early 80's, I've been assuming she got that mullet-like atrocity to fit in.

I really fear the show is trying to "redeem" Sheila. They started with Li being a complete bitch to her niece, since just going right to her being a bitch to Sheila wouldn't really ding Li's character. I mean, who can blame her for forever hating Sheila if that is the only person she's ever mean to? So, they start with the Luna story, to establish Li as an overbearing bitch. Then they move to her being so mean to poor widdle Sheila, who is just trying to work and is being so understanding of how bitchy Li is being to her. Why, she even brought her a free meal, and there's Li breaking a glass and shoving her face into a plate of pasta. I'm surprised they didn't bring in a truckload of extras to load the restaurant to capacity and have them all look on with horror at Li's behavior.

I don't mind anyone ripping Liam for the asshole he's being, but Thomas, of all people, talking to him about going after a married woman is a bit rich.

Dammit, B&B! I like Annika even more now: