sjohnson

Jumping to the end, Dutch conquers all. Sufficiently woobified villains all survive, due to Dutch's heroism and miraculous generosity of spirit. One or more awesome characters die in a tribute to Dutch's even greater awesomeness. To book end, "The warrant is all!" comes up, naturally or not. Nothing in the plot actually matters. The only real question is, Dutch/Johnny? The show has, despite its risque talk, always committed to the proposition that platonic love is the purest love. So desecrating Dutch's coolness with real love, including actually needing someone as a person rather than a doll, pet or trophy, would be kind of a let down. So slightly more likely Dutch sacrifices happiness in the name of purity, and no D/J. I think. But Johnny's self-sacrifice being the greatest tribute of all still seems a distinct possibility. (If it was me, I'd have Dutch marry both, splitting MWF and TThS, and Sundays to rest. But then I don't think much of platonic relationships outside of extreme mismatches in age or sexual preference or species.)

Wasn't following here, but recognized Santiago Cabrera and instantly realized Liam was engaged in a ploy. The episode's excitement relied on this, so it was kind of flat. The phrase "Q-17" may be new but these are just the replacements for Monroe Bennett and his moll. These were the guys who want to use the asteroid to wipe out all potential enemies. For my part, although I'm quite sure the producers are right-wing enough to think a rebel group is the vilest thing on Earth, just as they think Elon Musk really is a hero for the ages. Despite this, the plot is that Darius Tanz has taken out the only force willing to trash enough real estate values to make the "dark money" pause. At this point, it would make just as much sense for Darius to be the dark money. But maybe John Noble will return?

The overall plot depends on two things, so far as I can see. Is it plausible that Lucy, a hard cartelista, wouldn't kill Smurf for fear of eventual revenge from the sons? If so, her being satisfied with a confession to split the family and neutralize their long-term threat makes a little bit of sense. True, it nevertheless seems unlikely she wouldn't just have random unknown hit men take out the Cody boys, one by one. But maybe she's not that high up in the gang and no one will approve that much work for her personal revenge? For the sake of the story, give it a rest. The other thing of course, would Smurf have Baz killed if she knew where the money was, rather than simply stealing it back? Sorry but that seems unlikely. And waiting hours and hours after Baz' death to send her minions really seems incredibly imprudent. Smurf surely worried about someone else getting the stash, which is why Lucy's survival in the first place is so suspect. If Smurf didn't know right away that Baz was dead, it would explain the delay. Also, whoever first broke into the stash passed on the hard to fence jewelry and precious metals. Lucy had the resources to fence the stuff. As for Mia, the apparent trigger, she works for J. Really the logical conclusion is that this was more a crime of passion than a heist. J killed Baz for leaving him with Julia the junky. It's not even clear that Baz needed to be killed for the hoard to be stolen. J "trusts" Mia because they have something on each other/in common. At this point, having Smurf actually be the murderer seems more like bad writing that being true to the story, even if you correctly accept that Smurf is entirely capable of murdering Baz. The question is, why? To get even? Risking a murder charge for the pleasure of getting even, is that really Smurf? PS Mia moving in is using leverage on this theory. And J investing in a living for Mia and a really nice house isn't blind love either. But no, don't think Mia would be satisfied with a closet with bathroom fittings.

Re the unbelievability of Connor's mad dog tendencies...I don't know about the book but it appears Connor is the unmasked Kreizler. Kreizler is in charge of the pursuit, officially, suppressing Howard,, and Connor was in charge of the coverup, sexually abusing Howard. Howard displaces Kreizler as the true leader, Connor is fired. Kreizler poses as a friend to the alienated and outcast to control them (as Cyrus' daughter told us,) Connor murders Van Bergen. Kreizler reaps the reward of years of grooming and rapes Mary, Connor kills her. Connor doesn't act like a real person might, he performs as a symbol of Kreizler's true self. He's Kreizler's id, displaced into a superficially separate person.This might seem a little odd at first, but much of the series so far has been about exposing the awfulness of Kreizler, who is in dramatic terms the undetected villain of the series.

Don't understand at all what Connor was doing at Kreizler's house. And I'm not sure the show knows either. If the plan was to kill Kreizler, the plan was always to kill everyone, so why is Stevie alive? If the plan was to rape Mary, why would they target her and leave Cyrus as a witness? Why didn't Mary run when Cyrus gave her the chance? What was she trying to stop Connor from doing when she ran to attack him, seizing a knife instead of an opportunity? The father's photographs, the mother's emotional abuse and a neighbor's sexual abuse don't seem to add up to me. Adam Dury disliked his mother is what I got. Connor has his own murder to cover up, so he has to do what Byrne tells him. But Byrne's motive in attempting Kreizler's murder is embarrassment for the NYPD? The first Great Depression is going on, they don't have other things to think about? (Yes, there were two Great Depressions.)

Given that Carol lied to Lucy about her father's parentage all her life, I'm not sure how Carol could have told Lucy about her great-grandfather without giving that game away. The mystery of what the sleepers are doing is what the team is going to solve with Flynn's help, so at this point I think it is supposed to be unclear what they're doing. But more and more I am wondering why Carol didn't raise her daughter as a good little Rittenhouse? Do they have their own version of Lucy's journal, information from the future that has come back into the past?

It's about revenue, which largely depends on the ratings. Timeless is half produced by NBC as I understand it, which lowers the bar. (The other half is Sony I think.) Some of the money paid to the production by NBC for the right to air the show comes right back to a different division. And I'm pretty sure the show's budget has been cut. Even so, to be in good health Timeless needs ad revenue which is generally higher for higher ratings. Timeless is down in the pits with Madam Secretary. It got beat by Deception. Now, it's not an automatic out. Deception is losing roughly half its audience lead in, while Timeless is largely keeping its. And a good proportion of Madam Secretary is older, which is likely less ad revenue unless Madam Secretary is a show that appeals to higher income audience. The income date is particularly important, which is why it's not commonly reported, I think. If Timeless is keeping more of its audience lead in than the previous NBC, it's not sunk yet. NBC won't replace the show until they have hopes of something that does even better *and* they don't have another time slot they think their new show(s) might be better yet in. If it's losing share, I think NBC will gamble on anything, no matter what. My guess is that Timeless will depend on keeping its lead much better than Deception (done the first week,) and beating Madam Secretary (not.)

When Connor solved something or other somehow that gave them access to the mother ship's travel logs. It was explicitly said there was a record of ten journeys to the past, and a comment that Emma's trips to erase the sister(=save Carol's life) couldn't have been the purpose for all of them. At this point, if I remember correctly, the script told Wyatt that Rittenhouse's strategy was sleeper agents. According to the dialogue, it was the examples of Emma's years in Missouri and the deduction that the Rittenhouse officer had risen in the ranks that gave him the idea of long term operatives, instead of short-timers storming in like commandos in Flynn's raids. The diary was supposed to give more information but for some inexplicable reason it will be Flynn who can draw the useful intelligence from it. Well, inexplicable in fictional universe terms. In writing room terms, it's so he has a reason to be around.

Lucy going dark would have been shooting her mother with that rifle. The idea of making someone kill another to prove their loyalty is a bit of a cliche. The mother knew perfectly well that Lucy shooting the soldier proved nothing at all, because, duress. On the rare occasions this sort of thing is alleged in real life, the idea seems to be that the cops will blame them for the murder, which forecloses going to the cops. Proving duress is much more difficult than alleging it. Inasmuch as time travel renders the cops irrelevant, shooting the soldier proved nothing, as mom clearly knew, except that Emma is not quite rational on Lucy. The show seems to me to have been a little demoralized by NBC. The way that Madame Curie and Irene simply disappeared after their characters weren't useful any more was sloppy. The Rittenhouse sleeper appears to have been there to get copies of Keen's plans, except it was Keen's plans that prompted Rittenhouse time travel researches. This makes no sense, but the only other explanation I can devise is that he was there because Rittenhouse feared the lifeboat crew intervening, as they did. Not wanting to alert the third lifeboat traveler they expected would at least explain why the dude didn't just shoot Wyatt or call for help. Still, even with Malcolm's assist, Wyatt taking out all three was pretty extreme. Still not clear why whozis is relevant?

I hope I didn't hallucinate "Season Finale" flashing on the screen. It's hard to believe USA is bringing this back, and it's all cliffhanger. The discovery that the all powerful villain let the heroine go off screen before the plot begins is depressingly like Jessica Jones first season. That was so arbitrary I couldn't kill my suspension of disbelief. My will isn't that powerful, it needs a little help from the producers, not abuse.

The only constant in this show is that it loves Jason Ritter goofing. So do I. I think this is the end, so I suppose it's appropriate to sum up. When I try, what comes to mind is The Good Place, and why I like this show more, even if an hour long comedy has to be kind of flabby. What I think it comes down to is that this show doesn't think doing good things for your friends is the essence of virtue. Doing bad things to your friends, like taking them for granted, isn't good, of course. But being good means doing good things for strangers. And goodness is not scored. Instead of getting brownie points for having the proper commitment to recycling, reducing carbon footprints, hectoring the wasteful harming the environment, etc., efforts to do good in this show are uncertain, backfire, not obvious. Good deeds have no sales tag telling how much they cost, so you can budget. I guess I see this all as more like real life, and I relate more to it. I feel like there's more to being a good person than making friends, that making friends will of itself turn you from a demon into an angel, though it can help. Bad people have friends.

Yes, plainly Kreizler should relieve Cyrus of his job. And Stevie. They could do so much better than the worst man in the world. I thought Sarah openly hated on the rather helpful doctor at Blackwell's. Sarah's refusal to explain to Moore while insisting on making it perfectly clear something happened was strange. Everyone would be appalled at the results of her investigation into Kreizler, because it confirms Kreizler is unforgivably creepy. (And his limp arm is a classic emasculation symbol.) And no one would forgive the slap. They would all be much happier with her in charge, with Kreizler as her target. Kreizler catching the hint in Roosevelt's observation at the autopsy was the only detecting. I thought it was Byrnes roping in Morgan and Potter in an effort to keep Kreizler from investigating because he's afraid of anyone poking around and finding out about Van Bergen's murder. Stevie kind of liked the apology, though I'm not sure it wasn't for making him wear the dress. But then, he's young enough to hope to get a good job somewhere else, unlike Cyrus. K/Mary...Mary is incompetent to give consent, therefore this is a wrong relationship. Kreizler is correct about Sarah's opinion of John I think, but I don't think Sarah being kind has anything to do with not making it plain she doesn't think he's good enough. This episode is drowning in soap suds.

Hand rolled cigarettes were indeed the norm. Machine rolled cigarettes were luxury goods, but most (all?) of the characters smoking them in the show can afford such luxuries. And it was most certainly bold of Sarah to smoke. That was the sort of thing a George Sand would do.

ABC didn't buy 22 episodes for a full season run. There are more BBC style short seasons as the fracturing markets reduce the amount of money, but for the major broadcast networks, 22 is still pretty standard for a fall series, I think. I think the news in May will be bad.

Because Stevie knew the killer's MO included telling the victims he would take them away to a castle. Most customers in a brothel intend to use the facilities but this man wanted to take Stevie somewhere else

If Connor had boldly walked to the edge where Van Bergen stood, Van Bergen may have pushed him off first. Or grabbed hold of him as he toppled, taking Connor with him. People use guns to kill people because the guns make much easier and safer for them.

Spoilers like crazy! But this is all episodes discussion of a binge show, so I will just space the following. The severity of Anno's wounds is obviously why he was in no condition to return immediately. And his disfigurement was why he wasn't identified immediately. Not returning later was likely much to do with Gereon's flight and subsequent affair with Helga. Anno Shmidt's interest in the film of the Raths' father is perfectly obvious if Anno was born Anno Rath. But not so if he isn't the son too. Also explained is why Shmidt took an interest in Gereon's medication. And Shmidt's influence with Edgar the Armenian (personal doctor) explains why Edgar didn't kill Gereon, either when Gereon killed the Saint or at the train. He was doing that as a favor for his personal physician, who can be very handy if you don't want police investigating theft of your blackmail movies. If Shmidt was not Anno, it is entirely unclear why Gereon wasn't killed for shooting the gang boss in the hand, as well as costing him all that blackmail money (once the news the films were destroyed leaked out, as it would eventually.) If Anno Shimidt wasn't Anno Rath, on the other hand, it is not very clear how Anno Shmidt knew Gereon was lying to himself about the incident. And it is not clear how Shmidt would induce such a revision, or why Gereon would accept it. Lastly, the striking ambiguity in Gereon's sobbing embrace of his brother and the man who was making sure his morphine habit escalated into full addiction would be gone. (I think one reason Helga went for Nyssen was the realization that Rath was a junkie now, as well as a corrupt cop perjuring himself to justify the police murders.) So, I'm in the crowd that reads it literally.

It wasn't sexism, it was humor. She was making fun of him. Sarah is much cooler than John, so this is fitting behavior.

The first sting was very successful in preventing a murder. So I don't know how much of a failure it really was. Sarah's idea of posting the watch inside the brothel didn't take into account the other people, either boys badgering the watchers for business or bystanders blocking the view or pursuit. So I don't know how much of a success it really was. I think real police much prefer to do arrests away from crowds for good reason.

Worst domino? Best domino? The show is questioning its own established premises. This is so meta I figure there's no hope of renewal. Amy has been doing the helping two episodes in a row. Hinting she was really the person they were meant to help?

I'm afraid I hold to the minority view that killing people is worse than having sex with them. As to the brutality to children, Stevie is working for a living and they made him bait for a serial killer. The show is very much a Mad Men exercise in tsk-tsking at out primitive forebears while simultaneously enjoying the louche. I don't know why there's so much love for the woman who plays Mary. I thought she meant to communicate excitement and satisfaction at getting Kreizler's attention of that kind. I do not understand this characters and for me the actress isn't helping. Part of the problem with the guys inside is that if they shoved away boys looking for customers, they would have stood out. They would still have been less conspicuous than if they had put on police uniforms, though. Marcus leaving Cyrus was leaving him in safety, so far as he knew, because he thought the to do was probably a confrontation with the killer. And the dialogue even suggested they hadn't taken to heart the importance of the climbing, stupid as it may seem. Unless it was inserted to remind us that Cyrus was hit because being on the roof he was in the way. I am baffled as to why Sarah was so determined to beat down Kreizler, to beat him at his own game of verbal destruction. For Kreizler, insights into disordered behavior in John and Sarah, unpleasant as it is for them, is practice for insight in the killer. Sarah's investigation of Kreizler instead of the killer suggests that on some level she sees him as a worse threat. At any rate, she won, Kreizler lost all his words, all his superiority. Obviously I think one should leave the group.

Willem does not seem to be a climber. Even more, he gives things, not promises, to seduce his boys. So at this point I have to agree with those who can't see Willem as the killer. But, Willem was identified by one of the victims. The idea that this is just a coincidence is remarkable, and really smells like rotten red herring.

Are the batteries on the space alien nanobot probes running out? Because I'm pretty sure supernatural beings don't get electrocuted. And humans who get electrocuted don't disappear, they just smoke. Tyler kissing Kevin was totally non-gay. The show expects the audience to be cool with men kissing from affection? And not to revise their opinion of Tyler? Not sure they're not living dangerously, but the show has never gotten much of an audience, so I suppose it doesn't matter. The "corpse" opening his eyes was intriguing. I think you gotta love Rockaroni Pizza for the brazen imagination of the thing.

They could have had Moore unveiling his paintings of events in lieu of narration.

To me, Dr. K (solved the spelling crisis!) always looks happy when he gets a rise out of anyone at any moment. But I agree about his fear of leaving himself vulnerable. I still think his physical dependence is a huge problem for him, but that's intertwined with more purely emotional aspects, so yours is the better way of expressing it. Still, I read all these characters as blatantly class conscious in a way that is only acceptable today among the rich, so being the help is a problem for Dr. K, not because of ethical qualms, but because it's slumming. I don't believe John is a man-slut either, but I have to disagree that it isn't a problem for Sarah. But I do very much agree that on one level Sarah doesn't see John as an equal. Overall, being creepy is unforgivable by most everybody, so clearly the show is telling us that Mary is abused and exploited and should be liberated from her oppressor. And this is still true even if the show tries to go back on it. It's the Mad Men dilemma, showing the past and endorsing the past can be tricky to separate.