S02.E20: Collateral Damage

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

Miles weighs the consequences of carrying out the God account's wishes when his new friend suggestion alleges Miles ruined his life when he helped Rose reunite with Lt. Freemont.

Original air date: April 19, 2020

[Nilknarf]

The guy who plays Adam is one of the worst actors I’ve seen in a long time 

BTW did they really say next week is the series finale? Totally unfair!!!

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Nilknarf

[willco]

I was kind of buying the whole setup in this one ( although in real life, people don't very often act as inviting as they do for Miles  like Trevor did, even after Miles 'ruined' his life) , that is until the girl from across the country just happened to show up at the very club the Friend was performing ! That's a coincidence that is really hard to believe. I don't know-- I already have one show that I've suspended all disbelief with (that being Manifest ). I really didn't want to do it with this one. I sure hope the finale it at least somewhat believable.

[Trini]

I'm two commercial break in, and this entire episode seems more dumb than usual.

More thoughts later...

[Trini]

Yeeaaahhh.... so it did not get better. I don't usually do this, but I felt compelled to look up who wrote this episode, and it's 3 new or new-ish people.

Not that it matters at this point-- but the show just proved again that it really sucks at romance drama, and they should just NOT do that. And nearly everything was predictable relationship drama in this one.

The only significant things that happened were Adam dumping Cara (LOL at his only lines being about Miles!), and the God Account possibly being destroyed.

Anyway, I liked Ali's last outfit (cropped marigold sweater), and Rakesh's shirts (lightning bolt tee with flowered blue button-up).

[mommalib]

I;m glad Adam is finally out of the picture. Miles and Cara better a happy ending.

[Yeah No]

So they had enough time to film a 2 hour series finale but we only just found out about the cancellation 5 or so days ago?  Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter now anyway.  At this point I don't even care if the episode was believable or not.  I rolled my eyes when that soul mate showed up.  I just knew that was going to happen, except I thought they were going to find her instead of her just showing up. 

New writers?  I guess the old ones are on to new projects already.  I wouldn't mind being pleasantly surprised but I'm not really holding out much hope that the finale will be much better than this.  They have too much to wrap up in too short a time.   It looks like they're already setting the stage for a Miles and Cara reconciliation but how anticlimactic since we won't be able to appreciate it for very long.

The one thing I am curious about is how they will resolve who's behind the God Account.  If that's done poorly it will probably be more of a disappointment to me than anything else since that's at the core of what this series was about.

Adam was sadly laughable.  His weak voice and delivery made me understand what it might have been like hearing a silent movie star speak for the first time on screen and having it be a huge disappointment, LOL.

[FormerMod-a1]

I wasn't surprised that the soul mate showed up.  Rakesh's app mines information that's online, there was probably some indication in her social media that she was traveling to New York and therefore became part of the pool available to score and match.

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, aquarian1 said:

I wasn't surprised that the soul mate showed up.  Rakesh's ep mines information that's online, there was probably some indication in her social media that she was traveling to New York and therefore became part of the pool available to score and match.

I figured she'd be in NYC, but it's a big stretch between that and her just happening to go to the comedy club at exactly the right moment AND walking up to him.  I guess we're supposed to believe that your true soulmate would show up at your comedy club and introduce themselves to you, but that involves too much suspension of disbelief for me. 

If Rakesh's app was that good why couldn't HE be behind the "God Account"?  I don't see any reason why not.  But of course, he's never been a suspect.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Yeah No

[tennisgurl]

So Adam leaves the show as he entered it...a one note character who exists only to create relationship drama between Miles and Cara. 

I liked the premise of this episode, that Miles's do-gooding can have unintended consequences and that a happy ending for one person might be a crappy ending for other people, and while I thought that Trevor spent a lot of the episode being pretty unsympathetic, I thought the actor sold his heartbreak well, and I like how things basically turned out. His big gesture was a total clusterfuck, and he needs to be alright with the fact that the woman he loves doesn't love him like that, which is just fine, and he needs to move on. Reminded me a lot of the whole episode in Friends where Rachel, crosses the ocean to tell Ross that she has feelings for him the day before his wedding. If only Trevor had run into Hugh Laurie on a plane to tell him how dumb his plan is! 

Of course, this is all hurt by them trying to tie this into the stupid Cara/Miles drama, which is still such a ridiculous mess. Why do people keep insisting that the GA "made" Cara and Miles broke up, or even that it told Miles to? It never freaking said that!! Some guy who had the GA before Miles said he would need to break up with Cara because HIS lady love gave him an ultimatum, and Cara broke up with Miles because the GA kept her new step-dad from trying to flee the country after committing a felony, and she got all pissy! I know what happened, so stop telling me otherwise! 

I had no idea that the show had been cancelled, and while this season has had quite a few struggles (mainly because they mistakenly thought that viewers needed more "drama" in this feel good helping people show) I am still sad to see it go. This season has still had a lot of good moments and episodes, I still love the actors, and I was hoping that it would have more time to straighten itself out. Hopefully we can at least get some closure, even if I am still not sure they will tell us what the GA really is. 

[Trini]

41 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I liked the premise of this episode, that Miles's do-gooding can have unintended consequences and that a happy ending for one person might be a crappy ending for other people,

I agree, the concept of the team's do-gooding having unintended negative consequences would be something interesting to explore, but I thought the plot here was just silly. But it all turned out positive for the FS anyway since he got his feelings out, and met his "soul mate".

[cameron]

Doesn't break me up that the show is cancelled.  Started to really drag the past few episodes.

[twoods]

It was hard to focus on the episode after finding out that next week is the series finale. I will miss this show.

Do they expect me to root for Cara and Miles after seeing how gung-ho she was trying to stay with Adam? Miles deserves better. I am so disappointed in the writers for ruining them.

Ali’s girlfriend has such shiny hair. 
 

I could see the soulmate walking in the comedy club. I’m sure (as someone said above) that Rakesh’s algorithm included mentions in her social media and web searches of moving to NYC and liking comedy clubs. Most of this show revolves around coincidences, and because it’s one of my escape shows I don’t let things like that bother me.

 

[Trini]

3 hours ago, twoods said:

Do they expect me to root for Cara and Miles after seeing how gung-ho she was trying to stay with Adam? Miles deserves better. I am so disappointed in the writers for ruining them.

I'm still mystified as to how and why this happened. I know there are some showrunners/writers out there who think stable, happy couples are "boring", and I hope that wasn't the case here.

I do want to see Miles and Cara back together - since they never should have broken up in the first place - but now it's kind of tainted because she's only going to be with him since she got dumped (for more lame reasons).

Edited April 21, 2020 by Trini

[KaveDweller]

15 hours ago, Yeah No said:

So they had enough time to film a 2 hour series finale but we only just found out about the cancellation 5 or so days ago?  Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter now anyway.  At this point I don't even care if the episode was believable or not.  I rolled my eyes when that soul mate showed up.  I just knew that was going to happen, except I thought they were going to find her instead of her just showing up. 

It sounds like they made the decision awhile ago and kept it quiet for whatever reason. Or it just worked out that the season finale fits as a series ending and so are pretending.

7 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I figured she'd be in NYC, but it's a big stretch between that and her just happening to go to the comedy club at exactly the right moment AND walking up to him.  I guess we're supposed to believe that your true soulmate would show up at your comedy club and introduce themselves to you, but that involves too much suspension of disbelief for me. 

If Rakesh's app was that good why couldn't HE be behind the "God Account"?  I don't see any reason why not.  But of course, he's never been a suspect.

Rakesh's creepy app could have saw that they both liked the same comedy club or something. But that is what is scary about it. Did this woman sign up to have the soulmate app scan her social media? Or does the app just scan everyone's personal information online with no regard for privacy? 

At least most dating apps both people have opted in. But, if that is the case it seems like there would be a pretty small selection of people to find your soulmate from.

Rakesh being behind the God Account would be an awesome twist though.

[Bringonthedrama]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

she got dumped (for more lame reasons).

I grinned when Adam dumped her when's she been touching him, kissing him and telling him she's into him mere months after telling Miles she loves him. She chose to walk away from Miles because she's angry and immature. She blamed him and the God Account that they couldn't be together. So I loved that Adam easily walked away from her in return. 

At this point, I don't want Miles and Cara to get back together. It will seem disingenuous, in part because Cara hasn't learned and grown to be in a mature, adult relationship. 

[Trini]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

Or does the app just scan everyone's personal information online with no regard for privacy? 

The show wouldn't exist if there was any regard for privacy!  😆

[MissLucas]

Where to start? The idea of negative consequences was compelling but the execution sucked.

While Trevor was an idiot words fail me to express the loathing I have for characters who go all 'I'm not in love with you but I love to have you in my life - please get over yourself so that we can stay friends'. Lady, you just asked him to do the very thing you can't/won't do - and you're doing it from an emotional vantage point and you damn well know that. And she even had the gall to throw her family into that bit of emotional blackmail. I used to own a lot of real estate in the friendzone and I learned the hard way that you need to walk away. And the people who really care for you even if they don't romantically love you, let you go - the others are jerks. Oh, look - I've found some words!

(I had a friend who sadly belonged to that jerk category, she told me that she saw no reason to let someone who was unhappily in love with her go and insisted on being friends since she had not asked him to fall in love with her and she did not see why she should be punished for his feelings, yuck!)

Ahem, got sidetracked by a lame plot that was clearly just introduced as a device for getting Miles and Cara back together. 

And the GA got hacked? Why would Cory do that? And how are they going to bring this to a satisfying ending in just one episode?

Edited April 22, 2020 by MissLucas

[KaveDweller]

1 hour ago, MissLucas said:

While Trevor was an idiot words fail me to express the loathing I have for characters who go all 'I'm not in love with you but I love to have you in my life - please get over yourself so that we can stay friends'. Lady, you just asked him to do the very thing you can't/won't do - and you're doing from an emotional vantage point and you damn well know that.

I hadn't thought about that perspective, but it is a good point. It would be fine for her to say she doesn't hate him and would still like to be friends. But begging him is kind of emotional blackmail. If he doesn't want to be just friends, he has that right, and in some cases it would be healthier for him.

[andromeda331]

I still hate the stupid Cara stuff and they keep trying to insist GA broke them up when it was a partly Miles thinking the GA wanted that to happen but mostly Cara being pissed that her stepdad didn't get off scot-free for his crime and making him chose. She and Miles are totally in love but she was so into staying with Adam without really any signs that she's trying to believe that or being anything but truthful. While at the same time she sees zero parallel from any of the cases that happened or has grown in any way. It makes no sense and when they do get back together nothing has been done to earn it.

I have mixed feelings about the case of the week too. The idea was great. Somehow despite all that good Miles has done someone would get hurt. I didn't think Trevor should have told Rose how he felt since Rose clearly was happy. I always have mixed feelings of that happening on shows. The whole I have to tell her/him how I feel, I just have too. Even thought they are dating someone else, engaged, or married. Why ruin their happiness? If they wanted to date you, don't you think they would have rather then date someone else. In Rose's case she knew him all her life and had grown close to him after her brother died but it seemed so obvious she didn't feel the same way about him. Love as a friend/family yes. I did like that for once the declaration didn't end with them running off together or her changing her mind later. While I get Rose doesn't want to lose that friendship but I do think it wasn't her choice. Maybe she could go back to the way things were but he couldn't. One other thing I did wonder was whether or not Trevor actually really loved Rose or not. When he talked to Miles about how he promised Joseph he'd take care of his family that he'd take care of Rose and then seemed to do just that. Was that love or wanting to keep a promise he made to his best friend? Did Rose and her father really love Trevor as a member of their family or a filling for Joseph. It kind of seemed like Rose and Trevor might now to be finally moving on from the death. 

I'm glad Rakesh finally realized that Corey was lying although I kind of wish it was sooner. I know its just this show. But it was so obvious that he lied. Plus he hasn't exactly been trustworthy in the past.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

One of my very favorite truths in life is that the most difficult choices we face are good vs. good.  should I rob that bank?  Nope.  should I be mean?  Nope.  Where should I donate alms?   Hmmmm.  Sooo many good options!  If I screw up, does a bad result?  For bad vs. bad choices, I find a reduced degree of difficulty since my expectation(s) are reduced.

Trevor is uncommonly blessed to have Rose and her family as his de facto family.  Yet, being human, he took a good and twisted it into something unintended and therefore, a bad.  It's understandable that he conflated "goods."  It was a good cautionary tale for the viewer.  What seems righteous, often is not.  We must be super reluctant to claim "destiny."  My belief is that it is incredibly rare for us to actually learn/be correct about such.  Satan, being ever mindful of our vulnerabilities, is quick to tap these fertile grounds and create bigtime evil.  He sure did here.

So...why did Cara love, or like bigly, Adam?  Why does Emily looooooove Ali?  We have yet to see it.  Each character has some cool things going for them.  But, where did the "can't be without them" feelings come from?   Circumstances are lending a sense of urgency to it all.  But, what traits, from deepest places, have shown out?  Being purty does not cut it.

It's a genuine shame that a show like this can't make it on a CBS.