S01.E08: Introduction to Chemistry

[Pop Tart]

Quote

 

With the fate of Supper at Six uncertain, Elizabeth makes a decision about her future. Harriet prepares for the city council vote.
 

 

 

[Phebemarie]

I was surprised when this dropped early last night. 

I was a little disappointed by the finale.  It seemed like Apple TV decided to wrap up the show and stuffed all the story lines in that might have been allowed to develop in a season 2.  

Did the highway vote go against the neighborhood?  If so, that makes the happy holiday gathering seem a little odd at the end.  I really wish they had stayed focused on the original plot of the novel.  If not that, maybe it would have been better to make the highway story line the focus of a second season.  Especially in this finale, the shift in focus distracted me.  

I wanted more scenes with Mad and her grandmother.  DId Mad share the news with Rev. Wakely since he was so instrumental in helping her solve the mystery?  Why was Elizabeth's hair so much longer in the classroom scenes only to go back to length she wore it in her show in the last scene?  Was the classroom scene a flash forward, and I was just not paying close enough attention?  Why have Beau Bridges in the series but basically give him five lines?  I just think there was a bunch of scenes that got cut.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Phebemarie said:

Why was Elizabeth's hair so much longer in the classroom scenes only to go back to length she wore it in her show in the last scene?  Was the classroom scene a flash forward, and I was just not paying close enough attention? 

About 3/4 of the way through the episode, there was overlay text of "Three years later." 
Elizabeth's long hair helped separate the "Three years later" from the flashbacks to the timeline at which the episode began.

Elizabeth's hairstyle change was exactly what I did back then — from sleeping in bobby pin curls, to sponge rollers that produced the "flip" we see Elizabeth wearing "three years later."

 

2 hours ago, Phebemarie said:

I was a little disappointed by the finale.  It seemed like Apple TV decided to wrap up the show and stuffed all the story lines in that might have been allowed to develop in a season 2.

Yes, but I was okay with the seemingly abridged story because I didn't want anymore heartstrings pulled or stirrings of anger and frustration. Real life has enough of those.

 

2 hours ago, Phebemarie said:

I was surprised when this dropped early last night. 

That was odd. Maybe a Thanksgiving holiday related decision?

[aghst]

Episode was labeled as series finale, not season finale.

Everyone's expectations seemed to be one and done.  Maybe that is all Larson would commit to.

Yeah happy ending for all.  Arguably, she would have more impact doing the TV show than teaching undergrads.

We knew Harriet winning the vote was unlikely, given history.

Looks like Mad isn't as into science as her parents.

 

[ChattyCathyLA]

What I don’t understand is, now that she has Calvin’s wealthy mother to back her research, why she is merely teaching chemistry to college (or high school?) students?  Why isn’t she moving forward with her life’s work and continuing what Hastings stole from her and Calvin.  Her movements don’t make sense.  I hope that dishonest priest gets his comeuppance.  To deny a young boy an adoption and tell him that he wasn’t wanted so he could continue making bootleg booze is just deplorable!  

I don’t want this saga to end.  I read that the actress only signed on for these 8 episodes, so I wonder how the show will go on?  Will it jump forward 10-15 years and go into the daughter’s journey?  They never finished the story about the freeway, which I think might be the “10” (Santa Monica Freeway that goes from the beach through L.A. and all the way to Arizona and beyond).  When will we know about another season?  I have so many questions that are unanswered.  

Anyone else notice that one of the friends at the Thanksgiving dinner flashback was the man who encouraged Elizabeth to take up rowing?  I wonder if something’s brewing there?  I never read the book (never even heard of it before) so this is all new to me!

The show took some leaps with regard to that housewife getting into USC medical school in only a few months.  Highly doubtful, even if she was a college grad, that she took all the prerequisites to even have her application considered.

 

 

[shapeshifter]

This interview with the book author, Bonnie Garmus, was enough of a wrap up for me:

I don't need more episodes, and I don't need to read the book.
I already lived enough of it. 🙃

Edited November 23, 2023 by shapeshifter

[Ceindreadh]

13 hours ago, ChattyCathyLA said:

What I don’t understand is, now that she has Calvin’s wealthy mother to back her research, why she is merely teaching chemistry to college (or high school?) students?  Why isn’t she moving forward with her life’s work and continuing what Hastings stole from her and Calvin.  Her movements don’t make sense.  I hope that dishonest priest gets his comeuppance.  To deny a young boy an adoption and tell him that he wasn’t wanted so he could continue making bootleg booze is just deplorable!  

 

Elizabeth is in the middle of getting her PhD.  She told the students that she was 'Miss' Zott until she had finished it and would then be Doctor Zott.

Teaching is quite likely a requirement for the PhD course.  Or maybe Elizabeth feels that it's important to educate and inspire the next generation of scientists, just as she educated and inspired her TV audiences.

 

One thing that annoyed me about Calvin's mother.  Why did she not have her foundation lawyer approach Calvin and explain the situation, rather than trying to communicate by letters.  Calvin dumped the letters because he thought they were from money-grabbing imposters, but if the lawyer for the foundation that had been funding him all along was able to vouch for his mother's identity then surely that would have made a difference. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I liked the end, but it was a bit rushed. I don’t understand how they were in the same house if the freeway got approved. 

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I liked the end, but it was a bit rushed. I don’t understand how they were in the same house if the freeway got approved. 

Maybe Calvin’s mother hired enough lawyers to divert the freeway.

[Hedgehog2022]

On 11/23/2023 at 5:36 AM, ChattyCathyLA said:

What I don’t understand is, now that she has Calvin’s wealthy mother to back her research, why she is merely teaching chemistry to college (or high school?) students?  Why isn’t she moving forward with her life’s work and continuing what Hastings stole from her and Calvin.  Her movements don’t make sense.  I hope that dishonest priest gets his comeuppance.  To deny a young boy an adoption and tell him that he wasn’t wanted so he could continue making bootleg booze is just deplorable!  

I don’t want this saga to end.  I read that the actress only signed on for these 8 episodes, so I wonder how the show will go on?  Will it jump forward 10-15 years and go into the daughter’s journey?  They never finished the story about the freeway, which I think might be the “10” (Santa Monica Freeway that goes from the beach through L.A. and all the way to Arizona and beyond).  When will we know about another season?  I have so many questions that are unanswered.  

Anyone else notice that one of the friends at the Thanksgiving dinner flashback was the man who encouraged Elizabeth to take up rowing?  I wonder if something’s brewing there?  I never read the book (never even heard of it before) so this is all new to me!

The show took some leaps with regard to that housewife getting into USC medical school in only a few months.  Highly doubtful, even if she was a college grad, that she took all the prerequisites to even have her application considered.

 

 

The guy that encouraged Elizabeth to row was her OBGYN who delivered Mad and was her doctor throughout her pregnancy. Back in those days an unmarried woman having a baby was a huge taboo. In fact, that was a huge taboo throughout the 60's and most of the '70's. Finding a compassionate and competent OBGYN who would not be judgemental would be challenging.

[retired watcher]

On 11/24/2023 at 4:21 PM, Hedgehog2022 said:

The guy that encouraged Elizabeth to row was her OBGYN who delivered Mad and was her doctor throughout her pregnancy. Back in those days an unmarried woman having a baby was a huge taboo. In fact, that was a huge taboo throughout the 60's and most of the '70's. Finding a compassionate and competent OBGYN who would not be judgemental would be challenging.

He was Calvin's friend. That's why she went to him.

[Hanahope]

It would seem that Calvin’s mother did not realize that Calvin was getting letters from all sorts of money grabbers.  She thought she was the only one writing to him and he read her letters and rejected her.  So she never thought to involve the attorney.  
 

seems like an unfinished story with the cooking show looking for a new star and the neighborhood on its way to being a freeway.  

took a bit of digging but I finally found information about the extension of Interstate 10 west of Los Angeles.  Apparently the two choices were bulldoze through West Adams or fraternity and sorority rows at USC.  Yeah we know who won that fight.  
 

but recently that area has had some restoration of the old houses and mansions.  not surprising since home values have soared in California. 

still can’t find anywhere that remotely resembles the lake or river and park area where they rowed.  
 

We didn’t hear anything about Calvin’s father.  Was he a boy his mother had a crush on? A teacher that took advantage ?  Did she ever tell him about the child or the man?  Another missing part of the story.

 

 

Edited May 19 by Hanahope