S01.E10: Chutes and Murders

[chitowngirl]

A nanny is found bludgeoned to death in the park; Morgan interferes when Elliot admits to not being invited to his classmate's party.
 

Airs January 21, 2025 on ABC, next day Hulu

[AnimeMania]

KEN MARINO

AMIR TALAI

ELIZA COUPE

JEFFREY VINCENT PARISE

S. ZYLAN BROOKS    ALEJANDRA FLORES    IRINA DUBOVA    LUNA TIEU

JAI RODRIGUEZ

[Night Cheese]

Eliza Coupe! I don't know what character she's playing, but I already hope she becomes recurring or even a part of the main cast. 

[Annber03]

Oh, my god, that entire conversation where Morgan was explaining who the killer was was freaking hysterical. I lost count of how many times I  burst out laughing. I think my favorite bit was Morgan talking about the Spice Girls and describing them as a "thirty year old band", and Oz responding with, "...band...?" XD.

(Also, damn, Morgan, as someone who loved the Spice Girls back in the day - and who still enjoys their music even now - way to make me feel old :p.)

This whole episode in general had some really funny moments in it. I also liked this exchange between Karadec and Morgan:

"I can't see you being the type to anthropomorphize vegetables." 

"That is the kindest thing you've ever said to me." 

And then Morgan's "pull a Meg and fake an orgasm/impersonating Karadec having an orgasm" ibit ad the dinner, and her saying, "As if things weren't bad enough, I have to go to a poetry reading."... Just so funny. 

On a more serious note, awwwwwwww, poor Elliot :(. My heart broke for him when Finn was so rude, I wanted to hug him. Was Morgan's response to that the best way to handle that? Maybe not, I dunno. Did it make me laugh and actually clap at my TV anyway? Oh, yes :D. Yay for Ava setting aside her phone and having some fun with him at the end. I have to say though, I do like her boyfriend, he seems like a good kid. His bit about his crush on Jesse from Toy Story was cute. 

And man, poor Tara. What a awful way to die. And those kids coming across her as they did - that actually had me gasping. I loved the way the nanny group's faces all fell when Karadec mentioned nanny cams. 

Also loved Daphne's whole look during the scene where Chuck came to the precinct and sat with Oz, with the white shirt and the black over it. That whole outfit was really cute on her. 

Edited Yest. at 03:06 AM by Annber03

[ams1001]

I had to look up the guy who played Chuck. I'm not really familiar with him as an actor but I came across his Middle Aged Dad Jam Band on youtube a while back. (Specifically, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant featuring Weird Al Yankovic.)

Edited Yest. at 03:47 AM by ams1001

[kathyk2]

I liked last week's episode more than this one. I did love the diner scene and the end with Ava and Elliott. I'd like to know about Morgan's history where is her family? She doesn't seem to have parents or extended family. Next week's episode looks great.

[possibilities]

Ken Marino, the actor who played the PI, had a role on Veronica Mars-- very similar to this one, actually. He's the quintessential slimeball. His character name was "Vinnie Van Lowe"-- just saying it makes me laugh. 

I like Morgan's son. The other kid was horrible and I didn't actually mind when Morgan called him out on it. His mom didn't seem so terrible, which makes me wonder why her kid is horrible. At first, when he was locked into the game and then wanted no sugar, I thought he might be on the autism spectrum or that he has some other neurodivergent quality. I was hoping that Elliot would crack the code to bonding with him. But then when he went off on Elliot, he seemed like just a regular issue sullen brat. I guess I should have known he would be, since he invited all the toher kids to his party.

I do think Morgan was wrong to intervene like that and try to get the invitation. That could only end badly. And it's humiliating for Elliot.

If Tara was working for a lot less money than the other nannies, it would have been better for both her and them if they had worked it out. She'd have been able to get a raise and they would not feel so threatened by her. I wonder if she was too much of a racist to be open to it, or if they never tried with her because they were too loyal to Rosa. It does sound like Rosa fucked up, and it bothered me that they didn't seem to understand that.

I liked that Morgan and the real estate mom got along. That was fun.

It's so weird that they hired Judy Reyes but are still giving her so little to do. What a waste!

 

[kathyk2]

49 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Ken Marino, the actor who played the PI, had a role on Veronica Mars-- very similar to this one, actually. He's the quintessential slimeball. His character name was "Vinnie Van Lowe"-- just saying it makes me laugh. 

I like Morgan's son. The other kid was horrible and I didn't actually mind when Morgan called him out on it. His mom didn't seem so terrible, which makes me wonder why her kid is horrible. At first, when he was locked into the game and then wanted no sugar, I thought he might be on the autism spectrum or that he has some other neurodivergent quality. I was hoping that Elliot would crack the code to bonding with him. But then when he went off on Elliot, he seemed like just a regular issue sullen brat. I guess I should have known he would be, since he invited all the toher kids to his party.

I do think Morgan was wrong to intervene like that and try to get the invitation. That could only end badly. And it's humiliating for Elliot.

If Tara was working for a lot less money than the other nannies, it would have been better for both her and them if they had worked it out. She'd have been able to get a raise and they would not feel so threatened by her. I wonder if she was too much of a racist to be open to it, or if they never tried with her because they were too loyal to Rosa. It does sound like Rosa fucked up, and it bothered me that they didn't seem to understand that.

I liked that Morgan and the real estate mom got along. That was fun.

It's so weird that they hired Judy Reyes but are still giving her so little to do. What a waste!

 

That's why I didn't like this episode the killer's motive was stupid. I thought the executive would have made a better murderer she could have thought her husband and Tara were having an affair.

[agathapenny]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I like Morgan's son. The other kid was horrible.

Yeah, oof, I felt for Eliot. The only one not invited? That's being deliberately mean.

I liked that Ava smartened up in the end and put her phone away long enough to be there for her brother. (Phone addiction drives me nuts.) But the boyfriend seemed like a keeper, actually taking the time to answer the question about what an 11-year-old boy would like.

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I do think Morgan was wrong to intervene like that and try to get the invitation. That could only end badly. And it's humiliating for Elliot.

I get where she was coming from, but yeah, that was never going to go well.

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I wonder if she was too much of a racist to be open to it, or if they never tried with her because they were too loyal to Rosa.

I didn't get the sense she was racist. I got the sense that she was young, beautiful, and replaced their friend, so they never had any intention of giving her a chance, so they turned into a bunch of mean girls.

I wonder if we'll see the PI again. It was a bit weird how he was utilized throughout the whole episode if not.

[babyrambo]

7 hours ago, Night Cheese said:

Eliza Coupe! I don't know what character she's playing, but I already hope she becomes recurring or even a part of the main cast. 

I thought she was going to have a bigger role, but it was nice to see her guest in this. I really liked her in the short lived Pivoting, which was better than expected. She’s great at playing cool & high strung even if it is typecasting. Her and Morgan’s little back and forth as Morgan connected the dots was fun. Would be nice to see her back as a mom friend or something. 

Also really liked the kids bonding at the end. Ava’s actress is solid but she’s older so that’s expected. The kid who plays Elliott surprised me because he’s so natural for being so young. His dynamic with Morgan is super sweet, I love that they don’t go overboard with his being a mini adult/savant and show realistic moments of his childishness. 

The case was okay. I figured it was a nanny halfway through and hoped they’d get Judy Reyes in there doing something about it somehow. Still feels like she’s a figurehead who only pops up to give Morgan updates. Now that the show has been renewed, I hope she gets a bit more to do in s2.

And Morgan’s sweater at the end was super cute. I tend to like her extra little outfits (& nails, the cow print from a few weeks ago were amazing) impractical as they are, but this was one of the few that I would actually wear. Daphne’s outfits are the most fitting and aesthetically appealing to me, I also took note of her black & white outfit, and will be copying it. Javicia Leslie is costumed so well on this show. 

Edited Yest. at 10:18 AM by babyrambo

[Raja]

The squad leaders rarely get much to do on detective shows. That LT Reyes is,  or was before,  the main contact on the missing persons case does make a difference. 

The way Morgan dismissed the old neighbor nanny from the pilot episode suggest that he wasn't picked up for additional episodes.

[shura]

8 hours ago, kathyk2 said:

That's why I didn't like this episode the killer's motive was stupid. I thought the executive would have made a better murderer she could have thought her husband and Tara were having an affair.

The motive was getting scared on the spot when Tara told her that she was going to get her deported.  The rest were the reasons the nannies bullied Tara, they were not planning to kill her over it.  I don’t buy that Tara would hire or even consult with an immigration lawyer though.  What was she, planning a legal case against the Russian nanny?  Google the ICE number and report all you want, for free.  I guess they needed something to tell Morgan that immigration issues were involved.

Another case where Morgan’s conjectures were presented as the truth that she just divined without real evidence rather than a theory to be checked out.  For example, not capitalizing the day of the week doesn’t mean the author has to be Russian - most languages don’t capitalize that, only Germanic ones do.  In fact, even English speakers sometimes don’t capitalize things properly when they are texting.  But they made it sound like it was the centerpiece of Morgan figuring everything out.

11 hours ago, Annber03 said:

This whole episode in general had some really funny moments in it. I also liked this exchange between Karadec and Morgan:

"I can't see you being the type to anthropomorphize vegetables." 

"That is the kindest thing you've ever said to me." 

And then Morgan's "pull a Meg and fake an orgasm/impersonating Karadec having an orgasm" ibit ad the dinner, and her saying, "As if things weren't bad enough, I have to go to a poetry reading."... Just so funny.

My favorite was in the beginning, nanny to a kid: “… we don’t eat grass! Come have some seaweed!” :)

[AnimeMania]

When Morgan sent the kid outside to wait for his mother to pick him up. I was thinking that Morgan is not going to remember to call his mother and the kid will be sitting on her porch forever.

[iMonrey]

This was a fairly good case, if only because I would have been willing to bet Eliza Coupe was the killer since she's such a recognizable actress. Then again, Steve Guttenberg wasn't the killer last week, so the show does red herrings that way pretty well. However, the resolution came in the form of one long exposition dump by Morgan, and that was a bit much, even for this show. 

Quote

JEFFREY VINCENT PARISE

Who was this? This was either from a different episode or else his scenes were cut. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

The motive for the murder I can get. The motive for the cyberbullying that led to the murder, not so much. 

Tara replaced Rosa and was young and beautiful and not a joiner, sure. All plausible causes for friction and resentment. But impersonating someone online and making up a bunch of fake accounts to drag Tara is a long way to go for those things. Most importantly, it doesn't seem worth it. It isn't going to get Rosa her job back. If Tara's employer was less of a douche, it wouldn't even put Tara's job at risk because they would ask Tara and their kid about the made up allegations and find out that they were made up. 

Which I guess raises the question if Karadec and Morgan should at least have asked about Rosa or interviewed her. Saltiness about being replaced seems like a potential motive. (Or was the Latina nanny Rosa? I am terrible with catching people's names. If it was, it seems like they should have questioned her harder).

I hate to stereotype, but it doesn't seem likely to me that Oksana could create all the fake accounts all that easily. The group sniffed out Morgan -- maybe be cause she used her real info. But I would think that there's some level of gatekeeping.

Also, why would Tara choose to confront Oksana after a church service specifically? It sounds like the various nannies see each other regularly during the day at the park. Why not just take her to the side then? Do young people even use paper calendars to keep track of dates when they have phones? Why would she refer to the appointment as "[religious holiday]" rather than "Confront Oksana at St. Whatever's, 7 p.m." or any number of other things.

I also don't get the other Spice Girls Nannies keeping Oksana's secret. Like if most friends or acquaintances told me, "hey, you have to tell people we were hanging out on the 3rd between 7 and 11 p.m." and then detectives were like, "We're investigating a murder that happened on the 3rd between 7 and 11 p.m." I'd be "Uh, so and so told me to cover for them for that time, but that's totally not true. Don't know where they were, but my name's Bennett, and I ain't in it." 

Morgan's IQ (both intellectual and emotional) is high enough that she should read the room and know that if Elliott was singled out as not being invited, it wasn't a "mistake" and it wasn't something a playdate would fix. I wish she had just taught him that hey, it's OK that he got left out, he's a cool kid, etc. 

There were as always stuff that make the show awesome. The roast of Karadec's "orgasm" was excellent. The one downside is that it is one step closer to the near-mandatory leads sleeping together. 

It was great seeing Ken Marino's character, which is pretty much his character from Veronica Mars, except less sexually sleazy and more French. I assume that one of the writers/producers here, Diane Ruggiero-Wright, was also on VM, she decided to do Ken a solid. I will let it slide that in the year of Our Lord 2025, it is unlikely that anyone buys a paper foreign language newspaper as a daily habit rather than reads it online. 

I don't know if anyone here also watches the Kathy Bates Matlock that premiered this season. But it too had an episode that revolved around a fake complaint to a online forum about misbehavior from a nanny. 

I was just thinking while watching this episode how much I wish there could be a cross-over between this show and Psych, which featured a detective with a photographic memory pretending that he's a psychic. It turns out that the actor who played the lead in that, James Roday Rodriguez, is listed on IMDB as having directed an episode of High Potential! Hopefully the show makes it happen! 

Edited 21 hours ago by Chicago Redshirt

[shapeshifter]

23 hours ago, Night Cheese said:

Eliza Coupe! I don't know what character she's playing, but I already hope she becomes recurring or even a part of the main cast. 

15 hours ago, babyrambo said:

…little back and forth as Morgan connected the dots was fun. Would be nice to see her back as a mom friend or something. 

I liked the character of the real estate mom as a friend for Tara too because she seemed to be another hyper-smart woman of the same age. But I don't see how they would have time to be friends. 

 

8 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

The motive for the murder I can get. The motive for the cyberbullying that led to the murder, not so much. 

Tara replaced Rosa and was young and beautiful and not a joiner, sure. All plausible causes for friction and resentment. But impersonating someone online and making up a bunch of fake accounts to drag Tara is a long way to go for those things. Most importantly, it doesn't seem worth it. It isn't going to get Rosa her job back. If Tara's employer was less of a douche, it wouldn't even put Tara's job at risk because they would ask Tara and their kid about the made up allegations and find out that they were made up. 

Which I guess raises the question if Karadec and Morgan should at least have asked about Rosa or interviewed her. Saltiness about being replaced seems like a potential motive.

Yeah. Maybe Rosa was the original killer and they decided it was too obvious? Or the actor became unavailable? Or they cut it for time? Regardless, the Facebook part of the plot required too much handwavium. Oh well, I'm still on board, although I did fall asleep at about the 20 minute mark commercial. Twice.

Edited 14 hours ago by shapeshifter

[Sarah 103]

12 hours ago, agathapenny said:

I wonder if we'll see the PI again. It was a bit weird how he was utilized throughout the whole episode if not.

I can see him being the kind of character who pops up once or twice a season for a few laughs. 

8 hours ago, babyrambo said:

Also really liked the kids bonding at the end. Ava’s actress is solid but she’s older so that’s expected. The kid who plays Elliott surprised me because he’s so natural for being so young. His dynamic with Morgan is super sweet, I love that they don’t go overboard with his being a mini adult/savant and show realistic moments of his childishness. 

I really enjoyed this part too. They have the right balance of Elliot having many of Morgan's traits like a photographic memory and a wide range of interests, but he is also still very much a kid. 

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I was just thinking while watching this episode how much I wish there could be a cross-over between this show and Psych, which featured a detective with a photographic memory pretending that he's a psychic. 

High Potential  is ABC and Psych was USA so it's two different parent companies. However, I absolutely love the idea. Since both shows are based in California, it is slightly easier than other shows to make it work. Maybe there's a connection between a case each team is working on and they have to work together to solve it. There would have to be multiple scenes of Shawn and Elliot.  

[chaifan]

Meh, it was an ok episode, but probably at the bottom of the stack for this show.  I agree with the posts above that there was too much that didn't make sense, from the motivation for murder to the mean girl nanny group.  For me, the one sticking point was if Tara was really only making $10/hour.   Based on the house and everything else, it seemed that couple made a lot of money.   And there wasn't any complaint about Rosa working for so cheap.  So why would they pay Tara less than Rosa?  Also, absolutely no way that Tara is getting her own place in/around LA if she makes only $10/hour.  And no way that Tara is hiring an immigration lawyer if she makes only $10/hour.  

My other nit pick is when Karadec and Morgan first interviewed the couple, they're full into the conversation when the one guy is all "oh, yeah, she was complaining about a creepy guy at the park".  Wouldn't that be the first thing out of your mouth to the police when finding out someone was murdered?  And, didn't creepy poetry guy say Tara was his old babysitter?  So wouldn't she know him by name, and not just refer to him as creepy park guy?  

To be honest, the show isn't really doing it for me since it returned from the break.  The first half of the season was strong.  I don't know if that's because they were more closely following the French show plots/scripts, or if it was because it was just new and fresh for me, or what.  Yes, there are some good moments in each episode, but as a whole they're falling a bit flat. 

 

[Jackie14]

I believe that they said Tara was making $10 less an hour than they were, not that she was making $10 an hour.

[shura]

2 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I will let it slide that in the year of Our Lord 2025, it is unlikely that anyone buys a paper foreign language newspaper as a daily habit rather than reads it online. 

But if he read it online like normal people, it would make him stick out a bit less and he needed it for plot-related purposes.  Or he just decided that a printed newspaper goes better with his Columbo outfit.

21 minutes ago, chaifan said:

And, didn't creepy poetry guy say Tara was his old babysitter?  So wouldn't she know him by name, and not just refer to him as creepy park guy?

I think the creepy park guy was Chuck, not Little Sleazy or whatever it was.  I liked how Soto was all “What, nobody took a picture of this random person in the park?”  Er, no, that’s not really what people do?

[tennisgurl]

First of all, I am so happy to hear about the season two renewal! This show is a lot of fun and I am glad that we will get more of it, plus if we have more seasons we might actually get to figure out the main mystery! I have been burned way too many times on shows that were cancelled before they could reveal their driving questions. 

That was a pretty good episode, it was nice to get some more focus on Elliot, even if he had to deal with mean kid nonsense. Poor little guy, that kid really was going out of his way to be mean, inviting every boy in the class besides him. Morgan could maybe have handled it better, but I cant blame her for being that upset at what a little jerk that kid was. I am also glad that Ava put her phone down to play with her brother, he really needed that. As much as Morgan isn't thrilled about Ava having a boyfriend, he seems like a nice kid, I thought it was sweet that he tried to give Elliot some ideas for toys based on what he liked when he was that age. 

That couple who employed Tara are going to have an even longer zoom talk with their marriage counselor after this. 

I guess nannies are just as catty as elementary school students, that is some next level mean girl stuff they were pulling, even beyond the eventual murder. Morgan making the jump from "the person in the comments didn't capitalize their days of the week" to "I know who the killer is" seems like a leap, but I think its more that Morgan puts together lots of information that is floating around in her head and she needs specific things to connect them. She put together that the nannies were not fans of Tara, she knew that one of the nannies is a native Russian speaker, so it all clicked with that one detail after having all of that floating around. 

It was such a pleasure to see Ken Marino here again, I have seen him in tons of things but he will always be Vinnie the sleazy PI from Veronica Mars to me, so seeing him as a PI again was great, I hope we see him again. So many recognizable TV actors here, it was hard to guess who the killer would be based on how well I know the actors. Is it Jane from Happy Endings? Her husband who I recognize from some comedy that Mr. Tennisgirl watches? The lady from Orange is the New Black doing an accent? 

[Cheese]

1 hour ago, chaifan said:

For me, the one sticking point was if Tara was really only making $10/hour.

I believe Tara made $10 less an hour than the other nannies, not $10/hour. Well I walked away before hitting submit and someone already mentioned this. 

I am glad Eliza Coupe wasn't the killer (hope she's back as a friend to Morgan) and her husband was not having an affair with Tara. That would have been so cliche. 

Jai from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy! 

Edited 18 hours ago by Cheese
Shame

[chaifan]

Even if Tara was making $10/hour LESS than the others I would think that would still result in a pretty low hourly wage.  ($10/hour comes out to just over $20,000/year.)  I still doubt she could afford an LA apartment or to be able to hire attorneys just out of spite on whatever she was making.

It would have made more sense for the nannies to not like her because she was making MORE than Rosa was making and more than what they were making.  An attitude of hey, we've been doing this for years and only make X, and she comes waltzing in and is able to make 2X.

 

 

[bunnyface]

18 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I had to look up the guy who played Chuck. I'm not really familiar with him as an actor but I came across his Middle Aged Dad Jam Band on youtube a while back. (Specifically, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant featuring Weird Al Yankovic.)

Ken Marino.  I first saw him on Children's Hospital and then a hysterical web series based on The Bachelor called Burning Love.  It is really funny if you can find it.  

6 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

When Morgan sent the kid outside to wait for his mother to pick him up. I was thinking that Morgan is not going to remember to call his mother and the kid will be sitting on her porch forever.

I wanted her to call the mother and say "your child is on my front step and is never allowed in my house again" without any explanation.  Let her try to figure out what her little idiot did.

[possibilities]

I thought that she didn't call the brat's mom because she wanted him to sit out there and stew in his own juices for a while, not be relieved of his punishment immediately. I figured mom was already scheduled to pick him up at some point-- later.

But then I come from the generation of kids who walked to school unsupervised and nobody worried we'd die or be abducted if we sat on the porch for a little while alone.

[Sarah 103]

4 hours ago, shura said:

Or he just decided that a printed newspaper goes better with his Columbo outfit.

This is the absolute perfect explanation. It completely fits with who the character is. He seems like the type who would take some of his cues from old movies/TV shows. 

4 hours ago, shura said:

I liked how Soto was all “What, nobody took a picture of this random person in the park?”  Er, no, that’s not really what people do?

I thought she meant that someone had a photo with him in the background, not that someone deliberately took a picture of him. 

[ams1001]

9 hours ago, shura said:

In fact, even English speakers sometimes don’t capitalize things properly when they are texting.

Seriously, people on text and social media generally aren't sticklers for proper grammar and punctuation. (Read enough public Facebook comments and you start to despair for the future of written language.)

6 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I will let it slide that in the year of Our Lord 2025, it is unlikely that anyone buys a paper foreign language newspaper as a daily habit rather than reads it online. 

It also struck me as a little unlikely that in the entire city of LA there is only one newsstand that carries a French paper. I mean, I'm sure Spanish publications are a lot easier to find, but would French speakers really be that unusual?

Edited 15 hours ago by ams1001

[Raja]

16 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

 

It also struck me as a little unlikely that in the entire city of LA there is only one newsstand that carries a French paper. I mean, I'm sure Spanish publications are a lot easier to find, but would French speakers really be that unusual?

I wish you luck in finding a surviving newstand.

There are a couple of French ethnic areas and a few schools that teach in French immersion.  Well they wouldn't be in the top 4 demographic wise in those areas either.

Edited 15 hours ago by Raja

[Chicago Redshirt]

38 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

It also struck me as a little unlikely that in the entire city of LA there is only one newsstand that carries a French paper. I mean, I'm sure Spanish publications are a lot easier to find, but would French speakers really be that unusual?

I would think it reasonable that there might only be one or two newsstands that actually would cater to those francophiles, though...again, it would be easier for those people to go to the website of papers rather than get a physical paper.

For instance, this Is the website for the paper that I think was referenced in this episode:

https://www.ledevoir.com/

Moreover, the fact that anyone can pull up such papers on their devices for free that would make it unlikely for the newspaper to realize a profit on carrying such newspapers.

Because I'm in full procrastination mode, I Googled to see if I could find out about newsstands that carry French-language newspapers in L.A. The list that came up of L.A. area newsstands had about 100 on it, most of which were attached to gas stations.

I did call one called Above the Fold and was told they don't carry French-language newspapers because there's no distributors for it. 

I get much of the other trivia Morgan knows could be attributed to having read a lot or watched a lot of documentaries, but it seems a stretch that she would know off the top of her head that there was only one newsstand that has French-language papers in L.A. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

Even if Tara was making $10/hour LESS than the others I would think that would still result in a pretty low hourly wage.  ($10/hour comes out to just over $20,000/year.)  I still doubt she could afford an LA apartment or to be able to hire attorneys just out of spite on whatever she was making.

It would have made more sense for the nannies to not like her because she was making MORE than Rosa was making and more than what they were making.  An attitude of hey, we've been doing this for years and only make X, and she comes waltzing in and is able to make 2X.

I agree about the last part.

The Googles tells me that the average salary for a nanny in L.A. is about $25/hour. It could be that's what Tara was making while the rest of the Spice Girls typically made $35/hour.  

It could be that the Spice Girls made $25ish, and she only made $15. Hard to believe someone could live solo as she did in L.A. on about $30k a year, but that's TV for you.

[Raja]

5 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I would think it reasonable that there might only be one or two newsstands that actually would cater to those francophiles, though...again, it would be easier for those people to go to the website of papers rather than get a physical paper.

For instance, this Is the website for the paper that I think was referenced in this episode:

https://www.ledevoir.com/

Moreover, the fact that anyone can pull up such papers on their devices for free that would make it unlikely for the newspaper to realize a profit on carrying such newspapers.

Because I'm in full procrastination mode, I Googled to see if I could find out about newsstands that carry French-language newspapers in L.A. The list that came up of L.A. area newsstands had about 100 on it, most of which were attached to gas stations.

I did call one called Above the Fold and was told they don't carry French-language newspapers because there's no distributors for it. 

I get much of the other trivia Morgan knows could be attributed to having read a lot or watched a lot of documentaries, but it seems a stretch that she would know off the top of her head that there was only one newsstand that has French-language papers in L.A. 

Judging by how the magazine displays at supermarkets have shrunk a gas station mini-markets as a newstand never occurred to me. I do know of a surviving newstand near one of the French immersion private schools. It is half the size it was before the internet broke the paper magazine business.

[KaveDweller]

9 hours ago, shura said:

The motive was getting scared on the spot when Tara told her that she was going to get her deported.  The rest were the reasons the nannies bullied Tara, they were not planning to kill her over it.  I don’t buy that Tara would hire or even consult with an immigration lawyer though.  What was she, planning a legal case against the Russian nanny?  Google the ICE number and report all you want, for free.  I guess they needed something to tell Morgan that immigration issues were involved.

Another case where Morgan’s conjectures were presented as the truth that she just divined without real evidence rather than a theory to be checked out.  For example, not capitalizing the day of the week doesn’t mean the author has to be Russian - most languages don’t capitalize that, only Germanic ones do.  In fact, even English speakers sometimes don’t capitalize things properly when they are texting.  But they made it sound like it was the centerpiece of Morgan figuring everything out.

My favorite was in the beginning, nanny to a kid: “… we don’t eat grass! Come have some seaweed!” :)

I also wonder how someone making $10/hour could afford an immigration lawyer. Even if they meant $10/hour less then them, she can't have had much to spare for revenge schemes.

But we don't know she was an actual client. Do lawyers ever answer some initial questions before officially agreeing to represent them? If so, she could have called and pretended to be undocumented to ask if Facebook fraud could get you deported. Then not move forward with hiring them.

37 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

It also struck me as a little unlikely that in the entire city of LA there is only one newsstand that carries a French paper. I mean, I'm sure Spanish publications are a lot easier to find, but would French speakers really be that unusual?

I thought that too, LA is pretty big. But maybe she meant in that particular area?

[possibilities]

I think they did say Tara is behind on rent. But if the nannies were friends with Rosa, you'd think Rosa made the same wage they do, and that Tara would also be offered that wage. And if not, I'd feel like: someone should tell Tara she's being exploited! 

But if Tara was unfriendly to them, and preferred to spend time with the rich father, I can see that they would resent her and assume she's a stuck up racist.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, chaifan said:

It would have made more sense for the nannies to not like her because she was making MORE than Rosa was making and more than what they were making.  An attitude of hey, we've been doing this for years and only make X, and she comes waltzing in and is able to make 2X.

Ooo. Is it possible that this really was what happened and they just cut that part of the denouement for time?
Was there any plot detail or bit of dialogue that would negate the possibility that Tara was actually making $10/hour more than any of the other nannies?
It certainly fits with the tearjerker ending bit when Morgan gave the PI’s photo of Tara blowing bubbles with the little boy and the sad dad saying that was what love looked like. 
I mean: Of course they’d pay a loving, capable nanny more.

[DearEvette]

Middling installment.  I liked the characters/actors better than the storyline, tbh.

Eliza Coupe - My first intro to her and my forever love for her is for her role in Happy Endings where she and Damon Wayans, Jr. played the delightful power couple Brad and Jane.  I liked her role here.

Ken Marino - Having just watched him as Captain CJ on Brooklyn 99, his character on this felt like if CJ had moved from Brooklyn to LA.  Same exact character except CJ fails up.  I did love his first exchange with Morgan:

“My firearm did discharge itself whilst in my holster during a routine traffic stop causing my metatarsal to shatter.”

“You shot yourself in the foot!”

Jai Rodriguez - I only ever knew him from the first Queer Eye, but apparently he's been in a lot of stuff I've never seen.  But he was great in this.

Is the M.E. with sexy silver hair new?  He got to say lots of words.  Hope we see him again. 

I too wonder about the only newstand selling French newspapers etc.  Our Barnes and Noble still sells international newspapers, albeit a lot less than they used to. And if the guy was a dedicated reader he could have had his own subscription. Granted it was the 90s but when I was taking French in college we had to subscribe to Le Figaro. 

I do think that leap to correctly guessing that the guy gets his newspaper at that one newsstand and the lowercase spelling of proper words felt very television-plot-convenient. 

I hate that Morgan invited that obnoxious kid over.  I wish she had simply left it alone or if she felt the need to call the mom, to point out that if indeed the entire rest of the class got invited except her kid then no it isn't a case of 'close friends' and it is a mean thing to do.  How hard it is to invite another kid, accept a gift and ignore him so he can socialize with the rest of the kids in the class.  And what kid acts that dickish to someone in their own home?  I loved that she made him sit on the porch.

Glad the show has been renewed, it is comfort tv at this point.

[Chicago Redshirt]

5 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I also wonder how someone making $10/hour could afford an immigration lawyer. Even if they meant $10/hour less then them, she can't have had much to spare for revenge schemes.

But we don't know she was an actual client. Do lawyers ever answer some initial questions before officially agreeing to represent them? If so, she could have called and pretended to be undocumented to ask if Facebook fraud could get you deported. Then not move forward with hiring them.

I thought that too, LA is pretty big. But maybe she meant in that particular area?

I think it is safe to say with most lawyers that they may give an initial consultation for no cost/low-cost, and only accept a retainer (or a more substantial payment) if both sides agree to an attorney-client relationship. In this case, we do not know for sure if Tara was in fact the client of the firm she had the number for. An additional nitpick -- a real person would probably not write "Lawyer" on a post-it note. Rather, it seems more natural that they would write "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe" (the firm's name) or "Perry Mason" (the name of the lawyer) or again, just put the number in their cell phone. Also, it seems like Karadec should have asked to speak to someone beyond the receptionist, explained that he was murder police, and that the person who they were asking about was murdered. I am not 100 percent sure if that dissolves the obligation to keep confidentiality about the actual fact of whether someone was a client of the firm, but I am 100 percent sure that they would be pretty likely to get some sort of answer that would prove useful.

Anyway, I am operating under the presumption that Tara had determined that Oksana was behind the bullying campaign, which, I guess that is also not clear -- it took Daphne, Morgan and Karadec a significant amount of time to pierce the veil of the fake accounts and they had a specific incentive to do so, plus the weight of LAPD to do it. How would Tara figure out that these commenters were fake, let alone tie them to Oksana? 

Anyway, tie them she did. So my further presumption is that after she got salty that Oksana was badmouthing her online and threatening her job, she wanted to see what her legal options were for retaliation. So she put in a call to the immigration firm to find out if falsifying things on social media could lead to someone being deported. With no inherent knowledge of the subject, I would have to say that it seems extremely unrealistic that Tara's report that Oksana made up some fake social media accounts and posted (presumably) no more than a half-dozen times on them, getting no money and not causing any harm beyond shittalking Tara would lead to her actually being deported to Russia.

Morgan claimed it was there was only one newsstand in L.A. with the French-language newspaper.

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

I think they did say Tara is behind on rent. But if the nannies were friends with Rosa, you'd think Rosa made the same wage they do, and that Tara would also be offered that wage. And if not, I'd feel like: someone should tell Tara she's being exploited! 

But if Tara was unfriendly to them, and preferred to spend time with the rich father, I can see that they would resent her and assume she's a stuck up racist.

I could buy various scenarios re: pay comparisons between Tara and Rosa:

The couple could have paid Rosa more because she was more experienced than Tara or she was older or because they simply could.

The couple could have paid the two differently because different halves were responsible for the nanny. It seems clear that the one dude was willing to pay out some money without the spouse knowing it, given that he hired Chuck the Canuck and had all them expensive nanny cams around. 

Tara could have accepted less because she really really needed the job with the debt she had accumulated and $25/hr is better than $0/hr.

The nannies probably were aware of how much they were each getting paid, but that may not necessarily be the same. It might be, for instance, some were live-ins and thus maybe got a lower rate but then didn't have to pay for as much (or at all) for such things as rent/utilities/food. Or some had more kids or other responsibilities. 

We don't really get to know much about what Tara was like, but I don't think there's much from the show to base the notion that the other nannies thought Tara was racist. Of course we had the United Colors of Benneton (dated reference but what the hell. I'll try to bring it back) in terms of the Spice Girls -- one Black, one White, one Latina and one Asian. 

Edited 8 hours ago by Chicago Redshirt

[cfinboston]

DAE think the ending looked like a "Cold Case" throwback, with the slow motion criminal walking through the police station and soulful music? 

[Paloma]

13 hours ago, possibilities said:

I thought that she didn't call the brat's mom because she wanted him to sit out there and stew in his own juices for a while, not be relieved of his punishment immediately. I figured mom was already scheduled to pick him up at some point-- later.

But then I come from the generation of kids who walked to school unsupervised and nobody worried we'd die or be abducted if we sat on the porch for a little while alone.

I come from the same generation (or maybe younger but still before the "milk carton" generation), but I was a helicopter parent to my daughter born in 1983. Although I applauded what Morgan said to the nasty kid, I would have been afraid to leave him sitting outside unsupervised until his mother came (whether or not Morgan called her). 

[Paloma]

7 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

An additional nitpick -- a real person would probably not write "Lawyer" on a post-it note. Rather, it seems more natural that they would write "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe" (the firm's name)

As a longtime fan of "Wait, Wait," I love that reference. Also love your United Colors of Benetton reference.

[Milburn Stone]

12 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Middling installment.  I liked the characters/actors better than the storyline, tbh.

Eliza Coupe - My first intro to her and my forever love for her is for her role in Happy Endings where she and Damon Wayans, Jr. played the delightful power couple Brad and Jane.  I liked her role here.

Ken Marino - Having just watched him as Captain CJ on Brooklyn 99, his character on this felt like if CJ had moved from Brooklyn to LA.  Same exact character except CJ fails up. 

We're in complete agreement. Last week's episode was much better. I had no idea who Eliza Coupe was before this episode but I thought she was great and I do hope she'll become recurring. I like Ken Marino but this was way too much of him and I hope he doesn't become recurring. (Although I wish him well in his future endeavors.)

[shura]

11 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

But we don't know she was an actual client. Do lawyers ever answer some initial questions before officially agreeing to represent them? If so, she could have called and pretended to be undocumented to ask if Facebook fraud could get you deported. Then not move forward with hiring them.

It’s not impossible, of course, that she would call a lawyer and ask.  Personally, I would just google “online impersonation” or “is cyberbullying illegal” and find out in two seconds that yes, it’s could be crime.  Many people probably wouldn’t even do that, they’d just call law enforcement to report whatever seems questionable to them, no lawyers needed.  And Tara wouldn’t not need to be represented by her own lawyer - she’d be the victim of a crime, the government would prosecute it in court if it ever came to that (this is also googlable in a few seconds).  If I were writing the episode, I’d just have them find all of this in Tara’s search history.

I guess she never reported Oksana though, she just wanted to threaten her in order to what, get her to stop and be nice?  Seems like you need a lawyer even less for that.

14 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Seriously, people on text and social media generally aren't sticklers for proper grammar and punctuation. (Read enough public Facebook comments and you start to despair for the future of written language.)

Case in point - Sam Altman of OpenAI replying yesterday to some latest insult from Musk, original orthography:

“wrong, as you surely know.

want to come visit the first site already under way?

this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you'll mostly put first.”