S03.E09: Episode 9

[AmandaPanda]

Quote

Helen's escape to Montauk exacerbates her guilt and hastens an identity crisis: should the truth finally come out? Noah's world collapses, leaving him to process something horrific.

[WaltersHair]

OMG, I snort-laughed when Helen locked her parents in the panic room.

Noah's segment was so overwrought. He looked like the unibomber stalking Gunther's wife.

[DB in CMH]

So huh.

i enjoyed the Noah stuff more than I thought I would, and I really enjoyed the Helen stuff. 

No idea where the series goes from here. 

[GeminiDancer]

That was quite the episode. Not sure if I liked it or not. So now, the big question for me is how much of Noah's initial interactions with Gunther are real, and how much was him spiraling. Damn, if I didn't feel sympathy for Gunther after seeing him interact with his child.

[Primetimer]

What if you spent an entire season thinking that someone else was out to get you, when all the time it was you, you pill-addled nincompoop? Noah's about to find out.

View the full article

[Muffyn]

Helen's face when her mother ran over to hug her was so wonderful - horror, shock, mild revulsion all mixed up in the greatest WTF face ever.

[SimoneS]

I don't buy Gunther's innocent act. Noah followed his wife home and scared his kid. Yet Gunther wasn't angry or freaked out. He didn't even bother calling the police. Is the norm for him, ex-prisoners coming to his house? The only explanation I can come up with is that Gunther doesn't want the police involved and digging into whatever he did to Noah in that prison. Something happened in the prison to make Noah mentally unstable.

Edited January 23, 2017 by SimoneS

[racked]

What kind of panic room locks from the outside? That'll really protect you from robbers. 

I'm glad Helen confessed but she's kind of the worst now. I do enjoy how ballsy and straightforward Allison is I'm her POV. So different from meek victim Allison! Both actresses were great in that scene. 

The noah storyline was a big yawn. Do we know yet what he feels guilty over and what his dad felt bad about? 

[surfer]

Really loved the Helen half of this episode. Her hilarious interactions with her parents, the scene with Alison, and no way in hell should he take her back, but the convo with Vik was beautifully acted. Definitely Maura Tierney's Emmy submission episode.

And like Cole's last week, Helen's story had an almost finality to it. Sure her future is very much uncertain, but she's finally confessed and seems to be making amends with Vik. I know the show's been renewed, so it will be interesting to see where they take things with her.

Noah... don't care.

Edited January 23, 2017 by surfer

[Cotypubby]

14 minutes ago, racked said:

What kind of panic room locks from the outside? That'll really protect you from robbers. 

I'm glad Helen confessed but she's kind of the worst now. I do enjoy how ballsy and straightforward Allison is I'm her POV. So different from meek victim Allison! Both actresses were great in that scene. 

The noah storyline was a big yawn. Do we know yet what he feels guilty over and what his dad felt bad about? 

He feels guilty for giving his mother the overdose, either because he wanted her to die or because that's how he remembers it.

I thought differences in the Helen/Allison meeting were interesting. In Allison's POV, Helen never even confessed to her, and Allison didn't tell her about being there that night, but Helen's view has got to be the more accurate one since there is no way she would have known Allison pushed Scotty because he was attacking her unless Allison actually did confess to her.

I knew Noah stabbed himself from the moment it happened in the first episode because they very clearly showed a close up of him holding a knife, only surprise was it was intentional instead of an accident.

I think Gunther was simply a guard in the prison, I don't think he actually did anything to him. 

[Muffyn]

So we've confirmed Noah puts the batshit in crazy.  He imagined Gunther tormenting him at the prison.  He imagines Gunther following him as we suspected.  He stabbed himself in the neck.  This was brought on by guilt that he killed his mother so he could go to college. It took us too damn long to get to this unearned conclusion.  The only good part was Brendon Frasier's performance.  Otherwise, argh!

Hi Vik.  Welcome back.  Didn't I tell you to run far, far away?  Don't forget what a cesspool of neediness and drama the Solloway clan brings.   

[Rock knocker]

The cops couldn't figure out it was a self inflicted wound?  Those cops will never make the Law & Order crew.

[Armchair Critic]

Only partly through but is this some 'A Beautiful Mind' shizz with Gunther?

Where were Helen's hot glasses in the bar scene?

[izabella]

5 minutes ago, Armchair Critic said:

Where were Helen's hot glasses in the bar scene?

And the long island iced teas?

[Armchair Critic]

Did Noah really drink his own pee/

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, Cotypubby said:

I think Gunther was simply a guard in the prison, I don't think he actually did anything to him. 

Exactly. Gunther's mother confirmed that he worked as a guard at Fishkill, and Helen saw him in her POV. But all the scenes in Noah's cell, Gunther stalking him, the rear-ending, the altercation in Helen's basement - hallucinations. I did think Gunther was a little too calm when Noah came to his house and scared his wife and special-needs kid. Still, I thought Brendan Frasier did a stellar job in this episode.

Vik. Oh, Vik. He told Helen he'll talk to her after work. Sounds like he's open to getting back together. Why, Vik, why? You're a handsome surgeon in NYC. You could do so much better.

When Bruce, Margaret, and Helen were yelling at each other about Noah was the first time I felt any sympathy for the Solloway children. Well, at least for Stacey.

Did Alison always come across so brash in Helen's POV? It's like she was a completely different person.

Edited January 23, 2017 by chocolatine

[Muffyn]

54 minutes ago, Armchair Critic said:

Did Noah really drink his own pee/

If he did it's because he wanted to.  I'd say he imagined he was forced to drink his own pee when he was actually drinking whatever beverage he was served.  Professor Eau So Franch best be careful.  He may not be up to a little light bondage but she might need to invest in rubber sheets. 

[scrb]

The first scene in the kitchen at Helen's parents was pure comedy.  Helen pouring herself a drink, her parents being her parents and the mother knowing she's looking for Advil  -- she must have downed a lot of Advil in their presence and they don't exactly make the connection?

Forget about the confession stuff.  Mama Lockhart who raised her children to be drug dealers is a pie mogul!  -- with a cheesy name for the company, yet the pie business must be paying well with a big house out in Montauk and keeping all those lights on at night.  She'd have to have sold a lot of pies to pay off the debt on the old home and buy this new one?

The desperation she showed to try to get Vik back is really at odds with her previous POV, where she didn't give a f--- what he thought.  She didn't blink once before she cheated on him.  And with her parents talking him up, you'd think getting him back would be the last thing she'd need.  Does she miss the chicken vindaloo that much? 

As for Noah's POV, I guess they wrapped up the "mystery" they've been drawing out all season.  Noah has been tortured all these years and his drug-fueled memories have become something out of expressionistic thrillers rather than the stuff of middle-class soap operas about infidelity.  He's been carrying this burden all this time, which may be why he decided to take the rap for Scotty's death.

But they also seem to be stretching to say that his guilt led him to the affair in the first place?  That's a huge leap.  The guy who chased the waitress after almost 20 years of marriage looked more like the typical midlife crisis horn dog than some poor guilt-wracked sod bent on punishing himself.

[Guest]

Well, nothing happened in that Gunther story that I didn't see coming since the beginning of it. I will say that Brendan Fraser is a REALLY great actor. Evil Gunther/Nice Gunther were played perfectly. I hope he gets more work out of this.

And I see that next week, Noah's back to normal and hanging around in France (is he not on probation?!). Perfectly normal behavior for a guy who's broke and who's been insane for the past month. 

[SimoneS]

If Gunther did nothing to Noah and it is all in his mind, then the writers of this show are the lunatics. 

[hoodooznoodooz]

I really enjoyed the way (Noah imagined?) Gunther read an excerpt from Noah's novel. Hilarious.  

[cardigirl]

So, my take-away from this episode is that maybe Noah hurried his mother's death along and it wasn't totally her idea. That he didn't assist her suicide so much as he decided she had to die so he could go to college, and the accident with Scotty and confessing to it was maybe his way of dealing with his own guilt?  Like Helen needing to confess her part in Scotty's death.  Only, it seems to have added to his guilt and his current crazy state of mind.

And now, after finding out from Alison that she wasn't the only reason Scotty died, I wonder how that will change Helen, if it will?

I agree with the poster upthread who said Brendan Fraser is doing a great job.  He was really excellent in this episode. 

[preeya]

I can buy the self inflicted stab wound, but how did he self inflict his shoulder/arm injury?

Also, I'll take Brandon Frazier for the win.

[izabella]

14 minutes ago, preeya said:

I can buy the self inflicted stab wound, but how did he self inflict his shoulder/arm injury?

Also, I'll take Brandon Frazier for the win.

We saw Noah slamming his body into the door and the walls of his cell in this episode.  He though the was talking to Gunther, but Gunther wasn't there, so Noah kept slamming into the walls yelling, "Where did you go?!"

[preeya]

22 minutes ago, izabella said:

We saw Noah slamming his body into the door and the walls of his cell in this episode.  He though the was talking to Gunther, but Gunther wasn't there, so Noah kept slamming into the walls yelling, "Where did you go?!"

Thanks. I must have been dosing during that scene.

[LuciaMia]

Quote

 I did think Gunther was a little too calm when Noah came to his house and scared his wife

Gunther showed him more compassion then Noah deserved. H e must still be on probation, so any call to the police would have had him booted back to jail.

Edited January 23, 2017 by LuciaMia

[DarkRaichu]

21 hours ago, izabella said:

And the long island iced teas?

That was Alison masking her drinking habit in her own POV :P  In Helen's POV, whatever Alison was drinking was much much stronger than Long Island teas :D :D

11 hours ago, preeya said:

Thanks. I must have been dosing during that scene.

I honestly dozed off when Gunther debated with Noah in his isolation cell.  When I opened my eyes Noah stabbed himself.  I did not care to go back and figure out what had happened.  :D :D :D

[Sheenieb]

Quote

So we've confirmed Noah puts the batshit in crazy.  He imagined Gunther tormenting him at the prison.  He imagines Gunther following him as we suspected.  He stabbed himself in the neck.  This was brought on by guilt that he killed his mother so he could go to college. It took us too damn long to get to this unearned conclusion.  The only good part was Brendon Frasier's performance.  Otherwise, argh!

Kudos to Brendan Frasier for working with such shitty material. We all knew that this resolution was going to be wack as hell. What makes zero sense about this whole storyline is Noah never struggled with his mother's death. He mentioned her sickness, but he seemed to live his life with no issues. He goes to jail and all of this shit comes up? Sure, trauma can be suppressed, but this was done in such a haphazard ass way that it was hard to take seriously. 

I never liked Vik. He's an asshole, but that seems to be Helen's type. So, of course he fit in seamlessly with her asshole kids.

I'm just glad the secret is out. 

[JustCrazy]

I'm hate watching this show and I can't figure out why.  These are the most pathetic people. Is there going to be some mystery to be solved again next year?  Where is this going?  What a mess of truly disgusting people.  You can't blame the kids for being so obnoxious, look at their parents.  I, too, have noticed that the kids never age.  You'd think someone on the show would have noticed.  I also love how none of these folks seem to have gainful employment other than Vic.  Ok, Alison is a business owner, but come on, it's a family run restaurant. I understand everyone has a slightly different take when remembering past interactions, but Alison and Helen's versions of their bar encounter were so wildly different, I thought it was a second encounter at first.  Why would Alison not remember confessing to Helen that she was at the scene of Scotty's death?  It makes no sense whatsoever.  That's a pretty huge thing not to remember.

Renewed for one more season, huh?  Where on earth are they going to go from here?  I just want to say that I really dislike Noah, and feel absolutely zero sympathy for him.  I don't see a single redeeming quality in how he is written.  Helen's personality has done such a flip flop, it's mind boggling.  The only character whose arc seems organic is Alison.  But now I have to wonder about that in light of the bar scene with Helen.

this show is only slightly more interesting than The Young Pope, but they are both strange and confusing shows that I watch for some strange reason.

[DarkRaichu]

3 minutes ago, JustCrazy said:

Why would Alison not remember confessing to Helen that she was at the scene of Scotty's death?  It makes no sense whatsoever.  That's a pretty huge thing not to remember.

I would chalk it up to Alison being drunk when she met Helen, ie the whole Long Island tea was BS in Alison's mind.  She was clearly drinking something other than long island tea in Helen's POV

Having said that, I do not think I have to work this hard to explain what's going on for the little payoff the show provides :P

[Pallas]

31 minutes ago, DarkRaichu said:

She was clearly drinking something other than long island tea in Helen's POV

Long Island Iced Tea -- the mixed drink -- is clear booze (tequila, vodka, white rum) with a splash of Coca-Cola. What each woman remembered about the conversation seems to reflect what was weighing most on her mind. For Alison, newly divorced from Noah, restored as one of Joanie's parents and focused again on Cole, it was the affair and all its repercussions; for Helen, the accident. Yet each remembers the other as urging her to forever hold her peace (and therefore, drop the guilt).   

[CarolMK]

Something that is bugging me- when Alison told Helen that she knew that Helen was driving the car- so why didn't Alison tell that to the police, as a witness to the accident? If she had confessed she'd pushed Scotty since he was assaulting her into the roadway, there is a very good chance no one would have had to have gone to prison. Helen's parents would have paid for the best lawyer in town and she would have probably gotten probation and lost her license. Why did Alison let Noah go to prison? At the time , she and Noah were still married and Noah believed that he was Joanie's father. Something isn't adding up. 

I agree Brendan Frasier did an excellent job last night. He actually scares me in some of his scenes.

[RedFiat]

I loved this episode. I thought it confirmed a lot of what the show was aiming at all season.  I think the Helen character is the most relatable, in that she did stupid things out of loyalty to a man who was once her husband and who fell on his sword in her eyes for her and her kids.  She killed a man, and that's not something any sane person can keep to themselves. So she's going to have sympathy for the guy who went to jail and lost everything.  She's going to lash out at the person who she thinks was the root cause, hearing that Alison was there, even though deep down she knows Alison is only a distraction to what really happened to Noah. We know Noah's motivation for going to jail, he wanted to do some time for allowing his mother to die, thinking that it would rid his guilt when it only crystalized it.  We know this, but Helen really doesn't. So she looks for reasons but can't find them.  Vic is pretty much an asshole, but he's grown to love Helen. Without trusting her, he decided to only see Helen as a weak pathetic housefrau with a monkey on her back.  Helen didn't expect much from Vic, but I think she knew that if she just came clean about her guilt when it came to Noah, he wouldn't completely dismiss her. And he didn't.  Her parents have always been the most selfish people in the world and they proved it again by forbidding her to reveal the truth about the accident. Locking them up in the panic room seemed poetic.

Damn Dominic West allows us to really hate the Noah character this season. We see this guy for what he is, a disgusting opportunist who would allow his mother to die just so he could get a snooty education and marry rich. The Brandon Fraser character was so good at pointing out the darkness of mom's dying and each perspective. Noah- a mercy killing --Gunter an opportunity to leave a small town.   He reflexively hates the women who dared come near, ensuring they would leave by raping them. So much hate and self loathing. So it's really hard to have any respect for the guy who hates himself. He pays with losing his mind and his soul.  Big price to pay, but for me it's also a big payoff in understanding how this guy is motivated.   Kudos to West for keeping it crazy.  If Noah doesn't go away for a long while, he'll hurt himself enough that he won't have any more saviours and that will end it. 

Edited January 23, 2017 by RedFiat

[DarkRaichu]

15 minutes ago, CarolMK said:

Something that is bugging me- when Alison told Helen that she knew that Helen was driving the car- so why didn't Alison tell that to the police, as a witness to the accident? If she had confessed she'd pushed Scotty since he was assaulting her into the roadway, there is a very good chance no one would have had to have gone to prison. Helen's parents would have paid for the best lawyer in town and she would have probably gotten probation and lost her license. Why did Alison let Noah go to prison? At the time , she and Noah were still married and Noah believed that he was Joanie's father. Something isn't adding up. 

I agree Brendan Frasier did an excellent job last night. He actually scares me in some of his scenes.

In 1 of previous episodes, she asked Noah why he told her not to say anything to the police

[RedFiat]

9 hours ago, CarolMK said:

Something that is bugging me- when Alison told Helen that she knew that Helen was driving the car- so why didn't Alison tell that to the police, as a witness to the accident?

IMHO All main characters are damaged and do things that comes from a selfish, or self preservation place.  At this point Alison could not admit to herself that Noah went back to Helen, it would be admitting failure, again.  If she did, then she would have to reveal who was driving the car.  Noah fesses up so he doesn't have to deal with his demons, but they appear in full measure in prison.  Helen doesn't admit to driving because she fears losing her children.  She almost lost it one time when she got drunk behind the wheel in a previous season when she tried drinking and smoking pot just a little too much.  She is also her parent's daughter, and has the whiff of entitlement, she's rich and therefore not to go to jail. The outcome was just too hard for her to handle.    

8 hours ago, DarkRaichu said:

In 1 of previous episodes, she asked Noah why he told her not to say anything to the police

I remember that now, yes... I also think that Alison was not interested in reliving the Scotty mess    

[neece26]

The acting on this show continues to be phenomenal, but for me it stops there.  I have no idea where this is going anymore and I'm not sure that I even care!

[Muffyn]

Upon reflection, Noah is now a rapist and a murderer.  If what we have seen is to be believed, he encouraged his mother to want to kill herself and may not have had her permission to give her a lethal dose of her meds.  He raped Helen in their last encounter.  It started consensually but didn't end that way.  When Whitney and Helen's parents paint him as a murderer for his vehicular manslaughter conviction, I think, dial it back a notch.  Now that we know the real Noah, they should dial it up to 11.   

[Rock knocker]

2 minutes ago, Muffyn said:

  He raped Helen in their last encounter.  It started consensually but didn't end that way.  

But Helen's version didn't end that way.  I think in his mind he thinks he's a rapist.

[izabella]

Helen's version didn't end with the end of their sexual encounter.  We did not see the whole thing in her version, but we did in Noah's version, which included his hand on her neck/chin holding her down, as well as her cries of stop and enough, and her crying. 

[subina167]

15 hours ago, Rock knocker said:

The cops couldn't figure out it was a self inflicted wound?  Those cops will never make the Law & Order crew.

Exactly! The knife had to have still been there. Did they check the fingerprints?

[DarkRaichu]

45 minutes ago, subina167 said:

Exactly! The knife had to have still been there. Did they check the fingerprints?

That would be too logical.  They'd rather drove all the way from New Jersey to Montauk just to put Cole in Montauk jail to be released the next day.

[Blakeston]

17 hours ago, Muffyn said:

Helen's face when her mother ran over to hug her was so wonderful - horror, shock, mild revulsion all mixed up in the greatest WTF face ever.

It reminded me of Michael on Arrested Development asking his mother, "Why are you squeezing me with your body?"

17 hours ago, SimoneS said:

I don't buy Gunther's innocent act. Noah followed his wife home and scared his kid. Yet Gunther wasn't angry or freaked out. He didn't even bother calling the police. Is the norm for him, ex-prisoners coming to his house? The only explanation I can come up with is that Gunther doesn't want the police involved and digging into whatever he did to Noah in that prison. Something happened in the prison to make Noah mentally unstable.

I could see someone in Gunther's position choosing not to call the police for well-meaning reasons. This was someone he knew from his childhood, and from what we saw, it was clear that Noah was motivated by fear rather than malice.

Calling the police would have been the safest thing to do. But someone in his shoes might take pity on Noah, and encourage him to get help rather than sending him back to prison.

[nara]

3 hours ago, CarolMK said:

Something that is bugging me- when Alison told Helen that she knew that Helen was driving the car- so why didn't Alison tell that to the police, as a witness to the accident? If she had confessed she'd pushed Scotty since he was assaulting her into the roadway, there is a very good chance no one would have had to have gone to prison. Helen's parents would have paid for the best lawyer in town and she would have probably gotten probation and lost her license. Why did Alison let Noah go to prison? At the time , she and Noah were still married and Noah believed that he was Joanie's father. Something isn't adding up. 

Others have answered your question, and to add to their points, I thought that Alison was a little worried that it would appear that she deliberately pushed Scotty into oncoming traffic and would be liable. She certainly had motive.

1 hour ago, subina167 said:

Exactly! The knife had to have still been there. Did they check the fingerprints?

Didn't it fall into the sink full of water?

[grommit2]

22 hours ago, racked said:

What kind of panic room locks from the outside? That'll really protect you from robbers. 

I'm glad Helen confessed but she's kind of the worst now. I do enjoy how ballsy and straightforward Allison is I'm her POV. So different from meek victim Allison! Both actresses were great in that scene. 

The noah storyline was a big yawn. Do we know yet what he feels guilty over and what his dad felt bad about? 

I believe Noah feels guilty for helping his ill mother end her life, thus freeing him to head off to Williams College on a swimming scholarship. 

IMHO...finally an episode that comes closer to telling the story, rather than these obtuse misdirections.  
Noah's episode clearly showed his version of his nuttiness:  the shoulder was injured when he slammed into the jail cell wall and door.  Gunther had a manuscript that revealed Noah's true feelings about assisting his mom's suicide. And Noah was so conflicted that he stabbed himself (in a bit of a time warp).  It appears that Gunther is only a device to reveal Noah's internal conflict. Anyway, that's my story until Episode 10 mixes things up again.

And Allison...well in the last 2 episodes, she has become the self-aware, psychologically stable adult.  She told Noah that he saw her as wounded and needing help (of course, the last person he "helped" was his mom, and we know how that turned out).  And she offered concise, profound life-advice to the distraught patient at Woodlawn.  Also, somehow she carried on two intelligent, calm conversations with Helen (who has every right to seek revenge).  Of course, Allison also displayed some of that bipolar happiness when she claimed Woodlawn offered her a job (oh...really?). 
Finally, I need more Whitney...I crave the whiny, complaining, entitled, Furkat-chasing twenty-something. 

[RedheadZombie]

4 hours ago, CarolMK said:

Something that is bugging me- when Alison told Helen that she knew that Helen was driving the car- so why didn't Alison tell that to the police, as a witness to the accident? If she had confessed she'd pushed Scotty since he was assaulting her into the roadway, there is a very good chance no one would have had to have gone to prison. Helen's parents would have paid for the best lawyer in town and she would have probably gotten probation and lost her license. Why did Alison let Noah go to prison? At the time , she and Noah were still married and Noah believed that he was Joanie's father. Something isn't adding up. 

I agree Brendan Frasier did an excellent job last night. He actually scares me in some of his scenes.

Helen already had one DUI, so she probably wouldn't have gotten a slap on the wrist.  Plus we saw her driving drunk once or twice this episode.  It's not something she seems able to change.

Noah knew he wasn't Joanie's father when he pled guilty. 

[chick binewski]

15 hours ago, chocolatine said:

Did Alison always come across so brash in Helen's POV? It's like she was a completely different person.

With makeup! All the throwaway differences while waiting for a big reveal this season are strange. 

3 hours ago, Muffyn said:

Upon reflection, Noah is now a rapist and a murderer.  If what we have seen is to be believed, he encouraged his mother to want to kill herself and may not have had her permission to give her a lethal dose of her meds.  He raped Helen in their last encounter.  It started consensually but didn't end that way. 

I'm wondering how they're going to write the aftermath because it was clear from Helen's POV this week that she was distraught afterwards. But this was the catalyst for her confession?

This was the second episode of season 3 that I actually liked. But now I really feel like Fraser was underused; he pretty much played three sides to Gunther seamlessly and was the highlight last night. 

I still have serious Noah issues (don't we all). I always considered his mother's death a completely selfish act (not due to a stance on assisted suicide but rather who the character has shown us to be) so I kind of wasn't surprised to consider Noah probably murdered his mom, although (as Gunther helpfully meta'd) - memory is a tricky thing so how much is guilt shading this story? My biggest problem is little Noah running from his father. I'm still thinking there's got to be another reveal. The boy running in the flashback is too small to be college-age and the father wasn't around for the mother's death. I'm also confused by what the sister does or doesn't know. 

I don't recall any other episode having two different directors/crews. Will the finale take us to a new crime? Maybe Furcat getting killed? Or a search for Bruce & Margaret who haven't been seen since they went to their basement.

[CocoaGoddess]

Brenden Fraser also looked much, much hotter in reality than as the prison guard. When he had on those glasses and was comforting his special needs kid .... whoa. Hey there Brenden! (And yes, his acting was absolutely aces, I really hope he gets some kind of guest Emmy nod).

With Helen, I think that she ultimately will be able to move on knowing that Noah really didn't sacrifice himself for her, but for Alison (that was the impression I got anyway, even though in Noah's POV, he stated that he did it for his "wife" and because he had an Affair. But .... he was married to Alison at the time, not Helen. Anyway ....), so that kind of frees her up to move on with her life. And Alison is right, sorry that Scotty is dead, but he was a scumbag and who knows what he would have done to Alison if given a chance. There was no way at all Helen could have avoided hitting him at all. At. All. Move on Helen and commit your asshole surgeon who adores you and your asshole children. 

That being said, I really, really, REALLY don't like writing in these spur of the moment conflicts for these characters that really don't make any sense in the grand scheme of the story. Helen hit Scotty years ago, why is she just now unraveling? Is it because Noah is back in her life? And five, six years later, there's still a memorial for Scotty at the side of the road? Really....

How is it that the lobster shop is so profitable now, that it totally supports all of these people and allows Cole to build a massive house on beach front property, along with the swanky, House Hunters Holy Trinity style house they currently live in? Mama Lockhart's pies that she's making in her kitchen (wtf show) are so amazing that this business venture is supporting her now? Who knew that slinging pies and lobster rolls would be so profitable in such a wealthy beach town. This doesn't make any sense. None. 

Noah is totally irredeemable to me now, and there's no fate I want to see him saddled with except in a canyon somewhere, screaming at the moment of his death. Or whatever. 
He didn't merely help his mother commit suicide, he basically drove her to it. He gave her sugar pills to make her suffer and give up living. I can't get past that. I can't get over it. He raped his ex wife and drove his mother to suicide. He's a lousy father, a lousy husband and a lousy human being in general with absolutely no redeeming qualities. 
If a dead Noah Solloway is what will be needed for every last one of these characters to move on and repair their lives, then they need to sacrifice his ass at an alter. 

[DarkRaichu]

1 hour ago, chick binewski said:

Will the finale take us to a new crime? Maybe Furcat getting killed? Or a search for Bruce & Margaret who haven't been seen since they went to their basement.

I am actually I afraid of Vik's fate now that he is back.  And btw, it is Furkat with a K !!!!  :D :D :D

17 minutes ago, CocoaGoddess said:

Noah is totally irredeemable to me now, and there's no fate I want to see him saddled with except in a canyon somewhere, screaming at the moment of his death. Or whatever. 
He didn't merely help his mother commit suicide, he basically drove her to it. He gave her sugar pills to make her suffer and give up living. I can't get past that. I can't get over it. He raped his ex wife and drove his mother to suicide. He's a lousy father, a lousy husband and a lousy human being in general with absolutely no redeeming qualities. 
If a dead Noah Solloway is what will be needed for every last one of these characters to move on and repair their lives, then they need to sacrifice his ass at an alter. 

Actually, Noah should go to Oregon to hide so he could meet a certain lumberjack :D :D :D

[izabella]

54 minutes ago, CocoaGoddess said:

How is it that the lobster shop is so profitable now, that it totally supports all of these people and allows Cole to build a massive house on beach front property, along with the swanky, House Hunters Holy Trinity style house they currently live in? Mama Lockhart's pies that she's making in her kitchen (wtf show) are so amazing that this business venture is supporting her now? Who knew that slinging pies and lobster rolls would be so profitable in such a wealthy beach town. This doesn't make any sense. None. 

Mama Lockhart knows the drug business, so maybe the pies are baked with weed.  And the powdered sugar on top is coke. 

[LilaFowler]

There are limits to how many episodes an actor can appear in, in order to still qualify in the Guest Actor Emmy category.  Brendan Fraser has been in more than half of the episodes this season and will be in the Supporting Actor category.  I hope he can earn a few awards nods but I'm not confident that enough people are still watching this show.  Honestly I think Brendan, Maura Tierney and Dominic West knocked it out of the park this season but again, this show just doesn't seem to be that popular with voters.

Ugh, Vik.  Why?  Helen doesn't deserve him.  He keeps saying that he's an asshole himself.  Really?  How has he been an asshole?  Did I miss an episode or ten?  Even if he had, I'm sure he had just cause.  Being around Helen enough would drive anyone to pissy behavior.  

Helen telling the kids that she was the one driving is going to mess them up permanently.  Unless she turns herself in to the police, that secret will be a burden that they'll have to carry around for the rest of their lives.  Mother of the Year.  She acts like her own upbringing was so difficult, always running for the alcohol when she voluntarily spends time with her parents, but actually, it was probably quite plush and she's just another spoiled, selfish, narcissistic rich girl who needs things to complain about.  She ruined her kids' lives because she couldn't carry the burden of her secret herself.  I can't stand her.  I hope someone turns her in and she goes to prison. 

Noah and his lunacy -- I give up.  Was the stuff with Gunther pretty much all in his head?  If so, why was Gunther so calm and not-surprised when an obviously unstable ex-con follows his wife home from work, scares his family, and threatens him with a knife?  And he let him just leave?  Was he half-expecting that?  Personally if I were an asshole who worked as a guard at a prison, I would only torment prisoners who were serving life sentences for this exact reason.  I just don't get it.  Nothing really makes sense about it.  Next week it looks like Noah's back to normal, wearing scarves and flying to Paris with Madame Desperate, nevermind that he's rejected her advances not once but twice now.  And he's telling her that she brought him back from the brink?  Oh really?  Okay.  How does explain that he stabbed himself to the police and not be put in a 5150?  Of course we must remember that Noah is the furthest thing from a reliable narrator and it's possible that he never even found Gunther's house and this was all in his damn head.  As for the reveal about his mother, interesting.  It took 20+ years, an affair, a hit and run and a stint in prison for that that come out?!  He and Helen must have had the most shallow, polite, shitty marriage in history, my god.

I don't know where the show goes from here.  Someone has to die under mysterious circumstances in the next episode, right?  Is Furkat a dead man walking?  What about Cole?  Several weeks ago Joshua Jackson posted a pic on Instagram that said something along the lines of goodbye to his character, "it's been a hell of a journey" or something like that.  He went back and edited it later and said that he meant just for this season but it gave me pause.

Edited January 24, 2017 by LilaFowler