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S05.E19: The Great Experiment


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Spanked by hot mom was funny.

It would actually be nice if there were more independents who weren't controlled by the Dems or Reps and their platforms.

The rumors about Elizabeth and Conrad are the kind of crap that gets thrown at women all the time.

I don't believe the guy who was going to become Sec of State would have given up that easily.

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I wish they would have explored Jason’s reaction to the article a little more. Prime opportunity for some family time.

I would think we’d get the announcement next week, but the preview didn’t even really hint at it.

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On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 7:43 PM, purplemouth said:

I wish they would have explored Jason’s reaction to the article a little more. Prime opportunity for some family time.

I'm so with you on that. Not only because of family time but we rarely see that kind of reaction from Jason. He's acted like an entitled brat so often (which I guess isn't unusual for teenagers) and it was nice to see a different side of him and a side that show's how upset he is about an injustice happening to his mother at that. I would have liked a Bess-Jason talk or a Henry-Jason talk whichever they felt would have worked better.

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I thought the episode in general was odd. It felt like a transition episode and at the same time, it didn't feel like a filler because what was happening with Bess needed to happen and served her story and I found most of the episode quite compelling.

There was so much greatness at the beginning. I love Blake and his Sunday outfit and the organized chaos that was going on. I thought it made the scene feel quite real. What’s wrong with an oven on a campaign bus? RVs have ovens and campaigns are insanely expensive, so what’s a thousand bucks more to build in an oven? :-P

Bess in the bathtub made me wonder how long actors have to be in the bathtub for and if the water is warm and/or they replace it. I sure hope they’re allowed to wear something underneath because it’s bound to get cold at one point.

I thought Bess realizing that they have to tell the kids was great. I hadn’t thought of it and it’s an aspect that I generally don’t consider but it must really suck if you’re Bess and/or Henry and I liked that they brought it up. These moments when they show how the things (potentially) affect everyone involved are one of my favorite part about the show as it gives us a different perspective/the perspective of many different characters.

I also liked how they handled it/how the kids reacted and how they all had different reactions. I did not expect Jason’s strong reaction and thought it was interesting. Looks like there is a compassionate young man underneath that brat-like exterior. (Even if that doesn’t excuse throwing bowls. It didn’t sound like it broke though.) Loved Stevie’s heartfelt “you do not need to apologize” as well.

I thought there was something odd about Bess’ and Jay’s exchange when Bess left the elevator after the campaign meeting. I assumed it was morning/early in the day but it sounded like they had already seen each other and had had a conversation about something. I half expected Bess to say something about the campaign which she couldn’t have but she seemed to pick up where they had left off.

I felt kind of sorry for Nina. That said, it does make complete sense that she’d stay behind. But that’s really a lot of new people that the State Department needed for about a year-and-a-half. And, I guess, Conrad would have to nominate a new secretary and Congress would have to confirm. Sounds a little bit like a waste. Although, come to think of it, if it’s a good secretary, there’s a chance the next administration will keep her (or him, if Conrad didn’t nominate the Acting Secretary). 

Did anyone else think Nina was going to ask for a tampon instead of bringing up the sexual harassment issue when she kind of awkwardly held Kat back after bringing up the tampon dispenser?

I’m still not entirely sure what the purpose of the sexual harassment story thread was. It didn’t feel out of place but it the same time, it didn't feel necessary either. I think the show would have been fine if Undersecretary Cushings would have become Acting Secretary and they could have used the time to do a bit more on the kids' reaction to the article. (And I sincerely hope that the Acting-Secretary-to-be is a lot more diplomatic as acting secretary than she was in the episodes that featured her in a more prominent role.)

For some reason, I absolutely loved the call between Bess and Chen. Not only did I like her and that she was the strong-arming diplomat who they referred to several episodes earlier but I also liked Chen’s reaction and that he wasn’t necessarily offended. Even though it was less diplomatic than usual, this seemed to work for them, too.

Yeah, I definitely hope we won’t be seeing too much of Callister next season. But I thought it was interesting how they used him and his campaign announcement. Interesting, too, that Bess immediately made the connection to the call she just had with China and that she sort of predicted the fall-out even if she didn’t think it was going to be that bad. I guess, she has learned a lot in her time at State.

Was Henry also not supposed to read the article? And why would he read it to begin with? But I really thought he was going to hunt down the reporter and give him a piece of mind and create this whole incident that would have been so not good for Bess’ campaign and she’d have to clean up another one of his messes. Glad he didn’t and yeah, Isabel! It was really nice to know that she seems to not be mad at Bess anymore for suspecting her back in S1. Although, it did cross my mind that she leaked the story as retaliation (even if I think it would have been a little over the top) and I kept expecting the conversation between her and Bess to be a trap and a manipulated recording to turn up at the end of the episode. (And where was Bess’ security detail? Taking a break?)

The Governor of Massachusetts kind of reminded me of the oyster eating walrus from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. I think it was the mustache. That sort of mustache always reminds me of that Disney character.

Anyway, why isn’t the Governor running himself? Too afraid he’d lose against Bess? 

That was an interesting take on the “did you favor me” question. But Conrad certainly had a point. If you have people who have those qualities, you’d be a bad boss if you didn’t recognize it and you’d be a fool not to use them. It did make me wonder how things would have played out if Craig Sterling had stayed on. We got a glimpse of Bess outsmarting Craig to get back into the inner circle and as much as I didn’t like Craig, it would probably have been satisfying to see her outsmart him even more and Craig falling out of favor with Conrad again. (Especially since it was mostly Russell anyway. Guess he’s changed his mind now, too ;-))

That moment with Conrad and Bess in the Oval Office really made me curious about Bess' polling numbers. He really seems to have a lot of confidence. I mean, you need confidence in this job and especially when you run but still. Conrad's confidence seems very high.

Nice that they also were able to fit in that bit of personal advice about how he and Lydia learned to separate the job from their personal lives.

When I didn't expect Isabel to be revealed as the leaker and/or as betraying Bess' friendship, I kept expecting it to be revealed that Russell and/or Mike B were responsible for the story to test if Bess could deal with that aspect of the campaign. And I’m still not entirely sure that it wasn’t Mike B.

But I liked how they ended the episode, that Bess kind of took the reigns and handled things the way she thought was right.

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