On The Word Of No One - Cosmos - Season 1, Episode 3

Why doesn't our universe come with any information on what everything is and how it works?  Everything humans know about our universe, we have had to discover. Good thing we're curious.  And that we have comets.

Animals that have pattern recognition had a clear advantage over others.  If an animal could recognize patterns in prey and predators, it could predict when danger would occur and avoid it, or predict when food would show up and catch it easily.  Humans also have this cognitive trait, but with the development of language and speech came the development of abstract pattern recognition.  Which helps us discover the secrets of the universe.  And believe in wacky shit.

Hey, it beats Real Housewives

Stars were the original TV.  It only took humanity a few thousand years to figure out that the stars had a slightly different position every night, but repeated those positions yearly.  By the time humans practiced agriculture, the stars were literally telling them when to plant and when to reap.  Because stars did this so well, humans used them for all sorts of guidance, both useful and not.  From here, it was a pretty easy leap to early astronomers deciding that the stars themselves were living beings, or represented real beings that ruled the weather, seasons, and public health.  It wasn't hard to start "seeing" pictures in the stars, that would one day become constellations.  This mix of true and false pattern recognition guided humanity through millenia.

There were two big problems with this.  First, early humans had no way of knowing why the stars seemed to move in the sky, and decided supernatural forces made them move around the earth, leading them to think the Earth was the center of the universe, and everything, including the Sun, went around the Earth, powered by gods and magic.  Second, any disruption in the normal course of the stars, planets, and sun led to chaos.  Solar eclipses and comets were bringers of bad news, sickness, crop failures, and assassinations.   In fact, the belief led to a word for catastrophe- disaster, which means "bad star" in ancient Greek.

Blamed for celebrity break-ups for centuries

People really believed this.  Around the world.  Every star-gazing civilization hated any break from normal in the sky.  This continued right up into the late 1600s.  What changed then?

A few things.  In 1660, King Charles 2 established the Royal Society in London.  Set up as a club for the budding field of intellectuals just starting to use empirical observations and mathematical models to explain how the universe, both organic and not, worked.  It's motto was Nullius in Verba, which Latin for Put Up Or Shut Up.  It boasted lots of members, but Tyson focuses on four:  Christopher Wren, architect of London after the Great Fire of 1666; Robert Hooke, President of the Society, Inventor of numerous things, and resident crank; Edmond Halley, boyish adventurer for science and probably the greatest facilitator of science at the time; and one Isaac Newton, reclusive professor at Cambridge.  Newton and Hooke had just come off a raging disagreement over Newton's last publication, where Newton basically told everyone how light works and gave 11th grade high school science students a whole new set of required experiments.  Hooke insisted that he came up with the theory.  For some reason, it was never settled one way or another, and Newton retired from public life.

But not from feverish inquiries, scientific and not. Newton, the product of a lonely childhood alienated from his mother and step-father, was really great at entertaining himself with theories.  Newton was an alchemist searching for the Elixir of Life, a biblical scholar searching the ancient text in multiple languages for hidden predictions of the Second Coming, and a rigorous mathematician who figured out gravity's relationship to mass, as well as the three basic Laws of Motion (once again, making more work for 11th grade science students).

Hooke was no slouch himself:  he invented the first microscope, using it to discover cells in living things.  He derived the law of Elasticity, and even did some experimenting with Marijuana, thereby discovering the Munchies.  Hooke just seemed to overreach when he got into kerfuffles with Newton.  Must have been the dope.

Hooke, Halley, and Wren liked to sit around London's new coffeehouses, where caffeine made people discuss important shit and rich people couldn't pretend to be better than everyone else.   The three were pondering Kepler's work in establishing that planets went around the sun in elliptical orbits, and that planets nearer the sun went faster.  Sure, the math checked out and Kepler's theories could predict where the planets would be and when.  But why did it work?  What made the planets orbit the Sun just the way they do?  Hooke insisted a mathematical equation could explain it, and he had the equation.  When he couldn't produce one, Halley took a tip from a friend and visited Isaac Newton at Cambridge.

Of course I know the answer!  But it's highly classified, like the source of the zombie disease!

When Halley explained the dilemma, Newton agreed to send him the work he'd already done.  Newton already knew that an object's mass created the attraction between it and different objects, and that this attraction was proportional to the object's mass- bigger objects created more attraction, with the attraction increasing if objects were close together. When Halley received a copy of Newton's work in the mail, he knew this needed to be published.  But a lot of fish got in the way.

Before studying gravity bored kids in school, people thought it was totally cool shit.

The Royal Society was impressed with Newton's work and wanted to publish it;  but, in an early example of institutional fuck-ups, had lost their entire publishing budget on a huge, amply illustrated history of fish.  In face, so many copies sat around un-bought, that the Society was paying salaries with it, including Halley's.  It must have saved the Halley family a fortune in kindling.  Halley, being a stand-up guy in addition to a scientist, made good on his promise to publish Newton's work by self-financing all three volumes of Principia, which presented all of Newton's scientific work on gravity and motion, as well as publishing calculus for the first time in Europe, thereby securing him immortality whether he made the damn Elixir or not.   Newton succeeded Hooke as the President of the Royal Society, where it is believed that he chucked the only portrait of Hooke into a fire.  The world was blown away by his work.

Not just by the genius of the math.  But by the implications.  Gravity was a natural force, produced by an object's mass in the real world.  Newton, alchemist and End Times nut that he was, discovered a completely non-supernatural way for the planets to revolve around the sun.  Objects no longer moved because that was their nature- they moved because gravity was pulling them towards the bigger object.  The momentum produced once a planet started moving made it orbit the bigger object.  The increased attraction of closer planets led them to move faster, making their orbits faster around the Sun.  Which led to middle-school science students making diaramas out of styrofoam, wire and tempera paint.  Newton's theory of motion also led him to predict that if you chuck an object with enough force, it would be fast enough to break Earth's gravity, and leave the atmosphere, making way for NASA's Saturn and Apollo programs, as well as a really cheesy movie with Billie Bob Thornton.

Halley did a shitload of other stuff, most of it cool stuff like sailing all over the Southern Hemisphere to make the first star map of Southern Stars, and inventing the diving bell so people could explore and collect stuff at the bottom of the ocean.  He calculated the distance between the Sun and Earth using the time it took for Venus to cross in front of the Sun.  He also figured out, based on analyzing birth and death rates of Europe's major cities, that most adults don't actually produce kids, so families would need to produce four each in order to keep the population stable.  The world took that knowledge and used it to produce, like, ten kids per family, thereby jacking our numbers up.

Halley's other big accomplishments included figuring out that stars move.  Stars were thought to be motionless in the sky, as they only changed where they seemed to be, in conjunction with the Earth's position.  But Halley looked through star charts from over 1000 years before his time, realizing that the stars actually do move, but are so far away that their movements appear so small we can't perceive them over one lifetime.  In other words, Halley discovered just how limited by illusion human knowledge can be.  He used the same analytical skills on comet sightings, going back through centuries of observations and drawings made in Constantinople.  By seeing patterns in the sightings, Halley identified the comet that bears his name and predicted when it would return, where in the sky it would be, and what path through the sky it would make.  Haley did not live to see his predictions come true in 1758.  It didn't just bring about the end of superstitions about comets.  Using math, we could predict future movements and events, even ones not in our control.  With math, humanity could 'see' into the future.  With math, humanity could explore above Earth.  Halley's work on comets would later be expanded by Jan Oort, Danish astronomer who was the first to use a radio telescope and discover that there was some serious shit at the center of our galaxy.  The collection of comets that hang out beyond the planets, is named for him.

Tyson ends on a huge prediction, slated to come true in a few billion years- our galaxy will have a fun collision with the nearby Andromeda Galaxy.  Stars actually won't collide, because they are too far apart to, but the collision of the gravitational fields of all those stars will produce quite the night-time light show.  Maybe we'll go back to watching the sky at night, instead of reality shows.

Better than Walking Dead.  But we'll all be dead when it happens.

Tunnel of Love - Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 15

What a tease.  A reunion is shown, and another one is planned, probably next week in the season finale.

Rick, Michonne and Carl are moseying down the tracks.  Things have been so good that Michonne and Carl openly goof around.

We could have been there by now, fuckers

No idea how close they are to Terminus, except that the preview for next week indicates they are within a couple days walking.  There's something about a candy bar and a bet that involves the rail.  Notice that Carl, though he wins the bet, wants to share with Michonne anyway.  Someone, not naming names, someone litters.

Behind them, by about a day, on the same track, are Darryl and his new buddies.  Among them is Tony, he of the robbed bed from about four episodes ago.  Turns out he wasn't dead, and he'll recognize Rick when they catch up to him.  Darryl, for the moment, is arguing over a rabbit that he tracked since dawn only to see it shot from him by Len, the creepy guy who likes his angel wing jacket.

The night's first casualty

Len tries claiming the rabbit from Darryl, who bags it for himself.  Len tries taunting Darryl into violence, and almost succeeds, when Smoky Joe materializes to settle things.

Not sure mocking his dead girlfriend's a good idea, dude

Joe gives Darryl a break, not wanting to punish Darryl when he didn't know the rules, and gives halves of the rabbit to both Len and Darryl.  Hey, the ass end's still an end.  

The Wisdom of Solomon at work

Proceeding down the tracks, Joe explains that they claim stuff, like an unending game of dibs, to keep order.  Since it's a rule that can apply to almost any situation or disagreement, it's one of the few rules they need, in addition to punishing lying and stealing.  And the punishment depends entirely on what the others feel like doing to you.  Joe has figured out that they don't need to be buddy buddy, they just need to cooperate well enough to live without tearing each other apart.  Considering that they killed one of their own for being a coward four episodes ago, and Len's fate tonight, I'm not sure that's working out.

Joe, however, is pretty sanguine about the group, and spends their conversations convincing Darryl that he'll fit right in with this group.  When Darryl insists that he's not  the wild man the rest of them are, Joe tells Darryl to stop thinking like an indoor cat.  Joe knows all about cats, being a cat guy himself.

Rapist.  Murderer. Animal Lover.

Glen, Tara, Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene are proceeding down the tracks, presumably because Glenn thinks Maggie might be going to Terminus too.  They are camped for the night, with people sleeping on or near the tracks, Abraham and Tara keeping watch.   Tara says she has this, and Abraham should go to sleep. Abraham points out that Tara hasn't slept, and he's not leaving her alone to guard Eugene, who he still thinks is going to save the world.  Abraham, continuing his thing of guessing why Tara is helping Glenn, muses that, at first, he thought that Tara was in love with Glenn.  He felt sorry for her, helping the guy she loved find his wife.  That is, until he realized Tara is gay.  He shares Tara's fascination with Rosita's breasts. The next morning, we see that Eugene isn't quite as perceptive, and is talking Tara's ear off about zombies possibly killing off the dinosaurs and making homemade batteries (him, not the zombies).

Turns out, Glenn is right, and they see a bloody note on a Terminus sign, indicating that Maggie, Bob and Sasha are heading there together (also indicating it was written after they reunited and decided together to go to Terminus).  Glenn runs down the tracks like a kid running for presents, as if he doesn't care that he could be running for some time.  When they pass an abandoned tower, they argue over whether to rest, with Abraham pointing out that no one's been sleeping.  The argument ends when a falling zombie causes characters to run out of the way, knocking Tara over so she can, once again, injure her ankle.  It really sucks to be Tara's ankle on this show.  Tara's fine with going on, but Rosita shames Glenn into letting her rest.  Glenn and Abraham make a trade- if they keep on until sunset, Glenn will give Eugene is body armor.

Smoky Joe and the Henchmen reach an abandoned garage along the tracks, and decide it's perfect for the night.  Darryl wanders from car to car just as someone else claims it for himself, leaving Darryl the floor with his rabbit bag as his pillow.  After taking a much needed potty break, he returns to settle down for a nap, only to be interrupted by Len, accusing him of stealing the other half of the rabbit and keeping it in that bag he's resting his head on.  Ew.  Darryl insists that Len is lying, and accuses him of messing with his bag while he was out.  Joe, acting as referee, finds the other half of the rabbit in the bag, and asks Darryl if he stole the rabbit.  Darryl continues to deny stealing the rabbit part.  Joe, moseys over to Len and asks if Len put the rabbit in the bag, which he denies.  Joe solves the problem by hitting Len so hard he falls down, and tells the others to go to work on him.

Turns out, Joe saw Len try to frame Darryl.  When Darryl asks why he went through the whole charade of a trial, Joe looks amused as he tells Darryl he wanted to trap Len in a lie, implying that Len has the beating he's currently getting coming.  Joe rewards Darryl for his honesty with the rest of the rabbit.  After all, Len won't be needing it.

Glenn and Co. reach another note from Maggie, this one appearing fresh, but the tracks lead into a train tunnel and disappear into darkness. All they know is that they can hear a shitload of zombies in there and Abraham refuses to take Eugene through.  So they part, amazingly amicably, with Glenn handing over his riot gear, and Abraham giving them food and a flashlight.  Glenn apologizes to Abraham for hitting him that day in the cornfield.  Abraham has no grudge, insisting that he loves a good fight.  Eugene tries to dazzle Tara one last time, and she outright comes out to him.  Eugene is completely unconvincing when he tells her he knew that.

Yeah, awesome gaydar, Eugene

Abraham, Rosita and Eugene leave the tracks.  They quickly find a vehicle to drive and a soccer mom zombie to put down.  Rosita and Eugene quickly fall to squabbling over who will give directions.  Rosita points out that she doesn't think Eugene can do anything useful;  Eugene points out that he's gotten them halfway along without getting lost.  So, Rosita tells Eugene to just find the way north, and they pile into the minivan.  Abraham passes out in the back.

Glenn and Tara inch their way through the tunnel, keeping their minds occupied by talking about Tara's guilt over listening to the Governor and surviving when her family is dead.  They find the zombies, trapped in a pile of rubble and oozing relatively fresh zombie blood.  Tara figures the cave in was about a day ago.  Glenn and Tara put zombies down in the rubble so they can climb to the top.  As the look over the other side of the rubble, about a dozen zombies shuffle over, reaching up for them.  Tara thinks they'll have to go back.  Glenn, after scanning each zombie face, tells Tara that none of his friends are among the undead, so they must have gotten through somehow.  Tara is doubtful, but Glenn's got a plan.  They distract the undead with the flashlight and another zombie on the far side of the pile, and quietly scurry down out of sight of them.  With any luck, they'll be past the zombies and can just zip away.  It goes great, until Tara, obviously not wearing adequate footwear, loses her footing from her bad ankle and gets her foot stuck near the bottom of the pile.  Glenn is trying to free her foot, as the zombies start to realize something's up.

Rosita is sure that Eugene is lost.  Either that, or Eugene really likes left turns that bring them back to the tracks.  Stopping on Eugene's last-second command, Rosita realizes what Eugene's real plan was:  based on Glenn and Tara's approximate speed, they should be appearing soon, and Team Abraham can pick them up and be on their way.  Rosita insists on leaving, and that Washington is their only task.  Eugene tells her that he won't rest easy if they leave Team Glenn behind.  Rosita wakes up Abraham to settle their dispute, and he's laying into Rosita for stopping at all when Eugene yells at them, and they all stare blankly into the distance at whatever is approaching.

It's either Bigfoot or the Chupacabra

Tara's ankle is the shittiest ankle ever.  Still caught in rubble, Tara tells Glenn to leave her and go.  They're arguing in totally audible whispers when the zombies shuffle over, trick totally not working anymore.  Glenn and Tara empty their guns, and there are still about seven zombies when they hear people running towards them from the tunnel opening, yelling at Glenn to get down.  Which he does, just before gunshots take out the rest of the zombies.  Glenn emerges, only to see...

Ew

There's a sweet and firelit group pow-wow that night in the tunnel, which they've made safe to sleep in.  Everyone's in a good mood.  Even Tara, who has been introduced to the Prison Gang as someone Glenn met on the road.  Maggie hugs the woman who watched the Governor kill her dad.  Sasha interrupts everything, amazed that no one told her about Eugene's mission.  Sasha, more than anyone else, tends to hop right on new information, and she's fascinated by Eugene's mission, and the possibility that he could stop the zombie pandemic.  Tara is all for going to Washington at any time.  Glenn and Maggie think the rest of their friends are at Terminus, and have no interest in going anywhere else.  Abraham is for taking Tara and going.  Eugene overrides him, telling Abraham they'll find a better car, supplies, and maybe a few recruits for the mission at Terminus.  Sash and Bob agree to go with Team Abraham, if they can stop at Terminus first to see if any of their family and friends are alive there.  Abraham, acting like he's in charge, tells them they go all the way down the line tomorrow.  So, after weeks of brooding, mind-changing and soul-searching, our characters are ready to make a lot of decisions right away.

Glenn and Maggie bask in their togetherness.  Maggie fills him in on the story of how the pile of rubble came down, telling Glenn she thought it's what he would have done when they got swarmed in the tunnel earlier.  She starts going through his stuff, and comes across the Polaroid taken weeks ago.  Both remembering happier times, Maggie takes out a lighter.  Glenn tries to stop her, telling her it's his only picture of her.  She tells him that he'll never need it again, because they are now fucking John and Yoko.  Let's hope that works out better for Team Abraham than it did for the Beatles.

Joe and The Henchmen leave the garage the next morning.  Darryl passes the body of Len, freshly killed and put down.  Totally missed an opportunity to claim the arrow, dude.  He attempts to cover the body with an old blanket, but gives up on the idea.  Darryl, more than the others, appears stubborn, but he's actually very malleable, adjusting quickly to the vibe of whoever he's with.  Chatting with Joe over hooch as they return to the tracks, leaping into the Claimed Game over a radish, Darryl is quickly proving Joe right.  Joe fills Darryl in on the plan for revenge against someone who killed one of their own and set him to turn on the others as they come across a sign for Terminus.  Joe's gang tracked Rick to the tracks, and figures that's where he's going.  Darryl wonders why they don't just go to Terminus.  Joe reminds Darryl that there really isn't Sanctuary for all; their group certainly wouldn't be welcome.  The look on Darryl's face says that he agrees, and he continues on with his new buddies as they walk over a leftover candy bar wrapper.  Darryl, after promising Beth he wouldn't go back to thinking he was no good, has gone back to just that.

United Teams Abraham, Glenn and Maggie reach Terminus.

Subtlety is not their strong suit

It's pretty quiet, with only a chain wrapped around a fence for protection.  No guards, no zombies.  They proceed quietly through the outer yard, guided by signs that tell them to proceed and lower their weapons.  They pass a courtyard with well-tended plants, and laundry stations.  Like the opposite of Dorothy's triumphal entry into Emerald City.

Are you going to give us flower necklaces like they do in Hawaii?

There's almost no sign of anyone there, until they see a lone woman tending a picnic area dominated by a person-sized barbecue grill.  Her name is Mary, and boy, is she happy to help them settle in and get a plate.

My name is Mary, and I'm definitely not trapping you here

So, what is Terminus?  Oh, too bad for those who haven't read the graphic novel, because that barbecue is all the clue I need.  Let's just say that there's a reason why Terminus appears a little understaffed.

How long until Darryl realizes that Joe and his new buds are tracking Darryl's besties?  With Rick, Michonne, and Carl joining with Darryl, will they be able to defeat Joe and the Henchmen? And what will Darryl tell his friends about Beth's disappearance?  Will anyone look for her now?  And why couldn't Maggie spend two seconds asking Glenn if he saw Beth?  This is probably the first time in recorded history that a blonde white girl has gone missing and no one gives a shit.

STILL MISSING, ASSHOLES

Oh, That - Scandal - Season 3, Episode 14

Turns out, Jake killed all of David Rosen's sources for Daniel Douglas' murder: the NSA engineer who turned over the recording, the man sent to seduce Daniel Douglas in the first place; and the reporter the story was leaked to.  Jake leaves David alive, after James runs and gets shot in the back.  With a gun pointed at his face, David is too shocked to do anything except agree to Jakes's terms.  Which turn out to be...

Wait, so I'll just wish I'm dead?

...taking the lead investigating the case of James Novak's murder.  The DC police suspect a carjacking, and David is leading the case, ostensibly because James was the White House Press Secretary.  Olivia is busy consoling Cyrus, who must have only just gotten the news after getting into the office.  Cy's assistant, Ethan, will spend the episode taking the brunt of everyone's rage and grief. He starts by getting chucked out of Cy's office for crying.  Poor Ethan.

We flash back, as we will throughout the episode, to the beginning of Cy and James' unlikely relationship.  It starts, as all unlikely relationships do, in a bar.  James, with slightly less hair product and a spiffy leather jacket, approaches Cyrus during Fitz's first Presidential campaign.  Cy is newly divorced from his wife, still sporting atrocious facial hair, and tries to dismiss James' questions and past work.  James points out that Cy remembers his work's title, the magazine it was published in, and the last paragraph.  Must have been, at least, a little interesting.  Oh, and when you have a neck beard, you don't get to criticize James' leather.

We return to present day, with Fitz insisting that he'll suspend his campaign a few days.  After all, his Chief of Staff is a wreck, and respect must be shown.  Mellie informs them that the anti-gun lobby will be making hay, and that Fitz can't let an opportunity to woo the gun lobby go by, especially since he was scheduled to be in Texas wooing them.  Fitz puts his foot down- he won't politicize James' death.    Langston, that conniving bitch, calls to inform Fitz that she too will be suspending his campaign in "solidarity".  That word alone should have tipped Team Fitz off.  Conservatives don't do solidarity, as that term literally comes from the first days of union organizing.

Adnan and Mama Pope are hitting a rocky patch, when Mama Pope takes Adnan's money for her retainer, and then informs Adnan that she doesn't actually do the dirty work.  Mama doesn't make bombs.  She makes money.  And she does not take the fall.  That's some poor sap's job. So, Adnan and Mama will go look for a fall guy.  They're not the only ones.

Charlie and Quinn are hard at work, earning their government pensions, by introducing themselves to one Lance Something.  They'll make a deal with him:  he takes the fall for murdering James, and as a federal inmate, he'll get the new liver he needs to live.  The DC cops pick him up on a tip.  When he makes himself look ridiculously guilty, they want to arrest.  Only David wants to wait.  Until ballistics comes in.  He wants this done right, no questions asked.

While the replacement Press Secretary completely fumbles a briefing, Olivia notices that one of the reporters is missing- Vanessa Chandler, the reporter she already knew was working with David Rosen.  She gets to her office, to be informed by Harrison that Shelby, aka NSA girl, is also missing.  So Olivia is on the trail.  And who does she call?  Jake, who is dressed for gardening.  Sure, he'll look into it.  As soon as he's done burying the bodies in the woods.  Literally.

On it, sweetie

Abby finds David walking back to his office, begs to know if this is more than a carjacking.  He stonewalls her, begging her to let him work on this case in peace.  Like Cy, he just wants to do his job today.

Poor Ethan.  He's done everything he can to keep Cy happy, including letting Cy yell at him over errors.  "A simple 'I failed you' will do!"  Cy shouts.  After kicking out Ethan, Olivia watches as Cy fumes in his office, told to take a break but furious because he's found out that Langston is campaigning after all.  He begs Olivia to let him work through this, and she grudgingly does.  So they march to the Oval, where he and Fitz decide that Mellie and Andrew will go down to Texas to get the gun lobby's endorsement.  But how do they make sure Mellie and Andrew will get there first?  That's where Fitz comes in.

Wow, what a great non-maternity maternity shirt!

Langston and Bergen are on their way to Air Force 2. With Langston raving that Fitz has dared, dared! to regulate the purchase of lethal weapons, they find out that AF2 has been grounded.  So, Leo Bergen will have to make some phone calls.  But Andrew and Mellie will still get there first.  Expect to see Langston going to the mattresses, starting next week.

Flashing back to Fitz's Presidential Campaign, we see James creep up to Cy's seat on the bus, and pretty much declare to Cy that he knows Cy is gay.  Cy, with a newly shaven face, hushes James and refuses to admit anything.  In the next flashback, we see Cy in a state of bliss others take drugs to induce while he listens to yet another repeat of Fitz's stump speech.  When James joins him and points out how cute this is, Cy is flustered.  He tries to explain that seeing another man is a rare indulgence for him.  James counters by telling Cy he's not tiramisu (Of course not.  Jake is tiramisu.). James is about to leave when Cy grabs him and they share a passionate kiss.

Huck is instructed to go through the Langston file in Olivia's safe, chasing down loose ends.  Instead, Huck realizes that his in-safe camera might tell them more, which it does.  Olivia, surprised to learn her safe has its own TV channel, is further surprised to learn that it was Quinn who broke in, and went right for the Langston file.  Which means...

That she has to storm to Acme Limited to buy some paper.  Jake tries to stay calm while Olivia has a screaming fit in Command's office, which she accessed way too easily.  She brushes away his blasé explanation for the deaths, telling him he's making bad things happen to good people, and that's the opposite of what he was supposed to be doing.  Still thinking Jake hasn't changed, she demands to know who forced Jake to do this.  Jake was supposed to change B-613, keep it from doing evil.  But Jake shocks Olivia by standing up and declaring it was his call, he's Command now.  He didn't drag someone out of a hole in the ground and put a gun in his hand.  He grabbed his own gun, and went and did this himself.  That is his new job, and he is now firmly committed to it.  He urges Olivia to accept the carjacking theory.  Because bad things happen to good people.  All the time.

Mama Pope and Adnan meet with middlemen who work for someone named Ivan, who apparently didn't think this meeting was important enough to come himself.  Mama Pope gets all "Lean In", shooting a middleman and sending the other back to Ivan, demanding to speak to Ivan himself.  Adnan thought crime would be more fun, and less dead bodies in her hotel room.  Question- who gets rid of the body?  I mean, really, who gets rid of the bodies on this show?  

Cy seems a little better, until he walks into his condolence-flowers-filled office.  He flashes back to an early argument with James, right before Fitz's inaugural ball.  James is crying and angry that Cy won't come out to Fitz and take him to the ball.  Literally, James is Cinderella.  Cy accuses James of being dramatic and trying to force Cy to come out.  James doesn't want to be a dirty secret.  He wants to be out in the open, because they are in a real relationship, and love each other, and not having a tawdry affair.

Adnan briefly thinks of asking for help from Harrison in a parking garage.  A car taking off behind her convinces her to disappear.  Harrison is confused.  Jake barges into David's office, offering to literally put James' car in Lance's apartment so David will arrest the guy already.  David, with equal parts fear and grief explains that if he rushes the fake investigation, he'll make the case look suspicious.  Jake lets him live, but tells him his patience has limits.

Olivia meets Daddy Pope at their usual bench.  Like Baby in Dirty Dancing confronting her Dad about her affair with Johnny, Olivia needs her Dad to be real with her for a minute.  So he is.  Maybe even more real than he should have been.  Olivia explains what she knows to him.  Daddy Pope says "Oh, that," because he already knows and has no doubt dealt with much worse.  Daddy Pope explains the difference between killing on orders and ordering other people to kill.  It puts you on a separate plane from the rest of existence, a place called "being the hand of God".  And that responsibility, that knowledge of what you can do and what you're supposed to do it for, is punishment enough for Jake's crimes.

Am I done being your Dad?  Because I've got revenge stuff to do.

Olivia wants to know why we even have democracy, since powerful institutions have no accountability to the people in the end anyway.  Why bother trying to help people, get someone elected who can make a difference- if completely secret, powerful, and unaccountable forces can nix anything you want to do for their own reasons?

Daddy Pope tells her, everyone is worth saving.  Even monsters.  Even demons.  He leaves after telling her that it's her job to save them.  After telling her the monsters are really tormented souls, he tells her to go heal them.  Daddy Pope always shines in these moments when he's explaining how the shadow world he lives in works.

Mellie and Andrew have target shooting practice, which Andrew isn't good at.  Mellie aces it, implying that she's in constant practice for the day when she gets to shoot a real person and get away with it.  She is, after all, a Junior World champion in target shooting.  Mellie's great accomplishments are from before her marriage.  She got married, and had to devote herself to Fitz's accomplishments.  Which she does later that day with the actual gun lobbyist, offering a sympathetic speech in exchange for them considering an endorsement.  Fitz is pleased with the news, but doesn't need to thank Mellie himself.  When Andrew does it for him, the grateful smile on Mellie's face is just painful.  No matter how badly he treats her, any little recognition of how useful she is means the world to her.

Junior World Champion

A flashback is paired with present day.  Four years ago, Cy found himself unable to come out to Fitz in the Oval Office, telling him only that he was seeing a journalist, and that he was in love, and very happy.  Fitz, to his credit, is genuinely happy for Cy.  In the completely clueless way he has, Fitz has no idea the journalist is a he, or that Cy is even gay.  In the present day, Fitz and Cy go over the gun lobby's terms, and Cy rejects them.  Reston has killed an intruder raping his wife (at least, that's the public story), and Langston was born with a gun in her vagina.  Why not surprise the world with a pro-gun control speech? The past attempt to shoot Fitz and James' death will give him plenty of room to announce a change in position.  Fitz hesitates to use James' death for politics, and tells Cy he still has no interest in it.  Cy urges him on.  We hear the tail end of Fitz's speech.

Andrew and Mellie must have seen it, too.  Back down in Texas, Mellie is dead drunk, comparing firearms to alcohol consumption, and her passion for the packing heat turns Andrew on.  Drunk and tired of pleasing a man who openly betrays her help for him, she and Andrew make out right then and there.  Mellie is definitely not satisfied with breaking the rules once.

Drunk reasoning is awesome when you're in love!

Huck confronts Quinn in her apartment.  He puts the toolbox of pain down so he can pin Quinn to a wall and tell her he won't kill her after all.  Huck made her this way.  He admits that she's good.  He decides that Quinn let herself be seen on that camera, that she wants out of B-613 after all.  Quinn spits on him.  He kisses her.  When they finish, she kicks him out.  How do you make out with a man who's got your spit on his face?  Ew.

Okay, I prefer Charlie

Abby corners David in their bedroom.  She demands to know what's really going on.  What happens to him happens to her, and she will share in all his pains, dammit.  Is it danger or trouble?  Danger or trouble?  Danger or trouble?  David fearfully tells her the truth.

Abby, Harrison, and Huck all show up and Olivia's office.  Abby wants Olivia to help David.  Harrison wants Olivia to help Adnan.  Huck wants Olivia to help Quinn.  Olivia decides to visit the Lincoln Memorial.  Where David tells her that Lance the Patsy has a mother and a cat.  David tells her he just can't bring himself to arrest the guy.   Olivia tells him to do it.  Olivia needs David to live and fight another day, because he just got an ally who will help him bring all of B-613 down.  David points out that taking Jake down for killing the others is not nearly as dangerous as taking down B-613.  Olivia tells him that Jake was only doing his job.  His job has to be removed.  Not Jake.  Removing her father from Command didn't change the job.  It ended up changing Jake.  And Olivia is going to save him.  By destroying B-613 itself.  They're an army of two.  Does this mean the Gladiators won't be involved?

Does this mean that every other plot line on the show is secondary to this?  Sometimes, I don't know what the focus of the show is.  Is it Fitz and Olivia's impossible dream of love?  Can't be, because Olivia has declared that Vermont is never going to happen.  Is it giving Fitz the clean election victory he's wanted to end his Daddy-did-everything-for-me issues?  Olivia nixed that too by involving Fitz in the Langston cover-up.  So is this the purpose of the show?  Olivia will try to save Jake from monster-hood, because she couldn't save her father?

Olivia goes to Cy, to tell him privately that David has arrested James' killer.  Cy asks Olivia, are they sure it was a carjacking?  Olivia tells him in gooey, soft tones that they're sure, it was a carjacking.  Is Cy plagued with the possibility James was killed to cover up Daniel Douglas' murder too?  Is Olivia really convincing him it was a coincidence?  This is the man who was on to Langston's double dealings.  Does he really believe James is dead for no reason?  We don't know.

Cy decides to announce to the press himself that the police have arrested his husband's killer.  Olivia, horrified, tries to persuade him not to.  But somebody's going to have to tackle Cy to keep him from that podium.  Where Cy breaks down in front of the press, while remembering how he came out to the world and his boss at a State Dinner, after rescuing James from the outside the velvet rope, marching him out to the dance floor, and having a romantic dance in front of all.  Mellie's face says that she knew the whole time.  Fitz is just realizing someone could be totally gay right under his nose.

Which makes what Fitz does in the present so touching.  It's Fitz who leads a sobbing Cy from the podium, gently edging him away.  With James gone, Olivia now just a mistress, and Mellie busy with Andrew, there's nothing in the way of them being the bromance they were always meant to be.  Olivia takes over the presser, nailing it calmly and referring everyone to the DC police for more information.  We segue through Abby and David watching, then fade into Jake watching Olivia herself tell the world that he's won this round.  Is Jake convinced that B-613 is safe?

So Langston has now claimed three more lives.  Three decent people had to die to cover up her violent, homophobic rage.  She gets to go on thinking that God loves her, and it's all Satan's fault.  She's no longer even feeling guilty.

Back at James' murder, we see that he was still alive after David scurried away like a mouse.  Jake walks up to him struggling to move, and turns him over.  Jake apologizes for being so sloppy with James' shot.  But Jake needs James' death to look sloppy.  The others will just disappear, but James is too well-known for that to happen.  So Jake had to make his death hurt and last a bit.  But Jake will stay to the end.  Because James doesn't deserve to die, so Jake won't let him die alone.  Jake reassures James that no harm will come to James' daughter, that she is off limits.  There's no way to know if James understands this.  As the life fades from James' face and he stops struggling, Jake looks off into the distance.  He is Command now.

Can he be saved?  Does he even want to be?

The Stupid, Selfish Thing - Revolution - Season 2, Episode 17

Ugh.  So, Monroe gets his army at a very convenient time, also potentially getting his new right-hand man.  And as Monroe is doing what he wants, it inevitably makes whatever Miles is trying to accomplish impossible.  And Rachel tries to mother Charlie (again), with predictable results.  At least Tom Neville got rid of a real douchebag.  And, turns out, Truman is looking to settle down!

First, Truman has to deal with Tom Neville putting another bug in his ear about killing Doyle, who is a truly awful excuse for a human being.  Truman puts Neville off.  Truman definitely hates Doyle too, but he got in trouble big-time following Neville before.  And he's not going to kill anyone to please Neville.  And besides, Doyle isn't even in town.

Monroe and Miles watch as freed kid Kyle leads the Doyle and the Patriots right to their last safe house.  Monroe blames Miles, as he let Kyle go in the first place.  Monroe should remember that Miles' inability to kill everyone is the only reason Monroe is still alive.  But I digress.

It was a crappy safe house anyway

Monroe wants to take Duncan Blake's mercenaries and start fighting.  No one's in a hurry to fight again, considering all they could do was retreat the last time.  Miles, especially, won't do anything to help Monroe think he can get his Republic back, and now everyone, even Charlie, knows what Monroe's big top secret plan was.

Dr. Rachel's Dad decides that he will return to Willoughby secretly and start getting the support of the actual residents of Willoughby.  Duh.  They have really been wandering the Texas scrub outside town for months, without actually checking on whether the people of Willoughby even want to be fought over.  Miles decides to go with, which was his stupid mistake.  Monroe needs a baby sitter who can actually keep him in line, and Rachel ain't it.

Neville leaves Truman's office to be confronted by Doyle's guys.  Who knock him out and kidnap him.  Should be interesting.

Charlie makes fun of Connor for going along with Monroe's crazy plan, telling him their matching thrones will be totally adorable.  Connor insists he's finally doing what he wants.  Charlie, her mercenaries, and Connor spot some trouble ahead.  The mercenaries march forward despite Charlie calling them back, because it's their own.  Monroe questions their leader, to find out that they are the remains of Duncan Blake's forces, newly driven from New Vegas by the Patriots.  A guy named Scanlon fills Monroe in, claiming that the Patriots have been killing war clans throughout the Plains.  Oh, darn.  Those war clans were, I'm sure, filled with great law-abiding people.  Duncan Blake is dead, leaving no one in charge of her former mercenaries.  Scanlon and his men are ready for a fight, but Scanlon doesn't want to be in charge, literally giving leadership of his fighters to Monroe.  Who does his best to not look like a kid on Christmas morning.

Fire and dead bodies always lead to interesting new plot points

Dr. Rachel's Dad and Miles make it back to Willoughby completely unseen.  For like, the twentieth time.  How can the Patriots still be holding this town?  Dr. Rachel's Dad and Miles stop at the local bar, run by Local Woman Marion.  Who is closing earlier than Miles remembers.  He would know; he was the town drunk, which Marion reminds him of by sarcastically calling him by his old name, Stu Redman.  So they've already got an uphill battle with her.  They try.  Since Team Miles has been hanging outside town, the Patriots have had free rein to tell the locals whatever they want about Miles, Rachel, and everything they've done.  Marion may have drunk some Kool Aid, but she probably had no way of knowing anything else.  So Dr. Rachel's Dad must try to break through, find some way to prove that the Patriots have been lying, and that Team Miles wants the Patriots to leave for Willoughby's sake.  Marion really isn't buying it.  Dr. Rachel's Dad brings up the man who died last week after reading the number tattooed on his daughter's eyelid.  Since he hasn't been seen in town for a while, there's a chance Marion could decide he's telling the truth.

Totally not a wanted fugitive

Marion is still trying to decide when we hear people coming in.  Turns out, Marion closes early every night now so she can serve dinner to her new man... Truman!  I always knew he was a romantic at heart.  And they're engaged!  Truman, unlike the other Patriot head honchos, seems honestly interested in making a go of it in Willoughby.  Sure, he's got people in Washington to please, and who will shoot him in the head if he doesn't.  But there's no email, not even a telegraph.  He can pretty much control what Washington knows about and should think of his work.  In the meantime, he's got villagers he made a bunch of crazy promises about restoring the old life to.

Monroe and Scanlon, now closest buddies ever, march their soldiers off to the re-ed camp.  Rachel thinks the whole thing is a terrible idea, but has no power to stop them.  Connor is going because his dad is going.  Charlie is going because her mercenaries are going, which horrifies Rachel.  Rachel, who dragged Charlie into her war in the first place.  Now, she doesn't want Charlie fighting.

Neville wakes up in Doyle's office at the re-ed camp.  Doyle has figured out that Neville is encouraging Truman to kill him at first tries to sweet talk his way out of it, trying to blame Truman for it all, but Doyle shuts that down so Neville goes into full anger mode, lobbing insult after insult at Doyle.  Who decides he'll finally indulge his wish to have Julia killed, and strangle Neville with his own belt.  He even takes his belt off (what if his pants fall down while he's strangling Neville?  Why don't guys think about these things?) Boyband will survive, but only to be Doyle's drone and drudge. Doyle wants to kill Neville personally, to see the look on Neville's face when he realizes Doyle is about to get everything he's wanted, including Neville's son.

Truman and Marion have a lovely, though tense dinner, while Miles and Dr. Dad hide in the basement.  Dr. Dad thinks they got through to Marion, and that she could help them.  Miles is sure Marion will screw them over.  Why?  Because Miles has a theory about human behavior:  people will always do the stupid and selfish thing.  It's the only thing Miles will ever count on.  Poor Miles.  People are always letting him down and he's always giving them more chances to do it again.  Dr. Dad wants to know why Miles is even bothering to fight the Patriots instead of booking.  Miles is just there to save the people he cares about.  Because things will get worse.  Things always do.  Miles can't solve the world's problems- he and Monroe tried that, and only made life for millions worse.  Now, Miles is just fighting to keep the world's problems from engulfing his own.

Marion tries to see if Truman knows what happened to her newly missing neighbor, but gets nowhere.  When Marion comes down to help Miles and Dr. Dad avoid getting caught, she tells them she'll give them a chance to escape.  The chance turns out to be Marion getting Truman to take her out on a walk.

While Truman, Marion enjoy dinner, Doyle is strangling Neville.  Sadly for Doyle, Neville has been working the ropes holding him to the chair, and he struggles with Doyle.  They're interrupted by Monroe and his mercenaries attacking the re-ed camp.  Doyle is distracted by the chaos long enough for Neville to grab the belt and slowly choke Doyle.  Neville must enjoy getting the better of his enemy.  He and Boyband escape into the woods, avoiding the slaughter of cadets and drill seargents at the camp.

Here he is... fucking over Miles

As the battle winds down, Charlie and Connor see Monroe shooting Patriot soldiers injured and laying around the camp.  Charlie's disgusted, but does nothing to stop him.  Connor's a bit concerned, but Monroe makes it all better with a creepy, Godfather-esque gesture of affection.  Monroe always gets a little sentimental after killing.

Truman and Marion make it outside to the streets of Willoughby, only to be confronted with the aftermath of the battle at the re-ed camp: the few cadets and Patriot soldiers who made it out retreated back to Willoughby.  Lots of the town's teenagers are now dead, and Marion takes one look at the destruction and spills the beans to Truman, who storms her basement.  But not before Marion confronts Dr. Dad and Miles with what Monroe has done, insisting that the Patriots were right about them all along.  Once Truman misses his chance to capture Miles and Dr. Dad, he goes right to the re-ed camp, empty since Monroe left it right after the slaughter and pillaging.

Truman is examining Doyle's body when Neville appears.  Neville tells Truman it must have been Team Miles attacking the re-ed camp.  Truman points out the guy was strangled with his own belt after having held two prisoners who appear to have escaped.  Neville tells Truman that if he writes the report Neville's way he can make it look like Doyle was killed for being sloppy, discrediting Doyle and getting his command back.

Monroe and his mercenaries have retreated back to yet another undisclosed location, and are celebrating their victory when Dr. Dad and Miles find them.  When he realizes what Monroe has done and how it has screwed him, he punches Monroe in the face.  Monroe is knocked down, but gets right back up.  Miles asks how Monroe could have screwed him.  Monroe reminds Miles of his years-old theory:  people always do the stupid, selfish thing.

Rachel tries parenting Charlie, who is cleaning up after the fight. Rachel tries to get some deeper reason why Charlie would go and slaughter the town's kids at the re-ed camp.  Charlie reminds her that men she's supposed to be commanding went, so she couldn't possibly stay behind.  Charlie then levels with her mom;  Team Miles is a suicide pact.  Charlie's just here until she can't fight anymore.  So what is Mom fighting for, Charlie wants to know.  What has Mom dragged them into this mess for?  For you, Rachel says.

Geez, Mom, can't you see war is messy?

Suck It, Creationists - Cosmos - Season 1, Episode 2

Wow.  Neil DeGrasse Tyson isn't fucking around.  The series premiere of Cosmos dove right in to controversial material, and Tyson is practically begging right-wingers to hate him with his second episode of Cosmos.

Tyson starts with dogs.  Yes, dogs.  We've all seen dogs and their many varieties.  Especially kids.  So Tyson starts with the simple questions:  where did dogs come from?  And why are there so many different kinds?  Well, Tyson goes back about 30,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, when human groups produced a large amount of food scraps.  Most wolves "knew" better than to get to close to human groups.  Tyson explains this as a hormonal response to situations that could be dangerous.  The more hormones a given wolf produced near humans, the more distance that wolf would keep from humans.  However, wolves with low stress hormones from fear would approach human groups and feast on the food scraps.  Over time, these friendly wolves would protect their easy food source.  Over time, human generations chose puppies for their cuteness, and bred older dogs for their obedience and work skills.  Human breeding, or artificial selection, produced all the breeds we know and scoop poop for today.  Tyson also points out that agricultural development is the same principle; we selected wild plants for food, discovered how to grow it ourselves, and kept seeds to grow future generations from the best food-producing plants.

Tyson then draws the distinction between artificial and natural selection.  Artificial selection may be faster, but is totally under the control of a conscious mind.  Natural selection is totally out of humans' control, and works over billions of years and millions of generations of living things, and has no desired end goal.  Natural selection is driven by an organism's natural environment; artificial selection is driven by the desires of one species over another.

Tyson, after going through a little geological history, shows how natural selection produced polar bears.  But first he starts by pointing out that he's about to get really small, because it turns out that microscopic proteins at the molecular level are driving the process by which life works.  Tyson plays with scale to make the point that the very small can affect entire generations of huge animals.  By showing how proteins make the instructions for building a living thing, DNA, Tyson also explains how cells divide and multiply.  In most cells, including sex sells, a protein actually checks to make sure dividing cells' DNA codes are identical to the original.  There's an occasional typo, though, which Tyson defines as a mutation.  That mutation could result in a unnoticed change.  It can also develop into a change which either helps or hinders that organism in its environment.  Keep in mind, a bad mutation in one environment could be beneficial in another.  It's the combination of environment and mutation that produces evolutionary change.

shit's gettin' real here in the DNA

Tyson shows how beneficial mutations give one organism an edge in some survival skill, such as a white bear on a polar ice cap.  That beneficial mutation, being genetic, gets passed on.  Organisms that didn't have the mutation don't reproduce as much.  Over generations, the white bears' numbers increase in the bear population, while less well-evolved bears' numbers decrease.  Other mutations get added to the mix, also either getting passed on or not.  As generations keep producing slightly genetically different bears, the genetic differences keep adding up, until one generation is so genetically different from the original it mutated from, that another species has officially been born.

History Maker, Innovator, Genome Radical

Tyson explains how Darwin introduced our understanding of evolution, and describes the main controversy from people who refuse to accept evolution: too someone who prefers to be separate from nature,  evolution and our relatedness to other animals takes away our specialness as humans.  So Tyson introduces the tree of life, describing how our relatedness to other animals, plants and even bacteria resembles a tree with branches.  The closer to the trunk, the older the species with more mutated descendants.  An awesome, bushy oak tree springs up, with animal representations.  Clearly, Tyson wants us to appreciate being connected to the world we live in, not demand that we  be fundamentally different from it.  The forms of life today, their shapes and abilities, represent the histories of biology, geology and climate on this Earth.  That's pretty impressive, even if a supernatural explanation for life would make you feel a connection to the immortal.

Tyson then goes on to describe the idea that's supposed to replace evolution: intelligent design.  Tyson describes that some people believe living things have too many complex pieces, and those complex pieces could not have evolved from natural selection.   Tyson then crushes one of ID's first examples of these pieces, that are supposed to be irreducibly complex: the eye.

Tyson goes into a great set piece starting with early bacteria and describing the beginnings of sight, starting with mutated proteins that formed light sensitive patches that enabled early bacteria to avoid sunlight and reproduce mightily in darker waters.  These light patches became depressions, where light could then be coupled with shadows, for the beginnings of making out form.  Along the way, he shows the living thing with a new piece of the puzzle next to how it would have 'seen' the world.  Bit by bit, each piece of the eye developed from something else, with the complexity that that particular organism needed.  As organisms became more complex, so did their eyes.  One big drawback of natural selection on our eyes?  Land animals have had to adapt their eyes ever since leaving the water, since eyes initially developed to see in water.  We've kind of gotten the shaft of visual evolution.

There's only one situation where evolution can't help living things:  with sudden environment changes.  Tyson explores our planet's mass extinctions, putting them in context and explaining the catastrophe called the Permian Mass Extinction, or the Great Dying, when 90% of the world's living species died out, including the trilobytes, the ubiquitous Permian life form.

Combination underwater bug and fish. Gross, but effective.

He explains that it started in what we would call Siberia today, when the world had one super-continent with oceans surrounding.  Volcanic eruptions without end started a chain reaction that affected worldwide temperatures and atmospheric/ocean conditions.  Almost everything except bacteria died.  One survivor, the only creature known to have survived all five mass extinctions: the waterbear.  It's a microbe, with a formal name of Tardigrade, which looks like a cross between a dust mite and a blind bear.    Forget the honeybadger, don't mess with the waterbear.

What're you lookin' at???

Also, during the segment, Tyson is standing in some kind of central hall with corridors leading off.  One is called a "nameless corridor", and left explicitly for another show.  The dinosaur extinction? The expected mass extinction due to modern, human-caused climate change?  We'll have to see what Tyson has in store for us.

Tyson takes the connection between living things and their planet on a ride around the solar system, stopping on Titan, one of Saturn's moons.  Titan has a lot of liquid methane and ethane, two chemical compounds that are almost always gas on Earth.  Titan is cold enough that the gases have condensed to form rivers, lakes, and seas.  There's no oxygen; the temperature is ridiculously lower.  What kind of life would ever be able to exist there?

You gotta' like how farts smell to live on Titan

We don't know.  Tyson's final segment is about what still needs to be discovered, mainly how life even arose in the first place.  How did inorganic matter organize into the first protein codes for building life?  We don't know.  And that, Tyson tells us, is okay.  It's okay to not know everything.  As science is the frontier between the known and unknown, defining what we don't know and coming up with a plan to know it is how we make progress.

Sense and Sensibility - Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 14

There's coming back and "coming back".  The phrase has two different meanings on The Walking Dead.  There's coming back after death, when a person is re-animated as a near-mindless eating machine.  And, since the season premiere last October, there's coming back, mentally, from past misdeeds committed for survival.  Since the mid-season, the general consensus is that you can't "come back" the second way.  You can't find your way back to the person you were before you killed that guy, stormed that camp, raped that girl.  Those acts become an unremovable part of you.

This episode, focusing on Carol and Tyreese's field trip with the girls, cemented that lesson.  There's no coming back.  Even Lizzy learns that today.

We start with what looks like a dream sequence from before the world turned.  A kettle on the stove is whirring, then whistling, as the camera pans on a well-used country kitchen, complete with high windows facing a willow tree-filled backyard. And that backyard has its own kid, playing tag with an adult who can't be made out.  Is it a zombie?  Or is it an adult, making the slow motions required to give a kid a fair shot in a game of tag?  We don't know.  Not yet.

The country is so relaxing....

We go to a night-time scene.  Carol and Lizzy are still up, with a resting Judith.  Mika and Tyreese sleep next to each other along the tracks themselves (not sure about the safety of this).  Lizzy starts by asking if there will be kids at Terminus.  Carol hopes so, but it depends on whether their guardians could keep them safe.  Lizzy, feeling quite proud of herself, points out that she and Mika had to save Tyreese's life at the prison, not the other way around.  The only thing Lizzy is disappointed in is that she shot Tyreese's attackers in the head, preventing them from re-animating.  Carol, misunderstanding, tells Lizzy that she had to shoot those people, that sometimes you do what has to be done.  Lizzy decides to ask about Sophia.  Carol tells her Sophia didn't have a mean bone in her body.  Lizzy wants to know, is that why she's dead?  Carol, though sad, admits that it's true.  As Lizzy gets some sleep herself, we hear Tyreese having a nightmare.

The next day, they are walking along, Carol worried that they haven't seen any more signs for Terminus.   Carol's also concerned about the smell of smoke nearby.  Something's on fire from farther away than they can see.  She and Lizzy stop to find a tree with sap, which Carol uses on Tyreese's infected arm.  As she works on his arm, she confesses that she's worried about Mika.  Out of the girls' hearing, she tells Tyreese that Mika doesn't have a mean bone in her body.  We all know what happened to the last girl who lacked mean bones.  She tells Tyreese that Lizzy is in even more danger, as she doesn't see the zombies as sick but as people, just different.  One won't kill the dead and the other won't kill the living, she tells Tyreese.

Carol decides to find some water, and takes Mika with her to look for some while Lizzy and Judith stay with Tyreese.  Lizzy and Tyreese's game of I Spy quickly turns into a red alert as they spot a zombie.  But this zombie is a putz, falling into a hole between track rails.  Stuck, it can't really cause anyone trouble, unless someone stumbles into it in the dark. Tyreese almost puts it down when Lizzy persuades him not to, not unlike the scene where Hershel convinces Carl not to put down walkers rotting into a tree and stuck in a bear trap.  In that scene, Hershel wants Carl to demonstrate that he's "come back" from killing a teenager at the end of Season 3.

I spy.... a really dysfunctional coping mechanism!

Carol takes Mika into the woods, partly for water and partly to have a "toughen up, kid" talk.  Mika knows she's little, but she's still pretty scared.  She thinks that she could put down a zombie, but killing live people is beyond her.  Back at the prison, only Lizzy could fire on the attackers.  Carol tries to talk Mika into realizing that sometimes she will have to kill a living person, but Mika couldn't even kill someone killing her friends.  She feels sorry for them.  It took the world ending for those people to do what they did.  Just as Carol is going to nip that sympathy in the bud, they spy a great find:  a clearing in the woods leading to a secluded development, complete with a pecan field.

Mika is excited; her mother always said things work out the way they should.  They proudly show it to Lizzy and Tyreese, who are as thrilled as they are.  Mika is looking forward to pecans.  Carol says she saw a deer.  They are already wondering just how long they'd like to stay here.  They all see the smoke of the fire, maybe a mile away.  Black and gray plumes of smoke billow into the air above the trees.  Carol reasons the fire will send plenty of escaping game their way.

What's the fire?  Carol and Tyreese make the conscious decision not to investigate, only keep an eye on it in case they must go.  The implication is clear that it could be the fire Darryl and Beth set on the moonshiner's house.  That would mean that this episode takes place in the couple days after Darryl and Beth's solo episode.  Darryl and Beth might be headed to the funeral home at about the time this episode takes place.  Besides this clue, it's been difficult to understand both where and when each episode takes place.  There's no reason to think the disparate scenes are all happening in real time.  And they're all taking place far enough away from each other that they don't meet up.  But besides that, it's almost impossible to tell at what time of their story each separate group is.  The writers set it up this way for a couple reasons:  first is that then they can make all the timelines meet where they would like later, with minimum coordination; second is to reinforce each group's isolation from each other.  There are almost no connections shown between the different groups, not since about four episodes ago.

Carol and Tyreese prepare to clear the house, as they caution the girls to wait outside with Judith held by Lizzy.  Once alone, they speculate on a nearby grave with baby shoes, and then argue over whether zombies are people.  Mika, just like her earlier talk with Carol, says they aren't;  Lizzy is sure that they are and the others just can't see that.  They have a chance to decide when one stumbles out of the house and falls over the porch railing, plopping on the ground at their feet.  Mika puts it down on the second shot, while Lizzy can only crawl away while trying to hold Judith.  Lizzy is having a freak out, which Mika helps with by telling Lizzy to count some nearby flowers (a trick used in the first episode, when Lizzy needs to stare at a picture of flowers while Carol puts her dad down).  The group wants to believe that Lizzy is just freaked out by her close call, but Mika knows the truth: Lizzy is upset that Mika killed a walker.  Mika is so nice, she apologizes to Lizzy for yelling at her.

Holy crap!

Later that evening, as they'e preparing some pecans to eat, Mika finds a doll.  The whole "family" ends up in the living room, puzzle-doing and doll-playing.  Tyreese is a happy camper, reveling in this bit of normalcy they get to share.  He naps and quickly falls into another nightmare.  The next morning, everyone's feeling hunky-dory as Tyreese suggests staying indefinitely.  It's nice, it's relatively safe.  There's food, water, and each other.  They don't really know what Terminus is like, or whether they can trust the people there.  Carol realizes he's still thinking of Karen, killed by someone unknown.

And now, I'm going to tell you how your murder has broken my heart...

Later, Carol takes Mika out with a rifle.  Carol wonders if the fire has burnt out.  Mika points out that there's still black smoke, and that white smoke means the fire is finally done.  Carol's impressed. They see a deer, but Mika just can't kill it.  Carol, disappointed, takes the rifle and they walk slowly along.  Mika can't even kill other animals.  But hey, Mika says, they have all the pecans they can eat.

Carol gets back to the kitchen, puts some water on the stove, and the scene segues into the opening.  The tag game was real, in the current day of the show, and involves Lizzy and a zombie.  Lizzy's playing with the zombie, leading it along, dodging it and when Carol sees, she rushes out to put the zombie down, no matter how hard Lizzy protests.  This leads to a screaming fit.  Lizzy wants to know how Carol would feel if someone killed her.  Yes, Lizzy really doesn't understand what a zombie is.  Tyreese sees, realizing that something is horribly wrong with Lizzy.  Maybe it's best if they don't get to Terminus yet.  Mika catches Lizzy sneaking off, back into the woods, and follows Lizzy back to the tracks, where Lizzy has caught a little mouse.  She offers it to the zombie stuck in the rail tracks.  We see her hold by its tail where the zombie can stuff it in its mouth.  She's playing with it, feeding it, treating it as more than a pet when Mika approaches and starts yelling at her sister.   Lizzy feels sure that the other zombies want her to be a zombie.  She tentatively holds her hand out, almost within the zombie's bite.  Is this her end game?  That she's obsessed with being a zombie eventually?

Their fight attracts some walkers showing serious burns, probably from the neighboring fire, and Lizzy and Mika run back to the house, where Carol and Tyreese have been gone getting water and hearing bad hunting jokes.  Both run back to the house as they see the girls returning, and what's chasing them.  Lizzy gets back through the wire fence; but Mika doesn't, and is squirming and screaming for Carol while a zombie grabs her foot.  Lizzy bounces in from the side, picks Mika up and frees her, and they run together behind Carol and Tyreese, who have already begun shooting zombies.  This sequence is another group shooting scene, where coordinated, armed people go right through a group of zombies.  Notice, not all the undead go down on the first shot, which is a welcome change from usual shoot-em-up scenes.  Mika takes out a handgun, and joins in.  Carol is relieved to see Lizzy by her side, gun out and shooting.

The miracle we've been waiting for?

Later that night, they try to be normal again.  Carol is relieved, thinking that Lizzy has finally broken out of her mental block.  Lizzy is very reassuring, maybe too much so, as she tells Carol that she knows what she has to do now.  Mika is hoping they are all still good people, and that she still doesn't want to do anything bad.  Lizzy chirpily tells Mika that they all have to do something bad, but only sometimes.  They end the evening helping Carol roast more pecans.  Normalcy is in their grasp.

Carol and Tyreese are hunting together the next day.  She agrees that with a few improvements, they could stay there.  Tyreese tells Carol he isn't ready to go to Terminus, he's not ready to meet other people yet.  Tyreese opens up to Carol, confessing that he still dreams of Karen.  Some dreams are happy with them together, and he can forget that she's dead.  Some dreams bring all his memories back.  In the end, Tyreese ends by telling Carol that there's no coming back, no putting things behind.  Your actions will always be a part of you, always affect you.  Carol seriously considers confessing herself;  but she just tells Tyreese that the dead don't haunt us; they try to teach us.  Tyreese hugs Karen's killer, who can only help Tyreese move on from what she did.

Carol and Tyreese, in what may be the biggest dumb-ass mistake, have left the girls alone at the house.  Really?  They know the fire is still going; the girls could get overrun again.  They've even left the baby just sitting out on the lawn.  Who knows what might happen?  To be fair, they didn't expect what they see awaiting them at the house.  Lizzy is happy to see them, face and hair flecked with blood.  Her hands are covered in it.  She's got a knife.

Don't worry, I finished my homework first!

"Don't worry,"  she tells them, "I didn't kill the brain.  She'll come back."  They see Mika , laying motionless behind Lizzy.  "I want you to see," Lizzy tells them.  After telling Carol and Tyreese that she was planning on doing Judith next, they act.  Carol takes out her knife.  Lizzy takes out her gun, pointing it at the adults.  She wants them all to wait for Mika to come back, so they can all see that she's not dead, just different.  Carol, with a straight and calm face, talks Lizzy into handing over the gun.  Of course they'll wait.  Just go wash up with Tyreese now, you wouldn't want to be dirty when your sister wakes up.  I'll just tie her up so she doesn't get away, okay sweetie?

Now she can be cute forever!

There isn't going to be any reunion for the sisters.  We'll never get to know if zombie Mika will play with her new doll.  Carol and Tyreese confab in the dining room while he holds Judith protectively. Now faced with dealing with someone else's murder, she no doubt realizes why Rick would no longer have her at the prison; they don't dare trust Lizzy around Judith unsupervised.  They don't trust Lizzy around anyone, anymore.  Tyreese lists what he's found out since then; he found Lizzy's shoebox replenished with mice;  Lizzy admitted to the dissection he found at the prison right before the Governor invaded.  Lizzy was feeding the zombies at the fence.  He's horrified as he tells Carol that Lizzy admitted to killing animals for fun.  Tyreese wonders if Lizzy killed Karen and David.  Carol brushes that whole theory aside by telling Tyreese that she would have made sure they turned, and wouldn't have dragged them, but lured them outside.  Like parents that must combat their kid's mental illness, they try to come up with a solution that won't get anyone else killed or tear them apart.  If Carol leaves with Lizzy, they might not survive on their own, especially since Lizzy won't kill zombies.  If Tyreese leaves with Judith, they definitely won't survive without another adult.  Lizzy cannot be brought to Terminus, or be allowed near people again.  What solution is there?

With Tyreese watching from the kitchen, Carol leads Lizzy out for a walk, similar to the walk she took with Mika just days ago, to try to work out Mika's problem.  Carol suggests they pick wildflowers, a gift for Mika when she "comes back".  They both see the smoke from the fire, and Carol explains that the white smoke means that the fire has gone out, remembering Mika as she speaks.  Did Mika try to defend herself when her sister stabbed her?  Or was mean-bone-less Mika totally taken by surprise?  We'll never know.   Lizzy can't come back from killing Mika, because she doesn't even understand that that's what she's done. Lizzy, thinking that Carol is angry at her, sobs as she apologizes for pointing  a gun at Carol.  Does Lizzy know what's about to happen?  Does she know why Carol tells her to keep looking at the flowers, the old stand-by way of calming her down?  Does she know why Carol says, in a broken voice, that everything works out the way it should?  Does she hear Carol draw her revolver and chamber a round? Carol, tired of shooting that day, leaves a nearby deer to run off.

Off meat for a while

Note that this echoes one of the series first moments, when Rick shoots an anonymous girl who has already turned.   Lizzy and Mika's story is meant to parallel with the story of Ben and Billy, from the graphic novel. Two twin boys, orphaned by the zombiepocalypse and adopted by Rick's group of survivors.  While on the road, the boys start to get weird, obsessed with death and turning, to the point that Ben kills Billy.  To watch him turn.  While the adults try to decide what to do, Carl kills Ben.  It's similar to this;  kids have to protected, because they haven't learned to kill yet.  But they can, in fact, kill each other.  The adults know they have to do something about Ben once he's killed his brother.  But they can't take the step of killing Ben.  Only another kid can do that.  In the show, Carol ends up doing what the adults in the book could not bring themselves to do.  By doing so, she shows Tyreese that sometimes, someone does have to die to protect everyone else.

We see, probably the next day, two new child-sized graves near the original one Lizzy and Mika found.  We see Carol putting fresh earth in one of them, while Tyreese is carrying a wrapped body to the other.  That night, Carol finally confesses to Tyreese, but not before handing over her revolver to him.  As he realizes he owes the girls' short lives to, buried the kids, and is doing a puzzle with the person who killed Karen,  he slowly reaches for the gun.  Carol tells him to do what he has to do.  Turns out, Tyreese has to ask if Karen suffered.  Carols assures him she didn't.  So he forgives her.  He tells her he'll never forget though.  He tells Carol she won't either.  They'll both feel Karen's death always, bonded by their very different parts in her life.

I'd kill you, except that you're too bad-ass to die now...

The next morning, both are silent, dressed for traveling and carrying all their new supplies.  With Judith safely on Tyreese's back, wrapped up for the now-coming cold.  Carol loosens the fence, leaving it ajar.  Nothing's worked out the way it should be, no matter how sure Mika was that everything would.