Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me - Cosmos - Season 1, Episode 8

Looking up into the night sky, with nothing but a fire for warmth and light on the ground, the prehistoric night sky fascinated our ancestors.  Being the only show people could watch, some made it their lives' work to observe the place of each familiar light in the sky at night.  Over years of watching each light change place each night slightly, only to repeat the cycle with the cycle of the seasons, our ancestors realized that the stars could predict winter, spring, planting, summer, fall, harvest, and the coming of another year.  Prehistoric and ancient humans interpreted the lights in the sky, later divided into stars and planets, as not just marking the future, but causing it.  They created stories to explain the placement of stars and planets, stories in which celestial bodies were actual beings, with power, or the protection of the gods.  Beings who were placed in the nighttime sky, to forever repeat their actions and influence the world below.

Tyson starts with the Pleaides, a bright cluster of stairs about 100 million years old, passing through space together for about another 250 million years until gravity of objects they pass through will pull them away from each other.  To ancient peoples, the Pleaides represented lost groups of young men or women, somehow enjoying special protection of gods in the sky.  The Ancient Greeks thought they were the daughters of Atlas and his oceanic nymph wife, chased by Orion for nefarious purposes until Zeus "saved" them by putting them and Orion in the night sky.  Orion, the constellation, will slowly move closer to the Pleaides throughout the next millennia, but will never actually reach them before they disperse.  Just as Zeus intended.

The Kiowa of North America also thought they were women, surprised while dancing under a night sky by hungry, wild bears.  One of them prayed to the Great Spirit for rescue, and it responded by rising from the Earth, so high that the women were eventually in the sky, while the bears couldn't get to them.  The Kiowa use the story not just to explain the Pleaides, but also Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming.  The deep grooves on the side of the rock were made when the bears tried to climb the rock with their claws.

Kiowa Pleaides

The Pleaides fascinated astronomers ancient and modern, including Galileo.  By trying to determine just how many there were (over 1000, but only six are visible to the naked eye), and whether they were actually traveling together (they are, for now), scientists had to learn about stars and calculating their properties.  Which turned out to be useful to the twentieth century's best female astronomers, and consequently, to us.

In the late 1800s, Harvard Observatory Director Edward Pickering was peeved at his assistants, who were discovering and cataloging stars for him.  They were great with the telescope, but lousy at the cataloging work, to the point that he felt his maid could do better.  Which Williamina Fleming could.  And for less pay than his male assistants demanded.  So, in 1886, he took a grant he received (from the widow of a colleague) and hired a whole room of female scholars, some of America's first female graduates from science programs.  Female graduates were still heavily discriminated against and found not just jobs, but post-graduate programs closed to them.  So, cataloging stars at Harvard, even for less pay than the assistants finding the stars, was their best bet to make a worthwhile contribution to astronomy.  Pickering called them his "computers", because they primarily processed data.  Others called them "Pickering's Harem".

Somehow I don't think this was a harem

Ignoring the snickers and rudeness, Harvard Observatory's male assistants took photographs of light from stars separated into it's color spectrum, and Harvard's Computers analyzed the optical spectra on glass plates.  Harvard basically invented the way we still classify stars today, called Stellar Classification.  The Computers could classify, within moments, objects as varied as nebulas and variable stars.  And they could tell just how much these objects contained of various elements.  Fleming butted heads with other computers over what categories would be created, and what they would be called, and a later Computer named Annie Jump Cannon came up with the system still used today, starting with stars nobody else had analyzed so she didn't duplicate anybody else's work.  Using the letters O, B, A, F, G, K and M, as categories, based on the pattern of the black lines in each spectra.  These categories were further broken down into sub-categories based on numbers.  This was a simple way to classify stars by what we believed were their colors.  Cannon made it even easier by inventing a saying, so she could remember the correct sequence:  Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me.  Deaf, Cannon broke barriers for the disabled as well as women in science.  She went on to analyze and categorize over 500,000 stars, including objects called variable stars.

Annie Cannon, voiced by Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin

Henrietta Swan Leavitt, also working at Harvard as a Computer, built on Cannon's work finding variable stars, and figured out that there is a relationship between the time period of a variable star's cycle, and how bright it was at any part of its cycle.  Since an object's apparent brightness decreases directly proportional to the square of the distance, if you know an object's actual, intrinsic brightness, you can figure out how far away it is by reversing the inverse square law.  So how do variable stars fit in?  Well, the range of brightness in a variable star shows us its average, and therefore, intrinsic brightness.  So, with it's apparent brightness, we can calculate how far away it is.  Leavitt called it the Period-Luminosity Relation, and published her findings in 1912, seven years after Einstein published the theory of special relativity and four years before he published the theory of general relativity.  Harlow Shapley later used her work to figure out just how big the Milky Way is;  Edward Hubble (yeah, that guy) used her work to figure out that we weren't the only galaxy, and that the universe is expanding.  Hubble had wanted her to win a Nobel for her work.  But this was the 1920s, and women had just won the vote in America.  Leavitt wasn't the only female scientist who saw others use her work without the general community awarding her for her contribution.

Guess I'll go revolutionize science now...

Harvard's Computers produced another great female astronomer:  Cecilia Payne was British, and studied astronomy at Cambridge, but was not granted a degree.  Seeing no prospects for even a bachelor's degree in her home country, she became a Computer at Harvard Observatory as well.  Working with Annie Cannon, she realized a couple things.  First, Annie had been categorizing based on how a star's spectra looked on the glass plate, but those categories also corresponded to stars' temperatures- Cannon had been categorizing stars even more usefully than she realized at the time.  Second, the spectra of stars indicated, after analyzing thousands of them, a lot more hydrogen and helium than any astronomer at the time thought possible.  After finding trace amounts of Earth elements in stars, astronomers had wiped their hands and declared stars similar in chemical composition to the Earth, but just much hotter.  Payne's data blew that assumption away.  Princeton astronomer Henry Norris Russell, not convinced by years of data from Harvard's Computers, actually convinced Payne to amend her Ph.D. thesis to literally discredit her own work, declaring that her evidence must describe something not real.  Four years later, Russell had to admit that Payne was correct.  Her thesis, Stellar Atmospheres, is considered a classic of astronomy.

Cecilia Payne, voiced by Kirsten Dunst

Tyson digresses at this point- what have we done with the knowledge of stars that we've gained?  Well, knowing that stars are mainly hydrogen and helium, and what temperatures they're at, and ultimately, their mass, we can figure out a given star's fate.  For instance, a star our size, is currently in its Main Sequence, a part of its life when atoms inside the star are fusing and producing light and heat, but the process is pretty stable and there a few fluctuations in brightness or temperature.  Larger stars will take only a few hundred million years to exhaust their hydrogen; smaller stars, like ours, will be stable for billions of years. Massive, stable stars are actually blue, while smaller stars, like our sun, are yellow. It's only when a star starts to exhaust its hydrogen fuel that things get interesting.

As the hydrogen diminishes, helium atoms start fusing, which makes the core of the sun collapse and increase in temperature.  The surface will cool and expand, turning red as it does so, so we call it a red giant.  Our star is expected to become so big it should engulf the Earth, completely obliterating our world.  Tyson is a little sketchy about this, offering some slim hope that Earth will survive, even if its unbearably hot.  Mars is expected to warm up, but be spared.  From there, with helium supplies exhausted, the expanded surface will actually be expelled, creating a planetary nebula which will slowly drift off due to gravity of other stars, and contribute to future stars and planets (the universe has a 100% recycling rate).

Eventually, the core left will shrink down to the size of Earth, but with about the mass of our current Sun.  The shrinking will only stop once all the atoms are scrunched down to the point where electrons push back, holding the core at a stable size.  This is a white dwarf.  But there's no more fuel, only leftover heat from the billions of years of nuclear fusion that have now stopped.  Eventually, even this residual heat burns out, leaving our Sun as a black dwarf, inert material with no heat left, ready to be pulled into some other nebula, maybe recycled back into another planet.  Problem is, there's so much residual heat left in a white dwarf, that it would take more billions of years than the universe has currently existed to reach the black dwarf stage.  So we'll have to wait.

Tyson waiting for our Sun to turn into a black dwarf

Now, if a star is bigger than our Sun, it's end is more explosive.  Stars about 1.5-3 times more massive than our Sun, will expand in red supergiants, like our Sun but much larger.  However, they'll burn through their helium too, and their cores will collapse.  So much mass collapses, that it overwhelms the resistance by electrons to stop at a stable size, but will shrink down so the nuclei left have to resist, and this push back causes a huge explosion called a supernova.  Supernova explosions can last weeks or months, expelling gas, energy and a shock wave.   The expelled gas and matter can take 10,000 years.  Depending on the gravity of the core left, it will either fade into a neutron star, with a mass of 500,000 Earths in a sphere the size of Brooklyn, or the core will completely collapse in, so dense, with such a gravitational pull, that not even light escapes.  We call them event horizons, a.k.a. black holes.

Who left a pilot light on?????

A supernova isn't even the biggest explosion a dying star can make.  Stars even larger, maybe 100,000 times the mass of our Sun, with a binary star partner sucking away its surface with gravity as it expands into red supergiant phase, will collapse much faster and harder, producing an even greater explosion called a hypernova.  Besides being even cooler to see, hypernovae also produce gamma rays, deadly to living things near the blast zone.  Will one eventually hit us?  The best candidate is Eta Carinae, about 7500 light years from Earth, although Tyson says we'll be safe from it.

Tyson reminds us that the photons created in stars take millions of years to leave the Sun's surface, and minutes to reach Earth, creating warmth, wind, and photosynthesis.  These atomic processes millions of miles away literally fuel our entire planet.  He ends with a musing of living on a world outside our own Milky Way, with a view of our galaxy so close it rises and sets.

What would those people say about our own galaxy? What would other Milky Way inhabitants say about our own Sun?  What stories would our Sun be in, and what kind of character would it be?

Our Little Secrets - Game of Thrones - Season 4, Episode 4

We're getting into the nitty-gritty of the season.  How do I know?  Because we're seeing another episode that sets up conflicts meant to explode nearer the season's end, or even just next week. Characters take these episodes to bond, learn from each other, suffer, or part.  They can even bond and learn as they part.  Or suffer.  Characters declare how past events have afffected them, and set up the relationships and motivations that lead to disaster (or victory, but usually disaster) later.

We start in Meereen, or just outside its gates, with Missandei teaching Grey Worm how to write and speak a different language by getting him to share his personal story.  Problem is, Grey Worm has no story to tell.   Missandei thinks that by sharing her small amount of pre-slave memories of a beach and tall trees, it will encourage him to remember. No dice. His training for the Unsullied very likely left him with no memories of any other life. When you're a slave, sometimes it's better to forget about the freedom you once had.  They speak quietly, not quite whispers, but definitely only loudly enough for their own hearing.

Dany and Ser Barristan interrupt; with Dany pleased that the commander of her army is learning to read, and maybe, also pleased that these two have formed a friendship.  Dany tells Grey Worm it's time, and they leave together, like a groom being escorted to his wedding.  In this case, Grey Worm is leading other Unsullied secretly into the city, through a gate carved from the rock under the city, serving as a release for stormwater.  Grey Worm and his troops, dressed as Meereen's slaves, complete with collars and the drab beige pants of the city's slaves, carry some heavy-looking bundles up the steep stairs leading from the drainage system.  Lucky for them, the slaves of Meereen have their own meeting hall/quarters.  Where they can all congregate and discuss their lot.  The slaveowners of Meereen are either cocky or stupid; I would have kept my slaves under lock and key until Dany was dead and her army wiped out.  Even slaveowners in the American South knew better than to let large groups of slaves hang out together, unsupervised.

Meereen's slaves are debating the merits of turning against their masters.  There's a young hellion, convinced that this is their chance.  But the older ones, disappointed in the past, try to talk him down. They've seen what happens when slave revolts fail.  Why gamble with your life- especially when you're more likely to die after only a few hours of freedom?  Grey Worm answers him, strolling right into the slave quarters, dressed like them but definitely not speaking or acting like them.  Grey Worm tells them that a day of freedom is better than a life of chains, so sure of himself he turns the tide.  When the old ones throw out their last objection, that they don't have weapons, Grey Worm solves that problem, too.  He and the other Unsullied dump out the bundles they've carried up from Meereen's drainage tunnels, and shiny swords appear.  Grey Worm, even more importantly, tells them that freedom is best when taken.  Dany isn't here to magically free them.

Oh.  So, we get to kill the masters ourselves?  Even better!

Dany is here to bring them justice once they've won freedom for themselves.  We get a taste of the fight, when an anonymous Meereenese slaveowner sees some disturbing graffiti, and looks up to see that his precious harpy statue is covered in a black flag.  His guards mysteriously disappear, and slaves show up along every path, taking him out quickly.  Dany pretty much walks into the city to a chorus of "Mhysa" and "Mother", from Meereen's residents as they throw their collars in huge pits.  Slaveowners have been herded into a frightened, pitiful bunch.  Their fancy clothes and useless jewelry used to establish their domination; now they just mark who needs to be rounded up.  Lucky for them, Dany only executes 163 of them.  Ser Barristan tries to argue that they need mercy.  Dany's not interested, and Ser Barry needs to understand that what Meereen needs is justice.  The slaveowners get the same fate they subjected the child slaves of Meereen to, and we see them piteously cry out in pain and agony as they die, nailed to crosses, all pointing in an endless circle that makes its way along Meereen's main path through the city.  Former slaves watch their owners, masters, tormenters, and killers die horribly.  May the Father judge them justly.  We pan up to see that the Harpy is now completely covered by the banner of House Targaryen. Unlike Astapor or Yunkai, Dany is claiming Meereen for herself.

Bronn and Jaime are having a little more fun in secret training.  Bronn gets to kick the ass of the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard without losing his head.  Which he enjoys.  While Jaime is busy with his new sword hand, Bronn yanks his fake hand off and uses it as a club on Jaime.  He's pissed, but Bronn reminds him that fair fighters die.  Jaime can only re-attach his fake hand, and take a break, sitting with Bronn over a waterskin.  When Jaime asks, Bronn doesn't think Tyrion killed Joffrey, saying that murder isn't his boss's style.  Bronn was hired to protect Tyrion from assassins, not be one.  Bronn encourages Jaime to visit Tyrion, saying Jaime should hear from Tyrion himself, anyway.  And he informs Jaime that Bronn was Tyrion's second choice to fight for him in Lysa Arryn's trial by combat; Tyrion's first choice was Jaime.  Shouldn't Jaime repay Tyrion's faith in him?

Oh, I'm sorry, are you hurt???

Maybe remembering that Tyrion was the only family member who welcomed him home, and set up his new training sessions, we next see Jaime relaxing in Tyrion's cell.  He tries cheering Tyrion up by comparing their imprisonments, but Tyrion's done with jokes.  Jaime tries being insulted when Tyrion reminds him that Joffrey was actually Jaime's son; Tyrion refuses to back down, insisting that his brother be honest in his presence.  Jaime flat out asks if he killed Joffrey, and at first Tyrion doesn't answer.  A minute later, Tyrion forcefully denies killing Joffrey, and tells Jaime that Sansa didn't either.  She's just not the type.  Jaime advises his brother to trust in the trial; Tyrion tells Jaime that their father wants him dead, and he's one of the judges/jury.  Tyrion has no faith in the system to protect him.  Jaime reminds him that he's the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; he can't break the law anymore.  Jaime doesn't buy that Tyrion or Sansa did it, but he can't do anything about it except hope that his brother gets a fair trial.

Littlefinger lets Sansa conduct her own investigation of Joffrey's death.  Littlefinger may be dangerous, but Sansa senses that she can at least demand the truth from him, which Littlefinger is happy to reveal piece by piece.  Reminding her that the necklace Ser Dontos gave her had fake stones, he asks her if she noticed a "stone" missing.  Sansa realizes they were hollow to contain poison.  But no one in their right mind would trust a drunk to kill a king. Sansa rejects the idea that Tyrion really murdered Joffrey, trusting her relationship with Tyrion to know he wouldn't. So she has to work through the other options, but she'll do that later.  Because she can't get over how much help Littlefinger was to Joffrey, and how rewarded Littlefinger was.  Why kill someone when you have a productive relationship?  Littlefinger has little hope of getting anything more from Joffrey, and the kid could turn on him next week.  So why not get rid of him once his usefulness declines?  Especially when your newest allies can do so much more, without needing your supervision?  It's their little secret.

Margaery and Olenna stroll the gardens of the Red Keep together for the last time.  Olenna is eager to be off, not feeling any need to see the spectacle of Tyrion's trial, and confident that her grand-daughter doesn't need her anymore.  They rest under their favorite portico while Olenna plays with Margaery's necklace, just like she played with Sansa's.

Good times.  Good times.

Olenna probably feels that of all her progeny, Margaery is most like her; she tells Margaery what her next steps should be as she cunningly implies her confession to Margaery.  She couldn't let Margaery stay married to that beast. She set up Margaery's chance for a more congenial husband.  Of course, Olenna will need to leave King's Landing; she needs to be out of the jurisdiction as soon as she can without raising suspicion.  As for Margaery's future, Olenna gives her an idea for inspiration based on experience.  You can have the husband you want.  You just have to not care about your sister too much.  Margaery can still be queen; but she needs to find a way to make Tommen prefer her to Cersei.  It's their little secret.

Cersei commands Jaime to appear before her, so she can treat him like shit.  She's still Queen Regent, now for Tommen, and Jaime has to defend the fact that he has only one Kingsguard at Tommen's door.  Cersei is in full bitter mode, imperious with the brother who recently forced her to have sex next to her son's corpse, ordering him around and mocking his pity for Tyrion and doubt of Tyrion or Sansa's guilt.  Cersei considers him even less of a Lannister than Tywin does.  Jaime, doing a full 180, only watches his sister shove wine down her throat and agrees to her paranoid demands for more guards on Tommen.

Cersei's newest frenemy

Said guards prove absolutely worthless, because we see Tommen look scared as someone enters his room, unannounced in the middle of the night.  It turns out to be Margaery, who laughs off Tommen's worry over the guards at his door and his mother's rules.  Margaery plays the big sister card, hinting that they might be married soon, and won't it be fun to already know each other without his mother knowing a thing?  Tommen, relieved at maybe finding a friend, introduces Margaery to his cat, Ser Pounce, and confides in her Joffrey's cruel threats against his pet.  Margaery is all sympathy and hopes for a happy future together for them.  She's affectionate without outright seducing Tommen as she leans close to give him a sisterly peck on the forehead.  Her only request is that this be their.  Little.  Secret.

OMG LOL!  I love cat guys!

Jaime, tired of having his loyalties questioned all day, and relatives demand that he take care of them, has found a clever way to make everyone happy, and get possible targets for Cersei's wrath out of her reach.  Brienne reads his bio in the White Book, lingering over his title, the Kingslayer.  She's more serious than Joffrey, and she at least holds the hope Jaime can still do something worth adding.  Jaime is less hopeful, since what he's about to do can't really be added; he presents his brand new, Valyrian steel sword to Brienne.  At first, she tries to refuse it, but he shows her how it's the most proper weapon for her quest- it was forged from Ned Stark's old sword, and he needs her to use it to find Sansa and get her somewhere safe, fulfilling the Oath she swore to Catelyn Stark two seasons ago.  He can't go without abandoning his own duties;  but he can give Brienne all the help he can, including new, custom armor, and a squire.

You like me.  You really.  Like me.

Jaime helps Tyrion, by getting Podrick out of King's Landing before Cersei can either corrupt or kill him; Pod is happy to be a squire to Brienne.  Bronn presents Pod with Tyrion's axe from the Battle of the Bywater, and Pod is so touched he has to be reminded to do his job. Bronn bids him farewell in his style, nagging him to get going already.  Jaime gets Brienne out of King's Landing, perhaps realizing that Cersei may hate Jaime, but she'll hate anyone Jaime could have feelings for even more.  Their last words to each other are naming her new sword Oathkeeper.  Brienne will use it to keep both their oaths, and she makes it clear that she's doing this as much for his honor as her own.  They give each other tortured looks as she rides off.  There are a million reasons why their relationship, friendly or romantic, isn't meant to be.  They both realize, that getting away from each other is their only choice.  Brienne and Pod ride off, safe from Cersei and Tywin, on a brave quest to honor a vow to a murdered mother.  It's their little secret.

Yeah, I get it.  We don't end up together.

The Night's Watch is working on keeping their own vows.  Jon Snow trains the newest refugees from South of the Wall, as well as some stewards, to popular approval.  Ser Allister Thorn breaks it up, angry that Jon is spreading skills he hogs for himself.  Jon is angry that Thorn is pissing away possible fighters, but he figures the wildlings will kill Thorn soon enough; why get in trouble over it?  The Night's Watch's newest recruit comes over to privately sympathize, confiding that he too, is a bastard, and that he's here because he fed a family with the King's deer.  It's really Bolton's lackey, Locke, but he puts on a good show, just as good as cleverly worming his way into a mark as fighting.

Janos Slynt, banished to the wall by Tyrion for killing Robb Baratheon's known bastards, including babies, advises Thorn to send Snow off on the mission to Crasters, to kill the mutinous crows still enjoying Craster's home, food, and daughters.  Why kill your sworn brother when you can just send him to die?

Locke overhears Sam and Jon trying to figure out just where Bran could be past the Wall, and one realizes that Sam has broken his vow to Bran, confessing the whole story of Bran crossing into the Wildling North.  Which he didn't do in the books.  Which means, that the show is in uncharted territory with this plotline.  This sets up an interesting confrontation, as Thorn watches about six men volunteer to go with Jon Snow to Craster's.  Thorn was obviously hoping he'd go alone, but this is better:  not only will Jon die, but so will his closest and most loyal allies.

Craster's is currently headed by Qarl Tanner, former assassin in King's Landing, bragging at how amazing he was.  Until, that is, he was caught and sent to the Wall.  Tanner obviously thinks he deserves a better fate, and he's found it; beyond the reach of the King, with girls to rape, another man's food, and other mutineers to bully and insult.  Cuntface, Tanner's assistant, is sent outside to feed The Beast, which turns out to be Ghost, Jon's direwolf, caged up, thirsty and hungry.  But before he can do that, they're interrupted by an older wife, carrying Craster's last son, just born to one of the daughters.  Tanner wants to kill it, but the mid-wife insists that it be sacrificed to the White Walkers. And Craster's daughters, beaten, raped, and usually silent as they await whatever fate men dole out, use a creepy refrain, repeating that the boy must be a Gift to the Gods.  It's their only pitiful resistance to their lot.  Tanner sends Cuntface out to do it, as the baby will be out of his hair either way.  As Cuntface taunts Ghost, baby already put out in the cold, we see everything freeze.  We hear a baby cry.

Jon isn't the only one headed to Craster's.  The Reeds, Hodor and Bran are having a campfire not far away. Jojen looks horribly sick, leaning lethargically into a tree by the fire. They're close enough to hear Craster Jr. crying, and Bran enters Summer's mind, who immediately leaps off, discovering Ghost, but not the source of the crying.  As Team Bran hides behind a wood pile, they realize the house if full of Night's Watch who have no more use for their vows, and plot to free Ghost.  The mutineers surprise them, taking them all prisoner.  Hodor is tormented, like bear baiting of old, with Cuntface the worst tormenter of them all, angry that someone so big is so easily a victim.

Bran, Meera and Jojen are forced to kneel inside Craster's house, while Tanner interrogates them.  Jojen, who keeps looking worse and worse, goes into an epileptic seizure, and Meera can't get to him while Tanner waxes on about how pretty she is, and implies just how much he'll enjoy raping her.  Bran cracks, so Meera can be free to help Jojen breathe.  Tanner is overjoyed to have a highborn hostage.  And a Stark, no less.   Maybe the last living one, no less.  What a wonderful secret he now knows.  He doesn't know what he'll do with Bran, but he knows he'll enjoy it.

Craster Jr., is on another journey, with a gnarled, ice-white White Walker on top of a skeletal, undead horse.  Junior isn't at all afraid, or even cold, as the White Walker rides him right into a gigantic rock, possibly the Fist of the First Men, and lays him on a table of ice surrounded by ice columns.  We see, in the distance, a line of other White Walkers, dressed in black in a line.  One advances, walking slowly and dignified;  he picks up Craster Jr., touching him with one grayed, overgrown fingernail.  Craster Jr. transforms before us, into a baby White Walker, to be raised by the other Sons of Craster.  Into what?  It's their little secret.

Bye Bye, Baby

Duck Soup - Cosmos - Season 1, Episode 7

What does the age of the earth have to do with regulating lead?  Does who pays for the science affect on whose behalf it's conducted, or what conclusions are drawn?  The answers:  Everything, and hell yes!

Just how old is the earth?  How does one even figure it out?  A guy named James Ussher decided that the best way, in 1650, was to find the actual, historical years for events noted in the Bible, using ancient history texts available at the time.  The earliest event in the Bible, for which he could find some other confirmation and description, was the death of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon and captor of Daniel.  Then, after deciding which set of Torah books with the chronology of prophets' deaths and births, he used their ages, all the way back to Adam, from Genesis, to state that the world began on October 23, 40004 BCE.  Ussher wasn't alone, but his calculations were the most famous, until the mid-20th-century.

By the twentieth century, most scientists didn't really buy that the earth was about 6,000 years old.  But they had no real way of calculating how old it really is.  We had rocks, many in sedimentary layers.  But we couldn't use those layers to calculate age.  Sedimentation could occur at almost any rate throughout the Earth's history without even giving us a clue as to what the rate was, so adding up sediment layers produced wildly conflicting numbers.

Great for tourism, not so much for math

We had rocks.  We knew what elements made up rocks at differing levels and places.  And we had the knowledge that certain elements are inherently unstable to the point that their nuclei actually "decay" into other elements, until the final downgrade reaches a stable element that won't change.  In other words, nuclear transmutation.  The most common final, stable, element is lead.  Scientists spent a chunk of the early 20th century just studying the rate of transmutation, or radioactive decay, of radioactive materials, especially uranium.

So, we have rocks containing uranium decaying into lead.  And we can figure out the rate of decay.  But we need to know- how much lead was in uranium from the formation of the Earth?  Where do we find the rocks that are clearly from the time of the Earth's formation, so we have that initial baseline?  Well, we don't actually find them on Earth.

We find them in Bruce Willis movies

The earliest rocks of Earth are gone, melted down and part of the hotter sections of the planet, during the bombardment and early volcanic history of the first few hundred million years.  In the early years of our star, particles of iron, oxygen, and carbon started colliding, sometimes sticking to each other.  After billions of collisions, recognizable objects with significantly more mass attracted even more particles, or particle clumps.  These clumps added yet more mass to each object, which eventually became the cores of our worlds.   As bigger and bigger clumps of early solar system debris hit our worlds, the energy from the collisions sparked a ridiculously hot surface temp, melting down most of what was there.  And subsequent additions buried it.

Early Earth.  Or Mars.  Something.

So, where in the solar system are rocks, surviving from the creation of the planets, with their original elements preserved?  And how do we get those rocks, so we can examine the amounts of uranium and lead in them?  Turns out, the very rocks we need, eventually come to us.  Yep, the Asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, leftover debris circling out by the gravitational pull of our system's largest planet, sometimes fall on Earth as meteors.  And we had some excellent samples from the crater at Canyon Diablo, AZ.  That meteorite reached Earth about 50,000 years ago, only millenia before humanity started painting in caves.  And it has a load of zircon, which contains uranium decaying into lead.

Can tell you how old the Earth is, sort of

In 1947, a Professor at the University of Chicago, Harrison Brown, hired two grad students to examine zircon from the Canyon Diablo Meteorite for both uranium and lead.  George Tilton got the job of measuring the uranium, which turned out to be easy and quick.  Brown gave Clair Patterson (voiced by Richard Gere) the job of measuring the lead content, which he considered so easy he told Patterson it was Duck Soup.  Patterson began in 1947.  It took six years.

Patterson (left) and George (right).  Here, put this rock with uranium right in your hand.

Six years of working like a dog to completely eradicate all trace amounts of lead from every testing room he tried.  Six years of inconstant, unreliable data on lead amounts because Patterson couldn't tell what was lead contamination of the room and equipment, and what was the lead in the zircon from the meteorite.  Eventually, the project took so long, that when Harrison Brown went to Caltech, Patterson went with him.  At Caltech, he boiled his equipment and tools in acid, and had to find out how to eliminate lead from every surface, every grain of air.  He made the first "Clean Room", a room so sterile you can finally, accurately measure how much lead (or some other element) is truly in a substance.  It took six years for Patterson to finally get the actual amount of lead in that specimen, at the Argonne National Labratory.  And then, he sat down and calculated the age of the earth, knowing how much uranium and lead were really in Earth's first rocks, in 1953. He told his mother first.  What a sweet boy.

Mom, looky what I can do!

So, what do you do, if you've already solved a long-standing scientific problem for the world at the age of 31?  Well, if you're the world's best expert in measuring lead in trace amounts, that pretty much what you do.  Everywhere.  Funded by petroleum companies trying to understand the content of lead in their products, Patterson quickly found his sponsors were creating a public heath disaster.

Lead has been around since about Roman times.  It's not easy to get, usually nowhere near the surface.  It must be mined.  The Romans found it cheap, and easy to work with (it's a very soft metal).  They lined their baths and cooking pots with it, made water supply pipes with it, and even used it as a sweetener.  They, like us, were well aware it is highly poisonous. Which is why only slaves actually handled it or got to ingest it. Lead, once ingested, seems a lot like zinc and iron to our cells, which bond with it and try to use it as a nutrient.  But, lead can't give our cells the benefits of zinc and iron, and if we miss these two nutrients, problems follow.  In addition, lead blocks neurotransmitters, interfering with memory and learning. Lead poisoning causes a wide variety of symptoms and problems, but we tend to associate it with two things:  causing mental disabilities in people who ate paint chips, and petroleum workers exposed to tetraehtyllead, once used as lead in gasoline to stop the knocking sound in the engine.  In 1924, 17 workers at tetraethyl plants in New Jersey died, but not before going insane, dying horribly and sometimes by jumping out a window.

In response, the ethyl industry hired Robert Kehoe to tell the public that everything was okay.  They just needed some darn good self-regulations in the industry to protect workers.  Which, of course, they would do.  The public was just fine.

And it worked, until Clair Patterson came along.  Like Scooby and the Gang, Patterson wanted to know just how much lead in the natural world was actually naturally occurring, and how much was human-related.  So how do you figure that out?  Lead, in the mid-20th-century, was fucking everywhere- in shoe soles, light bulbs, paint, bullets, even food cans.  Patterson found that it was the level of lead content that had changed.   By measuring lead content in deep ocean water compared to surface water, he found huge differences.  If lead was naturally occurring, it would have been more evenly mixed, leading him to think that lead amounts in air and water were a recent change.  Okay.  But, how recent?

The answer was near both planet's poles.  Specifically, in Arctic Ice. Nature's Clean Room, Arctic Ice and rocks have been amazingly untouched.  Which makes them perfect for finding out how much lead is naturally occurring on our planet.  So, he had to go to, literally, to both ends of the Earth, spending 10 hour days digging shafts. Through ice and rock. His cores, which produced rocks from before the Industrial Revolution, showed that the concentration of lead in rocks was much, much smaller before the Industrial Revolution.  And the change wasn't from uranium decaying, as he could calculate how much that decay would contribute extra lead today.  Patterson found that Kehoe's information, or conclusions, were both wrong.  The world was being mass poisoned.

I love my job, I love my job....

His sponsors tried to fund him doing any other research, on any other topic.  He refused, and became a crank.  Starting in the mid-60s, he repeatedly published his findings and data on just how much lead the Industrial Revolution, and lead in car exhausts spewed into our atmosphere, affecting how much lead we breathe in and poison ourselves with.  And Kehoe repeatedly attacked his credentials, and work. Patterson wasn't alone, but he may as well have been. Even while the public worried about lead poisoning, the experts employed by people using lead in everything told the public that everything was fine.

Until 1966.  Patterson's work was starting to raise alarms with government health experts, who had to listen to doctors telling them there was a fucking lead poisoning problem.  So, Senator Edward Muskie, Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution, held hearings.  The Surgeon General also testified, but the real conflict were the testimonies of Kehoe and Patterson.  The hearing had been, oddly, scheduled for a time when Patterson was supposed to be in Antarctica, but he got there on the fifth day of hearings to tell Muskie, the sub-committee, and America that his data indicated that the industries were dumping more lead into our air, water and soil then we could handle in our bodies.  Kehoe vehemently denied this, insisting that there was no such evidence, even with Patterson presenting it.

Robert Kehoe, claiming the research funded by the polluters is totally legit

It was the beginning of the end for lead in commercial products or gasoline.  Patterson's work laid the foundation for getting lead not just out of our air, water and land, but also out of ourselves.  In 1978, Patterson received the recognition he deserved, and National Research Council appointment.  And his legacy is the good news that lead levels in people have gone down significantly.

What someone says may depend on where his or her paycheck comes from, shielding bad news from the public for a while.  But Nature cannot be fooled.  And, if we can understand nature, we can avoid being fooled, too.

I just wanted to show this goofy picture of Tyson.

Pissing Contests - Game of Thrones - Season 4, Episode 3

As Joffrey lies dead in Baelor's Sept, the powerful of Westeros start to secure their own positions.  Littlefinger is back!  Arya and the Hound eat at someone else's expense.  Wildlings and Thenns pillage the area just south of the Wall, yet the Watch will ride North instead.  Dany gives Meereen a taste of its own medicine.  Did I mention Littlefinger is back?!

Ser Dontos, Sansa's newest best friend, manages to evade Tywin's orders to close the gates by leading Sansa not out, but down.  In the book, they have to descend worn stone steps down a cliff, but here the descent from below the Red Keep is easier and quicker, and Dontos rows Sansa away before anyone can see them.  A clean getaway, as Dontos rows Sansa straight into the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Well, it could be.  A ship emerges from the fog, sails rolled up to disguise the owner.  Dontos sends an apprehensive Sansa up the ladder, and she's helped on board by the former Master of Coin/Brothel owner himself.  Littlefinger is happy to see her safely on board, telling her all sorts of comforting things.  Then his men shoot Dontos full of arrows, leaving his body in the rowboat.  Sansa is horrified, but Littlefinger assures her that murder is a much more effective way of keeping secrets, much more so than gold.  He's right.  Littlefinger then gently removes Sansa's new necklace, laying in the rail of the ship, and you can see a stone missing.  You can also see Littlefinger crush the "stones", meaning the necklace is a fake.  What did Littlefinger tell you months ago, Sansa?  King's Landing is filled with liars, especially the guy who just told you you're safe. Now, Joffrey is dead and Littlefinger has the only known heir to Winterfell.

Stannis is not so lucky.  Two of the three of the people he wanted dead are.  Only Balon Greyjoy, Theon's father, remains, for now.  But Stannis has no army or navy to take advantage of any possible chaos in King's Landing.  Which is just as well, because there isn't any.  Davos proposes hiring sellswords; Stannis hates the idea, even when Davos reminds him that he's sacrificing people to Melisandre's god for victory.   Stannis throws a tantrum at Ser Davos, telling him that failure to get him an army will cost more than three fingers, or a job as Hand.

Detention for you!

Ser Davos, pissy at being threatened with death because he can't compete with Melisandre and luck, is late for his reading lesson.  Shireen is pretty strict about punctuality, and chides him about his lateness and the importance of her lessons, making Davos realize she takes after Stannis.  All is forgiven when he realizes that today's reading lesson is all about famous Braavosi pirates.  When Shireen says she picked it because Davos was a pirate, he corrects her that he was a smuggler.  What's the difference? The difference is that if you're a smuggler, no one should ever know your name.

Braavos is also home to the Iron Bank, rich and ruthless people who Tyrion warned us about last season:  if you don't pay back your loans, they start funding your enemies.   As Davos reads his lesson, he realizes how he can score the gold necessary to buy Stannis an army.  He has Shireen, now his confidential secretary, draft a letter to the Iron Bank, with himself acting as Stannis.  Are they being pirates or smugglers?

Margaery and her grandmother, Olenna, Queen of Thorns try to decide if Margaery is still a Queen.  Well, we all know what Cersei would say, but what is the rule on this?  Margaery tries moping that this is the second king-husband she's lost, but Olenna won't have it.  Being twice-widowed is a tray of cakes next to death.  Margaery wonders if she's cursed;  Olenna consoles her that she's lucky.  Renly wouldn't give her an heir, and Joffrey was a horror.  And husbands, as Olenna points out with a sad story of seeing her husband's dead body, are not all that, anyway.  Don't worry, she tells, Margaery, the third time's the trick.  Olenna is definitely a smuggler.

Wait, I have to get married again?

Tywin finds Cersei with Tommen, praying over the dead body of Joffrey at Baelor's Sept.  At last, that little shit is in a scene without making everyone cringe, with his new sword in his hands, and fake eyes watching as Tywin leads Tommen on a history lesson.  Tywin, while Cersei is trying to mourn her son, quizzes Tommen on what kind of king he'll be.  Oh, a good king?  Great!  What makes a good king?  Tywin and Tommen go through the characteristics that Tommen gives him:  holiness? Didn't do Baelor the Blessed any good  Justness?  Didn't do any Targaryen any good, ever.  Strength?  Oh, like your supposed dad Robert, who's only accomplishment was winning his rebellion and literally drinking his reign away?  Tommen finally realizes that Tywin is looking for the answer wisdom, and Tywin is extremely pleased as he tells Tommen that to be wise, he must do as Tywin tells him.  Tywin realizes just how much easier his job will be with Tommen as king, and Tywin has never looked more guilty of killing his grandson. Tywin cautions Tommen, that he doesn't want to end up like Joffrey, does he?  Cersei looks horrified while Tywin states that Joffrey is dead because he didn't listen to Tywin.

Cersei is speechless when Tywin leads Tommen out of the Sept as he tells Tommen that it's time to get married.  Don't worry, he tells Tommen, the wedding night is a tray of cakes next to death.  Cersei can only watch as Tywin takes over her son's life.  On their way out, they bump into "uncle" Jaime, dressed in his Kingsguard uniform, reassuring Tommen that he's safe.  Sure.  As safe as a kitten in a blender, kid.

This is you, Tommen

Jaime doesn't want to talk to his "nephew" Tommen or Tywin, who is still not speaking to Jaime.   He orders the priests and guards out of the Sept, and the doors close, leaving the Sept empty and dim. Only in spaces like this, can they be open with each other.  Cersei is in serious grief, possibly the only person in Westeros who is.  She tries to remind Jaime that Joffrey was his son, their baby, but Jaime just can't seem to muster much regret, and he is on the fence about whether Tyrion killed Joffrey.  Cersei, as proof, repeats Tyrion's threat to strike at her just when she was enjoying life the most, and she was having a pretty good time at that wedding.  Cersei demands that Jaime kill Tyrion himself.  Cersei is always demanding someone kill her enemies for her, usually to prove their loyalty.  Once, Jaime pushed a kid out of a tower at her request.  But those days are over.  Jaime kisses her passionately, but Cersei pulls away, withholding any affection until she sees Tyrion's head on a plate.  

Jaime can't take this.  All he has wanted, for three seasons, is to see the woman he loves.  But he gets back to find that she's moved on and more interested in ruling the realm. Cersei has chosen this moment to decide that what they're doing isn't right.  He calls her a hateful woman, bitching that he's in love with someone so awful, and then rapes her right by their son's dead body.  Why not just wait her out, wait until she's lonely and angry at their father and wants Jaime to comfort her?  Why not just walk away?  Instead, he literally forces her down onto the floor and keeps telling her he "doesn't care".  He will have what he suffered for.

**NOTE** A recent interview with the episode's writer indicates that he didn't consider it rape, just Jaime taking getting what he wanted even if he had to force Cersei "at first".  That's not the scene I watched, with Cersei saying no and trying to get out from under Jaime until the camera cut away.  Just for the record, that's rape.  Their mental connection as twins, and past consensual sex doesn't make what he did not-rape.  It was rape. In the book, the sex was consensual, but the writer completely failed to show consensual sex here.

Yes, it was rape.   It's not grey, murky, or ambiguous.

Arya and the Hound are doing much better, watering their horses and trying to figure out where they are.  The Hound is just starting to realize that traveling with kids, especially when you don't have a map and don't really know the way, might not be worth any money Lysa Arryn gives him, when they're interrupted by a farmer, staring down from the bridge above.  The Hound insists that any land he stands on belongs to him, and anyone who doesn't like that can try to take it from him.  The farmer decides to let The Hound have the ground beneath his feet, especially when Arya speaks up and apologizes, for her "father's" bad manners.  

Arya's quick thinking gets them a free dinner from the Nicest Man in the Riverlands, where she has to apologize again for The Hound's terrible manners.  The Hound sure knows how to cut prayers short.  Arya is relieved when Nice Farmer Man offers The Hound work and silver for it, but angry the next day when she sees that The Hound is just taking his silver, knocking him to the ground, and leaving.  Killing rapists, looters and murderers is one thing.  Stealing from an honest farmer with his own troubles has no honor.  

The Hound has no more use for honor.  Remember, he's not a knight, specifically because he thinks all the vows and talk of honor is bullshit.  And he thinks Mr. Nice Farmer is going to be dead in a week anyway.  After all, there are ready-to-eat crops in the fields.  He'll be dead to feed some marauding gang soon.  And why not just take his money now, before Lannister looters do?  Arya stops arguing as The Hound scolds her to accept how the world works.  The Hound is a pirate, but he's alive.

Honor is for the dead

Sam is concerned that Gilly is about to be raped, herself.  While Gilly happily plucks a chicken, sitting next to Sam, she seems perfectly content at Castle Black and not worried about the castle full of men around her.  Sam isn't so blissful, and he makes a deal with a brothel owner in Mole's Town, so Gilly can live in a dirty, cold, back room with Baby Sam for cleaning, cooking and nanny duties.  Gilly, after being happy earlier, is resigned, convinced that Sam has sent her away because he doesn't really care about her.

Just a little south, Tormund, Magnar, and a combined Wildling/Thenn force quickly slaughter a small village that never saw it coming.  Ygritte is back to doing what she does best, making crazy accurate arrow shots. All that's left is a little boy that Magnar terrorizes with a knife and the fate of his poor parents.  The little guy is terrified, but has enough sense to run away, right to Castle Black.

Woo hoo!  Definitely pirates.

Without a Lord Commander, the Night's Watch has to debate what to do.  Allister Thorne knows it's a provocation to draw them from Castle Black and the Wall, which would give Mance Rayder a chance to take Castle Black from the North.  Aemon and Jon agree.  They're debating their next move when the only two survivors of the shit fest at Craster's finally return to the Wall, telling the rest of the Watch that Lord Mormount's killers, the Mutineers, are still at Craster's.  Jon freaks out, and tells them that they'll ruin Jon's only surviving lie: that there a 1,000 Night's Watch on the Wall.  Allister Thorne doesn't want to, but he has to agree with Jon.  So, it's back to Craster's Keep these guys will have to go.  It's a tray of cakes, guys.

Tywin's not done today.  After schooling Tommen on how the wedding night goes, he heads on over to King's Landing's best brothel.  Ellaria and Oberyn are there having a fivesome.  Yep, five people fucking each other.  There's an uplifting conversation about bisexuality, with Oberyn basically admitting that he wants to fuck every single attractive person on the planet, and Ellaria declaring that the best idea she's ever heard.  The party is interrupted by the City Guard, led by Tywin, who marches right into a room of naked people.

Once they're gone, including Ellaria, Tywin gets down to business.  Oberyn gives him his condolences, and Tywin wants to make sure that Oberyn didn't kill Joffrey out of revenge against Tywin.  When Oberyn rejects hurting children because of their grandparents' sins, Tywin then brings up Oberyn's knowledge of poisons- was it used to kill Joffrey?  Oberyn laughs that off.  Tywin brings up his little chat with Tyrion after arriving in King's Landing.  But that was to threaten Tywin.  Oberyn tells Tywin that he's here for revenge against the Mountain and whoever ordered him to kill his sister and her children.  Tywin flat out denies giving the order (that's very likely a lie); Oberyn, for the moment, believes him.  Tywin offers him half of what he wants- there could be a way of revenge against the Mountain, but Tywin will need his help.

Tywin needs Dorne.  Laying out just how vulnerable Westeros is, Tywin offers Oberyn a judgeship in Tyrion's trial, plus a seat on the Small Council.  Oberyn so didn't see this coming.  So a man who really just wants to fuck and swordfight will be governing Westeros?  At least Tywin is aware of the threat from Wildlings to the North, and Dany to East.  Even if he can't do anything about them right now.

We see Tyrion at last, in prison but not beaten yet.  Podrick comes to see him, and though the guards found the wine, they didn't find any of the other things he's smuggled in to Tyrion.  Tyrion assures Podrick that he didn't kill Joffrey, even though he's relieved the little shit is dead. After telling him that Tywin, Margaery's father, and Oberyn will be his judges, Podrick confirms that he's heard nothing about Shae, and updates him on his wife's disappearance.  Tyrion rejects Sansa as a suspect, saying she's just not murderous.  He also rejects Cersei, as she actually loved Joffrey, and is probably the only person in Westeros who didn't want him dead.  But, who then?  When Podrick tells Tyrion that the ubiquitous "they" are already trying to get him to testify against Tyrion, Tyrion sends him not just away, but begs him to flee King's Landing immediately.  Podrick may only stay long enough to send Jaime to see him.  Tyrion tells him he's been a great squire, but now it's time to save his own skin.  Podrick, now more of a young man than the boy who squired him, takes one last look at Tyrion before he leaves.  

Attica!

Danaerys, the Unsullied, her Queensguard, and Yunkai camp followers arrive at the megapolis Meereen.  Or, as Andrea calls it, Egypt!  The statues are of the harpy they worship; the structures are so immense hundreds of slaves died building them.  It's a monument to the slave-owners' power and invincibility.  Dany's not impressed.

Don't worry, I'm smarter than a horse.

Meereen's gate opens slightly, for a horse and rider, Oznak zo Pahl.  He rides around a bit, yelling.  Then, just in case Dany and her armies didn't know he's an asshole, he pisses towards them.  Dany is a little amused, but holds him in as much contempt as Meereen has for her.   He's Meereen's champion, come to defeat whoever Dany presents as her best warrior.  Barristan offers, but Dany needs him to guard her.  Ser Jorah offers, but Dany needs him to advise her.  Grey Worm offers, but Dany can't lead soldiers into battle.  Daario finally offers;  he is no leader, he's lowborn, and he's the only one there Dany can afford to lose.  Dany lets him go, and offers him a horse.  He turns it down, no doubt on his face that he can defeat Oznak.  Dany isn't so sure, but Oznak's getting closer and Daario shoos her away.  As Oznak's horse fast approaches, Daario slips out his stiletto dagger, much like Oberyn's, and throws it straight into the horse's eye.  It collapses immediately, throwing Oznak right up to Daario in a cloud of dust.  We can just make out Oznak trying to stand before Daario efficiently cuts him down with a scythe.  Meereen is furious, but Daario picked for his stand a point just beyond the arrows.  He returns Meereen's insult with his own generous flow of urine over Oznak's body.

Dany has their attention now.  In Old Valyrian, the same Dany that killed the slave-owners of Astapor lays it out for the slaves of Meereen.  She tells them that their masters are thieves and killers, and can only offer chains and suffering and commands.  She gives them a choice.  Then she calls forth the catapults (made from breaking down her ships for the wood), and they hurl massive barrels toward Meereen, arcing over the spectators, to crash into the massive structures behind everyone.  Kind of a useless offensive shot.  Maybe.  People examine the burst barrels, which have spewed debris everywhere, and a slave crouches down to find a broken slave collar.  He stares at it as one of the owners watches from behind.  I bet there are 163 of these collars.

Daddy's Little Girl - Scandal - Season 3, Episode 18

Did we all just dream the last season-and-a-half?  Are the knots tied really so easy to untie if Olivia just goes away?  Will Harrison survive Papa Pope's treachery?  Are Rowan and Maya having a contest, to see who can kill the most to secure their daughter's happiness?  Is Cyrus ever going to miss his soul?  So many breaking points reached, as characters resolve problems they spent two years obsessing over.

We start in a packed church, listening to Fitz give a eulogy... to Cy.  Alone, in the Oval Office, while the rest of Senator Hightower's distinguished mourners wonder where he is.  Cy is just starting to realize how many innocent people will die so Fitz's rivals for job and wife can disappear when Jake bursts in, and tells Fitz about Maya's bomb in the church.

Olivia has gotten her blood-covered Dad to the ER.

A welcome sight....

She is sitting in the waiting room when she sees that Fitz has ordered the church evacuated.  She speeds over to the hospital while Fitz watches the church being emptied.  Cy is flustered when Jake tells the room how lucky they were to catch it in time, and Fitz is worrying about looking like an idiot if Jake is wrong when there's a boom, the camera shakes, and dust flies out of the church doors.  Olivia manages to get into the President's top-security workroom and tells him to get in front of a camera.  Now.

It doesn't count if you don't do it in front of a camera  

Which he does, but VP Sally is already on the scene.  She's perfectly willing to flee until Leo fights his way through debris and security, rips her sleeve, dirties her up and tells her to go win the election. Which she does.

Vote for me!  I know first aid!

She and Leo make a great team, pretending to not want the spotlight as she selflessly treats the wounded.  And she proves that she can be America's Prayer-in-Chief with a rousing speech linking America to St. Francis of Assissi.  "Let us Pray", Sally says, and wins the election with three words and an iconic image of shocked people in prayer.

Olivia and Abby are frantic as they try to keep the focus on a man who's just talking about evacuating the church and catching terrorists as Sally delivers, live on the scene, grit and piety.  It's no contest- each news screen goes fully to Sally.  When Fitz has lost all attention to his opponent, Olivia knows that Sally will win the election in two days' time.  Cyrus, with Olivia in his office later, solemnly agrees.  Maybe he's looking forward to being human again if Fitz loses.  But Fitz and Mellie aren't so blasé.  Fitz is trying to come up with a magic speech that will get him back on top, or at least on the news, and Drunk Mellie wants a refund, as if Olivia is a waitress who served them spoiled food.

Olivia, crestfallen, goes to Papa Pope, conscious in the hospital, and on the road to recovery.  After Olivia stating how close he came to dying, Papa Pope is still chipper and not worried.  So Olivia gives him her bad news:  Fitz will lose.  Olivia must accept defeat to VP Sally, to Leo Bergen.  She must accept that she can't make things right for Fitz, for herself.  She must accept that effort and smarts can be trumped by bad luck and someone else's cleverness on the scene.  Papa Pope gives his baby girl all the comfort he can, telling her he wishes he could help, because he wants Olivia to have everything.  Olivia loses it as she tells her dad that she couldn't handle seeing him a bloddy mess on the floor of her office, and Papa Pope holds her.  In their own dysfunctional way, they love each other.  They are all each other really has, for worse or worser.

Adnan is pointing a gun at Harrison, to kill and dispose of him, but Harrison promises her that he will keep quiet about everything he's learned, including where all the money is that will be used to pay Maya.  Harrison says he'll save Adnan too, because Maya will kill Adnan to tie up all loose ends.  It works, because Abby and Harrison meet as they enter Gladiator HQ, Abby complaining that they'll lose the election and Harrison saying his investment leads led nowhere.  They both completely forget everything when the see Huck and Quinn putting an empty conference room to good use, with Abby screaming about her poor, abused eyes, and Harrison just too disgusted to say anything.  Abby, acting as if she's a mother, shouts at them to clean up Papa Pope's blood, still in a puddle on the conference room floor.

Jake has gotten home and is trying to get a post-bomb vacation, when David shows up, angry that Cy ignored their call and was going to let the bomb go off.  He doesn't stop there;  he wants Jake's help to bring it all down:  all of B-613's dirty deeds, all involved.  Jake shuts him down.  After all, that would include all of Jake's dirty deeds.  And going to jail would ruin his very busy beer-drinking, football-watching schedule.  Free a guy from a top-secret-murderous spy ring, and all he wants to do is watch football.  Men. Hmph.  David gets points for calling Cy "Voldemoort", but is Cy really the Voldemoort here?  But Jake tells him to go home and accept that the bad guys run the world.

Quinn gets home to a surprise; her new roommate, Charlie, has packed and is leaving her.  He's bitter, all right:  he hands Quinn an envelope before he goes.  It's more for Huck than her, and he presents it as something that will ruin their relationship no matter what.

Olivia drops in on Fitz, writing a speech for the next evening in which he'll tell his supporters to vote for VP Sally.  It will be full of patriotism and stoic acceptance, but Fitz is much more interested in furnishing the house in Vermont.  For a wife and kids, and he doesn't mean Mellie.  Olivia, knowing Mellie's secret, and that it means Mellie didn't stop loving Fitz after all, just can't muster any more enthusiasm for it.  Fitz starts bad-mouthing Mellie, telling Olivia that Mellie only wants power and that she's a monster, but Olivia just can't let Fitz keep talking that way.  Not after what she knows Mellie has been through.  So she tells him about Big Jerry raping Mellie.  She tells Fitz that she believes it's true.  She reminds Fitz that Big Jerry was a horrible person, and this would have been par for his course.

When Fitz goes to talk to Mellie about it, she is still drinking.  She's been drinking for what, four straight days now?  This woman is amazing.  She also realizes why Fitz is there, looking at her like a dog found peeing on the carpet.  Mellie tries to reassure Fitz that she fought, goddammit, and that Jerry Jr. is, in fact, Fitz's son.  But that's not what he came to find out.  Right now, he's just relieved that Mellie didn't fall out of love with him in the first place.  It's not his fault his marriage failed, and it's not Mellie's.  His own father, literally, screwed him out of his wife's affection.

The next day, the day before the election, Abby is floundering on TV while Leo is jubilant.  And Leo isn't stopping.  He heads into Cy's office, already mentally re-decorating it.  Cy is still reeling from how awful he's become.  And he just enjoys the fact that for once, their isn't a single thing he can do.  He gets to do nothing.  For a change.  So he pours Leo a drink, and dispenses what advice he can:  don't have a family, and try to hold on to your soul.  Cy, knowingly, assures Leo that he won't hold on to his own soul, but he tells Leo to try.

Quinn, after telling Charlie that she's not even going to open the envelope, has obviously opened it, checked it out and done her homework.  She takes Huck, in the evening, to see a new family that he can spy on (remember that craze?).  It's a great family; mom is bravely raising a sweet little boy on her own, after returning to school and becoming a lawyer, and getting a home through a VA loan, secured through her assumed-deceased husband.  Huck realizes who they are, and panics.  Quinn tells him that she loves him, and that she's telling him how happy his wife and son are because she loves him.  He still has a chance to have the life he used to watch other families have.   He tells Quinn to never speak to him again.

Happy and about to be totally shocked

Fitz, the night before the election, is about to address his supporters, handing his votes to VP Sally.  Olivia gives him pointers, tells him he's going to be fine, and that she's staying at the hospital to be with her dad.  Olivia officially, finally, ends their affair.  She tells Fitz that she can't be with a man who would leave a wife who still loves him, and who still needs him.  They say they love each other, and share a silent moment on the phone.

For the big occasion, they've brought the kids, and Karen and Jerry Jr. are standing right behind Mom and Dad.  Both are bummed for their dad, Karen asking if he's nervous about speaking, and Jerry trying to console the guy he wasn't going to vote for.

Total bummer, dad. Losing totes sucks.

Fitz and Jerry Jr. share a smile, with the audience realizing that they really are father and son and maybe could try repairing their relationship when his dad is mayor of some town in Vermont.  But that is not to be.  Because while Fitz starts his last national speech, Jerry Jr. starts coughing up blood.  His eyes roll up, and Mellie has to catch Jerry and try to get Fitz's attention.

Olivia finds a visitor in her Papa Pope's hospital room: Maya.  She is all motherly as she tells Olivia that she tried killing Fitz for Olivia.  Because he's all wrong for her:  he's a Scorpio, she's a Cancer.  Olivia demands to know if they are even a family.  Maya answers by telling Olivia that she could have killed Papa Pope, but didn't.  The family that almost murders together stays together, I guess.

Those weren't stabs, they were love pokes

Fitz has a camera moment, carrying his son out of his speech, a look of dead fear on his face for his son, but Olivia has the sad job of telling the nation that Jerry Jr. died of bacterial meningitis.  Olivia and Cy are sitting quietly in a hallway of the hospital, and they use the moment to quietly inform each other that Fitz will win now.  But there's no joy in it.  Fitz will win on the nation's sympathy, because every parent knows the fear that they saw in Fitz tonight.  And every kid hopes their dad will carry them, like Fitz.  The night's events tapped into much more primal fears than the bomb did.  Olivia admits how awful she feels that that was her first thought when she found out.  Not, how sad that a young person is dead of something completely preventable?  Not, how does a healthy person die so quickly of a bacterial infection?  Cyrus confesses his failure to Olivia.  They try to figure out just how and when they became such horrible people.  Cyrus thinks they always were.  And we see that Cyrus isn't Voldemoort.  He's Severus Snape.  Tortured by what he does for the powerful, but doing it anyway.

Maybe I shouldn't care about my job right this moment

B-613's Secret Service plant gives Fitz even worse news:  the strain of meningitis found in Jerry came from a U.S. military base.  Maya Pope is tied to the theft yesterday.  Fitz is furious, and can only find comfort when Rowan, in the same hospital, comes to offer his help in finding and killing Maya.  He offers Fitz a quick and violent end to Maya without the burden of due process.  Fitz accepts just as Olivia walks in, demanding to know what's going on.  So Fitz tells her.

He's pretty emotionless as he tells her, and tries to tell her that he doesn't hold her responsible.  The woman who got her mother out of B-613's reach, who then took down B-613 when it needed to stop Maya.  Fitz is utterly not convincing, and one has to wonder if he could ever be with her now.

On Election Day, Cy is trying to get Fitz to take a nap before all the mess of Election Night, but Fitz is more worried about finding Mellie, who is spending Election Day holding on to Jerry Jr.'s clothes and beating herself up for not being close to a son she thought might not be her husband's.  How close do you get to your rapist's possible child.  Fitz finally takes the drink from Mellie's hand.  Cyrus watches them comfort each other.  It's too late for his marriage, but not for their's, at least.

Nothing makes grief better than guilt

Huck shows up at Olivia's door.  He wanted to knock on that door so much, but he just couldn't, and we realize it's not Olivia's door he's talking about.  He lists all the reasons his wife and kid are better off without him, that they deserve better.  But Olivia can tell that Huck needs them.  Just like she needs her dad.  Huck wants to start fresh, be someone else, but Olivia knows that's not possible, advises him to speak to his family, and holds him as he cries in her arms.

Olivia calls Rowan, and lets him know that she knows he's looking for Maya.  When Rowan tells her not to get involved, she puts up no resistance for a change, and Papa Pope asks what gives.  Olivia asks if he will still fly her away from this mess, and give her a new life somewhere.  Rowan looks like he can barely contain his relief and happiness.  Abby isn't so happy, shouting at Olivia that she's abandoning her Gladiators, and putting herself into the hands of a monster who can't be trusted.  Huck just wants to know when she's leaving.  Olivia puts her keys on the table, and tells the Gladiators to go through the safe. Olivia takes one last look around, but Huck has already mentally said goodbye.

Rowan is efficient; he goes right to Harrison, who he suspects hasn't been forthcoming since leaving the office a few days ago.  Harrison resists helping until Rowan shows him Adnan's bloody, sad fate.  Harrison confesses that he knows where Maya will get her money.

Huck may be resigned to Olivia leaving, but needed to confide in someone anyway.  He calls Jake, who rushes over to Olivia's apartment, which has been magically packed up in a matter of hours.  Jake thinks that Olivia is running away because she can't take just how many tragic things have happened.  Olivia is not running away from all the heartbreak of the last 24 hours;  she's solving the problem.  Olivia is convinced that she's the problem.  She's what everything has in common with each other.  She's the scandal that has to be fixed.  So she's fixing it.  Jake asks to go with her.  Olivia says she's still in love with Fitz, but Jake doesn't care.  He just wants someone to stand in the sun together with.  And so does Olivia.  And Fitz won't do that with her now.

Maya is swiftly caught by armed soldiers, cash in hand, and Rowan calls Fitz to tell him that Maya Pope is dead and will not be a problem again.  Harrison goes back to Gladiator HQ to give Abby and Huck the good news, who give him bad news in return.  Harrison goes right back to Papa Pope, telling him to bring Olivia back.  Rowan is sympathetic, but won't relent.  Fitz has reinstated B-613 and Rowan Pope as Command. Harrison is about to leave, when he points out that Papa Pope sure has come out ahead from this whole disaster.  He says it doesn't make sense that Maya Pope killed Jerry Jr., because she made no money from it.  Replays of past Rowan lines, that he wouldn't hurt Fitz, that he was the hell and the high water that would get Olivia on that plane no matter what, make one realize that this might have been his plan from the start. "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" by the Temptations plays as Rowan tells Harrison just how successful he's been; he didn't harm Fitz, as he promised Olivia, but boy did he get revenge on him.  Olivia has gotten what she wanted; Fitz elected, and out of this whole mess.  Rowan gave his little girl her victory, then sent her away from all the messes and tragedy that ensued.  Secret Service Tom appears, as we see him take a vial of something awful and stick Jerry Jr. with it.  Harrison demands to know if Rowan killed Adnan, too.

Cy tells Fitz he's about to win Ohio, and the election.  Fitz leaves the merrymaking behind as he slips into the Oval Office, and shakily pours himself a drink.  Flashes of Big Jerry raping his wife, Olivia telling him he can't keep his promises, and Mellie slapping him bring him to his knees.  He realizes that his job has come at a price, and that it might break him as a person to pay it.

Olivia arrives at her private plane and Jake, both ready to take her away.  Jake's been busy before leaving it all behind.  David gets a huge paper delivery from Acme Unlimited, and a note from Jake, who has literally had all the evidence delivered right to David's office.  With Jake gone, can B-613 finally go down?

Huck approaches the storybook house of his wife and kid.  He barely manages to whisper "Hi", to his shocked wife.  Was Olivia leaving what he needed?

Mellie wants Fitz to address the nation on winning the election, but he needs Olivia.  So, Mellie tries reaching her.  With Olivia gone, can these two learn to comfort each other?

Screw it, I'm calling Olivia

Rowan is sympathetic, but unrelenting as he tells Harrison it sucks to waste so much talent.  Harrison gets a second gun pointed at him.  Will he survive this one?  Rowan reveals another deception when we see Maya, alive and defiant, in The Hole.  Is this Rowan's way of recruiting a new B-613 agent?

Jake waits patiently as Olivia sees the White House is calling.  When she doesn't answer, Jake ask if she's sure.  She says she is, as the plane takes off into he sunset, like cowboy heroes riding off at the end of the movie.

Was Olivia the problem?  Is her inability to shake off her warring parents what screwed up everyone else's lives?  With her gone, do other characters have to get their lives in order instead of using their work as a crutch?  I feel like we're seeing a total resolution, a final resolution.  I feel as if the series could end here.  Why tie up so many ends?  Why give everyone what they've been looking for for three seasons in one episode?  I'll get the drill, somebody bring me Shonda Rhimes.