All Life Is Precious. Except Pete - Walking Dead - Season 5, Episode 16

Ugh.  I give it a year. Between the sometimes startling incompetence of the Alexandrians, and the bloodthirsty antics of Team Carol/Rick, Alexandria won't last.  Or it will, by some dramatic sleight of hand that happens between Seasons 5 and 6.  Or Morgan will help Rick not be a bloody mess at the end of every day.

Do your best, Morgan.  That's all we ask. 

It's doubtful that Deanna will still be in charge, and the death of her husband, right after her son's death, probably isn't going to give her much faith in Rick's leadership.  Especially since her husband was murdered with Michonne's sword.  My bet is that the show will have her relinquish control, maybe even leave.  Rick's predecessor in Alexandria simply walks away from the town in the book, and the show will very likely go that route, with Deanna's last son leaving with her.  Giving Rick clean control over the town.  Although, it would have been interesting to see her and Rick act as co-leaders, like Roslin and Adama from Battlestar Galactica.  But, this show isn't about how checks and balances improve leadership.  This show is about how Rick blunders into a place, saves the day somehow, leads for a while, then whatever group he's leading loses the place.  It makes for great television, but who would really want to endure the zombie-pocalypse this way?

Do Rick and Carol even hear themselves as they plot to take Deanna and other town residents hostage if the night's town meeting doesn't go their way?  What if Deanna had called their bluff, if it even was a bluff?  Would Rick really have slit throats?  Isn't that what he's stood against for 2-1/2 years?  After showing up way late for the town meeting, covered in zombie guts after having to hand-crush a zombie head, his big speech boils down to: "I was going to kill some of you, but I got this zombie instead.  Put me in charge."  The Alexandrians just nod their heads at this, and I'm almost sympathetic to Pete when he makes his lone and disastrous attempt on Rick's life.  It makes for great television, but who would really want to endure the zombie-pocalypse this way?

Anybody else a little concerned at how easily she deflected blame for snatching Rick's secret gun? Oh, no, she had nothing to do with it.  But she's already got a plan for taking over Alexandria that night at Deanna's meeting.   Lying to Alexandria is one thing.  Lying to Michonne, Glenn, and Abraham is another.  

No idea how this could have happened.. maybe we could stage a coup tonight?

Carol has become something of a Lady MacBeth.  She coos at Rick how much he needs to just take over the town, no matter what happens at the night's meeting.  She coos at Rick that it's time to stop coddling the Alexandrians, even if it means he's got to make them scared of him by threatening to kill if he's not in charge.  There's a name for people who take over towns because they're not bad ass enough; but it's not "Sunshine".  Carol coos threats to Pete, while pretending to bring him a casserole.  Let's just say I don't want any of her cooking.  Ever.  There might be razors in it.

Yep. Definitely razors.

Darryl and Aaron almost get killed, with Aaron blaming himself.  Not sure if there's really any blaming him.  You can't hold yourself responsible for losing someone wandering the woods of Northern Virginia, and settling for trucks of food instead.  Was it smart to just open the back door?  The counterweights hanging off the side of a truck were a weird thing to see.  Trucks don't need those, as the doors open along a track inside.  Wouldn't Darryl or Aaron have heard the zombies inside?  Maybe, maybe not.  Let's hope Aaron got the Alaska license plate home, because he seems to have dropped his promo photos.  Very convenient for Laurel and Hardy, who call themselves the Wolves.  And leave graffiti insisting they're not far.  Now they know there's a town nearby for the taking.  Just in time for next season's premiere.

When Darryl and Aaron spring the zombie trap, a horde emerges from the trucks, both together, thanks to the lines connecting the doors with those counterweights.  They are herded, by the dead, into a sedan.  They think it's a safe place, until a note found by the last victims convinces them it's better to make a dash for the outside.  Darryl is willing to go out on the sacrifice play, and that sound you heard at about 10pm last night was the sound of millions of Dead Fans getting their torches pitchforks ready for rioting.  Thankfully, Aaron offered to go out with him, and we wondered if together, they could make it to the fence.

They couldn't.  Holy crap they couldn't.  Good thing they had last minute help.

After teasing us twice before this season, Morgan has finally found his way to Northern Virginia.  He's having a great trip, staying for free in abandoned cars, smiling at stray rabbit's feet, and totally kicking the shit out of anyone stupid enough to try to take him.  The Zen Master of the zombie-pocalypse plays the Wolves' threats pretty cool, drawing out the first one to explain the exact nature of his psychosis, so the audience can know just how much Darryl and Rick have to kill them next season.  He tries to reach for his gun, but Wolf #1 nixes that.  That's fine.  Morgan will just go to the walking stick, which he wields like a boss, winding his arm around it to prepare to strike.  Morgan doesn't kill the Wolves, just leaves them in his camp for the night, sounding the car horn so zombies will come and finish the job.  Instead of killing them, he gives them a fighting chance.  Because, he explains to Darryl later, all life is precious.

In a show where everyone you knew before the world turned is probably dead, meeting a long-lost friend should be unheard of.  But, in an age where everyone's kind of stuck where they are, you're bound to run into people again.  Darryl eventually found Merle; and Morgan, aided by a map and his ridiculous ninja skills, has found Rick.  Does Darryl put it together, when he sees Rick's name on the map, knowing they're talking to someone named Morgan?  Does he remember what Rick's walkie-talkie was for?  Because it sure as shit wasn't used for Rick's team to ever communicate.

The Wolves get out in time to survive, and even do what Aaron couldn't: find Red Poncho guy.  It's supposed to be there to pile on for Aaron later, as a reminder of just how much of a dud his latest trip was.

Sasha has some.... fun... while burying zombies, trying to feel what it will be like to be buried with them.  The survivor's guilt has never been clearer in either her or Gabriel, who wanders out, not expecting to come back.  He claims to Spencer that he's just going on a short walk, but his weak and deadpan voice indicate that he's saying his last words.  So, why the last minute change of heart, garroting a zombie and bashing the other one's head in?  Are those his first big kills?  Because, for first kills, they're pretty bloody and physical.  Which is probably why he breaks down, crying over his own inability to even get himself killed.  I mean, even Aiden managed to do that.

Rick and Michonne make a big deal of whether she's more loyal to the town or Rick.  Michonne squarely swears her loyalty to Rick and even a possible takeover, telling Rick to just not do it unless someone actually makes a move against him.  But, if Alexandria actually banishes him, all bets are off.  Maggie rallies Team Carol to offer glowing testimonies, despite Deanna's growing distrust of them all, and her unsuccessful attempt to bring Gabriel's warning to the town.  Once Deanna's husband, Reggie is dead in her arms, bleeding even more than Rick is, she decides she's had enough of being nice, and tells Rick to go for it, which Rick immediately obeys.

Just when you think Rick has done the right thing, the night's murder is interrupted by Aaron, Darryl, and Morgan.  None of them have any clue what's been happening, and Morgan looks like he didn't find Rick after all.

Eugene and Abraham make up, partly facilitated by Rosita, who may or may not take over the infirmary since Dr. Peter Drunky-Drunk is dead.  Eugene does some more of his monotoned babbling, while Abraham apologizes for socking Eugene good, something Eugene acknowledges was coming to him anyway.  These two, really, have nothing in common.  At all.  Without Eugene's fake mission, it's hard to see how they ever would have come to care at all about each other.  It's unclear whether they care about each other now.

Nicholas and Glenn have their climactic fight.  Does Nicholas lure Glenn out?  Or, is it just opportunity knocking when Glenn follows him out?  Does this town want to do anything about people just climbing out?  Does the town really want people just wandering the woods outside, without anyone knowing they're not around?  Apparently so, because Glenn and Nicholas can fight and fight again without anyone even thinking of looking for them.  Nicholas even shoots Glenn and digs a fist in the gunshot.  The shot alone should have brought people, let alone Glenn screaming in agony.

Quality time in the zombie-pocalypse

In the end, Glenn does the right thing when cowardly Nicholas surrenders and agrees to be Glenn's bitch.  He'll show up at the meeting, right behind Morgan, further making the trio of travelers wonder what the fuck has been going on.  

Michonne, after the night's excitement, gets her sword back, but it won't go back up on the wall.  It belongs strapped to her back, and there it will stay.  Sometimes, you do have to bring the world outside the walls inside them.

I actually want to leave off, for the season, with the climax to Sasha and Gabriel's suicide plot line.  Because it's slightly hopeful.  Because, Gabriel has the possibility of being less annoying now, that he's officially done sniveling.  Because, Sasha might put the rifle down to sleep at night now.  Because, Maggie joins with Sasha in mourning their losses.  Because, the sight of the three of them praying, after Gabriel and Sasha have a knock-down fight over who's the most suicidal that requires Maggie to break it up, indicates that the characters have the opportunity to finally come out of their PTSD.  Because Tara is shown waking up as they come together to heal each other.  Will the ebbing of their trauma convince the Alexandrians that Team Carol/Rick has something to offer besides bloody scenes?

Let's hope so.  Because he carries a big stick.

Tolerably Ever After - Scandal - Season 4, Episode 17

Cy's wedding is all about him.  Literally.  The episode makes a point of telling us that this marriage should go about as well as his last two.  But, it's Cy who decides that maybe this marriage won't suck so bad, or end so disastrously.  Why?  Because it's his only marriage that doesn't involve lying to his fiancee.    It's his only marriage that doesn't rely on totally unrealistic expectations.

Cy flashes back to his previous marriages as the rest of the cast works their way through a quickie White House wedding.  Dear ABC production team: you did your best.  But, there's just no making Cy look young.  Ditto for Fitz.   Olivia flashes back to the hallway she tried escaping Ian out of, coupled with images of Fitz (Run! Run away from Fitz! That's what the dreams, mean, Olivia!), while she removes obstacle after obstacle to Cy finally marrying Michael.  

Between Michael's constant infidelities and Cy's contempt, the wedding barely happens.  And, it's disturbing how quickly Team Wedding can go from moving mountains to make the wedding happen to keeping Cy's reputation intact if it doesn't.  It's also disturbing how many disastrous catastrophes Leo can rattle off to Abby when he's only half-awake.

Did the Jonas Brothers die?

The most pivotal scene isn't actually a flashback, and it's not even really a surprise.  Team Wedding arranges a swanky dinner for Michael, Cy, and Michael's parents, where Cy plans on publicly dumping him so all of Washington will congratulate Cy and vilify Michael.  But, Cy just can't follow through.

By the time it happens, we've seen how Cy's earlier marriages were based on outright lies or half truths.  He lied to Janet about loving her and being straight.  He honestly loved James but lied about keeping their jobs separate.  Each marriage made him feel more and more like a monster, like a power-hungry machine incapable of feeling anything anymore.  Nothing affects him now, until he sees Michael's parents berate him into crying over his salad.  Michael looks five when he realizes his parents only support his wedding and marriage for the money.  Cy spent most of his life hiding his sexuality to avoid the pain of straight people rejecting him.  As a Republican, he's probably spent very little time among the gay community, so Michael's almost breakdown at the table is more like a wake-up call.  About half of America wants to see this wedding fail.  So, he'll make it work, goddammit.

The episode's highlight, besides the flowery White House shindig Mellie throws to boost her political independence from Fitz, is finding out how Sally Langston is faring.  Quite well, it turns out.  She turned her almost-win for the Presidency into a lucrative TV deal that puts her on primetime TV (what channel? Fox News?).  She's not making policy, but she's in everyone's homes nightly.  That's probably worse.  Sally, who killed her husband for cheating with another man, is dead set against Cy marrying Michael.  And she's willing to pay handsomely for anyone who can prove Michael and Cy aren't really in love.

When Team Wedding discovers Michael is a serial cheater, even after signing the marriage contract, it's up to Olivia to shut down the expose that will feature Michael's current lover.  And, it's up to Abby to face a hard truth from Leo; he doesn't separate his job from his personal life.  If Abby dishes on White House gossip, Leo will use it at work.  Especially if it's to help a wildly popular politician who might run for President again.  Using Leo as her campaign manager, of course.

Olivia, meanwhile, tries dangling a very prestigious Secretary of State position in front of Sally to get her silence on Michael's affair.  Sally sends her off with a lecture about how much more fun and profitable it is to simply inflame the mob.  She spent her life courting constituencies; now politicians must court her.  Who'd go back to public service?  In the end, Michael also provides the means of shutting Sally down; turns out, her dead husband was a client.   More than once.  Michael turns out to be a liability and an asset.  He's unfaithful, but how many other clients of his and their spouses will behave rather than be exposed?

I get more power, and no responsibility!

Cy spends most of the episode ruminating on how he lied to Janet and James because the two of them were useful in his career.  It's painful for him; Janet was an escape from possibly getting AIDS by "playing raquetball"; James was his one true love.  He couldn't be honest with either, despite the othes' wonderful qualities that attracted him in the first place.  Janet's dumping of him, in a gorgeous walk-in closet she's been getting drunk in, is particularly searing.  Cy has just gotten Fitz elected Governor of California, and plans on his own Congressional run.  He's got the wife.  He's just run a successful campaign for someone else.  It's his turn, dammit.  Only, it's not. It's Janet's.  Without a wife, Cy will spend his life getting Fitz to power, so he can be the one who makes Fitz's policies happen.

The flashbacks with James are in their early days, with James rightly worried that his career in journalism will suffer.  Cy reassures James on their wedding day, only to go ahead and start using James for Fitz's political gain even before they've left for their honeymoon.  And, did he really think James wouldn't find the tie he stuffed in the luggage?  We know how the rest goes; James loses respect for Cy as a human being, then gets killed trying to get justice for Sally's murdered husband.  Cy loses his shit on national television, to the point that Fitz has to save him.  Cy should, really, never, marry anyone else.  He knows it.  It's hard to blame Michael for acting out.  He's got to live with Cy.

Cy just won't put Michael through any worse than he's already been through.  He and Michael decide to go through with it, mostly because it's a business arrangement, to preserve Cy's job and Michael's good name.  But, it's a secretly honest one.  They both know the other's weaknesses.  They both know there's no love.  But, if they can stick it out for a few years, they'll both be able to put their past mistakes behind them.  Cy needs someone to stir some human feelings in him sometimes; Michael needs someone who can teach him it doesn't matter what the world thinks of him.  Michael starts the day totally despondent, waiting for the wedding like a kid suffering through detention.  It's interesting to see how he becomes like a child when in pain.  But, Cy's honesty helps him realize he can go out there, enjoy himself, and make his homophobic parents earn every cent Lizzy Bear is paying them.

Let's shove our gayness down their throats

The wedding gives Mellie a chance to assert her independence from Fitz.  She gets to clearly support same-sex marriage; while Fitz and Abby can barely make out what to call his complete apathy for the whole issue.  The wedding gives Mellie a chance to delight in doing what only seventeen other First Ladies have done.  And it gives her a chance to show Lizzy Bear that she's in charge.  Lizzy Bear can't believe that Mellie's flouting the party, and Lizzy's direction.  Mellie makes it clear that Lizzy follows.  That Mellie makes decisions, and Lizzy makes those decisions work.  Will Lizzy stay on the job? She's spent the season as a loyal, committed Republican.  Mellie's always been more conservative than Fitz; Lizzy working for her isn't just about having a job; it's about supporting a candidate her party will actually like.  Is Lizzy committed enough to the Republican Party to keep working for someone who so clearly hates her?  It's almost like watching Cy berate Michael, and seeing how humiliated Cy makes him feel.  How much of it will Lizzy take?

Olivia has her own demons to defeat in this episode.  She's plagued by dreams that alternate between Fitz's Un-Greatest Hits and running to that Red Door of Fake Freedom.  Is her subconscious telling her that running away from Fitz is about as realistic as those Red Doors that led to more captivity?  Or is her subconscious just telling her to grab a gun and run like crazy from Fitz?  Does she dream of Fitz's ring, a gift to her on Cy's wedding day, because Fitz gave her Doux Bebe to remind her that she can never really get away from him?

Come on, it's Fitz.  Of course he did.

He tells her the ring will always be a symbol that she's okay, Fitz doesn't need to worry about her.  So, when he catches her not wearing it before the wedding, it disturbs him.  Has she dumped even the sign between them that she's still the Olivia he fell in love with?  Is she no longer in love with him?  Olivia wearing the ring again, while standing in the sun at Cy and Michael's wedding, reassures him.  And, knowing Fitz's arrogance, it will, no doubt, convince him to make another play for his Vermont fantasy.

He Said, He Said - Walking Dead - Season 5, Episode 15

I realize that the show would be as dull as paint drying if we showed Alexandria for the 2-1/2 years of the zombie-pocalypse.  It would be dull mostly because the walls kept people safe, the supply teams provided food, and the place has a medical team that can treat most simple ailments.  Deanna's greatest guilt trip is exiling people who were a problem.  They don't have massacres and close calls in the woods because people run if there are too many zombies.  They haven't been attacked because they're a quiet people whose scouts don't seem to get noticed.  For instance: there's a serial zombie sicko out there, but the good people of Alexandria don't seem to need to worry about it.

I'm certainly not going to

Over the years, Team Rick/Carol has developed a Musketeers style; stay and fight so everyone gets away.  If people are sick with a fatal flu, kill them and burn the bodies immediately.  Don't lock future sick people in their cells, because that's mean, even if it means they will turn and get out after dying.  If there's a murder, beat the crap out of Rick to get him to investigate.   If there's another town nearby, raid them for your kidnapped people and hope that turns out for the best. If the prison falls, everyone just scatter into teams that will meet up somewhere no one knows anything about.  If a team member goes missing, suddenly follow a lead without telling anyone, even if it means being gone for days.  Go ahead, set the barn on fire.

The rhythm of the show is: Rick and Co. find a place to stay.  They figure out how to integrate some new members there.  Inevitably, someone fucks up and zombies come, forcing everyone to flee.  Hope they meet up again to try someplace else.  This has made for great television.  But is it a realistic survival strategy?  Can a TV show that's supposed to show people screwing up and banding together come what may in order to increase the drama really advise us on how to survive a zombie-pocalypse?  Rick and Co. showing up at your gate means it's only a matter of time before your town burns down.

Alexandria has been run by exact opposite principles.  And there are at least three times as many people in Alexandria, when Team Carol walked in, as Rick and Carol have been able to keep alive.  Alexandria may be a bunch of wimps with a book club, but they also built that wall, and jerry-rigged the solar panels to keep going.  And can eat. And get medical care.  They're so safe, the guns are stored in a locked room.  Team Carol showed up at their gate, with borrowed vehicles, their clothes, weapons and a baby, looking for shelter.  So, does Team Carol really know how to survive?  Or, do they only know how to fight?

Remember when the Governor slaughtered the National Guard Troops?  Do people see why he did that now? I wrote then, and I repeat, that it was tactically right.  Armed fighters who might or might not accept being led by someone else, and will need to be fed a lot to keep fighting was not on Woodbury's shopping list.  But, it was on Alexandria's.  Deanna thought it was a good idea to bring in muscle.  What she didn't realize is that the muscle doesn't see itself as her muscle.  Rick doesn't think he's Deanna's enforcer.  He thinks he's here to change Alexandria and how its problems are solved.  Deanna just wants someone who will keep the peace, not break up the delicate balances Alexandria rests on.

Is the delicate balance protecting wife-beating Peter fair?   Deanna and Rick agree that exile or execution are their only options, as wife beaters are notorious for violating restraining orders. Exiling him or executing him will deprive Alexandria of a doctor.  When doctors are rare.  It's not fair to Jessie, who must endure his beatings, or Sam, who's going to repeat his dad's behavior later in life.  But, does Alexandria get to demand that Jessie take a lot for the team, so Peter will go on saving lives?  Is Jessie's life worth the lives Peter's skills have saved?  Deanna says yes, especially since Jessie is unwilling to complain herself.

Deanna's had to trust that Team Carol knows more about running a town during a zombie-pocalypse.  Because Team Carol has shown, beyond any doubt, that they don't trust her.  Aiden's and Noah's deaths on the supply run has shown that her people and the newbies don't really work well together.  All she has left of her son is the crappy RunMix CD that none of them can bear listening to.  And that tuna casserole Carol leaves didn't do anything to console Deanna, or convince her the newbies have her town's best interests at heart.

Burning Rick in effigy

I like to think Deanna knows Nicholas is full of shit.  She pretty much tells him she's not believing him at the end of his debriefing.  She points out that Glenn brought him back, despite Nicholas' potential to get Glenn in trouble.  Why bring back a hostile witness?  With a newbie and a long-time resident both dead, it's hard to take a side if you weren't there.  It comes down to Glenn's word against Nicholas.  And, Deanna already publicly admitted Glenn knows what he's doing and Aiden didn't.  She can't just turn on him now.  So, she's done the only thing a fair-minded leader can do; suspend all visits outside the wall until she can determine who, exactly, is the idiot getting people killed.

Glenn, not exactly on Deanna's shit list but not getting chummy thanks from her anymore, tells Rick they've got to make Alexandrians their people.  Their best bet is to blend in with the long time residents, while also guiding them to better security and more successful supply runs.  Rick clearly doesn't think that's possible, even before he and Deanna spar about Peter's fate.  Rick is literally gunning for a coup.  Glenn's only deal breaker is if Nicholas ever goes outside the walls again.  With no authority to do so, he confronts Nicholas with we-both-know-what-happened-so-don't-lie-to-me.  It doesn't work.  Nicholas pushes back with you-ain't-the-boss-of-me.    Glenn returns with this-is-for-your-own-good.  It goes nowhere, as most pissing contests do.

I don't think it's a spoiler to point out that Nicholas sees the newbies taking over if he doesn't put a stop to it.  After all, why else would he go retrieve the gun he's been hiding that looks an awful lot like the one Rick lost?  Why else would the show paint him as an entitled boy-man who we will enjoy watching Rick kill?

Michonne is made late for work by a last-minute request from Rosita to look for Sasha.  Abraham relieved her in the guard tower outside the walls, but she never returned.  Horror Show Rule #1: Look for lost people, as that will lead to more trouble.  While their breath puffs in the air, indicating another fall is coming, they quickly find Sasha by following her head shots.  They'd love to lecture her against actively hunting the dead, as that's a really great way to run into a herd you can't get away from.  But they don't have to.  Because they run into a herd that Sasha couldn't take alone, but is just perfect for three armed badasses.  Michonne flashes back to her favorite beheadings before joining in.  Does she ache to take the katana down?  Or has she given it up cold turkey, like a drug?

Sasha will confess after the slaughter that hunting them is a great way to avoid her guilt complex.  Somehow, maybe through Abraham, she's learned of Noah's death.  One of the last things she told him was that his own lack of confidence was going to get him killed.  And, now he's dead.  Whenever humans suffer, zombies must pay.

Luckily, Michonne does make it to work just in time to be useful to the whole town.  She's probably a hero by now.  Rick certainly isn't.  Like an idiot, he decides to find Jessie alone to convince her to turn her husband in as an abuser.  A smart cop would have brought Deanna to show that the town would have her back, and provide a witness that no one coerced Jessie into doing anything.  Instead, Rick decides to use the power of sexy stubble and puppy dog eyes to convince Jessie that he's going to end Peter's abuse because he's totally in love.  Does Jessie like Rick even a fraction as much as Rick is infatuated with her?  Carol's already noticed, and Peter no doubt suspects.  Why hasn't Deanna?  She would have mentioned it when they bickered over Peter earlier.  Rick kissed Jessie in her house at a party.  No one saw?????

Of course, Rick's pitiful attempt to be Alexandria's hero ends badly.  The wife beater comes home early, of course.  The love interest decides she can be brave with the hero's help.  The hero and the wife beater circle each other, each making accusations.  It gets interesting when Rick and Peter hurl each other through the front window.  From there, Rick and Peter are now just willing to kill each other.  Blood flows freely down their faces.  They choke each other, they fight off anyone who tries to stop them.  The idea that Rick is enforcing anything that could be called the law has flown out the window.  Townspeople come to watch.  It's only when Rick sees Deanna, who demands they stop fighting instantly, that Rick's venom and anger finds a new target.

How dare you stop my epic fail!

Yep, Rick pulls a gun on his boss.  Rick has decided that being a bloody mess after brawling with the town doctor over whether he can live with Jessie anymore and after pulling a gun on the Mayor of Alexandria is a great time to tell everyone that they've been mis-managing their town, and don't know what they're doing.  Look, Rick, there's some things I'd change to.  But that's why we have meetings.  

Thank the Goddess Michonne has finally gotten to work, because she's the one who knocks Rick out. That Rick's trusted companion, who's practically Carl's stepmother is the one who knocks him out to end his ugly, accusatory tirade against a town that gave him shelter has the potential to permanently split Team Carol into camps.  Expect next episode to be about how you're either for Rick, or against him (and Carol).

It seems that the joining of newbies with Alexandria only works in pairs.  Carl and Enid have fun, treating the woods outside the wall as an amusement park, where the entertainment is not getting eaten by zombies.  Times when they're not threatened, are spent either running or using a tree to - ahem - "hide" from a passing herd.  It's the perfect opportunity to make out, because what's more of a turn on than dead bodies that want to eat you passing right by?  Amirite?  

Yeah, I'm right

Enid likes to act bored and over it all.  In reality, she only feels alive if there's some danger possible.  Once in the tree, instead of whispering to Carl that she likes likes him, she informs him that it's the zombies' world.  Carl and Enid just get their hollowed out tree in which to stare like frightened mice at each other.  Even their attempt to hold hands fails to teenaged fear of rejection.  Since these two aren't getting it on, it's a good chance to notice yet another zombie with a "W" etched into its dead forehead.

Aaron and Darryl, still out on the road, find no new recruits for Alexandria.  But they do find yet another "W"-marked zombie.  This one is dismembered, and parts are missing.  And Darryl insists it was done recently enough that they could find whoever it was.  Aaron looks totally unwilling to follow someone who wants to haul off zombie torsos, but they've only got two other choices:  run back to Alexandria knowing there's someone really sick in the woods, or keep looking for nice people in the woods when they know there's a sicko in the woods.  So, it's look for the sicko first it is!

And the W Sicko has been busy.  The next victim isn't a dismembered zombie.  The W Sicko has moved "up" to killing living people.  A pretty, blond, young woman has been stripped naked and tied to a tree.  Zombies did the rest, mostly to her gut.  Intestines dangle in front of her carved out belly.  Another "W" marks her forehead.  And, since this show doesn't show people actually turning enough, we get to see her eyes slowly open, now dead.  Darryl puts her down, declaring that this one was recent too.  Aaron looks resigned to hunting someone who will probably kill him instead.

Castrate the bastard, will ya?

For the last episode- is there a resolution to the power struggle we've seen building for three episodes?  Or are battle lines simply drawn?  Do Aaron and Darryl find the W Sicko?  Or does the W Sicko find them?  And will Carl and Enid realize that making out is so much more fun than hiding from zombies? 

One more pic of Rick as a total asshole.

The Story of O - Scandal - Season 4, Episode 16

Olivia's great pathos is that she always solves others' problems, while her own continue to wreak havoc she can barely control.  The other great conflict of the show is Olivia's use and, let's face it, love, of power versus the fact that she must often confront the powerful over their bad, stupid, and/or entitled behavior.

Olivia first thinks that Suzanne Thomas is one of those privileged people who need boundaries; she scolds Kinky Sue at their first meeting for violating her former partners' privacy.  When she tries to scold Sue at their next meeting, where the plot officially becomes extortion, Sue is either no longer scared or no longer pretending to be, using Olivia's mannerisms to convey that she plans on claiming her own power in life.  Their next meeting is Olivia making a deal that will really give Sue the life she wanted in the first place.  A life where Sue isn't punished by a harassing, retaliatory boss for her sexuality.  Their last meeting is Olivia making good on her deal.  The episode breezes right through Olivia's progression from contempt to mentoring to semi-imitation for and of Sue.  Come on, she's only got an hour.

Holding a purse like Olivia Pope doesn't make you Olivia Pope.

Like most of Olivia's professional problems, the answer is in one of the details she didn't emphasize at the beginning.  Suzanne started out as a chemist at the EPA with a bright future and a secret past time indulging DC men in BDSM, role play, whatever they wanted that also intrigued her.  Suzanne Thomas and Kinky Sue co-existed very nicely until Suzanne's manager at the EPA discovered her personal life.  After that, it was the old she's-a-slut-so-let's-coerce-her-into-having-sex.  I've never understood this phenomenon.  It's based on the idea that if a man discovers a woman he knows is sexually active, he instantly decides she must also have sex with him.  Is it because he feels insulted and threatened at not being sexually desirable to a woman who will have sex?  Is it because he feels like life "owes" him as much sex as any other man gets?  Or, is it because men have figured out that women who freely have sex are easy targets for hard-to-prove-sexual-misconduct?  When a woman has frequent, enjoyable, even risky, sex, why is it that people find it hard to believe that she can, in fact, say no to a man? Why is it so difficult to accept that she can be as picky as she is prolific?

Kinky Sue's 17 greatest partners are proof of that.  They're powerful men.  Some are married.  Some have girlfriends.  A couple were alone and needed someone anonymous and discrete.  Well, they got anonymous.   But she's about to be famous by abandoning her discretion.  This wouldn't be such big deal for the bachelors of the Naught 17.  Except that two of those bachelors just happen to be former and current boyfriends of the White House Press Secretary.  And Abby just can't contain her rage.  At Leo and David for having sex with someone from the Internet.  For that sex being so kinky that Leo's chapter sends her into a rage so terrifying I was worried for Leo's physical safety.

Your penis is ruining me!

Why is Abby so obsessed with being the one who will make this possible book go away?  Leo thinks that he'll look bad for a while, and DC will teeter knowingly at Abby, but that her life will go on.  Leo even tells Abby he'll deal with it.  Abby's as angry at the thought of Leo screwing up the cover up as she is at the Dustbuster act he pulled to get in the book in the first place.  She's red with rage.  It's different once she's with Olivia.  Restrained,  part-dignified and part-embarassed Abby is back.  She can't even let Olivia look at her as she informs Olivia that Leo is one of the book's Naughty 17.  Olivia doesn't even want to look at Abby as the news sinks in.  But she's all business once Abby gives her the work of shutting the book down.

Olivia, Huck and Quinn don't figure out right away why Suzanne plans to extort $3 million dollars out of somebody, or she'll publish the book and make money off of titillating and scandalizing the nation.  Suzanne, at first, pretends to Olivia that she's giving the Naught 17 nicknames like "The Doctor" or "Sit and Spin", instead of naming anyone.  But, after her extortion and threat is official, Olivia, Huck and Quinn quickly figure out who each of the Naught 17 are.  And the scene where they are all assembled, and advised to play the blackmail, is comedy gold.  Between Leo shouting "Amen!" from the pews, and Olivia smacking a table and talking to wealthy DC power brokers like they're kindergarteners, it's all fun and games until David Rosen tells them it's not.

David Rosen just can't stop being the Attorney General.  Ever.  And he outright refuses to pay any extortion money.  He'll go down for being kinky, even though there was nothing illegal or even unethical about what he did.  He'll go down because paying extortion money is illegal.  He'll walk out of Olivia's meeting repeating that catchy warning to the others, ruining Olivia's second plan, after threatening Sue didn't work out.

While Olivia works on her third plan, Huck freaks out.  He's already testified against an agency that should be gone.  But it's there.  B-613 never goes away.  Huck knows it.  Even if it's not active, the agents are out there, and they'll be thirsty for revenge if Huck's whistleblowing goes public.  So, he demands that Rosen give him immunity.  Now.  For any and all crimes, good forever.  But, what if Rosen loses his job?  Would the next AG look with approval on Huck's immunity?   Huck ain't going to jail.  Huck's going home.  Huck doesn't care who's throat has to be slit.

Rosen isn't the only one preparing to lose his job when the Naughty 17 are exposed.  Abby is already writing her letter of resignation.  Leo is getting one last good workout in before Abby has to very publicly dump him.  And Leo just doesn't get how Abby could possibly lose her job.  So, Abby has to womansplain for him.  See, Leo, women aren't people.  At least, not in the imagination of the general public.  Women are appendages.  Sometimes they do things that are interesting, and achieve things in life.  But that's never as important as how desirable they are to men.  Everything written about important, powerful women also has to include whether any man finds them attractive enough to date.  And everything written also has to analyze whether they really are attractive.  Now that Kinky Sue is about to reveal that, not one, but two men in Abby's romantic life needed role playing and toys made of leather to get off, just how attractive will the general public still think she is?  Answer:  not at all.
And unattractive women who aren't Supreme Court judges don't get to be powerful.  

Women who can't keep their men happy in bed get to quietly hand their resignation letters into their boss the next morning, warning him of the scandal they're involved in.  Abby does the right thing by not letting Cy get a shocker.  In return, he does what he always does with losers; he brushes them aside.  White House Chiefs of Staff only care about winners.  If Abby had warned him about the book and told Cy she wasn't going anywhere and he should be ready to suck that up, he might have insisted on keeping her in his office.  Instead, he told the little mouse to scurry away.

Good thing Olivia actually cares about Abby.  Before failure can even be considered, Olivia and the Gladiators have discovered how it is that Suzanne must publish a memoir to make money.  Her old manager at the EPA, once snitched on for his sexual misconduct, didn't just get her fired.  He got her blackballed.  She could find no other work in her field as payback for doing the right thing.  One wonders how many other Suzanne Thomas' there are, in any field.  Wandering through underemployment because of a boss who couldn't face consequences, and a system that makes sure he doesn't.

But Olivia has gone from Suzanne's opponent to champion.  Olivia arranges for a lawyer for Suzanne, and that she will help make Suzanne's complaint public so that it's Suzanne who comes out on top.  Olivia arranges for new job interviews, because she's more important than a manager at the EPA.  She's important enough to get Suzanne a chance to write for the Washington Post.  Hey, good writing is good writing.  She wants to shut Suzanne's book down, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want Suzanne not writing at all.

When Cy arranges to pay the extortion money, Olivia triumphs as she brushes away the money in the enormous black case, which is so obviously cash for some nefarious purpose I'm surprised Cy wasn't dressed in all black with a fake mustache.  Cy tries to rope her into White House drama; Olivia, instead quickly figures out that Cy was making his own play for the manuscript, and the dirt on DC's powerful in it.  Olivia muses at how terrible the town that pays her bills is before wandering off, leaving Cy with $3 million dollars.  Should he blow it on his wedding?

Better save it for your kid's college fund

It turns out to be Huck who ruins Suzanne's new bright future.  Despite Olivia's new, working, strategy to keep the book from printing and David Rosen in a job, Huck is convinced that Kinky Sue will talk.  And, Olivia doesn't yet know what Rosen and Huck have been doing.  So, now may not be the time to tell her that Suzanne needs to be silenced no matter what.  Huck gets his chance after interrupting one of Kinky Sue's former lovers in his threatening knife attack.  He simply launches one of his own, slitting Sue's throat before Quinn can even realize what Huck's done.

She couldn't stop Huck from killing Suzanne.  But she can prevent Olivia from finding out what Huck did.  And she can talk Olivia into burying the manuscript and digital copy of the book.  It's Sue, who was a nice girl and talented, but is now dead, or Abby.   Despite Quinn and Huck's blockage of Abby earlier, even she now admits that Abby is family.  Abby came to them to keep her secrets secret.  That means that Sue's murder will just have to go unsolved.  Olivia accepts this, eventually placing the paper and digital copies in her Safe of Awful Secrets.  The White Hat accuses her, but she doesn't question this decision.

Huck gets what he wants after having to endure only an unintentionally brutal lecture from David.  Huck's signing the immunity deal, safe with the AG who's going to be here for a while, while David tries to assuage his own guilty conscience for having had sex with a young woman who later ended up dead.  Sure, he did nothing wrong.  Not even to Sue, who was happy enough to have sex with him and then threatened to expose his sex life to the public.  But, David just can't shake the though that he owed her something more.  She was someone's daughter.  And that fact has just occurred to David now that she's dead.  Huck just tries to not listen to David at all while he meanders out, telling David, with tears in his eyes, that he's going home to his family.  David might not have owed Sue protection, but Huck wants to protect Kimmy and little Javi if he can.

Abby makes up with Leo, partly because the book's not coming out after all.  And partly because Leo agrees to act out Chapter 5 with her.  Leo can't resist the dare, especially after hearing it involves butter.  Leo loves slippery filth.

Fitz and Mellie make brief appearances.  Fitz wants to keep his promise to Clarence Parker to make people safer; he wants body cams on police nationwide.  Abby thinks it's a liberal pipe dream.  Cy agrees to make it happen, loving that Fitz has given him an impossible task to do and be awesome doing.  Cy decides that Lizzy Bear, now out of the DC power circuit, will be his votes bitch.

Lizzy has better plans.  Because Fitz has also announced to his staff that Mellie is running for Senator in Virginia.  And Lizzy figures it out based on a couple real estate transactions.  And, she's also figured out Mellie's end game for the White House.  And, she and Mellie already have a history.   Mellie takes her resume- will Lizzy definitely get the campaign manager job?

Jake and Fitz are back to teaming up to spy on Olivia.  It's creepy how fast these two put aside their pasts of competing over Olivia to the point that Jake was almost disappeared.  But then again, he agrees to spy on Olivia for a fat check from Fitz.   And he seems to neglect telling Fitz about a certain man named Russell.  Or has he just not figured that out yet?

Olivia's first attempt to go home with Russell is filled with pointless, but amusing, flirting.  Olivia pretends to be on the fence about Russell.  She also pretends her name is Alex.  Russell is happy to play along, to woo her, to pay the tab, and wait for her to freshen up before they leave.

"Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye is playing.  Sue's take-down from a day ago is still ringing in her ears.  She is a powerful woman.  She's stood up to slut shaming before.  Why would she try that with Sue?  She deserved to be called out.  She deserved to be told that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is better than her now.   And she's reclaiming her own power over her own life by bringing home a man with no baggage and no drama.  It will be wonderful sex that will remind Olivia that a woman's body is her own power garden.

And I am going to water my power garden

It's the bathroom that is Olivia's nemesis.  Will she always be frightened by small, dimly lit bathrooms with no shower?  Will powder rooms freak her out indefinitely?  I hope not, because I never want to see Olivia scurry out the back of a bar to avoid a man again.

And, apparently, neither does Olivia.  Her second go, scores Russell again.  Wow.  I thought he'd be avoiding her, but he just reappears when she does, wondering if Olivia was a dream.  This time, Olivia has figured out to skip the bathroom and get right to her place with wine.  And the show has figured out to play Aretha Franklin's "Dr. Feelgood" instead.  We need to know that the sex is about making Olivia feel good inside and out, and that it's just sex.  Jake and Fitz are always sittin' around.  Russell is Dr. Feelgood, here to make her feel real.  And here to bring Olivia's I'm Getting What I Want Strut back.  I so missed that strut.

No, It's Not Just An Owl - Walking Dead - Season 5, Episode 14

Are the newbies working out for Alexandria?  It's always an issue when new members want to change a group they've been extended membership to.  The idea that newcomers must integrate by being just like the established membership leads to numerous tensions in real life, as neighborhoods change demographically.  A family that's not like any other moves onto your street; yuppies from Manhattan move into your immigrant neighborhood.  Who has to change?

I think, we can say, without any hesitation, that Carol isn't working out.  This episode, perhaps better than any other, demonstrates why I've started calling our heroes Team Carol; she tells Rick what the policy is going to be, and Rick tries his best to carry it out and make it seem like his idea.  Darryl is in on the secret, but the other Team Carol members still like to think of Rick as their leader.  Carol, now, is carrying out a lot more than reconnaissance;  Carol has already "appropriated" a secret gun stash for herself and Rick.  And now, she's literally advising Rick to kill the town drunk/wife beater/doctor.

Has Alexandria really not seen what an all-around louse Peter, Jessie's husband, is?  He drinks during the day.  However, he's the town doctor, and medical knowledge is now rare.  His ability to heal the townspeople has probably protected him from accountability.  And, it's not like Team Carol brought a fully trained doctor to the town.  And, we know Rick has an ulterior motive to kill the guy- he's already fiddling with his wedding ring, itching to take it off as soon as Jessie is free to be his.  Will Rick use his "broken windows" policing to try to arrest Peter for public drunkenness, and eventually kill Peter if he resists arrest?  

Does Rick think Deanna will let him get away with that scenario?  The woman's already having doubts about the newcomers' being in charge of everything they're now involved in.  Which leads us to someone who is going to work out for Alexandria- Abraham.  Yes, the guy's a hardass.  But, he's demonstrated that he's Deanna's hardass.  He likes Rick, but he doesn't have the others' unflagging devotion to the man, and he's much more of a team player.  Abraham certainly earned the construction crew's trust.  It's Abraham who knows what birds suddenly fleeing means.  When a pack of zombies, maybe about thirty, crash the party, it's Abraham that refuses to leave behind Francine, who had been a lookout until faulty shooting caused her perch to tumble her on the ground.  It's Abraham who gleefully slices heads while Francine, eventually safe in the bulldozer cab, can pick them off with the rifle.  It's Abraham who insists that since they've all survived the zombies, they can continue working with just an extra pair of eyes scouting for more zombies.  It's Francine and the rest of the crew who decide that Abraham is their new superintendent.

Hey, can we play too?

Deanna worries about the newcomers accumulating more power in front of Maggie;  but she's worried about the wrong guy.  Maggie tries to remind her that Alexandria needs them; Deanna doesn't disagree, but she didn't need them to take over Alexandria; just protect it so she can expand it for the future. Maggie is still able to talk Deanna into calm, reassuring her it's for the best that the newcomers have taken on so much responsibility.  And if I saw the newbies interacting more with the established town, I'd probably believe that.  Deanna's party showed that the newbies are very divided over whether to fit in.   Carol and Rick pretend to, but plot behind her back.  Rosita and Abraham appear ready to give it a try.  Maggie and Glenn are ever helpful.  Darryl accepted Aaron's job offer, even Aaron's gift motorcycle, because he realized he could fit in with the right job.  Michonne has already hung up her katana.  Sasha just wants to live in the nearby church tower, about 150 feet from the town gate.

Does Gabriel fit in?  He tries.  He tries to reclaim his old job, getting a new priest's collar.  But the good book just isn't inspiring him anymore.  The Beatitudes just don't have anything that can help him process zombies, cannibals, and feral dogs.  Remember, this guy did relatively fine without Team Carol.  He was scared outside, and had no fighting ability.  But he hadn't needed any until he ran out of food.  Various members literally tore up his church and frightened him so much he snuck outside, ruining the church as a hideout in the end.  I think it's fair to say that Gabriel has contributed as much stupidity as the others have contributed brutality.  But, is it fair when he absolutely must run to Deanna, and insist that Team Carol is evil?

Deanna tries to fend him off, and it's obvious that she doesn't really care for his talk about Satan.  Deanna looks like she's more interested in reality.  Gabriel's plea that she get rid of Team Carol for the town's safety and well-being, though based in cowardice and a supernatural she doesn't seem interested in, dovetail nicely with her concern that the newbies are taking over.  They dovetail so nicely, that Maggie is frozen on the stair where she can hear everything.  If Gabriel were really wrong, wouldn't Maggie emerge and openly confront him?  Is Maggie worried that Deanna will believe Gabriel over her and Rick and Michonne?

Gabriel and Maggie both want to work out- but it's doubtful if they will.  Dividing over how much to fit in and trust their new neighbors can rip Team Carol apart as easily as Carol and Rick can rip apart Alexandria.

Eugene and Tara are divided over how much they really have to do to fit in.  Tara's gung ho to fully contribute.  Eugene thinks that his original lie to get to D.C. is all the contribution he ever needed to make.  Has anyone explained to Eugene that pulling your weight doesn't stop?

I pulled my own weight once.  It was terrible.

Even in safety, everybody has to pull their weight.  It ends up being an interesting discussion, especially when Eugene defies the odds and his own fears to literally carry a comatose Tara and her weight to safety. It's a real crowd pleaser, since Eugene is rarely brave.  But, Tara is his only friend.  Neither Abraham nor Rosita have spoken openly to him in weeks, and Abraham can only care about his survival if it means hitting him.  Eugene can't make head shots, but he can shoot for the legs and scurry off while zombies lie on the floor.

Which gets to the real crowd pleaser.  Eugene can't fight and openly admits he doesn't want to.  The only reason he comes with the team to an abandoned factory is to make sure they scavenge the right part for Alexandria's solar panel system.  They're looking for the gizmos that will convert the panels' DC power into the AC power the town actually needs, and Eugene can spot the part much better than they can.  Eugene, once things turn to shit, isn't helpful.  But, after an initial scare, the guy remembers he's clever.  Hence, carrying Tara to safety by making the shots he can.  Hence, appearing just in time out front with a loud, techno music and a noisy van and his own Southern accent calling to the zombies that have trapped the others.

Eugene and Glenn could have saved the day.  Aiden ruined the supply run when a badly aimed bullet hit a grenade.  After losing Aiden in a horrific eating, which Aiden is fully conscious for, Glenn, Noah, and Aiden's friend Nicholas literally are trapped in a revolving door between two sets of zombie packs.  It has the potential to be the best scary close call yet; it becomes one of the nastiest deaths we've seen.  Eugene makes an escape possible with his diversion in the van.  Glenn is inspired to break the glass outside the revolving door; all Nicholas has to do is help hold the door steady and they can all walk out.

Nicholas proves to be even more of a coward than Eugene.  Eugene, in danger, tends to freeze up and wait for someone to come get him.  Nicholas just abandons his team.  The trapping at the revolving door requires teamwork; if someone decides to be a selfish asshole, the others in the opposite door are screwed.  Sadly, we already know Nicholas isn't a team player, and he very predictably squeezes his revolving door open for himself, leaving Noah to be dragged back inside the factory.  Noah turns to Glenn right before going, asking him to not let go.

Noah's face says the guy must have known it was his end.  Multiple zombies have his leg out of the door; Glenn has nothing to hold him back to in the door.  Although, with Nicholas out, why not just drag Noah out the door?  That question is left unanswered, as Noah is dragged away and Glenn gives up to watch his friend be chewed apart into a bloody mess against the glass door.  It's a terrible way to go.  Once again, there is always that moment where the pain and terror of being eaten gives into the inevitable, catastrophic blood loss.  Aiden continued to moan pitifully as his body lost feeling; Noah goes silent as his face is torn apart.

Be honest, you cried too

I think, deep down, that Glenn saw himself in Noah.  Like Noah, he was no one important or even well-suited to the end of the world.  Glenn was smart, quick, and happy to help.  And he would have appreciated Noah helping out despite his bum leg.  He would have admired Noah for becoming a survivor.  And now, he's lost Noah due to a stranger's cowardly abandonment.  When Eugene fails to restrain Nicholas from leaving them all behind at the factory, despite his best efforts, it's Glenn who knocks him out.  And, grudgingly decides to bring him home.

Is it a good idea to bring Nicholas back?  The guy will, definitely, lie about everything that happened.  But can Glenn go back with both Aiden and Nicholas dead and expect Deanna to accept that?  He chooses to have useless, cowardly Nicholas to deal with in the next episode.  After all, they lost Aiden and Noah.  So, Deanna will know something went horribly wrong that probably wasn't Glenn's doing.  But will she believe Glenn and Eugene over Nicholas?

Rick finds that he's going to have his own problems to resolve when he finds Jessie trying to clean up the owl sculpture in her garage.  Someone has destroyed it; Rick offers to find the culprit, explaining that if owl sculptures are allowed to be vandalized, pretty soon they'll have drug gangs.  Jessie doesn't want any big deal made over it; a pretty sure sign she already knows who it was, and wants to protect the culprit.  Jessie's husband, Peter, shows up already sloshed at Rick's sometime that day, offering more booze and wanting Rick to know that it hasn't been all book clubs and potlucks in Alexandria.  He also doesn't think the attack on the owl sculpture is any big deal, probably because he also already knows who it was.  Doesn't Rick know what it means if nobody outside the house actually saw anything?

Rick, nobody wants you to uncover how awful I am

It's Carol who figures it out, despite her fervent desire to not to.  When Jessie's kid, Sam, turns into a cookie-obsessed stalker, it's Carol he turns to.  After all, she did promise him cookies.  I mean, if you're going to use that as your creepy bribe, at least come through.  Especially when the kid steals the chocolate for you.  Carol does her best to not bond with another kid who's going to die on her, but Sam's eventual sort-of confession that he destroyed the owl leads her to wonder why.  Which leads her to Peter's door, where he shoos her away.  So, Carol figures out what the rest of us knew the first time we saw the guy.  And she goes right to Rick with the secret.  Rick doesn't know what to do; he's got nothing on Peter except maybe public drunkenness.  Carol says screw due process; Rick's got to kill him.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow.  But eventually.  And hopefully, Carol will get to burn the body.

Look, I hate abusive spouses too.  But usually, some investigation has to show that someone's abusing their spouse.  Or, the abused spouse files a complaint.  Does Deanna know about the new justice system in Alexandria?  Is she willing to exile her doctor to save Jessie?  Or, will she try to come up with some way of separating Peter from his family, like a restraining order.  Which Rick will have to enforce.  Which, could be easy if Rick removes his wedding ring and moves in with Jessie.  There, see?  I just came up with an alternative right now.  Carol's problem is that everything has become simple.    The old ways are gone, and certainly didn't protect her from Ed, anyway.  So she's come up with a new way.  Kill threats to the group.   Because that's the only way to take them seriously.  I could be wrong, but that doesn't sound like the future Deanna had in mind.  Is the resulting power struggle going to be between Rick and Deanna, or will it only appear that way?  Because it looks like the real power struggle, over Rick and Alexandria, will be between Carol and Deanna.

The Sofa Cushion - Scandal - Season 4, Episode 15

If last week's episode was titled "The Lawn Chair", then this week's should have been called "The Sofa Cushion".  Instead, the title just happens to be Huck's real, original, legal name.  The name his now-sympathetic ex-wife knows him by.  

Susan Ross's star rises, and her rise shows Leo Bergen's style versus Olivia Pope's in grooming and motivating candidates.  Leo works best with people already dedicated to getting to the top any way they have to.  Olivia is a master of motivation as well as strategy.  She works with good people to remind them that the game will eventually pay off.  Susan Ross's ordeal also shows Abby making the choice to fire her own live-in boyfriend rather than go down with him should Susan fail to be sworn in.  Abby's been in the weakest position for too long this season; she's starting to insist that her friends treat her like a friend, and her consultant treat her like a client.

One of the show's major themes is that power and its acquisition erode the sense of right and wrong and separate elected leaders from the people they supposedly wanted to serve and help in the first place.  The more power you want, the more you screw over the people whose votes you need.  The more power you get, the more you can decide what your constituents really need yourself.  The show also stresses that the public image of you can get you power or take it away.  So, while voters don't always know what their elected leaders are actually doing on their behalf, voters know how those leaders look and seem.  

As Susan Ross demonstrates, if you have an ugly, snorting awkward laugh that emerges while you babble about how impressed you are with your own rise to prominence, naughtily own the laugh and act humble about what the President is actually supposed to do in front of the Senate.  If Leo pushes you to memorize every foreign leader's name and every doomsday scenario, walk out until Olivia can step in to remind you that fear of failure is keeping you from helping your fellow Americans.

Susan has gone from this:

Can we get the pointer back?

To this:

Someone discovered conditioner!

With the exile of Josie Marcus back to Montana, Susan Ross has emerged as the candidate Olivia wishes all of America had,  But she lacks Josie's self-confidence and calm,   Josie was near perfect for an eventual President, if it wasn't for her secret sister-daughter.   It's unclear if Susan Ross is really ready to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.  Especially when the President is a slightly suicidal alcoholic.  But, she does learn how to convince a Senate Committee that she can be President.

And Fitz learns that he really made a boo boo invading West Angola.  His public reputation is in shatters, which Olivia tries to have Abby and Cy point out to him.  Fitz decides that Olivia isn't allowed to skulk across the room.  He fought a war for her and if he wants to parade into her personal space and provoke Olivia's deer-in-the-headlights look again, he will, goddammit.  Olivia has to spell it out personally for him, shattering both his political and personal hubris.  Invading West Angola after telling the world you weren't going to, and then withdrawing right away so everyone knows it was a terrible idea has crippled him more than Andrew's machinations ever could.

When Fitz makes everything right with the opposition party in the Senate, Susan's way is paved, and her kid makes a great stand for a swearing-in book.  Is there going to be an episode where she learns how limiting it is to be a politician's daughter, like little Karen Grant had to learn?  

While Susan is trying to get a job she didn't actually want, Leo and Abby try to get her there until Susan makes it obvious he's not the guy for the job of prepping Susan.  Sure, it was a great idea to make the laugh something the American People could adore about her.  But is the Senate really going to grill her on obscure leaders' names?  Can't Leo just tell her that the answer to Putin invading Belarus is drone strikes?  Susan scurries out, convinced that the Presidency is probably the worst job ever.  

Leo and Abby show just how used to each other they are:  Leo is just settling into bed and his night retainer when Abby just has to fire him from his coaching gig.  He's mad that Abby doesn't trust him to turn around even someone as ill-prepared as Susan.  It's not about trust, though.  Sometimes the job isn't impossible.  Sometimes it just requires someone else's skills, and Leo isn't above acknowledging that, or finding it sexy that his girlfriend can just fire people.  Especially if she's wearing some kinky boots while firing him.

Olivia doesn't just get her mojo back helping Susan.  Home is where she was kidnapped from in the first place.  So, Olivia seeks refuge from a place that scares the shit out of her.   Olivia got to return home, where she boozes it up in the fetal position on the floor, avoiding the still wine-stained sofa cushion.  

I don't even think that's red wine. 

She really should have just checked herself into a spa retreat.  Her gun-toting stay-cation is a real bummer.  No wonder she interrupts her landlord's attempted eviction and take's on Rose's case of the Neighbor Who Olivia Knows Is Already Dead.  Rose seethes at the police's refusal to take her missing person case for neighbor Lois seriously.  Olivia, who saw Lois shot in the chest, doesn't just take the case out of compassion for the elderly woman who aided her friends in tracking her kidnappers.  She also needs the closure of being able to do the only thing for Lois she still can; get the woman buried.

Huck and Quinn are stunned when she appears at Gladiator HQ power-dressed.  But they're willing to track Lois' body down via the ambulance used to whisk her and Olivia away.  

Get me some closure, people!

Huck truly meant to aid in the search, but has to hand it off to Quinn, who chirpily agrees to let Huck keep secret that he, Rosen and Jake have to scurry around trying to keep B-613 a secret.  Rosen, in a fit of public service, has decided to have the AG's version of office hours.  The public can just come in and ask him to prosecute something.  It's cranks, and Rosen is wondering if maybe he should just continue to get cases from Olivia Pope.  Holly the secretary enjoys both the entertaining crackpots and Rosen's griping about said crackpots.

Holly gets a buck for every conspiracy that involves Reality Television

Rosen would love it if someone came in with a real case for a real injustice.  Until, that is, someone does.  The voice is familiar at first, and then the face.  Kim!  With files detailing actions of something called B-613!  She explains to Rosen that her ex-husband, Diego Munoz, was an operative there, and is the source of the files.  Rosen recognizes his own file folders, especially when Kim explains that they're color-coded.  Little tip: when you meticulously organize secret files of heinous crimes, make sure they never end up back on your official desk.

Rosen, to feel safe, runs to the guy who has threatened his life the most:  Jake.  He hasn't had much to do since Olivia returned to DC at the beginning of the season.  He buried his boredom in investigating Rowan, then frantically searched for Olivia when she was kidnapped.  He tried to be Olivia's life coach, but she wasn't interested.  Now, his new passion in life is declaring that they're all screwed, and trying to figure out who Diego Munoz is.  Good thing Diego is right there, going by the name of Huck now.  He sheepishly admits to his real name, and that he did, indeed, give Kim B-613 files to prove that he didn't abandon her after all.  

The only solution Jake and Rosen can come up with is for Huck to officially perjure himself.  Rosen will set up a deposition; Huck, as Diego, will simply tell Rosen he lied.  Dinner with Kim and Javi demonstrates just what he'll lose after lying.  It's a picture perfect night, a night they should have had together many times.  And perjury will ruin his chances of it ever happening again.

It's a consequence that Huck seems willing to live with.  Rosen's a good actor, never betraying he actually knows much more in front of Kim at the deposition.  With the three of them cozily around a table, Huck tries not to confirm anything in the files, or anything Kim reminds him of.  But no one, not even Huck, can keep The Hole to himself.  The Hole must be respected.  The Hole must be shared.  It's The Hole, and it's complete awfulness that compels Huck to blurt out every horrible detail of living in underground, cramped pitch blackness for, what, months?  

The key is to have a routine, even if you have no way of telling time.  Just repeating your routine over and over again will make it seem like you're counting days.  First, measure the hole every time you wake.  If it's the same size it was the "day" before, you're still sane.  Pretend to eat.  Imagination is key, especially the ability to imagine walking and sunsets.  The erosion of time must erode hope of release in the future.  So each "day's" routine is all there is, and must suffice.  Huck can't help crying a little during his recitation.  And, Rosen can't help realizing what Huck is telling him to do.  

Rosen looks bitterly defeated for a second.  But he's taken on hopeless crusades that turned out to be true after all.  He's known Huck for a while.  He's known Huck was hopelessly damaged from B-613.  And he knows now that he can do something about it.  For Huck.  Jake is furious, and none of them know how to publicly reveal the existence of an agency they clandestinely killed without prison sentences for everyone.  But Huck's reveal of just how much he has suffered just can't be ignored.  

Thanks to Rose supplying a serial number for a synthetic hip, Quinn eventually finds Lois' body, but only after making Huck reveal why she's got to tell Charlie to destroy any B-613 files he's got.  Olivia eventually gets a deeper truth from Rose about her years-long relationship with Lois, realizing that she's really got a grieving lover.  Rose can't handle Lois disappearing from her life again.  The first separation was hard enough.  Which makes any closure she can deliver Rose even more important.  Does Rose's story of a a forty-year wait for the love of her life affect how Olivia feels about Fitz?  Does Olivia wonder if it's better to have the love who's available now, and wonderful, or wait for the man who's been, at best, a selfish bastard?

Olivia must have made funeral arrangements as well as found Lois' body in a Maryland morgue.  But the story she gives is fake.  And reassuring.  Lois died without pain, on what must have been a quick walk around town.  The kind you leave your wallet at home for, because looking at trees on a bench doesn't require one.    Lois died looking at trees in a park.  She died without pain or suffering, and it was quick.  Rose can believe her friend died of natural causes, and start to grieve properly.  All questions of property and the apartment can be resolved with respect to the deceased.  And Olivia can realize that it's time to get back on her couch.  I just hope her sofa cushion hasn't been discontinued so she can order a replacement.

Olivia back with her own besties

Our Town - Walking Dead - Season 5, Episode 13

I'm officially worried about Carol.  Don't get me wrong.  I love Commando Carol, and always will.  But a tweenie who's caught her stealing guns isn't the same as cannibals about to kill her friends.  To be fair, she doesn't give him the full Commando Carol treatment.  She just threatens him, in a voice that could have been telling him a fairy tale.  Problem is, I think she'd really do it.  I think she'd really kidnap the kid, leave him tied up to die, make it look like he ran away, and hide the body.  It'd be so easy.  So few others leave the walls.

So, I guess you're not my Fairy Godmother after all

Well, so few of the long-term Alexandrians.  Team Carol leaves constantly, in and out, in and out.  It almost defeats the purpose of the wall if other people can see the gate in action all the time.  Do people have to sign out, so someone knows they're in the danger zone?  Deanna, for all her fingers in all Alexandria's business, seems completely unconcerned that her gate is like a back door in summer.  It does give her an opportunity to be made at a member of Team Carol for the first time.  But, her snitfit with Sasha really started the morning before.

With Sasha, waking up to see the family photos that littered her new home.  The happy family, intact, alive, and frozen in time for her to stare at, is too much.  There are a few things one does to make a new home one's own.  Decorating, minor renovations, and taking out the old family photos to use as target practice.  After each shot, make sure you peer around the creepy forest you're shooting in to see if any zombies have finally found you, daring them to come.  Because a day without zombies in the the zombiepocalypse is just weird.

Fuck yoga.  I kill zombies in the morning.

Good thing we have Aaron and Darryl and their quest for rabbits and a horse.  How would these two have done if they met 2-3 years ago?  Would they have bonded as quickly as they do now, over shared zombie kills and a tragic failure to capture a live horse?  When Aaron points out his quest to tame Buttons the wild horse, Darryl is on Team Aaron, helping when he can and consoling Aaron when Buttons meets his end from a pack of zombies.  Yes, since you asked:  the wild horse Aaron can't tame that gets eaten is a metaphor for Darryl himself.  Stay too wild, too isolated from those who want to help you, and you get taken down.

Is there really no sugar left?

Aaron just keeps getting more likeable.  He tries to bond with Darryl, claiming to be an outsider due to his neighbors' lingering homophobia.  Darryl, who probably thinks homosexuality is a choice, just doesn't respond.  But Aaron's not done.  He brings out his two big guns: well cooked spaghetti and a custom-refurbished motorcycle.  He doesn't know it, but that's Christmas to Darryl.  Aaron also has another present for Darryl.  He personally asks that Darryl replace Eric as his teammate in the wild, finding new residents for Alexandria, vetting them, and bringing them in.  And, maybe, even finding a pasta maker.  Is there really no Bed Bath Beyond near this place?

Will Darryl make a good fellow recruiter?  He tends not to trust strangers, except when he remembers Beth's exhortations that there are still good people left.  Will he be able to get strangers to trust him?  He doesn't have Aaron's patience or forgiving nature.  Will he be Aaron's backup, waiting to rescue Aaron should their bet on a particular group go horribly wrong?  Will there be any more wild horses?  Will they find that pasta maker?

Also, will Darryl admit to Aaron that he, Rick and Carol conspired to steal guns from the storehouse, run by a very chatty Olivia?  Olivia kind of bungles a request for a leg of meat from a woman who's last boyfriend lost his leg to cannibals, but that doesn't mean she deserves to be taken advantage of by Carol.  Will Deanna punish them if they're caught?  Or will the reveal that Team Carol has their own firearm stash be in such a way that Deanna decides that Carol was right, after all?  When Carol's threats against a boy make the theft successful, it's Darryl who turns down the offered gun.  He's got his crossbow, and he's wondering if maybe they are safe within the walls.  At the prison, Rick refused to wear his gun inside the fences.  They were stacked together, accessible for defense, but no one carried guns at home, preferring knives instead.

While Rick, Carol and Darryl confab on their new, concealed firearms, they realize one of the zombies laying around has a "W" etched into its forehead, as did the zombies piled into that truck outside Shirewilt.  Which is a sign that that weirdness wasn't some random scenery to creep you out once;  The "W" marker will be around, and soon.

Someone's art project?

Team Carol, or rather, Rick, does have some useful ideas, like putting a 24-hour, 365 day watch in the abandoned church tower right outside town, telling Deanna that she should have had one already.  Deanna's counting on the town's obscurity to protect them.  And she's a little surprised when Rick informs her that she needs patrols along the wall to protect the town from climbers.  We saw Enid demonstrate this last week, but Deanna really doesn't know her town as much as she likes to think she does, because that possibility hasn't occurred to her before.

Speaking of Rick, when he's not conspiring to break gun laws behind Deanna's back, he's fucking up in other ways, too.  He is officially on the tail of Jessie, who's married.  This is literally what he killed Shane over when Shane wouldn't let go of his wife.  This is literally what drove two life-long friends apart and left one dead.  And he is literally repeating Shane's mistakes.

Hey there, do you mind if I fuck your Mom?

Jessie even has a son, so now it's totally like Shane's affair with Lori.  Let's hope Jessie's husband is never presumed dead.

When not chasing married tail, Rick is then introduced to the First Husband of Alexandria, Deanna's architect husband Reggie.  Reggie is literally like every architect I have ever known.  Which isn't good.  But, he's polite to Rick and not too condescending, informing Rick that every video of his crew praises him to the skies, so he's totally glad this adulterous fuck-up who lost a farm and a prison is here in Alexandria.  

Abraham and Rosita and Noah make brief appearances, mostly to look incredulous at a return to normalcy, or shrink into the wall in shyness.  Maggie is already Deanna's assistant, following her around at Deanna's invitation but with nothing to really do.  Tara and Eugene are on supply runs outside Alexandria, despite Eugene grumbling about it.  Now, we just need to see Gabriel, who is no doubt praying.

Deanna's party is a chatty, loud, pretty event.  And our ragtag crew adjusts to varying degrees.  Michonne, who we saw last season used to live this life, adapts right away.  Glen and Maggie, already a couple used to helping others adjust, adjust themselves quickly enough and try to convince Noah to blend in.  It's really, this episode, Sasha who just can't handle the safety. So soon after losing her lover and brother to the dangers outside the walls, she is now safe and comfortable.  She feels alone, especially as she sees her old group starting to adjust to Alexandria.  

She lashes out at some random partygoer, who's terrible crime is wanting to make Sasha dinner.  But, like all unbearable bitches, this lady wants to know if there's anything Sasha doesn't like, because the world's biggest bitches make sure to bring you something you'll enjoy.  Sasha just can't believe that this world can still have people who get to have normal, healthy problems.    She just can't believe that there are welcome wagons and parties and neighbors coming over for coffee.  Let's hope this place doesn't have block parties.  That could blow Sasha's mind to bits.

Sasha, predictably, loses it with the neighbor lady, and promptly leaves the party.  The next morning, she'll pronounce to Deanna that Alexandria is like Disneyland in the zombiepocalypse.  It's not a real place, with real people, unless there's the almost constant fear of death and loss.  Unless you wake up every day worried about survival, and your loved ones' survival, something's off.  Deanna is rightfully pissed that Sasha feels that way, and seems happy to see her off to the church tower.  Will that be Sasha's permanent home?  She sure looks like she'd prefer that.

Please have your freakouts in the tower

Rick, after a successful party the night before, now secretly armed by Carol, wearing his police uniform and settling into small-town constable life, can't resist getting a taste of life outside the walls.  He's drawn by the sound of a zombie who's found a section of the wall, but can't get in.  The zombie gropes uselessly on one side, as Rick joins with the wall to hear, feel, everything.  Does he miss them?  He's definitely that crazy.  Does he miss the outside world?  It's easy to see how he and the rest of the group could be claustrophobic.  Does he marvel that he can experience the zombies, still perfectly safe behind a wall?  That would be as marvelous as the lights and hot showers.

I just can't quit you

It's Michonne who demonstrates the point of the episode.  Last week established that Team Carol doesn't feel threatened by Alexandria's people.  This week starts to establish that Team Carol is now adjusting their tactics to thrive in Alexandria themselves.  Maggie is happy to be mentored by Deanna.  Carol is scheming for her own imagined protection.  Darryl accepts Aaron's job and motorcycle offer.  Rick is working on getting some alone time with Jessie.  Abraham and Rosita are attempting to be a regular couple.  Gabriel, presumably, can get back to praying all alone.  Tara can razz Eugene when he balks at work.  It's only Sasha who just can't move forward, at least not yet.

But Michonne, ever the one to move forward, after consciously choosing Rick and Carl and the others as her family a season ago, demonstrates that this can be a good thing.  That the lessons from outside the wall can be remembered, cherished, but laid aside for new lessons about surviving together, making a safe place into a real town.  Now in her officer's uniform, dressed just like Rick, Michonne decides her katana will be on display.  It gets a place of honor over the mantel, a sign of the times and what it takes to survive them.  But she no longer carries it, slung over her back with one hand on the handle, ready to wield it at all times.  It will be a symbol now.  

But I can take it down the second I need to be a badass again