Oh, That - Scandal - Season 3, Episode 14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On it, sweetie

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

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

Wow, what a great non-maternity maternity shirt!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Junior World Champion

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

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

Drunk reasoning is awesome when you're in love!

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

Okay, I prefer Charlie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a crappy safe house anyway

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

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

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

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

Fire and dead bodies always lead to interesting new plot points

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

Totally not a wanted fugitive

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here he is... fucking over Miles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

shit's gettin' real here in the DNA

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

History Maker, Innovator, Genome Radical

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

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

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

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

Combination underwater bug and fish. Gross, but effective.

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

What're you lookin' at???

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

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

You gotta' like how farts smell to live on Titan

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

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

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

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

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

The country is so relaxing....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holy crap!

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

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

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

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

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

The miracle we've been waiting for?

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

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

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

Don't worry, I finished my homework first!

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

Now she can be cute forever!

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

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

Off meat for a while

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

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

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

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

Selling Paper - Scandal - Season 3, Episode 13

Jake starts off with a monologue, describing the personal commitment to B-613 that its agents must make.  He segues into describing his own family, left behind years ago for his career.  Basically, Mom was a shopaholic, Dad was a child molester, and Sis is dead, probably suicide.  There wasn't much of a family to leave behind.  He's in a dark room, with blue-green light from outside washing his face.  The scene is set up to remind us that we're not looking at Jake's face, we're seeing inside him, into his soul.  Or what's left of it, because he gave that to B-613 long ago.  Jake sees himself now as property of B-613, not a person.

Leo Bergen is busy prepping Sally for the first Presidential debate.  His only problem is his candidate is a hot mess.  Leo ushers in Sally's hometown minister, to, well, minister to her.  She is a rabid freak, accusing the stand-ins for Fitz and Reston of being pigs, and condemning them to be slaughtered.  She mocks her future debate opponents as future food.

Bitch be crazy

Is this the real Sally Langston?  Does her polished exterior hide a screaming, pork-obsessed monster?   Leo hands her off to the Good Shepherd.

Meanwhile, Fitz is killing his debate prep.  With Mellie playing Sally (complete with accent), and Andrew playing Reston, he is demolishing their talking points, and mixing in gratuitous references to middle-class families.  Since we don't see either Mellie or Andrew for the rest of the episode, I'm assuming they're hiding in a closet making out.  Cyrus is ecstatic as he calls Olivia to leave a voicemail.  His voice on the phone is cut to...

His voice on a recording, the night Sally murdered her husband.  Being played for Olivia, Huck, and Abby.  David, after being rescued, is spilling the beans for the Gladiators.  He wants Olivia's help.  Olivia heads over to the White House, where Cyrus admits the whole thing to her.  After a tortured look, Olivia cracks up laughing.  

Oh, are the American People© in for a real treat!

Turns out that all three candidates have committed murder: Sally, to punish her homosexual husband; Fitz, to cover up his rigged election; and Reston, to get rid of his wife's lover.  No matter who wins, the White House will be occupied by a full murderer.    The laughs quickly turn to Olivia's by-now-copyrighted look of hurt and disappointment as she realizes that politics is even dirtier than ever, and she promised Fitz that this election would be different.  Cyrus begs her not to tell Fitz, afraid it will kill his Mojo.  

Quinn is all ready for her new job.  Which is... selling paper.  Turns out, B-613's cover operation is a company called Acme Limited, and it's basically Dunder Mifflin, but even worse.  Because the whole company will be Quinn, answering the phone and taking fake orders for paper.  Oh, and Jake lays down the law for both Charlie and Quinn- no more side jobs covering up crimes.  Quinn's dissatisfied, to say the least, but plays along as Jake tells her it's to pay her dues.  The upside?  She gets to shoot trespassers.  Jake said so.

Leo goes for a ride with Daddy Pope, who is his normal belligerent self as he scolds Leo for Sally's horrible campaign performance and poll numbers.  Leo doesn't tell Daddy Pope the best part, probably because Daddy Pope threatens to "fire" Leo.  And what he means by "fire" Leo, is to set Leo physically on fire.  Leo is starting to hate this deal with the devil.  Too bad there's no getting out.  Leo returns to Sally's to find that she has calmed the fuck down, and now seems more like a grown-ass adult.  The Good Shepherd has left, after she confessed her crime to him.  Leo asks if God has forgiven her.  Sally says God will, after she performs her penance.  In a perfectly calm voice, she tells Leo that she will have to confess to killing her husband at the Presidential debate.  Leo runs right over to Cyrus' office.  At first, he tries to politely ask Cyrus to push the debate back.  Cyrus is all business when he says no way.  So, Leo brings out the big guns and tells Cyrus that he, Cyrus, will be going to jail if that debate goes on.

Abby, Huck and Harrison collect everything possible on the Sally Langston murder, and present it to Olivia in a nicely organized folder.  Olivia takes said folder and deposits in her safe.  For once, the Gladiators are not getting involved.  She will neither help nor hinder David's investigation.  Abby for one would hinder it, for David's sake.  When she tries to convince David, later, to stop looking into it, they have what might just be their last fight.

James walks in on Cyrus still in his office, and Cyrus is not in a good place.  When faced with the possibility of everything he's worked and schemed for being taken away because of his own complicity in a homicide, Cyrus gets his usual weepy, self-pitying version of himself as he tells James that he loves him.  Correction:  that the best part of Cyrus loves James.  James is a little freaked out.

Charlie is shocked to learn that B-613 actually fake sells paper.  As we see him and Quinn commiserate over her crappy job, his phone rings.  Charlie has to turn Cyrus down for whatever he wants.  Cyrus will have to take it up with the new Command of B-613 if he wants Charlie's help.  

Oliva shows up at Jake's, apparently unexpectedly, with plenty of junk food and alcohol.  Jake really doesn't know what to make of her until he realizes, they're playing pretend.  But they're not just pretending to be going out.  They're pretending to be normal.  So Jake plays along, until Olivia cracks.  While she doesn't reveal to Jake what she's learned this morning, she feels her usual trapped self. She's in a career where she hides other people's crimes and sins, and sometimes the evil she must conceal is too much.  She's been corrupted by just how dirty her job and clients can be;  now, she's wondering if she'll ever be untouched by them.  Jake offers to leave everything and run with her.  She can't.  She loves being in the center of the power.  She loves being the one the powerful come to when they need help.  Sadly, there's no sunlight in the center of power.  But there is awesome sex with Jake!

Hey, maybe having sex will solve everything!

David and James meet to discuss the case against Sally.  James is freaking out from Cyrus' semi-weepy mood that something is about to happen, something very bad, and they need to move the case forward now.  David has nothing concrete to go accuse Sally or Cyrus of anything, only that something happened the night of Daniel Douglas' death that Sally refers to as a sin and required Cyrus to come over.  James wants to release what they have, but David, now that the pressure is off Publius, wants to keep the investigation under the radar until they have solid evidence of the crime committed. 

Cyrus makes a call, and a bit later we see him in some park with Jake. Cyrus gives Jake the low-down, letting Jake know that Olivia knows about the homicide and cover-up.  Cyrus requests that Jake kill Sally to keep her from confessing.  Jake, disgusted at the thought of covering up the VP's dirty deeds, tells Cyrus he's not a fixer for politicians.  So Cyrus goes into full-on-storytelling mode, spinning some awful hypothetical about people losing faith in Washington if the public finds out their VP is a killer.  Poor Cyrus.  Doesn't he know people already think Washington is a cesspool?  Jake is unmoved.  Cyrus tells Jake that Daddy Pope would already have killed Sally.   Jake, not impressed with Cyrus' tale of collapse or the reference to his predecessor, won't even explain why Cyrus is full of shit to Cyrus.  Because "I don't have time and you wouldn't understand," he says, before walking off. Who can help Cyrus now?

How 'bout Olivia?  She is rushed to the VP's house to try to talk Sally out of confessing.  When she questions Sally, Sally reveals that she's felt abandoned by God ever since killing her husband.  Sally feels, knows, that confessing at the debate will return God's presence to her.  She will feel loved by God again.  God will talk to her again.  Reminding Olivia that she can't understand what it's like to be robbed of the loving God who is a constant companion (and confirmer of biases), she is adamant.

Sidebar:  why wait, Sally?  Get in your car and go to the District Attorney's office and just confess.  You can have your lawyer there, who will work out a plea deal with the DA's office.  You'll do, maybe, ten years.  Why wait?  If I loved God as much as you claim to, I'd be confessing right now.  Right now. I wouldn't wait to return to God, I'd want him back in my life (head)  ASAP.  Why the wait?  

Why does the confession have to be public?  Trust me, it will be public soon enough when you confess.  You'll have to give at least one statement to the press then.  So why wait for the debate, where you'd take your national spotlight to come to Jesus, and pray for his forgiveness, with everyone watching you pray and confess?  Why do you need everyone to see you get back in God's graces again?  

Sally, though she is a fascinating character, is really one of the most despicable.  She would have been perfectly happy to tolerate Fitz's adultery if it meant real power for her.  Her real beef with Fitz's administration is how little influence she's had over it.  Her religion gives her a way to feel better than everyone else and a set of theological arguments for her politics.  Arguments that Fitz and his team have done their best to ignore because they're batshit crazy.  Her religion is a way for her to show others how important she is, because she can feel God!  She can tell others how they have angered God, and should seek his forgiveness, and indirectly, her approval.  

Olivia doesn't ask these questions, or even attempt to tell Sally how awful what she's planning is.  She phones Fitz instead, telling him what Sally is about to confess to.  She asks Fitz to throw the debate.  

Quinn is really super bad at selling paper.  Jake has no sympathy, and Olivia informs Jake that she knows she's being kept out of B-613 because of Olivia.  She gets to Jake the only way she can, by telling Jake that Olivia will never let him in, never be a real person for Jake, because that's not how Olivia rolls.  Jake tells her to take her job seriously.  

You know Olivia only likes you 'cause you let her eat junk food, right?

He goes over to Olivia's that night,  only to find that Quinn is right.  He now knows what it is that's been upsetting her:  she knows about Sally's killing and Cyrus' cover-up.  But he can't get her to admit that she knows.  He can't get her to open up and be honest to him and trust him.  The next morning, a penitent Quinn comes to apologize, and offers to go back to selling paper.   Jake, now thoroughly schooled in how fickle Olivia's attention can be, has a new job for her.  We see Quinn raiding Olivia's office in the dead of night, while, the next evening, Jake goes over the plan with Secret Service Man.  Jake now knows all the players in the investigation:  the NSA girl who brought David the tape; Publius, aka James; Vanessa Handler, the reporter Publius supplies info to; and David.  Jake instructs Secret Service Man to take out Sally if it appears she is about to confess to the murder.  He'll only have one shot before the Secret Service takes him out.  So Jake is essentially ordering this man to die to keep Sally's killing secret.

Will it come to that?  Sally is praying right before the debate, full of pious superiority as ever.  Fitz is still unwilling to throw a debate he knows he can win.  Cyrus really should have called his lawyer hours ago instead of asking Olivia if he should now.  Leo Bergen is just hoping he can get Cyrus' job the next morning.  Secret Service Man is in position with the rifle targeting Sally.  Fitz, in response to an innuendo from Sally about his morals, brings up Daniel Douglas, baiting her to confess.  Sally...  stumbles to get to her confession.  And then, Fitz gives.  He opens his big mouth, is unrepentant about committing adultery and actually states on national television that he's proud of his personal failings.  Both Sally and Reston go on the attack, pummeling Fitz the rest of the night.  Sally is joyous.  She finds her stride and her voice, and tells the moderator, as well as the audience, that she's just getting started.

Thanks be to Jesus?

The next day, Fitz tries to throw a tantrum in private with Olivia, miffed that he had to throw the debate to keep Sally from ruining American politics forever.  Miffed, because he had to sacrifice a debate victory that he really wanted.  Olivia tells him to grow up.  He doesn't get to live in the light of day while other people scurry around in the dark for him.  He can face the darkness that is American politics.  He has to face the fact that he'll never have a clean victory. He has to face the fact that Vermont isn't going to happen.  There's no happy retirement in Olivia's arms with granite countertops, stone fireplaces, and custom woodwork.  There's only this moment, in front of a window to the White House lawn.  There's only the moments they take for each other.  Ever.

Leo is exultant in Cyrus' office, who must eat crow.  Leo saved his bacon with his heads up, but Cyrus refuses to do him any more favors.  Leo is glowing, sure that Sally will win now.  What's he going to do first?  Why, get rid of that buzzing sound in Cyrus' office, of course.  What buzzing sound?  Once Cyrus hears it himself, he starts turning stuff off, until he realizes it's the digital picture frame.  The one James gave him.  He unplugs it, but it's still buzzing.  Cyrus finds the bug when he takes the frame apart.  He is heartbroken.  

James is getting home to a text from David with a meeting place and time.  Cyrus is waiting for him there.  One look between them and David realizes he's been found out.  Instead of killing James, Cyrus apologizes to him.  Cyrus cries as he takes responsibility for everything:  putting James and Daniel together to have sex; covering up Sally's crime when his actions got Daniel Douglas killed.  Everything.  James is crying as he admits to Cyrus how angry he was.  They have never been more in love.  So in love, that when James shows up later to meet David, he tells David he can't help anymore.  Turns out, he just wanted an apology, and is willing to cast justice aside.

NSA Girl and Vanessa are also in attendance at this top secret meeting on a street corner.  The gang's all here.  David is pissed as he tells James he's ready to go public with what they have.  James mentions that he hadn't understood why David called this meeting, as he thought David was still holding back.  David is immediately suspicious.  He didn't call this meeting.  NSA Girl and Vanessa go down with quiet gunshots to the foreheads.  We cut back to Jake's monologue about making B-613 his family, his life.  How he's lost himself as a person to B-613.  David and James turn to see Jake with a gun.  A shot goes off.

So, who gets shot?  Well, it would have to be David.  James, for all his bluster, doesn't have any evidence that Sally did anything.  David does.  Or rather, did.  Plus, in the next episode, Olivia is promising blood to someone over the killing.  Right now, Cyrus is not in her good books, so why would she promise him to find James' killer?  No, that promise is, no doubt, going to Abby.  After all, if Olivia had gotten involved, would things have gone differently?  At least, that's what Abby's going to ask.

Just the Beginning - Cosmos - Season 1, Episode 1

A new series for me to recap!  I'm excited!  Let's get started!

I've been looking forward to Cosmos since it was announced months ago.  While too young to have watched to original series, I spent my late teens/early twenties reading everything of Carl Sagan's I could get my hands on.  I even stole my parents' copy of "Cosmos" (in book form), when I moved out (in my defense, no one noticed). So this show will be like crack to me.  Especially because it will be hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

If you don't know who Neil deGrasse Tyson is, just know this:  he has the four most amazing jobs on the planet.  First, he's the head of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center at the AMNH, New York City.  Second, he's a bestselling author of astronomy books like "The Pluto Files".  Third, he hosts the podcast called StarTalk Radio which combines celebrity interviews, comedy and astronomy.  All of which make him ridiculously qualified for his fourth dream job:  hosting the new "Cosmos".

The series itself is introduced by President Obama, to explain that we have a patriotic duty to learn this stuff.  With collaboration from Ann Druyan (Carl Sagan's widow and collaborator), and Seth MacFarlane (animation), Cosmos has great science and great production values.  So...

Tyson spends part of the episode on rocks.  Near the ocean.  His other appearances are on the fictional spacecraft "Imagination".  Imagination might be over the top and a little gratuitous.  But it's also a darn cool spaceship.  Tyson spends the episode introducing the history of the original show, giving Carl Sagan props for inspiring generations of scientists, and introduces the context for future show content.  He emphasizes the essential nature of science in some principles.   "Use observation to gather evidence.  Test ideas with said evidence. Discard ideas the evidences eliminates.  Develop ideas the evidence supports.  Question everything." More on the last later.

Tyson starts by establishing where we Earthlings are in the universe, and even introduces the multiverse concept.  The graphics are stunning.  Adults should really know about 80% of this, but it's a great segment for kids.  It would have been nice if Tyson defined a light-year.

After telling us about space, Tyson introduces time, and it's relationship to us knowing the boundary of the known universe (we can only see light that goes back about 13.8 billion years, so anything older than that is basically invisible).  Tyson then goes to the old calendar-year-universe-timeline, comparing the history of the universe to a calendar, and placing the universe's history and our planet's history in appropriate places in the year's calendar.  Suffice to say, that our solar system is pretty young and we are basically just arrived compared to the universe as a whole.  Tyson literally puts human history and human recorded history in perspective, so you understand not just what a small physical part we are in the universe, but what a small part of time we've actually been here.

During the time sequence, Tyson covers the beginnings of life on Earth, stating that the origin of life is a mystery, since no theory has enough evidence to conclusively show it's true.  But from there, he describes, very briefly, the evolution of living things.  This includes him standing at a shoreline with an awesome-AWESOME! Tiktalik coming out of the water right by him, to demonstrate the first known amphibian.

Tyson and one of our distant ancestors

Tyson spends some time after this explaining one of the first people (in Europe, at least), to seriously propose that the Earth went around the Sun, was a planet like the others, and that the stars were other Suns.  His name was Giordano Bruno, and he was inspired by the ancient Roman philosopher Lucretius.  Bruno wasn't the absolute first; Copernicus formally proposed it in De Revolutionibus, published the year he died.  But Copernicus only proposed that the planets all went around the Sun as a mathematical model, and kept most of the pre-approved astronomy of the time in his theories, mostly because he didn't want to be treated the way Bruno would be treated by the Church.  Suffice to say, the Church looks awful in this segment.  Remember when Tyson said "Question everything"?  Well, he lists it as a basic scientific principle because when authorities won't let you question anything, science as we know it doesn't happen.

After showing Bruno's sad fate, he then briefly notes Galileo confirming Bruno's heliocentric theory years later with the new-fangled telescope.  While I get why Tyson wants to show the difference between dogma and science, Bruno's persecution isn't exactly why I'm watching.  Keep in mind, Carl Sagan also sometimes told the stories of scientists who died because of the Early Christian Church (notably Hypatia, mathematician at Alexandria).  What I don't get is why Tyson focused on Bruno.  Sure, it's an interesting story of a man we all know was right being horribly persecuted by ignorant, cruel people.  But Tyson is clear:  Bruno had no evidence for his theories.  Without any way to gather credible evidence, all people had to go on was accepted "truth".  And your local Church had the monopoly on that.  Tyson might have had better luck delving into Galileo's story more, mostly because Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons proved Copernicus/Bruno correct and paved the way for observational science.

Tyson spends some more time talking about Carl Sagan, and produces an old-fashioned calendar/journal of Sagan's from the 1970s.  On a particular day, is noted Neil's name. Tyson traveled to Ithaca, NY, and met Sagan for a day in the mid-70s so Sagan could impress upon a teenager from the Bronx the importance of a science career.  The day was pretty important to Tyson, and still is, and I dare you not to tear up yourself when Tyson tells you that Sagan told Tyson to call if the bus couldn't get him home, so Tyson would have a safe place to go.

The premiere pays a lot of homage to the past, both Sagan's and astronomy's in general.  Am wondering if this will be a regular feature, or if we're going to stick to science and graphics.  I think it will be a regular feature.  Tyson's point, throughout the show, is that you can't separate science from the people who make the discoveries and develop the theories.  You can't separate those people from the society that influenced them and they influenced right back. You can't do those things any more than you can separate us from the universe we live in, at the time we live in it.

Jesus Walks, Apparently Everywhere - Revolution - Season 2, Episode 16

Aaron has walked from Texas, to Oklahoma, back to Texas, and now has another 200 miles to go before he gets back to Willoughby.  Monroe, Charlie, Connor and five other guys walk between New Vegas and Willoughby in days.  That means that since Aaron left for Oklahoma and Monroe left for New Vegas, has been about a month.  I think.  Like other shows set after society's collapse, timelines don't gel and get "resolved" by characters walking for the amount of time the show's writers need them to walk.  And after all that walking, how could Aaron possibly still be fat?

Conflict Resolution 101

The standoff from two episodes ago ends anti-climactically.  Miles is unsympathetic after hearing Julia's life is on the line, declaring her dead anyway.  After not convincing Miles to turn on Monroe, and after threatening Rachel doesn't work, Tom's new boss, Victor Doyle (Julia's awful new husband), storms the place with the soldiers who came with him to begin with.  He doesn't capture Miles, and Tom is furious, blaming Doyle for losing Miles.  Miles, however is right:  Julia is dead no matter what Tom does.  Does Tom think he'll just demand what he was promised and Julia will appear?  If I was the President, I would have had her killed weeks ago. And I'd have Tom killed the second Monroe was really dead, too.

Aaron and Priscilla are just beginning their journey to Willoughby.  Aaron calls it home.  Home is where there are people who protect you, I guess.  Priscilla is tagging along as she no longer has any family or any where to go.  Aaron grabs them apples and Priscilla is practically climaxing from them.  Aaron is a little confused, but just accepts Priscilla's explanation that she's happy to be alive.

Speaking of the President, Jack Davis, he is helping his kid make a sailboat picture complete with the American flag while telling Allenford that the re-education "cadet" camp in Willoughby is key to re-taking Texas, and Texas is key to retaking the rest of the continent.  He then, in front of his kid, promises to shoot everyone if the plan fails.  His kid is completely unshocked, absorbed in making his American flag the right colors.  Allenford is seriously wondering if he'll survive being a Patriot, even after proving his loyalty by killing his wife.

Monroe, Charlie, Connor and nameless mercenaries are meandering through Texas scrub (is the area around Willoughby grass/trees or sand/brush?  would the writers please make a decision?).  Monroe needles Charlie about still having sex with his son.  Does Monroe think Charlie's not good enough for his son?  Or does he want his son to use unfulfilled sexual tension to be a better fighter, a la Bull Durham?  One mercenary seems a little unsatisfied with the surroundings.  Miles and Rachel approach.  They take to the new secret hideout, an abandoned industrial structure. Is it an old refinery?  For all of their blathering on about being in Texas, I have yet to see one abandoned oil derrick.  Just sayin'.  Dr. Rachel's Dad picks up right away that Charlie is having sex with Connor.  He seems pretty blase about it; Rachel decides she'll talk to Charlie about it.  They're all being watched at the super secret hideout by Tom and Boyband.  When Boyband checks them out, he sees that Charlie is with them.  Oooh.  Suspense.

I can always tell when the kids are gettin' it on... it's in medical school.

Doyle and Tom confab in Truman's office, after kicking out a pissed-off Truman.  Doyle brags about how much he wants to kill both of them, now, but President Davis (omg, I just realized why that's the guy's name- it was the last name of the Confederate President during the Civil War) thinks Tom is useful.  Doyle's angry speech indicates that Julia might still be alive, as her continued existence seems to piss him off.  But I still don't think so.  Notice he doesn't say he wants to kill Boyband.

Walking out in the open, like they're not wanted by soldiers or anything...

Miles and Monroe take a field trip to the camp just outside town, again, and spy on cadet training.  They decide they want the ammo dump there, and entrap the cadets sent to follow them, forcing them to the secret hideout where Dr. Rachel's Dad recognizes them as Kyle and Kim, local kids.  Rachel and Dad feed them, and decide to bring them home to their parents after Kim tells Rachel that they're volunteers. The one dissatisfied mercenary from before, seems to be intently watching the whole thing.  He's a Patriot, even though Team Miles probably won't find that out until the next episode.

Monroe wants to kill the kids from the beginning, and he and Rachel play tug of war with Miles for about half the season.  Monroe and Rachel are fighting for more than just Miles' support in dealing with the cadets.  They're fighting over who has the most influence of Miles now.  Monroe points out that everyone is someone's kid, and that's never stopped Miles from killing before.  The plan to return Kim goes horribly wrong, with Kim's dad inadvertently causing Kim to go all Manchurian Candidate on them.  Kim kills her father with the shotgun, and when it runs out of bullets, slits her own throat as everyone watches in horror, especially Cadet Kyle.

While Miles and company are returning Kim to her dad (or trying), Rachel tries to talk Charlie out of screwing Connor.  But she's too distracted by, literally, Connor's ass.  They don't blow up at each other, but Charlie seems unconcerned about any issues.  Why?  Does she have a stash of sponges?  Is Connor really sponge-worthy?

Tom approaches Truman later, when the poor guy gets his office back, and gets his support for raiding the new super secret Team Miles hideout.  Together, they'll humiliate Doyle, share the credit, and get Tom's wife back.  Truman reluctantly agrees.  But only because we learn that Truman was a lowly corporal from Guantanamo Bay's gulag (sorry, I mean "detention facility"). Tom shows that he's not an orders guy, and will always act to save his own skin over duty if given the chance, when he complains about feeding prisoners when they're barely eating themselves. His bitching continues until senior administration officials turn up in unexplained sailboats from D.C. to meet an amazed corporal Truman and his commander, who we recognize as someone Tom later will kill (The asshole from the cafeteria, I think).

Aaron and Priscilla get their cuddle on, make out and have sex at Priscilla's urging.  She's all sweet and happy to be with Aaron.  He's starting to get a little suspicious, but decides not to question his luck.

Team Miles is discovering that Kyle, who they've dragged back with them, also has some numbers tattooed on his bottom eyelid, just like Kim.  Only now, everyone has the good sense not to read those numbers out loud.  Monroe insists on killing Kyle, and Miles is starting to agree with him, telling Rachel he tried it her way.  He tells Rachel it's the smart thing to do.  Rachel says that her always doing the "smart" thing has been the cause of everyone's troubles.  Rachel actually has the nerve to call her actions "smart".  She and Dad are totally unwilling to kill Kyle.  Rachel's reason has more to do with the fact that her own son was killed; she doesn't want to kill a kid about his age.  Dad is unwilling to kill members of the town they're trying to save.  Monroe really super wants to kill the kid.  They're still debating when Tom and Truman starting shooting the place up.

Uh... Hi.

Uh... hi back.

Here, let me give you enough time to get away.  

Boyband briefly sees Charlie, but they don't really have time to catch up, and Boyband gets knocked out during Team Miles' escape.  Connor seems a little jealous.  Tom actually traps Monroe, pointing a gun at him. But he doesn't shoot, maybe wanting to parade Monroe in front of the Patriots first before killing him.  Big mistake.  Monroe steals the gun away, and Team Miles manages to retreat, losing mercenaries.  Why do people always give Monroe a chance to live?  Rachel sets Kyle free, and after a tense standoff, Miles refuses to shoot him.  Here's hoping Kyle knows better than to go home.  Maybe he's living the Mexican dream as we speak.

As Team Miles gets away, Tom and Truman realize they're in big trouble.  Which they are.  Doyle screams at Truman that he, Doyle, is in charge, not Truman, and humiliates him in front of Tom.  He then re-threatens Tom's wife.  At this point, both men are going to want him dead and it's not long before they're plotting to kill Doyle.

At a new safehouse, some abandoned place in the Texas scrub brush, Miles and Monroe confront each other.  Monroe is angry that he lost to Rachel over Kyle's life.  Miles demands to know why Monroe is even here.  He goes through a couple possible motivations, but the only one that makes "sense" (such as it is in this world), is that Monroe wants to defeat the Patriots to get his empire, army, and spiffy Civil War era uniforms back.  Monroe doesn't deny it, and Miles even correctly guesses that finding Connor inspired him to acheive a Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker type father-son dictatorship.  He tells Monroe it's a stupid dream.  Monroe's defense is that at least he has one.  What does Miles want?  To sit around, getting old?  Miles realizes that he really has no long-term plan.  What if he gets rid of the Patriots?  What then?  Go back to Willoughby, be Rachel's stay-at-home dad while she helps Dr. Dad in the doctor's office?  Miles has no end game, which makes him vulnerable to Monroe co-opting him for his own.

Back right after the blackout in Cuba, the guy who is now President Davis gets a confab together at Guantanamo, with Truman, Allenford, and Doyle in attendance.  Davis gives them a rousing speech.  He starts by explaining that the current President is dead, along with the Speaker of the House.  This leaves only the current Vice President, now the President, in charge.  No word on who that is or what became of said Vice President.  Davis then goes on a rant about how the nano wiping out the power is an opportunity for fate to wipe out the weak.  They can kill the Vice President, and retake a better, stronger, more American America.  Everyone there is on board, despite Allenford questioning whether it's really possible.  All questions cease when Davis introduces Doyle to the crowd.  He wows everyone and scares Allenford by telling them that they'll get recruits.  By hook or by crook.

As if to prove it, current-day blackout Doyle has Boyband brought into Truman's office in Willoughby.  While two soldiers hold him down, Doyle finds a number tattooed on Boyband's bottom eyelid, just like Kim and Kyle's, and reads it out loud.  Boyband immediately calms down and Doyle tells him he wants to know what Tom is up to.  Guess he's not going to rekindle that flame with Charlie anytime soon.

Aaron is asleep.  Priscilla gets up and wanders away.  At first, you think she's ditching him like she did before.  Instead, she finds a nice little clearing where she communes with the nano tech, ecstatic and blissful. Is she even still in control?  Has the nano been controlling Priscilla?  Guess the nano's not done affecting the plot.  How will the nano deal with the Patriots?  And what does it still want with Priscilla?