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?

Above The Fray - Scandal - Season 3, Episode 12

Our motley crews spends yet another hour digging the holes deeper.  Let's get started with...

Olitz, which is Gladiator-Speak for Olivia and Fitz, now that they are definitely on again.  We see them in her apartment, putting clothes on after sex that I hope was good, because it needs to make up for the blow-out screaming match they're having about Jake.  Fitz is furious that his wife Mellie even suggested it, and he's mad at Olivia for taking Mellie's advice.  Heaven forbid your wife and your mistress coordinate, Fitz.  They'll make sure to conflict more.

Note the well-placed furniture, right over the baby bump

Fitz is furious.  He wants Olivia as a mistress and a campaign manager, but he wants her all to himself.  So he throws a tantrum without actually proposing any solution to the problem of Olivia's public reputation.  So she puts her foot down, definitively and without any room for argument.  She wants to run Presidential campaigns.  She can't afford to lose her reputation (remember the season premiere?).  Her employees can't afford to lose her reputation.  And she wants the satisfaction of running a campaign without rigging the election at the end.  So she's in, and she's doing this.  In a way Mellie never did during her marriage, Olivia sets boundaries for Fitz.  She sets the ground rules:  she's not a trophy, or a prize.  She doesn't "belong" to anyone.  She is her own person and gets to decide what's in her best interest.  Not. Fitz.

It goes great until they realize who heard the whole thing:

Jake's favorite part of the job

The awesome thing about a super-duper top secret security clearance is all the awesome stuff you learn about your friends.  And lover.

David Rosen, US District Attorney extraordinaire, is just waking up to Abby telling him she loves him.  He doesn't say it back.  Not even a "I love you, man."  Weak.

We flashback to about fifteen years ago, listening to Fitz and Mellie argue.  Notice the contrast with Olivia's fire and firm refusal to back down.  Fitz is screaming at her because Mellie neither wants to spend any time in his father's company plus she won't allow Fitz to touch her, let alone have sex with him.  You and I can easily see that something happened that shouldn't have.  Fitz, clueless and self-absorbed, is wholly caught up in his first election.  His wife is supposed to fuck him and appear wherever he goes.  If she doesn't, she owes him an explanation.  When she won't tell him anything (it was the deal with father so he'd play nice with Fitz, remember?), Fitz acts as if it's the end of the world. Like the first argument, this one also has an unfortunate audience:  new VP candidate Andrew Nichols, at the time helping Fitz with his first election.

Harrison is getting his shit together after fucking Adnan Salif.  Who presents Harrison with a huge suitcase of cash, and asks him to get it where it belongs.  Harrison tries to refuse, but Adnan brings up something called "Clearwater", and hints that insider trading is the least of his past.  So we later see Harrison dialing Fitz Grant's campaign headquarters, offering to make a donation.  So Adnan is funding Grant?  What does she want?

Mellie starts the day in the briefing room where Fitz's campaign staff will meet, but first she has to confront Andrew.  She makes it clear that Andrew really can't hope for anything from her.  She's married and a mother and the First Lady and Andrew is not allowed to screw that up for her.  He tries to reassure her, but it's not very convincing.  Olivia and Fitz appear, separately, and she starts the meeting with news that some journalist has a story of drug use at the governor's mansion during Fitz's first campaign.  Specifically, that Andrew took some painkillers without a prescription.  The team at first wants to kill the story, or discredit it, but Andrew cops to it, with a story about a bad back and no time to fix it or stop campaigning, and no desire for his medical condition to be news.  Olivia likes the idea of Andrew stepping up and being refreshingly honest, but she'll work on killing the story all the same.  Mellie catches up to Andrew in the hall, asking him not to sacrifice his career over this.  He's nonchalant about going down.

Back at her headquarters, she puts Harrison and Abby on it.  The Gladiators discuss where the story could have come from, he checked out in all their research.  The main suspect is Leo Bergen, VP Sally's campaign manager.  But Leo's worked against Andrew before.  He would have used the story years ago.  Notice how possibly non-prescribed drug use at the governor's mansion is only important as a useful story, or something to be buried.  At least, we think that's it's sole importance.  Olivia, remembering that her dad is out for Fitz, wonders if it's Daddy Pope who found the story and leaked it.  When she goes back to her office, Huck appears.  With coffee.  That Olivia doesn't drink.  Huck disappears and Olivia gets to business.  She calls Jake, with no real apology for fighting over fake dating him earlier, just a request that B-613, which he heads, investigate Daddy Pope.  Jake balks at first, since he's not on Fitz's campaign.  But he gives in if it means neutralizing Daddy Pope.

Jake gives the assignment to Charlie, who is enjoying breakfast in bed with Quinn.   Jake repeats that Quinn is not getting involved, and Charlie turns out to be a loyal company man.  He turns down Quinn's help even though the thought of all the hacking she can do turns him on.  Charlie's grown on me.  I have to respect a man who loves his work.  We go back to Jake, who gets a huge folder plopped on his desk with ridiculously top secret super duper Justice League stuff.  Including the info that the White House has a B-613 member who will make himself known to Jake.  And soon.

David Rosen isn't liking his work today. Or at least, isn't liking one particular aspect of today's work.  Cyrus has reached out to the journalist who raised suspicions about Daniel Douglas' death, offering her a totes awesome interview with Fitz, so he can get her to divulge the identity of Publius, her source.  When Cyrus tells James about the plan, the look on that boy's face should have been all Cyrus needed.  Instead, James gets it together to suggest that maybe he, a fellow journalist, should do that.  Cyrus can be a little, well, intimidating.  Cyrus is fooled.  But James finds a way to secretly meet with David and whine and cry like a baby about how he's scared and going to die anyway.  David, to his credit, calms James down by telling him that the journalist, Vanessa Something, doesn't even know who Publius is.

Olivia tries to scare another journalist into ditching the Andrew Nichols drug story.  She's got a lot of threats, but brunette reporter chick is not scared.  She's got rock-solid evidence and she strides away from Olivia.  So, Olivia goes out to dinner with Daddy Pope, trying to get him to admit that he leaked the story.  When that doesn't work, she storms out of the restaurant to find....

Quinn, spying on Charlie while he spies on Daddy Pope.  It's a good idea to be Charlie's back up.  But wouldn't Charlie know all Daddy Pope's tricks by now?  Olivia walks right up to Quinn, alone in her car, and begs her to return to her old job at OPA.  Quinn turns her down flat, telling Olivia that in addition to all the torture, Huck licked her face.  Okay, maybe that is a deal breaker, but Olivia gives it another try, offering to help Quinn dig herself out of whatever hole she's in.  Quinn insists that she's doing her own digging, and pulls out a gun.  Quinn, near crying, threatens to shoot Olivia, so Olivia leaves her, still thinking Jake has assigned her to the Daddy Pope case.  

We flashback to Andrew, wrapping things up at the governor's mansion late, and finding Mellie passed out on the living room floor.  He struggles, but gets her to the nearest toilet and pumps her stomach.  Old school. 

Back at OPA, Huck appears again, and brings Olivia coffee, again, before she goes home.  Where she is in the middle of a lovely white wine and popcorn meal when Jake lets himself in.  She tries to confront him about Quinn.  He's surprised to learn that she's working on any B-613 business, and tells Olivia so.  He then berates Olivia for having only white wine and popcorn, and insists on real food and beer as the price of his charade.  He then takes off his shirt to go take a shower, wash off all the secrets, and have pretend sex with Olivia.  I don't see the problem.  I have pretend sex with Jake all the time.  In fact, I'm having pretend sex with Jake right now!

VP Sally meets with good ol' boy Hollis Doyle, who has learned absolutely nothing after the escapade of his atrocious daughter and her really sick greed.  He agrees to make a huge, ridiculously huge, donation to Sally's campaign, in exchange for naming the Energy Secretary.  And he wonders why his daughter cut off her ear for money.  Hey, she learned from the best that you do what you gotta' do.  VP Sally, mentally in and out as she is reminded of killing her husband, agrees.  Turns out, Hollis's playing Leo Bergen.  Hollis goes to Cyrus, and let's him know that VP Sally is willing to let him name the Energy Secretary.  The whole bit with VP Sally was just to give him leverage with Cyrus, who grudgingly gives him what he wants if he'll donate to Fitz's campaign.

James and David meet under a bridge.  Vanessa Something has asked to meet with Publius.  James can't out himself (as an informant).  So David offers to go instead.  David also suggests that he release the original, taped phone call between Cyrus and VP Sally.  Then, the information will be public, and the pressure will be off Publius.

Abby and Harrison catch up with the doc who will crush Andrew Nichols' career with the drug story.  He's stubborn, but he lets slip an important point:  the drugs were for a her, not a him.  So, Andrew is covering for someon.  Let's see, who just took some drugs at the governor's mansion.  We cut to another flashback, hopefully the last one, where Andrew tries to get Mellie to tell him why she would want to kill herself.  Unlike Fitz, he actually shows some concern for her and desire to at least give her some comfort.  So, Mellie gives Andrew the joyous news:  she may be pregnant with her father-in-law's baby after he raped her.  Mellie can't even call it rape, she says he "forced himself on her", instead.  Andrew takes it all in stride, and confesses his secret:  ever since he was her knight in shining armour, he can't stop thinking about her, and how much he wants to help her all the time.  Mellie, a little flustered that someone might actually care about her, turns him down as gently as she can.

Mellie has the nerve to approach Fitz in his office, offering to solve some problem for him.  He doesn't have time for whatever she has to say.  He only has time to berate her for solving his Olivia problem.  Once again, without providing any alternative solution, he bites her for feeding him.  Mellie is clearly more hurt at his contempt for her initiative, even when Olivia ends up agreeing it's the best idea, than whenever she finds him making out with Olivia.  She takes it well, leaving Fitz to his terrible twos.

Ummm.... I think what you meant to say is...your welcome?

Olivia, back at her office, figures out who the drugs at the governor's mansion must have been for as Huck appears, offering her still more coffee.  Olivia, who is definitely not over the face-licking reveal from Quinn, learns that Huck is trying to make amends for torturing Quinn, because he knows she's angry about it.  Huck attempting to explain how he's just trying to be normal reminds me of a five-year-old reciting poetry he doesn't understand.

The farmhouse lingers, though averse to square/ With the new city street it has to wear

Olivia tries to tell Huck that coffee isn't going to do it.  Huck, after confessing that he's learned to be afraid, very afraid, of angering his boss, reminds Olivia that he's here because sometimes Olivia has to show who's the boss with her clients' enemies.  And so she has her very own monster.  But she left some slack in the leash, and Huck strains at his leash.  He ate someone.  But he's a monster, and monsters eat people.  At the end of last season, Olivia tried to end her personal and professional relationship with Fitz because of the horrible things they did to save Fitz and his Presidency.  Now, Olivia is right back in his office and in his pants.  And Huck is going on about eating people.

Olivia is reminded, again, how petulant and spoiled Fitz is.  As they finish going over poll numbers, and Olivia reports that the drug story has been killed by telling the network the story was bought, Fitz decides he's had enough work for the day.  Notice how he's too busy to talk work with his First Lady, and too tired to talk work with his mistress.  Who does he talk about work with?  Oh, yeah. Cyrus.  Anyhoo, we leave them just when Fitz wants Olivia to tell him if she feels anything for Jake.

Baby bump hide #2!

Olivia tries to confront Mellie about the drug story.  Olivia has realized that it's Mellie who took drugs that night, not Andrew.  And, she's realized that Andrew is covering for Mellie because he loves her.  Or something.  After having the nerve to tell Mellie not to have an extramarital affair, she gets schooled by Mellie, who insists that she's always been faithful to her husband, and Olivia might want to avoid comparing the two of them.  Ever.  Again.

Wait, you actually think I'm a slut, too?

Fitz and Mellie are dressed all fancy because he's got a fundraiser with.... Hollis Doyle!  Andrew is having fun at the podium, working the crowd, when Fitz sees the guy who funded his election rigging four years ago.  He angrily demands in furious whispers on stage that Cyrus refund the donation and kick Hollis to the curb.  Little does Fitz know, even though Cyrus does, that he's pretty much sending Hollis down the hall to VP Sally.  Guess who Fitz will blame when that happens?  Definitely not himself, that's who!

Jake hauls Quinn into his super secrete B-613 office (in fairness to him, Quinn already knows where it is from before), telling her he doesn't want her in B-613.  Quinn, in her best impression yet of a teenager, starts sexting right there.  When Jake points out how rude that is, Quinn directs him to his email, where Jake finds....  proof that Daddy Pope and Leo Bergen had a chat in public.  The link Olivia asked him for, insisted was there, Quinn found.  Guess she's not such an amateur, is she?  Will Jake keep her work for him a secret, a little behind-the-scenes helper he keeps in his back pocket?  That's what I would do!

Yes, I text during job interviews.  Sue me.

We find out what Harrison's donation to the Grant campaign was all about when Adnan Salif introduces herself to Cyrus.  Watching her completely useless feminine wiles on a gay man are amusing, but she also knows to get Cyrus where it counts.  She tells him that she's just recently made a big gift to Fitz, and more can come.  Since Hollis Doyle will be funding VP Sally, Cyrus needs a new big pocket, and Adnan is offering to scratch his back.  Cyrus is in such a good mood that he lets it out to James that he's having Publius taken care of.  He knows about the meet-up with Vanessa Something, and he's arranged for Publius to be taken care of before he can meet with her.  James leaves a frantic message on David's voicemail.

Which David doesn't get.  When he gets kidnapped outside the cafe where he's meeting Vanessa, he leaves Abby a heartfelt voicemail, telling her he loves her too and he's sorry he's only saying it now.  Good thing his girlfriend's been tapping his phone lately.  You never know when she might need to kidnap you to save you from Charlie.  So, does that mean that David's going to have to tell her that Daniel Douglas' death wasn't heart failure?  And that he has no proof?  Will Abby use it against VP Sally, or bury it to protect Cyrus (and therefore, Fitz?).

Jake is still at the office when one of Fitz's Secret Service Agents shows up, one we've seen a zillion times before but now we'll have to learn his name, with a flash drive showing everything that happened at the White House that day.  Including Fitz and Olivia discussing whether she feels anything for Olivia.  Jake is all ears, only to find out she doesn't know.  That's certainly worth all the intrigue, right?

Andrew and Mellie bond a bit over a room full of First Lady portraits.  With them looking on, Andrew tries to kiss Mellie, Mellie pulls back and is about to leave when she turns around and kisses him.  Once.  And leaves.  Will Mellie be content with just that kiss?  Is this a show about people content with breaking the rules once?  Andrew touches one of the portraits, just to let Jackie know that he's here for her. 

Andrew's been a doll for the last fifteen years.  Professionally loyal to Fitz, even while he pines for the guy's wife and knows a horrible secret about Fitz's son.  Personally devoted to Mellie, so much that he'll throw away his career to hide her suicide attempt.  He's been so helpful.  And you know, on this show, when someone is amazingly helpful, there's always a terrible reason why.

It's been a long day and a fabulous party.  Adnan is just settling into her room, talking to someone sitting in the corner.  It went swimmingly.  They're in as major financers of Fitz's campaign.  So, Adnan is a middle-woman for an even bigger villain....

Criminal plotting is totes fun!

It sure is, little grasshopper.  It sure is....

All Tracks Lead to Terminus - Walking Dead - Season 4, Episode 13

This week, the action is split between two sub-groups:  Darryl and Beth's dynamic duo, and the trio of Bob, Sasha and Maggie.  One group comes together.  One is torn apart.  And yet another group gets a new member.

But first, the episode opens with Bob's traveling alone. He's got a Bill Withers look going, but his face is practically that of the undead.  He cares about a safe place to sleep, some snacks for a pit stop, and booze.  By the time Darryl and Glenn find him, Darryl still with his poncho and bike, and Glenn still all cute and innocent, Bob has been on his own for a while.  He answers the questions three to Glenn and Darryl's satisfaction, both finding it easy to believe that a friend would ask to be killed, and Bob goes with them literally because he has nothing else to do.  He doesn't even care enough to ask them anything.

This is just a normal zombie day in San Francisco

Zombies in a fog!  While we may dislike not having visibility, remember, the undead need to see too.  As long as they make no sound, they can just let the group of walkers pass, picking off only the ones who get too close.  It works for about a minute, but one lunges at Bob, then takes Maggie off her feet.  Sasha dispatches them both with the gun, then complains that she's running out of bullets.  Well, then use your stick, Sasha. Since the compass is long-since broken, Bob suggests that they use the sun during the day to know what direction to go.  For days, they've been going in circles around the prison, trying to find anyone, but especially Glenn.  Sasha's about had it, happy to give up, cut their losses, and find a secure location.  Maggie is fanatical about finding Glenn.  Bob has nothing better to do than to help Maggie, and is holding Sasha to the plan to avoid anyone going off alone.  Until, that is...

They find the railroad tracks. A sign for Terminus is right there, and Bob is the only character who makes the connection between the sign and a radio transmission heard by the vet college scavenge crew right before shit hit a fan.  Neither Tyrese nor Michonne seem to remember this, and Bob gets points with me for connecting dots.  Maggie is sure that Glenn has seen this sign, or will, and is/will be on his way to Terminus looking for her.  Bob thinks it's worth a try.  Sasha is the only character who has suggested this could be a trap, which is also my theory.

Bob-Sasha-Maggie is the most interesting of the groups now heading down the tracks to Terminus.  Well, okay, the Carol-Tyrese group will be the most interesting as they get closer and meet up with Rick, who will have to decide what to tell Tyrese, and will have to justify to Carol why he should get Judith back (if she's still alive then).  But for this epsiode, Sasha and Maggie have been pulling Bob in different directions, and only Maggie and Sasha resolving their differences solves his problem.  As Sasha sets up camp, Bob inspects his wound, which is still bleeding (really a bite from their fight earlier?), and Maggie is off finding wood.  So, Sasha starts demanding that Bob back her up for a change.  They have to stop wandering the woods.  They have to find secure shelter.  They have to cut their losses.  Sasha has insisted for two episodes now that she's not going to look for Tyrese, that he's gone even if he's still alive.  Bob insists that he's probably also on his way to Terminus.  Notice how Glenn still hasn't found the tracks, but Tyrese has.  Yet it's Maggie who thinks she'll find her family on the way.

Looking for people in the woods SUCKS

Beth is developing her tracking skills with Darryl right behind. They find the zombie, but Beth steps right into an animal trap before she can shoot it, forcing Darryl to make the kill and get her back on her feet.  They emerge from the woods into a cemetery, probably the only safe place during a zombiepocalypse.  Looking for help for Beth's ankle, Darryl carries her piggyback, and they stop for a moment at a grave marked with dates from the 1800s and "Beloved Father".   Beth can't resist the connection to Hershel, and even Darryl gets into the moment with some wildflowers on the stone.  They proceed to the funeral home, with Beth hopeful that there could be good people inside, and Darryl sure that the good people are gone.

Inside, it's clean.  It's neat.  There's food, as well as two properly embalmed bodies.  They figure someone lives here, and has made it their hobby to repair the bodies of the undead as if for burial.  Darryl is unconcerned, since it's a pretty harmless hobby.  Beth is touched;  someone remembers that these were people once.  They decide to take only what they need to eat, as the junk food stash is clearly being saved for later by the Mortician.  They should have checked to see if the hearse was still in the drive.

Sasha and Bob wake up.  Maggie has left them a note scratched in the dirt and left them.  Bob insists on following her along the tracks.  Since they know where she's going, and have no where else to go, they may as well follow Maggie and keep her safe.  Sasha is, like, a minute away from a temper tantrum.  For all the days they've been traveling (and it's a while, as the cast has broken out the sweaters and jackets- signalling the end of another season soon), Bob and Maggie have insisted on doing what she considers a waste of time.  Now, Maggie's left and Bob still wants to do what Maggie wants.  Not fair!

Darryl and Beth are settled in for the night.  Beth plays a song, that happens to have been written after the zombiepocalypse on the show supposedly happened (the show debuted Halloween, 2010).  Darryl relaxes in an empty coffin to her singing.  It's all so domestic and perfect.

Sasha and Bob, camping together, listen to a nearby zombie stuck on or in something.  Bob can't sleep through it, so he stays up with Sasha, trying to convince her to have some hope for Tyrese, asking why she's so scared.  Sasha insists she's not scared, she's just not convinced that she'll beat the odds.  The theme of the episode is that Sasha's afraid of facing her grief, but she's really just shellshocked, a place beyond attachments and wanting connections.  The next day, Sasha has had it with Bob's happy attitude despite all the danger and hardships.  He tells her that he's happy to just not be alone.  That he wants to find Maggie and reunite and keep everyone together.  Because no one should be alone like he was.  The tracks lead through a town with an abandoned warehouse.  Sasha thinks its perfect, and it is, as a semi-permanent shelter.  Bob wants to find Maggie. Not even a gentle, loving kiss can convince Sasha to spend one more minute following Maggie.  They say goodbye, and Bob trudges on as Sasha explores her new home.

The second floor is empty, with lots of space and good sightlines of the surrounding town.  Sasha, alive and in a safe place, almost lets her grief out, but holds it together and goes to one of the windows.  Where she sees Maggie, lying motionless among the dead of the town.  She reaches out to open the window, but it falls out, crashing into the ground below.  Not only is Maggie roused, so are the town's remaining walkers.  Sasha races outside with her new wooden spear, outrunning the zombies pouring out of her building, and does a fantastic job of holding her own, bashing heads with the blunt end and piercing others with the pointy one.  Maggie rejoins her, after finding an old sign to bring to the fight.  She and Maggie rejoin, backs to each other as they were at the episode's beginning, and together, they bring down the remaining walkers.  Together, they admit how much they need each other, and head down the tracks together to find Bob, who is overjoyed to see them both.  Together, they head to Terminus, hoping to find their friends and family.

Look what's for dinner!

Darryl and Beth are not so lucky.  On the second day there, Darryl's noisemakers go off, and he heads to the door to check it out.  Thinking it's either the current resident or zombies, he finds instead a mangy stray dog missing an eye.  The animal is semi-friendly, but still dashes off instead of letting Darryl touch it.  Their second night in the house begins with dinner and soda.  They discuss staying in the house, and living with whoever is already there.  Beth asks Darryl why he's so willing to trust his future with someone he hasn't even seen yet.  Beth continues poking and prodding, realizing that he's willing to stay for her.  There's an uncomfortable pause.

Oh.  You mean me.  Oh.

The noisemakers go off again.  Darryl is convinced that it's the dog, and takes a treat to see if can lure the animal inside.  Instead, he opens the door to a walker bomb.

Guess the honeymoon's over?

All hell breaks loose.  Darryl screams to Beth to grab her shit and go, and meet him at the road.  Beth only screams that she doesn't want to leave him, but he's already leading the zombies away, down into the basement embalming room.  Darryl uses a portable table as a barrier between himself and his attackers, about ten zombies.  With his knife, he reaches over and stabs them in the heads one by one.  Eventually, he wheels the table around, keeping it between him and the zombies, and gets himself a path back to the stairs.  He emerges from the house, dodges more walkers, and finds the road.  Beth is not there.  Only her bag, dropped on the ground with her things is left.  A car screeches in the distance, and Darryl can only watch as it drives off, presumably with Beth in it against her will.  Darryl, desperate to keep his only friend, runs after it.  It's useless.  He eventually slows to a walk, and by morning halts completely when he has no idea where the car could have turned at a train crossing/intersection.  He collapses. He's lost everyone.

Darrly is ready to make a really bad decision

Darryl isn't alone long.  Boots show up around him, and Darryl finds himself surrounded by six nasty-looking thugs.  It's not until one tries for his crossbow that Darryl reacts, punching the man, knocking him down.  We see someone unfortunately familiar.  Yes, this is the gang from two episodes ago that almost found Rick, Michonne and Carl.  Darryl must know what kind of "man" Joe is, despite Joe's compliments and offer to join his group.  It's like Merle all over again.  So Darryl, after swearing not to go back to the person he was before the world turned, is doing just that.  But only because the last person he ever cared about is gone.  Better off with people you don't mind losing.

Why doesn't Darryl go back?  The Mortician will be back.  Unless the house really was his home base and he plans on relocating permanently with Beth, he has to come back to re-set his trap for the next victim  (Notice how both he and Beth are trapped unexpectedly during the episode?).  But Darryl isn't thinking about his next move at this point.  He's thinking what a loser he must be to have lost everyone.  How long will he put up with Joe?  Will he stay even if Joe bullies him around?

We end with another sign for Terminus.  And a too-afraid-to-hope-but-hoping-anyway Glenn.  Now, everyone but Darryl has found the way to Terminus.  Since Darryl and his new gang are right by train tracks, it won't be long before Joe decides Terminus is an easy mark.  This is going to be the craziest family reunion ever.