Hall pass? SERIOUSLY? Goddammit. Give Kevin a proper soulmate already.
The year is 2032, the show This Is Us is on season 17. We follow the 12th generation of Pearson, the setting is in science-fiction somewhere around 2200.
Otis is seriously pissing me off this season. Back in season 1 he was, for the most part, "compellingly odd" as Maeve once said. This season, however, he's been doing nothing but antagonizing everyone around him from his mother to Jakob to Ola to Maeve and it's annoying as hell. The speech he made in this episode was just a bunch of self-righteous bullshit. I've been shipping him with Maeve from the start, but tbh now I think Maeve deserves better than this entitled little shit.
THIS, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how you do a season finale!
(Damn, I used the safeword...)
The casting for teen Beth is eerie. They have almost identical faces and expressions. Well done! Loved this episode so much. Beth is a champion.
First, the casting crew and teenage Beth deserve a standing ovation. The acting was always on point and Beth’s expressions were reproduced perfectly by the teenage actress.
Then they used a contact lens (I guess) to give young and teenage Beth the same black dot in the eye as adult Beth. God is in the details!
Two This Is Us moments in this episode: when adult Beth says the things she didn’t said as a teenager to her dying father and the sorry mom speech to her adult daughter.
I didn’t care too much about the ending and Randall supporting his wife. It’s good old Randall and I’m just happy he’s back. Beth dancing was great. I anticipated the “I want to teach” finale.
I cared much more about this episode than the previous Uncle Nick episodes.
The man who rode that train was built weak and born to fail. You fixed him. Now forget about it. Teddy 2.0
Dolores wanting to change everything but herself, Maeve wanting to change herself to influence the world.
What we learned in Phase Space
Dolores is programming and testing and Arnold bot
Or maybe, that's not her (or her cr4-dl consciousness). That's Ford. He needs to have her appearance b/c that's what the real Arnold knew about that conversation.
William thinking his daughter was a host sent by Ford. ROFL!!!
Of course, he was testing her to see if she was a real or host version of Emily sent by Ford as part of the game
Climate control is working
More about the Cradle
Cradle—spelled CR4-DL is "the simulation technology that stores and tests all of our storylines" and ensures customers "get the immersive and dynamic experience [they] deserve." So it's the way Delos test-drives its experiences. Bernard describes it as a "backup," and Elsie calls it a "hive mind" where all the host's consciousnesses are "alive.
Japanese Armistice is sticking with Maeve and the gang
William and Emily's relationship has been...difficult
William confused his wife with his daughter when recounting the story about the elephants in Raj World. Does that say something about his family life, a simple slip of the tongue, or is it something else like MIB is a Host?
Maeve's daughter has new parents
Who didn't see Maeve meeting her replacement? Did she think her daughter was all alone? That was typical of Lee to omit that little piece of information. And what is the Ghost Nation's game?
Ghost Nation wanted Maeve to come with them. Since they protect the guests, there was also more to Maeve than simply being a host.
Akecheta is awake & probably sees that Maeve is too!
Teddy 2.0 is Stone Cold
Dolores is going to regret reprogramming Teddy in the coming episodes.
Her reactions were so funny "oh shit what have I done!"
Teddy is aware that Dolores reprogrammed him. I feel that will be important later.
Ford is inside the Cradle
Ford's back, or at least an approximation of his consciousness in the Cradle. We all suspected Ford would return as a Host despite the flat-out denials from Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Nolan & co.. They pretty much telegraphed his return over the season (he's in the system, briefly surfacing in Hosts e.g. young Ford), but Episode 4 all but confirmed it.
Dolores and Maeve storylines ** is not interesting at all. They're currently paper thin and taking their sweet time to go anywhere.**
The Man In Black's daughter who we know nothing about is a far more compelling character.
The Cradle Is Capable Of So Much More Than We Expected
The Cradle, in essence, is a server that stores memories and consciousness for retrieval. Like a file cabinet, the hosts’ “data” is copied and contained within the server, and can be accessed to run theoretical or training simulations on the robots. The main function of the Cradle, though, is to act as a backup for each of the intricately-crafted hosts; a way for Delos to preserve the work that went into detailing their appearances, their preferences, their mannerisms, the very things that make them so human. Think of it as the Cloud that stores your phone pics.
Those pearls, it turns out, are the container for the hosts’ consciousnesses. But the Cradle itself send commands to the parks, not unlike the way the Matrix papers over glitches with deja vu. And the implications of this functionality go way beyond just data storage. It means that the Cradle itself can run simulations or disrupt the flow of time —if it has a programmer (the host) to program a server farm (the Cradle), illustrated by Bernard getting off the train at exactly the spot he needed to be. The Cradle doesn’t appear to create simulations without a host’s consciousness to guide it.
Do we have a host in the Cradle? We sure do, and because Bernard just uploaded his brain pearl into the Cradle, it could mean that everything we’ve seen in season 2 thus far — the multiple timelines, the weird ways that the characters are interacting with him — are just a simulation. This totally mind-bending but plausible theory was put forth by YouTuber HaxDogma, and in a 10-minute video he makes the case that Bernard has hacked his way into the Cradle, and everything is running from his point of view. In other words, it’s as though we’re viewing everything like Neo did at the end of the first Matrix: as a source code that can be manipulated.
Or (and this is even more sinister), perhaps Robert Ford has been in the Cradle all along, pulling the strings, and driving wedges between Dolores and Maeve with her new powers.
Hello old friend.
Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Anthony Hopkins has re-enterd the game.
wendy's storyline was totally disposable
Wow, what can one say? Thid brilliant third episode about the Aberfan disaster is just so well done. I must admit that I haven't heard of this tragedy before and that's also why I love the historical aspect of The Crown so very much.
I loved the ending and the music! But Ander shouldn't have lied..
Princess Carolyn best character ever!!!!
Seriously the best f*cking episode of them all. I don't see how they could ever possibly top this one!
ETA: Okay, "Free Churro" is probably a little better, but still...
"I don't even know who you are! [...] Are you a federal judge? A Russian spy? A proud Southern matriarch?"
This sentence alone (and the rest of the amazing cold open) made me scream out of sheer happiness. And I not even mentioned the rest of the episode. Will Arnett and Alison Brie are killing it this year.
This show ruined television for me. Any other show and all I can think is Why am I not watching BoJack instead? It took me about half a season to start enjoying it, but once it hit me, it hit me like a long, hard kick in the urethra. Really, this is the only TV show that regularly brings tears to my eyes. I've become completely obsessed with it.
One episode ago: "TV is a visual medium. No episode should have that much talking!"
Literally one episode later
25minute monologue
The FDA investigation might be the worst thing I've ever seen on television. Everything about was bad: the room, the characters, the story. It soured this whole series to waste half an episode on that trash.
Not so sure this will get another season. It was okay, but a lot of it didn't really work great, especially any acting between the two Miles'. Usually Paul Rudd is great, but those scenes really tested his ability, and not to a great result. Would have liked this to be more of a comedy than the dramedy, as a lot of the more dramatic moments didn't work as well.
This show is inhabited by broken people. It's depressing and sad, yet the final scene was so sweet.
Please don't make a third season. That was the perfect ending.
Lord knows that if The Office was going to get anything right, it needed to be Jim expressing his feelings for Pam, and boy does it pull that off here. The confession is harrowing, sad, and heartening all at the same time, with Pam's shock and reaction to something she, deep down, already knows, adds to the charged atmosphere. The rest of the episode is fun, as Michael inadvertently inviting two dates to the same event is a bit of cliche but still full of comedy, and the other antics around the work party are enjoyable. But it's that last moment, that pays off so much built up emotion and drama, that really makes this one great.
If you like mystery, this one's for you! The plot is interesting and you cannot predict what happens until the last moment!
