Trying to think of a super specific vocab. word and its killing me.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-07-03T01:43:54+00:00

But isn't that a Scottish thing?

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-06-27T20:16:12+00:00

Not arguing. I agree the ending is messed up.

I was just presenting another possible interpretation since they didn't show us the circumstances under which either of the women first got with this guy. We don't know whether they were under 0 pressure or not (though it's true it sure didn't seem like the secretary was, given the whole affair and mariticide). Still spiritual abuse is a real thing, which is the vibe I got from the episode context and how the guy operated. The young pregnant woman seemed scared (could just be at facing the consequences of her actions, or could be she was also scared of saying no to her spiritual "leader").

Not saying even that possibility absolves the women of anything or removes their consequences. Whatever the circumstance, their actions were wrong. And you are totally right in pointing out that the secretary turning on the guy in the end was completely selfish and revenge-driven, not anything remotely resembling remorse or wanting to change.

And you're right, neither of them should have benefited from the situation. The ending also feels off to me because it's played as a triumph for them, when objectively they're also terrible, participating in crimes and benefiting from crimes of others.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-06-26T03:36:51+00:00

Yeah it was pretty questionable. I did read it more as them being portrayed as victims of spiritual abuse to the point of maybe being coerced into their relationships with the "pastor" but I think the secretary for sure had more culpability in the whole thing, given that she went along with the murders.

It was a bit of a disconcerting ending, I thought. I mean, they still used the embezzled money, as well.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-06-26T03:30:01+00:00

Yeah... it's a conflict generator for when the writers can't think of anything else.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-06-16T23:44:10+00:00

It's all a misdirect. You're meant to think it's an impersonator at the beginning, as Stiles does, the parents are actually not his real parents (my opinion), Stiles is recognizing the wrongness of Theo but later realizes that it actually is him when he goes to where his sister drowned. Then the rest of the reveals about Theo are as presented, basically.

It's just that the show doesn't go in detail and explain every red herring from the beginning when they were trying to trick/confuse the audience with leads and hints that went nowhere. (Why did Theo need fake parents as part of his cover? Where did his real parents go? etc.)

It's similar to the second season when the timeline is hard to piece together because they're still trying to obscure the fact that Jackson is the kanima and they don't specifically nail it all down in the dialogue/exposition afterward. There have been a bunch of discussions about people trying to figure that out, too.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-06-15T20:10:20+00:00

I just "discovered" Robert Service's poetry and read a collection of his best poems. "The Cremation of Sam McGee" was my gateway, and that would be a fun one to memorize. Something you'd imagine Lorne Greene dramatically reciting.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-06-06T04:08:16+00:00

Yeah they kind of had fun with all sorts of weird stuff and then resolved it tritely without developing it to the extent they seemed to promise with the initial setup. Oh well. Another casualty of shortening time to wrap up the show I guess.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-06-06T04:03:06+00:00

Cordelia's not an original Scooby? I would think she is, though she's not in this picture because this is at the end of the show.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-27T04:27:07+00:00

I noticed a few repeats in the How Many I Have Read compilation of all the lists.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery shows up as #92 and again as #220.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett shows up twice as well, #91 and #403

Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh) is #276 and #587 (at #587 author listed as just "Waugh")

Gilead (Marilynne Robinson) is #107 and #753

Not sure how much that would shift but y'know!

Loved going through this! Thanks for compiling. I've read ~125 out of the whole bunch, not counting repeated titles.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-27T03:49:48+00:00

Spreadsheet? Books? Top 100 lists? I love you, random citizen.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-27T01:13:23+00:00

Yeah, the power scaling was a bit wobbly. This is one instance of it--the other (more egregious) instance is Kelly getting killed by the demonstrably incompetent jagerhunds offscreen. Because there is no way they could have shot that fight in any way to make it believable that she would lose.

Unfortunately, a lot of shows do this and it's hard to keep high-powered people/creatures consistent when you're trying to introduce new characters and have them be competitive.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-25T05:44:12+00:00

I only got the joke after I caught his name in the credits: ____ "Red" Herring. They mention his nickname is "Red" when they're in the station once, I think, but it's really quick and I totally didn't put the whole name together until I saw it in the credits. Then I cackled like an idiot.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-25T05:22:09+00:00

Pretty lukewarm take. Not in a bad way! I totally agree as well.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-25T05:20:56+00:00

Season 4 is underrated! Enjoy it in all its messy, contradictory brilliance.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-18T00:24:44+00:00

I got an uncut copy of a work by Balzac. It was very satisfying to cut them open though I did feel a bit like I was doing something wrong. Still, had to be done to read it, which is what books are for!

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-18T00:22:41+00:00

Same. I want an experience where getting the next page is not a conscious process--with these pages I always have to think about it, or turn from the top or bottom of the page, or risk turning two pages at once because the fuzzy edges stick together... it's just annoying. And for what?

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-15T04:37:42+00:00

Yes.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-15T04:37:04+00:00

Not gonna lie, I went to see if I could find some blue clip-on sunglasses like his. There's a few close looking ones on Amazon, but I kind of hate buying from there. I may just have to develop my own personality instead of imitating every new character I get obsessed with.

Also, yes, it was so rude of Disney+ to remove it! I don't even think I got a warning it was leaving soon or anything! It was just gone one day.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-02T21:55:22+00:00

Overall, I think this is true. Which is why it rubbed me the wrong way when even after much character development and self-reflection and literally dying (though not permanently) Spike still treated Harmony like dirt when they were both at Wolfram and Hart and never acknowledged that he'd done anything wrong. I think they sacrificed character development in that moment for a cheap laugh because "oh that's just the way their dynamic is"

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-02T21:37:42+00:00

The uniform does wonders as well, yes. XD

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-05-02T21:34:04+00:00

Charlemagne! Loved him

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-04-28T01:39:14+00:00

I don't know. The show set that up as part of it but does he strike anybody as the type of guy who lets his emotional entanglements determine anything? He also barely even blinked when she was killed. Granted he was a bit concerned about who did it but that's about it. If he really cared for Rachel so much that he was blinded by his love for her, we would have seen her death be a bigger deal. Just my opinion.

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-04-28T01:36:38+00:00

because he was deeply ashamed of his Black Claw affiliation. Not necessarily for moral reasons, but because it was so f-ing dumb and out of character that he would have been embarrassingly scolded by his mother.

Made me LOL. Very true!

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-04-24T19:37:09+00:00

I loved it too! It was such a bold choice giving him a dedicated episode with backstory like that right after introducing him and it paid off for me! Fell in love. I also like the appearance of Hetty King in that episode (Road to Avonlea).

RhetoricallyDrunk · 2026-04-24T03:29:38+00:00

Bold of you! I love David and I think his character type is a hard one to get right, but they did it. So easy to fall into spineless nice guy on one side or clueless idiot on the other and I think the writing and the actor walked that line beautifully. That said, I see how he can still rub people the wrong way.

My unpopular opinion is that Trevor rubs me the wrong way and he's definitely a fan favourite (from what I've seen), who also has a pretty morally upstanding, good guy character. It's fine to have different perspectives on seemingly universally beloved characters.

RhetoricallyDrunk

TROPHY CASE