Hawthorn

Ann357

I thought tonight's episode was good. I enjoyed all the characters' stories. I'm excited to see what happens with Tom and his wife.

Hawthorn

Glad to hear you found it a good episode, Anne! I'll catch up either later tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

Preliminary ratings are out:
And the half-hours:
Really nice to see the numbers up this week!

Ann357

Those ratings seem okay.

Did you watch the episode yet?

IloveJules!

You would think the writers actually do some research and would know that typhus is caused by bacteria, not viruses. Oh well...

I loved this episode anyway. I think it's the second best episode of season 2. Dead Man Walking continues to be my favorite episode of the season.

The focus on Julia and Rachel.

Smart... that's rare. Julia and Rachel could totally see eye to eye on most things. Rachel is not as ambitious as Julia, but they could rule the country. I can see it already. It would be awesome. I want a Julia/Rachel Republic. Please!

Loved seeing Rachel taking charge, scientist/virologist/bacteriologist Rachel (it would be great to know how she knows so much about virology/bacteriology though) and being the '10 steps ahead of everyone' Rachel. She was listening to everyone and was okay with Bass too. That's a good thing. Great episode for Rachel.

Rachel is a gazillion times better and better than anyone else (up there with Julia actually) when she is away from Miles, IMHO.

Gene and Rachel and Charlie.

Gene talking about the Mama/Grandma! Finally some good conversation about her. I wanted to know more about her. She should have a name though.

"You're a real stubborn pain in the ass." "Well, I come by it honestly."

Liz was great in those scenes with Gene. And Stephen Collins has been great too. Gene makes Rachel and Charlie better.

Also liked to see Charlie stepping up to protect Rachel when Truman was talking to her.

Flashbacks from Julia's POV. It was unexpected. Nice surprise. It was cool to see the origin of ambitious/scheming Julia (and Tom). I thought it was spot on. I mean, with Julia being the smartest of the two, thinking ahead and doing questionable things for her family.

I wasn't liking the ambiguous Julia. Because Julia was never ambiguous with her family. So I'm glad it is completely over. I always believed Julia would do anything for her family, especially Jason.

The really bad thing is that we won't see Julia for a while now. I think. Because she was captured by the Patriots and Kim Raver has to go back to 24. The writers better bring her back for the last episodes of the season.

I liked that Jason didn't say anything. Julia's husband figured things out by himself. Jason can be a tough boy too.

Connor is really missing Mexico. I liked that he has a good genuine traumatic reason to not want to help them.

Screw both of you with something pointy. I officially love Connor. This quote made me think of Rachel, by the way.

But then he called Rachel a whack-job blonde. Not good. Of course Bass is not going to like it.

The father-son talk started so well... with Bass being all "we all have sad stories, you got to bury that deep and play ball". It actually gave me hope Bass doesn't want his son to become what Bass has become. But then Bass agrees with Connor and says Rachel is a boatload of crazy. Really Bass? That's why you and Rachel should be a thing. You should just tell your precious Connor that during a boatload of crazy day you killed his mother. Also, tell him that you kinda of like boatload of crazy Rachel and if she wanted, you and her would have something.

Okay, I still think Bass is manipulating Connor and telling him what he wants to hear to bring Connor to his side. Bass is bluffing because everytime Connor said something against Miles' ideas, Bass had a weird look on his face. As if he wasn't pleased with Connor's behaviour. Like when Connor says he wasn't going to walk "into Plague-ville". Bass' face is priceless. And of course, there is no way Bass really believes Miles will help him bring the Monroe Republic back.

I just really don't like this 'bringing back the Monroe Republic' idea. I'm sure Bass thinks family is more important than power. It would be interesting if someone else finds out about it. Miles or Charlie, for example. So Bass could tell him or her what his true intentions are.

What Bass said about needing Miles is true anyway. He will always need Miles emotionally. Not exactly "need". That's not the best word. But I think they're BFF and love being around each other. It feels good.

I really liked when Bass said "this outbreak is serious, kid". Because for the first time I actually felt Bass genuinely wanted to help Miles Rachel. Without second intentions at all, despite that manipulative misleading chat with Connor.

I'm sticking to this idea because of the way Bass looks at Rachel when Miles said there was no one there in the storm cellar. That look was a genuine "this is serious, these people are important to her, I should help, the same way she just helped me" look. And I also liked that Rachel is looking back giving the "you're so going to help me now or..." look.

I'm seeing a little bit of progress in the Rachel/Bass relationship. That's great. Really loved this episode.

When they caught Truman they looked at each other again. Yes writers/directors or whoever decides they should look at each other. Keep showing Rachel and Bass giving those little almost invisible looks to each other. Teasing is better than nothing.

Bass telling Rachel that Gene switched sides again was insensitive but funny too. Rachel's face. I guess Rachel was way too concerned about Gene, otherwise she would have put Bass in his place.

Not so easy to kill, am I? Right, Bass. Be proud of Rachel's achievement. When you're going to tell something to Rachel about this. I mean, "a 'thank you' would be nice".

Bass' smile to Miles when he injected Truman. From his look to Rachel to this smile to Miles and the way he's dressed. Bass was really gorgeous in this episode.

The Patriots being involved with Eugenics is not surprising. I think the cholera outbreak has nothing to do with it anyway. It was their way to enter Willoughby and convince Gene to work with them. Well, the Monroe Republic can be considered "good" if compared to the Patriots.

The nanites are self-aware, godlike and dangerous. If you don't obey them, they will rebel against you. I'd rather see the nanites become a good thing. So much time of the show invested on this storyline, if it turns out to be only a bad thing, it's predictable and disappointing.

I loved the episode, but there are two things that I could have done without:

Bass telling Connor that Miles loves Rachel. I'm done with seeing other characters recognizing their "epic" love. We get it, writers. And Bass, of all the characters. It's a good thing that he said "for some reason" because it implies he doesn't like it and he's jealous. I think it was Billy Burke, I'm not sure. He said that Bass looks at their relationship with some envy because Bass would like to have something like this too. It makes sense. It's obvious Bass loves Miles and wants Miles to love him back the way he loves Rachel. It's also obvious that he has some sort of fascination for Rachel and would have a relationship with Rachel, if she wanted to. At least now we know Bass always knew about their relationship.

Julia offering sex to get some food. I know it was a plan and she never intended to do anything with those men. I know it was to show Julia does whatever it takes. It's just tiring seeing women trying to seduce men to get what they want during three freaking episodes in a row. It's in character. It's something Julia would totally do. But it felt unnecessary. Julia is highly smart, she could easily have had a better idea. Rachel too. These writers have some issues with women.