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themonkeycabal · 4 years

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WandaVision Ep 4 SPOILERS

Yes, spoilers,

Wherein I watch and say stuff that might or might not be worth reading.

After a little bit of a lackluster start, there was good story progress last week. An escalation of weird, which I appreciated. I'll probably have to relive it, because Disney doesn't want to let me skip the previously. Ever. Why are you the way you are, Disney?

Geraldine/Monica is made of whispery voices and swirling dust and such. Weird. She's sitting in a chair, sleeping, and apparently being reconstituted. She wakes to a hospital room but outside is chaos. Lots of yelling and people running about. There's like swirling dust or human confetti everywhere, and other people are being reconstituted left and right. Seems unusual. Not the sort of thing that normally happens in hospitals. Oh, are they being un-snapped? The great un-snappening. The un-snapapalooza. The fall of the snappocalypse. I'll stop. I guess we're in a flashback of sorts.

Dudes, Monica just like full on hip checked some dude into the boards. She didn't mean it, but, damn, that guy went flying. Nobody knows what's going on, it's madness. A doctor recognizes her and asks where she went and Monica's all "uh, what? I took a nap?" Napping and then snapping and then popping back into existence. Ain't that just the way? Oh, sad, her mom died while she was missing for five years. :(

Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division — please nobody expect me to remember that. They have a Cape Canaveral looking compound with multiple launch pads and a very large hanger smack in the middle. Gee how neat for them that they get to operate out in the open, Phil Coulson says (in my head) with a whole lot of sarcasm.

Oh, right, they called it the Blip. The Great Un-Blippening. That doesn't sound as good. What on earth with the massive monitors in the main lobby. Nobody likes watching the news that much. Monica is trying to brazenly walk through the front doors with a badge that doesn't work and wow, security guy is kind of a dick. Oh, she belongs there. Captain Monica Rambeau. Captain, good for her.

And now security dick is revealed to be even more dickish, since this is just after the Blip and she's trying to go back to work. Like, SWORD couldn't put out a memo "Be on the lookout for recently unblipped personnel. Don't be massive dicks to them when their security badges don't work, because of how they got blipped and all"? Also maybe a reorientation packet, or like a desk out front "Back from the Blip? Talk to Lt. Mandy Smith in HR about your reactivation options today!" I'm just spitballing here. I get it was chaotic, but that's no reason to let the unblipped get a rude welcome. It wasn't their fault Thanos was critically dumb.

Blip no longer sounds like a word.

Anyway, the acting director is fortunately there to meet her before she could drop her gloves and punch the security dick in the dick. Aww, Maria Rambeau is on the Wall of Valor, or whatever they call it at SWORD.

Things aren't going well at SWORD. The Blip put the hurt on the division. Their remaining astronaut trainees have chickened out. Oh, what if there was like crew up in orbit that got blipped and then when they unblipped five years later … yikes. Well, I'll allow the 'lost their nerve' may have a solid basis in horribleness that probably occurred around the Blip. I retract the 'chickened out' comment.

This is a very long walk-and-talk. Maria Rambeau built SWORD "from the ground up". Bless.

The Director has grounded Monica. Well, actually, her mom grounded her, making protocols in case vanished personnel one day returned. Lol. Though, I mean, I'd guess she'd know, what with Carol and all. "I know it's a raw deal, but there is one positive takeaway. She believed you'd come back." Awww

So, she's off to deal with some sort of missing persons case in New Jersey overseeing the loan of one of their drones for the FBI. I guess Wanda will be the missing person. Yep, she's off to Westview. Which has seen better days.

Hey! It's Agent Woo! I like you Agent Woo! Did I know he was in this? I don't remember. Randall Park's great. A happy surprise.

Hmm, he has a missing witness. So, not Wanda, then. Hmm again. Agent Woo contacted known associates, family, friends — none of them have ever heard of the witness. A mystery!

Oh and there's another wrinkle.

"Pardon me Sheriff, would you mind repeating your claim about Westview to my colleague here?"

"No such place," he says, standing next to the 'Welcome to Westview" sign.

Hmmm, puzzling. Jimmy Woo can't reach anybody listed as living in town. So, wait, the town doesn't exist, except it does, but, nobody thinks it does, so where did he get the phone records for residents? The phone company was just like "here's your records for the imaginary city of Westview, all 3,000+ residents that never existed, and yet we have the numbers and we're just not going to question that". Weird.

"So you can't reach anyone inside and everyone on the outside has some sort of selective amnesia?" That does seem to be the case, Monica. Super odd. Agent Woo is very sanguine about the whole thing. He dealt with Scott Lang, I guess after that everything else is like, 'meh'.

"Why haven't' you gone inside to investigate?" A fine question, Captain.

"Because it doesn't want me to." That's just creepy, Agent Woo. "You can feel it, too, can't you? Nobody's supposed to go in." I guess this is where the drone will come in handy. Oh, it's the little helicopter that Wanda found in the bushes in the second episode. I'm going to pretend that super advanced SWORD drones would totally look like cheap RC toy helicopters. I guess that's a disguise?

Monica wants to know why she and Agent Woo are aware that Westview exists and nobody else is. Does that mean the Sheriff was standing next to the Welcome to Westview sign and just did not see it at all? He was just hanging out in the middle of nowhere with a weirdly laconic FBI agent who kept asking about the town that very clearly wasn't just right behind them? That's a little more than amnesia.

Also, Agent Woo's hero was Elliot Ness. Of course it was.

Oh no, the drone vanished as it crossed the town line! There's an energy field around the town that looks like what happens when you push your fingers against an old monitor and get the weird pixelly rainbow. Agent Woo's all "please no touch" and Monica's all "yes, I think I'll stick my whole hand in there." And she got sucked in. Agent Woo's gotta be like "WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY EVER LISTEN TO ME?"

24 hours later. Darcy! Some sort of transport van. A trio of other suits in the back, plus Darcy. She tries to talk to one of the dudes and he's all "we're not supposed to talk to each other!" "Boy Scout leader, got it." Relax, uptight guy. Pfft, what sort of team is that? The rest give up their specialty. Aww, bless, she went into astrophysics. "We've got the full clown car." heh.

Boy Scout leader finally caving to peer pressure: "I'm a chemical engineer." Darcy: "No one cares." lol. Missed you, girlfriend!

And in 24 hours SWORD/FBI whoever have set up a little military camp. Oh a "response base". How banally euphemistic. There's like a whole bunch of agencies there, as well as Army and Air Force.

Dr. Lewis. Oh, I'm so proud. I bet Jane was over the moon. Saved from poli-sci!

Elsewhere another drone vanishes. Darcy darcys a lot at an uptight uniform who is breathing down her neck "make your assessment" and it's delightful. Darcy notices some high levels of cosmic background radiation and also something weird layered over the top of that. Hmm, she needs a tv. "An old one, like not flat." One with vacuum tubes, perhaps?

In another part of the camp, they send in a guy in a hazmat suit, down into the sewers, looking for Monica. I guess he'll be the beekeper Wanda tosses in ep 2. Jimmy Woo is not optimistic about that plan. He tells the SWORD Director all about it.

"Someone must really miss you back at Quantico." "No, sir, softball season is over." Lol.

All their high tech scanning is turning up nothing.

Uhoh, screaming. Oh, nevermind, it's the laughtrack. While everybody else was dicking around with the LIDAR, Darcy has tracked down the last tube tv in New Jersey and has tuned into the Wanda Dimension. Episode one is playing.

Darcy is understandably particularly baffled by Vision. "Look, I know it's been a crazy few years on this planet, but he's dead right? Not blipped. Dead." Poor Vision. Alas.

Director wants to know if the broadcast is realtime or a recording. Or what? Darcy's like "how tf should I know?"

Jimmy asks the good question "So you're saying the universe created a sitcom staring two Avengers?" "It's a working theory."

Now SWORD fans out! And collects every ye olde TV on the eastern seaboard. Who doesn't love a good sitcom, amiright? (Me. Me do not love sitcoms). The Director storms off to wherever for whatever reason. I don't know, don't care. Jimmy and Darcy are on the case.

Darcy is IDing the other "characters" in the sitcom, who appear to be real people with NJ driver's liscenses, while Jimmy is wondering why the force field is hexagonal. You've got me there. And now we're montaging.

Jimmy ponders the big board of 'characters' and Darcy drops her cup o' noodles when she spots Monica in the second episode. He and Darcy discuss and he's like "is it an alternate reality, time travel, some cockamamie social experiment?" Darcy's all "it's a sitcom." A pure mystery.

Darcy comes up with the idea to reach out to Wanda via the radio in her kitchen. "Next time she's washing dishes — which by my count happens about once an episode, barf." heh. She tech babbles some and I'm very proud.

A minion agent runs up with the latest intel from the most recent episode, it's a picture of the SWORD drone that looks more retro (frankly it looks better than the 'real world' one.) Hmmm, such a puzzler. Why did it change, they wonder.

Darcy Lewis and Jimmy Woo are a partnership I can totally get behind. Jimmy was the voice trying to reach Wanda. Darcy's watching the show while Jimmy's trying the radio thing. It's the second episode where Wanda's talking to Emma Caulfield and things go weird. Good. I'm glad they jumped us to the outside world by ep four. While I thought the first two eps were slow, I think maybe they'll work better once we can watch the whole thing at a go.

Dude is still crawling through the sewers. I completely forgot he was down there. And the field extends below ground and he just crawled through it and became a beekeeper, and his safety rope snapped and … became a jumprope?

And then Wanda wishes him to the cornfield. (I guess? We don't see what happens to him.)

SWORD is watching episode three.

"1950s, 1960s, and now 70s. Why does it keep switching time periods. It can't be purely for my enjoyment can it?" Guys, it's so good to see Darcy. "I can't believe Wanda and Vision are having a baby." No really, Jimmy and Darcy, BFFS 4EVAH! They're eating chips and watching the episode. Delightful. Just delightful.

"Twins. What a twist." Jimmy gives Darcy a look. "I'm invested!"

Monica mentions Ultron and Jimmy and Darcy are like "Whoa!".

They notice the screen sort of glitches and then Monica is gone and it's the end credits. Like when Bee guy vanished. Darcy and Jimmy are confused. "Someone is censoring the broadcast." Yeah, Wanda. She's gone to the scary place, friends.

Alarms go off and they run off. But, we go into Wanda World the aspect ratio changes from 4:3 to 16:9 and it's a new angle on when Wanda went all scary at Monica, demanding to know who she is. And then, of course, she gets kicked out of Wanda World.

"Wanda, I'm just your neighbor." "Then how could you know about Ultron?"

Wanda brings up the glowy hands of scary. "You are a stranger and an outsider and right now you are trespassing here. And I want you to leave." And then she zooms Monica out through the walls and fences and fields and that looked like it probably hurt.

Oh gross. Wanda turns around and sees Dead Vision. The big hole in his head and his face all, you know, dead looking. She looks away and then he's normal when she looks back. Well, now this has turned all sad, you guys. "We can go wherever we want." "No, we can't." Sad. Poor Wanda. The aspect ratio goes back to 4:3. I’m sure Editorial was like “oh god, again?”

"Don't worry darling, I have everything under control."

I don't think so, Wanda.

Good ep! My only real takeaway is that none of this is going to end particularly happily.

So … Darcy and Jimmy, BFFS 4EVAH!

#wandavision #wandavision spoilers #darcy lewis #jimmy woo #wandavision liveblog

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truthbeetoldmedia · 5 years

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iZombie 5x08 "Death of a Car Salesman" Review

As we descend into the final stretch of iZombie, the show takes things back to the beginning. A lot of things have happened over the past few years, but we’ve never figured out how the virus actually occurred. While the flashbacks that kick off the episode don’t answer every question, it’s headed in a pretty interesting direction. We see Martin Roberts (wearing a shirt with the word ‘beanpole’ on it, so I guess that answers that question) messing around with some recipes of utopium — a drug that we know is linked to zombie rage outs. Martin is dipping into his supply with a friend, when we see him rage out and attack — possibly the first rage out to ever happen.

We are also treated to pre-Zombie Blaine and Don E, who were just nerdy pals back in the day. Talk about a lot of things changing. Now that their business has fallen apart, their relationship has fractured a bit. Blaine is still camping out in Don E’s basement, but his deposit on his new business venture — smuggling Freylich brains — has allowed him to give it a little upgrade. Blaine has assembled a brand new smuggling team, and the only thing they needed in order to be convinced of kidnapping teens was an extra $15,000 a head. Blaine seems to think he’s found a way back on top of his game, but Don E has a few cards that he hasn’t played yet. So has Ravi, for that matter. Charlie has given him a list of kids with Freylich syndrome, so Ravi is right at Blaine’s heels with that information.

Meanwhile, we finally get to meet the love interest that has been hinted at all season! Darcy Bennett, the one Freylich syndrome kid in Seattle, has the skull tattoo, which the murdered matchmaker said Don E’s perfect match would have. Don E has been down because running the bar has been more work than he bargained for, but he and Darcy hit it off. She reminds him they have to “rock out until they clock out” and I love her already. I’m glad the show is paying this off, this kind of love interest for Don E is exactly what I was hoping for. He offers to help her get through her bucket list, like starting a bar fight. I’m not sure we have much time with Darcy, but this looks bad for Blaine. If Darcy dies, Ravi and Don E will both have someone they love pass away from the same disease, and it might be enough to put them on the same side.

Ravi and Liv are on the same brain in this episode, and it was probably the best one they could have chosen for it. A car salesman named Rick Randall is victim to a hacked self-driving car, and it goes over a bridge. This brain has been one of my favorites of the season so far. Rahul and Rose always have wonderful scene chemistry, but the suave energy they bring to this was so much fun to watch. The posturing and the winks and the toothpicks are all just too much. While we don’t actually see it happen, it’s actually Ravi’s vision that helps solve the case. An old rival’s daughter vandalized Rick’s car. Liv and Ravi are busy giving firm handshakes and gripping shoulders, but it’s Clive that closes this case. Liv sees the culprit and his daughter embrace, and she immediately runs back to her own father.

Earlier in the episode, Liv accuses Martin of not being as sober as he said. He tells her she is his reason for finally kicking the habit for good, and she wonders why her birth didn’t make it stick the first time. A bleak conversation with Clive over his time in Vice leads him to admit that he knows people get clean, but he’s never seen it himself. Determined to make it work, Liv arrives with brochures about rehab and addiction recovery. “You’re a good person. And good people can’t help themselves,” Martin tells her. Remember last week when I said that Liv’s identity is going to be important for the rest of the season? Well, from the mouths of dead beat fathers. Liv has a lot going on, she really doesn’t need much more on her plate. Part of me wonders if she wanted to find her dad in hopes she’d find someone who might take care of her, for once. She tells him that she “doesn’t have any more to give,” yet she offers to spend time with Martin and help him get clean. But Martin is not as helpless as he claims. We see him making significant moves this episode, like using his lackeys to infect several key US senators. He ends the episode by watching Patch’s Renegade documentary. Something tells me that he’s not gazing fondly over his daughter’s achievements, but rather, doing research.

Martin’s meddling is going to make it that much more difficult for Peyton and Major to pull off her plan. General Mills is in town to see New Seattle for himself. Peyton and Major present their solution, relocating all zombies to an island, just like Vivian Stoll wanted. General Mills is unimpressed, especially since Major apparently lost his daughter. (She was just in the last episode! Where did she go?) He tells Major that this is basically a hostage situation, and nothing they say or do can change his mind. Major keeps his cool, but things aren’t looking good. I can’t imagine that any goodwill will be extended to zombies after General Mills finds out that a handful of senators have been compromised by Martin and his army.

I guess it’s a good thing that Hi Zombie finally dropped, right? Maybe General Mills will change his mind after watching the sitcom. I’m not sure how “good” this TV show actually is, but I really enjoyed watching Liv, Major, Ravi, and Peyton sit down to enjoy and laugh over something together. I’ll never say no to a sweet moment between these four. I have a feeling that things are going to be ramping up soon, and they will be few and far between. Lately, the show has been doing better about the heavy-handedness of themes and metaphors, and I’m crossing my fingers it continues as some of the overarching plots begin to reach their peak.

Stray Thoughts:

I loved that the prize for the annual raffle contest was a mountain bike and, as Ravi points out, “The mountains are on the other side of the wall.”

Ravi’s slicked hair with the skunk stripe. That’s all.

Liv is an “OZ”, an Original Zombie from the Max Rager Boat Party, and I wish they had taken the opportunity to use that hilarious acronym more.

“I’ve had a vision.” “That’s it, you call that a vision?” Poor Clive. He usually can’t handle Liv and Ravi on their best days, the two of them on the same brain probably has him close to the edge.

“Peak TV my ass,” says Blaine, regarding “Hi Zombie.” For once we agree?

“Ralphy Sharkbuddy with a fake British accent”

“Are you and Major in for dinner with me and Peyton tonight?” Why would Liv know if Major is free and feel comfortable making double dates for them? *Shady eye emoji*

Have we seen Scott E before? I can’t remember. What happened to him?

If this zombie island comes to pass, are Peyton and Ravi going to be separated from Liv and Major?

Haley’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

iZombie airs Thursdays at 9/8c on the CW.

#iZombie #Death of a Car Salesman

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sueboohscorner · 8 years

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#JaneTheVirgin: Jane the Brokenhearted Chapter Fifty Four

Chapter Fifty Four

Look, I feel some kinda way and I knew it was going to happen. You’ll recall in my midseason finale/spoiler alert post, I told you this was coming to pass. I hate being right.

(If you haven’t seen the eppy yet, 1) why are you reading a recap and 2) don’t read ahead unless you want the spoiler spoiled.) (Go away.) (Stop playing.)

First of all, this episode was tight. It was Jane in peak form, firing on all cylinders, every single character involved. It was written by showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman and directed by Melonie Mayron (Professor Donaldson). At the top of the show, the Narrator takes us back to young Michael instead of young Jane. Young Michael is dressed for Halloween in a cop outfit that’s adorably too big for him. In a nice bit of foreshadowing, Michael wants with all his heart to go trick-or-treating, but he’s sick and his mom won’t let him go. In the present, Jane and Michael are looking through old photographs and come across a pic from that long ago Halloween. Michael swears he remembers that moment perfectly, but Jane explains something called “flashbulb memory,” memories that seem so vivid and clear because of the intensity of the emotion attached to them, not because of our accurate recollection. (She read that in the New Yorker, here’s the article: http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/idea-happened-memory-recollection) (I wish I could figure out how to hyperlink). Michael says, “Nah, I remember everything.”

The phone rings and Jane is offered her dream job, assistant to a publishing wunderkind. (What happened to the other lady? Last I remember, Jane and Michael (sob) wowed the assistant at a bar singing Bruno Mars karaoke, right?). Rogelio stops by with a different kind of picture: a still from his nude scene (Rogelio’s genitalia is a gift that keeps on giving). Ro invites Jane to the screening and she agrees to come as long as he tells her when to look away in order to avoid having the image her padre’s cadre seared on the inside of her eyelids.

Unlike the last time when Catalina (may she never return) told Jane to wing her interview, Jane is hella prepared. And when Jane is prepared, she does the darn thing. She’s given a memoir to read and her prospects ($40K and benefits) look amazing. Jane goes to pick up Mateo from Abuela’s where Xiomara is watching him. Xo wants some quid pro quo and asks Jane to come to dinner with Alba, Bruce, and Scary Tess. Jane agrees. When Xo asks Jane for feminine protection, Jane realizes she’s late. And she’s been having a lot of sex. A lot of sex. With Michael. La amor de su vida. (Why, Jennie Snyder Urman, why?!)

Michael comes home happy (he’s so happy this episode; he’s like a dog that doesn’t know he’s about to be put down) and Jane is making pasta. She tells him she might be pregnant, and she’s worried about their timeline and Mateo—but the look on Michael’s face assures her that a little Cordero would make Michael the happiest man on the planet. Jane takes one of Xo’s old pregnancy tests (what is she stockpiling them?) but the test is expired, and the result is unreadable. I loved that there was this kind of lingering hope that they might have a baby, even though I knew Michael was doomed. Doomed, I say!

Rogelio has been trying to come up with a matchmaker reality show for Darci. Darci wants him to co-star, but Ro is all about that indie life. He invites Darci to walk down la alfombra roja to the screening of his movie. At the screening, Ro’s big reveal has been edited out of the movie. (“They cut my penis!”). He storms outside and Darci tries to console him. As a bystander secretly records Ro’s freakout on cellphone, Ro says “penis” about a hundred times and he also hurts Darci, telling her she just wants to be Bethany Frankel while he wants to be a serious actor. Not the move, Ro.

At the Tess dinner, Tess is being a shady little heffa, but Jane wins her over by telling her that she and Michael live near a popular coffee shop Tess likes (okay….). Back at the apartment, Jane tells Michael she got her period, and she’s not pregnant (seriously, she had to tell him that last part. I’m like, Mike, you’re a cop!) They agree they’re disappointed, and Michael says they’ve got all the time in the world because he’s doomed! Doomed, I say! There’s a knock at the door and it Tess, drunk as a skunk in a trunk! Jane takes her to Xo’s, where Tess escapes on a bike, only to be captured by Abuela, who tells her to get in the car ahora mismo! Xo calls Bruce, who wants to lock Tess up forever, but Xo offers some sage advice that saves Tess’s butt, which Tess overhears, opening the door to a civil relationship between Tess and Xo.

Oh! The other people—you know, the ones who survived Jennie Snyder Urman’s death scythe. Scott told Petra he and Anezka are married, and he has gazillion copies of the will’s addendum (I love Anezka’s forever bangs, lol). Rafael tells Luisa (remember her?) he’s not a real Solano and she assures him he will always be her brother and she’ll always have his back. Rafael finds out he’s going to have to do some jail time for cooking the books after his dad-not-dad died. Petra freaks because she hasn’t bonded with the twins, but she eases into motherhood and tells Raf to go ahead to jail if that’s what he wants (maybe he’ll see Petra’s mother, Magda in the co-ed prison yard!). Luisa introduces her new girlfriend, Eileen (come on!), to Rafael and Rafael is like, “I’ma need some bloodwork, proof of plastic surgery, and MRI, a bone scan” whatever it takes to prove Eileen is NOT Sin Rostro.

Of course, Eileen IS Sin Rostro (does she even have cartilage left?) and she has a look alike go take all the tests for her. Meanwhile, Jane delivered Ro’s naked pictures instead of the memoir summary and analysis to the publisher and torpedoed her chances at getting her dream job. Ro shrink-wraps a bus and wins Darci back.

The Date. God, this was beautiful writing. Jane and Michael go to the amusement park they went to when they first started dating. The scene alternates between the shy pair feeling their way around commitment to the married couple dreaming of forever. They play carnival games and take photo booth pictures. Jane looks at Michael and they both smile, knowing they’re going to ride the Ferris wheel, where they became a couple (yes, I thought it was the night of Jane’s 21st birthday, too, but you remember they added that Sam in the beginning of season 3). As the wheel goes round the past folds in on the present and you just know Michael is doomed. Doomed, I say! Chile, I thought the Ferris wheel was gonna break and send him hurling to his death there were so many omens! That didn’t happen; instead, Michael remembers some minor detail from an investigation that proves the memoir wasn’t entirely true and will allow Jane to march back to the publisher’s office, find out it was all a test and get the job. Because Michael is Jane’s safe place to land, always guiding her, supporting her, loving her. Sigh.

Jane gives Michael the cutest lunch box to take to the LSATs. She tells him she loves him, she’s proud of him. Michael goes to take the test. When he finishes and lines up to hand his test in, he collapses and dies. When Jane receives the call that Michael has died from some complication from his gunshot wound, she drops the phone and lets out a scream that better be on Gina Rodriguez’ Emmy reel, because it was life! Rafael comes in and wraps his arms around her (they are never, ever getting back together, so forget it #TeamRafael!). There’s a hint that Jane goes through some dark times and we’re about to jump ahead three years (no more Mr. Sweetface?!), but we’ve reached the end of part two.

So, basically, this is a reboot of the entire show. They’re jumping ahead three years, so anything can happen for the rest of the season. Raf’s going to jail. Sin Rostro’s back. Jane’s going to a wedding ( I bet it’s Alba’s!) and she has a funky new haircut. But as a member of #TeamMichael, my heart will always be a little broken when I don’t see Brett Dier’s goofy-sweet face mooning at Jane. (I hope he comes back as a Patrick Swayze in Ghost like spirit! Jennie Snyder Urman told The Hollywood Reporter they will do Michael flashbacks! Yay!)

A+ eppy. Can’t wait until next week.

Tell me what you think of Michael's death in the comments section!

Kellybelle

#Jane The Virgin #janethevirgin #Gina Rodriguez #Andrea Navedo #Jaime Camil #Justin Baldoni #Brett Dier #Ivonne Coll #Yael Grobglas #yara martinez #Justina Machado

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Hak My Life – Thoughts on Finding a Way to Win at Home After Flyers 5, Coyotes 4

Dave Hakstol called a timeout. Asked about it later, he said he wished he would have taken it sooner. But the timeout, itself, was irrelevant.

The Flyers had just allowed two shorthanded goals – on the same power play. Their two-goal lead from a quick start was gone and replaced by a sudden two-goal deficit.

Hakstol didn’t want to say much. His players knew the gravity of the situation.

Here they were, melting down on home ice, in front of their fans… again.

Twitter was ablaze. The calls for Joel Quenneville to be the new coach were fever pitched.

But there was one message from the coach. One that apparently has to be reiterated to this team whenever they play in front of their fans:

“It’s a matter of getting back together. Getting your brains settled down. Calm down. Worry about the next shift. Don’t worry about everything else going on on the other side of the glass. We’ve had some struggles in this building, so get the focus on the ice. That’s the only message.”

The Flyers were able to block out everything else and find a way back to win the game. They scored third period goals with the fourth line and the third line on the ice. Scott Laughton (two goals) and Dale Weise were the guys who tied it and Shayne Gostisbehere won it with an overtime goal.

That’s good and all, but I want to get back to what Hakstol said for a minute…

“Don’t worry about what’s going on on the other side of the glass. We’ve had some struggles in this building so get the focus on the ice.”

Sure as hell sounds like he’s saying his team is frequently unnerved on home ice by the fans being a bit negative.

Am I crazy? Please tell me I’m crazy.

I’m not crazy. It’s absolutely why the Flyers seem to play much better hockey on the road than they do at home. It’s the antithesis of everything you expect in professional sports. Flyers home games used to be the greatest home game advantage in professional sports.

Opposing players would often get the “Philly flu” when coming to play the Flyers. They dominated games at the old Spectrum.

Now, home ice has turned into a house of horrors for the Flyers, and it sounds like they crack under fan pressure.

The good thing is, they didn’t completely crumble against the Coyotes and found the gumption to come back and win the game.

“The bottom line is sometimes you just got to sack up and get a character win,” Hakstol said. “That’s what tonight was. … Having success [on the recent road trip] helps. It helps you believe in what you are doing. That was a big part of tonight. We didn’t start cheating on things. We didn’t start pressing. We went out and played. We played a little harder. We played a little better. We didn’t start winging it out there and cheating the game – and that’s real important in a situation like that.”

As a side note, candid Dave Hakstol has been the most pleasant surprise of this season.

The fact of the matter is, the Flyers used their recent run of success to trump whatever bad mojo they seem to think hovers over them like a perennial rain cloud at home. But there has to remain a modicum of concern that there is a mental block with this team when it comes to playing in front of their fans.

Candid Dave elaborated further:

“We have to do that [get the fans back on our side]. That onus is on us. Our effort. Our intensity. Our play. You saw what the place was like in the third period.”

But is this team the confident team that we saw in the third period pull a victory from the jaws of defeat? Or are they still a fragile collective, who have rabbit ears when it comes to fans in their own building?

“We’re a confident team,” Hakstol said. “I believe it. Whatever word you want to put on it, the guys in the room are tight. You either blow apart when you go through some tough situations or you come together. And we’ve come a little closer together.”

As for the game, it was like three games in one. The fast start. The epic collapse. The unexpected comeback.

Here are the characters who played a huge part in those three stories:

1. Dale Weise

Russ spent a good amount of time talking to Weise, who had the play of the game – a breakaway goal late in the third period to complete the comeback.

It was surely an unexpected hero for the Flyers – and I’ll let Russ dive into the details, but I wanted to say one thing about it…

Weise has been one of the most consistent Flyers this season. He’s been really good and a moment like this has been on the horizon for some time.

Good for Weise, who five weeks ago wasn’t even sure if he’d have an NHL job this season, and now is contributing at a level far beyond anyone else’s expectations.

2. Scott Laughton

Laughton admitted after the game that while his team was playing well on the recent road trip, he wasn’t at his best.

It actually goes back further than that.

Yes, Laughton has been scoring goals, but his advanced metrics have been pretty meager.

His CorsiFor% is 43.17, worst on the team (not counting Andrew MacDonald, who has been rooted to the press box for most of the past month). It’s one of the reasons Laughton was demoted from the third line and replaced by Weise.

But Laughton had great jump and energy from his first shift against Arizona. He only ended up playing 9:17 in the game, but it sure as hell seemed like he was on the ice for a lot more than that.

That’s because he was a noticeable player every time he stepped on the ice.

He did this:

Determination and a finish! pic.twitter.com/rmYb3pVVI6

— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) November 9, 2018

… and this:

LAUGHTON IS ON FIRE

He scores his second of the night to put the Flyers within one. pic.twitter.com/Mh8P5imedq

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) November 9, 2018

It was his second two-goal game this season, and believe it or not, the fourth line Flyer is now tied for second on the team in goals with six this season.

“I think from the first shift you can feel your legs going,” Laughton said. “I don’t think I had the best West Coast trip. The team played well but I feel like I could have played better and help this team. So, good effort by the team tonight, but the biggest thing is we have to follow it up on Saturday.”

3. Shayne Gostisbehere

What a crazy game for Ghost. He had a run-in with an official when things were falling apart for the Flyers, but then bounces back to set up Weise with the tying goal and score the game-winner.

First the bad:

There's the Flyers we know and love. pic.twitter.com/kgBWXCk6kx

— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) November 9, 2018

We’ll get to the linesman being in the way in a second, but what you don’t see here is Ghost failing to keep the puck in at the point. That was a shocker because he’s probably the best in the league at keeps.

It’s gotten to a point where plays like this are the surprise and great keeps by Ghost are the norm. This was on a Flyers power play and the Arizona penalty kill is the best in the NHL and came into the game with seven shorthanded goals already. That’s a remarkable number.

So, they definitely pressure the puck at the point on the power play and force you to make mistakes.

Ghost also fumbled the puck initially in the neutral zone before corralling it for a brief second when the video above starts.

Now, the linesman, Michel Cormier, who is a veteran and has worked more than 1,000 games in his 10-year career, absolutely got in the way. Maybe he too was expecting a Gostisbehere keep and was surprised that the play suddenly was coming at him. Still, he’s got to get out of the way, and the effort he made, while valiant, definitely had him in the wrong position on the ice.

Linesmen used to hop up and sit on the end boards to get out of the way. Not sure what happened there, but they no longer do that. They try and skate out of the way and, well, plays like this happen more frequently than ever before.

Anyway, Gostisbehere was pissed after the goal. So much so that he immediately wet over to Cormier and started barking at him. Cormier was none too pleased and chirped back. It stuck in Ghost’s craw all night. He was even a little feisty about it after the game, albeit he did take a second to bring some needed levity to the situation:

Question: On a play like that where it gets caught in the [official’s] skates, what do you do on something like that?

“Aww man, It’s hard not to get mad right now, but it happened. Thankfully we came back and we won. We definitely made it a little harder, but we won.”

Question: It’s hard not to react at that point too?

“Yes, definitely. I have a weapon in my hand. … I’m just kidding. (Lots of laughter). It is what it is. It’s part of the game. I definitely got heated. He got heated. It is what it is.”

They won the game because Jake Voracek finally decided to have a good shift in overtime.

Kind of lost in the shuffle of the game (Voracek had the turnover that lead to the other shorthanded goal the Flyers allowed seconds later), Voracek made the game-winning goal happen, first with a great play to get a high-percentage shot on goal that Darcy Kuemper actually made a really nice stop against, before Voracek corralled the rebound and fed Gostisbehere for the game winner:

GHOST WITH THE OT WINNER pic.twitter.com/1lXs4e28IK

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) November 9, 2018

That’s two games in a row where the Flyers didn’t play great hockey and still found a way to win. Another big part of that was this guy:

4. Brian Elliott

He didn’t even start the game as he was still recovering from a minor injury. The Flyers really didn’t want him to have to play but Calvin Pickard had a rough night. He allowed four goals on 18 shots, and although his teammates hung him out to dry allowing successive short-handed goals (Arizona now has nine… that’s usually among the league leader in April, not November. It’s an insane number), he didn’t make the big stop.

Not to mention, he really should have had this one:

And we're tied pic.twitter.com/6Rmk9pyrmg

— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) November 9, 2018

Yeah, there was a bad change by the Flyers that created this opportunity, but that’s a shot your goalie has to save.

Anyway, after the two shorties, Hakstol pulled Pickard and put in Elliott.

There was no margin for error for Moose, and he didn’t have any.

“You’re not thinking about letting in goals, you just want to get in front of pucks,” Elliott said. “The heartbeat gets going pretty quickly. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to just get thrown in and watch the pucks into your body. I had a couple shots right away and was able to get the feel of things and it makes it easier when guys are pressing down the other end and we got good energy and some goals.”

Elliott made 16 saves in 31:34 of ice time to earn the win in relief. And while none of those saves were highlight-worthy, there were more than a couple sneaky tough saves in there that often handcuff goalies, and Elliott did his part to keep the Flyers in the game when one more goal would have easily ended the night differently.

5. Penalty kill

This wasn’t good – again.

Something really has to change here. I don’t know what. The fans have been screaming for Ian Laperriere to lose his job as an assistant coach because the PK has gotten progressively worse. And it’s an understandable reaction – although I think Laperriere probably brings more to the coaching staff than just managing the PK – although that is what his top priority should be.

But the Flyers PK simply is terrible in front of it’s own net. They know it. The other team knows it. And it seems like every goal allowed by the PK is identical:

OEL gets Arizona within a goal. pic.twitter.com/AnhJbwKCjV

— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) November 9, 2018

There’s a lot of standing around here. The most noticeable is Christian Folin. He basically just lets the screen set up shop right in front of Pickard and makes no effort to clear it away. I’m not sure what Ivan Provorov is doing here either. And Jori Lehtera’s attempt to block Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot was pretty lame.

Only Laughton looks like he was working here, and that’s a problem for the Flyers that never gets fixed. Successful penalty kills are all about effort, will and selflessness. It’s grunt work, but it’s important.

The Flyers penalty kill percentage is now 68.4%, 30th in the NHL. Only the Ottawa Senators are worse at 67.3% (You may have seen the Uber video).

Here’s the thing, the worst season in NHL history, since power plays and penalty kills have been tracked, was by the 1979-80 Los Angeles Kings. Their PK that season was 68.2%. So the Flyers (and Sens) are in rarefied air here with some of the worst units ever.

The fact that the organization continues to let this fester, now into a fourth year, is the most damning thing you can point out. It’s been bad for so long and nothing tangible has been done in an attempt to fix it.

6. Crazy Stats

Just some stuff for you….

The Flyers have now allowed a power play goal in nine straight games. This is the longest successive streak of that kind of futility since 2005-06 when they had a 10-game streak of bad penalty killing (Remember those halcyon days of Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje? Good times!) The franchise record is 12 straight games, which has happened four times, most recently in 1993-94.

The Flyers had never won a game where they allowed two shorthanded goals on the same penalty – until Thursday. Granted, it had only happened twice before – in a 6-4 loss to Pittsburgh in 2012 and a 12-0 drubbing by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1969.

Claude Giroux played his 754th career game to move past Chris Therien into fourth place all-time in franchise history. He also recorded his second consecutive multi-point game (2A) after posting two goals and an assist on Monday night. It’s his seventh multi-point game of the season. He has had an understated start to the season. He has 19 points in 16 games, which has him in the top 10 in the NHL in scoring (tied for ninth) and only five points behind league leader Mikko Rantanen of Colorado.

The Flyers continue to dominate in the faceoff circle. They won 63% of draws against Arizona and are second-best in the NHL in faceoff wins at 55.4%.

7. Getting Gritty with it

Maybe the best moment of a Dave Hakstol press conference ever occurred after the game. When talking about what the fans expect out of his team he had this stream-of-conscience gem:

“I really believe that the people that are in the seats and are fans of the Flyers, they want effort. They want compete. And when they see that, it’s not just about the result. They want that gritty… I can’t believe I just used that word. (Laughter). Check please! I need to go home.”

It’s official, the Flyers mascot has forever impacted coach speak.

The post Hak My Life – Thoughts on Finding a Way to Win at Home After Flyers 5, Coyotes 4 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Hak My Life – Thoughts on Finding a Way to Win at Home After Flyers 5, Coyotes 4 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Ramblings: Fantasy Guide Available Today! Plus Kadri, Drouin, and more (Aug 1)

The Fantasy Guide is available now! I don’t know about right now as in by the time you read this, but very very soon, as in today. Hours, maybe even minutes from now, if it isn't already. To use a tagline from an ad that has stuck in my head since I was a kid, get it or regret it! In case you're waiting patiently by your computer, it'll be available at 3 p.m. ET.

My contribution is the Goaltenders To Watch piece. I won’t give you anything on who my goaltenders are because you’ll have to purchase the guide for that. I’ll say, though, that I had a tougher time picking goalies than I did last summer, when I had a few predictions that turned out well. I’m not going to pick the stud goalies or obvious names here – more like the goalies that could rebound or surprise or be ready to take the next step either now or in a year or two. Of course, it’s about when you’re drafting these goalies, as they probably won’t be the first goalies you select. Value is important.

Also, don’t forget to vote in this week’s Cage Match Tournament, which will be the fourth and final tournament of the summer. This week you’ll be voting on which defensemen will exceed their career best scoring output/rate by 10+ points. There are some interesting names in there, which are mainly up-and-coming blueliners as opposed to veterans.

At the time of writing, Samuel Girard and Brandon Montour are your leaders. That means that the voters believe that Girard is on pace for at least a 34-point season, while Montour will score at least at a 43-point pace. Agree or disagree? Get your vote in. You can also read who I voted for and who others voted for in the thread below. And as per usual, you can also read Rick’s weekly Cage Match for more information on each player.

The Rangers and Ryan Spooner avoided arbitration, agreeing on a two-year contract worth $4 million per season. I won’t write any more about Spooner here, instead referring you to what I wrote about him at the tail end of Bubble Keeper Week for the Sunday Ramblings.

Gustav Forsling is expected to miss the first month of the season after undergoing wrist surgery that will require about 14 weeks of recovery time. After starting the season with four assists in five games, Forsling made it onto one of my fantasy teams for a brief stretch. Finishing the season with 13 points in 41 games, Forsling holds some value in deep keeper leagues.

Mike mentioned Jarome Iginla’s retirement in Ramblings here and here, but I’ll add a couple bits of my own about him that stand out.

I can remember Iginla way back to his junior days with the Kamloops Blazers (the closest WHL team to where I lived growing up). That Blazers’ team that was probably the strongest junior team in Canada during the early to mid-1990s. Iginla racked up 136 points in his final junior season, yet he couldn’t grab the spotlight for himself because of other talented teammates such as Scott Niedermayer, Shane Doan, and Darcy Tucker. That program was instrumental in providing him with the winning foundation that he needed for his Hall of Fame career.

Iggy also set up one of my favorite goals of all time (if you’re American, I apologize in true Canadian fashion for posting this). Listen for Sidney Crosby yelling “Iggy!” at the start. By the way, you'll need to open the video outside this website.

{youtube}TuGG9hV1tos{/youtube}

I know many of you come here because this is about hockey and nothing else; however, I’m going to detour into another sport for a moment. This intertwines with hockey, so hear me out. Or skip to the next section if you don’t want to.

As you may already know, the Major League Baseball trade deadline was today, so I was looking around for baseball’s version of the trade deadline programming that we receive in Canada for hockey. You know, TSN and Sportsnet battling it out for ratings. But I couldn’t find anything where a baseball insider was dropping trades similar to what Bob McKenzie and Elliotte Friedman do. All I could find was ESPN radio, which because it’s ESPN seems to concentrate on the same four or five talking points all the time. Today it was everything about LeBron James and what his signing means for the Lakers (uh, it makes them better?) Hasn’t that topic been beaten to death already?

Sometimes the hockey coverage in Canada might seem like overkill. But it would have been nice to see something like this for baseball. There were lot of baseball trades made with a ton of fantasy implications, which I wanted to digest and figure out. Any new closers? Players moving into new opportunities? Who gets bumped out of a starting role? Who gets moved to a better/worse ballpark?

I’m sure many of you also play fantasy baseball, so maybe you were looking around for the same thing. Or maybe you had found it? On Twitter, perhaps?

As a spinoff from Bubble Keeper Week, I’m going to go through players who you mentioned on Twitter that I should cover, yet didn’t fit the criteria of bubble keepers. (I’ll let you in on a secret: Dobber supplied us with a list… and he said that week not to cover any players on that list, which mainly consisted of top 150 players.) I understand that these players may still be bubble keepers to you, though, as fantasy hockey leagues come in different shapes and sizes. So if I didn’t get to your player today, check back again later this week.

Nazem Kadri

Kadri was extremely hot and cold during 2017-18. After a strong first two months of the season (13 points in 17 games), Kadri cooled off to a 12-game pointless drought that lasted all through December. Then it was back to the previous scoring pace (32 points in 41 games). Once all was said and done, Kadri had posted his second consecutive 30-goal and 55-point season.

So with John Tavares now in the fold, will Kadri be able to repeat his production from the past two seasons? The easy take is to assume that he will be shifted toward a more defensive role. Something that is also lost among the Tavares hype is that several other scorers have departed from the Leafs, including Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk. The Leafs’ first and second-power play units logged very similar icetime totals, so a spot should remain on whatever unit Kadri was on (I’ll let a Leafs’ fan weigh in on which one that would be).

There’s also a couple of other factors that could help Kadri during the Tavares era in Toronto. For one, Tavares will help the power play, as his 30 PPP was more than anyone on the Leafs. As well, teams will probably focus on using their top shutdown units against the Tavares line and the Auston Matthews line. This should mean better scoring opportunities for Kadri. With 19 power-play points (fourth on the Leafs), Kadri shouldn’t be going anywhere.

We in fantasy hockey tend to think of the top two lines as the place to be for forwards. But strong teams nowadays focus on rolling three solid forward lines. If Kadri centers the third line, that isn’t such a bad thing. He could have another quietly effective season on a Leafs’ forward group that is one of the deepest in the league.

Jonathan Drouin

It was a difficult first season in Montreal for Drouin. Brought in to be groomed as the number one center, Drouin struggled at the position, with a low 42.5% faceoff success rate just one symptom. The adjustment unfortunately also affected his scoring numbers, as he only totaled 13 goals and 46 points to go with a brutal minus-28. For a player that was drafted in the top 100 in most fantasy leagues, that wasn’t much of a return.

So is Drouin an effective rebound candidate? A better question might be whether Drouin will ever be capable of meeting his upside. In spite of the perceived low point total, Drouin reached a career high in assists (33) and only fell seven points shy of his career high from a season earlier. Drouin was also a minus-13 during that 2016-17 season in Tampa Bay. So assist-heavy point totals and poor plus-minus have been a part of his recent history with two different teams.

Given the fact that Drouin might be outside of the top 100 in single-season leagues, he might be a buy-low candidate to consider. To give you an idea, I offered Matt Duchene for Drouin in one keeper league and was turned down. There are more league rule factors at play than what I can describe here, but this particular owner knows the value of what he still has. Either that or he’s not interested at all in Duchene, which is a whole other discussion.

If you believe in a Drouin rebound/breakout/whatever you want to call it, you’ll cite the fact that he is only 23 years old. Maybe you’ll even mention the breakout of his former junior teammate Nathan MacKinnon. Remember that MacKinnon’s value seemed to have hit rock bottom at this time last season. Now he’s an MVP finalist. That’s not to say that will happen with Drouin, but he may have needed a season to adjust to his surroundings. If there is less turmoil in Montreal in 2018-19, that will also help.

More to follow on some other names, as I’ll be rambling a few more times this week…

For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-fantasy-guide-available-today-plus-kadri-drouin-and-more/

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getseriouser · 6 years

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20 THOUGHTS: Ed and Charlie on a Mission from God

HOW would be feel if you’re Tom Hawkins?

Both Curnow brothers head to the tribunal and get a great result, with Steven May allowed to board the plane to China as well. All after poor Tom copped a week for his indiscretion only one week prior.

It is all a bit random at the moment these sanctions, but for mine, given the sudden increase in umpire contact, the resolution isn’t about consistency with the tribunal outcomes, but if the umpires can stop being so touchable, dial back the flirting.

Haven’t had umpire contact for years and now four in two weeks. Perhaps the Lynx Africa umpires sponsorship is working too well.

Onto more pressing and interesting matters..

1. Monday night, Chris Judd had an idea to increase the spectacle of the game by replacing percentage on the ladder with simply points scored, encourage teams to score more. That works well for Etihad Stadium tenants always under a roof on a fast track, but for anyone else, particularly those who play in Queensland monsoons every now and then, not so good. Thanks Chris.

2. Essendon - something else going on? The Mark Neeld thing is bizarre. Don't believe 'public media releases'. It's amiss. Especially when the coach uses "they" in press conferences talking about his own players. Heppell is a star looking anything but, Goddard is not good for that team at this minute and don't ask on Stringer. This is a very well-run organisation, particularly post-drugs saga, and it’s a very talented list. Worsfold was good at West Coast and awesome in his first year at Tullamarine. So yep, something away from the cameras, away from game day, is properly wrong.

3. Devon Smith a bright spot for Essendon though, in a side looking light on for want, desire, effort, he is averaging 8 tackles a game, second in the comp.

4. Buddy Franklin, bruised heel, didn't get up last week and already ruled out for this week. Strange. Wouldn't be another Dayne Beams-style injury-layoff, would it?

5. Ben Ronke, seven goals, fantastic, taken as a rookie, pick 17. The pick before in that same rookie draft was Jack Henry, last week’s rising star nominee for Geelong. The pick before that, Tendai Mzungu, the ex-Docker, taken by GWS. They can't get much right the Giants.

6. As for the GWS, now sitting out of the eight. If they don't beat North down in Hobart they're in big trouble to get back in the eight. As it stands you’d be happy to lock in the top two on the ladder for September, and pencil in those three through seven. You could argue Port, in eighth, with the next four or five clubs are playing for perhaps one spot. The Giants are supposed to be a team almost ‘designed’ to be top four at worst. Early crow, but they can’t afford to head past midnight on the premiership clock, they are getting no crowds and need a flag within their first 5-10 years of existence. Need.

7. Good to see Port turn up but you just don’t trust them. They'll win this week and go 6-3 before their post-China bye, however, if they were anyone else you'd be locking them in for the eight, but with Alberton we still have way too many trust issues.

8. North have got a good thing going, not a super list but this column must give credit to Brad Scott. They play a different style to Richmond but are performing in a similar vein, Scott is extracting success from the specific parts he has available, akin to Hardwick last year. Other than the Crows who took the Tigers apart in in Round Two, are North the best opposition the reigning premier has faced to date?

9. Jack Macrae having some sort of year! Will be second in the Brownlow count to this point; remembering unless the leader gets injured or suspended he has his second medal. Listen to this column, put your life savings on, and be grateful later.

10. Speaking of Nat Fyfe, he is in unreal form and so to is Patty Cripps. Both similar styles on the inside, huge beasts almost impossible to stop. Both those boys crumbing to Nic Naitanui in an Origin game, something utterly magical we're likely never going to see. Shame.

11. Melbourne are the sleeper, got themselves to 5-3 and are getting the most inside 50s of anyone in the comp, genuine initial entries but also re-entries due to pressure. Second in the comp for clearances too and fifth in tackles. Have the game to go well and deep. A 'Buy'.

12. Shout out to Angus Brayshaw, looked at one point to be the next Jack Trengove, incredibly talented junior, more than their fair share of injuries, becoming an unfortunate but inevitably wasted pick. But no no, he is now integral to their midfield mix. Brings the tackle pressure, over five a game, averaging 23 touches as well. He is amongst the league leaders for inside 50s too, a clean user, is tough – a fantastic foil to some of their real jets. Like I said, get on the Dees.

13. Let’s get a couple on the Pies out of the way – firstly Mason Cox, top five in the comp for contested marks. Not many strings to his bow, but on the back of his vast improvement catching the thing, worth persisting with for now. A 'Hold’.

14. Tom Mitchell and Jack Macrae having great years, not only amongst the league leaders in contested ball, but ranking really highly in uncontested ball too; working hard inside and on the spread alike. Only one other is doing something similar, Adam Treloar, top 20 in both categories, having as good a year so far as his 2016 where he polled 21 Charlie votes.

15. No-one has handballed more than the Pies this year, not even close. The Tigers are going about 1.26 kicks to handball, around average, the Eagles are kicking the highest, 1.78 kicks to handball, yet the Pies, 1.11 kicks to handball. Looks to be working visually, impressive against two 2017 preliminary finalists (Adelaide and GWS), and for a half against a third (Richmond). But three of their four wins though are against 15th, 17th and 18th. However, if they were to win every coming game against someone currently below them on the ladder they will finish with 12 wins, so the draw is their oyster.

16. Darcy Moore stays at Collingwood a million percent, unless Ned Guy is as confident in securing Tom Lynch as Sydney was all 2013 in securing Lance Franklin - it’s already been done, it’s just a secret until it's permissible to go public with it. With Ben Reid the wrong side of 30 next season, and always injured, no way the Pies go into 2019 without one of Moore or Lynch. Having both is more likely than having neither.

17. Reckon Olli Wines goes. Victorian boy out of contract, the Power had a tonne of space last year but whilst they didn't spend all of it, they did commit plenty of new money beyond 2018, so the space wasn't just used up for one year, it’s considerably used up going forward. Plenty of Melbourne clubs with space they've been trying to burn for a while, so North, St Kilda, these clubs, unless the kid's dead loyal or sees real premiership potential soon (maybe?), the money and term will be better back this side of Horsham.

18. Top 3 in the Coleman? Ben Brown on 26, on 70-goal pace, utter megastar the Taswegian. But second and third, Luke Breust and Jack Darling. Will Tom Lynch's price be going down with every passing round? Why would the Tigers want him? Breust has 23 majors, Roughead for comparison, four inches taller yet nine less goals, who is more important? Breust top 5 in the league for assists too, unbelievable first third of the season for the Riverina product.

19. This column loves that this game has so many unique aspects, most notably the father son in the draft. It’s awesome - no-one else has it. But its gone too far now with academies. Not only do the expansion clubs have priority access to kids in their area, but also the northern clubs get the same entitlement with anyone remotely geographically close too (Heeney and Mills with Sydney for example). But now all clubs have pseudo academies, which aren't academies at all, they are basically the re-emergence of zones.

Take Tarryn Thomas. He is an indigenous gun from Tasmania, a serious jet who I’m really looking forward to see in the big time, who in this new world comes under the Roos' ‘Next Generation Academy’. Nothing to do with North really and Tassie has produced VFL/AFL footballers for as long as a typical season of MKR. But recently they were given the area to which Thomas is from for who knows why. So they will now get priority access to him in November’s draft, but then take the case of former North and Fitzroy wingman John Blakey's son, Nick. Could go father son to North, could go father son to Brisbane too, but because John has worked for Sydney as a coach and lived there long enough, Nick is eligible to go via academy to the Swans as well. And guess what, the kid doesn't want to move interstate so has nominated Sydney as his club of choice. This draft, combined with all the malarkey with points accrual and what not, has lost its essence. Go back to something simpler or just ditch the draft and revert to zones proper like it always was and be done with it.

20. Lastly, to Rugby League. Last Saturday night there was over 30,000 to a double header at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Nothing else in the round came close to half that, most crowds in Sydney barely broke five figures. How is that competition, a comp dying out for an in increase in crowds, still without a second team in Brisbane? Imagine the AFL not having the Power or Dockers, it's a real head scratcher. How a broadcaster hasn’t demanded it either is also staggering. Especially when it seems the Broncos aren’t just a universal love up there either, which surprises this column. You want the next bitcoin – shares in the second NRL team in Brisbane. A HUGE ‘Buy’….. when it happens. If, sorry, if it happens. Clowns.

(originally published 16 May)

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sueboohscorner · 8 years

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#JaneTheVirgin Chapter 53 Everybody's Stressed! Recap & Review

Jane’s stressed; I’m stressed—everybody’s stressed! Except for Xiomara; she’s getting foot massages from Bruce. Let’s recap, shall we?

Jane and Michael start off with some nerdy, law school foreplay. Nothing gets Jane going like studying and lists, and she wants to bring Michael into her geeky world of books and flash cards now that he’s prepping for the LSATs. Jane is hella organized; in fact, she finishes the first draft of her novel! Michael, however, is not the best student in the world and zones out on soccer instead of hitting the books. Michael is stressed.

Rogelio hasn’t seen Darci in three weeks because he’s waiting for his feelings for her to…um…go down…er…soften. Darci will only have his baby if there is no romantic connection between them and Ro really like her (I do, too #TeamFactor!) so, Ro is stressed.

A kid at Mateo asks for a cracker. In fact all the kids at Mr. Sweetface’s school are chatting up a storm. All Mateo can say is Mama and Dada. Jane is stressed.

Jane takes Mateo over to Raf’s so Mateo can play with his sisters, Elsa and Anna (thank god! they’re alive!!!). Raf tells Jane he’s breaking up with Cat and he’s also going to come clean to the authorities about the addendum to his father’s will. Raf is always coming clean about something. Insider trading, wills—he just can’t keep a secret. Jane tells him that no matter what happens he’ll be fine. Petra is watching all this on her hidden camera, so one thing we know, if he isn’t already, Raf’s gonna be stressed.

(Has Petra been watching everything that goes on in Raf’s penthouse? Like, Raf and Cat and everything? Ew.)

Petra meets Cat in the elevator. They talk, gold-digger to gold-digger. Petra tells Cat that Raf’s about to dump her and Jane is really happy about it and offers Cat $10k to keep Raf out of his penthouse for one night. Cat saunters out of the elevator without giving her an answer. Petra is stressed.

Jane is worried that Abuela won’t like her novel and she’s trying to discuss it with Xo, but Xo is too busy moaning over Bruce’s foot massage. Xo is not stressed. Jane admits that trying to help Michael get into law school has been stressful. Bruce tells her getting in is nothing compared to how hard getting through law school is and how much you have to work to pay off student loans. Bruce says it almost ruined his marriage (Xo finished it off, I guess). Jane is stressed some more.

Jane tells Michael about her conversation with Bruce and Xo, and Michael flips all the way out. He’s stressed. They make up cute in bed and he decides to take some LSAT prep classes. Jane decides to take up yoga.

Raf and Jane take Mateo to the pediatrician and voice their concern about his speech development. The doctor says either Mateo is a brilliant, bi-lingual baby just waiting for the write time to drop some palabras, or…maybe they should just wait three months and see. Jane is even more stressed.

Scott is waiting for Petra in her office (don’t these people lock their doors?), but Petra is not having it. She tells Scott she knows he and Rafael set her up and that it was she, not Anezka who said good bye to him in the alley by the dumpster. Anezka, according to Petra, is already on her way back to the Czech Republic. Surprisingly, Scott is not stressed.

Ro sees Darci again and tries to keep his feelings under wraps, but he gets an EMOTIONAL BONER. This season we have enjoyed all facets of Rogelio’s nether regions, haven’t we? Ro suggests a date and then asks if it’s alright to hug her because “Donald Trump has ruined romance for all of us.” Ha!

Jane’s in a beach yoga class, trying to breathe her worries away, when Cat comes up and does a double-jointed sideways dog. Cat wants to know if Jane knew Raf wanted to end it with her. Jane tells Cat she’s tired of her lying-arse lies and gets kicked out of the class. Cat goes to Petra and says she’ll keep Rafael out for $10k and Petra’s watch.

Abuela snuck Jane’s novel from Xo and read it. ABUELA LOVES IT. She says everything was worth it, the pain, the letters, Catalina, if it made Jane the writer she is. I teared up when Abuela thanked Jane for telling her story. Woo-saaah.

Cat lures Rafael from his penthouse to a getaway at a sweat lodge. I was so hoping Luisa would show up (remember her?). Instead, Raf faints from heat exhaustion. He and Catalina get to talking and he confesses he’s not a Solano. This goes on until the sun has set and they’re sharing their deepest secrets (Cat swears she didn’t vote for Brexit). Cat tells Raf she can’t have children. Raf tells her neither can he. This softens something in Cat and she tells Raf about Petra’s plan.

Ro and Darci are at dinner. Ro is laying on the de la Vega charm but Darci is curving him left and right. Ro thinks having a baby might not be such a good idea if Darci is so critical all the time. Darci is stressed.

Michael heads to the coffee shop to study because Jane’s printing is driving him crazy. When he returns, Jane gives him some essential oils to calm him down. When he wakes up, he has a serious allergic reaction that makes him look like he “put his whole head in a bee hive.” And it’s the day of his law school interview! Rogelio’s make team makes Michael up and Michael and Jane and Mateo head toward the interview only to get stuck in traffic. Jane and Michael are yelling, Mateo is crying—STRESS! Somehow, they end up camping (I was texting someone; I look up, they're in a tent). Remember, camping is where they realized how much they loved each other, with the giraffe Michael carved for Jane and all that? Michael confesses that he’s failed his last two practice tests and is worried the family will end up homeless. Jane calms him down, Mateo says a whole sentence, and Jane promises that no matter what, they’ll always have each other. This would have been so sweet if the narrator hadn’t said, “if only…no, let’s let them have this moment.” THE NARRATOR IS KILLING ME. I’m so stressed.

Turns out Darci was pushing Ro away because she was afraid he was still hung up on Xo. He assures her that’s not the case and they kiss. #TeamFactor!

Cat and Raf set Petra up, Raf catches Petra with the spy cams. Petra is stressed. She feels like she’s been gaslighted since being paralyzed and the only way she can be sure of reality is to watch the videos from the cameras. And she also tore up the addendum to the will so her Elsa and Anna can have all the ice they want. Petra may be losing her mind, but she will never lose her money. Trust that. Raf promises to get her some therapy.

Rafael makes the mature decision to disentangle himself from Cat (thank goodness!) and Cat says goodbye, adios, bon voyage to the Villanuevas. Goodbye Stress!

Jane has big smile on her face and says “Change is on the horizon!” And the narrator gets all sad and says, “It sure is, Jane.” THE NARRATOR IS STRESSING ME OUT!

The cliffhanger is that Anezka is not in the Czech Republic, she is the new Mrs. Vests and Scott has retrieved and re-pasted the shredded addendum to the will! dun Dun DUN!!!!!!!! The narrator warns us Scott’s actions are going to trigger some pretty important events.

I give this eppy a B. I still have the feeling we’re treading water, waiting for something big to happen. If the rumors are right, next week might be the week when all heck breaks loose. Or at least pics of Rogelio’s de la Vega.

To Be Continued...

Let me know what you think in the comments section

Kellybell

#Jane The Virgin #Gina Rodriguez #Justin Baldoni #Brett Dier #Ivonne Coll #Andrea Navedo #Jaime Camil #Yael Grobglas

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