#but this season in particular just feels slept on imho

[aquateenpatrolsomethingshowshow]

on september 15th, 2013, the “aqua tv show show” episode, “working stiffs”, first aired on [adult swim]

the episode guest starred dana swanson, wendy cross, and jim florentine, as the manager who is interviewing frylock

production art from bob pettitt:

[shimmershae]

My thoughts on Episode 6--On the Inside

Very appropriate title by the way.  Works in a multitude of ways.  

As always, my randomness is going beneath a cut again to spare the eyeballs of those of you that don’t want to see it at all and also?  Help those of you that have somehow stayed spoiler-free in this brand-new age of early release episodes.  It is still so wild to me that I’m a full episode ahead of half the fandom.  I don’t know what I’m going to do when we get to the final episode and they decide to make us all suffer together--because somehow I do feel they will do exactly that after spoiling us for the first 23 episodes.  It is going to be agonizing.  

Anyway.  Without further ado, Shae’s stream of consciousness review (of sorts).  

Not fair, Angela.  Opening the episode with that shot of that big ass spider.  I hate those suckers.  So naturally, they’re an easy sell for setting the horror scene to me, lol.  

Okay.  Who the hell’s chasing Virgil and Connie?  Walker No-See-Ums?

Barely a minute in and the atmosphere for this episode is moody AF.  

What is this?  Tara Jr. The Walking Dead?  LOL.  Where’s the Scarlett for this mini plantation house?  Anyway.  First three minutes of this episode?  Just as attention grabbing as the first five episode openings this season.  I don’t think people out there are giving our writers enough love for that.  Every episode so far has opened like a mini movie.  

With the way the Walking Dead logo keeps crumbling away with each successive episode, somehow it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Carol and Daryl spinoff was eventually titled The Living and had flowers growing out of each letter, lol.  I mean, there would be a certain sort of life-affirming symmetry in a show that’s been promised to be much lighter in tone doing just that.  

More Carol and Aaron?  Yes, please.  I don’t necessarily like Carol staying at home and sitting the sidelines like a figurative happy little homemaker in the B story while the rest of the mains are trying like hell to sell the A story, but if she’s going to be totally prohibited from the main storyline until it’s time to blow shit up?  I’m going to continue enjoy getting to see her do what she should have been doing for seasons--interacting with others in the community, especially Aaron and the ladies.  

Truly.  I really am loving my girl getting some quality Aaron and Rosita time.  It’s so long overdue.  

Bless sweet Kelly.  Riding off to her sister’s rescue.  

Why isn’t Lydia shown as part of these plans?  For someone that could barely read last season, I doubt that big ass map was a piece of cake for her and it’s all just guesswork anyway without her guidance.  I mean, why does it feel like they are cutting some of this stuff that might not seem like much plot-wise but would go a long way toward establishing different character beats?  Personally, I would have loved to see her involved in the search and sharing scenes again with Carol and bonding with Kelly. 

Virgil be having that “I always feel like somebody’s watching me” feeling.  Don’t you hate that, lol?  

“You haven’t slept in days.”  But how many days, Virgil?  I’m going to need a number because I’m confused AF about this timeline at this point.  What we’re seeing and what different pieces of dialogue is telling us is not exactly lining up.  I’m going to find it awful hilarious if it hasn’t even been two weeks since the cave in.  For reasons.  

Connie’s spidey senses are clearly tingling.  

Alrighty, then.  She’s clearly got PTSD.  Understandable.  They’ve all had it.  Some have been treated more sympathetically than others, though.  

I mean, it never seems to cross anybody’s mind how Carol probably sees Henry’s head on that pike, Mika’s pale and bloody body, Lizzie crumpled face down in a bed of yellow flowers, Sophia with a smoking bullet hole through her undead head whenever she closes her eyes but whatever.  

Okay though.  But what if Connie had really shitty, impossible to read handwriting?  AKA doctor’s  handwriting.  What then?  

Leah’s face honestly twists my insides whenever I see it, lol.  It’s quiet a visceral thing.  No, that does not make me a horrible person.  Not everybody wants or has to drink the awesome, great, redeemable villainess Kool-Aid.  IMHO, she’s got a face meant for a Walker.  Perfect makeover idea.  Eh.  Mostly it’s her expression and the deadness of her eyes.  

Anyway.  Why is it always the fingers?  Eff that.  

Listen.  If ya’ll can’t tell Daryl’s conflicted AF with the situation he’s landed in, you don’t know how to read NR’s face and eyes.  He’s not a masterclass like MMB but he’s pretty darn good when he wants to be.  

I honestly feel sorry for Redshirt Frost.  

“You do what you gotta do.”  Frost knows what’s what and he’s willing to walk the walk for Maggie.  Impressive loyalty.  I’m left wondering how the current, colder incarnation of Maggie inspired it because I’m still struggling to see it.  Anywho.  My point is the dude knows the score and just gave Daryl the okay.  

Daryl taking off his angel vest before stepping into the role of torturer/interrogator=him shedding the persona/the man Judith and RJ and Lydia and Carol know him to be.  Pushing away his man of honor status so he can just survive somehow.  

Pope never quits chewing whatever the hell he’s got in his mouth.  It’s kind of distracting.  

Ohhh.  We’re back to the Haunted Mansion.  I mean house.  Where are the Hitchhiking Ghosts?  

All the eyes scratched out of those creepy pictures=spooky.  

The good old fogged up bathroom mirror shot.  Somebody’s been watching and studying their horror movies, lol.  Not gonna lie though.  I’m legit bracing myself for the jump scares I know have to be coming.  

I’m loving the music/score in these scenes.  

Truthfully, I could care less about these Reapers.  But they are hella attractive, lol.  Listen.  Angela knows what she’s doing.  

Kelly’s horse is so pretty.  Prayer chain for that baby.  

More dead horses?  Why?  

Connie’s slingshot?  Sorry.  I maintain, no matter how much I like these two, that they have the lamest weapons ever.  Endless supply of Virginia rocks or not.  

So.  Did Virgil and Connie enjoy a little equine for dinner?  Did they kill it before the Walkers fed?  What monsters!  Yeah, no.  Not if they were starving even if I personally could not have.  The more probable story is they fled the camp in a panic and left the horse behind and then it went down.  Sorry.  I didn’t exactly study the wounds on the poor animal because it is so traumatizing to me to continue to see them meet such dastardly ends on this show.  I don’t know who the hell has such a score to settle with horses but stop it.  

Days.  It’s only been days.  Not weeks.  So many times with all that Daryl and Company have had to contend with since the cave in?  Those do not exist, lol.  They’re just a convenient, appeasing piece of dialogue thrown at a fanbase primed and ready to read everything into not much of anything.  There’s just not been enough time for it to happen unless Daryl has literally been up 24/7 for all of them.  You know, strategizing how to attack the remainders of Alpha’s horde, figuring out how to defend Hilltop before it fell, healing from the wound he sustained at Alpha’s hand, sitting on that log all damn night with Negan waiting on Carol to come home, having a lover’s quarrel with his best damn everything, taking care of the Grimes babies and Lydia, being the reluctant leader.  Kang, why you playing them like that?  Daryl’s a super guy but he’s not a superhuman with clones.  So many times my ass.  

Seriously.  Who been watching Connie and Virgil?  The MIA Oceansiders?  Beta’s Fee Fi Fo Fum Ghost?  

Nice.  A Michonne mention.  Maybe the truth will start to trickle out.  

LMAO at Connie’s “I’m not staying here.”  Me neither, girl.  I would be outta that house so fast.  

They really “Quiet Placing” this episode.  Honestly?  I’m kinda loving it.  

WTF was that?  I know she can’t hear but you telling me all the little hairs on her arms, legs, and neck didn’t stand the fuck up and say fuck this shit, I’m gone?  Pardon my language, lovelies, but that moment had my heart kicking up several beats.  

Okay, okay.  To be fair to Connie, every hair on her body been doing that since the front door closed.  Maybe they’re desensitized.  

Gollum’s chasing Connie!!!  He/She wants their Precious!!!

The knee jerk reactions about this episode sight unseen are OTT, honestly.  And I mean no disrespect by saying that.  I can understand completely where they’re coming from because we’ve been burned so long in this fandom.  But it’s obvious the spoiler source has their particular biases and reads into things in such a way that don’t line up with what’s actually being shown onscreen.  Daryl’s loyalty in this episode and all along quite clearly lies with his family and his community.  He’s been playing Leah since the start and is truly just trying to survive somehow.  

Awful thought.  The Reaper that’s so suspish of Daryl--haven’t quite caught his name or really cared to.  I feel like he might try to get to Daryl somehow.  When he realizes that Daryl cares no more for Leah than any human would care for somebody (they thought) they used to know?  He’s going after Dog.  Or Carol should she finally join this story. 

I refuse to believe Carol isn’t going to be a part of this story.  Because they messing with her mans, lol.  

“You’re ever with us or you’re not.”  Now where have I heard those words before?  I wish I could find that Daryl gif because that had to be one of the funniest things ever, lol.  

Unrealistic suggestion to Daryl, Leah?  Breathing oxygen seems to piss off Carver.  Oh look.  He finally has a name for me, lol.  

I love how all three of the ladies--Carol, Magna, and Rosita--look at Kelly with such indulgent, adoring “little sis, you alright?” eyes.  

They are seriously the most beautiful quartet of characters.  I mean all of them are lovely but Carol and Rosita this season?  Ugh.  The unfairness of the pretty.  

Human bones.  Terminus callback, lovelies.  How it all would have eventually gone down if Gareth and Co. hadn’t met the business end of Rick’s red machete.  

So many horror movie homages in this one.  

Virgil’s like “let’s leave this Texas Chainsaw Massacre behind.”  

Connie and Virgil have obviously bonded, ya’ll.  I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying their scenes together when the character mostly got on my nerves with Michonne.  He’s a good actor and the core of his character is sympathetic, but I’m not going to lie.  I wasn’t super enthused when he was the one that rescued Connie because I didn’t know how their scenes would play out. But there’s a nice synergy there.  

Okay.  Does Carver want Leah for himself?  Because I’m sure Daryl at this point would love to scream “take her, I know where I fucking belong!”  

Daryl’s digging in deep because Carver has shown him Leah’s potential weak spot.  Nuance is truly lost on some people, LMAO.  He cares about Leah as a human being probably.  He’s Daryl, after all.  The sweet one.  But he sees her as his way outta this and he’s going to exploit it.  

It’s nice to have a silent Negan for once, lol.  I can pretend he didn’t take my baby Glenn away from me and enjoy JDM’s pretty.  

So.  These cannibal people were the watchers?  Hmm.  

I’m really digging Virgil 2.0.  Yeah.  Nobody’s surprised more than me.  

Sweet, sweet scene between Virgil and Connie.  His determination to reunite her with her family brings back the sympathy I felt for him when he told Michonne “I promised her flowers.  Every day.”  

Damn.  How many of those creepy crawly cannibals are there?  

How brave of Connie to confront her fears to save someone she’s obviously grown to care about.  

The Kelly/Connie reunion gave me chills and made me cry.  Thank fuck Angela didn’t cheapen that moment by having it focus on literally anybody else.  Kelly is the most important person in the whole world to Connie and vice versa.  Just like Carol is the most important person in the whole world to Daryl and vice versa.  Angela fucking knows.  Everybody does.  Except the people busy building castles out of sand while the waves of Carol’s and Daryl’s converging stories keep crashing closer and closer to shore.  

Such a beautiful moment given to us by Angel Theory and Lauren Ridloff.  So authentic and sweet.  Kelly and Connie are home to each other.  

Poor Frost.  That’s all I gotta say about that.  

WTF, though.  Was Mel just not available or what?  I want to see more of the ASZ characters that I care about, not the Reapers.  Like I’d be fine with the story if all the characters not named Maggie, Negan, or Daryl weren’t surviving on crumbs during it.  Especially the 2nd billed actress on the entire show.  Angela.  Please.  Fix this.  

One last WTF.  Seriously.  WTF has Maggie done to inspire Pope’s obsession?  It better be juicy after all this shit.  

Overall impression of the episode--

One of my favorites of the season so far.  The horror aspects were fantastic, IMHO. I truly didn’t expect to like Connie and Virgil’s scenes as much together so that was a nice surprise.  She got the reunion that felt most true and earned for the character and her story and I thank Angela from the bottom of my heart for that.  

I would have loved more Carol but I always want more Carol.  I’m okay with her taking a backseat because ultimately?  This was Kelly’s moment with her sister.  Carol and Connie will eventually have their time to sit down and talk.  And pick back up their blossoming friendship because I truly do not feel Connie blames Carol at all.  

I do wish Lydia had been included with the girl group.  Last episode felt like it was leading up to that.  

The Reaper storyline continues to be the weakest link because every time we see them the dialogue and interactions feel totally recycled from the time previous.  I feel like it would have totally been helped by a tighter focus and less stretching out because 8 episodes of this is really diluting what I feel like Angela and Co. are going for.  I’m not here for Leah being redeemed or being a bigger focus in any of the episodes because she does nothing of interest for me.  I’m just peeking in on that story for the Daryl of it all.  

Speaking of the Daryl? You lovelies out there gotta stop taking that spoiler source’s recaps at face value because it’s obvious to me at least that there’ some bias at work.  Every action and word coming from Daryl is coming from a place of loyalty to his family and wanting to protect them, no matter how he has to dirty his hands.  Leah is just a means to his ultimate end.  She’s not his future.  She never was.  His future’s already spoken for and 2023 can’t get  here soon enough.  But like Daryl, we have to just survive somehow.  

Oh goodie.  More Maggie and Negan next episode and looks like no real follow up on Connie and the ASZ reunions.  Hopefully, this is yet another instance of the previews being deceiving but I’m not holding my breath.  

Until later, lovelies.  

Hope my word vomit didn’t bore you too much.  

[sweetsunrayssr]

Gordon’s Gift

Warning: spoilers until 4x08, theory, keep handkerchiefs nearby

In Gordon’s Shrine, the Garage, I already stipulated how the Garage is Gordon’s shrine that he tried to rebuild with Joe since S1 in part I. To summarize, their cooperation only worked within a garage setting. Gordon and his relationship with Joe breaks down in basements or doesn’t get off the ground. And when he tries to build similar inspirational working relationships in the garage (or garage like setting) with others or by himself it fizzles quickly. I also stipulated that the origin of the garage shrine for Gordon rooted back to his youth, and how Gordon’s insistence on keeping his bro-mance with Joe exclusive and keep out Cameron self-sabotages his business and his friendship with Joe.

ROOT TRIANGLE

Basically the shrine building keeps happening in a character’s arc like an iteration of earlier versions, and is deeply rooted for each of them in their youth or childhood: a parent, sibling or even a childhood sweetheart who either is beyond their reach through death, irreparable damage, or just not the right person. This Freudian take is also reflected in the Pilgrim as a “kid”.

The unsalvageable root of Gordon’s garage shrine is his relationship with his brother Henry, Henry’s high school sweetheart Jules, and his father’s auto shop.  After learning about his disease in 2x05, and unable to reveal it to Donna, Gordon seeks someone to unburden and ends up calling his brother Henry to relate his wish to visit him in California with Joanie and Haley. Even during the telephone conversation, we already get a hint of a fraught sibling relationship between Gordon and Henry.

While Henry initially acts empathic and helpful during the visit, the next day he sends Gordon and his two daughters out of the house late at night, immediately suspecting Gordon slept with his ex-girlfriend Jules. The only reason that Henry was empathic to Gordon was in the hope that Gordon could convince their father not to sell the auto shop.

Off-screen, Gordon learned over the phone with his father that Henry is an alcoholic, chased customers away and leveraged the autoshop over the “past three years”. Meanwhile, Henry tends to spend half of his time in Jules’ bar, drinking. This is not dissimilar to Joe screwing around with post-its for three years in the basement.

Along with the callous, impulsive manner in which Henry sends two children of 6 and 8 out in the night over Jules, while Henry himself is long married with children, suggests that Henry never really got over Jules and that he long resents Gordon for his failures in life. These brothers were not just estranged, but likely had a severe falling out around the time that Gordon left for Berkeley. Jules seems to have been in the middle of that, both in the past as well as the present.

Jules is a single mother of a 12-year old son R.J. she loves and regards as her anchor. Gordon apparently never knew about this and thus he has not seen or heard about Jules since at least ’72-‘73, when he would have been 19 and studying at Berkeley. The father doesn’t have to be Henry, but it is possible. She talks in disdain and pity about Henry, denying she wants to get back with him, and yet she later admits to narc over Henry.  A part of her cannot let go of Henry, and her sleeping with Gordon is some twisted form to return to the past.

Whether Gordon was envious of Jules choosing Henry over Gordon back in High School or how Henry’s affections for Jules may have stood in the way of Gordon having his brother all to himself is unclear, imho. Likely it was a mix of both. Being the younger brother, Gordon likely looked up to Henry, but simultaneously may have envied him for Henry was the sports guy and “handsome one”, and Gordon relied on his wit to impress people and girls. Jules and Katie have physical similarities as body type, so Jules may have been Gordon’s type.

We don’t need the exact particulars, but it should be clear that Gordon, Henry and Jules have a triangulation connection where they play chess with one another, not just in ’85 during Gordon’s visit, but in the years before Gordon left for Berkeley. While Gordon moved on to Donna, San Francisco and Dallas, Jules and Henry never actually moved on at all, even though Henry married another woman. The fact that it can go so wrong within a day in ‘85, as the three of them use each other in dysfunctional ways, is a sign that it is actually a rote pattern between them.

The triangle of Gordon, Joe and Cameron shows a lot of similarities, except the fact that Gordon never appeared to be attracted to Cameron in any way (she is not his type). What it all comes down to is that Joe “replaces” the broken brother bond for Gordon. Note how I do not say that Joe “surrogates” for Henry. Joe is the “brother” that his actual brother Henry could never have been for Gordon. Joe trumps Henry. In fact, he does not seek out Henry in S2, until his one-time-deal with Joe at Westgroup is done, as if Henry is the “surrogate” to Joe.

PLAYING CHESS

The failed youth triangle of Gordon, Henry and Jules  explains his almost immediate antagonistic position towards Cameron from the get-go in S1. Despite Joe having proven himself to be manipulative and untrustworthy and Cameron only being a 22 year old college drop-out, he searches for evidence against Cameron, wanting Joe to get rid of her once the BIOS is written. When he learns that Joe is considering Cam’s OS idea, he tells her coders that she’s sleeping with Joe.  He uses her to play Joe emotionally into putting up the money for Comdex ’83. And intends to use Joe’s feelings for her by threatening to send her to jail to make Joe agree to the original shipping date, even though Cameron has left . Donna calls this “the chess game you three play with each other,” to Cameron.

Chessboards are a recurring décor item throughout the series, in quite telling scenes about having control, such as when Joe seduces Travis at Mrs. Lutherford’s in 1X03. Joe pushes Travis onto a table with a chessboard and sends the pieces flying. Cameron’s top of S1 with the squares that reappears in S4 is a chess board. Joe tests and figures out how Cam and Mutiny tried to deceive him about UNIX with a chess game. And Haley plays chess against herself. Different story, but having a similar analogue on how people use each other like chess pieces, check out the Musical Chess of ’86, from which you probably know Murray’s song, “One Night in Bangkok”.

In S1 Joe, Gordon and Cameron play as dysfunctional a chess game as the games played between Gordon, Jules and Henry in 2x06. The final season, ten years later, we finally have an iteration where these three have an opportunity to relate in a non-dysfunctional way. Cameron played a key part in reconciling Gordon and Joe, in Joe keeping urls for the past three years, planting the seed that leads to Joe’s web indexing idea and a business model where Joe and Gordon are not just business partners in name, but truly work together harmoniously. Gordon may not be playing pool table with his brother Henry, but he would not have been playing pool together with his chosen “brother” Joe, without Cam’s nudges. (Note: the left gif is what we see before the camera pans out to show us Gordon and Henry talking over beer in Jules’ bar)

And yet, Gordon’s initial reaction to Joe and Cameron is once more antagonistic, and attempts to verbally step into Joe’s personal life again. Unlike S1, he does not take further direct personal destructive actions though. He does draw the line at Cameron’s presence at Comet, even though they’re hiring and her career is down the dumps, eventually leading to her choice to writing the algorithm for the competition Rover. This logically has its backlash in the personal relationship between Joe and Cameron, Comet and bubbles over into Gordon’s personal life as Haley is uncomfortable around Katie. S1 Joe, Gordon and Cameron would have been unable to handle this graciously, resulting into a broken down triangle as much as the one between Gordon, Henry and Jules. In S4 they’re all more mature. They’re still flawed and make mistakes, but are far better equipped in dealing with it, and moving past it.

And so at the start of 4x06 we have a reconciliation conversation between Gordon and Cameron over her helping Bos with the algorithm for Rover. Initially Gordon jokes about Cam’s professional crisis and disbeliefs her aversion to tech. But her insistence and claim she doesn’t dream in code anymore ends with Gordon staring at her thoughtfully for quite a while, before Joe calls for their attention that they’re ready to do the rocket launching. The length of that stare built a feeling of expectation that there would be some follow-up to this from Gordon, and yet we never seemed to have one.

Gordon seems overall inspired during the launch as he stares up at his rocket, as if he gets to be the visionary for once. While initially reluctant and deaf about Joe’s hints about Haley, Gordon gets it when he visits Corn Dog. He has his own visionary idea, based on Donna’s marketing information. He uses Joe, in a positive and honest way, to patch his relationship with Haley. He fixes the AC. He accepts the idea of a re-design as part of a re-launch. He has a stable relationship with Katie in which he is genuinely happy. His daughters like her too. He has a good co-parenting friendship with Donna. And the moment of his death is one of beautiful peace and recognition of Donna as the love of his life.

It thus seems odd that he did nothing to help fix Cameron’s career, especially in light of the fact that Gordon admitted his part in the events that led to Bos’s heart attack, and their unconditional friendship. Surely, Gordon was able to recognize his contribution to the threat in Joe’s and Cameron’s relationship at the start of 4x05? Surely, Gordon could recognize his pre-S1 and S2 issues being mirrored in Cameron’s life. He mentioned the Symphonic to her, as well as “having too much time on her hands” and how it leads to trouble. Hell, he was 32 himself in S2 when he was professionally adrift.

THE GIFT

I propose that Gordon did in fact did something for Cameron. Sometime after the rocket launching, Cameron finally checks her emails on Joe’s computer, for the first time since about half a year. Her inbox is full of emails by either Tom, Alexa and Gavin from Atari, and one email giving her a link to a fansite “The Howe of it all”: http://www.thehoweofitall.com/

The link was not sent to her by either of the people mentioned, but by “Haley” via her Comet mail address.  The show give us the impression that Haley must have discovered the fan website, sent a link to Cameron, but that Alexa built it since her emails to contact Cameron went unanswered. Cameron at least seems to assume as much.

But the way Alexa talks of Pilgrim hardly convinces me that she ever reached the higher levels. If she did, she may have used backdoors into the code, and only saw the imagery, without realizing the metaphors behind it. She only talks of world building, while of course figuring out that the Pilgrim is a kid is the spiritual gaming reward. Alexa does not seem to get the spirituality nor soul of the game, but is purely focused on the world and graphics containing the puzzles (even the level 0 world contains fake puzzles). And while she dispassionately praises Cam’s work as “great”, it sounds empty. None of her words about Pilgrim at their first private meeting, or the bots in the trailer and the hike match with the tone of praise of the fan site. No wonder that Cameron is confused by Alexa: she thinks this woman understands her.

The most glaring oddity about the fan site are the pictures. The site shows one of the pictures that Tom took in S2 of the Mutiny staff. It is however not the picture that Cam, Tom and Bos chose to use for the Mutiny ad in Byte. (In the S2 gifs of 2x04 below, the left one is the picture scene used for the website, while the right one ended up in Byte as an ad.) You may have noticed this discrepancy while watching 4x06, or when visiting the “Howe of it all” website, but relegated it as the show’s prop department’s choice, and just thought it was cool to see those pictures.

In-world it makes little sense for Alexa to have gotten her hands on those. Those pictures were not digital, but physically developed from Tom’s negatives and not in the public domain at all, not in Byte, never on Mutiny’s interface. Heck, Mutiny’s interface is non-existent and the reason why the creator of the fan site used a playnet gif instead of Mutiny. Alexa could only get such a picture from the person who kept them.

The Polaroid of Cameron in the Cardiff basement while working on the BIOS is even more startling. Polaroids are unique pictures without a negative. And in 4x08, we see Gordon was in possession of exactly that Polaroid when Cameron rummages through the pictures. More, since the Polaroid of Donna was taken in their Dallas kitchen and of Gordon in his garage, the Polaroid camera was in possession of the Clark’s to begin with.

This Polaroid of Cameron is the direct evidence that Gordon made the Cameron Howe fan site and had Haley send the link to Cameron via email, or Gordon used Haley’s email address for it. Alexa had nothing to do with that site at all. It was Gordon’s gift to Cameron to boost her career confidence. (Yes, I know, your eyes are prickling and your throat thick digesting this, no?).

Hence, the pictures on the website aren’t errors or deviations by the production prop department. They are deliberately chosen by the prop departments as clues and hints to the in-story fan site creator: Gordon.

What a beautiful gift that site is if created by Gordon: Gordon calls Space Bike his favorite game, publically recognizes her work on the Giant (which he did not do at Comdex ’83), memorializes Mutiny and gives her sole credit for the founding of it, and calls for a publication of Pilgrim by Atari, providing a public hint to a level of the game that reveals he figured it out (like Donna did) and shows those gamers who loathed it for fools.

Finally, @paceofbase  alerted me about a strange date for the email in Cam’s inbox about the fan site: it says Saturday 20th of August 1994. The prop department certainly looked it up, because 20th of August 1994 was indeed a Saturday. Except the last emails with a month on the screen say March. Haley’s failing tests at school (it’s not summer holiday), and her biology re-do test says 11th of April 1994. Curt Cobain died on the 5th of April 1994. We discussed with each other whether the datestamp for the email about the fansite was a massive production error or something else.

Gordon though has enough code knowledge to fiddle with the server date, and thus make it look like he sent an email “from the future”. So, the date again is not a prop error, but a deliberate in-world “mistake” smuggled in by Gordon to hint to Cameron that she still has a future in tech.

Joe tried to play it, but lost himself in the puzzles, and likely never played it anymore as he tries to understand Cameron up-close and personal instead. At least he figured out the Airstream game. We saw Donna finish it on screen. The game was her sole safe way to make “contact”. But Gordon never said a word about the game on screen, though Cameron gave it to him and he visited the testing room to warn her to be considerate of Joe’s feelings for her. Whether Gordon figured it out by himself or Donna revealed some of the tricks and hints to Gordon is not that important. But of the four, aside from Cameron, Gordon was the actual fellow “gamer” and connected with her via “games”. 

4x08’s final scene also confirmed that Gordon can be sneaky and secretive, in contrast to his usual blabbing and shooting his mouth. Donna thinks he never jumped from that quarry cliff into the lake, but he did, and he never told anyone.

An oddity in all of 4x08 is how the camera pans from the dinner table to his “office” in the house and lingers for a while on an old wooden writing desk and file closet, presumably something Gordon has of his grandmother. Bos making his chili is reminiscent to Gordon making his grandmother’s stew in S1 for his daughters, one of the moments where Gordon bonds with his daughters as father, contrasting the 4x08 flashback scenes of him walking out on Donna and baby Joanie when Joanie starts to cry. Donna brings up how this and that in the house are keepsakes from Gordon’s grandmother. So, what is interesting about this old-timer desk? Well, it is free from tech. It’s a writing desk, not a computer desk. And thus can be seen as a link to Cam’s exclamation of being done with tech.  

CONCLUSION

Gordon’s Gift gave Cameron enough confidence to start working again and thereby he resolves his part in sending Cameron away from Comet in the first half of S4. By publically acknowledging her contribution to the Giant, he helped her to see the soul back in the machine, as she is fooling around with self-learning AI. His gift attempts to strip the pair Joe & Cameron of side-issues that distract from the most important ones about building a life together: house, children or not, etc.

These are differing wishes that can only be resolved between themselves and for themselves. As long as they don’t have the answers through each other whether they want a life together, despite the differences, they will cling to one another based on the past like prisoners, like Henry and Jules still do.

[amarpelosdois-blog]

ESC ‘17: my thoughts on the final

now that Eurovision is over for the year 😥, I’ll share my thoughts about all the acts in the final.

Israel: an okay performance, not an especially great one though. I did think it was a nice way to start the show.

Poland: I saw a comment somewhere, long before Eurovision week, saying that Kasia was basically singing really passionately about nothing in particular. I’m inclined to agree. I like Kasia, I think, but Flashlight is kind of a pointless song imo.

Belarus: love this! they were so cute and so happy and this deserved more points, okay? especially since they sang in Belarusian! for the first time!

Austria: see above, it was happy and he’s cute and deserved better! I don’t know how Nathan didn’t even get a single televote point! he was good!

Armenia: I really thought Artsvik was going to do better, but tbh the performance fell kinda flat. she and her dancers could have used more of the stage, I think, and it would have been more effective.

Netherlands: I was kind of indifferent to this song up until I saw it performed. O’G3NE is great and I cried a little.

Moldova: okay how exactly did this get 3rd? was it Epic Sax Guy? it’s a top-10 performance, I guess, but imho not a top-3. it seemed to go on way longer than 3 minutes.

Hungary: holy shit YES, I’m soooooo glad Joci was in the top 10! he deserved it! don’t know why the juries slept on him though…

Italy: y’all probably won’t agree at all but I think 6th was the right placing for this. I mean, it was good, but - like Armenia, as well as a few others - it fell flat and didn’t quite measure up to the hype or expectations.

Denmark: poor Anja, stuck between Italy and Portugal :( the song’s kinda generic but I liked it and she performed well, I thought.

Portugal: ♥ Salvador is adorable and he did soooooo well! this was actually only my #2 of the night but I think he’s a well-deserved winner, and he made history in multiple ways (first Portuguese victory since they started competing 53 years ago! in a language other than English for the first time since 2007! and the highest scoring Eurovision winner ever - even if his points were converted to the previous system of voting!) and I’m proud of him!

Azerbaijan: another act that fell flat. this was one of my favourites in studio but I just wasn’t really feeling the live performance, I would have preferred something that stuck more to the aesthetic of the music video, I guess.

Croatia: I wasn’t expecting this to do as well as it did. hell, I wasn’t even expecting Jacques to qualify. but I guess it was so extra that it ended up working somehow?

Australia: this was the first time I genuinely enjoyed an Australian entry. I didn’t care much for the staging but I thought Isaiah sang the shit out of his song and 9th is a well deserved position.

Greece: let’s be real this should be Finland …yeah I really didn’t like this. it felt kinda cheap and like a throwback to 2012, in a way. I like Demy, it’s just a shame about her song.

Spain: didn’t like this either. I hate to say that any act deserved last, but… honestly this kinda did. sorry Manel :(

Norway: underdog of the season?? started off as kind of an unexpected winner of MGP, ended up in the top 10 and I’m really happy about that!

UK: Lucie should have been in the top 10 - though 15th is still better than the UK has been doing as of late. I cried a little at her performance too.

Cyprus: I liked the staging, even though some of it felt borrowed from Belgium ‘15 and maybe Russia ‘16. however, I think it takes a pretty strong performer/song to make it work, and Hovig just wasn’t the right fit.

Romania: yodel rap works a lot better than it probably should. the whole thing was kinda tacky but somehow they pulled it off.

Germany: not last? wow! this was pretty much “generic: the performance” imo, sorry Levina :(

Ukraine: ah, this year’s token rock song! kind of a letdown and if Ukraine had to compete in the semis this year I don’t think they would have qualified.

Belgium: yet another that fell flat in my opinion. Blanche needed a little more movement, I thought - not a whole lot more, it’s not that kind of song, but she just stood there a little too much.

Sweden: I just really didn’t like this, but these days Sweden could probably be top 5 with literally anything they sent. Robin seems soulless imo and the song kinda skeeves me out. 

Bulgaria: Kristian my love, you did amazing ♥ yeah this was my #1 of the night. something about this worked for me more than any other performance. as happy as I am for Salvador (pretty damn happy, he was my #2 and has been one of my favourites the whole time), I bet I’d be even happier if it were Kristian who walked away with the trophy.

France: I liked this a lot more than I expected, given that the studio version didn’t do much for me. the English in the chorus still sounded off (probably because the French last line doesn’t rhyme) though, and Alma should have gone with a solid-coloured dress because I thought it seriously clashed with how busy the background got at times.