I think Carol is our hero, but she’s going to go down some wrong paths.

I do agree that I want more story, because I have so many questions, but I don’t think it’s being held back for no reason. I think it’s being held back because they aren’t doing anything.

We know they’re looking for a way to infect Carol and the others. And they’re working on surviving. And their working on providing services to the uninfected. But that’s it. We’ve seen it all.

I think Carol wants them to be “evil”. (Less so after this episode, but otherwise this season.) I think Manousos wants them to be “evil”. But they are not. They just are. But they also aren’t human. I think that’s one (at least) big question of the show. What is being human?

I agree a lot, but disagree that Manousos’s adventure was not in service of the plot. We’re meant to see how determined he is.

Remember Carol was also fiercely independent… Until she drove to a grocery store and it was empty.

As we saw this episode, Carol broke. Manousos? He isn’t going to break. Or if he does, its going to be Carol that breaks him. Or more likely, it’s going to be Manousos that forces Carol “back” to being against the hive.

I think next episode Carol is going to fall in love with Zosia and the idea of the hive. She isn’t going to join, but she’s going to try and live a more normal life. As Carol grows to like the more, Manousos is going to dislike them more.

When they meet… who knows? But we know Manousos is strongly willed. We lived it. We felt it.

Absolutely. We need some form of season end that teases the future.

Only here and in Mississippi.

Suddenly the ugliest man in Glasgow wasn’t good enough for her.

Correct!

For #4 if the Random instance weren’t “new”, then calling the nextInt() function would definitely have side effects, since the next integer would pull one away from the random stack.

However unlike the first three which will run within a consistent amount of time, #4 will take an unknown amount of time to run, so you can’t just collapse it and eliminate the loop.

For example a very simple race game where a participant moves a random number of steps each turn, we may want to time how long that race takes. We can’t just say that they will reach the end immediately. In fact technically we don’t know that they will ever finish the race… But that’s the halting problem and a whole other issue.

There was a time when people would pay to see a film, watch the trailers, then leave. But for all the reasons you mentioned, that isn’t the case anymore.

Additionally… We have YouTube and then some now. Sure a couple hundred people (globally) will buy that extra ticket, and then they’ll immediately post on Lemmy online what was new. Then once four weeks pass, they’ll all be online in HD.

So ultimately it seems pointless.

However that will keep the buzz for the films for at least 4 weeks. So maybe that alone will be worth it.

It is slow, but I don’t find it to be a problem.

The fact that we have two episodes to go concerns me a bit. I think there is a lot more story to explore. So from a pacing standpoint I’d like to move forward and learn more, but until I see the full season play out it’s hard to say if the pacing is actually a problem.

I recall reading that the plan for the show is 4(ish) seasons, so I’m confident that the overall show has a plan.

I know watching Better Call Saul I felt that certain plot points or seasons were just a repeat or retreading. I’ve had friends ask when BCS gets “good”. On a recent rewatch… It was all good. The parts that were slower I really appreciated.

So with all that, I’m definitely in until the end of this season. Unless something completely out of character/story happens in the remaining episodes, I’m probably in for season two.

At the moment I trust Gilligan and team. He’s put together two of the greatest shows ever made. It’s possible this show won’t hit that mark, but at the moment I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Pointslifting is a victimless crime, like punching someone in the dark.

Uh, it’s only a one-player game.

Correct!

Well, it’s something. But looks like we’ve got a while to wait. I’m excited, and this gives us a little more than that single photo that’s been floating around, but I don’t think we learned anything new today.

Makes sense. Secret Wars will have everyone.

I assume white Vision will become regular Vision during Vision Quest.

Now… How do they introduce him to the audience? No idea. If Doomsday brings back Wanda via magic, then Vision just sorta also showing up via magic works, but I don’t know if that’s the plan.

I’ve seen elsewhere people say that the hive manipulated Carol, but did they?

The hive was nothing but helpful, Carol attacked one of them, nearly killed one of them, and they backed off, but still helped her. Carol did something wrong, Carol showed remorse, the hive came back.

Both Carol and Manousos want the hive to be “evil”, but they’re not. Diabaté doesn’t view them as evil and he’s enjoying life… but as we saw last episode with the fake storyline and the sandwich something isn’t quite right either. They’re not evil… But they’re not human either. The world isn’t at peace, the world no longer exists.

I understand where this viewpoint is coming from, but this episode had both action and story. We saw just how defiant Manousos is, willing to torch his car in defiance. We saw how determined he was during his hike, repeating his mantra that he’ll deliver to Carol. We saw him fail, fall into the tree, try and recover, and fail some more. For Carol we saw her grow truly alone to the point of suicide.

The slow scenes are slow so that you really feel them.

The voicemail is all Carol has. The rest of the world won’t listen to Carol, but the voicemail and in turn the hive will.

It also shows that Carol has infinite time. She doesn’t need or want to speed up the voicemail.

No one will ever replace Raul Julia as M Bison.

But David Dastmalchian is a damn good choice.

I’ve tricked you! Classic December Fools.

While that episode is referenced, that’s not the episode shown here.

If that’s what they cut out what they leave in must be pure gold!

Correct!

I can make you hate it even more.

“On Dec. 20, 2019, President Trump signed a law extending the Regional Center Program through Sep. 30, 2020.”

Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EB-5_visa via USCIS.gov archive.

The Regional Center Program is basically a way to invest into something that would take more than one investor. If a roadworks project takes several million dollars, you can invest as part of that and it will qualify.

So Trump is aware EB-5 visas exist. They also, generally speaking, are effective at doing what they set out to do. But EB-5 isn’t branded as Trump, so fuck it.

So I had to lookup this scene because generally speaking Homer & Marge don’t have a television in their bedroom.

“Hercules, the cyclops tore off my clothes.” So in this wholesome scene Homer and Marge are watching softcore porn, or at least an R-rated saucy film.

This scene is from S04E13 “Selma’s Choice” where Selma takes the kids to Duff Gardens and we get the iconic “I am the Lizard Queen” line. Homer had to stay home sick because he ate an old sandwich.

In a season 2 episode Lisa gets the mumps, but watches TV (soap operas) in the living room. In season 10 episode Lisa gets a TV brought into her room when she’s sick, although she uses it to play video games.

Generally speaking the Simpsons only have one television, although there does appear to be a second one in the rarely seen rumpus room.

I’m guessing the average household at the time only had one television, and moving that television when someone was sick seems to be a common enough idea. I remember Rugrats doing something similar when Angelica was sick and Stu made pudding.