#it’s the way I’ll never watch 8x06 again

[aaronsinferno]

“they learn more about each other” “they hit a challenging place” “there is a hurdle.” “Their relationship deepens.”

[chevelleneech]

Oooh, BuckTommy shippers have really lost it. Saying Oliver is likely to have Buck’s bisexuality retconned now that Lou is gone. LOU!? Of all the love interests he’s had, got y’all crashing out to the point of insinuating an actor who has been nothing but kind, welcoming, and enthusiastic about portraying his character as any form of queer since season two or three, when Buddie first became a thing, is secretly biphobic? Okay.

I said it before and I’ll say it now, all of you who are reacting this way did not watch to see Buck discover his sexuality (which the show failed to do anyway). Y’all watched purely to see him make out with another man, and were hoping BT never broke up because you’re terrified Buck will date a woman again, thus “taking away” your fantasy of him only liking men, and this temper tantrum proves it, but newsflash! He don’t just like men!

Buck, as Oliver Stark has said multiple times, is bisexual. He likes men and women, and it was even shown in 8x06 that he checked out the woman who asked him to take the photo of her and her friends, which Tommy had no issue with. So this whole fake outrage to try and get Lou back on a show where he clearly was a GUEST STAR who didn’t bind well with too much of the cast to begin with, seeing as y’all also mad they didn’t give him a farewell party. Which is an insane thing to demand when y’all don’t know him nor the rest of the cast, nor the relationship between them.

Point is, you guys are losing your minds over a FICTIONAL relationship, for no reason. I understand it can be hard to part with something you enjoy, but reacting like this is insane, and trying to pad your decisions to be delusional by claiming Buddies harassed Lou so it’s equal, is equally as insane. Buddies are not exempt from criticism, but Lou wasn’t “harassed” for simply existing on screen. Nobody even cared about him for real until he also started charging people to talk to him online. The tide turned fully when his IG was found and his bigoted “sense of humor” was brought to light. Add that to the character of Tommy having a shit past, and he was bound to be disliked.

Does that mean people should tell him to kill himself? Absolutely not, but y’all, please understand the person you’re going up in flames over is an asshole at worst, and a halfway decent guy at best. You’re making up complete and total lies to defend his actions and y’all’s, which has been abysmal from day one. Most of y’all never watch the series from the jump and hate Buddie on principle, or you watched from the start and switched to BT because you thought it’d be Buck’s forever relationship, and started hating Buddie to save yourself from getting your hopes up again.

Now? Now you’re all up in arms because you talked so much shit about Buddie, Buddies, and Ryan Gúzman, that you can’t walk it back. You can’t say, “Damn, I fucked up.” and move on. Y’all are trying to stand on business, which is admirable, but you’re doing it wrong. Just say you don’t like where the show is headed and go. Stop watching, stop interacting. What you don’t need to do is make up lies and pretend things are happening that aren’t.

Oliver has wanted Buck to be queer for years. Upon Buck coming out, Oliver went to bat for him and has steadily stated it makes perfect sense that he is bisexual, given how many scenes over the years help play into the fact even during its FOX run where the execs refused to allow it to happen. So y’all don’t got to like it, but the truth is the truth. Y’all just mad.

[jakeyp]

“I don’t know why I’m crying I-I’m sorry” // angst and fluff ♥︎

hi... i kind of wrote a small fic with that prompt. you can read it here or on ao3! thanks for this i really needed the motivation. i decided to write something about what happened after 8x06! <3 

—

Amy arrives home a little later than usual that night, overwhelmed with the events of the last few days. There are so many things to process, though the only thing she can focus on at the moment, is her husband’s suspension. She knows Jake very well, and most likely he’ll try to hide his sadness and pretend he’s fine, not because he thinks he’s weak but because he doesn’t want Amy to worry about him. Yet, she can’t help to wonder how he’s taking it.

Not knowing what to expect as she enters their apartment, Amy tosses her keys onto the couch sadly, too distracted to place them on the key hook. Jake is nowhere to be seen, so she figures he must be putting Mac to sleep, since it’s past ten already, and there are no toys scattered around the floor.

Indeed, she finds Jake whispering to his son, who lies in his crib, babbling and very, very awake, even though the lights are dimmed and it’s quiet in there.

“Hey,” Amy says softly.

Despite her tone, Jake startles, turning around, but immediately relaxes when he sees it’s just her. “Ames,” he breathes, looking down at Mac and then back at his wife, guilt taking over his features. “I kind of let him take a nap earlier and now he can’t sleep…”

“It’s okay,” Amy says, shrugging. She wants to add something else to reassure him, but her mind’s entirely blank, so she settles for a casual question. “What did you two have for dinner?”

Jake smiles. “He tried scrambled eggs for the first time. I know it’s technically breakfast food, but I read he can eat them now, plus it’s what I cook best.”

“And?”

“He loved them, duh.”

Amy chuckles. “Of course. Did you have some too?”

“I… wasn’t really hungry.”

“Oh. Well, I haven’t eaten either. We can heat some leftovers if you want.”

Jake nods with a weak smile, which widens as he turns to check on Mac. “Hey, he’s asleep! Maybe he just needed to make sure mama arrived home safe.”

Amy leans over to look at her sleeping son. Mac looks so much like his dad, when he laughs or smiles—which he’s been doing recently a lot—but especially when he’s asleep and completely peaceful.

She turns to see Jake staring at their baby with a proud smile and it warms her heart. Perhaps he’s forgotten about the suspension.

“Leftovers, then?” she whispers after a while, grabbing him by the wrist to pull him a little closer to her.

“Sure,” he says, throwing a last glance at Mac before following Amy out of their room and closing the door behind him. They’ve learned to make as little noise as possible in the last ten months, so their voices are barely above a whisper by default whenever Mac is asleep.

As it’s routine, Jake turns on the TV, not choosing a channel, and mutes it before joining Amy in the kitchen, while she gets the food from the fridge and puts it in the microwave.

From the corner of her eye, she can see Jake leaning against the counter in an awkward pose, staring at her almost anxiously.

Amy has no idea how to ask the question she’s been wanting to ask him since she got there, so she takes a deep breath and turns to him. “Babe, are you… okay with it?”

His expression tells her he’s been dreading her to ask. Yet, he plays dumb. “With what?”

“With everything that happened. Your suspension…”

“Oh,” Jake spats after what seems like hours, as if every emotion he was supposed to be feeling before was just settling in. Amy’s stomach drops. These subjects might not be her thing. “It’s fine. I suppose I can talk about it, but is it necessary?”

She shrugs. “Just tell me.” Her voice is as soft as it can be. “How do you feel about it?”

Jake puts on a poker face now. She’s usually good at reading him, but she can’t tell what he’s thinking. Amy knows how much he enjoys his job. Everything had happened so fast, though, at some point she’d lost track of it all. One second he was very excited about his ‘Speed’ situation and then, suddenly, he was in too deep.

To sum it up, it hadn’t gone well.

“I feel weird,” Jake finally admits, looking down. “It feels weird to know I won’t be going back tomorrow. But I’ll… adapt, I guess.”

“I’m sure you will,” she automatically replies, hesitating a little before placing a hand on his chest.

He seems to attempt a smile, but it vanishes right away. “I feel stupid too. Why can’t I listen? Holt told me to stay out of it and I screwed up. I screw up a lot.”

Amy frowns. “Of course you don’t. Sometimes you can be silly, yes, but there’s nothing wrong with it. This time it just… it got out of my hands too. I was really drunk.”

Jake chuckles. “Yeah,” he says shortly, and then swallows. “So five months, huh? It isn’t that much, is it? There are like thirty days in a month so it would be like a hundred days which have twenty-four hours each, so it would be like twenty-four thousand hours.”

“No,” she says, shaking her head with a smile. Math is decidedly not Jake’s strength. “It’s only like… three thousand and seven hundred hours.”

“Oh. That’s… still a lot.”

Amy sighs. His eyes are red, probably with exhaustion, and she can’t recognize the emotion behind them. It might be just deep, deep sadness.

“Ames,” he says huskily before she can talk. “What am I gonna do?”

Her eyebrows shot up, but before she can even think of an answer, Jake cuts her off again. “Things were so well yesterday. It makes me think… I can mess everything up so quickly. And it’s always my fault. What am I gonna mess up next?”

“Don’t say that,” she says, her throat knotting. “It’s okay to make mistakes, babe. And you are great at dealing with the consequences. You learn from your mistakes, you’ve always done.”

“Yeah, I keep pushing things until something goes wrong,” he argues in a trembling voice, “and until then I stop, I—” and suddenly that trembling voice breaks.

Amy’s stomach drops again as his eyes tear up, becoming redder. He immediately looks away when he realizes himself.

“Hey,” she says soothingly, cupping his face to make him look at her. “Don’t beat yourself up over this.”

“I’m sorry,” he chokes. “I know it’s a dumb thing to cry over, I just—” once more he’s unable to finish his sentence, pinching his lips shut before his voice can get any louder or high-pitched.

A single tear streams down his cheek.

“It’s not dumb,” Amy says. “If it makes you feel like this, it’s not dumb.”

“Well, I got myself into it—”

“And as I said, you will learn from it. That’s what matters.”

“I’ve been suspended like a thousand times already,” he counters, his tone bitter. "What makes you think it won’t happen again? What makes you think I couldn’t get fired?”

She shrugs, trying to stay calm even though she wants to cry as well. “I wouldn’t be less proud of you than I am today,” she says. “You’ve grown up so much and whatever you have to deal with, I have to deal with too, because I love you and I’m willing to. So please, don’t beat yourself up over this because it’s going to be fine.”

He sniffs. “How can you know that?”

“Because I’ll make sure everything’s fine. You’re not alone, babe. You have me.”

Jake stays in silence for a few seconds, and she thinks he’s going to start sobbing, but his lips curl instead. “I love you so much,” is all he says.

“I love you too,” she mouths back, afraid she’ll begin crying if she talks, and then pulls him into a hug.

They stay like that for a while, maybe five seconds or ten minutes, sinking in a silence that they don’t really mind. She pulls away from his embrace only to wipe his tears away. Jake looks so tired. Exhausted, even. She feels the same way, when minutes ago they were going to watch some TV and have dinner, though now she’s not sure she’s up for it.

Jake must have been thinking the same thing because a small laugh comes from his lips all of a sudden.

“What?” Amy asks, amused.

“I just realized we never even heated the food.”

Amy chuckles, and it only causes him to laugh a little harder. She wonders if it’s the exhaustion making such a simple detail seem so funny, and rests her head on his chest, feeling his heartbeat. It’s calmer now, it could be matching hers.

“Babe,” she says softly.

“Yes?” Jake hums.

“It’s going to be fine. I promise.”

He doesn’t answer right away, and Amy separates, afraid she said the wrong thing, but Jake’s only bowing his head like she said the cheesiest thing in the world.

“I know. Thanks, Ames,” he says, and then adds, “I love you.” Even though she hears those words coming from him at least ten times a day, he manages to make them sound like it’s the first every time.

“I love you too,” Amy whispers, leaning in to kiss his cheek.

Jake is about to return a much longer kiss on the lips when Mac interrupts the moment. Amy squeezes her eyes shut with a knowing smile—this has happened many times before. However, Jake immediately becomes alert and rushes to attend to his son.

Amy chuckles to herself, finally heating the food which is still inside the microwave and turns off the TV, because they are definitely not watching anything before they fall asleep, worn off with the events.

Like Jake would say, they’re sort of an old couple now, but she couldn’t care less. To her, so far, it’s meant that things can be so easy now.

Her husband doesn’t join her back in the kitchen so she goes and checks on him and Mac. The room feels so warm and quiet still, as Jake rocks his son softly, lulling him, again not realizing Amy’s watching. It always seems like he drifts away from reality when he’s trying to make Mac stop crying—and he’s good at it. She doesn’t know what it is, but Jake is great at it.

“I have to admit,” Amy says, startling him of course, “I’m a little jealous of you. You get to spend five months with him, all by yourself.”

Jake gives her what looks like an automatic smile, and then realization hits him. “I hadn’t thought about that before,” he huffs, stroking Mac’s soft curls and looking down at him. “Did you hear that, bud? Five months for only the two of us.”

Mac babbles, and Amy tries to ignore how awake he still sounds. “Careful, Ames,” Jake tells her. “That sounded a lot like ‘dada’, and with these five months? It’s definitely going to be his first word.”

Amy rolls her eyes with a playful smile. “Not if I train him every night.”

“Challenge accepted.”

An hour later they’re both in bed after eating dinner and Amy has already changed into her pajamas. Jake hasn’t stopped rocking Mac, who woke up once more, but his father doesn’t seem to mind, and Amy has the feeling that his suspension doesn’t sound so bad to him anymore.

—

[shirtlesssammy]

8x06: Southern Comfort

Then:

Garth

Now:

Kearney, Missouri

A husband --possibly in the dog house?- gets run over by his very angry wife, and the audience gets to see the defacement of set dressing I have no desire to see in the first place.

Our boys are STILL fighting about Sam’s year of psychosis and Dean’s year of pining and romantic (and sexual?) frustration. Dean tells Sam he’s ready to talk about Benny whenever. Sam’s so pissed about Benny, but, like, grr, I firmly hold to the fact that Ameila was a figment of Sam’s psychosis because she’s not even close in comparison to their respective distractions to the job. Benny meant more somehow. Sam “Let’s Give the Monsters a Chance” Winchester just wants Dean to kill Benny ---and I haven’t read enough meta to understand why. Dean’s answer, and the only one that matters: “He’s my friend, Sam.” 

I get that this entire scene sets up the episode, but I’m still grrr about it. 

Anyway, the boys head off to their case, and find Garth!

He’s posing as a Texas Ranger. 

Garth is working cases, and he’s the new Bobby. Dean, bby, it’s okay. They go and interview the son of the victim/assailant. He tells them that his parents had a good marriage, and they were high school sweethearts. It makes no sense. His mom is at the hospital -and remembers nothing of the event. 

Assessing the crime scene, Garth finds ectoplasm. It’s green --not black. And Garth tastes it. Dean is not amused. Garth also gets a call from the coroner. The dead guy had the word ‘Alcott’ carved into his chest. 

They interview the wife. She doesn’t remember much --just a LOT of anger. Garth asks about ‘Alcott’ and she talks about her husband going to a dance with Sara Alcott in high school. Sara Alcott’s still alive --so this is a weird ghost possession. 

They head for food. Once at the bar, Garth asks Dean where he was the past year (Sam being locked away in a cabin hallucinating and recovering from his satan delusions.)  He tells Garth that his was in the non-Miami Purgatory. “Man, that’s balls.” Oh, GARTH. 

Dean asks about the confederate bullshit on the walls, and Garth fills them in on the fact that Missouri was a border state. He then reveals the genesis of his current job. He went to college and dental school. His first job was ganking the tooth fairy. 

Scott, the victim’s son, is about to head into a general store when he gets a call from his wife. He sees someone that he’s clearly trying to avoid, and then takes a hit from his asthma inhaler. Grabbing some money, and getting some black goo to ooze out of his ear, he heads inside. 

He’s pouring himself a hot cup of coffee when the dude he clearly didn’t want to see before confronts him. Scott throws the cup of coffee in his face and proceeds to take a shovel to the dude. LIKE WOW. 

But watching a security mirror reveals that he’s really an angry confederate soldier. Of course. 

Later at the scene, Sam, Dean, and Garth learn that Scott didn’t remember anything, felt a whole lot of anger, and the word ‘Sussex’ is scrawled in blood on the cooler door. Also, Garth is wearing Bobby’s hat. 

Oof.

Dean is not amused. 

Sam heads off to interview Sara Alcott Brown. She tells him of her youth. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s clear the wife never forgot what happened. Sam flashes to a post-coiltal Sam and Amelia. Amelia confesses she once had a husband. He died in Afghanistan. 

She ran away from her life, and met Sam. 

The team realizes that the dead and the killers all had long held resentments with each other. Garth uncovers some lore from Bobby’s journal: they’re looking for a spectre or an “avenging ghost” that forces you to act on long-held resentments. They discover a nearby grave desecration - it’s the Confederate tomb of the unknown soldier. That night they break into the tomb to burn the bones. Dean delivers a fitting eulogy: “We won.” 

At the jail, the shovel-bashing son from earlier begs for his inhaler. When a deputy fishes it out of evidence, he suddenly goes vengeful and shoots his boss.

At the station, they speculate that the burn job didn’t take because there’s a haunted object being passed from person to person. Sam interviews another officer, who reveals that a deputy with murder in his eyes is on his way to the hospital. Dean pursues. 

Sam and Garth follow up on another lead, and Garth encourages Sam to talk about his feelings. LOL, good luck, buddy! Sam has….ANOTHER FLASHBACK. This time, Amelia tells Sam that she vomited out too many feelings the night before, and she’s gotta go. Sam puppy dog eyes her, but she leaves anyway. (Boris maintains that Amelia was a hallucination, but Natasha now believes that Amelia is the blurry wife in the cursed finale. This...somehow makes the finale worse, for her.)

Sam and Garth talk to a hot librarian about the history of the unknown soldier. Dean, meanwhile, confronts the ghost-mad deputy who’s confronting a nurse or doctor....over a past bad call as a recreational league UMPIRE. smh

Garth and Sam learn that the rumored resident of the unknown soldier’s tomb is one of two estranged brothers. One brother fought for the confederacy and the other for the union. (LOOKS DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA.) Sam notices a penny necklace in the portrait of the soldier. 

For Hot Librarian Science:

At the hospital, the ghost sniffs Dean and finds him delicious….ly full of anger and betrayal. He jams the penny into Dean’s hand. Sam calls Dean and lets him know about the penny. Too little, too late. Dean’s waiting for them at the motel room and immediately points a gun at Sam. “You shoulda looked for me when I was in Purgatory.” 

Flashback to three days ago which is...a bit jarring. Careless teens play with the items in the soldier’s tomb. One of them pockets the coin, which they use to pay for snacks at a store. Later, the woman from the cold open gets the coin back in change. We get the full chain of custody of the coin - I suppose to show us that it’s super duper hard to shake off that darn ghost. I recall 15x19 and grind my teeth.

Cut back to Dean, who is still ready for MURDER. Dean rattles off a list of grievances from the prior seasons. 

Sam tries to wrest the gun from Dean’s hands and gets knocked across the room for his trouble. Garth intervenes, using himself as a shield, and tries to de-escalate the situation. Sam fails to READ THE ROOM and brings up Benny again. Smh

When Dean lunges for Sam, Garth knocks him one right in the kisser and when Dean reels back the coin drops. Dean’s abruptly himself again.

Garth reaches for the coin to Sam and Dean’s concern. But as we all know, Garth is a PURE SOUL and is therefore immune to vengeful spectres. 

After Garth destroys the coin, he sternly tells Dean to “stop being an idjit” and get along with Sam! They hug, and Dean gives Garth Bobby’s hat back. HEARTS

Alas, the episode doesn’t end on a high note. Sam has one more flashback to his time with - DEEP SIGH - Amelia. Sam comes crawling back to Amelia and finally reveals his sob story about losing his brother. She lets him into her room and they reconcile.

Flash forward in time again. Sam tells Dean Amelia’s full name as though he’s actually dropping her life story. He continues to harangue Dean about keeping Benny a secret. He threatens to kill Benny the next time he sees him and on that positive note, the episode ends. 

Natasha’s takeaway: There are WAY too many confederate flags in this episode with WAY too little judgment about them

I’ll QUOTE Benny the Next Time I See Him!

“Like Purgatory purgatory?” “No. The one in Miami.”

You ganked the tooth fairy? 

You can’t change the past, amigo

 Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[erin-bo-berin]

Home Run

MASTERLIST

Happy Saturday! I’m back with a THIRD new fic in a row. I just couldn’t wait to post this one either. Requested by @andiebeaword​, this fic was obviously inspired by the baseball scenes from 8x06. This was just so much fun to write and I liked being able to switch it up some and have it be like a huge BAU annual baseball game with past and current agents. It was interesting to be able to write about all these characters together, some of them never even being around at the same time on the show. Also, I had to use this gif cause Spencer’s huge smile in this scene will never fail to make me happy. Sit back, relax and enjoy a nice BAU ballgame fluff piece. Happy reading!

Spencer Reid/Reader

Rating: G (fluff)

Word Count: 2,634

It was the arrival of the annual baseball game that started it all.

Every year, the BAU held what was the most well known event outside the office; the baseball game was held on the first weekend in June, infamous for the most competitive game between all different members of the BAU, past and present.

Past members of the team came back every year to play. It was a nice, fun way to see everyone again.

This year was going to be a little...different.

“Guys, come on! You know why I never take part in this!” Spencer Reid whined, “I had to be exempt from any physical test just to get in the FBI!”

You chuckled at your friend and coworker’s expense. Standing next to you was Derek Morgan, another of your coworkers. Beside the two of you was a baseball cannon, loaded with balls for Spencer’s practice.

“Reid, you know Kevin Lynch can’t make the game this year due to a family commitment. We’re short one player,” Derek hollered back.

“I don’t even know how to play baseball!”

“Which is precisely why we’re here,” you retorted, “All you do is swing, hit the ball and run. It’s easy!”

“Easy for you,” he grumbled, lifting his bat again, “Okay, let’s try it again.”

“Don’t think, just feel it,” Morgan called.

“Feel it, feel it,” Spencer nodded.

The ball went shooting from the apparatus and you saw Spencer trying to follow it with his eyes. You crossed your fingers, hoping he’d hit it.

He swung.

And he missed. Again.

“Reid, that’s not feeling it!” 

“I’m feeling like an idiot!” Spencer shouted back, exasperated.

“Come on pretty thang, go show your pretty boy how it’s done,” Morgan nodded to the home plate.

You cut him a warning glance, your cheeks reddening. You’d had a tiny crush on Spencer since the first day you met him. 

Derek’s nickname for Spencer was pretty boy. When you’d joined the team, you became pretty thang. It was often his joke that Spencer was your pretty boy, which embarrassed you to no end. He definitely rooted for you two as a couple.

Despite all the relentless teasing, Spencer remained mercifully oblivious. You’d rather not deal with that embarrassment of your crush being exposed. Although if it was up to Derek Morgan, he’d shouted it from the rooftops for you ages ago.

“Kid, come here. Watch how she bats, okay?”

Derek put his arm around Spencer’s shoulders as you took your place behind the home plate, bat raised and ready. Morgan loaded another ball and it flew towards you.

A crack of the bat sounded as you hit it high in the air, watching it soar to the further end of the field.

“All you gotta do is swing your hips and hit it!” you called.

“If I had hips like that, I would,” Spencer retorted.

You knew Spencer didn’t mean anything by the remark, but you still felt a tad embarrassed at his focus on your body.

“Grab a mitt big boy, we’re practicing your catching,” Morgan called, running to grab one for you. 

“Can’t wait,” Spencer mumbled sarcastically.

You chuckled, taking the mitt from Morgan and handing him the baseball bat.

“Don’t think I didn’t hear that remark of his about those sexy curves,” he teased you as he took your place batting.

“What’s that? You’re gonna take it easy on us?” you chuckled, purposely ignoring his remark.

Derek was a beast at batting and if he was going to bring his A game, Spencer was surely going to be in for it during his first outfield lesson.

“Oh never,” Morgan laughed.

“Guys you know all my unpleasant childhood sports memories happened like this,” Spencer protested.

“Okay, okay,” Morgan relented, “I’ll take it easy on you.”

“Thank you,” he huffed.

“Spence, since Kevin was right field, you’re going to be in the right field,” you said.

“Which is where exactly?” he asked, wincing.

You chuckled.

“Well, you know which way is right, correct?”

He nodded, pointing to the right.

“Then that’s where you’re heading,” you grinned, pushing him gently in that direction.

“Isn’t the right fielder where a team can hide their worst player without destroying their defense?” Spencer called, walking backwards to his position.

“You know that yet you can’t play baseball?” you asked, mystified.

“I know information about a lot of things I don’t do,” he replied.

“Good point,” you mumbled.

“Watch out pretty boy,” Morgan called, “Y/N’s a beast at playing center field.”

“As long as I have to play as little as possible, I’m fine!”

The ball shooter let loose another ball and Morgan hit it high in the air. Your eyes never left the ball as you sprinted to catch it, the ball falling perfectly in your glove. If it had been a real game, Morgan would’ve been out.

He whistled across the field.

“Now that’s impressive.”

You peered over at Spencer, who was looking at you, mouth agape.

“What?” you flushed.

“I just didn’t expect you to be able to do that.”

“I played a lot of baseball when I was younger,” you explained.

“How do you expect me to play like that?” Spencer asked, still stunned.

“We’re not expecting you to be a professional, Reid,” Morgan said, approaching him, “Just do your best and have fun. It’s a game for fun anyway.”

“Fun for you guys,” he grumbled.

“Okay, I’m gonna try to go easier on you, to give a little practice on fetching the ball,” Derek said, heading back to home plate.

“I’m not a Golden Retriever!” Spencer said.

You chuckled.

Derek purposely held back, sending the ball in the middle of your area and Spencer’s. He ran for it at the same time you did as you noticed it was close to falling towards the field’s fence.

You weren’t paying attention to your surroundings, only the ball. That was how you ended up running right into Spencer’s chest, falling backwards into the ground. You lost track of the ball, but noticed it fall to the ground a few feet away from you.

“Oh my god, are you okay?!”

He rushed to help you up, but you waved him away, apologizing.

“So sorry about that,” you chuckled, “I should’ve been paying more attention to where I was going.”

Like a gentleman, he offered a hand to help you up, which you ended up taking, trying to ignore the tingling on your skin that holding his hand produced.

“No, I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I’m not that good at this sort of thing. In fact, I suck.”

“Hey, no need to be so hard on yourself,” you smiled, “You’re doing just fine.”

“Unless you two are over there discussing how amazing I am, I’d love for you two to get back to your positions!” Morgan shouted.

“Nah, we were just discussing how we think you’d look in a toupee,” Spencer remarked, making you snort.

Your phone beeped and you reached in the back pocket of your shorts and pulled it out, seeing a text message from team member and technical analyst Penelope Garcia.

“Guys, we’ve got a case,” you announced to the two men.

“Hallelujah.”

Spencer practically sprinted off the baseball field making you and Derek laugh heartily.

“Just you wait, pretty boy!” Derek called out to him, “I’m sure you’ll surprise everyone this weekend!”

•

Saturday was a beautiful day. 

The skies were such a clear blue, it almost looked artificial. The sun shone brightly without a cloud in the sky and the temperature was pleasant, without being too hot. Basically, it was the perfect day for a baseball game. 

The game day also fell on a great day. 

The team had just wrapped up the case that you and them had been called in on earlier in the week. It would be nice to have a relaxing Saturday afternoon with some baseball, good friends and plain ‘ol fun.

“Spencer!”

You waved him over, when you saw him.

“Hey,” he grinned, catching the mitt you threw him.

“We’re first in the field,” you explained, “You ready to play some ball?”

“Stoked,” he deadpanned.

“Oh come on, it won’t be that bad,” you chuckled, reaching up to place his baseball hat on his head.

“You’ll do great,” you assured him, patting his chest as you headed off towards your spot in center field.

Your team was made up of your fellow BAU team members including: Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, Luke Alvez, Penelope, Derek, Spencer and of course, yourself.

On the opposing team were friends and fellow coworkers: Matt Simmons, Tara Lewis, Alex Blake, Ashley Seaver, Stephen Walker, Kate Callahan, Jordan Todd, Mateo Cruz and Grant Anderson. 

Last year, they had won. This year, you and your team were ready to take back the reigning title.

The crowd was filled with friends and family, here to support their loved ones.

There was Beth, Hotch’s girlfriend and Jack, Hotch’s teenaged son. Rossi’s wife Krystall, his step daughter Portia, daughter Joy—and her husband and son Kai—were also in attendance. Savannah and Hank were there too, Morgan’s wife and three year old son, cheering their favorite player on. 

JJ’s husband Will and their two boys, Henry and Michael were in the stands as usual; they never missed this yearly game. All of Matt Simmons’ small tribe were also present and accounted for; wife Kristy and their two sons Jake and David, twin girls Chloe and Lily and their newly one year old final child, Rose Mary. Even Emily’s boyfriend Andrew Mendoza had shown up to cheer on his favorite girl.

Alex Blake’s husband James had come, taking a weekend off of his teaching duties so he could travel to D.C. for the game. Stephen Walker’s wife Monica sat with their two teenagers, a son and a daughter, already whooping and cheering for his team. Kate Callahan’s little family was there too; it was nice to see them since you hadn’t seen them in a while. Her husband Chris was seated with their biological niece turned adopted daughter Meg—who was now 18 and so much older than the last time you’d seen her—and their youngest daughter, now five.

Rounding out the group of loved ones was Anderson’s wife, her belly swollen with pregnancy. 

If that sounded like a huge turnout, that didn’t even count the other members of the BAU and other departments of the FBI. The bleachers were absolutely packed. The game really was that big of a deal.

The game started out rather slow, which was pretty unusual for a game between both teams. With two incredibly talented teams, usually someone had scored by now, but in hindsight it also meant the defense of each team was incredibly good as well.

By the third inning, both Morgan and Hotch had hit two homeruns. You’d had a decent hit, but ended up striking out before you could reach third base.

In another inning, the opposite team had tied up. 

Poor Spencer up to this point had struck out every time he was at the bat. You could tell he was incredibly embarrassed, but you kept encouraging him.

“Don’t let it get you down, Spence,” you smiled, after he’d struck out again, “You’re gonna hit it when they least expect it and knock them off their feet.”

He offered an appreciative half smile and you found yourself silently cheering him on throughout the entire game.

Surprisingly, his right fielding skills were pretty great. He had caught on quickly and was able to fetch the balls and throw them to any nearby basemen. He had actually struck out Kate, preventing her from almost scoring another point to take the lead.

“Woo! Way to go, Spence!” you hooted, clapping as best as you could with your mitt.

You saw his face flush and you knew it wasn’t all from the heat.

By mid game, the sun had started beating down on all of the attendees causing lots of red faces, sweaty shirts and bottles of water to be consumed. You were hot and sweaty like no other, but you were having the best time.

The fifth inning brought your team a three point lead which you’d contributed one of those points to and you were rather proud. You high fived all your teammates as you ran across home plate and came to the end of the line where Spencer was. He picked you up and spun you around in his excitement.

“Is it my imagination or is someone actually having fun?” you grinned.

“I’m definitely having fun.”

-

The last inning was the most tense. 

It was tied 5 to 5 and Spencer was up to bat next. If he struck out, the opposing team had one last chance to come out ahead and win the game.

Spencer was a wreck, to put it lightly. He’d already struck out once and Morgan ended up calling a time out. 

Spencer had been pacing and gesticulating wildly as Morgan talked to him, finally putting his hands on Spencer’s shoulders to calm him.

Whatever Morgan said to him, seemed to work. 

You watched from the sidelines as he calmly walked back to the home plate. 

Stephen was the one pitching this inning and he had a pretty good throw. But you believed in Spencer.

“Come on Spencer! You can do it!” you hollered.

You watched his posture change from nervousness to more confident. There had definitely been some sort of change in him.

The ball left Stephen’s hand and went flying Spencer’s way. You found yourself holding your breath and you actually flinched at the sudden crack of the bat hitting the ball.

Spencer seemed stunned for a moment as the ball soared towards the outfield, high above everyone’s heads.

“Run, run!” you and the rest of the team yelled to him, snapping him out of his daze.

Garcia was on second base and Rossi was on third. They went running as the other team scrambled to catch the ball in time. 

Rossi crossed the home plate, causing loud hoots and cheers from the audience that continued on as Penelope made it home right behind him.

Spencer hit first base and second by the time Matt had retrieved the ball. You noticed Spencer pick up speed and whiz past third base, trying to make it in time before the ball reached the pitcher again.

The cheers grew louder as loved ones shouted their encouragement to Spencer in hopes he made it home.

He slid home moments before the ball met Stephen’s glove bringing the game to an end in a 5-8 win.

The bleachers erupted in screams, as did you and the rest of your team. 

Morgan practically tackled Spencer in a hug, Spencer’s grin so big it rivaled the brightness of the afternoon sun. 

You were right behind Morgan to greet Spencer. Morgan had just let him go as you ran up to him.

“Spence, that was awesome!” you cried. 

In your excitement you grabbed Spencer’s face and kissed him hard, not even thinking of what you were doing until after you’d already pulled away.

He stood frozen and stunned, a smile on his face and you grinned, realizing you didn’t regret it one bit.

Everyone else had been too busy to see it, you assumed, so before the rest of the team swarmed him you called to him.

“You deserved that!”

Just then, the other six members reached him, swallowing him up in their excitement. His smile never left his face and his eyes flicked to you numerous times, an almost shyness to him.

You had assumed no one had seen the kiss until you overheard Morgan’s comment to Spencer.

“Way to go pretty boy! You didn’t just get one home run today, you got two!”

TAG LIST: @dreatine​ @reid-187​ @groovyreid​ @reidslibra​ @suvikamahes98blr​ @fuckthealarm​ @iamburdened​ @cindywayne​ @tinyminy88​ @sundippedprincess​ @missprettyboy​ @hushlilbabydoll​ @sammy-jo1977​ @haileymorelikestupid​ @lemonypink​ @multifandommandy​ @teamkiall​ @redbullchick​ @ifeelloved​ @one-sweet-gubler​ @nanocoool​ @delightfullyspeedyearthquake​ @unsteadyimagines​ @ughitsbaby​ @inkwiet​ @pennythetechgoddess​ @capt-engr-ssa​ @sixx-sic-sixx​ @spencersdolore​ @reidsstudies​ @disney-dreams-world​ @chocolatecalzoneherringbonk @mggwhore​ @andiebeaword​ @cupcake525​ @be-the-bravest​ @gretaamyk​ @likelovers @hopebaker​ @prisonreid​ @httpnxtt​ @daviddoughboy​ @pastathighs​ @marvels-gurl​ @blushingspencer​ @pretty-boy-gubler​ @victorzsaszmydaddy​ @inlovewithamess​ @im-inlovewith-mycar​

[firesign23]

I would like to read that very angry post and learn the two rules.

Okay, so, I was GOING to be all “Here are my well composed arguments” about this, but… honestly, I’m still digesting the specifics of Brienne’s story in 8x06 and getting caught up on “Soo, we’re going with the shallowest interpretation of her character’s desires and also kinda just making her Jaime 2.0: The Just Edition” (more on this rant LATER, because oh it was so much worse than I thought when I read the leaks), so instead y’all get a slightly edited version of the Angry Screaming I sent a friend a few days ago. Buckle up, I am Riled.

A pre-rant note–my husband woke up this morning, checked his phone, and looked at me like a man who had Seen Some Shit. “The leaks were right.” He has never watched Game of Thrones (he’s been waiting until the show is done, and I’m pretty sure season 8 killed his plans to binge it), but honestly I can think of no better way to sum up this experience.

(Fucking MOOD, Jon.)

So, first off, I do not expect a lot from Game of Thrones. The visuals are amazing, the actors are top notch, but there have always been issues with the plot, with misogyny, etc. What has made me so ANGRY about this season is that it thumbs its nose at storytelling as a craft. I expected it to be dumb. I did not expect it to be “Wow, my nine year old literally has a better grasp on constructing stories” dumb. #subvertedexpectations (As an aside, I could turn this into a series of rants about the different elements of storytelling and how season 8 fucked them up, but honestly I’d rather lose a fucking hand and I still have a spite fic to write to fix what I can. So we’ll have to content ourselves with this rant, and if husband ever DOES binge the show I’ll save the others as a reward for surviving the experience.)

Second of all, I want to make this clear that any writing rule can be broken (some I don’t believe SHOULD be, which is what started this rant, but they CAN), but you must understand the rules you are breaking and why. And you can’t break all of them at once. I have seen exactly zero evidence this is true for D&D, those talentless hacks.

Now, onto the two rules for character arcs that should never be messed with because they are SO structurally important, and they’ve fucked over both repeatedly throughout season 8:

(1) A character must always want something. They absolutely do not need to GET it, but they need to want it. Hell, NOT getting it is basically the definition of tragedy.(2) A character getting what they want should not result in “Guess their story is over, we can kill them or write them off”

This applies to SO MANY of the characters right now, but I’m going to use Jaime as an example of (1) and Brienne as an example of (2) because honestly that’s the only plot I’ve followed with any enthusiasm. (There are definitely better examples of (2) within the show, but I used Brienne as an example in the original rant and I’m carrying that over. Because Brienne. Fight me.)

RULE ONE: A character must always want something.

Jaime’s arc has been about redemption, about listening to his own morals instead of the poisonous family first that has been dripped in his ear for decades. The setup is all there–a brash kid who is forced to make a call between his own morals (not burning half a million innocent people) and the oaths he made (to protect the king), makes it, and is reviled for it because the truth is never revealed. He falls further into this “Family above all else” mindset because he’s been groomed since childhood for this. There’s like a whole meta post from me in the Lannisters and abuse, but people better than I have gone there before. For this post, “Jaime’s arc is about redemption, a redemption he doesn’t always BELIEVE in but has been a core of his character from season 1” suffices.

His death absolutely should have been about this redemption. Whether he succeeds and kills his sister and lives, or kills his sister at the cost of his own life, or he gets there and the decades of brainwashing means that he falters at the final hurdle… THAT doesn’t matter, so much, but the impetus absolutely should have been DRIVEN by that need for redemption. Have him go south because he needs to save innocents, or even the family of choice (THERE IS A FAMILY OF CHOICE SCENE IN THE FUCKING EPISODE!!!) Hell, have him SEE saving Cersei as redemption. (I mean, that would be fucking stupid beyond stupid, but it wouldn’t insult me on a crafting level.) Just… don’t go “He’s happy, guess it’s time for a relapse we lay no groundwork for, and then handwave with forgiveness from a female character because…she’s so good and pure? We want to pretend we are deep?” There is no tragedy in Jaime’s death because they moved the goalposts at the very last second.

(As an aside, the Very Dear Friend subjected to this rant responded to this portion of my ire with “Why would they do that? It’s so meaningless”, and all I could say was “Because it’s ~*~sHocKinG~*~ that way. NO, YOU BASTARDS. You make it shocking by laying the groundwork and then subverting our hopes at the last second, but THE GROUNDWORK NEEDS TO BE THERE. YOU NEED TO USE OUR CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING OF STORIES.” This was the toned down version of my actual thoughts, because Very Dear Friend is genuinely dear to me and does not need to know the depths of my creative cursing.)

RULE TWO: A character getting what they want should not be the end of their story.

As for Brienne… she is such an interesting character because she’s SO driven by her own morality. She wants, desperately, to be a knight. Not just BE knighted, but to embody the spirit of knighthood. She gets that knighthood from someone she respects, deeply–she’s one of the few people who truly knows about Jaime’s struggle with morality vs oaths and has utter faith in him–and so she gets what she wants. Great, right? WRONG. We are at Unbreakable Rule #2–a character who gets what they want should not then have nowhere to go.

NB–the original rant here was far more articulate and focused on how this rule is broken, but we might descend into slathering rage instead. Because the ending (oh god, seriously, like I said, I’m still digesting the depth of the shit in this because on a surface level it seems happy but it’s really fucking terrible) puts her in this horrible stagnation that is more focused on title than her actual character. She didn’t necessarily want to be a Kingsguard, she wanted to be a Kingsguard for a king she believed in. And, like, she had a say in electing Bran? (Rereading this rant--that’s a weird phrasing. I’ll deal with it later) But that whole thing makes no sense (“I can’t be lord of Winterfell because I’m the Three Eyed Raven, but I can totally be King” ??? I just… honestly, my brain is not computing this well.) and I just… CAN WE FUCKING TALK ABOUT HOW SHE HAS PREVIOUSLY PLEDGED HERSELF TO PEOPLE WHO ARE IN SOME WAY VULNERABLE??? Seriously, who has she pledged oaths to before now? A gay man and women. Because that was always fucking important to me, and this is just… no.

The ending as it is basically just makes her Replacement Jaime–a highborn heir who instead takes the role of Kingsguard, but don’t worry guys she’s so Noble and Caring that she absolves Jaime of his sins by writing his story in the book. Where’s the fucking vomit emoji? (Don’t get me wrong, that scene is emotional and moving and honestly FUCK YOU GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE FOR BEING SO LOVELY AND TALENTED, but in the wider context of this show I just cannot see it as a good thing.)

I just… look, in my rant a few days ago I’d read the leaks, but I still had some hopes the ending would be better on screen; right now I can’t even articulate the number of levels it bothers me on, so just know that I SHOULD HAVE BEEN FUCKING HAPPY WITH HER ENDING! But I’m not, because it is this surface level understanding of what she desires from knighthood, and there is this… okay, so, I’m articulating this TERRIBLY because the original rant was solid but did not account for fuckery, but you know what Brienne’s ending made me think of? Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s interviews where he would fight for Jaime’s character and basically get told to shut up and follow the script. THAT is what Brienne’s ending feels like to me, and it shouldn’t.  She should have places to GO and GROW from here. Like, there are SO MANY things they could do with these characters that are surprising. Hell, imagine Brienne getting this knighthood and then getting presented with a similar situation to Jaime–does she keep an oath or to her own morals? Make it a smaller scale so that the answer isn’t so simple, have knighthood become shades of grey she never really understood–she gets what she wants, but it’s not simple. Boom, her story will go on after the end credits.

(I also have Capital I Issues with the narrative surrounding her love life and gender and… seriously, this could have been a motherfucking SERIES of rants. I could do a week’s worth just on how they did Brienne dirty)

RULE THREE: If you make me spend over an hour trying to present a coherent explanation for why your writing sucks and I’ve barely scratched the surface, you don’t get to write anything ever again. Sorry, I make the rules and I have decreed it so. All in agreement, raise your hand.

[nutellaninja0001]

Jonerys definitely weren't star-crossed lovers. Rather they were two dumb fuckers who ruined each other's lives. The strongest emotion in their relationship was resentment. Jon hated playing the fool for Dany, and she hated how much she lost in fighting his war and learning the truth about his birth. I blame EC and D&D for not going all out with that bitterness in 8x06. Jonerys was a toxic relationship and it should have had a gloriously toxic end.

Hello!

J*nerys could never hope to gain the star crossed lovers trope. They weren’t drawn to each other despite their differences. That was Jon and Ygritte and hell, even Jaime and Cersei fit that description better than they do. There was no push and pull to their dynamic. They were polar opposites and Jon had to learn to yield to do everything that Daenerys ever wanted without question and was completely blinded to the point he was willing to justify mass murder for her because hey, she’s been through a lot!

I’ll bring up Jon and Ygritte again because despite how problematic their relationship was, Jon actually learned things about himself and opened his world view on the free folk because of Ygritte. It was never like that with Daenerys and I never felt Jon was truly happy in the relationship. That’s not even because I don’t ship them, if they were meant to be a genuine couple the writers did a shit job at portraying it with Jon never really opening up to Daenerys and only ever justified her as an ally rather than a woman he was in love with.

I think it was intended that Jon feared Daenerys and had always feared her because if you go back and watch everything leading up to episode 5 during their conversation at dragonstone, Jon is weary around Daenerys. He’s always having to temper her and reassure her to keep her calm. He doesn’t even react despite the camera keeping his reaction in focus when Daenerys blatantly threatens Sansa. For me, episode 5 confirmed this when Daenerys pulls back and says to Jon “let it be fear then.” After she asks him if she is only a queen to him and he doesn’t kiss her back.

Whether that was D&D’s incoherent writing or an interference on Emilia’s part, we might never know but I can’t see it any other way

[twdmusicboxmystery]

8x06 Analysis and TD Goodness! ;D

So, how did everyone like last night’s episode? I actually really enjoyed it. We’ve moved beyond the story of the first four episodes, touched on most of the story lines and characters, and if feels like we’re not only heading into the next part of the story, but into whatever drama the MSF will consist of. This did feel like something of a bridge episode between the first part of 8a and the second part, but I liked it anyway.

***Reminder: Major spoilers for 8x06 in this post! Don’t read until you’ve watched. You’ve been warned!***

The Beginning

One of the first things it showed was Daryl on his bike, and he passed this place:

 At first I thought it might be the same place he passed in 6x06 right before he met Dwight, but that had the 642 sign. This doesn’t. Honestly, this looks most reminiscent of the crossroads me fell down at after chasing Beth all night. 

It also looks a lot like the place Rick and Carl passed in S4. TONS of S4 callbacks in this episode. Of course the similarities to the place in 6x06 work too because there as so much Beth symbolism in that episode:

It seems the characters left one another notes about how their part of the operation went. Obviously that was planned because cell phones don’t work anymore, and it seems to have worked pretty well in letting one another know how things are going. And of course I can’t help but think of Beth’s thank you note in Alone when I think of anyone leaving notes for one another.

There were actually a ton of things pointing to Still and Alone in this episode. I’ll get to them in a minute.

At one point, Michonne says it’s been a day and a half. The thing is, I think time is being staggered throughout the story lines. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’ve seen nighttime for Rick yet. Although he may spend the night in Jadis’s prison and that will be the first night for him. We did see night for FG and Negan last episode, and we saw it at the Hilltop with Jesus this episode. Anyway, Rick says they need two more days for the plan, and I think it was still the first day for him when he said that. So my point is that I’m thinking the entire plan will take 3 days. Three huh?

Because of the sunset in 7x16, a new arc began in S8. And Christ rose after three days. Just saying. Feeling more and more like the MSF might be big for us. ;D

I also want to note that this felt like a pivotal episode, even if we don’t know exactly why yet. In the voiceovers at the beginning, specifically Rick’s he said lots of things about how “the path has led us here” and this could be “our last fight.” That sort of thing. So whatever we’re heading into next is probably gonna be really epic for TF.

The Scavengers

The spoiler site got a few small details wrong. Jadis wasn’t painting. She was creating one of those wire animals, like the cat Rick took for Michonne. It looked to me like a pouncing tiger. Is she creating some kind of shrine to Shiva? We do know that she favor cats.

Rick pounding on the metal door felt like a callback to Terminus. And granted, I do have Terminus on the brain lately, but given what happens at the end, I think the callbacks are intentional. When the Scavengers open the door, we see what is essentially a black tunnel.

Now, in terms of the plot, that’s just the way into the junk yard that Rick comes through to meet with Jadis, as far as I can tell. But symbolically, it’s really interesting. Not only is it more Dark Tunnel Symbolism (X) but in this case, it’s not just a character being in a dark tunnel or seeing one. It’s like they open the doors and something is about to emerge from the dark tunnel. Interesting that the very next thing we see in the opening credits is the Beth flash. Several people in my group commented that the darkness of the tunnel made the flash more pronounced.

Sticking with the junk yard story, Rick and Jadis have a convo. I didn’t notice this until I rewatched with subtitles, but Jadis uses the words “still” and “alone” three times in about twenty seconds. Someone else said it later too, and I forgot to write down who. I think it was someone at the Hilltop. Jadis first asks Rick, “Alone?” Then a couple of sentences later says. “Still? Alone you.” These were some of the callbacks to those episodes. The biggest one in the plot had to do with Carzekiel. I’ll get to that in a minute.

So Jadis declines Rick’s offer, saying he talks too much (Really? Learn to talk in complete sentences, Lady. Then you can criticize) and takes him prisoner. Rick does say that his people know he’s there and what they do depends on her. So it does sound like they have a plan for if Jadis doesn’t cooperate. I’m interested to see what that is, as they haven’t shown anyone to be concerned that Rick hasn’t returned yet.

Then, of course, at the end, Rick is in the prison. SO many interesting things and callbacks in this 10-second scene. Everyone in my group commented on Jadis’s boots, that looked a whole lot like Beth’s. Not necessarily on the flat part that covers the foot, but on the tall part that wraps around her shins. They look exactly like Beth’s cowboy boots. Hmmm.

It’s been said before, but Rick’s eye peering out is reminiscent of Beth’s peering through the small gap in the elevator doors from the Skybound promo in S5.

The prison at large, of course, is reminiscent of being in the train car at Terminus. And remember in 5x16, Rick woke up after his fight with Pete and told Carol he thought for a minute that he was still in that train car. So it’s kind of interesting that he sort of is now, even though it’s at the junk yard rather than at Terminus. I wonder if being in this place could bring on a flashback to Terminus for Rick? Just a thought.

I also noticed that inside, Rick sits exactly like Daryl did in the Cell, with one knee up and the other leg stretched out.

Finally, Jadis draws an A on the outside of the door, just like the A on the train car at Terminus. See why I think the callbacks are purposeful? And yet more evidence that Terminus is about to become relevant again. One other detail about the A. 

I noticed that Jadis specifically draw a horizontal line at the top of the A before drawing the A itself. That felt purposeful. I’m not sure what the meaning is though. The only thing I found that might be relevant is something called an Accent Grave. (Interesting name.) It’s a common accent in other languages. One of the few things it’s used for in English…is music. (Lots of emphasis on music in this episode, btw!) Basically it can be used to make 1-syllable words into two syllables to fit musical notes. This is especially common in church and gospel songs. Read below:

I think it’s interesting that it describes it as giving a silent vowel a voice, specifically a song.

Again, I’m not entirely sure this is what they’re going for, though. The line Jadis makes looks more horizontal than the accent grave, which is at more of a 45 degree angle. Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.

Henry and Carol

Henry wants to fight, and I have to admit I was surprised how quickly Carol gave in and took him under her wing. Maybe it’s because of what he said about wanting justice for his brother’s death, and she can understand that. 

What she says to him is 100% about Sophia though. She says, “Do you know what happens to kids who wander around in the woods? They’re never seen again, and if they are, they’re monsters.” Yeah, totally about Sophia. Henry is unafraid, which I thought was really cool I REALLY hope he doesn’t die on her too. That’s been the pattern with kids around Carol. But I think he’ll either shatter her for good, or heal her. So I’m interested to see where this goes.

Carzekiel

So the convo between Carol and Ezekiel in the theater was very reminiscent of Beth and Daryl’s fight in Still. Understand that there weren’t any specific dialogue parallels that I caught. They don’t SAY the same things, but that’s because the issues are specific to their characters and arcs. Ezekiel and Daryl are not the same person, and of course neither are Beth and Carol.

But the structure is similar. Something tragic has happened (Hershel’s death and fall of the prison vs. all the Kingdomers being killed) and Daryl/Ezekiel feel guilty about it (not killing the Governor vs. getting his people killed). So they both become dark and withdrawn and emotionally shut down. Beth and Carol both draw their guys out of that dark place, refusing to let them wallow in self pity. (“We might as well do something.”/”Your people need you.”)

And I don’t even think the point of this is to parallel Bethyl (though I’m sure they’re conscious of the parallels as they write this). I think it’s more specifically about deepening the relationship between Carol and Ezekiel. Yeah, there’s definitely been tension and flirting, but it had to become more than that. There needed to be a deep emotional connection, as Bethyl and Richonne have had, and Carol and Ezekiel had to save one another emotionally. Now, granted the saving part hasn’t entirely happened yet, as Ezekiel is still refusing to come out this episode, but give it time.

I also think it’s interesting that Carol cried. It’s not that we don’t see her cry, but in the past it’s always been about her own pain, or an act to save someone else. She cried to Daryl in 7x10 about not being able to deal with killing anymore, but that was about her own guilt and her own demons. She cried in 6x13 when she and Maggie were taken prisoner. And yes, that was an act because she could kind of turn it off and on, but I also think it came from a place of real pain. Her pain. The act was about saving Maggie. But again, I don’t think we’ve seen her cry for the pain of another character before. She hasn’t sympathized with someone on this level since…Sophia.

And before anyone jumps down my throat, yes she sympathizes with Daryl about things, but we’ve never seen her cry specifically for him that I can think of. Even when Beth died, she was obviously worried about him and wanted to help, but she didn’t cry because of his pain. Here, she’s crying for Ezekiel and his pain, which outward really doesn’t have much to do with her. So this is affecting her on a different level. A romantic level. Hehe.

I also thought her line about acting was interesting. Yet another way we can see how well-planned this is. She said, “I have to act every day. It’s who I am and I’m still standing.”

A) This goes back to the “acting” theme we’ve seen around Carzekiel. And yet another way we see that this was planned well in advance. In 7x02, Ezekiel talked to her about playing parts. He called her out on her “act” of being a pleasant den mother when really she’s much more than that. He connected with her because he saw someone like him, and it made her uncomfortable that he saw through her like that, because no one else does.

We also saw her act in 6x13, which was long before Ezekiel was even in the picture. So clear back then (I’d argue when she first started acting to the Alexandrians in 5b) they were already planning this arc with Ezekiel and what they would connect over.

Remember in 5x16, Carol told Rick, Glenn, an Michonne that she’d been acting and “telling a story” to the Alexandrians since she arrived. Michonne didn’t like that and asked why. So even the people Carol’s closest to in TF don’t really understand why she feels the need to put on an act. I think Rick is the most conscious of her doing it, and he doesn’t question her on it, but they don’t’ really get it or empathize with her. Ezekiel does. That’s why they’re such a good fit.

B) This is just my opinion, but I was thinking last night about how Carol has been trying to leave TF since Lizzie and Mica died. She tried in 5x02 and Daryl stopped her. She finally did leave in 6x14 and ended up at the Kingdom. I kind of think that saying what she said, about how she acts everyday and it’s who she is, is something new for her. I wonder if part of the reason she kept trying to leave is that she can’t reconcile who she really is with the act she puts on. 

I personally think that hearing Ezekiel talk about how he plays the part in order to serve his people, and that’s okay, was maybe what healed her and made her realize that putting on the act to protect others is okay. There doesn’t have to be a schism. So his words really may have healed her enough to make her realize that it’s who she is and how she survived, and she doesn’t have to hide from it anymore. Now the tables are turned and she’s saying the same thing to him. 

I think you could argue something similar happened with Bethyl. After realizing she wanted to live, we know from what Beth told Carol in S3 that she admired Daryl, especially his determination not to let people (like Judith) die. He taught her to be strong and determined even before they spent much time together. After the prison, the tables were turned and she taught himself that it was okay to open himself up emotionally as well. I’m sure we could also find a Richonne parallel to this.

We also had an “I’m was okay” line from Carol. More of that theme, which also hearkens back to Beth. Okay, enough of my Carzekiel rant. If you can’t tell I’m really loving this story line. ;D

Oh, one more thing. The door wasn’t locked. Kind of a comedic moment, but I feel like there’s deeper significance to that. Not sure exactly what. We know when something IS locked, they always need a key to open it (key theory), so Carol bull dozing her way in with the gun probably wouldn’t have brought Ezekiel around. Maybe it just shows that, while he’s being stubborn, he’s still open to coming back from it in some way. He hasn’t truly locked himself away yet. I don’t know. Just felt important.

Maggie/Hilltop

Just a few small details here. They focused on the watch, which looked to still read 6:20. To me, that tells me Maggie is thinking of Glenn. She’s trying to make a decision about the prisoners Jesus brought and probably wondering what he would do in her position.

Gregory tells her to “connect the dots.” Just a random reference, but it reminded me of “the signs are all there. You just gotta know how to read them.” And in general of tptb wanting us to find Easter eggs and connect things.

There’s a lot of biblical imagery in this story line. One of the prisoners (don’t know his name) says to Jesus, “I’m not an angel. Ain’t no such thing.” Kind of interesting. I wonder if we’ll see more of this theme or where it will go. Makes me think of the angel wings on Daryl’s vest. And if there are no angels, it shows that most of the characters are in a very dark place right now.

Gregory also talks about Maggie being a shepherd, and sheep and wolves. Definitely biblical imagery there, especially from Matthew. And when he says this, a white horse picture is behind Maggie. (Horse Theory). And remember that white horse = Beth. So talk of the shepherd (Christ) saving the sheep from the wolves, and meanwhile a picture we think represents Beth is in the shot. Just saying.

Later, Aaron talks to Maggie and Enid about his grief over Eric. He asks if it gets easier and Maggie says, “No. But it helps to do something about it.” It reminded me of Andrea’s line to Beth: “The pain doesn’t go away. You just make room for it.”

And I thought it was sweet that Maggie was taking care of Gracie. Me: “Awww.” Don’t know why. Just liked that.

The Fat Lady:

So we had Michonne and Rosita’s story merge with Tara and Daryl’s in a very music-central story line. This was probably the biggest TD thing I saw in the episode. The most obvious thing is that it revolved around music, but let’s back up a minute.

When Daryl and Tara talk on the porch, it was noted in my FB group that he said “maybe” several times. “Maybe we can both kill him. Maybe we don’t gotta wait so long.” That’s reminiscent of him saying “maybe” to Beth twice at the funeral home in Alone. (Yet another callback to Alone.) “Maybe you don’t gotta leave that [note]. Maybe we stick around here for a while.” So once again, I’m feeling like Tara is a stand-in for Beth. And now she and Daryl are headed off together.

Lots of musical references here. They called the big speakers “the Fat Lady” because it’s all over when the fat lady sings. When Michonne confronted the female savior, the woman says, “You don’t look so good, girl. Somebody tune you up?”

I gotta say, the whole sequence where Rosita pulls a Daryl and blows someone up with a rocket launcher, and then Daryl comes out of nowhere and smacks into Fat Lady truck was awesome. Pure TWD goodness!

I do wish we’d have seen this story from Daryl and Tara’s POV. They were probably drawn by the music the same as Michonne and Rosita were, and that would have been interesting. Either way, Daryl was still drawn by the music and we have another example of him not really wanting to hear it. I know he took the “fat lady” down because it would have freed the Sanctuary, but still. Thematically, we had him asking Rick not to play music in 6x10, and now him bulldozing music in this episode. He’s really not all about the music since he lost Beth.

When Michonne and Rosita stand in front of the building and watch Daryl hit the Fat Lady truck, a three is clearly visible behind Michonne. And the truck Daryl uses looks a lot like a garbage truck to me. Not sure what to make of that, other than to tie in some way to the Scavengers? Not a whole lot more to say, except this definitely felt like things were getting “acoustic.” Between the music and the green ball Michonne kicked and the 3, this hopefully this story line will eventually lead to Beth in some way.

Carl/Siddiq

Glad we have confirmation that this character is Siddiq. I’m not super-familiar with his CB arc, and they could change it for the show anyway, but I do know he has ties to Oceanside.

More than anything else, these scenes were just interesting, and I’m wondering where they’ll go. The walker traps Siddiq built were kind of a callback to Morgan’s walker traps in Clear. Siddiq says he’s killed 237 walkers. Don’t know if that number is significant or not.

Then there’s a dead deer. (Deer theory). Remember that if the deer is dead, someone else is alive. It COULD have been for Carl, because it looked like he might get bitten there for a minute, but I doubt it. Usually the person is gravely injured, often by being shot. Carl wasn’t actually hurt.

I will say that having the walkers pile up on him like that when he was on his back was a big visual callback to 4b. That same thing happened when Rick slept for a day after the prison and Carl went out on his own. And that’s super-interesting to me because there were so many parallels in that episode, both in Rick’s and Carl’s story lines that pointed to Beth’s arc. Now we’re seeing both the dead deer AND a callback to that.

There was also a blond, female walker involved, who Siddiq killed. Interestingly, we didn’t actually see him kill her. First he was fighting her, then she was just laying on the ground. So we didn’t actually see him shoot or stab her in the head. Just saying.

One last note and I promise I’ll shut up. They mentioned a lot of titles in this episode. Not only Still and Alone, as I already said, but I heard them say “Now” and “The Next World.” There may have been others I didn’t catch. I seem to remember hearing another one, but can’t remember what it is and didn’t write it down. (*slaps forehead with palm*) The Next World is where Rick and Daryl met Jesus, and Now was Maggie in the dark tunnel with Aaron. So kind of interesting. But I felt like they went out of their way to mention past titles in this episode.

Again, just shows a lot of things are coming to a head. As Rick said at the beginning, the path has led them all here, and past episodes are being echoed.

That’s it for today. Anyone see anything I missed? I’ll probably do a TTD post tomorrow. ;D

[damn-stark]

Lost Dragon Ch.29

A/N- I hope you guys liked it!! Just a couple more chapters :(

Warning- Spoilers!! Violence and talks about the burnt (very slightly)

Episode- 8x06

Pairing- Podrick Payne (he’s coming next chapter I promise)

——

I felt chills as I made my way over to the destroyed gate. I saw people burnt alive what hurt the most was seeing the innocent children that were burnt. I tried to save as many people as I could but I couldn’t save them all and it that hurt me too. Jon and Tyrion started moving past the gate to go see Daenerys. Jon noticed that I wasn’t following behind them so he turned and walked towards me.

“She needs you.” He said to me already knowing I wasn’t planning to go to her. yet. I looked at him and then at the smoking and destroyed buildings.

“She doesn’t....I’m sorry but I can’t stand by her no more I stood by her when she burned all those people and food and it was a mistake a mistake I regret....what she did here was the same thing that killed my family and she knows that and you can’t stand by it either Jon.” I told him as I felt tears begin to form in my eyes. He looked down at the ground and didn’t say anything. “I can’t let her kill more innocents because she will do it again to the lords and lady’s that aren’t going to pledge alligence to her.” He didn’t say anything again so I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to have to take her down even if it kills me too.” Before he could say anything I turned around and walked away with the Golden Company following behind.

-

We made our way back to the tents where we had first arrived not so long ago even if it did feel that way. The little girl I had saved the one that reminded me of my sister stood close to me her face still covered in ash. I grabbed a piece of cloth from the table and bent down so I could be at her level and started wiping off the ash of her little face.

“What’s your name?” I asked her in a gentle tone. I still needed to know her name their was no time before to ask.

“Daena.” She whispered her head looking down at the ground. I gave her a warm smile to let her know she was fine with me.

“Well Daena I’m Visenya.” I told her still with a smile. She looked up at me with sadness in her eyes. I knew why it was clear why she was sad. The way she was hiding behind that pillar all alone gave it away. I moved the hairs that were covering her eyes and placed my hand on her cheek. “I’ll keep you safe okay?”

“Okay.” She responded once again in a whisper. I heard footsteps approaching the tent so I stood up and faced the entrance waiting for the person to walk in.

“A raven came.” I heard the person who I identified as Ser Strickland. I opened the flap of the tent and their he was. He handed to me and I immediatly noticed the sigil. It was from Dorne. As I read it I couldn’t believe it at first. It was my cousin Arianne Martell.

Visneya,

House Martell holds Dorne once again no man will rob me of my birthright I guarantee you that. We got the scroll Varys sent and Dorne will fight by your side if you need be. And if you decide to come back home then I’ll welcome you.

Arianne Martell

She had been gone for a while I had not heard of her in a long while until now and it made me happy. We were always very close until she left Sunspear. I held the scroll in my hand thinking of what had to be done. It will take too long for the dornish to get here and we can’t wait that long. I bit the bottom of lip thinking of I wanted to do. But deep down I knew what I needed to do.

“The golden company ready?” I asked Strickland.

“They’re ready for your next command my queen.” That word felt weird when he said it to me something I wasn’t used to be people calling me at all.

“Good because we’re going to kill a queen.” Even if saying the words hurt me I needed to do it. I went inside and wrote a letter to Podrick. If this was going to be my last day then I can’t just leave without writing him a letter. Tears rolled my cheeks as I wrote it. The first man I’ve loved and I might never see him again. I couldn’t write down what I suspected about myself. I couldn’t let him feel that pain of something that he never or could ever get the chance to meet. I rolled up the letter and then went to Daena who was sitting quietly.

“I’m going to go do something important okay?” I told her. She looked up at me with the same sadness in her eyes as before.

“Are you coming back?” She asked me.

“I’ll try.” I told her honestly. When I was out I noiticed Ser Davos talking to a could soilders. I got Daena by the hand and took her to where he was. “I’m leaving please watch over her.” He looked down at the girl and smiled at her. I gave Daena one last glance before leaving her with Ser Davos. I had just met her and I already cared for her. I cared for the little innocent who had lost her parents due to the soilders sacking the city that was already going down. I cared for the little girl because she reminded me of my sister and my family we both lost our family the same way and I couldn’t let her get killed the same way they died.

-

As we got closer to the city all you could see was rubble and smoke and the snow that was gently falling looking like ash. The smell of burning made me nose burn at the smell. As we got to the where the gate was once at redkeep we saw all the unsullied lined up by the stairs. They weren’t attacking so we didn’t attack them. I looked over Strickland and gave him a quick nod. He knew what it meant. The men from the golden company lined up and stood beside the unsullied just In case any war broke out. We continued walking and I heard Drogon screech and then fly up. As I made my way Inside all I heard was Drogon. Greyworm was out the throne door guarding them.

“They stay out here.” Greyworm said meaning Strickland and some of his men that were guarding me.

“It’s alright.” I told Strickland who had a hand on his sword. He nodded agreement and took a step back. Greyworm opened the door and let me and the closed them once I was inside. When I walked in I still opened another set of doors but these weren’t guarded.

When I walked in to the throne room I was determined on what I needed to do I wasn’t going to step back from it. But when I saw the sight of Jon holding on to Danearys I knew what had happened. I swallowed thickly and felt the tears in my eyes. Jon didn’t seem to notice me come in until he heard my footsteps behind him. He had tears in his eyes and had blood on his hands. I looked over at Daenerys her breathing was weak and raspy. The sight of her with a dagger in her caused me to sob. I was going to do the same thing if need be and I knew it was going to hurt me but I never imagined it was going to feel the same way as I felt when my uncle Oberyn died or when I heard that Ellaria and the sand snakes had died or gone missing. When my uncle Doran and cousin Trystane had died or when I was old enough to comprehend what had happened to my family.

I knelt down by Jon who still had Daenerys in his arms. Her gaze seemed to soften at the sight of me. Jon set her down on my arms so I would be the last person she saw when she passed. I cupped her cheek and smiled even if it was hard to do so.

“I’m so so sorry.” I whispered to her my voice breaking because of my crying. She smiled which only caused me to cry harder. “Please forgive me please.” I pleaded her. I was going to betray her and I knew that she knew. It was something that needed to be done but that still didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be sorry for doing it. She was the only family I thought I had left from my father’s side the part of the family I thought was just stories when I was a little girl and stories I belived when I got older that’s it until I heard about Daenerys and her brother Viserys.

“Th-there’s nothing to forgive.” She managed to say. Blood was coming out of her mouth and her nose. “Thank you for everything Daenerys I love you so much.” I cried out. A single tear rolled down her cheek but she still had a small smile on her lips.

“I love you too.” She mumbled out. Her breathing was quieter and quieter by the second.

“Theyre waiting for you Missandei, Jorah, Rheago, you’re dragons, and Drogo.” I told her to try and soothe her and make her leave easily. Her smile grew a little at the sound of their names. As I heard her last breath I held onto her tighter rocking her limp body back and fourth slightly. Everything around me seemed to have disappeared while I was with Daenerys because when I looked up I saw Drogon burning down the iron throne. And I saw Jon ducking from the fire. When Drogon had finished burning the Iron throne all that was left was just the melted memory of it. Drogon then turned his head and brought it down to his mother. I put her down while he nudged her as if trying to wake her up. When he roared Jon and I covered our ears. He grabbed her with his hind legs and then took her limp body. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop him all I could do was watch. Watch as he took her away one last time.

.

.

.

.

.

.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Thoughts on Terminus and the MSF

Okay, so if you haven't read my Morgan/Beth/Terminus post yet, go read it HERE. I just think that keeping Morgan and Zeke entanglements in mind might help give what I say here more depth. 

***Also, I will be revealing some spoilers here. They're not script spoilers but rather location spoilers. So not super-specific. Still, if you don't like spoilers, stop reading now.***

I know others have posted metas about the MSF, specifically about how it's going to be 88 minutes long. Let me start by seconding what they've all said and reiterating that there's no way that's an accident. As someone who has done a lot of both writer's editing and video editing, you can make something any length you want. You can cut it down or beef it up and somehow get it to the time you're shooting for. When TWD has longer-than-normal episodes, it's because the content trumps the time limit, and the show gets special permission from AMC to have a longer episode. We've seen them do this MANY times in the past few seasons. So what it boils down to is that Gimple can make an episode pretty much any length he wants and AMC will back him.

So could this be a coincidence? Sure, but no. Nothing will convince me that episode 8x08 being 88 minutes long is accidental. Why not an even 90? And how many 8s have we found re-watching the past few seasons? Um...about a billion? Yeah.  

I suppose I ought to officially throw out there that I kinda doubt we’ll Beth before the MSF now. You all know I was super-hoping for 8x04 to be the one. Now that it wasn’t, I’m kinda not thinking we’ll see her until 8x08. Arguments could be made for 8x06 (to line up with 6x06) and 8x07 (because that’s when Glenn was revealed alive in S6) but overall, I’m kinda thinking MSF now. Obviously I would be happy to be wrong, but I won’t be holding my breath for these next two episodes.

So some time ago, the spoiler site posted this pic:

It's quite obviously Terminus. Although it's blocked, the brick front is the same. Even the foliage looks identical. Here are some pics for comparison:

And could they be using this location to film, but it will be some other place in the show? It's possible and we have to acknowledge that, but I REALLY doubt it. Think of it this way. Every so often, the show will tell us (usually on TTD) that a location was used that has been used before. I remember in 8x02, they talked about a location in the woods being close to where Dale hid the guns from Shane in S2. That's an awesome little factoid, but everything in those scenes looked so much the same (and also so different) that we'd have never known that if they hadn't told us.

Terminus is VERY visually recognizable. I don't see the show using the exact same brick building and trying to call it something else. The fans would all take one look and go, "yeah, nice try. That's Terminus." And from this picture, they don't seem to have changed much about it. So I'm thinking this is actually supposed to be Terminus.

Also, the same week this was posted, Daniel Newman, who plays a Kingdom solider, posted on his IG instastory about filming at Terminus. His words. (Sorry, while people in my group saw the story, no one thought to save it, and those things disappear after 24 hours, so I don't have it for proof.)

Then there's the fact that it's...Terminus. All the buildup around it had most people (yours truly included) believing that Terminus would be a big deal in S5. That maybe they'd even spend a lot of the season there. Obviously that wasn't the case. It was there and gone in two episodes. Kind of weird given all the buildup to it. Many of us have predicted that Terminus would eventually be relevant again and that Beth will probably pass through there at some point (X). Even though those are just theories, them filming at Terminus again definitely catches our eyes.  

Then there's all the stuff I talked about on Wednesday, with the weirdness of Morgan around Terminus, and the fact that we saw train tracks near Ezekiel in 8x04. Let's talk about that for a second.

In S4, they established very heavily through the maps and signs that all train tracks led to Terminus. It was the termination point, or convergence of all the paths/train tracks, right? We're starting to think that was a much more important symbolism than anyone, even TD, realized.  

We're thinking that a lot more happened at Terminus than we saw, and all paths will eventually lead back there. I'll come back to that, but here we are seeing train tracks in S8. That alone I might point to as a foreshadow of the story heading back to Terminus soon.  

But remember what I said on Wednesday: that a juxtaposition is being set up between Morgan as the weak character, and Ezekiel as the meek or emotionally strong one. Well, here, we see very obviously that Zeke, Carol, and Jerry do NOT follow the tracks. They cross them. And who's the only other character who crossed over the tracks rather than following them to Terminus?  

Beth.

So Ezekiel is being paralleled with Beth here. (Clarification: Daryl did cross the tracks with Beth at first, but he later followed them with Rick and Michonne to Terminus, so she remains the only one in S4 who NEVER followed the tracks into Terminus.)

Also remember that there were a lot of A’s around Terminus. First the train car, then Gareth painted one on FG's church. If A= Atlanta, well, Terminus isn't far from Atlanta. All the A’s could point back to stuff that happened in Atlanta that we've haven't seen yet. And as we said in these two posts (X, X), Beth would have to pass through the Terminus area to get to the coast, and we still think she'll probably come up the coast and through Oceanside.  

@thegloriouscollectorlady had some interesting thoughts about this. She pointed out that while Beth wasn't at Terminus, when RIck and Daryl arrived, the others were. Glenn and Maggie's group came into Terminus very peacefully. Obviously it didn't stay that way, as they ended up in the A car too, but they didn't show us what happened with them. Just told us later. So maybe Rick and Daryl's stories are the ones most connected to Terminus. 

And that's interesting given what happened in last week's episode. We're just seeing more and more stuff come full circle from 4x16. In 4x16, entitled A, Rick and Daryl became brothers. 

Now we're seeing the first real rift between them since then. 

In 4x16, they entered Terminus. Now, for S8, they seem to have filmed stuff at the Terminus location again. In 4x16, the sheriff's hat fell off Carl and was put on Beth, proclaiming her the new sheriff in town. In 8x08, who knows? But do you see how the narrative is coming full circle?

I've also always thought the weirdness of Sasha probably started at Terminus. (Sasha/Tyreese Theory) That's mostly because of her weirdo convo with Father Gabriel in 5x16. He mentions the Termites and that Bob was consumed because of Sasha's sins, which makes no sense whatsoever based on what we saw in S5. So I've always thought there was more that happened at Terminus, specifically concerning Sasha, that we didn't see. I have no idea what it was, but it was something that contributed to her guilt and that FG seemed to want to use to blame Bob's death on her. Still no explanation for that convo in 5x16.

And why do I think Terminus might show up in 8x08 specifically? Well, I don't think we know for sure that this filming at the Terminus location was specifically for the MSF. And it wouldn't really matter anyway, because they've already told us they filmed things out of sequence for S8, and were often working on multiple episodes at once. So there's no way to pin down which episode it was for.

However, let's return to Crazy Tattoo Guy. Remember him? Two things that make me think we might be returning to Terminus in the MSF.  

First, there was a dialogue parallel to him between Rick and Morales in 8x03. I posted this edit: Exact same wording, but opposite words. Once again, we've come 180 degrees from where we were. Mirror theory.

Check out this guy's face: He has an 88 tattooed there. And yes, I know 88 can mean lots of things. It can mean nazi, which is fitting given what he was doing to the Termites. But what if it also means that in 8x08 (which is 88 minutes long) we'll finally understand what the hell was going on with Terminus?

Remember that Gimple said Crazy Tattoo Guy was connected to bigger group of baddies, who I believe to be the saviors. (Source) So there is definitely some back story/connections there that have yet to be revealed in the show.

In that same interview (linked above) Gimple also said there was “a lot to that character.” Really? Because we saw him torturing the Termites, then be let out of the C train car by Glenn, then die. How is that “a lot to that character?” It’s obvious to me that they’re planning to return to him and explain more. 

It’s yet another loose end from S5 that Gimple promised would be explained, but still hasn’t been. And per what we’ve been shown in the show, this one has little directly to do with Beth. (Only TD believes otherwise.)

Even if you look up the dictionary definition of the word Terminus, things are kind of interesting:

Notice how it mentions time. What if Gimple always meant to go back to Terminus. What if it’s the termination point for this crazy time arc that started in S4/S5? I don’t mean that in a negative, she’s-gonna-die-there way. But all tracks lead to Terminus, right?

We also learned this past episode that before Negan took over leadership of the Saviors, they were a band of wild animals, more or less. And we know because of Morales that they roved down into the Georgia area. So it’s very possible that Crazy Tattoo guy and those with him were a part of the Saviors, but that was before Negan took over.

And because there were defunct cop cars at Terminus, many of us believe there are connections between Grady and Terminus. And then there's the fact that the red car seen at Terminus was also spotted in front of the white cabin Emily filmed at in S5, which scenes we have yet to see. 

See how it all works together?

So there's no way to tell if we're interpreting the details correctly. It may not play out exactly as I've laid out here. (Probably won't, in fact.) But we have a lot of loose ends that need to be tied (and per Morales', we know Gimple always ties up his loose ends) plus some evidence that we might be revisiting Terminus sometime soon.  

Now we just gotta sit back and watch how it all plays out. 

Oh, one more great point by @thegloriouscollectorlady: they're doing this Red Machete story now, right? (X, X). The red machete had it's significance in TWD because of Gareth and Terminus. Now they're calling their mini episodes that. Coincidence? Just saying. ;D