#rue thinks shes Doing Good and will get a good grade in bonding with the other chosen

[sankttealeaf]

was going to sleep but then my brain went "hey. dont worry. heres a fucked up durge/ketheric idea. good night" and now i cant stop thinking about it

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: The Engagement

In my continuing efforts to find time to write about things outside of the bounds of my job, I’ve been thinking about some old friends. If I’m going to write about anything in the wreckage of 2020, I want it to be something very close to me, something I know that others remember with as much fondness as I do.

So yeah: Let’s talk about The Golden Girls.

Thank You For Being a Friend

Given everything that’s happened this year, both to the world and me, I’ve not really been so interested in watching new shows as re-watching some old favorites. And out of those, the closest to my heart is The Golden Girls. It’s the show I watched the most with my late mother -- she and I bonded from my pre-adolescence to my late twenties on this show.

I was at the perfect age to absorb this show’s lessons, even if some of the raunchier humor went over my head when I was a kid. This is the show that taught me about strong friendships, how to love well, tolerance, acceptance, grief, humility, integrity and good humor. There are so many parts of myself I can trace, in some way, to Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, and Rose -- and through them, my mother.

And I’m far from the only one. According to a report from The New York Times, the show became incredibly popular with 18-to-34 year-olds after it began airing on Lifetime -- the article charmingly refers to us as “The Grandchildren of the Golden Girls.” As you might expect, that’s not the projected demographic for a show starring four women over the age of 50 (yes, Blanche, you really are old enough to have a 16-year-old grandson).

If I had to pick a reason, it’d be a combination of the motherly warmth of the four main characters and the novelty (and reassurance) of a show that tells you life does in fact go on when you’re no longer in the bloom of youth. The NYT article features an interview with a Lifetime exec who theorizes that it’s because the women act in a way we typically associate with youth: “They all dated, they all talked about sex, they didn't care about what people thought about them. Those are all values that younger people share.”

I agree with that sentiment, though I will add an addendum: They act the way younger people want to act. Younger people want to be carefree and fun-loving in the way that the Girls are. More often than not, young people are -- and I say this with all the fondness and self-effacement of someone about to exit their twenties -- comparative basketcases. It’s like Mark Twain said: “Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages.”

Of course, there’s an alternate explanation: Golden Girls is really goddamned funny.

So every Sunday, I’ll recap and review an episode from The Golden Girls. Barring extraordinary circumstances, I’ll review every episode in order. Then I’ll give some commentary on the story, highlight any of those devilish inconsistencies, and pick a favorite line. I hope some of my fellow Grandchildren of the Golden Girls enjoy some of my thoughts on the episodes.

Picture it...

With all that being said (and I promise no long intros after this point unless it’s very called for), let’s get started with the pilot episode, “The Engagement,” which originally aired in September 1985.

The show proper opens with Dorothy Zbornak and Rose Nylund asking roommate Blanche Hollingsworth about the man she’s been seeing. Blanche tells them the gallant beau in question, Harry, has proposed -- in spite of the fact that, as Rose points out, they’ve only known each other a week. And Harry wants an answer tonight.

Meanwhile, the doorbell rings, and Dorothy answers to see her mother Sophia Petrillo, who says that her nursing home burned down. As Blanche has to explain to Rose, Sophia’s cutting words are the result of her stroke destroying her inhibitions. Sophia does indeed have the subtlety and diplomacy of a Sherman tank, but she at least thinks gay cook Coco is alright.

Harry arrives and schmoozes all of the ladies, though Sophia is not impressed. After he leaves, Rose has a soliloquy about how glad she was to move in with the other ladies, as otherwise she’d be alone, with her children grown up and her husband dead, and she’s not sure what to do now with herself. Sophia’s suggestion? “Get a poodle.”

Rose and Dorothy are divided on whether or not Blanche will accept Harry’s proposal, with Rose adamant that Blanche can’t be without male attention. Blanche returns, and reveals -- after a brief argument about the movement speed of oysters -- she accepted Harry’s proposal and they’ll be married in a week. When Rose asks where she and Dorothy will live once Blanche, who owns the house, is married, Blanche responds that they can stay for as long as they like.

A week later, Blanche is preparing for her wedding. Rose pulls Dorothy aside and says there’s something about Harry that makes her suspicious, but she’s not sure what. She tries to tell Blanche to call off the wedding, but Dorothy resorts to physical restraint to stop her from ruining Blanche’s happy moment, up to and including throwing Rose into Blanche’s closet.

Harry is late to the wedding, much to the frustration of the minister -- “This is Miami. I’ve got funerals backed up.” When the doorbell rings, however, it’s a police officer (played by a pre-Designing Women Meshach Taylor), who tells Blanche that Harry has been arrested for bigamy. Harry leaves Blanche a note telling her she was special to him.

Three weeks later, Blanche is still upset and refusing to leave her room. Rose and Dorothy discuss what to do, and Sophia’s only input is to ask to be left on the curb next to the trash cans when she goes. Blanche arrives, smiling, and says the girls helped her pull through her grief. The girls all go out to celebrate with dinner, but Sophia declines as she and Coco are going to the dog track.

BLANCHE: Your mother bets?

DOROTHY: No, she rides. She’s a dog jockey.

“It’s Miami in June. Only cats are wearing fur.”

For a pilot, this episode establishes the characters, their biographies, and their dynamics with incredible economy. What you see here is what you’re going to see for the next seven seasons, at least with regards to the four women.

For example, we know the moment she opens her mouth that Dorothy is a teacher -- that teacher, specifically. She’s smart and tough enough to tell her rebellious students to leave. She also complains that “all the single men under 80 are cocaine smugglers,” establishing pretty much all you need to know about the women’s dating lives. We also known from the moment we see Rose that she’s bright, cheerful, and a grief counselor -- she probably couldn’t say a stern or unkind word if her life depended on it.

Blanche, on the other hand, has to bear the first heartbreak of the series -- meaning she’s the first who gets her negative character traits examined as well as her positives. She’s refined, graceful, and sexy on the positive side. Unfortunately, she’s also desperate for romantic affection, so much so that she accepts the proposal of a man she’s only known a week and suffers for it. I don’t think there’s an actress in the world who could have sold this as well as Rue McClanahan did.

That said, I think it’s Sophia that binds the whole episode together. Without her sass, I don’t know if the three women would have held together as well as they do. While the opening moments of the show do have some crackle to them, it’s only when Estelle Getty walks on screen that the show really comes to life. Not only does her sharp tongue pair well with Dorothy’s own witty banter, she’s a great counterpoint to Rose’s bubbleheaded buoyancy and Blanche’s genteel manners.

As is usual for pilots, not everything about this episode stayed for the rest of the show’s run. The biggest example of this is Coco, the gay cook who appears only in this episode, but there are others. For starters, Blanche’s room is in a completely different part of the house, and she’s referred to by the name “Blanche Hollingsworth.” Sophia’s smart mouth is blamed on her stroke, rather than being who she is. The entire house’s furniture, decorations, and color palette would eventually change.

Coco’s a bit of an unusual example, because it feels like even the people who made the show didn’t know what to do with him. He’s given next to nothing to do. He has no stand-out personality traits like the ladies. Even most of the shots are framed in such as way as to exclude him: For example, he’s “on-stage” for the whole kitchen scene at the beginning of the episode, but look how these shots are angled so as not to show him:

That’s bizarre because, according to Golden Girls Forever by Jim Colucci, the “gay houseboy” character was apparently pretty important in the early script treatments. All of the writers apparently wanted to see more gay characters on TV and they thought he would add variety to the cast. But even one of the people who auditioned for the role said he thought the character was cheap and drew attention away from the women. The character was eventually dropped because it didn’t make sense for the women to be living together out of financial necessity and have a live-in domestic.

I didn’t think I was going to see inconsistencies in the very first episode either, but there is at least one: Blanche tells Harry about Sophia’s home burning down, even though Blanche wasn’t in the room when Sophia told Dorothy that. These little continuity errors have become a kind of trivia for Golden Girls fans, as fondly remembered as anything in accepted canon.

Overall, I can see why this script attracted three well-known TV actresses, and why everyone at NBC fell in love with it. I’ll work out a grading system for episodes later, but for now I’ll just say I’m so, so, so pleased for myself and the world in general that they managed to capture this kind of lightning in a bottle.

Favorite part of the episode:

ROSE: I can’t eat anything that moves. DOROTHY: Like what, Rose? Horses? ROSE: Like oysters. COCO: Oysters don’t move. DOROTHY: Coco, they could dance! Who cares?!

[queenharumiura]

The elite: Ponsol and Kyouya~

Send me a ship and I will grade it: ||Still accepting||

C: Not a bad ship

Since I already touched upon Kyouya earlier i’m going to skip ahead to this one;;;;;;;;; Since I’m typing this up, I see no need to tag myself kek

I see that their relationship would be… better off as friends, perhaps. I mean it really all depends on the verse that I’m playing, but if I go with the usual one, which is highly headcanoned (due to him only showing up for like what, 3 chapters? lol) he’s— he’s an ass. Plain, short, and simple. 

He’s an ass. 

With the way he grew up, he grew to think that he has to be better than everyone else. He’s above other people. In his mind, people have to be used or they are useless to him. Similarly, he has to be used, or be useless. 

If there isn’t a benefit involved, then there is no point to a continued relationship of any kind with him. He’s very untrusting of others outside the mindset of business. He likes to be in control and will not tolerate anyone telling him what to do. He’s stubborn and he’s very vindictive. If you get on his bad side, he’s more than willing to see to it that you rue the very day you laid eyes on him. 

Now, he is very understanding of how messed up he is. He was raised to be this way. Power is the ultimate and that’s all you need. The more powerful you are, the less likely people can rise against you. It’s that kind of mindset that he had drilled into him since young. Additionally, he was taught that he himself is nothing but a spare. 

Due to this, he has difficulties making any true bonds with people. He hardly trusts people in his own family. The only people who showed him any care are his grandmother, his mother, and his brother (in his own way). His relationship with his brother is a bit strained because of the whole ‘you are a spare’ and the whole ‘i’m partly the reason why my brother is this messed up’ thing. 

That’s just how I headcanon things because I wanted for something to explain why they turned out the way they did as humans rather than demons. Yay human AU’s. Boo given absolutely no canon information about them, so I gotta pick up the slack. 

So yeah, Ponsol doesn’t trust a lot of people and knowing how messed up he is, he can’t trust that anyone would truly like him for who he is. The only way people can like him is if there is some kind of a gain from it. Business is something he can trust. The give and take relationship. Law abiding contracts that hold people to their word. 

Ponsol isn’t a good person. Outwardly, he may smile and be polite, but he’s usually ruthlessly tearing into someone mentally. It was the way he was taught to tear into people, to see them as lesser than him, but that conflicts with the way h was taught from his mother. She taught him to not judge people and to be kind to people. 

He really loves his mother, and respects her greatly. So there is always this huge contrast between the ideals his mother taught him and the lessons he keeps getting drilled into him by the strict and cruel upbringing by his grandfather. His grandmother tried to help but she passed away while Ponsol was still young. 

From this, he turned into this person who only cares about profits, and being very vindictive in the way to give people a warning to not act against him if they know what’s good for them. If they touch anyone in the family, he has to enact vengeance because how dare they think that touching his family would keep them safe? There is no such thing as ‘if you care for their life, you will do as we say.’ABSOLUTELY NOT. Ponsol is supposed to not care. Do what you want. For every scratch you put on them, he adds another step to his ultimate evil plan to make your life a living nightmare. Your loved ones will not be spared. You thought to touch his family, so why shouldn’t he stoop that low as well? In fact, he’ll do far worse. It’s the family way to return favors double fold. 

He’s very cunning and he’ll figure a way to get away with most things. His brother is sort of the only moral backbone he has when they are near each other. Even then, we know that Shugarl himself isn’t exactly a model citizen either. They’re just asses in their own right tbh. 

So with all that, you can easily say that Ponsol is messed up. He knows this. It really affects his mentality, and it’s this clash of his emotionally and mentally that makes him such a horrible person. He’s got a horrid and angry temper from this clash, and he can lash out if you do the wrong thing in front of him. 

I don’t really see Kyouya being interested in Ponsol when he’s like this. Maybe business partners, but given how he is… I truly wonder if Kyouya would give him the chance. Kyouya is meticulous so he’d do his research. I can see him looking into some of the stuff Ponsol did and not being impressed. 

However, another part of me wonders if he’d look into the past and realize some concerning things about Ponsol’s upbringing. After all, Kyouya also had instances with his own siblings, and maybe he can relate to a certain extent, since he’s not supposed to be the heir being that he’s the younger brother of the family. 

Ponsol is also the younger brother of the family. He’s to consider himself the placeholder for whenever his brother finally ‘opens his eyes’ and decides to take over as the heir himself. Ponsol works hard because he wants acknowledgement. He’s not just a placeholder. He can do this job and do it well. He hates the fact that people think he’s just a placeholder and they look down on him or even try to undermine him. 

That goes against the idea that he shouldn’t let anyone look down on him and so it’s always a rough battle in the corporation. He always has to look strong and be strong. He has to be the best, even above his brother, but still be told that he’s nothing in comparison. So it’s this weird thing where he’s got a lot of pride, but it can so easily shatter the moment his brother comes into the picture. 

It’s this weird borderline of him being so prideful and haughty, but also having nothing. Yep. He’s fucked up. He honestly needs help, but he doesn’t ever reach out for it because that’s ‘weak’. 

Having not grown with a lot of affection, he secretly craves for it on a subconsious level, even though he doesn’t think he needs it. That’s why I write it that when he’s sick, he sort of is a bit childish. He’s weak, he can’t think properly or hold himself to his usual standard. Being cared for when he’s sick reminds him of the time when he was very sickly as a child and it’s like this subconsious plea for help that he never knew he felt. 

He thought he gave up on all of that to be frank. It is possible that perhaps Kyouya can notice all of this and think that Ponsol needs help. He may not like him, or agree with his methods, but he understands he needs help. 

Both can b of use to the other, so while they have a business relationship, Kyouya can try to unravel some of Ponsol’s deep hurt. 

It would take a lot of effort and fighting as Ponsol has his guard up, but he does crave for comfort and affection like I said. So, if done right, he would actually fold a lot easier than one would think. He’s very weak to people who are loyal and sincere. If one were to show him sincerity in some form, he would take note of that and deep down start to form a kind of trust and or affection for the other party. 

This can grow to the point that he can see them as a friend. With continued effort, it’s possible that something else can come out of that. Ponsol is a willful guy who is selfish. He thinks of himself first and foremost. He really doesn’t care much for other people. He only does for the sake of appearances. 

Still, he’s quite sensitive to emotional and mental abuses since he suffers a lot from that himself. So he is a bit sensitive to that too when he interacts with other people. He may be prone to showing a bit of kindness in a situation like that. 

So depending on how willing Kyouya is to give Ponsol a chance and to work with him, it could work out. Maybe. 

Like I said, Ponsol is a messed up piece of work. However, IF he actually manages to find somone he cares for, he will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. It’s like a greedy dragon who will protect his treasures. This treasure of his will be someone who he will be considerate to. 

Basically meaning, this will be one of the only people (aside from a few of his family members) that can tell him what to do, and he’d actually consider it. 

He doesn’t allow a lot of people into his heart, so if you managed to worm your way in, you best be grateful. 

If Kyouya somehow managed to get into Ponsol’s life in a positive manner (and not business), he’d see the deeper part of Ponsol that most people don’t get to see. It’s because you somehow managed to get past his defenses, and so he’ll let himself be open with you. 

Deep down, he wasn’t a bad kid. He can be a bit sassy and bratty, but he was caring for people. As an influence from his mother, he loves flowers. He had to grow up seeing people bash his mother for reasons, and so he’s very protective of his loved ones. He felt helpless because he couldn’t do anything about it as a child. 

Now, if anyone had something to say about his mother, he will flip shit. He still can’t say anything against his grandfather though, since he knows from experience that it has the opposite effect. 

Idk how willing Kyouya would be, but it could happen, but with a LOT of work. Ponsol would think well of Kyouya’s character, but he would also probably feel a bit… self-consious around him? He’s more upright and moral than Ponsol is, after all. 

So it would be a reminder of how shitty of a person he turned out to be and it would make him feel a bit bitter on the inside to be honest. Still, he wouldn’t hate Kyouya over it. He would just have more inner depressive escapades because of it. 

He respects Kyouya for his work ethic and his charisma. He wouldn’t think ill of Kyouya. Given that he’s from a line of doctors, which have the duty of healing people, there is a sense of care that he feels. There is respect from that, since it’s the opposite of how he sees his family. They are cold, conniving, and cruel. 

Businessmen usually don’t have a very good reputation so ahahah—

All in all, if a lot of work was put into it, I think they would be an interesting pair. They would be that power couple that no one could lay hands on. Everyone would have to tread carefully around them. I’m sure they would be able to support the other in regards to business. They would have a lot of trust in the other and I think that’s precious. Would be so difficult though and i’m honestly not sure if Kyouya would even want to put forth the effort into trying to tame this asshole lol. 

[theaceman42]

Examining Youth Culture

For my first assignment in Media & Society, I was told to watch 5 different movies centered around youth culture. These movies were Euphoria, The Breakfast Club, Mid90s, KIDS, Mean Girls.

1.  Which character in any of these stories do you identify with the most and why?

In all honesty, I can’t really find one character that I can relate to the most, because most of them seem to be eerily similar in their problems. The two that are closest for me however are Caty Heron from Mean Girls and Claire Standish from The Breakfast Club. Both characters suffer from two things: friends and peer pressure. Caty is a new student at high school but is relatively new to public school in general due to being homeschooled by her parents and living in Africa for over 12 years. She has trouble making friends, and lacks the social skills of other students until she meets the “Plastics”. This was a group of popular mean girls whom she ultimately befriends: Regina, Gretchen, and Karen. On top of that, Caty also befriends Janis, a social outcast who was Regina’s former best friend turned rival. Not even halfway into the movie, you can already tell that the Plastics are influencing Caty. They tell her a bunch of ridiculous rules she has to follow, such as wearing pink on a specific day and not being allowed to wear hoop earrings at all. Caty doesn’t see anything wrong with this as she’s not used to being with other people, let alone having friends. Eventually halfway into the movie, Caty ultimately agrees to help Janis sabotage Regina’s popularity. This results in the latter losing her friends, and Caty unwittingly recreating herself in an image of Regina. But by the end, Caty returns to herself and the Plastics disband. 

For Claire, we don’t actually see her problems unfold, instead they are told. Much like Caty and the Plastics, Claire is a popular girl and suffers from peer pressure from her friends. She agrees with them constantly because of this all in order to keep her popularity up. However this ends up with her in detention in the film, as her friends pressured her into going shopping rather than going to school. On top of that, she’s constantly used by her parents as a bargaining chip to get back at one another. To summarize, Claire is a victim of social life and has never really made any of her own decisions until the end of the film, where she breaks her pristine image by kissing John Bender. 

For me, the reason I relate to these characters the most is through my time in middle school. Ever since junior year, I’ve also considered middle school to be this “buffer limbo period” where kids have to figure out who they are as a person and where they stand in the world.  No one’s the same when they leave middle school, you enter in a kid and leave as a teenager. I myself had to go through this ordeal and I remember it thoroughly. Sixth grade felt normal in some ways, but I could tell it was only the tip of the iceberg. It wasn’t until seventh grade where I started to have internal conflict and problems with making friends. I went through about three friend groups in middle school. One of them seemed good to me until I realized they honestly couldn’t care less about me. Since then up until I’d say the end of my freshmen year, I had a lot of distrust towards people, I couldn’t tell who wanted to be my friend and who didn’t. This would come crashing down in eighth grade, when I got into a fight with another student, who hung out with the people I was with. The student got in my face and in an attempt to get them away from me, I pushed them. They in retaliation punched me in the face. However during that time, I was forming a bond with other students who knew each other without me even knowing, all while I tried to make friends being someone who I wasn’t. I came out of middle school with a group of friends I’m still in touch with today. Throughout high school I also formed friendships with other people and respect with others who were mean to me and other students.

2. Identify three (3) common themes that are present in these stories and elaborate if they are relatable to contemporary youth culture. Draw from your personal experiences and elaborate on how these themes may have impacted your adolescent life

Three common themes throughout these stories are choice, redemption, and fear. Choice is an important aspect of our lives where we pick something that can affect us in any way shape or form. 

Euphoria is a prime example of this, Rue the narrator and one of the show's main characters talks about the choices she made that made her take drugs. She explains how it made her feel great, like there was nothing wrong with her. This would lead to Rue falling unconscious and taken to the hospital and ending up in rehab. 

Another good example of this is Mid90s, Sunny Suljic plays the role of Stevie, a 12-year old boy living in 1990s Los Angeles, who’s abused by his brother. Stevie then meets a group of older teen boys who are skateboarders and become part of their group. As the story progresses, Stevie eventually begins doing drugs, smoking, and drinking. By the end of the movie, the choices Stevie and his friends make end with them in a car accident and the former injured. I had to make a lot of choices in life, and I think everyone can say the same. What kind of ice cream do I get? What shoes to wear? Choosing who and who not to hang out with, was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Because I didn’t know what would happen to me. The movie ends with them all reconciling with their internal issues, but it's unclear whether or not they will change. Redemption is something that everyone seeks. When anyone, even yourself, does something wrong, you might regret it and try to apologize for what you had done. Caty in Mean Girls is a good example of this, after the events of the Burn Book were revealed to the entire school, the Plastics turned on one another, and everyone was angry at her actions. Caty ultimately apologized for what she had done and opted to say that everyone was beautiful in their own way. I can relate to this, just not in the way Caty did. I’ve lied in the past, either to my friends and to my own parents, sometimes about grades. When they found out, I tried to apologize and they often accepted it...to some extent. Then there is fear, the fear of what could happen and of the unknown. Sometimes fear can stem into our choices. Let me iterate, I had to choose who I would hang out with, which was very hard. Why? Because I was afraid of what would happen to me. How would I turn out in the end? Would I be evil? If I chose poorly and ended up doing something I shouldn’t then I would end trying to seek forgiveness. 

3.  First, explain how a soundtrack of a film/TV series impacts the narrative of a story. Second, create an Apple/Spotify playlist of songs that best define your adolescent experience, and embed this playlist onto your blog. 

Since the invention of the story, the play, and entertainment in general. Music has been a central part of all of it. When the first movies came out, the only sound people could hear was just the background being played, as there was no way to record or hear one’s voice at the time. Music basically takes what a story is telling, and adds depth to it. Allowing people to get a feel of what’s going on, and adding the setting. 

A good example of this is the movie Dunkirk, which tells the story of the British evacuation of France during World War II. What makes this movie different from others, is that it doesn’t rely on dialogue. There is little to no dialogue said at all, as the director and writer of Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan wanted to tell the story through music and cinematography. One tool Nolan used greatly alongside this was suspense. Here’s one scene from the film that shows music combined with suspense. 

The music used in this scene is just amazing. It shows the tension and fear of the Germans trying to stop the British from leaving.

Here is a link to some music that I can relate too and my adolescent years.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7Hs6iqrwosis1UU7TCu9KJ?si=4ebaac892a434305

[ourfosterlove]

Friday Update

My foot: Still broken.

Holtzy: Still the most adorable ever. Can sit up unassisted for ~30 seconds, and tries to pull himself up unsuccessfully. Does not want to lie down does not want to practice rolling thank you very much. Loves green beans with ginger over other baby food. Has thus far tried pumpkin, peas, green beans, and butternut squash. Didn’t care for cinnamon, liked pumpkin pie spice, and loves ginger. Has some bumpies on his gums but no teeth or ridges, though judging by the chomping he’s doing they are on their way. Also drool. So much drool. Babbles alllll the time. Says “dadada” and “bababa.” He keeps hats on his head! This is a novelty. Bean Sprout did not abide anything on his head. Is going to be a sea turtle for Halloween.

Bean Sprout: Continues his verbal explosion. Has decided he hates the car seat and does not want buckles, and to buckle him is to shatter his heart into a million pieces. Also diaper changes are for some reason horrible now? Like dude, why? Calls pancakes “cake cake” and milk “MULK” (always said very emphatically) and cats are very insistently “meow meows.” Zebras are always cows no matter how many times you correct him. Loves to help me pick out candles and cheers anytime I light one. Is actually big on cheering for people in general. Also thanks me a hundred times a day for everything. Halloween costume undecided.

Juni: Had some hella rough days at school, moderately rough days at home, but also some really good times too. Currently super bonded with M over me because M gets her up in the mornings for the bus and I pick her up and apparently morning is better? Had a great progress report from school (kind of befuddled on that) and scored just below grade level in math and in reading/writing scored above average or high on different sections. Currently big into writing stories (which absolutely must have a table of contents) and on teaching her stuffed animals things. Is going to be a rainbow unicorn for Halloween, after vacillating between a vampire, a bat, a witch, and a dragon. Go figure. @that-girl-erin I think her and Maya are Halloween twins.

This weekend: Going to a farm’s fall opening (animals! Corn beds! Pumpkin patches!) Super excited. This will be the third year in a row we’ve gone. A little bittersweet, because last year the first time we went we had Rue, and we were so excited to have the three siblings together and to have her join our tradition. It feels like so much more than a year ago. Like, this time last year the kids were going by their birth names and we still had weekly visits.

Kids’ cases: Juni and Bean Sprout’s case continues to move glacially. Lots of talk and no real action, per usual. Holtzy’s worker continues to search for birth mom, but if she hasn’t found her soon she’s going to go ahead with filing TPR, she just said it might be a little bit more work without the paper signed. I continue to try to pretend I don’t have any expectations while actually having very big hopes.

The wife: Incredibly smart and damn good at her job, and incredibly perfect too. Desperately want a date night and wonder if we can persuade M’s mom to babysit.

[tvserieshub]

We open in a graveyard, at night…I LOVE cemeteries, and I wouldn’t go at night. A young woman is attacked by a suspiciously wolf-like critter.

Crane (Thomas Mison) is at a store listing the plethora of toys available, “putty that is silly,” and notes that in his time, they only had a stick and wooden hoop and rue the day when the stick broke. Diana (Janina Gavankar) agrees that buying toys for 11-year-olds is difficult, especially one like Molly. Diana asks if she couldn’t act in Molly’s stead as Witness, but Crane advises her that there’s a reason for there only being two. They discuss Molly’s birthday party and who will attend and Crane notes that Jenny is still rooting through the rubble in Sleepy Hollow. He notes that evil pops back up when you’re most likely to think it was stamped out.

Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) is unburying Franklin’s lantern (likely the REAL reason she is still in Sleepy Hollow). She notices a crack in the lamp and has to hot foot it back to the vault. She lays out the runes, ciphers and salt to trap and hold the demon, Jobe (Kamar de los Reyes). Jenny completes the spell just in time.

Franklin’s Lamp

Unclothed Jobe

Charmingly, Crane goes into the Thomas home to hide Molly’s presents. Although busted by Molly (Oona Yaffe), she gives him an out, and asks him for help in history. Crane is utterly wrapped up in telling Molly about the wonder that was the colonies, when she asks about what it means to be a Witness. This is ranked right up with “where do babies come from” in awkwardness. Crane acknowledges how important those questions are, but tells Molly it’s best if they have that conversation when her mother is there. When the doorbell rings, Crane answers and, the man who is standing there says he’s an old friend.

Thomas is at the murder scene and the dead young lady’s chest cavity is ossified. The agents discuss that this can’t be normal, so Thomas calls Crane. Crane advises her she needs to come home. When she arrives, Molly is on a hoverboard, and this was provided by the visitor, who, it turns out, is Molly’s father. Diana discusses how long it’s been since Molly saw her dad. He says it’s hard to just pop over from Afghanistan where he was deployed. (Note – it stands out that the dad has long hair and a beard. VERY un-military, especially for a Marine). It appears that he may be trying to rekindle the relationship.

Jenny and Jobe are sparring, verbally and physically. Jobe’s reaction is lightning quick AND he heals. Jobe can tell that Jenny has had a previous (close encounter) with a demon and he tries to shake her. She knows he is trying to get her to make a mistake. Jobe lets Jenny know that Malcolm is still alive. That surprises her. It might be a mistake to let Jenny know that he’s still alive.

On the way to the Medical Examiner’s office, Crane and Diana speak about her relationship with her ex-husband, Mitch (Bill Heck), and why they aren’t together. Crane lets her know that he feels that it was bad that his son was deprived of his father’s presence. They call Jenny and conclude there is more than one victim, stretching from Sleepy Hollow to DC, and from the time they thought they killed Dreyfuss. Therefore, they conclude the entity IS Dreyfuss. Crane takes on the task of identifying the shape of the beast. Diana goes to a coffee date with Mitch.

Jenny presses Jobe to provide information. Jobe asks why he should help Jenny and she notes that eventually she’ll find his weakness and destroy him. Helping her might alter that. Jobe tries to locate Dreyfuss and can’t because of the wards. Jenny muses about how Jobe is bound to Dreyfuss and concludes that he must “like” him. Jobe goes wild and says he’ll roast her in hellfire.

Diana and Mitch are sharing a cup of coffee and Mitch says he realizes that he misses having the family involvement. Diana and Mitch come within inches of kissing, when she gets a call and has to depart. Coming back to the archive, Crane said that he had been researching, but Diana interrupts and says they’ve found a different body which was killed before Dreyfuss, so the monster can’t be Dreyfuss. The body came from Plymouth and Crane remembers a story involving Governor Bradford and a monster (a Barghest) which was brought from the old country, connected to the Red Riding Hood Wolf fable. In the story, the monster assumed Bradford’s appearance. Diana realizes that the monster assumes familiar, safe forms. She realizes that Mitch’s deployment wasn’t supposed to be complete yet. She verifies that Mitch is still in Afghanistan, and Molly is picked up by the imposter.

They arrive at the house, with the police, and Crane reassures Diana that likely nothing would happen with Molly, because she’s not 11-years-old yet. (They figure out that Mercy Bradford was likely one of the Witnesses at that time). Molly becomes suspicious of “Dad” and quizzes him. She knows it’s not him. Thinking quickly, she makes “Dad” stop. Crane believes that the creature found Molly because she was drawing sigils. Crane discusses the issue with Jenny, and Jobe overhears. Jobe says if they release him, he’ll find the creature. In the meantime, Molly escapes. The monster, apparently hungry and angry, starts to go wild (becoming the Barghest, played by Alexander Ward).

Jenny agrees to the deal with Jobe, and gets a map with Molly’s location. Jobe, back in his perfect suit, disappears. Crane, armed with bow and feldspar arrows goes out into the woods where Molly has run, and Mitch/Wolf has pursued. She drops her jacket and the wolf smells it, going wild. This time he appears to be trapped in his form. Molly has found a cave, where she has hidden from him. Diana and Crane hear Molly’s screams, locate them and shoot the monster with the arrows, which kills it. Molly hugs Crane – she’s really bonded to him.

  At Molly’s party, Crane is amusing other guests. Molly is pretty down. Diana tells Molly that it was for sure a monster and not Dad. Molly feels guilty about bringing the monster, but Diana tells her it wasn’t her fault, and that she should have answered Molly’s questions. Crane finds them in their little fort and reassures Molly that they are special and that they are a pair, and she’s not alone. Jenny arrives in time for cake and let’s Crane know Dreyfuss is not dead and Jobe is missing.

Dreyfuss shows up at a board meeting. He tells everyone they are basically…fired. Jobe arrives and asks where Malcolm’s been. Dreyfuss says he’s changed. And, yes he has. He also wants to change the world. Probably not in a good way.

Grade: B+

Positives in this episode were that Molly and Crane become ever more close, and Diana realizes that she really can’t assume the Witness responsibility. The interaction between Jobe and Jenny was terrific, I suspect more to come. We learned that Dreyfuss had Jobe drawn and quartered, so at some point, there is going to be ‘hell’ to pay. Dreyfuss’ transition to whatever he is now was pretty cool. Never trust people with absolutely black eyes. I loved the hellfire scene between Jobe and Jenny, as well as Jobe’s conversion back to his normal human form. And, frankly undressed Jobe was pretty good looking. There were a couple of negatives, which is why this episode didn’t get an A. It was sloppy to have Diana’s ex look so not-military, when he was supposed to have basically just finished a tour of duty, especially since he was supposed to be a Marine. I thought there were a few sound issues, which seem to be connected to Thomas Mison having a cold. But, at least they tried to minimize that impact. Another concern I have is the amount of time that Molly spends at home alone considering that she is 10-years-old. It’s oddly juxtaposed with “arrangements” for pick-ups, etc. This is not intended to disparage working parents, and Molly is mature. Still, it sticks out and that’s a bit disruptive to viewing. On the whole, those are fairly minor issues. I can’t wait to see what Malcolm and Jobe come up with. Is Malcolm Dreyfuss immortal?

Next Airing: “Sick Burn” on Friday, February 24, 2017 at 9 p.m. on Fox

Sleepy Hollow (S04E07) “Loco Parentis” We open in a graveyard, at night...I LOVE cemeteries, and I wouldn't go at night. A young woman is attacked by a suspiciously wolf-like critter.