Just now, janea4old said:

I think June might be too young?  But ages are confusing with so many characters so who knows.    But yeah I don't know if we can be certain that Barbara is dead.

Yeah, I was thinking that might be too out of the box. I was just reading a column and it was mentioned that Madison has not met Anita yet so it made me go hmmm. Could she be involved in that return story somehow?

Or maybe I'm off base and Madison is related to Barbara.

 

Meanwhile, June is probably going to connect to the twins and/or Hayley.

 

9 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

Or maybe I'm off base and Madison is related to Barbara.

Oh, there's a thought!  Hmmmmm.  Madison and Chelsea were talking about Anita and ... Chelsea was building up how wonderful Anita is.

2 minutes ago, janea4old said:

Oh, there's a thought!  Hmmmmm.  Madison and Chelsea were talking about Anita and ... Chelsea was building up how wonderful Anita is.

Hmmm indeed.

Plenty of extra stuff. Elon is supposedly still a married man to Jacob's and Luke's mom, Darlene. Speaking of which, where are Darlene's and Luke's faces and do they know about Elon's dirty dirty?

To be revealed. Especially if our discussions of that second family and it being the Hawthornes turn out to bear fruit since the clear set-up is already there. 

7-7

 

I just might take it back. And by just might, I mean this episode. I didn't really like it on first viewing outside of the cliffhanger. But rewatching it, I think I figured out why. With the show so focused on building the momentum to Martin's Secret as A Story...anything less than that and that isn't the typical Thursday filler episode...is going to be jarring. Because it wasn't that there was not stuff going on. There were stuff going on. And as I've been commenting and watching today, it came to me. 

 

And it's delicious for me. If Martin had been doing what's he's been doing from the start and told Smitty to not go back to work, Smitty wouldn't have gone back to work. If Smitty hadn't gone back to work, Smitty would not be on this assignment about Marcel. If Smitty hadn't went ahead with the assignment, he wouldn't know that Marcel was a crooked cop. That Jacob's father knows. That the pieces of the Crooked Cop storyline now fit within a bigger storyline. And that bigger storyline is leading right to Martin. And now another puzzle piece in Smitty finding a connection between Marcel and Vernon. Consequences.

 

This episode with Martin AND Smitty having their own secrets and a near-miss and a declaration of love that reads like a calm in the storm...it has collision course written all over it. And again as I mentioned, we would not be getting this emotional stake being raised and this beat hit if they had gone ahead and started with this story fully, making Month 2 being used to flesh out Martin, Smitty, and the family life that more satisfying in hindsight. So I liked we are playing this calm before the storm beat.

 

From the moment that they didn't show what Randy did...I figured that Kenny might still be alive. The question for me was...why, Randy? Rewatching it now...the dialogue does seem to imply that this might have been Joey's first time asking Randy to kill someone. And that for me, is the only reason I could think of that he let him go. Moreso if he took some of Joey's money on top of that when he knows Joey is dangerous. I really appreciated that the throughline of Doug and Randy being friends since they were kids being played again, making the Doug/Vanessa/Joey storyline that much messier. I also loved the beat finally being played that Dani saw Doug and she told Vanessa. And we know I live for Dani/Vanessa scenes. Sidenote...it has been established that Dani and Martin are pretty close or have similar temperament, so I like the subplot of her staying to pick up on something between him and Vernon. 

 

Meanwhile, am I wrong to like Chelesa having a storyline? Perhaps it's just because it's a black woman exploring her sexuality. Or it's the fact it's a black women triangle? Well, I guess not just a triangle if Allison is about to go stalker on poor Chelesa and Madison. But I wasn't bored with it. And I do want to see where it goes.

 

I also want to see where the June storyline goes. I know it might seem irrelevant and very slow. But...that's a C plot for you. And we got another clue with the phone number with this episode. I do like slow burns though and this is being paced right IMHO. But I feel the show for the most part (note I said most, not all) paced their stories out enough that when it finally gets interesting, one is more invested. 

 

And good cliffhanger. Well-played. Good music. Good direction. And it could go either way. And we saw how that turned out so again...well-played.

 

Other sidenote...Mike Manning is really looking like a snack in that red shirt.

June is definitely too young to be Barbara.

Since the picture is of a boy and girl I thought maybe June was Bill's sister. We know his mom is dead but they never mentioned anything about his siblings.  Maybe somehow they just lost touch with each other.

 

3 hours ago, Taoboi said:

Hmmm indeed.

Hmmmm.

10 minutes ago, DemetriKane said:

Since the picture is of a boy and girl I thought maybe June was Bill's sister. We know his mom is dead but they never mentioned anything about his siblings.  Maybe somehow they just lost touch with each other.

 

Hmmmm.

Yeah, that could be interesting as well. We know next to nothing about Bill outside of his mother's death and he came from humble beginnings. 

 

And yep. hehe.

 

 

It was a mistake to not have Bill's mother living because she could have factored into story in useful ways in the future. 

13 minutes ago, ReddFoxx said:

It was a mistake to not have Bill's mother living because she could have factored into story in useful ways in the future. 

I agree with that as well. Perhaps his father is out there somewhere. 

3 hours ago, Vanguardian53 said:

Plenty of extra stuff. Elon is supposedly still a married man to Jacob's and Luke's mom, Darlene. Speaking of which, where are Darlene's and Luke's faces and do they know about Elon's dirty dirty?

Wise to hold off on them until Martin’s reveal especially if it impacts Elon. Gives them a big splash entrance.

5 minutes ago, DemetriKane said:

Wise to hold off on them until Martin’s reveal especially if it impacts Elon. Gives them a big splash entrance.

And given it has always been established the families are close enough, it gives perfect tension to wait until after the climax and fallout. 

3 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

And given it has always been established the families are close enough, it gives perfect tension to wait until after the climax and fallout. 

Exactly.

I know I'm looking forward to seeing them. And seeing if Luke is a bad boy cop. Or...might give Andre a run for his money.