I have to agree. Without spoiling anything, I'm confident these two episodes could have been cut without losing much of anything.

One theory: the mental intrusion was only possible because the machine was hooked up to Gideon and her operating system. So she was able to sneak in once the procedure was underway. Because it required at least one other human interfacing with Rip, though, she couldn't do it by herself — though Rip did suggest that…

Oh how I wish we would've gotten this scene:

I'm glad Snapper at least got to mention a contract in firing her, even if Kara could have (and should have) brought up right of first refusal as at least a delaying tactic. (Also unspoken: I guess CatCo's newsroom isn't unionized.)

Yeah, I think the nurse heavily suggested that a Mexican woman was used to carry the pregnancy, then disposed of. So you could argue that Laura is biracial.

On top of the random mention that she watched The Wire. Man, if you finish that show and you're not more cynical I gotta side-eye you …

I get the feeling that Mon-El's ultimate fate will be tied to the Legion — or at least to the 31st Century.

Proof that Barry Allen's bullshit is felt across multiple dimensions on top of the timeline.

I don't know if there's been abuse, but it can set up an abusive pattern. James alluded to this earlier in the season: Mon-El is basically only "reforming" because he wants to get with Kara. Left to his own devices he was OK with being muscle for a loan shark and engaging in what was cast as one-sided casual affairs…

Holy crap, that's why it sounded familiar! I would've flipped for a Dawnstar appearance!

The V-day vibe put a point on one of my ongoing concerns with the show: it's treating every relationship like a full-on 'ship. It's still possible that Kara/Mon-El is a way station before revisiting the Kara/James thing.

I definitely got Killgrave Lite vibes from the guy, and that's where I disagree with Caroline's dickpic analogy; as Mon-El pointed out, dude literally conjured up the Parasite and potentially put people in danger because he felt entitled to "winning Kara over."

One thing I want to point out is how American Alpha’s currently missing something that helped make them so likable in the first place, outsider of their technical proficiency: Their goofy friendship.

Considering that we saw Hunter palling around with Joe shortly before his confab with KO, there might be something else in the works. Evolution 3.0?

Kara's seriously starting to enter Olivia Pope territory for me as a viewer in that there doesn't seem to be anybody normal in her life anymore, which strikes me as somewhat incongruous for someone of her age/income. No wonder she's freaking out so much over even asking Prince Valium Mon-El out. Maybe that should've…

… Would not disagree.

Couple of Stray Observations of my own:

I would live for the two to meet, just for the inevitable side-eye from Dig.

I'm just agog at the way it was delivered: 8,000 words!

The James/Winn scenes tonight were pretty good for both of them. I'm glad that Winn got to acknowledge being freaked out by his near-death experience without being belittled by James.