My life is pretty much as teenage-me imagined it would be in her somewhat less than enthusiastic most probable case scenario. The surprise is how essentially okay I'm feeling about that.

He gets her jokes.

The thing is, it might just be overcompensation with Marnie too. It's easy to forget that even girls like Marnie get put in their place quite a bit. Sure, they can always protect their ego with the "Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful"-defense, but they aren't entirely wrong about this, usually.

But not enough to enable her to. This was a choice he made.

That "us against the world"-mindset really seems to help. All the best romances are somewhat anti-social.

Only if she has finally given up her dream of turning Paige into a spy. Which I wouldn't be too sure of, sadly.

Well, he can probably guess the moment she questions him. Which is what baffled me about the exchange - if I were losing trust in someone in that situation, that's the last thing I would even hint at. Maybe the intended message is "If you want to work me, you have to work other than that. Don't make up sentimental…

Yeah, they're ruthless killers, but you've got to hand it to them - they know how to pull off a marriage. Philip immediately coming clean about the E.S.T thing, Elizsabeth actually making an effort to understand him - I guess that's the charming side of their no-nonsense approach to everything; they know their…

Either
a) live a life well lived. (The classy version, also, bonus: you get a life well lived)
b) construct a trap that will exploit his tragic flaw , Monte-Christo sytle, so that he himself will bring about his downfall, and you don't have to lift a finger, once you've got all your pieces in place.

Lots of possibilities:
Hannah occasionally being somewhat witty, even if potentially on accident, might go some way to explain things.

I have my issues with that storyline as well, but I just want to point out that it's quite possible to have a great facility with languages and be bad at tieing one's showlaces in a million other respects.

For me, grading her student was the dumpable offense. Of course Hannah reacted horribly, but he's also horrible for acting as if she alone were the unreasonable one.

I honestly think that there are people worse suited to becoming a therapist than Jessa. It's a profession where her almost supernatural ability to not be shocked by anything might come in quite handy.

Okay…

And that wouldn't apply to a guy with a hot body and a tan?

Congratulations on the job!

The best thing you can give sometimes is the truth. People need affirmation, but they know to discount it, if that's all someone has to say because they're so desperate to please.

So a game of picking the winner? I actually share your impression that it's not as exclusively doom and gloom as people generally make it out to be - there have been displays of self-sacrifice and compassion, etc. which is somewhat heartening, whether they're "successful" or not, and I too fully expect some sort of…

My sympathies. May you heal quickly from the surgery at least.

Yeah, I'm very much in favour of developing skills you have no natural gift for whatsoever, since it's very character-building and often fun. (No danger of crippling perfectionism for once). But I really don't see the need to make a spectacle of yourself in the process. If you're doing it for instrinsic reasons, why…