We have an Xfinity commercial on the radio that claims to be Chris Hardwick's voice but is very clearly not. I can only dream of one day being that busy.

This is a show that traffics so much in psychological violence, that it's no surprise that it's two biggest failures, this and Mary's suicide, have involved physical violence.

And even doing charity work in Africa would be more meaningful than The First Black Suitor.

The Yael stuff was predictable but intriguing. Is it realistic? Maybe not. But the idea that one of the contestants is an infiltrator is good. I wish the other contestants got this much shading.

And the upper class Brit: "They have drinks set up for you."

I hate to defend this episode because of other issues but I think your interpretation of the final Adam/Rachel scene is right. Adam realizing it's not about him when he leaves but sits by the door.

I'm relatively pro-Adam, but I even felt his being completely enamored with Rachel was a change. I think they felt they needed to give someone the speech like Carm's Jewish psychiatrist in The Sopranos to Rachel before her full breakdown. (Which I really wish were caused by something other than shooting a Black man.)

Yes, it would. A good defense attorney would use the lack of vaginal bruising. It's not dispositive but the burden's on the prosecution.

It's a far cry from Todd Akin to believe that the pattern of vaginal bruising can help (though not definitively) evaluate the difference between rape and rough, consensual sex. If it isn't, a lot of the rape convictions I've worked on have to be thrown out.

I don't want to get too graphic, but there are ways to evaluate whether sex is consensual based on the vagina.

Admittedly, if the M.E. lies all bets are off, but the autopsy should be able to tell.

I also think there's going to be more to the story with Andrea's background. It's not like the property tax on a brownstone pays for itself.

I also don't know how they're going to match the knife on Naz to the murder weapon or how the prosecution's going to handle the sex being consensual.

This show operates as a blend of The Wire, a 40s noir, and the best of original Law & Order. It's a remarkable balancing act. Even when the blend doesn't quite work 10% of the time, I'm fully invested because of the performances.

I agree with some of this, particularly that the show is a victim of expectations and familiarity with some of its moves breeding contempt. However, I would say that the argument that this show's flaws are the same as last years (with which I somewhat agree) means that last season critics should have voiced their…

That's an interesting idea. Would the exec be in on it? If not, the footage would never see the light of day. There's been speculation about Hot Rachel being an undercover journalist. But sex with the subject would be a bit much even for a Vice-style documentarian.

I think the idea is that with Coleman she can produce and get the guy, but IMO we haven't seen enough of Coleman the producer for that to make sense. Didn't the original casting call say that he was making a documentary about Everlasting? That might have worked better although the issue would likely be that it would…

I liked this episode, but Coleman works just as well as a figment of Rachel/Quinn's imagination. If it weren't for his introduction by the exec, I would be parsing shots to see if the blocking suggests other characters can't see him.

There's always been the pro-chivalry - women need to feel safe, if men are in charge - wing of MRAism. They show their true colors when it's someone like them accused of date rape rather than some slob with a domestic violence charge.

Rachel's story is the wine. Everlasting is the bottle. The previous episodes showed that no matter how good the wine is you can't get it to the audience without the bottle. This episode they worked hand in hand. The deeper dive into Beth Ann did an excellent job of paralleling Rachel's breakdown. Really good work from…