My interest did perk up quite a bit when Olivia started reminiscing about Johari Window.  And yet still after that the ending was a nice surprise.

There were a lot of X-Files-like details in this episode.  Even in Olivia's opening dream sequence she and Peter are bathed in blue light while they get down.  Diffused blue lighting was a big X-Files signature.

It's nice to see that all three of the principal characters are onboard with the idea of drinking in the morning.  Obviously Olivia is the least surprising here.

Characters welcome!

Either she's leading Darryl on, or she's willing to cheat on her boyfriend, or she broke up with Mother Brandon on Valentine's Day and she's lying about it.  None of these are red flags at all.

That's the crux of it, yeah.  She broke up with him for sort of understandable reasons, he stayed broken up with her because Plot Contrivance, and now he's got a girlfriend he doesn't seem to like that much.

Max's bashfulness while he was trying to make up with Grant did work, though.  Partly because it's a new side of the character, if one we might have guessed at.

What was it Jane said about her grandmother?

She did have a generic Porn Valley look to her, the friend did.

Yes, I do remember Iris revealing that she had pulled some strings, in an unethical way that Justin is initially disgusted by.  Then he has a different reaction.  *shudder*

Wha?  Someone believed he was that old?

Agreed, Darth Weevil. Stumpy, in his twisted way, turns out to be the more involved parent. So while both of them are broken up about what happened in Babylon, he's the one that carries it around more. Rita Sue is much more guarded.

For me Chase's absence was obvious right away.  From the trailers it was pretty obvious that someone was getting killed or badly hurt.  Obviously not House.  Foreman called Felix Leiter in, so it wasn't him.  Then in quick succession we saw Adams, Park, and Taub come into the interview room.  They were shown…

Maybe the cheap-ass cold medicine she was on done fucked her brain up.

If you read Marc Scott Zicree's book about TZ, you learn that even back then a lot of people were annoyed by Arnaz's explanation.  TV Guide (or someone) ran a "Shut up, Desi!" headline.

I was going to point that out too.  Wallace is never mentioned in the scene, perhaps because people still thought he was pro-Communist from his '48 presidential run.  In truth he was more of an old-line isolationist.

Very well said.  Austrid's visit, and the new look we got at her, enriched the whole emotional fabric of the show.  This is why I don't worry too much about the new timeline, the new versions of the characters, and "what if there's no payoff"?  Scenes like this are the payoff.

Alt-Lincoln (who I tend to think of as just "Lincoln" because he showed up first) was in one scene as well.

It really is a drag when the guy who murders you makes you take off your shoes and belt first.

The great lost AC/DC b-side?