I had a lot of good things to say about the lighting last week, and many of them apply here. The directors on this show know exactly what they're doing.

I believe he was there in that shot, but it's been a long time since I watched the season one finale. But that memory of a kid running around in a garden I believe did happen, or at least he was present in the Borgia villa courtyard in at least one scene in the pilot.

That is indeed how she was introduced - followed immediately by the two sharing an uncomfortably close moment.

I buy that, if only because Alexander has a ridiculously strong drive for survival and when challenged has reserves to fall back on.

I make a policy while reviewing the show to leave discussion of the real-world course of events out of it, partly because the show's relationship with historical accuracy is loose at best and partly for the spoilery reasons detailed above to those who don't know how things really turned out.

The first thing I saw her in was MirrorMask, and she was very good at playing three different versions of the character - the white queen, the dark queen and the main character's real-life mother.

The impression I got was that it's not a cell proper, as they had for Savonarola last season. I think they wanted to just keep him under lock and key in the Vatican until Alexander's fate was clear, and after that he'd be transferred for Micheletto's attentions.

A referential human centipede.

It does feel like they don't quite know what to do with that character, or where she fits in the balance of things. I enjoyed her trinity with Lucrezia and Vanozza last year, but since then not much has happened.

Which furthers my suspicions that he's not going to be in much of the season - possibly he only had time to be in this episode and they needed to write him out quick.

That administration wasn't incompetent per se, it was just paralyzed by the bureaucracy and resistance to change.

He has no plans to resign!

I find it hilarious they were doing this when there were still seven or eight episodes to go.

"Les Chappell has no self-respect." This is entirely true.

Exactly. David Greenwalt worked on Buffy and Angel, two shows that mastered that balance, so I'd like to think he knows how that works.

Well, there were no fight scenes this week, so maybe it's being back-burnered. Or, like Xander's Halloween possession-related military instincts from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it'll just come up when the show thinks it needs that.

Yes, thank you for seeing the Abbott and Costello routine connection! That came to mind for me too, I just couldn't make room for it in the review. I love a good vaudeville cross-talk.

That line was fantastic: "He attacked Rosalee. You just saved his life." He's a fun guy most of the time, but you do not get between him and the woman he cares about.

I haven't mentioned it yet since she hasn't been on the show, but I'm essentially expecting a "Julia dies" story before the end of the season. Because there's no way in hell CBS doesn't greenlight a third NCIS.

SIMPSON ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH
"I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!"
"I believe you Dad."