It was as if the showrunners had just seen Boyhood and were all like: "Wait a minute… Homeland isn't just about spy intrigue and the personal and global consequences of a perpetual war on terror - it's about the moments BETWEEN all that stuff!"

Carrie: "What's that you got there?"
Lockhart: "It's my wife's lasag—"
Saul: "Is it the names of all our informants in Pakistan?"
Lockhart: "No, it's my wife's—"
Quinn: "Maybe you should give that lasagna to Haqqani. You know, since you gave him EVERYTHING ELSE."

Totally agree. Slower pace and less explosions does not a contemplative episode make. There was no real dramatic tension between anyone this episode, just people doing things and talking. The most thrilling part of this entire season finale was when they toasted styrofoam cups, which is saying something.

I bet Saul's really relieved that Dar Adal made sure nobody would ever see his sex tape. What happens in Islamabad stays in Islamabad.

I think the problem is actually that the baby was cast TOO well. It looks exactly like Brody - a character we are all so very glad to see gone. Every time I see that baby I'm reminded of all the worst storylines from this show… and that bathtub scene that threatened to derail the entire season from the get-go.

That was so fucking BORING. Say what you will about the dumbness and 24-ness of what came previously, but at least it was FUN. Homeland is capable of great, slow burn pacing - but that kind of style is not something you want to see in a Season Finale, since whatever momentum you're building will completely ebb by the…

I didn't even make it 5 seconds into that song before tearing up. So good I didn't even care that Kissinger was included; in fact it was kind of winkingly ironic, considering how - thanks to Dr. Strangelove - "We'll Meet Again" is a song synonymous with powerful idiots bumbling their way into global catastrophes.

To anyone reading this who thinks they could make it to the mid-season mark on Top Chef: shave your head and refuse to talk about your family the moment it gets down to less than 10 contestants. You'd make it to the final 4 due to the simple fact that the editors would have no character backstory to foreshadow your…

"Pack up your knives and OoooOOOoooOOOOooooohh" - Padma, Year Five

I would agree if not for the fact that Lexa had also just recently witnessed a Sky Person offering his life up to another for the mere possibility of peace. It's also worth noting that Lexa is way too smart not to put two and two together: if she sees that Clarke has a concealed weapon, she'd probably deduce Clarke's…

Exactly! It's like saying torturing innocent detainees isn't bad because the enemy beheads people. Both actions are morally reprehensible, and the latter is clearly worse than the former - but committing an act of 'lesser evil' in response to a 'greater evil' doesn't morally justify the less evil act. If I punched…

That was a bit of an abstract response… it might help to introduce a present-day scenario to clearly illustrate how your argument is a total straw man. Picture this: an American soldier in Afghanistan witnesses the brutality of Taliban fighters. Within the same year, this American soldier loses a brother in arms to an…

Brittney - This is a silly argument that appeals to a false sense of moral equivalence; to wit, you're claiming that two wrongs make a right, or that two wrongs committed on either side somehow cancel each other out. I'm assuming you disagree with the ridiculous notion that justice can be reduced to a simple "blood…

What I loved most about what happened to him was that it served as the perfect answer to the worst of the ultra-violent YA cliche: that young love conquers all, even when it clouds one's judgment and fucks a bunch of other 'less important' people over in the process. The fact that Finn's romantic/dick-driven impulses…

I'm waiting for a moment where one of the secondary characters administers "The Medicine" - which is a writer's term I coined to describe a lengthy diatribe delivered by an audience surrogate for the edification of clueless characters who desperately need to be called on their bullshit. Sometimes "The Medicine" is…

I actually DVR'd backward to see if Padma's shirt was buttoned the same way before and after the challenge countdown.

October 2014: a US jury convicted 4 Blackwater security guards for the massacre of 17 unarmed civilians in a crowded street in Baghdad… which occurred 7 years ago. It seems like the judicial allegory going on in The 100 has to happen at a highly accelerated pace - so it kind of makes sense that Abby or any of the…

I think I would have stopped watching the show if Nothing happened to Finn this episode. I mean shit, even Gaius Frakking Baltar had to at least endure a trial (and the prosecution didn't even have enough evidence to convict him, whereas there were multiple eyewitnesses to Finn's mini-My Lai Massacre).

On the Next Episode of Top Hannibal:

That Clarke kills Finn herself was entirely predictable. What wasn't predictable - and was pretty brilliant, and subtle - is that Lexa KNEW Clarke was going to kill Finn. When Clarke glances down at her concealed weapon, Lexa glances down along with her. When Clarke asks if she can "say goodbye", Lexa assents, but…