I hope it’s actually what it seemed to be—that he’s a businessman and sometimes has to work and/or be out of town on short notice. (It was also a convenient and quick way to explain his absence from an episode where it might have made sense for Eileen to be talking to him about her son, her movie, etc.)  Like you say,…

When a girl calls young Hal “your highness” in bed, he gets pensive, reminded of the bloodline he’d prefer to ignore.

Dowdy and Dour are not the pair of Ds I associate with Alison Brie.

I think the idea is to get a criminal investigation opened. They mentioned earlier in the season using an arson investigation to get a court order and uncover the property’s real owner. They already know the owner, but I think you’re right that they’re hoping to use a criminal investigation to put more heat on the…

“. . . also starring Divine as Lucy Cola’s diaper!”

“Noah Hawley’s . . . diaper . . . is . . . full . . . of . . . shit.”

Yeah, Lucas seems to have been a genuinely important organized crime figure and also a consummate bullshit artist. With Sheeran “bullshit artist” is the more important description.

It sounds similar to “American Gangster” in that a lot of it is “true” only in the sense that a real person said it about himself towards the end of his life. Although Frank Lucas’ prominence in organized crime seems more based in fact that Sheeran’s.

Coincidentally:

What I’m wondering is whether Tommy Longo is going to ally with Gotti proactively—basically, casting Rudy as a dinosaur who needs to be gotten rid of so that the family as a whole can earn more money from the drug trade.  It might also happen defensively--if Tommy thinks Rudy’s going to kill him for continuing to deal…

The hints they’re dropping about John Gotti and the drug trade don’t make me optimistic for Rudy’s imaginary future.

We Need to Talk About Kiev

Was the audience supposed to buy him as actually appealing to women, or were the writers overusing the “can you believe a woman would find this guy appealing” joke?

The real question is: Given that this type of movie has existed for more than 30 years now, how many more variations on its particular theme do we need in order to understand that serial killers are bad? In a world where the idea of Ted Bundy as a sex symbol is regaining traction, maybe one more couldn’t hurt.

“Jay Sherman . . . is . . . a sex symbol.”

Yeah, I can’t believe the Patriots pulled a fast one on a player who has burned bridges on two teams in less than nine months.

I’m just imagining Colonel Trautman, on a flight to Paris, suddenly bolting upright in his seat and exclaiming, “Rambo!”

Oh, I forgot about And Justice For All. I was referencing this:

Plot twist:  Jimmy Hoffa’s corpse is stored in the same government warehouse as the Ark of the Covenant.

Yeah, he got a little outta order himself.