I loved The Color Wheel and Listen Up Philip, and liked Queen of Earth, so this is sad.

More importantly, the scenes with Mother and Father confirm that they have three kids they're looking for. The obvious theory is that the kids are the Quagmires, but I'm interested to see how they'd pull off that reveal considering the Quagmires aren't brought into the story until Book 5 (which would be Season 2).

I think it's almost more inspiring this way, because despite the sadists' best efforts, they shortchanged Fake Eleanor, Chidi, etc. and assumed they'd be worse than they actually were. Michael and Real Eleanor might be cynical, but in the end they were wrong.

Counterpoint: The Good Place is far more heartbreaking on a regular basis than Westworld, with a greater tonal range to make the emotional moments land harder. High stakes don't have to come from rape and death.

Marc Evan Jackson played a judge on Man Seeking Woman, too!

She said it wasn't distasteful; I thought she made it clear that her issue was its failure as a metaphor, not its offensiveness.

I agree, but I do think Danette's problem isn't with the political commentary, just with the fact that the metaphor isn't as well-constructed / funny / fitting as usual. Like she says at the end, "it’s nothing offensive, just ineffective."

I'm still wondering if Pat will ever come back.

I like Season 2 more than Season 1, especially because Helen and Cole get viewpoints and there are some lovely standalone-ish episodes.

Really liked how Monica had interactions with each character instead of only being relegated to an Ian or Frank subplot.

Disappointed that the Jess-Robbie is looking short-lived, but the next episode description says Robbie will be there, so who knows.

Biggest two laughs of the night:
- Mel Rodriguez's reluctant Morgan Freeman impression
- Phil saying "I swear on my baby's bife" and Lewis dryly replying, "What's a bife?"

I generally enjoyed S1, but I hope I like S2 more.

That "dedicated to my daughters" also made me cry, and I keep tearing up thinking about it. God, this was a great first season.

Agreed on all counts.

I'm starting to almost feel guilty by how much I'm not into this season. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but some ideas:

Another really solid episode. Don't mind the shitty case-of-the-week plots that much if they're grounded in character, and I really enjoyed the H.R./Julian plots. Also, I'm generally loving the return to the lighter tone of early S2 / S1. Laughed a lot at the opening scene with Barry and Cisco.

Like most of this season, I thought this episode was just okay. The idea of telling a side story about two supporting characters is one that I always love, so I kind of thought I was going to adore this episode, but I didn't. There were a couple cool scenes, like the campfire conversation about their respective…

Wow, what a great episode. Definitely the best since “Welcome to Earth-2,” IMO. Really funny all around, cool villain, solid subplots, and big movement on the Killer Frost story.

[ spoiler ] and [ / spoiler], with no spaces. :)