Wifey is rewatching them right now, and for the most part, they hold up (although the women feel a little squickier in light of Moffat's continued problems with them).

It sounded like his fake Australian accent from the Coupling episode where he tried to wind up Susan.

I think it was just a reaction to how the Public Integrity guy went about it. I said to my wife as it happened that the worst way to get Will to roll over is to come over 5 guys deep threatening subpoenas. All that's going to do is make him want to prove that he's KIng Badass from Bigdick Mountain.

I don't know why the Office of Public Integrity couldn't just be the DOJ. It reads as the show trying to be more "realistic", but since it's not getting the details right (and it rarely does), it doesn't quite work.

Kalinda's got kind of a Wolverine problem: they keep adding stuff to her to make her seem more badass, not to really develop the character or anything.

Wow, that really dovetails nicely with Lester/Lemont's discussion in the car. "Yeah, but that would be YOUR fault, not mine."

Man, now I regret posting this, because it only contributes to some of the over-the-top negativity above it.

I think the writers have admitted that they miscalibrated those lines- they never intended to make it seem like she fully believed she could do that, or that such a belief was legit.

She'll definitely leave Pawnee, it's just that it'll be at the end of the series. So the question is, what can they do to keep her around for one more season or so?

I still love this show, and I actually found this episode pretty funny, but man, it's doing some gymnastics to pull off "the illusion of change"…

I dunno; most of Rodenberry's rules are at least kind of consistent with each other, though they all belie a simplistic view of the future, one premised basically on one man's sociopolitical preferences. It's not that they're all arbitrary or contradictory, it's that they just kill drama dead.

I think that's more common than some of us would like to admit; wasn't there an inventory about that? Could there be?

I always love these bits where Gene is like, "Humans would have evolved beyond recognizable emotions and situations that make for good drama."

Well, that's the thing- her motivation is a pretty important aspect of her character.

I think the reason is important to what defines the character, though. It's kinda hard to say that Action X is the key to the character without knowing the motivation for Action X.

"She only decided she didn't care about his evaluation of her because that is what she knew he wanted."

Not really; her main motivation is career advancement, and that's been clear in a few non-Holt storylines (thinking about going to IA, visiting that small town police department). She really only views Holt as a means to an end- a means she actually respects, and one that completely flumoxes her, but a means…

I appreciate that, but I'm still not sure I can buy it. I think the Russians (and the rest of the world, for that matter), would probably say, "Oh, he's an inhuman outsider just now, huh? Very convenient, but you were still letting him live on your army bases and making sure he gets laid on the regular up until a week…

Well, yeah, but the space octopus is a weakness of the source material, too- although at least it works as a meta-commentary on the super hero medium (as much of Watchmen was).

This has been my position all along. At very least, the Soviets would be like, "YOU unleashed this threat on all of us, even if it hit you, too." Moreover, any peace it would generate would fall apart pretty fast when Doc never reappears.