… It would also read differently if she weren't self-evidently hot.

I know we love Geillis, but her character was ill-used by the show tonight. That scene in the healer cellar rang a bit hollow to me: The show needed some things established, so it used her as a generic mouthpiece, without tethering it much to her specific traits, beyond a hint that she can guess Claire's intentions…

The scene between Claire and her minder, the one where she gives him the sedative-spiked port, had more flair than strictly required by its function in the plot: It was the opposite of perfunctory. I enjoyed the male actor's goofiness, and the way the camera lingered on the faces he was making, and Claire, too, had a…

The show impressed me greatly with two things: (1) Claire's escape wasn't foiled by some flimsy coincidence [or contrivance]. All Jamie did was make her aware that it was never going to work.

I loved that whole scene leading up to "Say please." It had psychological heft, with the little tugs-of-war for power and the bringing-to-bear of personality. I honestly think it was my favorite part of the episode (and I liked it all).

Go ahead: copse a feel.

That's a bit of a STRETCH.

Rusty is a great name for a sidekick. Make this happen, Show!

Daleks: the lupus of spacetime.

Hugh Laurie's assholery was smaller on the outside.

I have to say, I *loved* that she asked him out *three* times rather than let his (repeated) momentary lapses become some silly obstacle.

I liked that THIS episode did "Don't DON'T hold your breath."

Rusty: "I was lucky in the order, but I've always been lucky when it comes to exterminatin' folks."

Wow! That's some deep history.

On the TWoP "Angel" recaps, they called those "blipverts," IIRC, though in the case of that show, they took the form of peculiar interstitials. "CSI" (oops, I mean NCIS) does something flashforwardy/teasery too, I think.

THAT's what it is; THANK you. My subconscious can finally take a break from trying to figure out what her thing was.

The closest thing to an explanation that successfully connects the dots is this one, at least as far as I can tell:

… And maybe Fat Robin and Fat Barney from "How I Met Your Mother" and Young Schmidt from "New Girl," though maybe those owe something to Fat Monica from "Friends."

Good point about the ambassador; she was brought back pretty much just to be unceremoniously killed off.

Re: Pottinger and William Atherton's character, Viceroy Berto Mercado: Initially I assumed that Pottinger was being phased out of the show, hence Atherton's introduction. I thought maybe the actor, James Murray, wanted out. Atherton's character has so far only justified his existence in the subplot with Christie.…