Chuck's a monster, no doubt, an ego-driven monster who stabbed his brother in the back. Who has probably been stabbing him in the back for quite some time. But the mental illness which expressed itself as his allergy to electricity didn't come out of nowhere. And it hasn't gone away, even though that's how it looks…

Too many comments, forgive me if I'm repeating something downstream: I think it's possible that Chuck's entirely-in-his-head illness was brought on by the way he treated Jimmy. Some sort of reaction to his ruthlessly torpedoing his brother's ambitions. That's a pretty big betrayal. Perhaps getting sick is how he…

Definitely proto-Walt.

Goddamn right that's an A!

Don't be sad but it won't happen. I can't even see Mike Ehrmantraut in this show without the flood of memory for who he was in BB. By which I mean, we have no way to judge the solidity of this performance as its own disconnected thing. It's totally a shout to the character we knew elsewhere and frankly that's a…

Absolutely A-. Cannot believe this "B" crap. I seriously doubt many people watch this who weren't already fans of Breaking Bad….

No, I agree with the rating about this ep at least. It was the best one yet.

Yay! Me three. <slinks away>

Anathem was wonderful. This one, not nearly as. This gets an A- while The Peripheral gets a C-? Not remotely fair.

A climax lasting hundreds of pages isn't really a climax if all that happens is Action, Action, Action… A climax is supposed to reveal things about the story and the characters.

I'm so sorry, but I am not digging this. I liked Old Man's War. I don't think Scalzi's cutting edge SF, but I'm not a hater. It's just that I'm halfway through this book and my suspension of disbelief keeps getting suspended. It pulls me out of the story. I can't believe people would react the way they do to the world…

Why doesn't Fake Ethan know everything about Real Ethan? Because he's not a clone of Ethan! There's no evidence of clones or aliens or science fiction even — this to me seems like contemporary fantasy in the vein of Kelly Link (whom you should try to read if you're not familiar with her). You (and other commenters)…

I appreciate the thought you've given this film—it's certainly give me a lot to chew on too. But I don't agree with your conclusions. I think the theme may be different than what Ethan states. I believe the theme is encoded in the closing song, in the lyric "Love can never be exactly how we want it to be."

After a second viewing, I understand why Ideal Sophie went off with Real Nathan: it's because she was so hurt when Ideal Nathan admitted his love for Real Sophie, and I guess it killed her buzz.You know, sometimes people just fall out of love, like that <snaps fingers="">.

Okay, so after a second viewing, I don't think there's any ambiguity: Real Nathan escaped with Fake Sophie. And I think that dopey song of love and longing over the credits is both the kicker — because "the one I love" is Real Sophie, unattainably far away, and perhaps a statement of the theme: "Love can never be…

I don't remember the blanket-stealing being a thing, but I'm going to re-watch tonight :) Maybe there was some ambiguity I didn't acknowledge first time around.

That's when it began to get dark and interesting—when Fake Sophie got real, so to speak :)

Nah. You guys are just getting exposed to contemporary fantasy. It doesn't have to have dragons and wizards, or be supernatural—it just has to not have a scientific (or "sciency") explanation. We get no explanation for this Freak Occurence and that's a good thing.

Totally my reading of Real Ethan too. But I felt certain it was Ideal Sophie he was with, because otherwise, that Chekhov's Bacon is just sitting there on the plate, unused.

Bacon. It's all about the bacon… (I'm pretending not to understand your Sam & Diane references)