I couldn't recall the ads Wafflicious was talking about until you chimed in.

The McConaughey Lincoln commercials were always ridiculous, but the latest installment, where he's facing off with a giant steer in the middle of a road is outright absurd.

Bill Kristol manages the rare feat of being a stopped clock that isn't even right once a day.

Well I can't very well argue the subject with Wolfman Jew, now can I?

A shandeh un a charpeh!

Did you just copy that from Teti, or do people really think that's how you spell 'verkakte'?

The Deadspin coverage to which Alasdair links is definitely worth a read, if you're at all curious. It's a real shitshow, and no one who's sticking by Johnson looks good for it.

OUTER … SPACE!

"facacta"?

Well, really, you have no one but yourself to blame.

I thought he stood out (in a bad way) in the premiere, but I thought he was a little better in this episode. Still not sold on him, though.

That's enough, young man/lady! Straight to your room; you're grounded!

Max Hardcore as Pierce? Nightmare fuel.

Thanks! I meant to go back and check that part, because I figured it had something to do with Kevin's dad (I'd forgotten about the letter), but then I didn't, because I'm old and my brain is mushy.

I need to watch this scene again, apparently; it didn't seem to me like he was sporting anything out of the ordinary.

If any guy gets on stage in front of a bunch of strangers and gets a big ol' erection, he probably should be arrested—-or at least given a bus ticket to Chatsworth, CA.

I think the show has done a pretty solid job of painting its various cults as … well, pretty damn culty, while making their appeal at least somewhat plausible given the show's conceit; I guess I don't see where it's really laying on the religious symbolism in a way that reads 'and that's just we need, too!'

If the show is trying to get across the view that faith is necessary for human well-being, it hasn't gotten through to me. But then, I think the show approaches its central conceit (i.e. the Departure) first and foremost through the lens of loss/trauma, and only secondarily via mystery/faith. And so far, it seems to…

I thought the closing shot on Tommy was way too on-the-nose, myself, but other than that, yeah, very well-directed episode.

I think the question of whether religion (or, rather, religiosity) is itself an adaptive trait, or if it's 'merely' a spandrel—-an epiphenomenal artifact of our cognitive make-up, itself neither adaptive nor maladaptive—-is a really interesting and vexing one. I favor the adaptive answer, myself; human…