Whedon is a self-aggrandizing coward who was cruel and callous in his behavior, and no doubt Kai Cole deserves every ounce of sympathy and moreover much better from her significant others - but I think we have to have a conversation about hypocrisy on the part of a creator being disqualifying of the inherent quality…

I really thought this episode was hilarious, but in a shocking way that definitely would not hold up over multiple iterations. Rick's drunken Saw nonsense was gold for me.

Funny thing is Harmon pulled this exact trick with Jeff & Annie/Rich and I still didn't see this coming.

I really liked that the craziest power "Ghost Train" was never once used. He was just angry all the time and suggested summoning ghost trains.

It's so weird, I came down hard on last week's episode but I found this one, with all its nihilism, much more satisfying. I feel like the themes, dark as they are, were integrated meaningfully with character interaction. Rick's alcoholism wasn't shown to be "that's what makes him cool", he spouts off about Israel and…

and he'll always be remembered for his redundancy, too

Thank you. I just felt that given the initial responses to my reaction, those people who were responding deserved a better rebuttal than my gut feeling. I appreciate the validation even if you don't fully agree with me.

So, I initially had a superficial read that wasn't wrong, but kind of came at the problem I had with the ending at an oblique angle. I'm gonna sort of copy-paste/synthesize a few responses I had from an excellent conversation with another AV Clubber for why I don't think this was a good look for therapy.

This comment and the comment to which you were responding are exhibits A & B of why I can't quit the AVClub no matter how inane their coverage gets.

An excellent response - I should have made it clear in my first comment that it was this more coarse animation that was the medium I was specifically addressing. Barring some truly magical stuff, I think it's a lot harder for nuance and humanity to come across in a static shot of hand drawn characters (studios with…

This is my fault: I'm an avid consumer of McElroy Bros. media and they basically use it all the time as a stand-in for "showing what is going on behind the scenes" - I didn't even think about the racist connotations here. My apologies.

I'm reminded of Abed making Abed with this take. If you're right, you're a really perceptive and insightful viewer, and I apologize for my skepticism. I don't know how I'd confirm it either way, but I definitely am glad you were able to find some purpose from it.

I like the way you wrote this, even if I feel it's a little optimistic/generous. My jazz piano teacher once told me "Music is sound and silence" and one of my favorite pianists is Thelonious Monk for his economic improv. I'll be giving this episode another watch tomorrow, and I'll try to view the mindless slaughter as…

and moreover that it's the writers parting the kimono, calling out the fact that they were just like

Also fair. It didn't land for me, but I agree that they were going for that. Animated nuance is tough though.

Yeah, it was! But it was dull as hell for the medium, which can use visuals, including character reactions, juxtaposition with other things happening in concert, etc. There's nothing compelling about a static shot of a therapist with her lips imperceptibly moving.

The hyper-violence has strayed into overkill (yeah, I guess pun intended) territory. It's the difference between Rick brutally beating up Zeep Xanflorp after a full episode of tension, and 30 pointless mooks being lazered to death with no moral or character repercussions or even ripples. I liked the Die Hardy send-up…

EDIT: Fuck, on second watch I almost loved this episode.

Which was weird, because Cersei assured Señor Iron Bank that her brother was escorting the gold personally - so if you missed Tarly's one-liner that the Gold was safe, you can be forgiven for assuming the minute of footage showing the dragons destroying wagons that had very-recently been shown full of gold were, you…

We're missing the word "return" from the title and with 18 comments no one has pointed it out. This does not bode well for this show's coverage.