Agreed. I have really enjoyed some of Eggers' other books and even include one of his, What is The What, in my all time Top 10. But this was shockingly bad. As was Hologram for a King, which I think was also made into a film starring Hanks. I don't get why these half baked stories got to see the light of day.

I actually thought it was the most effective disposal of those three. But I guess I assumed the fire would be bad enough to make him unidentifiable. And my sense was that no one was looking for Caleb, he seemed to have no one.

I agree. At the end I thought to myself, hmm, was this actually Dylan's story all along? That's really how the ending felt to me and I wasn't expecting it.

That makes sense. It didn't seem plausible that Jimmy would be that obvious and bumbling.

Ha, I marveled at the crime scene workers, too, thinking their town's budget for law enforcement must be huge. Although now that I say that maybe the drug trade necessitated that?

The one time I passed through Oregon I tried to pump my own but an attendant swooped right up and grabbed the pump right out of my hand! I was so startled and said "no thanks, I can do it," because I thought he was trying to be nice and/or trying to upsell me to "full service"(not sure if that even exists anymore).…

That's what I thought, too. Seeing Norman like that seemed to defuse her anger a bit.

I got a kick out of them too…it got me thinking about what kind of people choose to go into the business and how perfect they were. Granted with them it was a family business — as it seems to be with the few funeral home families I know, but they could conceivably pursue something else. These two don't need to, they…

Ha, I missed that. I was obsessed with that book back in the day.

I think she was lashing out at Dylan not so much because she was grief stricken about her husband's death (although she did always seem to be in a bit of denial about how awful he was) but because she was horrified about having befriended and flirted with a…psycho.

I thought she was going to stumble upon her corpse when she went to scatter her mother's ashes — that she and Norman had the same special place in the woods from when they used to spend time together. I breathed a sigh of relief when that didn't happen!

I agree. The statement, for example, about it not easy being a mother is much more powerful coming from Freddie than from Vera because it's so jarring. I get why they alternate using them, it's a clever way to use Vera beyond as just a corpse, but it does diminish the effect of Norman's psychosis. Another example —…

I thought the bag looked like it was open when he left, and it had been closed when he came in and sat down. But I might have been imagining that.

Ha, yes. Although would super cheap prices raise red flags of some sort?

Yes, his facial expressions speak volumes. He has so much more depth than I remember in BB. Maybe because he was often the comic relief and now we're seeing so much more of the man who became Saul.

He is great, his compassion for Norman has always been so touching and sweet. And I don't know if this is intentional or coincidental but sometimes his speech patterns are so similar to Caleb's it's eerie. Except Dylan isn't creepy and Caleb always gave me the willies every second he was onscreen.

I think this episode made me realize that Sam is not a great actor. I thought he was terrible both in the bedroom scene and back at home.

To expand on the Dylan/Emma storyline, I also find it unbelievable that they wouldn't have found out about Norma's death sooner. Even if they weren't in touch with Norma/Norman you'd think they'd check in with White Pine Bay news once in a while since they both did live there for so long. And Emma had been so enamored…

I think it's what he's going for, I think it might have been discussed last week. Ever since Norma's death, he's shown this bravado that seems kind of inauthentic. Because it is an act, as he tries to find a new normal in the wake of his mother's passing, while at the same time hiding the delusion that she's alive…

I hated his character but agree that he is a great actor. He was repulsiveness personified to me, I never felt myself warming up to him. In fact I found it almost incomprehensible that Dylan did. Death seemed like the best option for him, I just couldn't see him ever finding any redemption whatsoever.