Two things were good about this episode: Merritt Wever is a very good actor; she comes across like a real person. And the Mayor finally lost that Kabuki white, chalky makeup they've had her in since her husband died. It disappeared right after she thought Spencer was doing something she could be proud of it, and it…

I am 100% sure there was no reason for her to be there and they pretended she blew it off for reality tv drama purposes.

Even Craig the editor said it was a "relief" to work with someone like Jason.

The Peter Farrelly thing was a major loss. Effie lost credibility by treating it like a minor loss.

In a way, Jason was a little too experienced for PG. He was used to making movies in the real world where you beg, borrow, and steal what you need when you need it — you do what it takes to get the job done. The artificial constraints of Project Greenlight messed with his head.

If HBO shot the stunt down for safety reasons then Effie can't get credit for saving that money.

Jason HAD considered pickup shots. Every director considers pickup shots. He didn't know if they were allocated in the budget or if he would have to plead for them. Because NO ONE WAS TELLING HIM what was in the budget.

No that was Marc Joubert stirring the pot again. The guy has amazing eyes — AMAZING — but he's a snake.

They were indeed expanding the whole thing under a tight deadline.

He tried to. Amato interrupted him and said "I just gave you the line. Use it."

I believe that Marc Joubert saw the way things were shaping up in editing and decided to blow up his beef with Effie in interviews — in his typical indirect, mysterious way — because that would add the most dramatic interest for viewers. If things had gone another way in editing he would have been darkly hinting that…

She wasn't ever straight with Jason about how much money there was. If she disagreed with something he wanted to do, there wasn't enough money for it. If Len wanted them to do something — oh, suddenly there was money. Jason caught on to this very early on.

I didn't mean "cruel" in the sense of "bad" but I think I was indeed using a kind of "heretical" shorthand. It's not the way I see things but I bet it's the way the people behind this show see them.

I apologize for blanking on Andrew Jackson.

The budget/money stuff seemed more and more BS-y with every episode. Who knows what behind-the-scenes limit HBO had actually decided on for the Project Greenlight movie?

Camus believed that there were essential universal human values, so he wasn't technically an existentialist, no.

"Innocence" was probably too loaded of a word. I was thinking of Yeats's "murderous innocence." Indifference might be better.

I think the blood bath will involve several groups of people killing each other.

I felt so sad when Lou was sitting outside the house. It hit me that, yes, Betsy is going to die and it's that as much as whatever goes down at Sioux Falls that makes him so unscareable in S1. He couldn't stop that from happening.

I'm pretty sure the "what" S1 Lou said he was waiting for outside the house that "didn't come that night" but "came later" will turn out to be the cancer. He's already sitting outside the house at night.