Or just someone familiar with the Netherlands (i.e. Brendan Hunt). Canada is well loved there because Canadians liberated it from the Germans during WWII. It’s exactly the kind of detail Dutch people would put into a song like that.

I think it’s all about making new connections - covering up the tracks with fresh snow as Beard put it. Rebecca literally fell head over heels to meet that flying Dutchman (he said he was military and had flight memorabilia all over the boat), Rebecca needed to make a new connection with someone to wipe Rupert’s…

I don’t think you have to worry. Rebecca’s subtle dig at Roy that she’s going “somewhere that believes they deserve her” feels like her telling him he made a mistake. He may come around to that in the next few episodes.

I’ve been generally underwhelmed by this season, but this was the best episode in a while for me.

I thought the Colin / Trent story played out very nicely — but I was struck by the somewhat clumsy telegraphing of Trent being gay by suddenly seeing his extravagant shoes.

I mean, that character being gay fits perfectly…

Not on board with Keeley and Jack. I don’t want to see that. You spent two seasons selling us on Keeley and Roy. I want to see that.

* Keeley and Jack: I hate this whole relationship. Further, I hate how Keeley’s sexuality has been used over each season as a narrative engine rather than part of who she is. Keeley has been three different people over three different seasons, and while some might say that it’s someone going through personal change, I…

Your comment is a better review than the review. Thank you for providing some context and analysis that we (or at least I) would have missed otherwise.

I know it’s called Total Football, I’m sure if I was talking with my friends about it in my relatively rural area I would recognize it as Total Football. However, after this episode, when it’s shown in the episode it’s probably going to stick in my brain as the triangle offense. Thanks, Tex and Phil.

With the whiff of a filler set piece, this subplot had all of Richmond’s players remembering that the best way to spend a curfew-free night in Amsterdam is to not go see tulips, not eat Dutch food, not attend a private party, and definitely not bear witness to a sex show and instead to have a pillow fight(?).

This was great through I must point out that in Montreal they say going for shishtaouk, not shawarma. That line about Canada liberating the West had me thinking there must be a Canadian in the writers room.

“I would like to see a tulip.”
“You mean tulip fields?”
“No no no, just one tulip. An entire field would be incredibly overwhelming.”

The psychic also predicted that Rebecca would be upside down and drenched, but also be safe. It’s pretty obvious the Amsterdam meeting was the fulfillment of the main part of the psychic’s prophecy.

I picked up on that too. I was surprised that after seeing that that we didn’t hear anything about Mysterious Amsterdam Boat Guy’s daughter, but I guess he did mention he “almost tore apart his family,” so maybe they didn’t want to overplay it.

“Henry’s bullying story. So brief. So neatly resolved.”

If Shandy is supposed to be a parallel to Zava, I don’t see it at all. Zava is a genuine superstar who is very weird and self-absorbed but still seems to understand the team looks up to him and at least goes through the motions of trying to bring them together and inspire them, whatever you think of his sincerity.…

Unlike his predecessor, Manuel doesn’t look at the comments, or if he does, doesn’t respond. 

WTF is this comment?!

Almost like she’s meant to be a reflection of another character who has talent but is unreliable as a team player.

Yeah, that was one of the things that frustrated me about last season, was how often we just wouldn’t see how the team was doing or coming together, and we’d just be told about their latest streak right before they decided to show a match. The whiplash here is having the same effect. Oh, Zava joins and they go on a…

They hooted like simians, not hyenas.