Maybe it does make her suspicious (though maybe not). Maybe that's still better than the status quo. And getting arrested for possession of illegal porn (and then perhaps murdered in prison) is so much more abstracted than a straight-up bullet to the back of the head.

They also had things called "lies" and "people who don't believe lies". I heard a rumour they even had people who would sometimes confuse the truth with a lie, and not believe it. Crazy, I know.

It's an evolving position, to be sure. The broader point, which is that they're unlikely to just straight-up murder the guy with no context making it palatable to Paige, stands.

And of course, there's nothing to say they couldn't have him whacked in prison, somehow, which ties it off neatly enough.

Why would the FBI hear about his accusations? Child porn doesn't default to being handled by the Feds - does it? If he's just down at some station, babbling about how he's totally not a chimo, you guys, I've been framed by the parents of one of my parishioners because they're Russian spies, come on! then I don't see…

What he knows, what he can prove and how seriously what he says is taken are three separate things.

They're far more likely to frame him for child pornography possession or something than kill him. Killing him a) makes Paige suspicious and b) does nothing to solve the problem of what he represents to Paige. They have to kill him as an idol without actually murdering him.

"P.S. Me and my mom think you are a good judge."

I don't think the woman Molly has lunch with is apt to have read Camus.

"Also, was anybody thinking Noreen would be the new Mrs. Solverson at some point?"

It's S1 all over again - I find my interest flagging and it's been a chore to watch the last two episodes. They don't seem great at closing things out.

Nah.

I think "relentlessly" is indeed a bridge too far, and I mean, the persistent-vegetative-state person goddamn woke up, so yeah. But remember that Jarden appears to have been trashed by the mob. It's not heavily focused on, but that is the backdrop against which the latter minutes of the episode take place.

If anything, it should make it harder, because it about guarantees all the cops are assembled right at the other end of the bridge. Weirder and weirder the more I think about it.

"Storming the bridge doesn't seem like the kind of thing they needed Meg to come up with"

It's probably bad form or something to mention it, but I really can't sit too easily with Kevin just shrugging off getting shot like that. I'll grant happily that the bullet missed any vital organs etc - flukey shit happens. But by the end of the episode, you'd think it was a sprained ankle or something.

I've contributed meaningfully by upvoting you, though, right?

"This is a subject for a longer, better researched essay, but I wonder if
you could draw a line from the self-help tomfoolery of the ‘70s, with
its Zen mantras reworked in the cadence of self-regard and egoism, and
the arrogant shine of Reagan’s ‘80s."

Yeah, their earlier encounter was a big part of why I felt like kind of a dummy for not seeing it coming.

I should add that yes, the hook at the end was extremely effective and both took me by surprise and left me slightly ashamed of not anticipating it.