Paul and Caroline Daley review TV - Handmaid's Tale | The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel | This Is US | Westworld | Stranger Things

We're going to cheat on the last two episodes, but only a little. If you could through episode 7 and NOT turn on episode 8, you have far greater restraint than anyone I've met. Episode 7 was shorter than the rest and ended on a major cliffhanger (RIP Castle Byers!). It was perfectly built for episode 8 to snuggle right up against, all comfy-like. Since that's how the shows were made, that's how we made our podcast. In this fine recording, you get our recap and analysis of Stranger Things episode 7: The Bathtub and Stranger Things episode 8: The Upside Down back-to-back, binge style. Where do start on this one? Everybody's got to come together one last time and they get there in grand anti-ET style. Try to avoid seeing 11 flip that van out of context because seeing her do it the moment is very satisfying. She's not content to just get away. She wants Brenner to be sorry he tried to catch her again. It's great. Where do end up? The least likely of all worlds given where we start: a happy Byers household. Dig in and see how get there!

Now we've got all the players back on the board. They may not be as close together as they'd like (we're all looking at you, Bram), but all Bowmans are definitely taking turns at playing games. Will: Will got a new partner this week in one-time Jennifer investigator, Bob Burke. Bob wasn't putting on an act for Jennifer's benefit apparently. He must always act like that. Although being the "good soldier" is Will's only play right now, the department he returned to only resembles the one he left because they inhabit the same space. Question of the week: Now that Will has to bow down to a new dress code, do you think they'll make him cut his hair? Kate: So much for being the "good citizen" half of Team Bowman. I guess throwing your state appointed tutor out of the house isn't technically bad citizenship, but it may be bad colonist...ship. The big questions surrounding Katie's erratic behavior revolve around where the heck WAS she? Both awkward Charlie/Lindsey interactions came while Katie was away or busy. I don't want to stick up for a weirdo like Lindsey unnecessarily, but was she -really- out of line for asking a child that was distracting her student to go be busy elsewhere? If we enforced Katie's rule today, teachers would be getting booted left and right. Broussard: Still hanging out with Team RoboBee (emphasis on the BO). I would so hate these guys if I were him. They must still have some future story importance, because Broussard would be better off without them. Plus, why go through the trouble and expense of hiring a known actress like Thora Birch (Morgan last season), just to replace her? Weird. Proxy / Bram: Proxy needs to learn a little subtlety when it comes to showing Bram favoritism. It's so obvious Maya noticed it and force Bram to reveal his snitch status. It is interesting to wonder though, is Bram working for Proxy (for real), or is he working for Maya (bad move)?

In this episode, entitled "The Monster": Nancy and Jon get the crap scared out of them in the woods, have a slumber party, and then decide go shopping for some items that would probably put them on a watch-list had they done so today. Chief Hopper and Joyce are out of town questioning a comatose Terry Ives when Jonathan cleans Steve Harrington's clock. Luckily, Terry's sister is chatty and well informed. 11 gets hungry after being a little hard on herself after the fight at the scrapyard. She uses illegally obtained Eggo waffles to ease the pain. Lucas goes on a solo recon mission to Hawkins Labs and sees a small mobilization of guys that look like trouble for his friends. Dustin and Mike learn the true meaning of friendship when 11 saves their butts from getting tossed into the quarry or carved up with a pocketknife. As Dustin says, "She's our friend and she's crazy!" The bullies learn the true meaning of telekinesis as 11 uses it to break their arms and push them around.

Not this season's best episode, but a serviceable one for a necessary situation. The Bowmans had to have a reunion. They had to lay their respective cards on the proverbial table (although we're not at all sure that Katie has come completely clean). We endured a lot of soap opera-style recapping of events from both recent episodes and last season. As faithful viewers, we kind of hate having to sit through too much of that. What made it endurable was: Will did let give in to Katie and her loser ways -and- the cold open plus Jennifer's story. The cold open gave us a brief glimpse at what else is going on in the world. In a way, Jennifer's eternal reluctance to turn in Will and his family is sending ripples through the bureaucracy that are being felt and voted on at the highest levels. She just knows her jerk boss has it in for her, not that she might get them all "rendered". But it sure is fun for us to know it.

How do you like your Devon? Pulp? Or no pulp? Episodes like this one are fun to watch. A little heartbreaking, sure, but still fun. Alas, poor Devon. We hardly knew her. She never Landoed Will, like I was suspecting she would. She helped him out, kept on eye on his flight-risk kid, and taught him how to survive in Santa Monica. Now, she's just one bloody smear among many on the Santa Monica side of the wall. You can't get too attached to mentor-ish characters in Colony. They don't last. Although Colony's propensity for dispensing with mentors remained consistent, we also experienced a pleasant change this past week in the form of Katie taking some responsibility for her actions. Well, kind of. She really passes the buck to Jennifer on whether or not she's actually held accountable. That is, if Jennifer can bring herself to turn in a grieving mother and maybe widow. Nice way to back into responsibility. "If you say I am, then I will be." I for one loved to see former Proxy Snyder in action and with a little of his old swagger back. The office desk on the far side of a concrete room is classic Snyder. One way or another, he is not staying in the prison any longer than he has to. Next week it looks like Katie and Will have a much needed come to Jesus moment - under the watchful eye of Jennifer and Homeland Security. Can't wait to see how that turns out!

Warning: I talk a bit about Game of Thrones and some major developments in that story as a comparison to Colony in this episode. If you call yourself a Game of Thrones fan and are not completely caught up (an excuse-less condition), you may want to skip ahead in the podcast when it comes up. This week's episode marks Will Bowman's return to action hero status. I have to admit I was a little concerned when a very desperate Will got his butt kicked in the first episode. After seeing the hold Solomon had over Charlie, plus the scar tissue remnants of Solomon's "lessons", Will's edge returned. With Charlie safe from the local poncho-wearing warlord's retribution, what will Will do? And then there's Katie. Katie. Katie, the woman who can accuse her own sister of not trying very hard to use her politically persuasive boyfriend to Bram released. Never mind that Bram broke one of the cardinal rules of the colony -or- that Maddie's had to basically sell her body to buy Nolan's affections. Katie just calls 'em like she sees 'em, and in this case she saw a real lack of hustle on Maddie's part. I loved watching Maddie verbally kick Katie's ass. Alan Snyder's alive! It looks like his new title may be something more like "Warden Snyder" rather than proxy, but hey! It's not the factory! What's to come next week? I bet Will has to stay in Santa Monica longer than expected to clean up the mess he surely created at Solomon's. What stupid idea will Katie have? She will probably try to enlist someone's help (Jennifer? Broussard?) to try and not only find Bram, but get him out. These are just guesses of course.

Just 10 episodes last year was all it took. We bought in. We invested. We engaged with the Colony community. We even met Ryan Condal. When you go out in a public forum, like a blog, Facebook, what have you, and say you like something, you are also saying some other stuff. What we let into our minds and souls as entertainment is one thing, but what we tell others we like is another. Coming out all public-like in support of a show in its freshman season can be fun... until its time for the Season 2 premiere. Then we're all like, "please don't suck. please don't suck." We have good news for you. Colony Season 2 looks like it is off to a STRONG start. Where last season, we were left wondering about our characters' backstories, this season we get mostly backstory. BUT. Some of the details we learn only lead to more questions (funny how good writers can do that, huh?). All the previous stuff I wrote I used a collective "we" to denote how Caroline and I feel about the show. This next bit is all Paul. Alan Snyder, the once and future Proxy, is beginning to steal the show for me. Will Bowman has the action hero stuff and that's cool, but Snyder is cunning and highly adaptable. He had me at, "She stays."

Where'd we end up? Ford: Dead. Maybe. Killed by Dolores in front of the Delos Board of Directors. Another possibility includes the Ford we saw get shot was actually a host impersonator. Dolores: Alive and making her own choices, the first of which is to murder Ford. When we left her, she was taking potshots at board members with a large revolver. William: Confirmation of his identity as the Man In Black. Somewhat disillusioned after discovering his pursuit of the maze was all for nothing. When last seen, he'd been shot in the left arm and had suffered a pretty catastrophic break in his right arm at Dolores' hands. But at least he was having fun. Logan: Rode off into the sunset , naked and with only a feather to keep him company. Hale: Had front row seats for Ford's suicide/murder, making her in prime seating to get gunned down by Dolores. Sizemore: Alone in cold storage wondering where all the robots went. Bernard: Now with full recall of being a host-ified version of Arnold. Also at the gala/massacre in Escalante, but probably not in any danger. Maeve: Also made her first programming-independent choice by getting off the train to find her "daughter". This is a reunion made for disappointment. Hector: Probably gunned down while "kicking up a row", defending Maeve's escape. Armistice: Now just one-armed, but still causing mayhem in the mid-decks of Delos HQ. Stubbs: Abducted by misbehaving Ghost Nation warriors and NOBODY said a thing. Elsie: Missing and last scene being choked. No one showed the audience her body though. Felix: Aided and abetted Maeve's escape in a big way. Probably stuck in the elevator since the lights went out in the complex. Caroline wants to do a season wrap-up podcast, so I'll save the predictions for that write-up.

We dive deep into last Sunday's episode and start questioning, well, EVERYTHING!!!

First, the title: Trace Decay. It relates to another theory about how our brains work (recall bicameral mind?). This one has to do with a Nolan favorite, our memory. As the theory goes, memories begin in your mind as a trace and unless -something- happens to lock in that memory, like rehearsing the memory or some other multi-sensory association, it will decay over time. Pieces can come back, but after a memory gets hazy, it eventually goes away. The process even starts with short term memory. Memory, the dependability of it and to what extent it should define your current reality, is very much at the heart of Westworld. Both of our female host POV characters, Delores and Maeve, are starting to fray at the edges of their sanity. Their memories, whether they lived through it or simply had them programmed, are not only coming to them as flashbacks, but are now overlaying on top of their perception. What they see and hear is now indistinguishable from memory, making it nearly impossible for them (and us) to tell the difference. Luckily, we have sound effects and semi-consistent camera / editing tricks we can use to look back and pick apart what we've been shown. Delores, being further down the path, is living through three different realities: Where she's at, where she was 30 years ago with William, and now where she was 35 years ago in the little nameless town. Kind of reminds me of what they say in time travel stories about being in close proximity to another time period's version of yourself: don't do it; it causes drastic problems. Witness Delores' freak out at the nameless / buried / ho-down hosting town for proof. Looks like I was wrong about Stubbs and Elsie. Having Bernie taking out Elsie might tell me something about to what extent the show is willing to screw with me though. The previous episode was edited in a way to make me think Bernie was too far away from Elsie at the point she was grabbed. The only way Bernie can be in place to take out Elsie is if the show is willing to fool me by editing things to look concurrent, but they're really not. Delores' scenes have been edited to fool me though, so it shouldn't have been a surprise. I thought the non-host timelines were safe, but as I write this, I'm realizing there -was- a host involved: Bernie. His perception of time passing is unreliable and he knew right where to go (because she told him). Anyway, here's our roundup for the week: 35 years ago: Someone starts shooting up the town where they have dance lessons in the street. It may be Delores and she may have gone suicidal at the end of her rampage. 30 years ago: After finding a town once known for its dance lessons now empty, Delores and William are caught by Logan and his band of sore loser Conferados. Now: Delores find the town buried except for the black steeple and a couple of roof peaks. Memories overlay perception like crazy and she can't tell what's what anymore. William is starting to act like a dick and looks like he's about done with his first trip to Westworld. Logan is back with vengeance on his mind. Maeve can now reprogram other hosts with her words, but is on the run from HQ. Bernie has covered his tracks too well about Cullen and now Stubbs senses something wrong with him. Teddy has taken the MIB hostage, but Wyatt's forces have them surrounded. MIB is tied up at Teddy's camp. I kind of just said that. Keep up. Hale has turned Sizemore into her latest data-mule since Cullen's death screwed up her previous plans. She has chosen, out of an entire sub-level full of hosts, Tom Abernathy to be the vessel to carry the data. What could go wrong? Who's revved up for ep 9? If they follow the Game of Thrones equation, ep 9 could be the season's "BIG" episode...

If you're reading this / listening to this podcast, we assume you've seen the episode. With that out of the way... WOW! We had anticipated Bernard to be revealed as a host (a host-ified version of Arnold, actually), but didn't expect it so soon or so devastatingly. Big reveal, very well done. Maeve's plan to escape doesn't look like it will have a happy ending... Delores is happy to have company on her journey to self- fulfillment, but call her a key... William is sounding more and more like the Man In Black with each passing episode... Elsie is on "leave" since her abduction last week. That implies that whomever took her, could have made that change in the company computer... My money is still on Stubbs.

No multiple timeline funny business this week. Still an enjoyable episode with a juicy cliffhanger...

We've seen enough. There's enough to work with at this point to adopt the Internet's "multiple timeline theory" as being for real. In the podcast, we'll talk about the couple of times this episode where you can spot the clearest evidence so far. The run-time on this episode is a little on the longish side, but did you see that episode? So much happened! We've added Adam again this week and we just kept finding more to talk about. I know we're late, but... you know. Adam and I had Dr. Strange tickets. Let's catch up with all of our favorite characters: Delores: She shook off the prairie dress and, "aw, shucks," persona and traded up for something more in the Lara Croft vein. She's also been chatting with Arnold. The best theory going places Delores physically in the same location in two timelines. 35 years ago, she had an adventure with William and Logan. In the modern timeline, she's retracing her steps and seeing her memories play out before her. William: Wound up feeling conflicted about taking out an army delivery crew. Left Logan to fend for himself with the angry "Confederados" in Pariah. Go HERE to read about modern day descendants of the real Confederados. Man In Black: The ultimate Westworld gamer has a chat with Ford and winds up reinvigorated in his quest for a real challenge. Although he can't hurt Ford with his knife, his wicked tongue landed a few blows that no one else would dare attempt. Ford: Secret, naked chat with Delores (Bernie never makes he sit there naked) and a trip into the park to see for himself just what in the heck the MIB is up to. Elsie: Conducts her own investigation into what's going on at Westworld HQ. We learn you do not want to be blackmailed by Elsie. She will crush you. Bernie: Deeply concerned about Elsie's data theft discovery. Teddy: Looks like crap until he hears the magic words from Ford, and then, BLAM! He's ready for action once again! Maeve: Has developed more control over regaining her memories after a reset. Uses a gunshot wound to gain entry into Westworld HQ and wakes up.

Although this episode maintained the high aesthetic standards of the ones preceding it, I have trouble summing up what this one was "about". We caught several of our main characters in the middle of their respective narratives and, except for Maeve, no one had a single episode character arc. This show has been compared to LOST and in a lot of ways, I agree with that comparison. One thing that LOST did very well was it let you know whose story was being covered in a given episode. So far, Westworld is casting a large net every episode when it comes to POV characters, allowing the story to advance through many different points of view. This is fine, but sometimes you end up with episodes like this one. Episodes like this where we find out a couple of tidbits we've been wanting to know and basically serve to position characters where they need to be later on in the season. You can practically feel the writers' hand moving William and Deloers' party to smack into the Man In Black's party at some pivotal time and place, can't you?

One unexpected brain-dump of Westworld mythology later and now we have Arnold. With him comes tons of new questions like: Is the Man In Black somehow related to Arnold? Is Arnold a first name or a last name? Is Arnold like a ghost in the machine presence in Westworld? Did Ford tell the whole truth about Arnold? Immediately, I'm reminded of Jacob from LOST. For a looong time, Jacob existed only in the shadows, speaking through others (sound familiar?). We had to watch all the way to just about the end of the final season before we got the entire backstory on the guy. It's unknown with only 3 episodes in the can whether or not Westworld is a show that condones entire-show flashbacks or not, so we may never get a filmed version of "This Is What Arnold Did". I hope we DO get some corroborated info from some other sources on Arnold though. Ford seems like the kind of guy that takes Obi-wan Kenobi's "truth from a certain point of view," from Return of the Jedi and RUNS with it. Honesty, but not the whole story. Quick recap of where the main characters wound up: Bernie: Bad day at work, found out about Arnold, and decided NOT to reset Delores' programming. Also, has a dead son. Sad. Delores: Starting to overcome programming limitations, but it's having a bad effect on her mind. She winds up in William and Logan's camp. Being able to pull that trigger, no matter where you think the gun came from, was pretty huge. Teddy: All the sudden, he's got a nemesis: Wyatt. Too bad Wyatt and his been don't seem to be affected by bullets. Ford: His agenda became muddied for me this week. Last week I thought he was trying to expand the hosts beyond their programming through reveries and possibly introducing religion. This week he demonstrated is ardent belief that hosts are machines capable of nothing more than their programming allows. At least we have his Arnold story to noodle on this week. William: Got into the swing of things and killed a host! Hooray for robo-cide! We try and dig into the bicameral mind stuff and other questions this week, so have a listen!