Anonymous wrote:I really disliked Beth in the latest episode. She’s being petty, immature and unrealistic with the dance stuff. She wanted to skip Randall’s work dinner to go get drinks with her boss? And she refuses to teach fewer classes or only weekend classes to accommodate Randall’s schedule? (His schedule is ridiculous in itself but she’s the one who has more flexibility here). She lost her job and was on board with him running (til she wasn’t of course). She needs to suck it up and do what needs to be done for her family. She’s putting her “dreams” ahead of everyone else when she had, what, 20 years to get back into it? NOW she decides to go all in? Selfish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1
And I liked Kevin's gesture of buying them Billy Joel tickets as an engagement present. They each seem happy with their respective partners, yet still fond of one another. I just think Kevin's making a mistake re: having kids. I think he really does want to have children and at some point, this will be a big wedge with Zoe.

I think Kevin and Zoe have zero chemistry. They hardly seem in to each other and now Kevin is willing to give up having children for her? Yeah I'm not seeing it at all.

I agree the chemistry isn't there, he had far more with Sophie. I think a big issue is that, while Zoe is drop dead gorgeous, her acting is pretty weak and emotionless for the most part.

+1
She's stunningly gorgeous, but has a very flat affect. I find Sophie to be a lot more engaging and "real".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so distracted trying to figure out how Randall & Beth are suddenly having so many issues, that I can't concentrate on the other story lines!! Now it's an issue of not having money & the girls needing Beth. Say what?? They spend money on the most frivolous things. They fly out to see Kate & stay for four days with I'm sure last minute tickets. That can't be cheap. Who's watching the girls while they are gone? All of this drama about the girls being left alone, yet they don't explain who has them while they up and take off to see Kate. Why are they cleaning up after these teenage girls? Are they not old enough at this point to wash dishes and do some laundry?

I don't think Randall and Beth's issues are sudden as much as they haven't been resolved properly. Frankly I'm surprised they've made it this long with what he has done lately. It's like the couple who breaks up over a dirty glass on the counter. It's not really the glass. It's everything that lead up to that. The money they are spending to see Kate is ridiculous. Randall has gone 2x. Beth once, all last minute trips across country. IRL I'd tell DH no way should we be spending money to go see her. His first responsibility is to the family under his roof not a sister whose pregnancy is risky because she gave up on any and all methods to make it less risky by taking better care of herself and now everyone is supposed to fall in line and not state the obvious.

Agree. And they could have simply adopted a child to begin with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This story line is just is pulling these two down the rabbit hole. It started out ridiculous — the Beth character we know would have put a stop to Randal running for a hard-working, low-paying, elected position in another state 2-3 hours away. Even if we pretend it was possible, Beth would have called BS before this ball got rolling. Ok, now that it’s going, Beth would be onboard. Sure, she’d bitch and moan, but she’d be the supportive partner, including taking care of the children and house. She’d rediscover love of dance as a small side and volunteer gig. It would help her deal with Randal’s nonsense. FF to a work dinner conflict scenerio and there’s no way the Randal character that we know would leave that suicide voice mail on Beth’s phone. It’s too contrived, even for a work of fiction.

I completely agree- it was such a stupid plot line to begin with with its stupidity compounded weekly. When Kate becomes my favorite of the Big 3, something is seriously wrong.

The Randall as councilman story line should never have gotten beyond one or two episodes unless both he and Beth were fully committed, planned to move the family, Beth would be primary caretaker, etc. But Randal taking any job that’s low pay, requires a lot of face time and extra hours and is 2-3 hours away? With a teen they just adopted last month? It’s just beyond what the writers can expect us to pretend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so distracted trying to figure out how Randall & Beth are suddenly having so many issues, that I can't concentrate on the other story lines!! Now it's an issue of not having money & the girls needing Beth. Say what?? They spend money on the most frivolous things. They fly out to see Kate & stay for four days with I'm sure last minute tickets. That can't be cheap. Who's watching the girls while they are gone? All of this drama about the girls being left alone, yet they don't explain who has them while they up and take off to see Kate. Why are they cleaning up after these teenage girls? Are they not old enough at this point to wash dishes and do some laundry?

I don't think Randall and Beth's issues are sudden as much as they haven't been resolved properly. Frankly I'm surprised they've made it this long with what he has done lately. It's like the couple who breaks up over a dirty glass on the counter. It's not really the glass. It's everything that lead up to that. The money they are spending to see Kate is ridiculous. Randall has gone 2x. Beth once, all last minute trips across country. IRL I'd tell DH no way should we be spending money to go see her. His first responsibility is to the family under his roof not a sister whose pregnancy is risky because she gave up on any and all methods to make it less risky by taking better care of herself and now everyone is supposed to fall in line and not state the obvious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1
And I liked Kevin's gesture of buying them Billy Joel tickets as an engagement present. They each seem happy with their respective partners, yet still fond of one another. I just think Kevin's making a mistake re: having kids. I think he really does want to have children and at some point, this will be a big wedge with Zoe.

I think Kevin and Zoe have zero chemistry. They hardly seem in to each other and now Kevin is willing to give up having children for her? Yeah I'm not seeing it at all.

Anonymous wrote:I'm so distracted trying to figure out how Randall & Beth are suddenly having so many issues, that I can't concentrate on the other story lines!! Now it's an issue of not having money & the girls needing Beth. Say what?? They spend money on the most frivolous things. They fly out to see Kate & stay for four days with I'm sure last minute tickets. That can't be cheap. Who's watching the girls while they are gone? All of this drama about the girls being left alone, yet they don't explain who has them while they up and take off to see Kate. Why are they cleaning up after these teenage girls? Are they not old enough at this point to wash dishes and do some laundry?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This story line is just is pulling these two down the rabbit hole. It started out ridiculous — the Beth character we know would have put a stop to Randal running for a hard-working, low-paying, elected position in another state 2-3 hours away. Even if we pretend it was possible, Beth would have called BS before this ball got rolling. Ok, now that it’s going, Beth would be onboard. Sure, she’d bitch and moan, but she’d be the supportive partner, including taking care of the children and house. She’d rediscover love of dance as a small side and volunteer gig. It would help her deal with Randal’s nonsense. FF to a work dinner conflict scenerio and there’s no way the Randal character that we know would leave that suicide voice mail on Beth’s phone. It’s too contrived, even for a work of fiction.

Agreed. The whole elected position being 2-3 hours away (in a different state?!) is so ludicrous. Commuting that far every day? No way. And I'm all for Beth "following her bliss," but it does seem really spiteful to use being a dance teacher as the hill she's going to die on to get back at Randall. Come on. As you say, she could manage to teach only during the days, or on the weekends. It's become so DUMB.

I hope all the people complaining about the councilman storyline being ludicrous are not the same people who told us Pittsburgh people to stop critiquing every inconsistency with Pittsburgh geography/history.

See, the Pittsburgh inconsistencies was just the canary in the coal mine regarding how much the show's writers want us to suspend disbelief. We tried to warn yinz!

Yes! Pps were being a bunch of jagoffs when they ignored our early observations.

Sorry, but I beg to differ. The things you guys were constantly complaining about were no more than minutiae - the temp. on any given day?? What *exactly* (to the day, mind you) their age was? Things that made no difference to the story whatsoever.

The Randall story line is now a major plot point - and the whole distance/geography thing is part of the story, not some trivial "inconsistency" that doesn't even matter. The writers are clearly using the whole commute issue as part of the story. We're complaining because it's just a boring (and dumb) story line, not that it's inconsistent.

Haha. TIS stan can’t stand that she’s wrong. The inane storyline is 100% inconsistent with actions these characters—as developed by these writers—would ever take. Sure, this is much worse than having California weather in during a Pittsburgh February. I love pp’s “canary in the coal mine.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1
And I liked Kevin's gesture of buying them Billy Joel tickets as an engagement present. They each seem happy with their respective partners, yet still fond of one another. I just think Kevin's making a mistake re: having kids. I think he really does want to have children and at some point, this will be a big wedge with Zoe.

I think Kevin and Zoe have zero chemistry. They hardly seem in to each other and now Kevin is willing to give up having children for her? Yeah I'm not seeing it at all.

I agree the chemistry isn't there, he had far more with Sophie. I think a big issue is that, while Zoe is drop dead gorgeous, her acting is pretty weak and emotionless for the most part.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This story line is just is pulling these two down the rabbit hole. It started out ridiculous — the Beth character we know would have put a stop to Randal running for a hard-working, low-paying, elected position in another state 2-3 hours away. Even if we pretend it was possible, Beth would have called BS before this ball got rolling. Ok, now that it’s going, Beth would be onboard. Sure, she’d bitch and moan, but she’d be the supportive partner, including taking care of the children and house. She’d rediscover love of dance as a small side and volunteer gig. It would help her deal with Randal’s nonsense. FF to a work dinner conflict scenerio and there’s no way the Randal character that we know would leave that suicide voice mail on Beth’s phone. It’s too contrived, even for a work of fiction.

Agreed. The whole elected position being 2-3 hours away (in a different state?!) is so ludicrous. Commuting that far every day? No way. And I'm all for Beth "following her bliss," but it does seem really spiteful to use being a dance teacher as the hill she's going to die on to get back at Randall. Come on. As you say, she could manage to teach only during the days, or on the weekends. It's become so DUMB.

I hope all the people complaining about the councilman storyline being ludicrous are not the same people who told us Pittsburgh people to stop critiquing every inconsistency with Pittsburgh geography/history.

See, the Pittsburgh inconsistencies was just the canary in the coal mine regarding how much the show's writers want us to suspend disbelief. We tried to warn yinz!

Yes! Pps were being a bunch of jagoffs when they ignored our early observations.

Sorry, but I beg to differ. The things you guys were constantly complaining about were no more than minutiae - the temp. on any given day?? What *exactly* (to the day, mind you) their age was? Things that made no difference to the story whatsoever.

The Randall story line is now a major plot point - and the whole distance/geography thing is part of the story, not some trivial "inconsistency" that doesn't even matter. The writers are clearly using the whole commute issue as part of the story. We're complaining because it's just a boring (and dumb) story line, not that it's inconsistent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1
And I liked Kevin's gesture of buying them Billy Joel tickets as an engagement present. They each seem happy with their respective partners, yet still fond of one another. I just think Kevin's making a mistake re: having kids. I think he really does want to have children and at some point, this will be a big wedge with Zoe.

I think Kevin and Zoe have zero chemistry. They hardly seem in to each other and now Kevin is willing to give up having children for her? Yeah I'm not seeing it at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This story line is just is pulling these two down the rabbit hole. It started out ridiculous — the Beth character we know would have put a stop to Randal running for a hard-working, low-paying, elected position in another state 2-3 hours away. Even if we pretend it was possible, Beth would have called BS before this ball got rolling. Ok, now that it’s going, Beth would be onboard. Sure, she’d bitch and moan, but she’d be the supportive partner, including taking care of the children and house. She’d rediscover love of dance as a small side and volunteer gig. It would help her deal with Randal’s nonsense. FF to a work dinner conflict scenerio and there’s no way the Randal character that we know would leave that suicide voice mail on Beth’s phone. It’s too contrived, even for a work of fiction.

Agreed. The whole elected position being 2-3 hours away (in a different state?!) is so ludicrous. Commuting that far every day? No way. And I'm all for Beth "following her bliss," but it does seem really spiteful to use being a dance teacher as the hill she's going to die on to get back at Randall. Come on. As you say, she could manage to teach only during the days, or on the weekends. It's become so DUMB.

I hope all the people complaining about the councilman storyline being ludicrous are not the same people who told us Pittsburgh people to stop critiquing every inconsistency with Pittsburgh geography/history.

See, the Pittsburgh inconsistencies was just the canary in the coal mine regarding how much the show's writers want us to suspend disbelief. We tried to warn yinz!

Yes! Pps were being a bunch of jagoffs when they ignored our early observations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know...they were definitely unlikable and unrealistic but I didn't hate the episode. It was called the waiting room and it seems to signal a shift in all their lives as they wait.

Miguel may be about to find his place in the family (being the one who had the phone number and tried to play dad). Rebecca is clearly physically heading in a bad direction. Kevin and Kevin/Zoe is at a crossroads, as are Randall and crew. And life or death for baby Jack and them.

They're a waiting for setting wonderful or something horrible, and we are waiting along with them. 4 more episodes to get this all wrapped up, and this one was just setting the scene for what's next and how it all comes together.

Re: Rebecca, I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed this. At first I thought they were setting up clues that she might be starting to experience early-onset Alzheimer's or dementia, with her random musings about the waiting room. But then she related all of that back to being in the waiting room with Jack the night he died. I don't know though, it kind of seemed like she was very frail and perhaps not in great health.

I thought this too

It wouldn't be very early onset. She's 68 or 69 at this point. She got pregnant at 30 and the triplets are 38 + now.

That popped into my mind because her memories were oddly precise and detailed.

Well no, small but vivid details are part and parcel of traumatic memories.

But it was perplexing for another reason, because it sounded like she drove him to the ER "for his burns" and then they hung around waiting in the ER waiting room forever. I may have misheard it.

I don't quite get the "frailty" business. This woman has had trauma in her life: losing one of her babies, hiding her relationship with Randall's father, the years when Jack was an alcoholic, the horrific way she lost him, her conflicted relationship with Kate, learning about her husband's hidden brother, the obvious risks with the baby due to Kate's obesity, now the critical medical situation. I can totally see her sitting there with this accumulation of life pain and being terrified what might happen to her daughter and granddaughter.

My DH died 15 years ago and was ill for a long time before that. There are many random details I remember from his last hospitalization (almost 300 miles from home). I took pics of the ICU where he died and when they got developed I immediately stashed them away because they were so upsetting, didn't look at them for 10 years and they still hit me in the gut, as to other bits and pieces of his illness. Going into the local hospital where he had many stays, whether to visit or for my own medical stuff, was also hard for years until they did major remodeling so it was less familiar.

Remembering stuff like that in certain situations is NOT a sign of dementia!

Anonymous wrote:
+1
And I liked Kevin's gesture of buying them Billy Joel tickets as an engagement present. They each seem happy with their respective partners, yet still fond of one another. I just think Kevin's making a mistake re: having kids. I think he really does want to have children and at some point, this will be a big wedge with Zoe.