A rather anticlimactic season finale is admittedly disappointing but as a whole, Legion was a fun ride.

Introduced to a lot of new characters and the entire cast is great. Aubrey Plaza was the clear breakout star, she could be remembered more for her role as Lenny over Parks and Recreation.

While it is part of the X-Men world, Legion feels very distinct and different. So far there are no ties to any of the movies and I think it should remain that way. There are some shared production design cues that make the show look familiar but the direction and editing are often times head and shoulders better than any of the movies.

With 8 episodes the story arc is a tight one. Much of it is mysterious as we find out what’s going on with David at the same time he is. With each episode, the mystery and creepiness splay out in front of us right into a disappointing ending. It’s a shame as the build up is so good (and I had problems with episode seven as things get confusing) and the expectation of a worthy payoff is sitting there, waiting to be plucked. Turns out. the payoff is a brief encounter and a hand wave that invites us to see more next season.

I’m not going to say the end was bad, just a downer for what’s otherwise a great show. A refreshing take on the genre, I came in knowing nothing and hoping for the best. I got what I wanted and I now have expectations for Legion. They’re all higher than they were two months ago.

What’s the Matter With Kansas?

Some interesting growth this week.

Paige decides to do her first independent spy mission when she’s babysitting for Pastor Tim and his wife. While they’re out she takes the opportunity to look around the house and finds his journal. She tells Elizabeth and mom is worried. A surprise move from her daughter, she thinks it was way too risky a move for her to be doing. Paige doesn’t think so (I agree in this case as getting caught would have been pretty difficult) and says that Tim writes names in the diary as initials. With time she could figure out who he’s writing about. Also, she didn’t see anything about them in it. Elizabeth still waves her off from it but later, when she tells Philip, it gets her thinking. What if Paige can find dirt in the journal that they can use to hang over Tim? That would be valuable.

Back on the wheat mission, the info Elizabeth and Philip got last week bore fruit. Gabriel puts them on two people, a man and a woman in Kansas who are working on the infestation plot. Gabriel tells them it’s time to strike up new relationships and they don’t want to do it. For one thing, the home front is complicated enough as it is and ducking out of state all the time makes it worse. Plus, they both hate this kind of work. The last few years doing this have worn on their resolve. They have no choice though and start the relationships. Elizabeth is much more successful. This brings some stress home.

Oleg clues his mother in on him being blackmailed. She doesn’t take it well and he shuts that emotional hole and goes back to work. He makes some headway with his partner by getting a name for a distributor from the woman who runs one of the more well off grocery stores. Due to being blackmailed, Oleg doesn’t want to do the same to someone to continue the pursuit. His boss says bologna and his partner calms those waters a bit.

A rather shocking move with Stan. A double date with his new girlfriend, Renee, with Philip and Elizabeth. It goes well. Then at work, he drops his drawers and lays it out very clearly: leave Oleg alone. He’s adamant that Oleg has paid his dues and he should be respectively left to live his life at home. If they go after Oleg, he will go public about killing someone three years ago on the job. The scandal would overwhelm anything they would want to get out of Oleg. A bold, possibly career ending move.

Henry not only shows up in a scene but he’s part of it! He has dialog and it seems like they’re actually writing an arc for him this year. He’s got some trouble at school (they’ve been called to talk to his math teacher) and they realize they have no clue what he’s up to. He talks on the phone a lot and they don’t know with whom. He’s moody as hell and Paige thinks he might be talking to not one but two girls! I’m actually really interested to see where they go with it (they better, it’s so weird how the show ignores him. They might as well have never given the Jennings’ a son). At least it fits, Paige takes up so much of their attention, Henry could do anything and they wouldn’t know.

Step by step, Misha gets closer to meeting his father. At the very end, we see that he makes it to the US!

On the micro character level, Paige inches closer to the spy life as Stan recoils from it. Philip continues to listen to Alexei differently than Elizabeth. With each meeting, you can see Philip listening. While he sees him as a traitor for aiding in a project to foster starvation in the Soviet Union, Philip understands the base of his defection. The Soviet Union has all the resources to make prosperity that the US does but everything they do is broken. There’s no advancement. Corruption is killing their citizens. There’s no reason for it. The seeds of doubt for his own purpose are growing, adding to his wavering stance that started a few years ago. The Kansas Relationship Project is tearing at his old wounds too. What happened to Martha is something he will never get over and Elizabeth with another man is no respite from the personal trauma. It’s just another piece cut from him.

Into the Badlands snuck up on me last week. It’s been more than a year since the season finale so it’s a real treat to get my Hong Kong action choreography scratch itched. Love this production and the first two episodes have been great. Plus, a sizable episode bump from six to ten!

Next month Archer, Fargo, and Better Call Saul return! April, as always is shaping up nice.

XXXVII

A percolating episode.

Most of our time is spent chasing after Flint in the jungle of Skeleton Island with Silver. Flint goes with a divide and conquer plan with a bit of slight of hand to keep the cash and it largely works.

While the chase is on, Silver reflects on the man he’s chasing and ultimately, himself. We learn a very important motivation of Silver, why he’s trusted Flint for so long despite all the evidence. Something Hands wonders all the time and says out loud to Flint when he finally gets to confront him. Silver trusts Flint because Flint trusts him. Through all they’ve been through together they’ve become friends. They’ve been working together chasing the same results. They’ve both needed a partner in their quest. Through the years they have each other’s respect and thus, their loyalty to each other. With every step, there have been many disagreements. Flint taking the cash has forced Silver into a confrontation that can’t be ignored with his friend who believes that his side of the plan is the only way for them to succeed. Flint, of course, pleads a good case.

Bones advises Rogers to cover all his bases. With Flint on the run, the odds are against him. Odds never kept Flint down before though. Rogers gives Madi the ultimatum again and once again she isn’t impressed. She more or less tells him to shove it. This pushes Rogers into another rash decision: go after the pirates while he has the upper hand.

Checking in with Jack, he’s on his way to Skeleton Island with his crew. He hits a snag and the question of him making it to the fight looms even larger.

Silver and Flint fight in the jungle after Flint disables Hands. It’s just them as time is quickly running out. Silver’s perspective on Flint proves to be right when Flint saves him from an ambush. Then they hear the commotion in the bay.

Using the fog cover, Rogers’ men sneak onto the pirate ship and torch it. It quickly gets out of hand and when the pirates have to abandon ship, the second wave comes in and they’re shot in the water. Bones is in this second wave and just when it looks like he’s going to go full England, he spares one of the men he knows.

Silver, Flint, and Hands watch in shock as Rogers makes his move. All their supplies, their boat and likely all their men, are gone. What once looked like a rather simple chase-him-until-he’s-dead conclusion as been turned on its head. Now the men at odds are forced to work together again. Even worse for Silver, he has no leverage. Flint is the only one who knows where the treasure chest is buried. No matter what, that cash is necessary for any kind of future. Flint is again in control.

It was clear after the last episode that very few people were going to leave Skeleton Island alive. Half of them are now dead leaving our pirate leaders alone. So now the question is, what are the last remnants of the pirates going to do? Silver and Flint have gotten out of more than one sticky situation and this one is the worst. They’re going to need all of Flint’s odd defying skill to get to Rogers.

It’s a pirates life.

Great, great season.

I admire this show a lot. It walks on a lot of lines very well and that makes it very unique. The entire cast is great and everyone is a very distinct character. They each bring a different section of heart to Chip’s world and setting it in Bakersfield, CA gives the show a distinct look that looks like it could be happening in a few different decades. The production is smart and the writing even more so.

Chip (and Dale, really) is one of my favorite TV characters. He’s a sad guy but it never feels like it’s his fault or that he deserves it. He can be pigheaded and obnoxious at times but when you learn about his childhood and see how his twin Dale turned out, it makes sense. He actively tries to make something of his life and it just never comes together. He’s a good person (I especially like what they did with him and Trinity). When he gets dumped his courage comes out and it’s usually really funny. The highlight this season being his circus fight.

The first half mixes things up a lot by putting Dale on the road. We left him at a real low last season and he runs from it all. Watching him navigate things by himself and running into the Matrix drifters was a significant experience for him. He hit his stride and also got put into uncomfortable situations that pushed his ethics and made him question himself. In typical Baskets family tradition, he finds himself forced back home after a tragedy. The season changes there too. Chips arc this year is pretty intense. The scene when Mrs. Baskets finds where Chip has been staying since she kicked him out? “I know I’m a burden.” After watching what he’d been through all season that line (and how ZG delivers it) got to me.

Family is an integral aspect of the show. Brotherhood especially but this season they expanded Mrs. Basket’s role, gave her a lot more time and space to become fully realized. Louie Anderson is brilliant, he should win another award for this season. He works incredibly well with Zach Galifianakis, it’s totally convincing that Mrs. Baskets has been worried about Chip for 40 years.

Baskets plays everything straight which I think is why it works so well. In quick succession, they can go from introspection to comedy, to drama, in any order multiple times. The really funny stuff is often very subtle and whips by quickly. It’s some of the best dry humor around.

I got a job in a Russian circus.

Do they have tigers?

No…they have poodles from Moscow.

Communist poodles? How did they get into the country?

I’ll be there for Season 3.

The Midges

This week we move forward on the bug hunt. Alexei continues to disparage the USSR and his wife gets really angry. When they speak Russian, we find out that Alexei moved them suddenly. They had no idea he was going to defect and they one day were forced to up and leave everything behind. Alexei had a much different upbringing that his wife so he’s stuffed with way more anger about their home than she and their son are.

With an eye being kept on Alexei and Tuan working with Pasha, we’re moved on to the greater threat. The bug that Elizabeth handed off to Gabriel has come back with some results. It’s a midge that’s found in Australia and by the sound of it, it’s basically a locust. These things can chew through crops. The now focused concern is this: the US government effort is to decimate the food supply to cause a famine in the USSR. Now the question is, are they going to send the bugs over or just larva infested supplies? There are too many ways this attack could be kicked off so they have to find exactly how it’s going to happen for a chance to stop it. A lead takes Philip and Elizabeth to Oklahoma.

Before they leave, they decide to tell Paige about what they’re doing and Paige seems to be sympathetic to the cause. She has her questions but the answers look like they go over well. She doesn’t want anyone to starve. Paige also goes on a date with Will and she uses the thumb and forefinger technique they taught her when Matt asks her what’s bothering her. She pulls off a good lie and tells Elizabeth that she felt gross doing it. Elizabeth does her best to calm her down and keep her straight (it looked pretty successful to me).

In the USSR, Oleg is going about his business. He starts his investigation on where the money is going when merchants buy their food and he’s stonewalled. When he walks out the camera stays on a woman browsing the sparsely stocked shelves. It’s Martha! After that shocker, the US agent finds Oleg walking home and Oleg tells him to take a hike. Oleg didn’t go to the first meeting and the agent passes him a package, along with saying “I’m sorry.” With that unnerving line, Oleg opens the package at home and finds another map with a meeting marked and a cassette tape that’s audio proof that he’s a traitor to the USSR.

We keep rolling with the spies when we join Stan and his partner Dennis approach two men and push them for information about a company they work for. Both men don’t say a word and simply walk away.

Finally, Elizabeth and Philip break into an Oklahoma lab. Looking into the midges, shipping information grabbed the attention of home base so they have to find out what’s going there. While looking around, they see a whole lot of bugs, but not much else. Then an employee comes in…really bad timing for him. They turn on the heat to interrogate him and get some interesting info. This lab has a contract to breed this specific bug, a wheat eater, and send them out. 30,000 to 40,000 have been sent out and he insinuates that that amount isn’t much. And the company they are sending the bugs to? The same one Stan and Dennis are asking about. Since this guy has seen their faces, he’s gotta go.

Great escalation to the show with some really surprising moments. Things are being weaved together, seeing Martha was nuts (I hope that wasn’t a one off) and Mischa, Philip’s son is inching his way closer to his father. It’s going to be crazy when everyone starts running into each other.

Should we tell Paige about this?

Best show on TV.

XXXVI

Add another great episode to the stack. For me, this one was all about Max, who had all of my favorite scenes.

Max has stayed behind with Anne, to work on the plan with Grandma Guthrie and tend to Anne. As much as Max tries, Anne wants nothing to do with her. She’s made great headway with Grandma though as she’s come around completely to Max. Walking down a major port, Grandma picks Max’s brain a bit more and likes what she hears. She opens up to Max admitting that she had always wished she would be doing this with her granddaughter, Eleanor. But under the circumstances, doing this with Max, who reminds her of her younger self, can work just as well. They go to a tavern where Grandma wants Max to meet someone. They look down at a man in the crowd and Grandma tells her about this man. From a well off family, a good guy too, but not very ambitious. She wants Max to marry this man. A guy much like her husband who would be the face of the new Nassau but with the woman next to him actually controlling him. His family would be elated he’d be married so they’d get their support and Max should be able to easily control him. As for consummating the relationship, there is a brothel on Nassau if that’s any concern. Max is left speechless with such an arrangement.

Max has been through a long gauntlet. Slavery, going through everything with Eleanor and taking her place and then losing everything. She has a new perspective on life and her priorities have changed. She tells Anne what Grandma wants her to do and she said no. Anne is shocked that Max would give up an opportunity to have it all. Max says I wouldn’t have it all. She breaks down and apologizes to Anne for what she’s done. With how things went down between them, I wasn’t sure if this was ever going to happen. In an amazing speech, Max admits that “having” Nassau wouldn’t mean anything without Anne. Doing what Grandma wants would eliminate any chance she has of getting back together with Anna. Max doesn’t want to own things anymore. She’s picked love. Now Anne is left speechless.

On to the boys. Bones is all in with Rogers, showing him a journal from the late Avery (who Flint killed over some money) that has the directions to Skeleton Island.  A place off the grid that very people know the way to, where trades and deals can happen in the utmost secret. Bones says, lead Silver and Flint there where you will have the edge.

Flint reassures Silver that their plan to rescue max will work. But on the way to Nassau, they run into Rogers. Bones is onboard (not in custody) with Madi and Rogers starts executing pirates and slaves. As Rogers gets closer to Madi, Silver panics. “Your plan failed. We’re moving on to my plan.” Silver orders the treasure to be brought up to the deck and Flint is stunned when he sees it. They show Rogers what they have and Rogers stops the slaughter. Rogers leads the way to Skeleton Island with Silver eager to follow.

Silver and Flint have it out. Silver is putting his foot down, taking all control from Flint. Just like Max, Silver has picked love over all else. Silver takes on Flint directly, shooting down his plan and making him say that he has his full support in using the cash to get Madi back. Flint says he does.

Hands rightfully doesn’t believe Flint and warns Silver that he can’t trust him. He’s crazy to do so. Stubborn Silver remains loyal to Flint and tells Hands to leave it be. So what happens? Flint doesn’t waste any time to stab Silver in the back. In recruiting help (one guy) Flint basically says that Silver is soft and his judgment is clouded by Madi. Flint is furious that Silver brought the cash and simply won’t let Silver do what he wants. While stealing the treasure, Hands catches him. I thought it would pop off right there, but Hands recognizes the position he’s in. He either gets killed or Flint does. If he kills Flint, Silver won’t believe him and will kill him. Either way, Hands loses. He must let Silver see with his own eyes what a piece of trash Flint is. Hands lets him go.

So it’s come to this, one final act of treachery. Silver watches Flint and his sidekick drag the treasure onto the shore of Skelton Island. It is on. The line has finally been crossed. Silver goes onto Rogers’ boat and tells him what Silver did. He assures him that he’s going to get the cash back, he just needs some time. He’s put his six best men (one being Hands) to track Flint and get the cash. Bones is standing next to Silver and when he hears this, his eyes light up. “There was another order. Wasn’t there?” Flint is now marked for death by everyone. Bones can barely contain his joy.

On the sides, Anne plans on rejoining Jack. Despite being hurt very badly, sitting around isn’t something she does very well. While Jack has orders to kill Flint as well, he has no idea where he’s gone off too. Wether luck or fate, Mrs. Hudson (Eleanore’s hand maiden) goes to talk to the new (old) madam of the Nassau brothel, Mrs. Mapleton. There she passes off the info of where Rogers is leading Flint. And that info gets passed to Jack. Now he just has to get there.

The stage has been set, we now know where the last stand of the show is going to happen. Now the question is, how many people are going to make it off alive?

There was some brilliant direction on display in the scene where Grandma is showing Max her potential husband. It’s very dark where they are talking, so much of the background is black. Grandma and Max are the only people in the frame and they pop in contrast to the negative space around them. Max is standing closest to the camera, on the right side of the frame, facing to the left. We see only the left side of her body, a perfect portrait. Grandma is standing just to the left of Max, maybe a step behind her. She’s positioned off of center, not directly at the camera, but at an angle to the right side of the frame. With how it’s lit, we can only see the right side of her face, the left is in complete shadow. The blocking and lighting makes this brilliant visual that’s almost like a relief. A character split in half, the present on the right and future on the left, looking at each other. Max can see what will happen to her if she says yes.

There’s only two left.

Pests

This week was a relatively calm one that can be broken down into three parts.

Stan. He asked the woman out, it went well and she’s introduced to Philip at the gym. Renee (Laurie Holden from The Walking Dead) quickly agrees to another date so Stan finally has something positive in his life. On the other side, work. He’s brought into a meeting about Oleg, the CIA wants to flip him in Russia and they want info from Stan about the best way to do it. Stan tells them he can’t be flipped, he gave Stan the info about William with the bioweapon out of fear for the whole planet. If it’s not a cataclysmic event, he’s not going to be an asset. They insinuate threating Oleg’s family and Stan is mortified that someone who helped them out when it mattered solely on human grounds, and not threats, could be threatened. Oleg produced, he got moved home, now leave him be. Stan tries to stop it with zero results. In fact, when Oleg is approached, the agent tells him that Stan sent him. Also, it looks as if Oleg’s main job is to look into the food shortages (tieing Elizabeth and Philip to Stan even closer), which I’ll get to next.

The new mission. When Philip and Elizabeth hand off the bio-sample to Gabriel, he tells them of a major concern that home is freaking out about. Russia gets a lot of its food from many countries and the USA sends them a bulk of their wheat. Rumors are swirling that the wheat is being tampered with in some way. Elizabeth tracks down one of the mills where the wheat comes from and she sneaks in to find…bugs. The wheat is just swarming with them. She doesn’t know what the implication could be, but it’s not a good sign. Alexei Morozov is/could be involved with the wheat so they keep up with him and his family with their “son” Tuan. In full spy mode, they sit there at dinner listening to Alexei rail on the Soviet Union nonstop. While they couldn’t say anything, his son Pasha, does.

Paige. The other side Stan. While he’s becoming more insecure about what happens with being a spy (“Sometimes I wish I ran the whole place”) Paige is being edged into it a bit more and is not handling it well. When they come home from the bio-sample mission, they don’t find Paige asleep in bed. This could be horrible. The first thought is that she slipped out to Stan’s to be with Matt and that could raise questions about where the both of them are late at night. Turns out she felt so unsafe in bed, that she went into her closet to sleep. That first lesson from Elizabeth didn’t help at all.  If that wasn’t bad enough, Stan asks Philip if Paige is doing OK because she’s been acting different lately. Philip passes it off as her just being a moody teenager and the big life event of having a first boyfriend. Paige hasn’t done anything except spend more time around Stan and he’s picked up on something. Paige is a serious security problem that’s getting worse by the day. Elizabeth gives her another lesson and asks about Matt and it just makes Paige upset. Talking it over, they’re convinced that if she has sex with Matt, Paige is going to let something slip. She’ll have her guard down, she’ll be emotionally changed from something so intimate and not even realize what she’s saying. In a scene that completely flips the typical “birds and the bees talk,”  Phil and Elizabeth talk to Paige honestly about their concerns. They take a new approach since telling her she can’t see Matt is just making things worse. So, if she chooses to take things further with Matt, they want to teach her a technique to make things slow down and to keep her cool. When they say this, my mind went all over the place. An awkward conversation for anyone just hit new levels. They tell her to rub her index finger and thumb together and to think of them.  Yeah, that’ll pump the brakes.

The threat triangle has now become a square. While they always had to keep Stan at arms length for work, Paige’s involvement and vulnerability with Matt now means there’s another door leading to their secret that they must protect. Stan’s name is clearly being used on Oleg against his will and his reaction when he finds out (go with pushing Oleg or doing some rogue move to help Oleg) could lead Stan into a direct “on the job” encounter with Philip and Elizabeth. That could be the lead into the final season.

XXXV

The aftermath of the Nassau slaughter. A lot of powerful scenes.

Rogers comes face to face with the death he pushed on Nassau. When Eleanore’s body is being prepared for her final resting place, he finds out she was pregnant. He has some words with Eleanore’s handmaiden and mourns his loss from the decisions he made (and what he ultimately figures he was forced to do).

With the newfound support at the hidden camp, Flint and Silver push forward on the next step for the resistance. Silver wants Madi’s death to mean something and Flint agrees. While Silver is mourning, Silver has no problem with steering the ship for awhile. He has much bigger goals than anyone. He wants them to push forward all the way into Boston. Julius scoffs at the idea and Madi’s mother tries to convince him that it’s the best course for them to take. Julius listens but that’s about it. If anything he instills some more doubt in her.

Jack and crew make it to the Americas to talk to Eleanore’s grandfather for help. It does not go as planned but using his gift with persuasion, he catches the ear of Grandma Guthrie. While the man might be the front of the show, Grandma has a heavy hand in piloting where the family pursues its interests. At a second meeting to discuss details, Jack brings Max along hoping that Grandma Guthrie sees herself in Max. In a show of Max flexing her gift of persuasion and reasoning (and a great turnaround on a metaphor), they win her over.

While Billy Bones was untied before the war broke out, he didn’t manage to get away. He was captured with many others. He asks to see Rogers and in a not surprising turn of events, he offers to throw Silver and Flint to him. Bones has been screwed over for the last time. He tells Rogers that he has an advantage over the pirates in his possession. He must turn Silver and Flint against each other and he can use one of his captors to do it. Madi is alive.

Rogers sends the pirates an ultimatum. Give me the money or Madi is dead. The pirates are now in a hostage situation. Silver is all about it, hand it over and we’ll go from there. Madi’s mother thinks they can’t risk the turmoil that giving the treasure over will do with their allies. Silver agrees, which infuriates Silver since not too long ago Flint was ready to throw the treasure away for a fort. Flint sees that Rogers is trying to split them apart and offers an alternative: we keep the money and go rescue her.

In my favorite scene, Rogers talks with Madi. First, he asks her if Eleanore died fighting and Madi doesn’t answer. From there he gets to business. He brings her a contract. All the slaves on the island will be granted emancipation but they will turn over any slave and pirate to the law who seeks refuge from them after that. If not, he will enslave them all, split them up and burn down what’s left. The diabolical Rogers is back. He gets what he wants or crushes those who say no. He let’s that on sit in the air and then Madi drops this on him as he leaves the cell:

Eleanore died fighting. As will I.

The absolute best response she could have had.

Finally, Jack returns to the boat to tell Anne what he and Max worked out with Grandma Guthrie. They have agreed to fight Rogers back and split the control over Nassau as partners. Anne will be staying behind to heal while he goes back to Nassau. But there is one final test that GG wants Jack to pass. Kill Flint. Anne questions throwing all their beliefs away for this, betray their pirate brothers and Vane’s name. Jack reasons that it’s basically inevitable. Flint is a problem to everyone. Flint would take this same move. And Vane is dead, he doesn’t have a say in anything anymore. He’s doing it for their future.

Jack heads back to Nassau without Anne into the final battle.

Silver, Flint, and their crew are also on their way to Nassau. All three parties that have been split apart are now aimed at each other…and Flint has all the bullseyes on him. Silver is moving with a backup plan of his own. Flint thinks he’s getting his way (as he always does) but Silver has brought the treasure with them. If they can’t get Madi Flint’s way, Silver is ready and able to bargain. Hands lays it all out for Silver. If and when Flint doesn’t get his way, you better be ready to kill him.

There are only three episodes left in the series and all the cannons are loaded.

Man Seeking Woman– Another good season., I liked it a lot After following around Josh for two seasons as he bounced into a relationship and out of one, season 3 changed the perspective to what happens in a long-term relationship. Smart move as this gave a lot of chances for the people around Josh to change with him. His girlfriend Lucy obviously gets the lion’s share of time with Josh but the show how she deals with it too. Friendship dynamics changing (and peer pressure), meeting parents for the first time, realizing you’re in a long relationship and wondering about the future with this person, the pressure of proposing…there is a lot of pressure to navigate. The show is expanding beyond Josh (I’ve always liked how they give his sister a solo episode each year) in great ways and next season is going to offer all new ground as well. They cast this show really well too, it’s always fun to see what they’re going to do next. Looking forward to next season.

It’ Always Sunny in Philadelphia– Ten seasons is a crazy milestone for a show and this year was one of the best. That’s almost more impressive. I don’t think there was a bad episode this year and often they’re really smart episodes. Super happy to see some major character milestones in the last half of the season. While they wisely left some old material behind some time ago (Charlie and The Waitress) or glance off old material here and there (Mac being in the closet) they finally took these two long time Always Sunny beats and moved them forward. Mac’s episode in particular was insanely funny. Cricket got a great piece too! In a great bit of story telling, he was in one episode as a cameo and then went back an episode or two later to show what he was doing that day. Hell, they even had a cliffhanger finale! I hope they can keep up the creativity for the next season, this run was a blast.