{ so many ways that we could turn the words around. }

[delga]

Came home last night, did my reading, typed up my seminar notes and called The Sister who then informed me that I'll need to buy a new copy of the James text. Fabulous. T's friend, R, is visiting from Germany so I went downstairs and ate, hung out with N and The Flatmate for a while, then T and R came in and we hung out some more. Came back upstairs, watched Stargate (wondered how people pick episodes that are going to showcase a final season) and then I watched the second of the two The Unit episodes that I had. Very impressed.

Woke at the usual time today, am watching CSI: NY and then Criminal Minds and Bones. I have the Research Skills lecture 1pm with The Flatmate, N and TW, and I have to call someone in a bit to arrange to see their house later today. I don't want to go by myself but I think that I'll have to. Then I have to come back, type up and notes that I have and read more Wind in the Willows.

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From the start of this episode to the finish, I was so engrossed in this episode. I'm a sucker for Mack-related episodes anyway and I thought this was neatly executed. The opening scenes establish that fraught sense of nervous tension (which I thought linked in nicely with his hydrophobia from the previous episode - maybe his will be a theme? Mack doubting himself?) The flashback story-telling was effective, too, especially when the semtex explodes and we then cut back to Bob and Jonas. ("Holy hell!" Bob makes me laugh sometimes, I don't even know why.) Mostly, I loved the team pulling through for him, Jonas proffering the apple, nobody speaking and that scene where the Colonel comes through for him. And Mack, refusing to speak. I LOVED that. It rang so true.

Mack's interactions with Tiffy always make me wonder a couple of things - how their marriage came about (they obviously love each other but it's a battle of wills in that house...I guess I jut answered my own question), and how much two people can hurt each other under the rubric of loving one another. Mack can't talk, and Tiffy can't sympathise and they both really want to. Tiffy wants something from Mack that he can't give and Mack wants sympathy and support from her which she doesn't understand how to give selflessly. She wants give and take, and it's a difficult situation to be in.

Krystal breaks my heart and makes me angry simultaneously, which is a new one. That last scene, though, when she pulls Mack away - and remember, Mack is grieving something that's difficult to define - and when they meet in the car, it's a horrible affair, a horrible betrayal, but they both need someone to feel something similar to what they are feeling (both are trying to drown) and they find it in each other. It's horrible and tragic and sad, and I loved it because I'm twisted that way.

I wonder if the writers are planning on bringing any of this together - Jonas' affair with that woman (it was filmed, yo), Mack and Tiffy's various issues, the Colonel and his wife...the show has this habit of telling one-day stories, which is cool, but you can't set things up if you're not going to play them through. That's not quite how serialisation works. (I don't mind that they have single and complete stories - it actually makes the show fresh every week, and easier to watch, but they're setting up plots, so I'm getting confused by my own expectations.)Looking forward to a new episode, either way.

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Adam's (?) reveal was beautiful, and I like that character a lot more these days. I guessed Reid/Reed's beat-up, and I'm just waiting to see how that plays through. Also: Nelly Furtado, wtf? lol. This show, seriously.