made me cut a shot of Strong's belt being whipped off

It wasn't needed, from what I could tell. The zip up kind of told us all we needed to know. That and when Strong said he saw Brandt's face on his wife's body all the time. Didn't really need more than that to connect the dots.

Didn't really need more than that to connect the dots.

And yet, it was enough to get the graphic sexual warning at the top of the show. Oy.

(Tim, insent)

Hey, I like moments. Moments are good.

And this week, by the way, was refreshingly twisty. Although in retrospect I can see what Strega's saying (we don't see a lot of extraneous characters on the show so far), I was really surprised by it.

Reamworks. That's me.

Hee. Tim speaks in capital letters.

amych, back-sent.

Matt, that last moment came out of a conversation I had with the director, Nick Gomez. I had always assumed it was Web's invisible hand... but he said to me "so Rebecca was the one who paged him, right?" And I was like, "be right back."

Cool. Actually, that part I figured out back in the surveillance scene, but Strong offing himself rather than his captive was a Darla-in-the-box moment for me—the realization came with just enough lead time to make being right a really fun experience.

Paul's never going to believe that Rebecca paged him, is he? Despite his work experience, he has no clue how deep the darkness runs in her.

Emily, do you want me to answer that?

If you feel like it. I mean, I get that Simon was probably watching, but... I don't know. I'm a little worried that you'll tell me and then I'll feel stupid. But you should feel free if you'd like.

Strega's not wrong, which is why I had two needless characters. I could argue that the doorman was a more pointless, more suspicious character. I could also argue that going to the detective who had previous experience with the prime suspect and could give us more exposition isn't all that out of line. I also tried to take the stink off it by having that character question whether Cole would actually murder. I notice not everyone went right to that place. The first note I got from the network was "we were going to say that it's too obvious the doorman is the killer... but then we kept reading."

Strega, you're too sophisticated. You need come be on my writing staff.

Heh. 'Kay! I only nitpick, though. But you can pay me in the occasional grilled cheese sandwich.

And no, I was wrong about the motive. I thought he was framing Cole for the crimes he'd convinced himself Cole had committed, to make up for failing to get him before. That part I liked, for the creepy, "I see you when I make love to my wife" thing.

All the S&M stuff hit some personal crazy-making buttons for me, which is probably why I had to step back and analyze the plot, which I didn't last week. So it was kinda like "Billy," where there were too many things in my head keeping me from just, y'know, watching the story.

Paul's never going to believe that Rebecca paged him, is he? Despite his work experience, he has no clue how deep the darkness runs in her.

I think you're right, and not just wrt Rebecca. I'm guessing he's going to get badly screwed by the moment when his concept runs screaming into a contradictory reality.