I started writing my book last night (it's a retelling of a pilot I wrote a few months ago). The opening chapter features the end of the world told through the eyes of a cat called Jessica. I'd no idea why I'd used the name Jessica (it wasn't in the script), so I think Buffistas is affecting my brain...

Self-hatred.

That's what I got. When Brandt said, "You're weak," and Strong said, "I know," I knew what he was going to do. He hated what he had become, and he knew he didn't have it in him to change.

There's also that idea of what's the worse punishment -- if he had killed Brandt, it would have been over for him. Now, he has to live with the memory of the rape, and everything that happened.

Which could apply to Rebecca, too, but it's all in how you deal with it, what you take away from violence and how you can use it, good or bad.

I don't know - in a way it read to me as a really tender moment, which gave me a kind of shocked thrill.

That's how it played for me. And it was a really complex, fascinating moment. She asked to unlock him - she wanted to have that exchange. She challenged Paul's one-dimensional view of Hart's character. She knew he was a prick, but she understood him.

For daring to make a game out of what she's been through for real and presuming to understand anything about real power or control, even if she also understands that that's a false comparison on many levels, and therefore a really unfair judgement to make.

I think this was going on as well. But it was more gentle than snarky. (Though definitely putting his words back in his face.) She knows from damage. She knows from inappropriate or not socially normative survival strategies. She knows ambiguity and ambivalence and how motives don't always run in straight lines.

In fact, all of Rebecca's actions and lines in this episode really made her character snap into focus for me. Her getting tied up didn't tweak any of my damsel concerns, and I thought there were some very subtle topping-from-the-bottom clues to Rebecca's character. This time I did believe she was strong.

Also, I am really liking Rachel's acting. It's very underplayed with a purposefully flat, guarded vocal style but very expressive face that flashes past her guardedness.

But it was more gentle than snarky.

I think she was aiming for gentle, and mostly succeeded. But there were layers she couldn't hide. (That's what I was trying to say above.)

Wait, wasn't she saying that Brandt was in control, that Strong was never in control? And Strong was the one who died. Or did I totally misread that line.

Brandt was definitely the dominant one (or in control, if you prefer) as the object of Strong's obsession. In the actual rape, I think it's a lot grayer-though helped by Strong's brains getting splattered on the decor at the end.

I was thinking more of the other victims of Strong's second series, who did end up dead. I don't think that was their intention. (Again, the first group that lived is le area gray.)

Paige Fuller wanted to kiss Death and maybe try to warm up his cold, er, cockles and bones, but I don't think her plan was to become a full time consort.

After thinking about this scene overnight, my current interpretation of Rebecca's line is something like:

"I still think you were full of it saying that 'surviving' an S&M session makes you stronger. But take my word for it, surviving real-life abduction and abuse really does."

The snark is there, but it's more of a "now you really understand what you were talking about before" feel.

I think she was aiming for gentle, and mostly succeeded. But there were layers she couldn't hide. (That's what I was trying to say above.)

You're right. Because she doesn't really have a handle on being gentle yet either.

The snark is there, but it's more of a "now you really understand what you were talking about before" feel.

I didn't get that as much as her reassuring him that there was some truth in his facile words.

Oh, and I didn't get the hair-chopping until I realized the killer was trying to make them look more like Club Guy.

Btw, the names on this show are very Dickensian.

Self-hatred. He was gay, he hated that he was, he hated that he was obsessed with this guy, he went nuts.

I don’t think that he was gay. I think that he wanted to punish Brandt by using Brandt’s method of control – sex.

There's also that idea of what's the worse punishment -- if he had killed Brandt, it would have been over for him. Now, he has to live with the memory of the rape, and everything that happened.

And, Brandt can never get revenge or punishment from Strong.

I gotta say it – I don’t like Rebecca. I like everybody else, but I don’t like her. I hate the way that she pretends to be strong, and when the chips are down, she doesn’t come through. She was good last week when Simon had her captive, but then this week she puts herself in a situation where she knows that she’s vulnerable, then loses it when Brandt takes advantage? And then sits on the street in a bad part of town, crying and repressing the situation? Ugh.

I think the exchange with Brandt emphasized something that I see as continuing with Rebecca's character: does pain make you stronger or does it make you more fragile? Does Rebecca go off half-cocked because she's convinced that the worst has already happened to her? Can you go beyond being a victim?