I felt the show provided a very balanced perspective, if anything, went a bit heavy on scolding poor, judgmental Paul.

Eh, I don't really agree. If you'll notice, Rebecca's scolding of Paul was along the lines of "you don't know what happened to them to make them that way." It would've been nice to see some acknowledgment that an attraction to S&M doesn't necessarily imply some hidden trauma. Cole had a nice jab though when he pointed out that in judging him, Paul was also judging the vics.

I'll be glad next week when we get off the poor lonely vulnerable single women, too.

Cash, this is not so - I thought Mark Fish had written it, and then looked it up and saw Jane E., and doubted myself. But you are right, it did have some Jane-ish bits. In the middle of the episode I said, "I must go look up this Mark Fish person. I like his writing."

Sorry for the confusion. I didn't even see the writing credits--just Jane in the co-executive producer credit and thought, "did she write this, too?" I was making assumptions based on the dialog.

It would be interesting to hear if Jane contributed that line of dialogue in the war room, or somewhere along in the process. I trust the Buffista sniffer for certain things, and an ear for ME alumni wordsmithing is one of them.

I felt the show provided a very balanced perspective, if anything, went a bit heavy on scolding poor, judgmental Paul.

Eh, I don't really agree. If you'll notice, Rebecca's scolding of Paul was along the lines of "you don't know what happened to them to make them that way." It would've been nice to see some acknowledgment that an attraction to S&M doesn't necessarily imply some hidden trauma.

Yes, this. While the episode didn't portray S&M as badly as usually happens in TV, it still fell into the "people who are into S&M are fucked-up, yo!" trap.

And Rebecca's last line pissed me off so badly that I threw my remote at the TV.

If you'll notice, Rebecca's scolding of Paul was along the lines of "you don't know what happened to them to make them that way."

But Rebecca interprets everything from that perspective. She's got hidden trauma, therefore, she understands everyone else's.

It would've been nice to see some acknowledgment that an attraction to S&M doesn't necessarily imply some hidden trauma.

I can't think of anyone for whom pointing something like that out would have been in character. It would have felt very false and after-school-specialy to me.

I liked that the BDSM turned out to be mostly irrelevant to the case, because it meant that everything that was assumed about the women and their relationship to Brandt was wrong.

Also. I liked TOGoM. I liked it for ridiculous reasons. But still.

I liked it too.

(the way the poster suggests, with allusions to safe words and blah blah lifestyle blah.)

The only safe word reference I can think of was when Faith tried to strangle Xander, and Angel asked her, "What, he forgot the safe word?" But that was on Buffy.

But Rebecca interprets everything from that perspective. She's got hidden trauma, therefore, she understands everyone else's.

I really tried to keep reminding myself that -- she's SO damaged that she views everything through the lens of being a victim (I did like Paul busting her for making "Victim" such a significant part of her identity).

It would've been nice to see some acknowledgment that an attraction to S&M doesn't necessarily imply some hidden trauma.

I can't think of anyone for whom pointing something like that out would have been in character. It would have felt very false and after-school-specialy to me.

I think just a really understated comment from Creepy Bossman (can't remember his name) would have been in character. Because I got the sense, during the reenactment, that he knew that S&M =/ sexual violence.

My take on Web is that he wants his team as ignorant and judgemental as he can keep them, the better to exploit their weaknesses.

Has anyone mentioned how amazing Hart Bochner was in the ep. Really impressive. I saw that Tim wrote it for him, and it was a great combination of writer/actor. I also LOVED Coyote in the whole reenactment scene. He underplays, but with a lot of compelling hidden stuff going on, so it's impossible to take your eyes off him.

Has anyone mentioned how amazing Hart Bochner was in the ep.

Er....who was he?