( continues...) Paul=good guy protector, Web=amoral genius boss guy, to the detriment, a bit, of subtlety in all of their characters, and the true loss of Danny/Mel development. This one felt more balanced, and I liked that.

I also definitely would like to see this killer again, from the safe side of a jail cell, despite the inevitable Hannibal comparisons.

Okay, I really can't write more now. I've wasted an hour thinking about this, and have real homework to do.

ETA: Allyson, I actually really like your Popgurls piece. Sure it's defensive, but that's okay: you have that right. What's more, I like the melodrama. It fits.

I don't see anything that implies he'd kill the girls - most molestors don't

You seem convinced that the other guys would have killed. Is that so? Why are they definite killers and this guy not?

I don't know about Roger turning into a killer or not, but wasn't it pretty well established that the other men were well on their way to killing? The Janitor had a death closet and drawings of women with their throats cut; one man was placed in graves he had dug, and the pre-filer's conversation with the guy in the car included statements on killing.

ETA: Allyson, I actually really like your Popgurls piece. Sure it's defensive, but that's okay: you have that right. What's more, I like the melodrama. It fits.

Allyson, I liked it, too. It addressed some wonderings I'd been having, and explained to me why the show grabs you. It's good. And by far not at all a "Hey why are you saying mean things about my show?"-type piece, which I find impressive as I am among the most readily defensive of fans, and totally incapable of not just coming up with, "Well yeah, but YOU'RE STUPID!" when people critique something I truly love.

...also, I LOVED the bit with Danny and the kid, and I totally adore Katie Finneran. Every time she said or mouthed, "That's mine," I giggled. She's like if Scully were funnier, and I love her.

"Well yeah, but YOU'RE STUPID!"

If you play it backwards, that's EXACTLY what it says, along with, "Eat at Denny's."

The Janitor had a death closet and drawings of women with their throats cut; one man was placed in graves he had dug, and the pre-filer's conversation with the guy in the car included statements on killing.

I'd say that not only could any of these guys not followed through on it, but the first guy was comfortably in fantasy with props stage, and the guy in the car even further away.

I think Roger was the most arrestable of the bunch, honestly, although grave guy was well on the way.

The pre-filer, interestingly, was just being a proactive Web (who's willing to be executioner himself). But his "flaw" (which I agree with) was deciding where the irrevocable line was. And if he knew that the guy in the car would get up the gumption to kill someone, then I assume his knowledge is just as sound for the pedophile -- doesn't matter how many other pedophiles kill. This one, apparently, was going to.

It does open up a question about how that changes the prefiler if he were executing people who wouldn't kill. ETA: I wrote that before ita's comment.

Anyway, I re-watched the last two eps with BF last night. He liked them. And they both stood up to re-watch: little moments I missed before, like the repeated use of the word "control" in last week's ep.

Having rewatched, I actually disagree that the way the potential killers were all mentioned as "serial killers" was so out of bounds as to be unrealistic. I don't know about you guys, but certainly some things at work I have expertise in I speak generally and incorrectly about in order to be more efficient. I might call a set of documents "motions" even though CLEARLY there's a pleading in there. (Kidding, kidding. I barely know the difference.)

Actually, ita, I'm not sure I don't agree. In fact, I probably agree, I just thought it through more with Roger because he was the one we got the most evidence of.

I do think the janitor guy was much closer to the murder stage than Roger: they are both, as you say, in the "fantasy" stage but I doubt Roger's fantasies involve their throats being slit. Or, rather, their heads in plastic bags. He's a sexual fantasizer, and I'd say he's probably about as close to molesting as the janitor was to killing, maybe. Still, a different line. Unless janitor had a manifesto we're not aware of.

Son of Sam in the car, not so sure about. There is no doubt that, just like Roger, he easily has the potential of pulling himself out of his cycle in a moment of reverie. But, again, his porn was snuff porn. That directly involves killing, specifically.

I certainly don't think that any of them are arrestable really, though janitor may be commitable, and car guy has the snuff porn. I just think that the evidence of Roger points more towards possible future child molestor much more than possible future killer. Which seems to go against pre-filer's M.O.

In succintness: certainly none of the pre-filer's victims deserved death (yet). But what evidence there is points that, ASSUMING they all go through with their patterns, car guy, ak-47 guy, janitor guy, and dug-graves guy are all going to kill. Roger, it seems to me, is going to rape kids. Depraved and disturbing, yes, but outside the pre-filer's pattern, and never fully explained in the ep. Explained by Tim, though: he picked him to screw with Rebecca. I just wish that we didn't come off, in that final scene with him looking at the girls, with the feeling that Rebecca was convinced he was still going to kill.

I'd say that not only could any of these guys not followed through on it, but the first guy was comfortably in fantasy with props stage, and the guy in the car even further away.

Which is where I agree with infuriating!paul.

A lot of us here own weapons and porn and may have, on occassion, expressed violent fantasies about our bosses, or the POTUS.

Which, you know, is normal.

Owning the kiddie porn is illegal, and he should be prosecuted for that, but aside from taking pics, he's never acted on his fantasy. I assume there are a great many more people who fantasize about children, or rape, or the family dog, who never act upon that impulse.

He may have kept that impulse a pure fantasy, using the porn, but never actually acting out the fantasy.

little moments I missed before, like the repeated use of the word "control" in last week's ep.

Wow. You missed that? I was ready to start a drinking game. (Note: I liked the repeated use anyway.)