I was contemplating covering a plain ol' photo album in a kicky Southwest themed fabric this weekend.

Watching Chuck Norris's roundhouse kicks is like watching the Ballet, only slightly less girly.

Tim, I watched Fritz Lang's classic noir The Big Heat twice in the last three days. It's the most genderific noir ever, and I think you should have watched it before you did "Billy." That's all.

Also? Gloria Grahame? Hot. Damaged. Vulnerable. Iloveher.

Also also: Did you ever notice that the band plays a bit of "Put the Blame On Mame" during one of the nightclub scenes? Noir Continuitygasm!

The pilot for Drive will be sponsored by Total Gym. Chuck Norris's vehicle will be a special Ford F-150 that's been tricked out by the crew at West Coast Customs.

At random intervals during the pilot, Chuck Norris will pull over to the side of the road so he can demonstrate how The Total Gym is a total body workout by using The Total Gym that has been installed on the flatbed of his Ford F-150.

The Total Gym looks like the physical manisfestation of Murphy's Law.

Looking at the old Bowflex machines with those giant rubber bands always made me envision an accident that leaves the user strung up like that guy in the spiderweb at the end of The Fly.

The old-fashioned leg machines that have wrist and ankle cuffs always looked like torture devices to me. (Um, non-consensual torture devices. This paragraph isn't getting any better, is it?)

Anyway, the new exotic machines we have at work don't offer any possibilities for getting trapped, and I am good with that. "Press 60 or die in here!" "Okay, I'll just die then."

You guys had much longer road trips than we ever had. Of course, you also have much more of a length of those roads to travel through them, so I guess that makes sense. Also, we have just the one state, so practically no options for any licence-plate games.

So instead of going on an 18-hour drive, I went back to Kristen's link and read the second script. And did the not-really-watch-and-post-but-read-me-ramble thing. Allyson, the thread would be a few posts shorter after that, I think, as the definition of "rambling" goes.

Um, first, if I remember correctly - that's not the second episode that was broadcast, right? There's no episode named "Hide and Seek" on the episodes list, so how did it end up being named? And where in the order of broadcast did it end up?

I love the nice little twist with the file and the picture, the "not show Web", how it's an ultrasound picture and not something out of a murder scene - it's still rebellious, but in a completely different way than not showing the scary-undecipherable boss something work related, it cuts straight to the fact that Paul and Web have an interesting relationship, shows that Rebecca is somewhat out of touch and distant, and even tying life (and the beginning of it) and death (and what comes afterwards) together in format, so to speak. And all in what, five lines? probably not even a minute on screen? Neat.

I still hear Jayne in Danny (the whole talking about cakes and breakfasts, in between the serious discussion of Paul and Carla about having a 'real' life). Did it sound Jayne-ish at all?

And I also like how Rebecca's background is hinted in what she sees as being safe and protection to the child - show the world as it is, bring him to the FBI building, trust that he's tough - exactly her defense mechanism, or at least so it seems now, in regards to her difficult past.

And it ties right to the murder - Paul says that building better walls would protect the child, but we see what may be the best description of a protected home, with the lawns and the home-made breakfast and even a fence around a pool, but still, nothing helped, and that poor mother had to see the body of her poor kid. And the description - the pink water, moving the point of view to the underwater angle - was really chilling to read.

So, again, it's not just about a murder case and solving it and "who did it" and how to trick them - it's about the issues at the core heart of the crew, about what concerns them and fills their lives, *outside* of their job. I love that.

Some stuff is printed in blue - does that mean they were cut from the script, or at least changed, at its final stage? Or from the shooting of the show? Or is it just something wrong with the pdf file, and I'm trying to find meaning where there's none? After all, it's not like Web typed these things or something, right?

Hmm, does Web have some secret agenda in taking a case with a dead child? Surely, he knows the stage of Paul's wife pregnancy, and therefore that Paul doesn't talk with him about it, and therefore that Paul tries to protect his future child from these aspects of the world? Because I think - based on the former episode - that Web can pretty much have whatever several-reasons-together to do what he does, at least one of them concerns his crew. For both better and worse, sometimes at the same time.

And Rebecca is still not realizing the difficulties for Paul in this case (offering to look at the parents first, with Paul being a future parent and already worried for the safety of his child from the life that he himself leads).

Rebecca thinks all this safety is a lie, because none of these safety measures worked for herself as a child, and later, as a grownup, never helped her leave her past behind, right? For her, it seems like the truth - facing the horror in all its gore, finding the answers - is what helps, then? So it's the opposite of Paul.

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( continues...) Does Web ever think about anything with the word "safe" in it? Is that even a concern for him? He's the character that fascinates me most, right now. And Rebecca thinks she starts to figure him out, with her remark about taking the case because it was interesting. And there's the pressure that may or may not have been put on him by the mayor, that he may or may not caved to. And then there's the playing with Paul's mind and heart. And that's just for now, so there may be more.

The line "there are no strangers here" makes everything scarier, for me - because if it weren't a stranger who had done this, then it was somebody they know. An evil that hides within. The security measures may block things coming from the outside, but what about what's inside? And there, I've used the name of the show again, without thinking about it until I typed it out loud.

I loved the exchange of "you're kidding" - "because I do that" between Paul and Web. It's like Web does everything he can in order to throw Paul off in this case. Oh, and Danny's glee about being the good cop is, again, Jayne-like, in a good way.

I loved it - as horrible and sad that plot point may be - that the witness, too, not just the victim, was a child. It focused, again, the story, for me, on the whole point of trying to protect children, from bad things happening to them as well as from seeing bad things. Hmm, now I wonder if the murder itself wasn't anything to do with childhood, innocence or supposed one, or anything like that, just to complete the circle.

Goodness, Rebecca had to see Paul interrogating a little girl in order to realize that he could make a good father - it's like she sees everything through the FBI lenses she put on.

I loved the contradicting back-and-forths between the interrogations: Danny's style when compared to Paul's, the way the details accumulated in both the stories revealed, how they completed each other, the difference between the witnesses, of course. They talking - or not - of fault. Wanting "my mommy" and the grownups protector, a lawyer.

And I loved that while Bunch started off lying, it was Madison who traded places with him and is now lying herself. Bot so innocent after all, I guess. Hmm.

No, not just "hmm"! Now they - or, well, Rebecca (and Web?) - think that she's actually the killer! You can't get more "from within you" than that, I guess. Bunch worked there, but Madison was one of those that the parents tried to protect from what's outside.

Web ties it all up for Rebecca to her childhood. It's like he doesn't let her look around her instinct as just "instinct" and make her examine it as a thought process. It could be either, but before she chooses the "easy" answer, he makes her consider all possibilities.

He couldn't possibly have known that a girl in Rebecca's age, when she was kidnapped, was involved in the murder, right? Because if he could, that would give him yet another reason for taking the case - confronting Rebecca with her past - on top of all the others. But he couldn't, so he didn't. But he definitely made good use of it!

And it's the same but the exact opposite, isn't it? A stolen innocence, lack of ability to protect. But with Rebecca, it was taken from her. With Madison, she's the one doing the taking, even of her own safety, by herself. She's both the little girl and the person who changes her.

And, oh, I loved how Rebecca said that - "I don't see myself when I look at her. I see the man who took me." Being in such a difficult place helps her make the separation not many could.

And Web, of course, making her look inside and come with the correct answer, both for her peace of mind and for her job, continues to play. I loved that exchange - "Are you putting us against each other?" - "Yes". So simple, direct, and, well, evil and practical at the same time. While Rebecca may be the character with the most, oh, how can I put it, attempting-to-be-OK? Deserving of a "you can do it, girl!"? The character who is most interesting is definitely Web, for me.

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( continues...) I loved how the questions Paul started with, with Madison, trying to make her feel comfortable and talking to him, may end up being important. the names of the friends (the same Nora who just entered, in my reading the Olsen home, who liked to play with little children). How, again, it all ties back to the children. The maybe-innocence, maybe hiding-of-innocence, which is even worse that a simple lack of it, because of the previously-thought-of concealing attempts.

Um, I can't stand Tessa. The bossy, knows-it-all, tells-everybody-what's-good-for-them, taking-over-the-situation Tessa. And pretending to be helping out and being all kindness and care while she's at it, too. Oof. Poor Ellen.

Oh, just like Madison seems to be pretending to be a good scared innocent little girl, as the perfect disguise of the opposite of that, which she may be (um, I think at this point that she is, despite the knife being Bunch's. Maybe even because of that - she's already taken one step in trying to frame him, what prevents her from taking another, only ahead, and deliberately using his distinct knife? Didn't they say earlier than her oh-so-nice mom has the key to his house?). Nice family.

I liked how Madison said "My father had it built for me." - like there was no human involved in the process, like it was a machine that made it appear, like things simply were done for her because she wanted them. Such a short simple sentence, and yet. And again I'm wondering if I'm seeing too much into things, where there's nothing. Here, at least, I can blame my lack of English, I hope.

I loved the description - "Now something quite remarkable (and Emmy worthy) happens" - was the actress who played Madison that good? Because I totally can see, in my mind's eyes, what the following description may look like, and I'm wondering if it's anything like what ended up on screen. Oh, and, of course, this proves beyond doubt that this little girl is as far from innocence as possible. At least there's a way to prove that she's lying, so she's not immune to mistakes, right?

I loved how Carla admired Rebecca for doing something that may be considered as really bad, scaring a child with a gun. I love it that Rebecca trusted her instinct enough to go along with it (would she have done it with a really innocent kid?), and that her lack of pulling-the-stops impressed another member of the team.

Boy, Web is tough. He knows for sure that Madison is lying in her accusations against Rebecca, and yet doesn't let Rebecca off the hook, not because of the possible law suit, but because of the compromising of the case. And then he wants her to continue, to prove that the girl is wrong, and without exchanging a word with her (and I don't believe he misremembered her age, either. He had a reason, of his own, to make sure Rebecca remembers, too, I think). Oh, and not even to approach the neighborhood, to top all that.

"You're asking me to climb a tree." - I imagine the actress saying it in my head, and loving it. I don't care what's the actual version sounded like. And I loved it that Rebecca - now that she can't go on her own - turned to her crew-mates for help, doing anything to solve the case (goodness, could something actually good come out of Web's game? Did he realize that they'd have to cooperate now and therefore the case wouldn't be compromised even in this situation?). And I love it that she asked Carla, just after their interaction before the conversation with Web, when Carla complimented her and tried to encourage her.

The episode, for me, is not about a murder mystery - again - but about the loss of a childhood. Rebecca's, obviously, and Henry's, who was also robbed of his life. But also of Madison's, by her own hands and mind. And maybe even Bunch's, the loss of his father (Henry also didn't get to see much of his father - we don't see him at all during the episode, right? and Paul's about to become a father). And maybe even Nora's childhood, too, in a way, I guess.

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