You know, I have been watchign the show, but not really deeply involved in what's going on. And then Logan turned around in the cell and saw his father and I had an HSQ conversion experience.

Not quite like falling off a donkey, and the ensuign conversations wasn't all that and a box of fireworks, but, I dug it.

(Also, yay team Keith! Scaring the pants off of bad guys is his job, even if it's not really a job.)

It was a weird, alternate reality hearing, but yeah, a trial never commenced.

Also, a friend pointed out to me that Lariat car rental (where Joss had his bit) was the name of a rental chain where Mulder and Scully usually got their cars on X-Files. No idea if that's true, but a nice nod to earlier mystery-ish shows it it is.

And VM joins the massive number of shows in the imaginary St. Elsewhere-verse

Oh, I totally missed the Lariat connection. And I was thinking Double Jeopardy as well. Glad to have that cleared up.

Next they'll have somebody smoking a Morley....

The skeevy motel clerk was played by Tracey Walter -- whom I thought was dead.

Oh, Hey, It's That Guy! [link]

One more thing about Tracey Walter, which may be all you need to know about Tracey Walter: If Hollywood had made a live-action Lord of the Rings about twenty years ago, he would have played Gollum, guaranteed.

Close. He played Arnold's sidekick in one of the Conan movies.

Heh. They even call him skeevy in that article.

Heh. FT actually uses the word "skeevy" to encapsulate the, err... eau de Tracey Walter.

Micole, who I wish posted here, elsewhere brought up the fact that, not only is there a paucity of complex female characters not named Veronica, but also there is not much representation of the have-nots for a show that's ostensibly all about the class conflict. I kind of have to agree--the show spends most of its time with the rich people and their foibles with the exception of the Marses (and to a lesser extent, Fennels). The PCH bike gang has become less and less prominent over the last year and a half--have we even seen Mrs. Navarro since the Paris Hilton episode? And what with Francis Capra's reduced role this season, I don't see this being rectified soon.

I haven't thought hard about it, what with all the rose-tinted glass-wearing I do about the show, but it's a little disquieting. I mean, the emphasis on the rich actually sort of works in a meta way as the show is all about the corruption of the rich and powerful, but the narrative also gives the rich the privilege. When Veronica was ostracized in S1, this worked to emphasize her isolation, but now that she's not so much of an outcast, the other side of the class conflict feels woefully under-represented.

Tracy Walter and William Sanderson are somewhat confuseable, being atypical in looks and character actors extraordinaire. If Sanderson hadn't gotten the Newhart gig (Larry, of "I'm Larry, this is my brother Daryll, and this is my other brother Daryll" fame), he'd be as obscure as Mr. Walter.

Who, I must confess, since he appeared as a character named "Frog" in some long-ago tv western sitcom (yes. for about three episodes), is usually "Frog" to me.