So, um, in time for the new thread, and I can't remember when I had a post in any thread that had less than three (um, actually four) digits in its number, I read the script of Old Wounds that Kristen (who, I can't say this enough, rocks) put at her site. So, of course, I have some ramblings to do:

"We get FLASHES of grisly crime scene photos neatly arranged and organized." - I like this sentence, the so different terms of "neatly arranged" and "grisly crime" packed together one next to the other.

And Carla is not Mel, and therefore easier for me to imagine her as Sharon-from-Wonderfalls-only-not-really. So this script was written later, but I think shown earlier than the former one, right?

I like the dynamic between Mel and Danny - very much like siblings, teasing each other constantly, but bonding together against the stranger they don't know, inspecting Rebecca together.

"Did you just make a joke, sir?" - Hee. I could hear the actress saying that. I wonder if it's any closer to what it actually sounded like.

Now that I know what they mean, I really enjoy seeing all the various colors change on the versions of the script - wonder what they replaced, why the changes were made. It's like a little window to the backstage process, that creates maybe even more questions than the lack of it (what was replaced? Why? Why was it supposed to work better? Did it work better?). Interesting.

And the victim that Paul offers is, again, part of the crime-fighting forces, a prosecutor. So, again, in a way, things are close to home, right? So, of course, Web turns it down as "ordinary". Of course.

And I liked it that Rebecca refused to play. Didn't present her case, despite all the preparations. Actually looked at what Paul brought, despite the big legendary boss' dismissal of it. She thinks for herself.

So Paul thinks Web controls them, all of them - he believes that control is real. And then a not your-generally-good-guy says he also thinks control is real. In a somewhat different connection, of course. That I'm probably way too vanilla to watch, but in reading it's OK so far.

I like it that Rebecca describes the victims in exactly the way Web wanted Danny to describe them, while, at the time, they are the exact case he told them not to pursue.

Web never misses an opportunity to manipulate anybody around him, it seems. First, dismissing Paul so off-hand-ly, then listening to Rebecca, then making her primary. It's like he's looking for each little opportunity to unsettle the people around him.

And I loved it that Paul took that game and manipulation and saw a good point in it, in regards to Rebecca. He lets Web get to him, in a way, but tries to stop it from hurting his, um, worldview? The way he really tries to interpret the people around him?

And I loved it that it seemed that Rebecca really did know that the case was important to him, she realized the victim was important to Paul and went on to check. Now, did Web know? Probably. At this point, I'm willing to believe quite a lot when it comes to this character (based, mostly, on the first episode. He wasn't present much in the second one).

And again that word, "control", casually, when describing the murdered lawyer's past confidence, even when it was probably partly an act. Hmm.

I always like it when a character pronounces the name of the episode. Especially when, like here, it seems like it's going to mean more than one thing - a plot point, but also something more.

I liked how the described jumps between the questions askers and answerers showed the similar things between the victims. Oh, and how one of the assistants was described "mousey control freak".

"It s a support group for very clumsy people." - Yay! The thread name! And just in time for the new thread with the no-name yet. You have no idea for how long I've been wondering about its origin and why would somebody say something like that.

(continued...)

( continues...) I like it that nothing seems to distract Rebecca from her target, the case. It reads pretty clear what Paul thinks about the club, but Rebecca is either not judging people so quickly, or just ignoring what's not relevant for her case, like her possible opinion on what the members of the club may be doing.

It's funny, reading a script, with the names of the characters already there, it's easy to tell that this Brandt guy, the same one who spoke at the beginning, is important. However, um, nothing of what was described before the teaser had to have anything to do with the murder, right? It still could just be the club members' "void filling", in a way. Hmm.

I like the way Brandt, while being investigated, remains in control (hey, that word again!) of the situation. He shoots Paul's responses and emotions back at him, reading him probably quite well. He even makes Rebecca talk about something other than the case. And I liked it that Web figured his games and didn't want to let him win this round, even if he's still the suspect. And it all resonated in an interesting way with the topic of the conversation. Like, the control being in the hands of the one that seems to have it least, the person being questioned.

And again with the previous investigation - Brandt was the suspect, yet he managed to control the witness and as a result the whole investigation. Which makes me think about Web and his controlling techniques and now I'm all confused.

And (well, there are many "and"s here) I liked Rebecca trying this "let's turn this game around" thing herself. Entering Brandt's apartment on her own, as the weakest person in the room, will again may be keeping her with the control over the situation, if she manages to expose something about him.

OK, so Paul blames the murdered lawyer because "she chose to be with someone who got off on hurting her rather than with someone like me, who respected her". But, well, isn't that exactly what he's doing by staying to work with Web? Work-wise, of course, so different, but still. Paul was treated with no respect by Web (no, wait, but it made Rebecca respect him, enough to want to try and help him, so now I'm all confused again).

And I liked how Rebecca explained her non-judging approach: "You don't know what her life was. What happened to her to make her the way she was". How she understands, from her own experience, what it's like. She chose to deal with the most painful gory crimes, as her way of trying to deal with her past (and, well, Web made her choice possible).

I liked how Rebecca understood so quickly that the case was important for Paul because it was a personal connection, and all throughout that conversation, Paul actually talked about Rebecca's approach being also due to a personal reason. He even straight out asks her about escaping from one monster in order to be controlled (that word again!) by another, wanting her to answer his question to a dead woman, with their stories in some sort of similarity. And, again, Rebecca, when he has all the knowledge about her past, turns the table over and shows him how things are not as simple as he thought and that she still controls, not only the past when she managed to escape, but also the present. I really love the way each interaction resonates the others, and then again.

Rebecca managed to put herself in a really risky position, and pulled herself out (she dislocated her shoulder while getting free of the handcuffs, right? She actually managed to get free, again). Only to maybe - if Brandt really is the killer - put herself in a whole lot of guilt.

But I don't think Brandt's the killer, for two reasons. First, the usual one - the person we suspect usually is not the real killer, so that the plot would be interesting and surprising. But it's more than that - it doesn't fit the, um, actual story (not the plot) if he's the killer. Yeah, he's playing with them and running and all that, but if the whole point is about who's controlling the situation, then it has to be somebody completely different, you know? At least, that's how it feels to me. Wait and see, I guess. (continued...)

( continues...)

Web makes Rebecca re-live that running away, that already made her remember so vividly her past horrible experiences? He know that the memories were waking in her, I'm sure. He probably even suspects that those same memories are what gave her enough strength to get away. And still, he's going for a third round. Wow. And whom does he cast as "the bad guy"? Paul, of course. The one that's supposed to have a conscience. Hmm.

Oh, and that, to me, shows that the story is completely about the triangle of Web, Rebecca and Paul, not about the murder investigation or possible suspects. They pretty much put themselves at the center in this, in my eyes. I like that. Much more interesting than simply solving a riddle of "who of the other characters we've encountered on the show is the actual bad guy?".

It's even scarier because it seems - from what Mel and Danny say - that Web is used to this sort of process of showing what happened. The agents taking part in his "game" are just that, pawns in a game, no matter who they are (since he does it with several of them, other people each time). I liked how Danny (of all people) put it, "Little Virgil Webster and his posable action figures". Scary, especially since it probably doesn't begin and end there.

And yet, playing that scene again does seem to help in getting all the details about it. Questions that wouldn't have been asked otherwise are brought up, exposing details, for example. So it's not just a game to play with the minds and feeling of safety of Rebecca and Paul, there's more to it, right? Is there anything that Web does that has just the one way of seeing it?

And I liked how, again, the "game" of Rebecca, Paul and Web exposed the real nature of the game that Brandt was playing, how he couldn't handle it when it was for real, therefore leading them to look for the real killer.

I liked how it was revealed, on the same time, that Strong is not the innocent cop that he pretended to be, and that it was, indeed, all about Brandt for him, what with catching him and stashing him in his trunk. And again with the difference between game and real. And again with the whole control theme, too.

"That's okay. I am." - I don't remember when short 4 words freaked me out so much. Even though I already knew, saying it like that, so simply. Oh, my.

Carter is a new character for me - he didn't exist in the two older scripts, at least the versions that I read. But he was in the other two episodes, right? He didn't just appear out of nowhere?

I loved it that Strong calls Brandt by his first name, unlike anybody else. It's like now, that things have changed, the way we looked at both characters is different, so are the names.

OK, so, um, who sent the text message to Paul? I could see it working either way. I mean, again, with Web, it would be not just wanting to see her vulnerable, but also to get ahead with the case, with his usual double meaning. But if it were Rebecca, it would work better with the whole control questions of the episode, who was the one controlling a situation, even when at their most vulnerable. I want it to be Web for the whole general story, but I really want it to be Rebecca for the story of this episode on its own. Hmm.

So, in a way, the "outside" story of the episode was a bit too much for the whiteness of the vanilla that is me. However, the "inside" story, about the interactions between the characters, was, in a way, even darker, and despite that - or because of that? - I found it much more interesting. Hmm, I wonder what it says about me.

[Edit: oh, and "Who's Driving This Thing?" is the thread name that I liked best, for the record.]

And given the 11th hour resurrection of 7th Heaven, the CW's question mark is really big.

What?!? I totally hadn't heard this. Oy.

Kalshane, latest rumors say that the CW will be bringing VM back...but only for 13 episodes (they're treating it like a pilot, basically, with the back nine to be ordered upon ratings bonanza). Nothing has been announced, though.

P-C - that sucks. Particularly if 7th Heaven gets a full season.

But 7th Heaven only got 13 episodes too.

Is Aqualad supposed to be a midseason replacement?

But 7th Heaven only got 13 episodes too.

Giving it a total of just about 10 more seasons than it deserved.

The mind, it truly boggles. Wonderfalls, The Inside, Kitchen Confidential? Four eps or so.

Seventh Heaven, which, I'm sorry, makes my third-grade Christmas holiday production look like a Royal Theater presentation? Hundreds of episodes. I feel like such an outsider.

Is Aqualad supposed to be a midseason replacement?

Word on the street is that it may not even be on the schedule at all. The CW pretty much hated all their pilots, and they may end up taking some of CBS's leftovers, like Ultra.