Damn, Colin's good. He played that scene with Zoe well.

Yeah, I liked that a lot.

I liked that episode. And next week looks funny: Henry's line made me laugh out loud.

Nah, he was doing it in the same sort of apparently casual way that the rest of their ongoing teasing was played, so I don't think Jo and Zoe would realize.

I read the way he said it completely different than you. I thought he had a completely different tone: trying to be firm while not letting on just how much it bothered him, but just enough edge to make it different from all the times they've teased each other.

Must rewatch!

Weird how my mind works: when Carter was telling the story to Zoe, and he said they assumed he was driving, he didn't deny it, "didn't matter who was behind the wheel, he was responsible", I went to a "Kim's Death" place and his involvement with that. I didn't go to the "And this is why Carter was all het up with Allison about taking responsibility", because I bought that he's an action/consequences kinda guy. I didn't blink that he'd have that sort of moral fiber in his professional career.

I didn't think he needed a reason to believe what he did, and looking back now it seems weird that we needed to be shown the "reason" in such a manner.

I could be wrong.

I didn't think he needed a reason to believe what he did, and looking back now it seems weird that we needed to be shown the "reason" in such a manner.

I could be wrong.

Not to sound mean, but it's been well-documented that a Buffista is not usually a "traditional TV watcher." Other members of the audience may have needed that component to bring everything together.

(I'm just glad it wasn't an anvil, like the goose thing.)

Ha, I was just coming back here to say (and I did say that I could be wrong, you're not mean!) that Carter's driving lessons story served two purposes* (slow, me?). The Allison/responsibility, and Zoe learning to drive. But not because Carter thinks Zoe will be a bad driver, but because here is another girl he loves that he's responsible for. Possibly the last girl he taught how to drive died, and now here's his daughter, asking for the same thing (the driving, not the dying part, but maybe to Carter those two blend a little too much into each other.)

* Are the eps this season extra dense and meaty? I feel like I'm missing half the stuff that's going on, and that the other half is getting squashed and rushed by to make room for the other awesome (or more like tofu bacon) plot/subplot/line/look.

but maybe to Carter those two blend a little too much into each other

Didn't he even say "reminds me a little of you"?

Allison/responsibility

I didn't really grok this until it was pointed out here. I just took it in stride as part of Carter's personality.

Are the eps this season extra dense and meaty?

They are adding more character development, and reference to same, I think, but maybe not balancing out every episode like they should. (See: awkward gym outfit.)

We all squeeed when we saw it was a Jane Espenson episode!

We all squeeed when we saw it was a Jane Espenson episode!

I completely missed that. Go Jane E!

We all squeeed when we saw it was a Jane Espenson episode!

I missed that too!

This was another episode with GREAT characterization, but a plot that needed a lot of hand-waving. The thing that bugged the most plot-wise? We had Gramps!Fargo and Famous-Scientist-Emeritus guy each claiming that one was the assistant of the other and Carter searching for esoteric evidence to figure out what happened. Wouldn't the DoD have pretty thorough records as to the positions of each of them at the time?

I missed Jane's name too.