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#164. 157 – Don’t Get Cocky
12 Feb 20, 2013
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#163. 156 – Out On A Limb
15 Feb 13, 2013
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#162. 155 – Climb And Punishment
12 Feb 06, 2013
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#161. 154 – Discretionary Valor
11 Jan 30, 2013
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#160. 153 – Saving Face
16 Jan 23, 2013
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#159. 152 – Memory Lame
13 Jan 16, 2013
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#158. 151 – Traveler’s Check
18 Jan 09, 2013
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#157. 150 – Counting Coup
17 Dec 19, 2012
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#156. 149 – Repopularity
50 Dec 12, 2012
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#155. 148 – Fashion Play
49 Dec 05, 2012
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#154. EPISODE SEVEN
53 Dec 02, 2012
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#153. 147 – Turning Point (END OF EPISODE 6)
47 Nov 21, 2012
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#152. 146 – I Say Thee Neigh
48 Nov 14, 2012
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#151. 145 – The Prod Gets Even
13 Nov 07, 2012
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#150. 144 – Cloudy With A Chance Of Pain
15 Oct 31, 2012
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#149. 143 – All Chucked Up
12 Oct 24, 2012
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#148. 142 – Not Even A Cigarette
14 Oct 17, 2012
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#147. 141 – Three Up, Three Down
16 Oct 10, 2012
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#146. 140 – Spoken Promises
17 Oct 03, 2012
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#145. 139 – Family Matters
14 Sep 26, 2012
The tragedy of consistency…
I don’t honestly see myself as a writer who takes pleasure in cruelty to readers, and yet here we are with Darlene dying and Eustace revealed as accomplice to her murder.
I mean, for some of you this may well invoke joy. For many others, ambivalence. But at least a few of you have admitted to finding it gut-wrenching.
And honestly, I share that pain.
“Well in that case,” one might ask, “why don’t you not write this nasty fate for these characters? Why you gotta go all darkest-timeline-George-R.-R.-Martin on us?”
Well. That’s a damn fine question, and one I’ve pondered myself when a story I’ve been enjoying takes a dark turn. I find myself quite short-tempered if I feel like it’s unjustified, even with a creative property widely hailed as a classic such as the movie Chinatown.
Oh yes, I’m quite miffed at the ending of Chinatown, even with the movie telling me to “forget it.” That final line is based in the theme that bad things happen and bad people succeed and there’s nothing you can really do to stop them, but it’s all based on the main character, who has been portrayed all film long as a smart, cynical, experienced professional, surrendering himself and his only piece of hard evidence into the clutches of the antagonists for… well, no reason I’ve ever been able fathom really, excepting that the director wanted his tragic ending. Then again knowing what we do about Roman Polanski these days, maybe he didn’t consider that ending a tragedy…
Anyhow, I desperately hope my own fiction feels a little more justified on analysis, and I’m heartened whenever I see someone in the comments puzzle things out — like for instance that Eustace, for all that he seems like a nice guy, is unfortunately rather spineless when it comes to standing up to a forceful personality ordering him around.
It’s a tragic weakness, but a consistent one.
2 thoughts on “542 – Catching Up”
Keith
Some friction, but yeah. IRL, I’d like these two…they should have kids.
ConcordBob
It is really hard to have a favorite character, as there are so many good ones. But I think Rosa is my favorite. Chuck is a good accomplice in sneaking work, but not much for romance. Uugh.