[S1E3] What Remains

This recap of House of the Dragon's third episode contains spoilers for ... well, for House of the Dragon's third episode. That's pretty much what a recap is. Proceed accordingly.

[S1E3] What Remains

The U.S. Department of Justice's guidelines for what to do if you are a victim of sexual abuse or assault or if you know someone who is, including practical advice, hotline contacts, and other resources.

Nick goes with his heart and does what's right. He was beaten within an inch of his life by that toad with the signet ring, but when the guy was suffering, Nick turned the other cheek and comforted a dying man who sure as hell didn't deserve it.

Walt prepares a sandwich for Krazy-8, but when he goes to deliver it to him, suffers a coughing fit and loses consciousness. When he comes to, he reveals to Krazy-8 that he has lung cancer. Walt then returns with a second sandwich and a six pack of beers, which he offers Krazy-8 to share with him. Krazy-8 inquires as to why, and Walt says that he wants to get to know him a bit better. Krazy-8 points out that getting to know him will only make it harder for Walt to kill him, and advises him that he should just get it over with if that is what he wants to do. Walt, still undecided as to what to do with him, implores him; "Sell me."

Meanwhile, Walt is parked under an overpass, thinking back to his time at the lab, still pondering what was still missing in the chemical makeup of the human body. When his lab assistant ponders if maybe what they were missing was a soul, he dismisses the notion, stating "There's nothing but chemistry here."

• Walt finally makes a decision. He returns home to Skyler, ready to confess to her his secret...This episode provides examples of: Apologetic Attacker: Walt spends the entire time he's strangling Krazy-8 apologizing for what he's doing.

• Buffy Speak: Marie complains about her ugly shoes, saying she only wears them for support because "[her] arches happen to be extremely archy".

• Chekhov's Gun: The broken dish. Krazy-8 takes a shard while Walt is unconscious to attack him.

• Chekhov's Gunman: Gretchen makes an unnamed appearance in a Flashback a full two episodes before she enters the story.

• Compound Title: With the previous episode. "The Cat's In The Bag...And The Bag's In The River".

• Establishing Character Moment: Marie stealing a pair of shoes from a store is the first we see of her kleptomania, something that becomes a reoccurring theme in the series.

• Faux Affably Evil: Krazy-8 treats Walt with a lot of politeness and is even willing to reminisce about his upbringing with his captor. It turns out that he's attempting to use his amiability as a ploy in order to get Walt to free him, and then exact revenge on him.

• Foreshadowing: Hank takes Walter Jr to a SRO to try and scare him straight about marijuana, and it sounds like something out of the worst after-school special ever, with all his bullshit about gateway drugs. Only look at what's happened to Walter over the last five seasons and ask yourself, "What did Hank say about gateway crimes again? How they ruin your lives?"

• Flush the Evidence: Liquified remains of the bodies are flushed.

• During Walt and Jesse's fight, Walt angerly snatches Jesse's expensive bag of meth and flushes it down the toilet to punish him for revealing personal information about him to Krazy-8. Jesse, however, kicks Walt out of the way and reaches into the flushing toilet to pull the meth bag out. Downplayed as it's to punish Jesse and not to hide evidence.

• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Walt is faced with this choice when he has Krazy 8 chained up in a basement. Hilariously he makes a pros and cons list, balancing "Judeo-Christian values" versus "He will kill you and your family"

• It's for a Book: Skyler claims she's asking Marie about weed for a "character in a short story she's writing". Marie is not fooled... although she completely misses the target, thinking Walt Jr. is the one doing it.

• Oh, Crap!: Walt when he realizes where the missing shard of the dish is.

• Police Are Useless: Averted with Hank and Gomez quickly determining what took place at the cook site.

• The Reveal: That plate that Walt broke when he fell in front of Krazy-8? There's a piece of it missing that Krazy-8 will use to kill Walter once free.

• Scare 'Em Straight: Hank pulls this on Walter Jr. to discourage him from smoking pot. Hilarious because Walter Jr. is not using any illegal drugs and is very confused as to why Hank is suddenly making such a big issue of it, while Hank thinks Junior is just trying to play it cool and gets even more over the top to make his point.

• Serious Business: Jesse gets upset at Walter, not just because he has failed to uphold his end of their bargin (i.e. killing Krazy-8), but also because they flipped a coin on said bargin, with his wording heavily implying that he considers a coin flip to be some sort of unbreakable oath.

• Sequel Hook: Walt's line to Skyler: "There's something I have to tell you." We find out later that he's gonna tell her about his cancer.

• Sticky Fingers: Marie steals a pair of shoes from a shoe store with an annoying clerk.

• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Continuing from episode 2, Walt and Jesse are forced to deal with realistic consequences of murdering two people and hiding the evidence.

• Sympathetic Murderer: Walter kills a man but Krazy-8 definitely had it coming and Walt only resorted to killing after exhausting every other option.

• Wham Episode: Walt commits his second murder, strangling Krazy-8 in Jesse's basement.

• Wham Shot: While cleaning up the plate he broke, Walt notices a sharp piece missing, making him realize that Krazy-8 plans to kill him after he's let go.

"Skyler, there's something I have to tell you."

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us episode 3, "Long Long Time".The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin explains how episode 3's expanded emotional storyline avoids playing into certain harmful tropes involving gay characters in media. The HBO series is adapted from Naughty Dog's hit series of PlayStation games, with season 1 bringing the events of the original 2013 game to television. In The Last of Us, an infected strain of the Cordyceps fungus quickly spreads across the globe, overwhelming humanity and turning a significant portion of the population into ravenous, cannibalistic monsters. When smuggler Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) is tasked with escorting the young Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey) across what remains of the United States of America, avoiding the infected and worst of the human survivors alike.

While the events leading up to Joel and Ellie's meeting with Bill remain the same as to what happens in the original game, The Last of Us changed Bill's story and gave him a more prominent role and exploration. In the game, Bill is an isolated survivor who has rigged traps across the town of Lincoln to trap any infected and raiders who stumble into his territory. When Joel and Ellie come to him to help them secure a car, they discover Frank's body in a home in the suburbs after outrunning the infected. Frank had fallen out with Bill due to his isolated way of life and attempted to leave, but chose to take his own life after being bitten, leaving behind a final bitter note for Bill.

This was a bit of a breather episode, taking a break from all the action of the first two episodes. With that, we are finally getting into topics worthy of the Blade Runner name. Perceptions of good and bad, white and black. Definitions of purity, and what it means to be human. How our maltreatment of the non-human makes us, in turn, less than human. With ten episodes to go, we have a lot of runway now to explore these ideas and see what they can do with them.

We know he's obsessed with how he looks. From the opening interview, where he feeds a journalist suggestions about his shaved fennel snack, to the game of Good Tweet/Bad Tweet he plays with a rowdy limo of obnoxious rich young things, Kendall constantly casts needy sidelong glances at what other people think about him. He's an experienced media mini-mogul and knows the importance of image, but it clearly cuts deeper than that for "bootleg Ross." There's an edge of self-loathing in his pathologically cheerful embrace of the satire/abuse flung at him, and it clearly isn't just media maneuvering. The facade fully cracks when it's Shiv dealing out home truths in a bile-soaked open letter, and he's reduced to hiding in a server room like a hurt child.

Speaking of Kendall, Shiv and Roman disparage the kicker of his interview, wherein he discussed his kids. In a show so concerned about family dysfunction, Succession rarely examines how these wounded children are doing as parents themselves. Kendall unthinkingly deploys his assistant to film some rabbits for his children, but what kind of father is he? And what will the next generation of Roys be like?

It's easy to draw comparisons with The Mandalorian, what with it being another Star Wars show about a veteran warrior escorting a child to safety, but this episode felt more akin to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Not just in its American South-looking location either, but in the way Obi-Wan recalls how the world flourished before Leia was born. This more sombre approach to storytelling fits perfectly with where we find both our lead character and the Galaxy, both at their lowest points.

It all culminates in Vader giving Kenobi a taste of his own medicine, letting him writhe in the flames like his master once left him. It serves as a small taste of revenge for Anakin and it's bold for a show to use such a huge moment like the duel in the darkness so early in its run rather than hold it until the end. It's exciting, because we don't yet know what else the showrunners have in store to top this with. 041b061a72