Mattyboy

“That’s a weird name” No, Cottontail, no it's not, You're weird for thinking it's weird. I'm still in Camp it's-not-John, but that was weird.

yes, Joe is a character who won't be missed. This story feels like it has everything, but yeah, probably could use +1 (or more) therapist. Hank Monroe might be hard to convince, but he's gonna need one too. And the evidence-team.

Yes, the structure is impressive, and we're still meeting new characters. On-stage stuff foreshadows events for off-stage characters. The interrogation room scene rightly got a lot of attention, but just noticed that Roger mused that "He didn’t know how to find his new target clientele." Well, Samantha James sure would know how.

There might be some bickering about using it against Charlie in court, but Charlie explaining the business probably didn't do all that much that couldn't have been figured out from the records in the studio. I'm not sure they'd need it. They can use it against Sal, for sure. It will be enormously useful for Hank Monroe explaining why he killed a cop in a police station and for Ramos and Janick to defend themselves to their bosses who are going to be asking what the hell is going on. And it might be very useful in another way; Charlie Miler started that meeting thinking that loyalty would pay off in the long term, and that Riz was going to spring him/help him, and he can't think that any more. Neither can Sal. And now Schultz and Janick have Sal and Charlie to play off against each other. Neither deserves a plea deal, of course, but that situation just shifted and shifted big. And the story that Samantha James is already covering suddenly went from story-of-the-week to story-of-the-year.

oh wow, I remember driveway and garage "parties" and people sitting in marked circles and grids and all that stuff. That was a very specific period of a few months that you've captured perfectly here. Poor Cole, he didn't get any Cal-minutes on the phone.

Especially if they flat-out have to choose between Riz and Roger, and burn a useful bridge. Riz seemed to have finally caught up to the fact that after Thomas' trial Roger legally can't represent Charlie (or at least has a very clear conflict-of-interest). Beyond that legal angle, the old "artifacts" might well also respect that Roger demanded respect and said no to this case.

well, it's a good thing, then, that Roger is heading over to Brendon's right now. My guess is Riz is still unaware of how far ahead of him Roger is and Riz' stooge-duo will be late arriving at Charlie Miller's cell, maybe even while Agent Janick is physically removing him.

Oh, yeah... don't bother with the science-y stuff like who's been in the "studio"

Oh wow. That early story-arc of Thomas' legal case looked like it was coming to an end, and all of a sudden there's a great big new story developing!

I like the Juan Ramos backstory, and looks like this case will make him. And good for Melissa, but that one looks tricky as far as next steps. They've been too busy to think about it, but Roger should look into whether Thomas owns a house; it feels like he probably does. (Although if Charlie is Elijah's executor, that could be a little complex).

Ooh there was so much going on with Finley, I sorta lost track of Emmett still getting over the awful Dex situation. Glad Emmett and Finley are back in the same location at least.

DA Mike Schultz is one of several characters I hope we hear from again. This feels almost like a pilot of what might be an ongoing serial with legs. I didn't click "world-building" in my rec, but I see Empath has been tagging these as part of a Land of Lincoln series, and there's a pretty solid base established.

I am also thankful for whoever bumped this out of moderation limbo. Looking forward to this (is this a series?) continuing! The starting narrative arc has reached an end, but so many open doors and interesting characters. And we never even met Brendon!

ooh that's interesting about the six at the end.

"You didn't tell me you were bringing along everyone you knew." hehe, Charlie and Kip are friend-magnetic, but adding a friend to the party at every stop has added up to they're mobbing around in quite a big group. I was wondering when somebody was going to notice!