#sweetfig15

if there was ever a reminder of the cruelty of lumon industries and the games of the eagan family - it was this episode. seeing the warm relationship between mark and gemma and their fertility battle which was so innately human and intensely emotional, in complete contrast with the diner scene between mark and helena in the last episode. helena eagan knows gemma is alive and what's being done to her, knows that gemma has probably tried to escape before only to be trapped into having to descend again... milchick being the one to send her back down after asking mark if he still feels like he's choking on her ghost... the obsessive doctor who knows she struggled with fertility telling her mark moved on and has a daughter... makes me sick

finding out cobel invented the severance chip really makes you understand the mental gymnastics of gaslighting that the kier religion does to keep people who aren't members of the eagan family in their place. helena telling harmony that shes "overestimated her contributions and underestimated her blessings" when the company as it exists today would not be possible without her.... that she should be grateful even though she was apparently working in an ether mill when she was 8.... that everything is made in Kier's name and that recognition would mean punishment.... no wonder she was obsessed if the chip worked, it was hers! and then the hubris of the board telling the inventor that re-integration isnt possible

i remember all the tweets and tiktoks of people saying how cool it would be to get the haymitch quarter quell as a movie, on a purely entertainment value. and i appreciate that in response to this, suzanne collins used SOTR to really drive home the point that each victors story is a tragedy. the games are not designed to be something you can win, and any attempt to do so is to rebel, and in doing so you're marked. i genuinely think you could write any district victors story, and each time it would end with the same horrible feeling in your gut. all the people and victors before and after haymitch who lost everything in an attempt to hold onto what they love, the belief that their actions could stop the next sunrise on the reaping, waiting for the right time and the right luck. this isn't an action movie made for consumption or hollywood entertainment, it's a story painting what it means if "nothing they can take from me was ever worth keeping." if you buy into the concept that these games, these books, and the adapted movies are entertainment, then you lose the meaning of why they were conceptualized in the first place.

if there was ever a metaphor for repression it's splitting a hardboiled egg into six perfect slices, having to eat it with a knife and fork, with your father watching and still finding something to critique about this psychotic breakfast ritual

mr milchick might just be one of the most complex characters on television, what is that man thinking? one look holds so much emotion yet he continues to defy expectations each time. what is his motivation? what is his past? he holds so much inside

the carefully curated portraits and paintings of the eagan family in direct comparison to the town where their ether factory lives, rewriting history to fit a shiny narrative

"running off into the sunset, but the sunset is a white hallway with emergency lights going deeper into Lumon" ben stiller youre killing me