Once Upon a Time: A Pirate's Life (7x02)

Cute! Very cute! And satisfactory! Also I still don't know why there's a Season Seven of this show, but whatever. Let's take a look.

Cons:

The evil stepmother is silly in how evil she is. Clearly she and Mr. Gold have some sort of deal worked out, and I'm sure we'll learn more about that later... but come on. She wants Henry framed for theft to remove him from her life, she wants to prevent Jacinda from seeing Lucy for no good reason... it's just so campy. I know that we'll get more on her motivations at a later date, but at this point I'm kind of rolling my eyes.

The flashback story explains a lot about why we have some characters trapped in Hyperion Heights, but not others. But one problem it does have is its pacing... I feel like a ton of things happened very quickly, because we had to establish the origin story of Wish!Hook, the reason why Regina, Wish!Hook, and Henry are all together in the same place, why Emma isn't around, etc. etc. all in a very short period of time. We have the older, potbellied Hook being magicked into a young hot version conveniently, we have Wish!Hook doing a 180 on his apparent motivations, we have Emma showing up basically just to hug Henry, and then turning around and leaving again... all of this felt a bit unbalanced and almost like I wanted to see a two-parter. Is this because I want more Hook and Emma? Maybe. But I also think the story genuinely could have been balanced out a bit more.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Josh's Ex-Girlfriend Wants Revenge (3x01)

My first Crazy Ex-Girlfriend review! It's been a while since I've started a new show and reviewed it, but here we are! This was a great premiere and it made me really excited to see what else they can do with this wacky show. I know the ratings have been low all along, but I'm glad that the CW has decided to give it another shot anyway.

Cons:

Does it count as a con that I miss Greg a lot? Still? I want him to come back now.

Also, just in general the fake sex tape plot thread was stretching my disbelief just a bit. Which I know is saying a lot for this show. I think it was the Josh Chan look-alike thing that pushed it sliiiightly over the edge for me. A small thing, but I thought I'd mention it.

Pros:

So the main plot is about Rebecca getting revenge on Josh, but all of her ideas suck. She brainstorms with her friends -Valencia, Paula, and Heather. Eventually, they come up with a good plan - Rebecca can sue Josh for abandoning her! My favorite part of this plot thread was Valencia coming up with the plan to sue Josh, then Paula co-opting it and everybody congratulating her and ignoring Valencia. "Am I dead?" *gasp* "How did I die?" Hilarious line delivery. Of course, the song about generalizing men was pretty fantastic, too. I hope we get to see a lot more of these four ladies hanging out together.

Grey's Anatomy: Ain't That a Kick in the Head? (14x04)

I'm a little befuddled by how quickly we've gotten through the Amelia-has-a-tumor plot, but I'm rather pleased about it too. Let's dive right in, and I'm going to try and go quickly (famous last words).

Cons:

There's this brief moment where Arizona and April are commiserating over missing their daughters. Reuniting with kids is a theme of the episode, as a matter of fact, and I'll get there in a second. This plot thread just served to remind me of how weird it was that even though Arizona won the custody battle, Sofia just went off with Callie and Penny anyway. What a weirdly bungled plot thread that was. And of course any time this show becomes about babies it gets a little ridiculous, because we never see any of the adults spend real time with their kids.

I wish Megan would stop insisting that Riggs is oh so in love with Meredith, because it's just slowing things down and bogging the whole proceeding up with a love triangle. Riggs and Meredith weren't together for long enough for their relationship to ruin the potential of such a great reunion. I want closure on this quicker than we're getting it.

Supernatural: Lost and Found (13x01)

Well, then. Just start off with a real tear-jerker, why don't you? I'm pleasantly surprised by how much this episode dealt with the fallout of last year's finale. No fast-forwarding, no forgetting the pain and grief and anger. It's all front and center.

Cons:

I'll repeat myself a little bit from last year's finale in saying that Cas' death, while undeniably tragic for Sam and Dean, lacks a little punch since I know Misha is coming back. Not a huge thing, but if somehow I could have been kept in the dark about this, I'm sure it would hurt more. Call me a masochist.

Pros:

Honestly, though, this episode kept me gripped the entire way through. The plot is pretty basic. Sam and Dean track down Jack, who fled from the house where he was born. They find him eventually in a local police station, some angels show up to take him, but Sam and Dean end up protecting him from the angels and decide to bring him back to the bunker. Meanwhile, the two brothers are arguing about the best way to handle the Jack situation. Sam seems to see the potential for goodness in him, or at the very least he thinks Jack could be useful. Dean just wants to kill him straight off, but that might be harder than it looks. The two are also dealing with a boat load of grief. Cas is dead, Crowley is dead, Kelly is dead, and Mary... well, Dean seems convinced that she's gone too.

Modern Family: Catch of the Day (9x03)

I'm feeling pretty apathetic about this show, but there were quite a few individual moments this week that I enjoyed. Let's take a look.

Cons:

One thing that doesn't work for me is Cam and Mitchell's bickering. Pam is an annoying presence that never really makes me laugh, and the bickering between the couple is getting kind of depressing. If maybe they were planning on exploring some real problems in their marriage, I'd be on board. But it seems like we're just getting more of the same crap that we've always gotten with these two.

Manny makes the briefest of appearances and is creepily sketching a girl without her consent, so... yikes?

The Big Bang Theory: The Relaxation Integration (11x03)

I felt myself thoroughly bored by this whole thing.

Cons:

Raj and Stuart fight over Bernadette's new pretty coworker. Guys are gross. These guys are particularly gross. When this woman says she's not interested in dating anyone right now, Stuart "scores points" by saying he'd love to be just friends, and then gloats about it to Raj once the girl is gone. Just. Do not.

Sheldon is getting stressed about the wedding and as a consequence is talking in his sleep. Amy is worried that there's a relaxed, chill Sheldon hiding somewhere inside him, and he's suppressing that version of himself and ramping up the stress. Penny tells Sheldon to try loosening up on one small thing, so Sheldon decides to wear flip flops. This leads to shenanigans and he ends up showing up at home covered in dirt without either shoe.

Outlander: Freedom & Whisky (3x05)

I have to wait two weeks to see the continuation of that scene? Arghhhhhh.

Cons:

Okay, so this episode stays entirely with Claire, Brianna, and Roger the whole time, and we don't learn anything more about what Jamie gets up to after he leaves Helwater in the last episode. This is true to the books, in that the next steps in Jamie's journey are something we've got to find out alongside Claire, now that she's finally back in the eighteenth century. That's all well and good, but spending the entire episode in the twentieth century highlighted for me how much less interesting it is than the stuff in Scotland's past.

This becomes especially true when we look at Brianna. God, I feel bad. I want to like Sophie Skelton in this role so badly, but she's not very good. She has a very monotone delivery, and she's expected to carry some pretty heavy and often hokey dialogue. When she's talking about how Claire gave up Jamie for her, and now she has to give her back to him, or how Jamie doesn't know Brianna, and Claire owes it to him to go tell him everything, I was just not at all invested. She comes across really stilted, and just cannot carry the emotions of these scenes.

Once Upon a Time: Hyperion Heights (7x01)

I'm seriously curious about why ABC decided to renew this show, honestly. I feel like there's no reason for it. That being said, I did not hate this premiere. In particular, I liked Henry Mills.

Cons:

The same hokey dialogue that has always plagued Once Upon a Time has come back in full force here. Lots of repetition about "telling your own story" and "changing your story" and whatnot. I can imagine getting really sick of that really soon. And Regina, known as Roni, has this big long speech to the villain at the end where she talks about endurance and hope and whatnot. It was hokey as hell and it was hilarious to think about the evil stepmother just sitting there letting her finish her speech.

Apparently, we are doing the same thing here that we did with Emma, where Henry doesn't remember his real family and has forgotten because of the curse. The only real difference is that he does sort of remember, but he just thinks it's a story he wrote, and not real. I'm not going to say this is the worst idea ever, but I really did hope that we'd try something different this season. I can only hope that it won't be protracted for the whole season. If we can have Henry remember after a few episodes and then move on to other things, I'd be okay with it.

Grey's Anatomy: Go Big or Go Home (14x03)

I love how Grey's Anatomy will sometimes indulge in some dark comedy. I also love how even in its most sappy and dramatic moments, it still sometimes gets me unexpectedly emotional. This was a fairly standard episode of television, but I had fun with it!

Cons:

Every time I see one of Meredith's kids, or evidence of her being a mother, I kind of snicker, because that has really not been a thing at all in this show. At least with April and Jackson, we see the baby once in a while. This rare Zola sighting was not unwelcome in and of itself, but it just highlights a consistent balance flaw in this show.

One of the patients this week is a boy who ends up getting in a hot air balloon accident while trying to ask a girl out to homecoming in an elaborate way. This makes for some good laughs, but there was one moment that I found troubling. The girl didn't get a chance to answer because of the accident, and she confesses to April that she's not sure she's going to say yes. She's suddenly really popular because of what happened, and might get the chance to go to homecoming with one of the more popular kids in school. April makes this speech about how you have to go for the people who make grand gestures, not for the people that are popular. Now, I agree with April that you shouldn't base who you go out with on social status. But I definitely disagree with her that just because this boy went to great lengths, the girl should say yes. What if she doesn't like public displays? What if she genuinely only thinks of this kid as a friend? April made it seem like she owed him a yes, which I am super not okay with.

Modern Family: The Long Goodbye (9x02)

This was fine. I think nowadays "fine" is about all I'm going to get with this show, and I'm okay with it.

Cons:

Mitchell and Cam's plot thread involved their kitchen catching fire. At first Cam thinks he may have subconsciously burned down their kitchen so that he has an excuse to remodel it, but it turns out to be a faulty blender that Mitchell has been using to make smoothies. This plot thread seemed oddly unbalanced, as the enormous financial and personal loss of a fire was not played even the least bit seriously. Pam is still around, and she's not very funny, and in the end Mitchell and Cam spent the episode bickering per usual. Nothing really substantial or really funny came out of this.

The other plots all had some fun moments, but I mostly just found myself shrugging my shoulders. This all could have been taken way further. Manny is starting school, but given how much they've botched Alex's college plot thread, I don't feel much investment in Manny's either. And Alex's plot thread involved her being at school, which felt unbalanced because last season I could never tell when she was supposed to be living at home and when she was actually attending classes. Didn't she take some time off at some point? I don't know. Point being, this show doesn't seem to know what to do with the kids now that they're all grown.

The Big Bang Theory: The Retraction Reaction (11x02)

This was an episode with some bones to it, which is something I very rarely say about The Big Bang Theory.

Cons:

Of course, that doesn't mean it was super awesome and great or anything. There was this really weird subplot that kind of petered out without resolution. Bernadette and Amy commiserate that they have to hide their success from their male partners, because they always get weird when they're doing well in their careers. They decide to brag to each other instead. Bernadette brags about all the money she gets working in the private sector, while Amy claims that Bernadette's job is morally bankrupt.

This was problematic in a couple of different ways. The idea that Amy and Bernadette feel uncomfortable sharing their successes with Sheldon and Howard is... unsurprising, but depressing. If I thought this was going to be a plot point moving forward, I'd be happy to see it explored. But we know it's not going to be. The guys will continue to be bad partners to the girls in a lot of ways, and they'll just put up with it with a complacent sigh. Ugh. And then there's the weird antagonism between Bernadette with her money, and Amy with her morally superior attitude. If Bernie has so much money, why was there all that financial concern with the babies? And since when is Bernie working in the private sector a point of conflict? This came out of nowhere.

Outlander: Of Lost Things (3x04)

Another of my absolutely favorite scenes from the books was featured in this episode, and I loved it a lot. I do have a few qualms, though...

Cons:

For the first time, I felt like the 20th century plot couldn't keep up with the 18th century story. Basically, we see Claire, Roger, and Bree continue to hunt for signs of Jamie. But eventually, Claire comes to the conclusion that she can't keep searching for a ghost. She decides it's time to go home to Boston, where she has her home and medical practice waiting for her. There wasn't really enough going on to justify an episode's worth of materials, and consequently these scenes almost felt like they were discarded bits left over from last year's finale, as we've finally caught up with the events we left off with last season.

And then there's the Brianna problem. Sophie Skelton is... not doing a great job. Her line delivery is stilted to the extent that she comes across like somebody performing in a high school play. Her dialogue is maybe a little bit hokey too, as she talks about hope and love and never giving up... but the thing is, the other actors on this show have been able to pull off lines like that, and she can't. The only thing that gives me hope for her character is that her best moments are the ones with Roger. As we move forward, the majority of her scenes will be with him, and not with Claire, so maybe their chemistry will develop into something more enjoyable to watch. For now, I'm disappointed that Bree, an excellent character from the books, is translating so poorly to the small screen.

Grey's Anatomy: Break Down The House/Get Off On The Pain (14x01/02)

Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera. I mean that's not a surprise to anybody, but every once in a while you see episodes that reminds you - Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera. I don't even mean that in a bad way, actually. This episode had a lot of great moments, and the extreme drama of them is what made them great. It also had just one or two moments that had me on the verge of an eye-roll... let's take a look.

Cons:

To anyone who's been reading my reviews, it'll be no surprise to you that I'm annoyed about Amelia. Owen has his sister back, and Amelia has been avoiding him and acting horribly. Then Owen tries to talk to her about it, since he knows something is really wrong, and she lashes out again. All last season I kept saying that Amelia needed to get over herself, and now we learn, thanks to her participation in a sex study (I'll get to that later) that her erratic behavior is actually because she has a giant brain tumor. Okay... did we not already do this with Izzy? This was the big shocking cliffhanger at the end of the two part episode, and it felt like the most cliche, overwrought thing that could have been done at this point. Amelia has been pissing me off for... well, forever now, and it seems like sort of a cop-out to blame all of her shitty behavior on a medical drama cliche like a brain tumor. A brain surgeon has a brain tumor?! Gasp. How surprising.

Maggie was also getting on my nerves a lot last season, and while she did have some good elements in this episode that I'll get to later, she still had one of her quintessential annoying moments. Nathan and Owen have decided not to tell Megan about Nathan and Meredith's relationship. Teddy thinks this is ridiculous, and Maggie agrees. She says that she was in Megan's position once, in that she found out about Nathan and Meredith and it was weird. Okay. The utter hubris of comparing what happened with her to what's going on with Megan is... ugh. Maggie. Please. I still can't believe how much she built up that whole thing. She had an unrequited crush on a guy. Nothing even happened, and he started dating someone else. How can you even compare the situations? She also spends her time being awkward around Jackson, and he spends his time being awkward right back. I'm convinced that this is perhaps the least interesting potential romantic relationship this show has ever done, right after DeLuca's unrequited thing for Jo. Please stop.

Modern Family: Lake Life (9x01)

Modern Family  is a show resting comfortably on its laurels at this point. It doesn't have to reach for anything new or surprising, because we're all pretty comfortable with the premise and the characters. This wasn't anything too special, but it wasn't a flop either. Let's take a look.

Cons:

This episode was too crowded. Everybody had their own little plot threads to carry, and several of them didn't have time to land. The premise is that everybody is out on a boathouse to see the total eclipse. Instead of keeping everybody in close quarters and having fun with the ensemble feel, everybody pretty much goes off in their own directions. For example, Gloria and Cam spend time out on a boat, where Cam is trying to hide from the sun by covering himself in comical clothing, a giant hat, and excessive sunscreen, because his antibiotics don't do well with sunlight. Meanwhile Gloria is afraid of the water because in Columbia the water was a place for dumping drugs and bodies. So this plot thread was essentially just a time-wasting exercise mixing some uninspired slapstick from Cam with some fairly stereotypical and problematic commentary about Gloria's homeland.

Then we've got Mitchell, who runs in to the first boy he ever kissed working the bait shop in town. The memory is an embarrassing one to Mitchell, who kissed this boy at age thirteen only to find out he was straight. He decides, on his father's advice, to run toward embarrassment so it won't have power over him. He apologizes to this man, only to discover that the man is indeed gay, and was only "not interested" in Mitchell himself, not because he was a man. This leads to Mitchell questioning his desirability. The punchline, that the guy is gay, was obvious from miles off. I really wish they had subverted expectations. Maybe the guy could have been straight and this could have been a moment where Mitchell feels relief at not being ostracized by a straight man for a youthful moment of weakness. Instead, we go for the uninspired cheap laugh.

The Big Bang Theory: The Proposal Proposal (11x01)

Cute start, lackluster continuation. Let's take a look.

Cons:

So, I'll talk in a minute about how the actual proposal moment was pretty adorable, but Amy and Sheldon spend the rest of the episode sort of at odds, and it didn't feel like a sensible transition. They go out for dinner with some of Amy's colleagues at Princeton and Sheldon gets annoyed when everybody seems more interested in Amy than in himself. Amy gets pissed at Sheldon taking all the attention, and Sheldon later realizes that he should have been a "cameo" in Amy's movie this time, instead of trying to steal the show. So, they make up.

I guess this plot thread just feels like more of the same drivel, and it was surprising to get that feeling in an episode where something big like a proposal took place. Couldn't they have found a way to keep Amy and Sheldon content for twenty minutes, instead of immediately spinning the proposal episode off into a seemingly unrelated and repetitive conflict? Pretty uninteresting.

Also, the Stephen Hawking cameos are insipid, guys. Every time I see him on this show I keep thinking that he deserves better than to be on a show that by its very nature it spends time making fun of nerds. Like, please. There are better places that Stephen Hawking could be spending his time.

Outlander: All Debts Paid (3x03)

Yay!!!!! John Grey is amazing. I'm really happy that he's getting a good amount of screen time. This episode includes some of my favorite passages in Voyager, and I'm very pleased with how they were handled.

Cons:

I will admit that the pacing felt a tad off in the Ardsmuir scenes. In the books, this is stretched out over a long period of time. John Grey and Jamie Fraser go from vile hatred to respect, friendship, and even unrequited love on John's part over the course of countless meals and games of chess. Here, we only see key moments. They hate each other. Jamie escapes briefly. They have a confrontation. They're playing chess. John screws it up by coming on to Jamie. John leads Jamie away to his new life at Helwater. Not a ton of time for the friendship to breathe.

Okay, also: Murtagh is still alive. I mean on the one hand I'm thrilled because I love him dearly. But this feels like a rather strange deviation from the source material. One of the tragedies of Jamie's life is how isolated he is at this point in the story. In fact, that's one of the things that leads to his friendship with John, because he finds against all odds that he can talk to this man somewhat as an equal. All of that is a bit undercut if he still has Murtagh, a close personal friend and family member, to lean on emotionally during his time in prison. Maybe this is a nitpick, and in many ways I am thrilled that Murtagh is still around, but... I don't know. I wonder how his character is going to fit in moving forward.

Outlander: Surrender (3x02)

Fergus!!!! My darling!!!

Cons:

Honestly, this episode was pretty close to perfect. The one thing I have in the "cons" column is more a question about how they've chosen to pace this season. In the books, the time with Claire would be spent with her in her late forties with adult Brianna in Scotland, like how last season ended. By going back and focusing chronologically on Claire's life, we're not going to get as much build over time of Claire's decision to go back and find Jamie again (I know, shocking spoiler, right?). This also means probably less screen-time with Brianna and Roger before the fateful moment of separation between Claire and Brianna. In last season's finale, I found Brianna a little one-note, and I was looking forward to getting some more time with her to flesh out the character a bit. She's really important moving forward, and I don't want the TV show to skimp on Brianna Randall just in the interests of focusing more on Claire and Jamie, as much as I like them.

Pros:

Literally, though, this episode was great. To start with Claire and Frank, they finally rekindle their sex life, but it seems pretty clear that Claire is thinking of Jamie whenever she's with Frank, and he eventually calls her on it. They go back to having a sexless marriage, although they are still amiable and still both love their daughter greatly. We also see Claire make the decision to go to medical school. As she sits down in her first class, she is ostracized by her fellow students, and the professor seems intent on ignoring her existence. She is approached by Joe Abernathy, a black medical student. The two share a brief moment of bonding over their shared isolation.

Suits: Donna (7x10)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's pretty much all I've got for the intro.

Cons:

Alex got a plot thread this week where the other name partner at his former firm tries to poach one of his clients. With Louis' help, Alex gets the guy on tape admitting to trying to screw Alex over, which fixes the problem. This was a perfectly fine plot thread, and I'm liking the way Louis has fully accepted Alex in the firm. But the whole thing felt like an afterthought in an episode already dealing with Harvey and Mike's big case, and Rachel and Robert's pro bono. Why throw it in now? Why did we need another moment to show that Alex is loyal to the firm? I feel like we already did that.

Pros:

Let's start with Robert and Rachel's plot thread. It wasn't anything too surprising or really innovative, but we got to see Rachel as a child and we got to see Robert's sister. I like the fact that she wasn't a passive victim in her poor treatment, and actually tried to stand up and do what's right. Robert was the one who took a backseat and let this thing slide. Robert's sister died young because she got sick, and Robert's guilt has eaten him up ever since. I like the fact that Robert's temper actually got him in trouble on a case for once, and I also like that Rachel is the one to come up with all the answers. This episode had a lot of cuts between two thematic scenes happening at the same time. The best use of this was when we cut between Robert talking to the CEO of the bank, and Rachel talking to the board, leading to the moment where ultimately the board signs documentation to remove their CEO, and the CEO signs the settlement agreement.

Outlander: The Battle Joined (3x01)

Yep, still good. This season is going to have to move along at a nice clip, honestly... I'm wondering if they're going to stick with the chronological storytelling, or jump us forward to the juicy reunion stuff and then tell parts of the story in flashback. At this point, I'm actually not sure what I think would be better... but this was an extremely strong opening and I'm beyond excited to see where we go from here.

Cons:

Okay, so, for the most part Jamie's side of the story was very strong. I really admired how they were able to keep me invested in what was essentially just Jamie lying there on the verge of death and contemplating the battle he's just miraculously survived. However, there was one moment towards the end that felt hokey, and that's when Jamie arrives back in Lallybroch. See, I can suspend my disbelief enough to believe that Jamie would survive the battle, and then survive execution because John Grey's brother (Hal, although we don't exactly get formally introduced at this juncture) happens to recognize Jamie's name. It's a little harder to swallow that Hal would actually go to the trouble of getting a cart to send Jamie away from the battlefield, and even though I know it happens this way in the book, I'm not entirely clear how he ends up safe and sound in Jenny and Ian's arms by the hour's end. How does a delirious, half-dead Jamie Fraser make it back to Lallybroch? Who was driving that cart? I don't know... maybe it just felt a little too easy, despite all of the hardship I know is to come.

Pros:

But all of that is nitpicking. Because - for real, this premiere was stunning. Let's start with the way they did the famous Battle of Culloden. We see Jamie, barely breathing, with a redcoat lying on top of him. Jamie's arm is around the man's shoulders, almost like they're holding each other. Around Jamie, we see the bodies of countless fallen Jacobites. Various redcoats patrol the field, killing anything that stirs with a swift stab of the bayonet. Slowly, we see snippets of the fight. We see Prince Charles calmly setting up to watch the battle, confident in victory. We see Jamie and Murtagh exchange quips. We see Jamie and the other soldiers charge fiercely into battle. Everything is disjointed, nothing makes sense. We see Jamie and Jack Randall make eye contact and rush each other, each intent on blood. We see Jack take a blow at Jamie's thigh, and finally we see Jamie stab Jack in the gut, mortally wounding him. As we continue to switch between the flashback and the present moment, we are finally greeted with the chilling sight of a dead Black Jack Randall and a barely living Jamie Fraser lying in a pseudo-embrace, their faces nearly touching.

Suits: Shame (7x09)

Ah, yes. The Mike and Harvey banter and bromance continues. This is the good stuff. However, unfortunately that doesn't mean the whole episode was a winner.

Cons:

This is a small thing, but I wanted to bring it up because it's been bugging me. Why does everybody feel the need to have serious conversations in bathrooms? You've got Gretchen walking in to the men's room to confront Louis, and then Louis walking in to confront Gretchen later on. You've got Rachel finding Donna in the bathroom... it's just a lot of bathrooms. I always think about the convenient timing, that people always seem to find each other washing hands, and not still in a stall. It's just kind of weird.

Rachel and Robert's plot thread felt a little disconnected from the rest of the narrative. Robert wants to work with Rachel on a pro bono, and so they start going after a bank that apparently racially profiles. When they can't prove their case, Robert gets disproportionately angry, and reveals to Rachel that the real reason he wanted to go after the CEO of this bank is because back in the day, Rachel's aunt and Robert's sister worked for this guy, and he made her life miserable by sexually harassing her in the workplace. I liked this plot thread a lot, but like I said, it felt a little out of place. How does this connect with any of the other stories of the episode? And why bring it in now as a brief little plot thread just before the hiatus? I've wanted more for Rachel to do all season long, but this feels like an odd way to utilize her as a character.