Servant S-1 E-22 (Season One Finis)

I was confused. There was a talking show with Vasya, Yuriy, Mukhin, and a bulbous opposition leader deeply reminiscent of the previous president, corrupt, oafish, Kremlin tool,Viktor Yanukovych.There was a deeply troubling incident. The oligarch henchman, with a gun strapped to his waist, was conferring with Tolya, Vasya's personal bodyguard. "Everything is in order the henchman says to Tolya" and there are shots of Vasya isolated as if isolated in the sights of a rifle. The oligarchs in the luxurious pad say "We should have killed him." The other says something the equivalent of "It will happen tonight." Nothing happens and the episode and the season end. 

Now we go to S-2 E-1, the episode I mistakenly watched 35 mins of and I now feel comfortable revealing what I saw mistakenly. S-2 E-1 opens with a medieval scene where Vasya is knifed by all of his personal ministers and the oligarchs. That opening nightmare scene ends with a medieval Vasya lying in a pool of blood. After the standard intro the most striking, startling scene to me was Vasya and Anna poolside at some estate by a river in Russia I think. As they walk into the villa a scene in Ukraine is playing on TV. Mukhin is announcing that the president is missing, essentially has fled, abdicated, and an emergency governing coalition headed by Mukhin is in charge and has declared martial law. Vasya asks rhetorically what is going on and Anna answers directly, "It's a coup." State security headed by Mikhail, an Armenian national who is in S-2 E-1 in the employ of Russia, is the ring leader of what by all appearances is the kidnapping of Vasya. They drive up to the villa and force Vasya into a car with a black hood over his head. They take him to the execution site where Vasya's body is to be dumped off the cliff. In a foreshadowing of reality Vasya tells Mikhail that his parents will be next and Mikhail replies that they are safe and happy in Bucha, the site of the most reviling Russian atrocities revealed in the Russia-Ukraine war.  At that moment Tolya, aka Torik, drives up in Vasya's truck. Vasya calls to Torik to save him. S-2 E-1 remains as confusing to me now as it did when I first mistakenly watched it. We will go to there tomorrow and I will rewatch now that I have more context. I don't think rewatching will help me out of my confusion, however.

S-1 E-21 Ho do they know?

Vasya and Anna meet for a late lunch at a beautiful outdoor restaurant and Olya and her banker “potential stepdad” show up at the same restaurant. The banker is NOT the Master of the Vaults. Vasya and Olya are annoyed, understandably, that both are at the same restaurant and get into a tiff about which I am unclear. Olya calls Vasya outside so that they don’t make a scene.

Anna. How do women know? 

 

What the fuck is it that they can see with such fucking clarity! What the fuck? Womens' intuition? Oh fuck womens' intuition, this is a SIXTH FUCKING SENSE! 

We don't have a chance! MEN, FELLOW HOMOS, WE DON'T HAVE A FUCKING CHANCE AGAINST THIS! We're Dead!

 

MIGHT AS WELL JUST GIVE THE FUCK UP AND SAY YES MA'AM, WHATEVER YOU SAY MA'AM!

 

No
Chance.

Servant S-1 E-21

Well, that certainly came to a head quickly! Olya and Vasya sit in the building coffee room, Olya asks if he will talk to Dima, the son, and then quickly follows up with "Will you watch him? A potential stepfather has appeared"--and shows him a pic on her phone of Vasya's replacement. "A banker. Private home." "Good," is Vasya's only response. (?) You see how good these writers are? They examine the ethical issues from every angle: Olya is not cheating, she and Vasya are divorced, it is not surreptitious (would it be wrong if it were, the writers ask you?), she tells Vasya about it and he is completely okay with it. So there's no ethical issue here. 

What about Poland? What if it turns out not to be Poland. Why would she lie about that and if she is going somewhere other than Poland and if she is going there with "the potential stepfather", what, is it one of the Seven Deadly Sins to go to Romania and not Poland? So the cash value of the lie, if it's a lie, would be pennies.

Wait...Banker...It was not my impression that the vault keeper was a banker...but where do you keep bars of gold if not in a bank and who is in charge of a bank but a "banker"? Dimitryi has to be the banker, no? I mean, come one. If it is, since she met him on state business...no, get outta town, that's not an ethical thing. 

Speaking of cash value...Who's paying for the trip? The state? Is it still state business or was that a lie? Is it partly state business but Olya is piggybacking a little hump-hump? Very whitish gray. But if the state biz story is a complete ruse then who is paying for happy time wherever is a BIG ethical issue.

...When she takes her leave of Vasya in the coffee shop she says, "Don't forget about your visa". So she did mention Vasya's visa before and brings it up again here...There is something fishy there...

Servant of the People, Loose Ends

There were two. Now I can only remember one. In the tremendous S-1 E-20, as she is leaving the cabinet...Ah! I remember the second now. So first that one. I don't remember nos if it was in E-20 but Olya sees Vasya outside the presidential office building and says en passant to a harried Vasya that she has to go to Poland on some central bank business. She mentions her passport and says something about Vasya's I think. He says, "Yeah, yeah," whatever, do what you have to do, that kind of thing. 

Now back to the end of E-20, as she is leaving the cabinet meeting the camera people zoom in on Olya as she picks a glossy brochure off the conference table and puts it in her purse. I rewound the vid to see if I could make out what the brochure was on but I couldn't and and it was very late and I didn't take a third look. 

Finally (three loose ends), she also picks up the bottle of wine that swine Ana brought, looks at the label and turns back to the room and says, "Filling up the state coffers with Italian wine, huh?" Olya is going away, the brochure probably was a travel brochure, although what it would be doing in the cabinet room I don't know or I missed, maybe to Poland, maybe to Italy (?), but the short convo she had with Vasya was in some respect, what respect I do not know, a lie. 

I have just started E-...Oh hell, a fourth loose end: I don't know again if it was in E-20 or 19 but more than once, three times, maybe four, different people, (Louis XVI for one) advise Vasya to flee, always the same word, "flee," flee the country. Olya is leaving the country--temporarily, on state business. 

So, I have just started E-21 and Olya again meets Vasya outside as he is getting out of his truck and tells him that they have to have a serious talk, that their son got into a fight at school.

Auburn Fires Head Football Coach

Yep. I and the whole world saw this coming. I was honestly surprised it took them this many games into the season.

134 Dead in India Bridge Collapse

Happy Halloween Witches and Warlocks!

Servant S-1 E-20: Funniest E in many E's

As Oksana is driving Mukhin to "holy shit-dom" (lol) the Swine is continuing her oligarchical seduction of Vasya. 

Vasya leaves the "natural resources briefing" to go into a cabinet meeting...wherein he receives the inevitable sexts.

They get stuck in an elevator together (because she pushed the stop button) and she claims to be claustrophobic and has difficulty breathing and asks him to undo her blouse to give her more air.

 

                                                              

                                                                          "Fan me."

Next, Ana shows up at Vasya's office at 11 pm with a bottle of wine. The screenwriters do something they have not done before: they have the character make direct eye contact with the audience. "YOU know what I'M doing." We're in on the secret. It is playful, delightful.

                                                         OH MY GOD! That is SOOO great!

BUT. Vasya is NOT ALONE! All the cabinet officers are in his office and THEY are not in on her secret.

 

                               Now, look at Olya's face. First, surprise, perplexity, of course.

BUT WOMEN ALWAYS KNOW! It takes Olya TEN seconds to size up Ana for what she is up to! lolol

 

"Yes, your 'adviser'...

One second later:

             "Girl, you may fool my ex-, HE'S just a dead head GUY, but I'M a female JUST like you and YOU CAN'T FOOL ANOTHER WOMAN, HONEY? Nah-ah! Didn't they teach you that in Compromise School?"

    "We could fill state coffers" with the exports of Carpathian wine! Look at that face! lolol.

 

                                         Anna leaves and Olya drills holes in her with her eyes.

                                     And then turns to mark Vasya.

Such great acting. Perfect. Such great camera work. Perfect. S-1 E-20: PERFECT! Audience, what do you say?!

S-1 E-20

One of my co-favorite characters, Oksana, 

 

and her boss, the foreign affairs minister and "collector of women", Mukhin, have it out in Vasya's empty office. She accuses him of not caring about the country; he accuses her of being a prim nag. She arranges a meeting with a British delegation that evening. Pictures paint a thousand words, right? (These are with words, anyway.)

Look at that goomboy!😂

Ah, YEAH!😃

"IT'S THERE"! Hoho, hoho, hoho.

"IT'S GOOD THAT IT'S THERE"! Oh my God.

                                          Looking.

                                                           

                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Caught looking. lolol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the coup de grace:

Is that not adorable? Thoroughly charming.          

 

                                         BRAVO!

SWINE!

The beautiful Cuban-looking young woman who I mistakenly saw in S-2 E-1 is in the pay of the oligarchs!

Cherchez la femme, OH! cherchez la femme. Swine.😡 (I would have been corrupted by her).

da SILVA BEATS BOLSONARO!

50.9% TO 49.1%. CLOSE but you know...

O Canada

I'll betcha a nickle Mike Tomlin, head coach of the Pittsburgh "Steelers", fires offensive coordinator Matt Canada after this afternoon's debacle in Philadelphia. Losing to the "Eagles" this season is not shameful, but losing when only scoring 13 points is. The "Steelers" are 2-6, they have had no offensive success using two different quarterbacks. These are there point totals by game:

23
14
20
3
20
10
13

You can beat Iowa about half the time scoring 13 pts/game, you could even have won the NFL Thursday Night Horror Show scoring 13 but you are not going to prevent your coach from having his first losing season ever, in 18 seasons, scoring 13/game. Just this week four NFL teams lost their games when scoring more points than Pittsburgh did in its highest scoring game this season. This cannot be tolerated and I not only bet that Tomlin fires Canada, I hope he does. Tomlin has got to make a change.

Rocky Tops Bucks

Didn’t I tell ya that could happen? 

Tennessee jumped Ohio State in the new AP top 25–by the teeniest of margins. Tied on total voter points the “Vols” took over the number two slot based on first-place votes, 18-15. Ryan Day and the “Buckeyes” can thank PSU’s meaningless, last minute TD for the demotion.

It’s tight at the top, #1 Jawja, Tenn., and OSU separated by only 28 votes.

Unsurprisingly Wake Forest dropped furthest, down ten places to 20th courtesy of their 48-21 beat down in Lewisville. 

Equal and opposite, right?  Kansas State rose nine places and Oklahoma State fell nine, fallout from the 48-0 A-bomb the “Wildcats” dropped in Manhattan. 

Syracuse fell six to 22nd.

Pitt didn’t get a vote.

Musk

Yesterday HRC,

…posted a tweet assailing Republicans for spreading “hate and deranged conspiracy theories” that she said had emboldened the man who attacked Ms. Pelosi’s husband, Paul…

Elon Musk, who just took over Twitter Thursday, posted in reply, 

“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye” and then shared a link to an article in the Santa Monica Observer. The article alleges that Mr. Pelosi was drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.”

At Least 70 Killed in India as Suspension Bridge Collapses

(NYT)

Just not my weekend

First my beloved Pitt “PANTHERS”  got hammered in Apple Chill, then Nottingham gets their arse hammered, the “Heat” get covered in excrement, and now “Stillers” are getting wrecked by CHEESE?, and my beloved “Dolphins” are losing to…Deetroit? The “Lions”?

S-1 E-18

To dad:  

"As president, I had no choice. An International Monetary Fund requirement was to raise prices. After that, Ukraine has the chance to enter the European union. Get it?"

Four years before this the Euromaidan protests began in Kyiv; five years after this Great Britain has left the EU, which is united on one issue, support for Ukraine's war with Russia; the frayed trans-Atlantic alliance is repaired only by Ukraine. Five years after this Ukraine, Finland and Sweden want to join NATO; the last has just elected a right-wing leader, the latter two await only the approval of Turkey and Hungary, both headed by autocrats, the last by Viktor Orbán, "anti-globalist" and soul-mate of the American right. 

 

Incomprehensible nine years ago, the West today is held together by Ukraine. We did not see the sunflowers turned our way; did not recognize that the yellow and blue vinok, woven with our best qualities, would unite us.

Servant S-1 E-18

 

That was not there before. The clock was, the horn was, but the bust of Napoleon was not. These are gifted screenwriters.

153

"A communist today can become a capitalist tomorrow, but an Armenian can never become a Turk."

-Samuel Huntington, 1993. 

Ol' Sam wouldn't recognize the alt-right of today. I don't recognize it either.

Grain by grain by grain

Oksana is having an instructional lunch with Sergei preparatory to his meeting with the King of Spain, a wine aficionado. Here's how you hold the glass, here's how you examine it for light, here's how you sniff it's aroma, taste it, swish it, etc. etc. Brandy too...Sergei gets sloshed. Oksana too. And wakes up the next day in bed in Sergei's flat. "My tiger cub. Moor. That's what you called me last night." 😂She cries she is so mortified. He tells her he didn't fuck her and that makes her feel better. 🎵Lie to me. I promise, I'll believe.🎵 You see? The screenwriters root out the ethical dilemmas, big and small, that we all face every day for real. "LYING IS WRONG!" How about a "white lie"? How about here, where a man, seeing a 27 year-old virgin who is his assistant, wanting to disappear into a hole, wrong here too?

Vasya is napping off his hangover in his presidential office when his solicitous secretary Bella Rudolfovna (HEREINAFTER Bella) enters the inner sanctum to tell him to go home, that she has canceled all of his meetings for the day. He thanks her and apologizes.

"It's okay. You did it for the good of the country. You are justified." 

The ends justify the means. Good intentions sometimes produce good results, sometimes not; all intentions good or bad come at a cost.

E-17 ends with the oligarchs in a garden, one painting the other, and while painting they agree that they just about have Vasya where they want him. All he needs is a little nudge.

Servant S-1 E-17

 

Ah! Alcohol too. ETOH is excellent corrupting solvent.

Okay, I was wrong. The flowers by Yasya's bed were not left like the horse head in The Godfather by the oligarchs. They were gift to Vasya's mom on her retirement. The day he and Sergei met with IMF "babes"...I have to go back.

In the gold vault Dimitryi asks Olya if "your husband, your ex-husband," drinks. "Vasya, no. Never." Okay, so at lunch with the IMF women Vasya drinks right? It's a luncheon! A little vino, a little vodka for the "collector of women" who is going to put the moves on the IMF head, and a little vodka for Vasya, who never drinks. He must be convivial (to secure the "one year, two would be better" loan payback schedule). At the luncheon, whether under the influence or not, Vasya agreed to the IMF's conditions which included not lowering the retirement age, and issued an order to that effect. The agreeable companions repair to a nightclub where a sloshed Vasya drinks shots, dances with the at times mortified at times agreeable IMF head and female companion whereupon Vasya and the IMF head land in a swimming pool. Sergei says something about Vasya and the IMF head's companion ending up back at a hotel. However that was Vasya makes it, by powers unknown to him, back home for the night where he falls, dead drunk into a dead drunk, deep slumber. 

Mom put the flowers in his room as sarcasm since she, the morning must go back to work.

There is a cutback to the vault scene the next morning as well. The man who makes his daily rounds lets them out. Olya scolds at how ridiculous it is that there is no way out and no way to communicate. The man begins to explain that there is an emergency red button but Dimitryi cuts him off. "You know that, I know that, but there is no reason for her to know that."

So, money, sex, booze and fatigue. Vasya and his personal appointees are extremely harried, thus prey to the Great Corrupters.

My two favorite characters are becoming the defense minister and Oksana, Sergei's secretary. The defense minister has this beefy face, he's beefy all over actually, and a stoic mien. Oksana is the picture of efficient professionalism doing everything she can to round the edges on her "yokel" boss, Sergei.

151* Dead in Seoul Halloween Crush

In an advanced society, just about the largest magnitude accidental mass death I can remember.

*153. Even AP has changed their numbers in the past hour.

 

Those last two were not last call. Story of my nights. I always have to check one more thing. Tonight it was the “Heat” playing the last of their mini three-game Western swing in winless Sacramento. Winless no mo. The “Kings” embarrassed Miami 119-113. Tyler Herro is playing like an all-star, tonight he had 34 points in 35 mins, essentially a point a minute played on 13/22 (5/8). He was a +11 on a team that lost by six and trailed at half-time 71-49. 71 points and a 22-point hole at the half to a winless team. With that point total at the half the culprit is easy to id: no D. For the game Sacramento shot 55.3% (45.2%). The “Heat” have lost five of seven. Good grief.

UNC 42 Pitt 24. Ouch-yuck. Manana y'all yinzers! Don't forget!

Last Call

I'm sorry "PANTHERS" I can't stay up! "Tar Heels' (21) opening up some daylight in the 4Q, outscoring Pitt 14-0 already, 35-24, 10:46.

Rocky Top (3) took KY Jelly (19) up the muddy road 44-6. 

Meeshagan (4) handled East Lansing Spartak 29-7 in the Horseshoe.

I don't remember if I gave this final: Kansas State (22) 48 Oklahoma State (9) 0. That is amazing. From AP:

The Wildcats have had some strangely easy wins over Oklahoma State. The last time a Gundy team was held to 12 points or fewer was in a 31-12 loss in Manhattan in 2018, and the last time the Cowboys trailed any game by at least 38 points was during a 48-14 loss to the Wildcats in 2014.

Especially since for much of their history any win by the "Wildcats" over anybody was strange.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ole' Miss (15) maybe could beat TAMU. "Aggies" just scored though and will try an on-side kick. 31-28 "Rebels", 1:25 left. Couch burner!

CSUF 3 SDSU 7, End 1.

SJSU 0 Nevahda 7, 5:16 1Q.

UCLA (12) 14 Trees 3, End 1

 

Standings

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Standings

UCLA 6-1 (12)
North Carolina State 6-2 (24)
UTSA 6-2
San Jose State 4-2
San Diego State 4-3
Bowling Green 4-4
UNLV 4-4
UTEP 4-4
Texas A&M 3-4
California State University, Fresno 3-4
New Mexico State 3-5

I don't know, Tennessee is opening a big can of whoop ass on the Colonels. 37-6 now, 3:56 3rd Q. Might they jump Ohio State?

Meeshagan leads MSU 13-7, 11:22 3rd.

HT: Pitt leads North Carolina (21) 17-14. GO "PANTHERS".

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thursday night: NCSU (24) 22 Virginia Tech 21
Ole' Miss has retaken the lead in College Station 17-14, 8' 3rd.
MTSU 10 UTEP 0, End 1.
FT UMass 13 NMSU 23. Big win for "Aggies."

South Korea Death Toll: 149+

 Kyrie Irving tweeted support for an anti-Semitic film earlier this week. Today he tweeted that he is not anti-Semitic and stated what he really is:

I am an ONANIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone's religious beliefs. The "Anti-Semitic" label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday. I embrace and want to learn from all walks of life and religions.

Hélà🤞🏾♾

— Hélà (@KyrieIrving) October 29, 2022

Meeshagan (4) 10 East Lansing Spartak 7, 4:19 2Q

-FLWC-

TAMU 14 Ole' Miss (15) 10, 2:50 2Q.

HT Tenn (3) 27 Ky (19) 6

UNC (21) 7 Pitt 14, 13:20 2Q

FT Sen. Walker 42 Gov. DeSantis 20

Shocking

FT Liverpool 1 Leeds 2.

Liverpool are as possessed by schizophrenic demons. In eight days they have:

-lost at dead-bottom Nottingham 1-0.
-beat Ajax at home in the UCL.
-lost to 15th Leeds at home.

They are now 9th in the 20-team table.

Sudden and Shocking

The San Antonio Spurs' release of guard Joshua Primo -- the No. 12 pick in the 2021 NBA draft -- stemmed from multiple alleged instances of him exposing himself to women, sources told ESPN on Saturday.

The decision to release Primo on Friday night was sudden and shocking, [He gets off on that, evidently.] and it spoke to the severity of the issues surrounding the promising 19-year old player.

Futility

The UVA-UMG box score is now updated and I just checked it. There were no TD's, the kind that are worth 7 points, in the entire game. I had thought it likelier than the dystopian alternative that both teams scored TD's in the 4th OT, both went for two and only UMG made its. But no. There were four FG's in OT., two by each team of scholar-athletes who severely limited their NIL opportunities for the rest of their careers. There were eight FG's in the entire game, fourteen punts, one two-point "TD." Virginia got to 12 by kicking two FG's in OT and UMG got to 12 by kicking two FG's. The "TD" UMG is credited with was on a two-point conversion after their last field goal. Tale of the tape:

14: Punts
8: FG's
4: Overtimes
4: FG's in OT
1: two-point "TD"
0: six-point TD's

Damn

Just took a shower and was sitting around in my briefs when I remembered to take the plant in from outside. Did. At that moment an Orthodox woman looked up and directly at me.

Hope the sight of me didn't do permanent damage like turn her into a Presbyterian or something.