'A Vast and Fiendish Plot' -- Copper 1x10

Warning: Spoiler Alert

For a season finale, this episode didn't really give me all of the closure that I was hoping for regarding the season. Sure, they had to leave some things open for next season, but I am still bothered by the fact that Kevin never found out that it was Eva that killed Molly. While they seem to be going their separate ways (now that Ellen is back in the picture), I don't think that he would have trusted Eva anywhere nearly as much as he did if he had known that she had killed someone so that she could be closer to him; and I certainly don't think that he would have left her alone with Ellen nearly as much as he did, if he had known that she was willing to kill someone who looked like she might be even the slightest bit of a threat to her being near him (and being his one and only). I have the feeling that he would have wondered if she was willing to do it to Molly (when Molly had only the slightest connection to him), what would she do to Ellen? But I'm glad that she realized that killing Ellen was out of bounds (not that killing Molly was ok, cuz it wasn't), and that now that his wife is back in the picture, she should probably take her leave (at least as far as them continuing to sleep with each other was concerned). But I still want there to be justice for Molly ... I still want someone to know what happened to her (what really happened to her). Regardless of her profession, she was still a person, and still deserved to be able to live without being murdered (especially by someone that she trusted).

"Maggie" standing there and "watching" Kevin shoot up ... I was struck right there by just how much she really did look like Annie, cuz I really did think that it was Annie standing there and watching him ... that she maybe woke up after he had closed her door and had come downstairs to see what was going on. As much as I don't want Kevin to use drugs (and I want him to feel happy enough that he doesn't feel like he needs to use them), I really don't want Annie to see him do it. She's had enough horrible things happen in her life without adding seeing someone that she trusts and cares for shoot up; for all we know, seeing Kevin do it might make her think that maybe it's ok for her to do it as well, and who knows what added horrors would have come into her life cuz of that.

And speaking of Annie (and of Eva), I was really glad when Eva called Annie out for her BS, and her inability to have sympathy (or empathy) for anyone else ... and for the fact that even though she had been dealt a crappy hand, she could make things far worse cuz of her attitude. I don't think that she would have listened to Kevin if he had said the same thing to her (especially since he seems to be so willing to protect her from everything, regardless of what that may mean, and knowing that, she may not take it as seriously if it came from him); it seems like that sort of thing probably held a little more weight coming from Eva than from Kevin (or from anyone else that was in her life).

I'm really glad that Morehouse Jr was able to get out from underneath his father's thumb, and was able to start down the road of becoming his own man. Good for him. His father's company seemed to be rather toxic for him, and seemed to spur him down a road that would have caused him to continue to do things that were harmful to himself. Also, good on Elizabeth for telling Kennedy that he needed to piss off, cuz he had been willing to do more harm than she had thought that he was going to do. This doesn't excuse the fact that she seemed to be ok with the burning of New York when she thought that there would be less loss of life, but at least she was willing to pull herself out of things once she realized that there was more going on than what she had originally thought.

'A Day to Give Thanks' -- Copper 1x09

Warning: Spoiler alert

Ahh, so it looks like Ellen did kill Maggie, but that it was an accident. The fact that it was an accident doesn't make me feel any more forgiving toward her for what happened ... probably for the fact that she was having an affair, and that Maguire had been lying to Kevin about the whole thing ever since he came back. Sure, she was lonely, but that doesn't seem like it's an excuse to be disloyal to him IMO. But at least now we know what it was that happened that the writers have only been hinting at since the beginning of the season.

And now I'm wondering when exactly Maguire's relationship with Molly started, and if he was really in love with her. Could it have been that he started it up right after checking Ellen into the hospital? That seems like it might be likely. And if his relationship with Mary is anything to go by, perhaps Molly was only someone to fill the hole that was left by Ellen. He really seemed like he cared about Molly, but if Kevin can be believed about Maguire's character (and what the man looks like when he's in love), maybe it all really comes back to Ellen.

It also seems much more like Maguire was trying to protect Ellen. Maybe not so much from Kevin's anger (which I'm sure he would probably have known would be coming), but from the ghosts that were inside of her own head. She seemed to be wracked with guilt over the baby and over Maggie, so her being in a constant, drug-induced haze probably seemed preferable to her, and something that might be helpful for her to him. Of course, it only delayed the inevitable when it came to dealing with what had happened, but it probably seemed to them like it was something that could help her deal with everything.

Morehouse Jr seems to be up to his neck in it now, and I'm not entirely sure that he's going to be able to extricate himself from something that might be eighteen kinds of awful. It seems much more like he's trying to show up his father in some manner, and so he's willing to agree to do things that maybe he should back away from (and things that he maybe doesn't entirely agree with. I don't get the impression that his thinking is completely aligned with Kennedy and his pals, regardless of what he may say. It seems maybe that he is looking for a bit of excitement in his life (cuz he feels like it's dull), and that he is trying to get his father's attention (especially when you consider his little outburst in this episode)). It seems like the longer he stays palling around with these guys who are trying to burn down New York, the harder it's going to be for him to stop them, and the harder it's going to be for him to look like he's completely on-board with everything that they're doing. It's almost funny that he also says that Kevin is really the only person that he thinks that he can trust, even while I want to go "well, duh". Even while he's the one that has said that everyone lies to Kevin, he also seems to realize that Kevin is really the only one (besides O'Brien) that is really honest, and who you can trust to be someone of his word (and someone who is authentic).

Elizabeth and John Wilkes Booth ... yeah, there is certainly something going on there. It could be that the two of them had an affair sometime in the past, but I'm thinking that it might actually have been something more like she is a Southern sympathizer, and met him that way. Either way, I really can't bring myself to trust her, and I kind of want something bad to happen to her by the end of it for all of her lies and manipulation (I still think that she's trying to manipulate Morehouse Jr (and really anybody that she thinks that she can) to get herself a leg-up).

Good on whoever wrote this episode for putting in that line about Molly, and the director put Eva full in shot for that look of d'oh. It kind of seemed like Molly's murder had been forgotten, and maybe now that other more pressing things had been figured out someone will figure out what had happened to her. Why do I kind of want Annie to be the one who finds out? It probably wouldn't be good for her to find out that just one more person had been murdered by someone that she trusted (it would more than likely give her another reason not to be able to trust people and to become bitter about life), but at the same time ... Eva isn't exactly the best person for her to be looking up to. I'm not talking about what she does for a living, but I'm talking about what she is willing to do to people who trust her. While I don't see her sending Annie off somewhere cuz she has become "problematic" (the way that Elizabeth did), but the fact that she is willing to lie to Kevin and kill someone who she thinks is getting a little too close to him (in her own obsessive mind) means that she probably shouldn't be a role model for a little girl.

'Better Times Are Coming' -- Copper 1x08

Warning: Spoiler Alert

As much as Morehouse Jr gets on my nerves, and as shady as I think the man is, I do have to give him props for thinking ahead and making sure that the Greek Fire didn't actually make it into town ... and to do it so that it didn't look like he had anything to do with it. Now, he's seen the men that are involved with the plot, he's kept Rome New York from burning, and he's kept himself in with those who are trying to do nasty things. While I don't completely trust him not to do only what is in his own self-interest, him continuing to be undercover with these men might prove useful in an effort to continue to foil their plans to do some serious damage ... at least for a little while ... until they start getting suspicious of how things keep going wrong around him. But as much as he is only really out for himself, at least his interests include keeping New York from burning (at least at the moment). I'm not sure that he is necessarily thinking of all of the people that would be displaced, harmed, or killed in the process, but at least he is probably thinking about the fact that the city is his home (and if it burned, he would be out of his home and his wealth). So, I guess ... good on him?

And Morehouse Jr and Elizabeth ... wow, she is a manipulator, isn't she? She got him from going, "I'm am not touching this. You do your own dirty work with Kevin. I'm out," to getting him to "have a talk" with Kevin. I have no doubt that she is afraid of Kevin now that he's called her out for what she did to Annie, and for pulling a knife on her, so getting someone else to fight her battles for her (when she so royally fucked that whole thing up) was something that she seemed rather eager to do from the first place. I have no doubt that "Oh, let's be boyfriend/girlfriend" thing is for her, an arrangement of convenience. As soon as she feels like Kevin is safely out of her hair, where he won't be abel to hurt or threaten her anymore, I have the feeling that she will dumb Morehouse Jr like a load of bricks. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that she will (at some point) try to get Morehouse Jr to try to kill Kevin for her ... so that she can go back to being the Queen Bee, without having to worry about him coming around and threatening her anymore over the horrible things that she's done. And I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that all of her charity work is just a cover, and that she is really part of the Southern plots to burn down New York ... but she has go-betweens so that her hands don't get dirty. Is it becoming more obvious that I don't trust her? But then, who can you trust on this show? Kevin and O'Brien ... and the n00b as well ... but they're pretty much it.

Speaking of not being able to trust anyone on this show ... it's looking more and more like Maguire killed Mary. I'm not really surprised to find this out, especially after his "she's dead to me" comment from last week. After he started talking, he seemed to suddenly realize that he had said something that might have made Kevin kind of suspicious about what was really going on (and was suddenly trying to amend it so as to not make Kevin start asking him uncomfortable questions about what he was talking about). The only reason that there seems to be about why he would have done it is the ledger (since that's the only thing that we really know about her, other than that she's a teacher, and that she got hit by one of the guys that she was blackmailing). But her death did seem to be a murder of passion, so maybe there is something more that we don't know about what was going on? Maybe Maguire confronted her (perhaps about the ledger), and things got a bit heated ... hence her being buried where she fell.

And now the biggie of the episode: Ellen is still alive ... and she's in a mental institution ... and Maguire knew where she was the whole time (cuz he was the one that seemingly checked her in there. So, I was wrong about her running off, and I'm glad that I was (since there being a twist that I didn't see coming from the beginning is always an awesome thing, no?). But why was she there? We do know that she saw the abortion doctor, and that Maggie was killed ... but now that we know that she is in a mental institution that puts a new spin on what may have happened to her and Maggie. The fact that Maguire kept the fact that Mary had the ledger to himself makes me wonder now if he was having an affair with Ellen while Kevin was away at war, and if it was actually his baby that was being aborted. If this is possible, could it also be possible that he did something to Maggie? And could seeing her daughter killed by someone that she trusted have made something inside of Ellen's mind snap? We know full well that Maguire is capable of murder, and we know full well that he has absolutely no problem with lying to Kevin ... sure, these two things don't necessarily mean that he was responsible for Maggie's death, or with Ellen's current state of mental health. But what makes me wonder (and very suspicious about his role in all of this) that he knew where Ellen was, he never even acted like he knew anything to Kevin (despite knowing just how much Kevin needed to know what had happened), and has always seemed to be trying to steer Kevin away from finding out the truth. Up until now, it could have been seen as him trying to be a good friend, and to stop his friend from obsessing over something that he may never get the answer to (knowing how Kevin obsesses over things). But now ... now that we know that he has always known far more than he has ever said about what really happened ... it creates an entirely new coloring on the events surrounding what he has said and done when it has come to Ellen and Maggie. And the fact that the preview for next week makes me wonder if it's cuz he feels guilty for Mary, or if he feels guilty about everything that has happened. Hopefully it's the second one.

'The Hudson River School' -- Copper 1x07

Sooooo, Morehouse Jr told Elizabeth that it's alright that she lied to Kevin about Annie cuz everyone lies to him? I have to call bullshit on that. Lying is not ok, not even if "everyone" is doing it to him. But Morehouse Jr was right about the fact that Elizabeth should have told Kevin right away that she was full of it, since he really would go after the answer until he was satisfied with what he was being told. That is the one thing that Morehouse Jr has said that I haven't wanted to call him out on it ... but mostly only cuz it was pretty much the one time that he's ever told the truth about anything ... ever. I also call BS on the fact that Elizabeth said that she didn't know why she told him a lie in the first place. I don't doubt that she knew exactly what she was doing when she told him that she sent Annie out to California; she knew that the man that she let take Annie was not her father as soon as Annie started begging her to not let the man take her (even if she didn't want to admit it to herself). And when Kevin started telling her about the douche that she had let take Annie, the look on her face only confirmed (at least to me anyway) that she knew exactly what she had done. As horrible as I would have normally thought it was that the hero of a show pulled a knife on someone, I really have no sympathy for Elizabeth in this case. What she did to Annie could have ruined the girl's life; Annie has already had enough bad things happen to her without people who don't really care about her throwing her to the lions.

And speaking of Annie being thrown to the lions ... good on her for being able to think on her feet and be able to save herself from a horrible situation that at the very least would have left her with more emotional scaring than she would have been able to survive from, and at worst would have killed her (whether it was from her "husband" doing the deed himself, or from her committing suicide later on cuz she thought that there was no hope). That being said, I have no doubt that she knew exactly what she was doing when she started talking about how lucky Maggie was to have Kevin, and when she asked him for a kiss good night, but I can't say that I blame her for it. Kevin seems to be the only one who genuinely cares about what happens to her, and it would seem logical that she would try to remind him of his daughter (while tying up his memories of Maggie with herself) so that she would be safe (at least for a little while longer). As much as I think that she had her feelings kind of mixed up about him in previous episodes (thinking that she might actually have a chance with him ... and even though she may still have a little bit of that going on now), I'd much rather have her stay with him than with anyone else that's in the series (even O'Brien and his wife), since she will be safe as Kevin's serrogate daughter.

Also, speaking about lying, I don't believe Maguire when he told Kevin that Mary left for England with some guy. Sure, Mary was yelling at him to leave her alone for a while in the last scene that we saw with her, but I have more of a feeling that Maguire just didn't want Kevin to know that Mary had the ledger now that he was sure that Mary was using him (and I don't doubt that that's why Maguire was going all crazy in one of Eva's rooms ... well, that and the fact that he still loves Molly and is sure that there was something wrong with the way that she died). At some point, I have a feeling that Maguire is going to figure it out that Eva killed Molly, and I have a feeling that Kevin will be around when he does and everything will come out about the ledger and the locket. I think that Kevin is going to have to find out about that in a round-about sort of way, cuz I have no doubt that Eva and Maguire are going to both keep up their lies to Kevin and not admit anything that they know or have done.

I also think that it won't be long before everything is going to come to a head between Kevin and Morehouse Jr. Not so much with what is happening with Elizabeth (even if he's hurt by all of the things that Elizabeth has done recently, I don't think that he will begrudge the two of them being together ... after the reality of it settles in a bit), but with Morehouse Jr playing around with spies from the South (and possibly starting up more riots in the Five Points). Yeah, so I have a feeling by the end of this, the only person that Kevin isn't going to have a throw-down with is O'Brien ... but it's not like I haven't had that feeling for a while.

'Arsenic & Old Cake' -- Copper 1x06

Is it wrong that I really, really want something horrible to happen to Elizabeth? Cuz I do. The fact that she keeps lying to Kevin is really bothering me, and this time when she lied to him, it bothered me even more (not just cuz she was lying to him, but also cuz her lie was adversely affecting Annie's life). I don't understand how she could willfully do something that would hurt a child ... I mean, I get that she's selfish (and really only took in Annie to make herself look better, probably specifically to Kevin himself), but when you are willfully damning a child ... how can you live with yourself? And she must have had an idea that what she was doing was horrible. If she didn't know at first, if for some reason she actually believed that jerk-face who claimed to be Annie's father, I think that she came to realize what a horrible mistake she had made when Annie acted so uncharacteristically fearful about what was about to happen to her. If she didn't, why would she try to save face with Kevin by making something up about what had happened to her. There wouldn't have been a need, if she thought that she was doing the right thing, and if she truly thought that Annie was going to be safe.

And I don't understand how she thinks she would be able to sex Kevin into forgetting about Annie. Elizabeth knows that he cares for Annie; she said as much when she was saying about how Annie has become a surrogate for Maggie. And I don't see how she somehow thinks that Annie will be the one thing in his life that he will suddenly be unlike himself about. She knows that he cares for Annie, and she knows that he has an inquisitive mind; he won't want to just take her word for it that Annie is safe ... he's going to want to see it for himself, with his own eyes to make sure that what he was told was true. And while it is evident that he likes Elizabeth, that does not mean that she has some extra-special power over him to make him suddenly different than the way that he is.

I have no doubt that once he figures out what has happened to Annie, and that she's back with the man that he promised would never hurt her again, and that it's all the fault of Elizabeth ... there is going to be some hell to pay. It won't even be just the douche that is still trying to pretend like he is her father (so that he can continue to rape her over and over again), but it's going to be for Elizabeth as well. And while I have no doubt that Kevin, O'Brien, and Maguire will beat the hell out of the douche that is pretending to be Annie's father, the tearing of a new one for Elizabeth will probably be the one that will be the bigger beatdown.

And Maguire ... poor, poor Maguire. Yes, I am still upset with him for also having pants that are on fire, but he really wants to be in love, and have someone love him back ... and he is trying to force the issue far too hard. He doesn't seem to want to wait for something that is real, and maybe that has to do with the fact that he really did care for Molly, and he is still trying to fill up the hole that she left in his life. But the way that he is going about it, I have a bad feeling that he is going to be so very, very sorry about the whole thing by the time that he realizes that he never should have tried to rush into anything after Molly died. And I don't think it will be just cuz of the emotional damage that he will have from trying to rush into a marriage when he is on such a huge rebound, but also it's going to be from the fact that I have a feeling that Mary is only using him. Once he realizes that she is using him, he's going to be crushed, and I wouldn't be surprised if he does something truly awful (either to himself, or to someone else).