If I remember correctly, in WND #43 Nikvoodoo went on and on about how it's not going to suddenly change to Fort Irwin. It's just like what happened with Chapter 19 all over again!

Good ep, interesting ep, and yeah it did remind me more of old-time radio, simply because a lot of the episode was chatter between Michael and Puck. Interesting at the hints about Kimmet not being such a great leader, I think the comparisons to Durai are inevitable but warranted. Also surprised at how apparently bad of a soldier Riley is, when she's otherwise been tough as nails. We'll see how that develops.

Not exactly sure what to make of the Chinook, asides from that it's a really interesting plot point, so props KC. It could go in so many different ways, it's really impossible to actually predict from our current standpoint, but yes it seems likely that it did crash. I'm not sure if Boulder's going to get infected - remember they maintain a strong defence there. Unless you do it 28 weeks later style which is a direction I really hope it doesn't go in... zombies breaking from the inside or tearing a safehouse apart has already been done once in the tower and once in CJ's tower... do we really need it to happen again?

Then again, we've seen this whole zombie situation seem to diminish in importance - what with the relative safety and fortress-like nature of Ft Irwin and Boulder, it seems hard to really be concerned about Pinstripes, a zombie horde or the other issues which we still haven't had answered - Michael's arm and Randy, although those two, like Kalani being the rat, are probably a case of the most plausible case being the correct one. Regardless, Randy must continue to have some significance - otherwise why would he have popped up again? Maybe it's all just to do with Michael's psychology than anything else.

The point is that something needs to happen. What happens with the Chinook is really going to change this story, a lot. Keep in mind we still have 16 more chapters in this story; what on earth is going to happen? How is this end game going to be constructed? We're in the lull right now, and there's going to be a lot more complication before we get the scene set for the final act in mid-late season 4. My feeling is that the structure of Ft Irwin and Boulder must be threatened, because we are far too safe right now. The Mallers also need to be made relevant again - they are relevant on the personal but not on the grand level. They're relevant to Saul, not really to Michael. How can we reconcile revenge for Angel with putting down Pinstripes? Even more fundamentally: how do we resolve this tension between the human element of the story and what has increasingly become a military/thriller element? Unless one subordinates itself to the another, thus the theories of the Mallers being wiped out and Scratch being killed in Season 3, so we can concentrate on killing Pinstripes in Season 4. The thing is though, that KC has always said this is a story about people, so I just don't see that happening.

I have extreme confidence in KC in being able to reconcile these issues, otherwise he wouldn't have set it up like this (and keep in mind in the WND post-season 2 interview he said that they have the story all mapped out, and has repeated so several times). I am unsure of how it's going to happen, but damn am I going to enjoy watching it unfurl.