John From Cincy: See gun, Kai

Spoilers for "John From Cincinnati" coming up just as soon as I participate in a wrestling exhibition...

First things first: If I never hear Rebecca DeMornay scream again, it'll be too soon. I can respect the notion that genuine grief and hysteria doesn't really resemble the way most actors play those emotions, even the good ones, but that performance was so far over the top, the only way it could land safely was if it had Harold's purple crayon to draw a hot air balloon. (Sorry; just got done with bedtime.) If I had fillings, I think the scene where Cissy woke up Kai would have loosened them.

That was the worst news of an episode filled with disappointments. After a couple of episodes in which the focus had spread beyond the Yosts and there was a genuine sense that the story was going somewhere, we get an hour in which Dr. Smith and the Three Wise Men are absent, Bill and Freddy's involvement is minimal, nothing much happens and did I mention Cissy and the screaming? Because I really feel scarred by it.

There were some interesting things happening on the margins, whether it was Vietnam Joe's visit to the local military bar, or Cass and John's sightseeing tour. (The latter, by the way, was shot in a very atypical style for the show, and it's not like you can consider that a choice to represent the POV of Cass' camera, since many of those shots on the different film stock (or video quality or whatever) were shots of Cass herself.) And the Tina/Linc pairing is interesting, even though the episode did a poor job of conveying the fact that they were strangers when they ran into each other in the lobby; I like that Tina's just lost and confused and not nearly the evil creature Cissy has made her out to be, though I imagine Linc will try to turn her into another tool in his still-unexplained plan at worldwide Yost domination.

Maybe the most interesting development of the episode was the realization that, for all the bashing she takes for being a surfer-turned-actress, Keala Kennelly has some chops on her. Sure, it helps to play several scenes against the even more primitive Greyson Fletcher (who resembles an actual 14-year-old in that most 14-year-olds would have wooden screen presence), but the bits where Kai dealt with seeing Butchie and Tina together were very nicely-played.

I believe there are only 10 episodes of this season, which means we're halfway through. I have no idea where this is going; I hope Milch does.

What did everybody else think?