(NOTE: We’re discussing the next couple episodes in this post, along with their corresponding promos. If that tips too far into Spoilerville for you, please look elsewhere!)

Shea Nation!!! 

Hi! Hello! Yes, I’m back on the #Shea side of my website for the first post since December! 
How have you been? Are you staying warm enough? (Or keeping cool, if you’re south of the Equator?) Staying safe? 

Me? Well, sure, I’ve kept busy… Hmm, let’s see…I

• Tested positive for COVID on Christmas Day (Stayed asymptomatic throughout and tested negative 5 days later, but of course it mangled family holiday plans)
  

• If anyone remembers the story I told at the top of my PRELUDE TO THREE KISSES*** post back in Spring of 2020… I heard from that guy. Responded to that guy. Then blocked that guy. All while I was still quarantining for COVID. (It was an interesting final week of 2021, to say the least.)  
  

• Did my level best to be there for my college-age son through a series of very above-average challenges throughout the past 3 months
  

• Continued to try and shepherd my high-school-age daughter towards her own college choice (she graduates in June)
  

• Followed figure skating at the Olympics with great intensity. (You may have heard a thing or two about some of that!)
  

• Tried out for a show. Didn’t get cast, though. 
  

• Tried out for another show. (I just returned from that audition as I sit here catching up on dinner and writing this.) 
  

• Stepped into the role of bridesmaid for the first time in a couple decades as I witnessed the wedding of my very dear sister-in-law! (That was yesterday. See, at least this time when I post late in the evening on Sunday you’ll know why!)

Which brings us to… what, week 14 of this agonizing hiatus? NOPE!

We Got Reprieved!

In other words: you know Promised Land, the drama about vineyards and families and stuff that ABC debuted on January 24 in TGD’s time slot? It started with a rating of 0.2 and 1.89 million viewers, and that second number kept sliding downward with each episode aired. (As a comparison, TGD’s most recent new episode had a 0.5 rating and 4.22 million viewers.) 

So, as we hoped might be the case… Promised Land was dismissed, with half its episodes unaired, five weeks early! (Hulu is set to air the remaining 5 episodes.)

Which of course means TGD returns not in April… but starting February 28!

THE CHINOOK IS BLOWING!

The Wha…???

If the title of this post (“The Long Winter…”) prompted memories of reading Laura Ingalls Wilder, you might understand the “chinook” reference.

If you’ve never read LIW’s “Little House” book series: The Long Winter depicted what is known in real life as “The Hard Winter”-- where, between October 1880 all the way to April 1881, the Dakota plains were struck with brutal cold and a 7-month pattern of blizzards. Trains stopped running, supplies stopped coming into towns like De Smet (where Laura and her family were living), and people began to starve in homes with little heat and even less lamplight.

Until one fine day in April, when Laura awoke to the sound of water dripping off the eaves of their Little House… and cried “Pa! The Chinook is blowing!”

At the time, “chinook” was what settlers in their part of the world called the warm wind that signaled winter’s end. (Such a wind was also nicknamed in some places “the snow eater” for its ability to melt heavy concentrations of the white stuff in a matter of hours.) 

Now I hope it’s needless to say, but I’m NOT equating our TGD 13-week hiatus with a seemingly endless season marked by malnutrition, misery, and intense resourcefulness.

Still, the hiatus was long… it was over (mostly) the winter… ergo, The Long Winter. But not anymore!

We got the above promo for episode 8 (“Rebellion,” written by Thomas L. Moran) as soon as episode 7 ended in November…

… and another one,  most likely including clips from both 8 & 9, starting last week. Here it is:

Even the CTV promo found its way to my Twitter feed, and if that’s not a fun reminder of how close Epiosde 508 (“Rebellion”) is, I don’t know what to tell you:

There are also promotional materials available already for episode 9 (“Yipee-Ki-Yay,” written by David Hoselton and Adam Scott Weissman)

It’s worth noting that Moran, Hoselton, and Weissman are all VERY well-versed in #Shea-heavy scripts. Hostleton’s most recent effort was co-writing episode 502 “Piece of Cake,” while Moran and Weissman co-wrote 503 “Measure of Intelligence.”

But other than a few facts such as those, and of course the alphabet soup of clips and sound bites comprising those three promos…we don’t have much to go on yet. To which I say HA! Like that’s ever stopped us. Let the speculating begin!

I’m not guessing anything radical here– anything from a few days to a full week seems possible (though I tend to go more with the “few days” theory, which allows just enough time to bypass the initial grieving of the mother… as well as set up new dynamics for Shaun and Lea, Shaun and Glassman, and Salen and the rest of the hospital. The way those new dynamics play out is where the drama will likely stem– in at least the first part of “Rebellion.”

I had to go back to the photos from “Expired” to get this one, as “Rebellion” photos offered zero clues on their status. We briefly see from the promo that they’re sharing a table at the cafeteria, which had been very normal behavior up to now…but we also hear Shaun repeating his words from that fateful pharmacy scene (“I can’t marry you”) and Lea disputing those words (“That doesn’t make any sense… We love each other… we’ll find a way to work this out”). I’m guessing the scene starts with Lea approaching the table with Shaun already seated there; we know after all that he gets up and leaves her behind… leading me to think Lea asked him a question (or made a statement) that he’s afraid or unwilling to answer. 

We also see shots of Shaun both laying on their living room sofa in pajamas and the blanket, and fully dressed, so the assumption would be that they’re both still in the apartment, but he’s moved out of the bedroom (at least for now). A shot from the CTV promo— with Lea poised behind the kitchen island as Shaun walks in— seems to confirm that she’s still living there.

Another promotional still looks to be of Shaun riding a bus– rather than riding shotgun in the Striped Tomato– indicating further separation. Add to this Lea’s words to Glassy (in the CTV promo) that “he refuses to talk to me at all,” and no wonder there are no promo stills of the two of them.

On the other hand, what we know of Shaun and Glassman in “Rebellion” is that they most definitely ARE talking. About Salen and/or St.B? Probably (though those parts of the promo looked to be heavily edited). About Lea? Definitely. About their own relationship? Eh… I’d be surprised if that matter gets addressed in any depth with “Rebellion.” I think we all agreed previously that Shaun/Glassy are quite a bit more fraught than Shaun/Lea at the moment, so I can totally see them kind of going back to normal for a while before addressing the elephant in their room. 

I would like to know why Shaun’s sitting behind Glassman’s desk, though…

“I can’t marry someone who’s settling for me!”

This line seems to have snagged more attention than anything else in the new promos with direct reference to Shea. The big question, of course, is how Shaun got from “I can’t marry you” to the notion that Lea is settling for him. The CTV promo that some of us started seeing on Sunday and gives us another line…”She(Lea) thinks I’m not good enough to be her husband.”

Should we give this another WHAAAA??  Well, no… check out this Tweet from highmorefan_ instead, who posted this after the CTV promo became available:

Think about it: if Shaun’s mind is processing this in a way that’s loyal to his ways of thinking, it goes something like this:

1. Lea raised my scores because she doesn’t think I can improve on my own.

2. Lea doesn’t think I can improve on my own because she still thinks I’m limited (because of my ASD).

3. Lea would probably prefer a husband whose scores she didn’t feel she had to manipulate.

4. But Lea doesn’t think she can find someone like that who will marry her, so she’s with me instead. 

5. If we get married, and Lea DOES meet someone like that, she’ll leave me.

I think we talked previously (in the comments section, if not in the blog itself) about Shaun saying “I can’t marry you” because of his absolute nature– she didn’t do the right thing, it affects him on a personal and professional level, and therefore they cannot marry. I think that still holds true– the settling and abandonment issues just take everything to a deeper level… one that I know we’d appreciate seeing fleshed out as much as possible! Especially if they get to the nuts and bolts of Shaun coming to terms with the byproducts of his ASD!

Another thing we’ve talked about is the idea of the St. B’vites soon having to choose sides– and I think the title of 508 confirms that. Lim, Glassman, Shaun, Park– I think we know where they stand. But… 

• Will Morgan decide it’s more important to support Salen than the man she says she loves?

• Will Asher and Jordan split the rookie vote? If so, which side does each choose? (remembering it was Jordan who was there when the infant died)

• Will Andrews remain a true ally to Salen? Or will he try to go the double-agent route?

I have to keep reminding myself that we’re only up to episode 8; that we haven’t even reached the midway mark on S5. How long will this “Rebellion” last– will Salen even be around for the back half of the season? Or will we only see her when there’s a pow-wow with her lawyers? 

And what’s the next step for St. B if she’s gone? It was “hemorrhaging money” (Lim’s words) when the season started; how will it do anything else if it’s back to square one without Salen AND has legal entanglements to sort out?

All I know for sure is that the big chill that settled into San Jose back in November is lifting.

And the chinook is blowing.

And we’re more than a little eager for the thaw that follows.