sweet eps.
I think it was funny when Daniel found out how long he/she be under the spell

Whoahaow.  **fanning self**  That was some awesome acting.

Wow...that episode was so hot it nearly made my earbuds melt :D

Looks like 'Danni' is going to enjoy the new direction 'her' life has taken, which begs the question:

Can people choose how the curse affects them, and if so, how do they do it?

> Can people choose how the curse affects them, and if so, how do they do it?

If a person just comes to Curse-afflicted territory without any magical protection, it will affect them randomly, hitting them with one of the three curse variants: theriomorph, androgyne, or pedomorph. (If they become theriomorphs, the species that they get is also random.) This is still a danger if someone loses their Curse-suppression amulet, which is one reason why Captain Montgomery advised Michael to get the subdermal version.

If you decide that you want to take the Curse, though, you can submit an application to Majestrix Kyia detailing which version of the Curse you would like to have; the forms are available at most government offices throughout the Curse's area of effect. It takes a few weeks for your paperwork to reach Kyia's desk, but once it does, she will reach out her senses and locate you, using your signature as a sympathetic link. The Curse's magic layers itself over everyone who spends more than a few days in the city -- the amulets just keep it from actually changing your body -- so all Kyia has to do is adjust the version of the Curse that is sitting on you. Once that's done, she marks your paperwork as complete and sends it back to her aides, who send out a notification that your application has been processed.  After that, all you have to do is remove your amulet and the Curse will take effect within a matter of hours.

Glad you guys enjoyed this episode -- it was a lot of fun to do!

This has been, thus far, my favorite episode.  I love the Eva/Evan character anyway, and seeing her/him interact with Daniel/Danni was, as Eva would say, bloody fantastic!

It amuses me that Daniel is more concerned with whether or not he will be attracted to men rather than all of the other myriad problems he will have living as a woman.  And just the whole concept of being able to be pregnant!

It is a bit worrisome that the collective will accept ANY woman who can breed, but only the top men.  As someone mentioned on the actual Metamor City website, why wouldn't every "useless" man just take the curse?  Sure, not everyone would be willing to become a woman, but if the top priority is to breed, it seems the collective would attempt to force the issue for non-productive men.  They sure don't seem to mind manipulating the lives of their members or their love lives.

I can't wait to see how this particular story arc will go.  From previous episodes, we already know that Victor will conceive a child with Abby, we know he will finally have a psychotic break and murder the unborn child, we know Victor will die.  I'm anxious to see how that will finally work out.  Victor is an interesting villain, and I can't wait to hear more about his eventual downfall.

And what about Sasha?  At the end of Episode 7 (Trouble Minds, Part 2), we hear that Abby is apparently part of the Brian's cell, including Rebecca and Fiona...but what happened to Sasha?  I can't imagine Fiona without her...or was there just not room for her in the vehicle? :P  Or am I reading too much into that?

With all of the characters in this story, I cannot believe that I've been able to keep track of everyone.  I usually have a really hard time with that.  But introducing the core group of Psi's in the beginning of Making the Cut was extremely helpful with that aspect...as well as having so many distinct voice actors.

> It is a bit worrisome that the collective will accept ANY woman who can
breed,
>  but only the top men.  As someone mentioned on the actual
Metamor City
> website, why wouldn't every "useless" man just take the
curse?

I discussed this a bit in the thread for a previous episode, but the gist of it is that Daniel is the first one who has had the balls (heh) to go through with the idea. Most of the Collective is not native to Metamor and would not have thought seriously about taking the Curse, even though it makes perfect sense to do so. I drew an analogy to Americans' refusal to adopt the metric system: just because something is completely logical and reasonable doesn't mean that people will do it, because people aren't completely logical and reasonable. I certainly can see the practice becoming much more common in future generations, but somebody had to be the first, and this is his story.

> it seems the collective would attempt to force the issue for
non-productive men.
> They sure don't seem to mind manipulating the
lives of their members or their
>  love lives.

While there might be a push in future generations to encourage low-powered males to take the Curse, I doubt it would become mandatory. The Hive rules by consensus, after all, and its members are free to leave at any time (assuming that they have settled all debts with the Collective, which was Daniel and Rebecca's problem). Even a gay male like Kevin has not been forced to have his sexual orientation altered, despite the fact that the Hive prefers its members to be hetero- or bisexual (for the sake of improved breeding efficiency). Ultimately the amount of pressure put on men to take the Curse will depend on how much of a success story Daniel and other "early adopters" turn out to be.

> And what about Sasha?  At the end of Episode 7 (Trouble Minds, Part 2),
> we hear that Abby is apparently part of the Brian's cell, including
Rebecca
> and Fiona...but what happened to Sasha?  I can't imagine Fiona
without
> her...or was there just not room for her in the vehicle? :P  Or
am I reading
> too much into that?

I will not comment on the specific membership of the Sommers cell at the time of "Troubled Minds", other than to say that not every member of the cell was in the skimmer. Somebody has to take care of the kids, after all. :)

Keep it on the bright side,

Chris