A powerful farewell performance by Delores. I have to admit that she seemed a bit stiff in the early episodes, but she really came into her own over time, especially in this one. That parting scene with Five...never before have I seen so much emotion expressed with so few words.
It was nice to see that Ace Chemicals made some safety improvements after the earlier, um, incident. Oh, wait.
As was the case with the first season's finale, they did a great job of wrapping things up here while giving some hints of what the gang might be facing just down the road. Sadly, I've read that the show has been canceled, so I'm once again left to wonder why a show as creative, original and fun as this one this struggles to find an audience while millions and millions tune in for things like the 483rd repetition of the same tired police procedural or sitcom with its canned laughter...
It was super considerate of Bobbie's nephew to give his aunt the opportunity to vent some perfectly understandable frustrations.
Nothing whatsoever happens to advance the season hack arc, but this is an incredible episode that brings together a lot from all four years of the show and provides a ton of insight into both Elliot and what all has driven him to this point. Great stuff, and it will certainly drive his actions for the remainder of the season and series.
The actor who played Vera needs to submit this one for an award or ten. The rest of the limited cast here was terrific, as well.
Let's hope that Trenton was telling the truth about that automated email...
Brilliant. Just freaking brilliant. I don't know what they're smoking in the writers' room, but someone really needs to ensure that they never run out of it. Ever. Not only was this one crazy stupid bonkers in the usual very good way, but it also did an amazing job of revisiting earlier episodes from this season and tying it all together with the current outing while, at the same time, giving some hilarious alternative endings to what we've seen before. Did I mention that this was brilliant?
A solid outing until that insanely stupid final twist. I imagine that Liv's thought process went something like this: "While I'm breaking all sorts of laws, I should probably sit here wearing headphones and listening to music so that I can't hear my roommate, who is a lawyer for the city, when she comes home. And I should make sure that my laptop screen is facing the door to my room in order to make it as easy as possible for my roommate, who is a lawyer for the city, to immediately see that I'm breaking all sorts of laws when she walks into my room and surprises me. Because being surprised by my roommate, who is a lawyer for the city, is something that will work out well for me when I'm breaking all sorts of laws."
Something like 90% of the Naomi stuff in this one is a waste of time. A well done waste of time, but a waste of time nonetheless. It just kills the overall pacing of the episode and is WAY too much soap and way too little sci-fi. Throw in the fact that there is no Amos and only a brief bit of "Chrissy" and it all adds up to a rare disappointment for me, and one that feels like it lasted every minute of its runtime.
Wow. Just...wow. I have to imagine that Michael Cristofer read this script and then went out and bought the writers a nice bottle or ten of single malt. What an EPIC exit for a fantastic character. Every single moment of Phillip's verbal exchange with Whiterose in this one was terrific, and Wong was no slouch here, either. Phillip was stalling for time and used that time to taunt and mock Whiterose, who was just a step behind in figuring it all out for the entire hour. Just phenomenal.
Things are really getting interesting. And I'm starting to wonder if there's not more to Becca's story than what she told Billy...
The writers and directors and the young actor continue to do a solid (and often subtle) job of evolving Bruce Wayne into what he's destined to be. Still, if I had to pick one scene to show to a newbie as being symbolic of the series as a whole, it just might be the scene with Lee wheeling a very pregnant Babs down a dark hallway while Babs is firing two guns from her wheelchair. It is just so incredibly perfect for this show.
Philip is awesome. His character arc has led him to such a decent place that I'm convinced that he's gonna end up dying. I can only hope that I'm wrong.
The scene where Clive stopped Liv from bringing up the sockpuppet from under the interview table was a thing of beauty. The charm of season one continues to be present in season three, and that's a good thing.
Many people might say that nothing much happened in this episode until the final few minutes. And to the extent that they are correct, it was some of the most beautiful "nothing" that I've seen in quite a while. In an episode full of moments worthy of awards, none stands out more than the scene between a suicidal Elliot and Trenton's little brother at a mosque.
Psychologically and emotionally, the entire series up to now can be summed up by an exchange later in the episode between Elliot and Angela, where Elliot brings up a "wishing game" that he and Angela used to play as children. "After we made all our wishes, we'd close our eyes really hard, hoping that when we opened them, it'd all come true," Elliot says. "And we thought the harder we closed them, the stronger our wishes would be. And even though they never came true, we still liked doing it. Because the ending was never our favorite part, anyway. It was the wishing. I didn't get that at first. You remember what you used to say to me right before we opened our eyes that would make it all better?"
Angela, hurting every bit as much as Elliot, takes a moment before replying. "No matter what happens, we'll be okay."
By this point, Elliot has decided not to delete himself after all. "That's the thing about deletion. It's not always permanent. There are many reasons why you wanna recover a file you just deleted. When you have that moment of panic, where it hits you, where that thing you thought had no value suddenly becomes important. Where you suddenly find new purpose for it. Maybe there are still things left for me to do."
For Elliot, one of those things is to restore some digital data that Trenton had sent to him and that had previously gone unread. Specifically, an email that she referenced in the previous episode. An email that Elliot now reads. An email that begins with: "I may have found a way to undo the hack."
Amazing episode.
This show continues to be the only CW supes show that still remembers to bring the fun. ARROW never did, being dark and dreary from day one. THE FLASH gave it up a while back for some reason and opted to go down the ARROW road. SUPERGIRL is pure relationship soap opera these days. But LEGENDS? Its braintrust continues to offer plenty of crazy, brainless fun. And props to them for that.
This week it's Slater's turn to show off his acting props. And they are considerable here. His monologue when Elliot invites him back is done extremely well -- neither overplayed nor underdone -- and also reminds us that he is NOT Elliot's dad; rather, he has done his best to be Elliot's protector and has tried to have his back. And along those lines, it may be up to him to convince Elliot to go through with the hack...
Mona has been a terrific addition and single-handedly made the B-plot better than the A in this one. (Although Hank fanboying all over Hemingway wasn't bad, either.)
Cisco and Gypsy have relationship issues because plot. Seriously, can't they pop in on each other's worlds more easily than the rest of us can move across town? So why not just be a couple and spend some of their free time together there and some of their free time together here? Why so much soapy drama over something so incredibly stupid and easily solved? So Cisco wants to wake up next to her every morning? No problem. Breach there or have her breach here, spend your quality time together and then breach back to your own world the same way most couples part in order to go to different jobs every day. It would be one thing if there were only a finite number of breaches possible or if each breach was incredibly costly in some way. But that's not the case and, again, it's beyond stupid. It's like watching two people cry every time one of them has to walk through a door and into a different room.
Bottom line: this one had some good moments, but none of them could possibly drag it up very far up from the lows of the completely contrived, tedious and extremely soapy Cisco/Gypsy story line.
Felicity had no lines of dialogue and barely made a cameo appearance, making this the best episode of the show in more than five years.
Given how many characters needed to be introduced here, it's impressive that they were able to squeeze in any plot at all, let alone handle both the characters and the plot so smoothly. Not bad at all for a premiere.
Oh, joy. It's time for the musical episode that I've so been looking forward to. (That was sarcasm in case it was unclear.) All of the regulars have major roles in the school musical, of course, because there are really only about ten or twelve people going to Riverdale High while everyone else we occasionally see in school hallways is someone wandering in off the streets, or something. After fast-forwarding through the music, this one features all sorts of reconciliations. Except for Cheryl. That one kinda sorta goes the other way when it comes to her and her mom. I'm pretty sure that there might be some dysfunction going on there. And that final twist? Awesome. The sort of thing that hooked me on this show in the first place. Poor Midge. But hey, her loss is the show's gain.
Aaaaaand we get Audrey's long-anticipated return, only to learn that she's a bitter, nasty, foul-mouthed shrew. Lovely. Not as bitter as me at this point, of course, since that would be nearly impossible, but pretty close. In any case, that was fifteen minutes' of viewing pleasure right there because nothing says "entertainment" like the return of a classic character in such an ugly and unlikable way. It also came across as two people reading their parts from a script that had been handed to them five minutes before filming began. Earlier on, we had more time well spent in the form of a French hooker who needed three minutes to make it five paces from Gordon's hotel room sofa to the door, followed by Albert needing another three minutes to relay five seconds worth of information. Because there's no better way to spend those five minutes and 55 seconds, either. And we learn that Sarah Palmer has issues with turkey jerky and that the trailer park manager doesn't want his tenants to give too much blood at the hospital. And we got a random scene out of nowhere that showed us that Dougie isn't much of a baseball player. Just in case, you know, we forgot what Dougie's like. We did get maybe ten minutes' worth of relevant information and actual plot advancement, but who cares anymore? Honestly, I can't think of a single character whose fate really matters to me at this point. All I know is that LOST is in serious danger of losing its top spot on my Most Impressive Crash-and-Burns of the 21st Century list. And I will cope with my disappointment with liberal doses of snark and sarcasm.
I'm so glad to have this one back. None of the sestras is having a good day, but that scene with Donnie ditching Alison was hilarious. Not just the running away part, but the tiny rolling bag. That he was rolling. Through the woods.
The time jumps are already starting to trip me up. They're also making it obvious that it's not worth getting too invested in any of the characters since they may not be around for very long at all, one way or another. I'm also completely unimpressed by the fact that we were given absolutely NOTHING in terms of an explanation for what transpired at the end of the last episode.
Not bad. Fitz is still awesome, May gets a couple of good fight scenes, and that entangled portal trick is cleverly executed. But speaking of doorways, someone's gonna have to explain to me why you'd build a ship with an airlock on one side and a door that opens directly into space on the other side.
An okay start to the final season, but a bit disappointing. In particular, I have to question why they spent over 12 minutes on digging up William's grave there at the end. It's obvious what the goal was, but did we have to see all of that? Dig, dig, dig. Shovel, shovel, shovel. Not the sort of thing that puts the "thrill" in "thriller."
Amazing performances all around once again. Props to the actors for having it in them and to Esmail for getting it out of them. Granted, none of the plots were advanced much, but that hardly matters when you can deliver what this outing delivered.
For a show that consistently has some of the best dialogue out there, this was even better than usual. An A+++ effort, and the talented cast did a terrific job of delivering it. The actor who plays Eliot, in particular, really did a fantastic job in this one.
Another terrific hour of a terrific show. I hated to see some good people killed in that "mutiny," and none more so than Souther, who I'd been hoping would at least be around long enough to see Avasarala again. At this point, I'm hoping that Nguyen, Mao and Dr. Evil all meet slow and painful deaths soon.
