It’s kind of incredible the amount of nuance that was able to be packed into Annie’s arc in this episode. And yeah, I’ll credit that to the fact it was written by a woman. Those minor gripes I have about how the commentary was getting too broad was significantly more focused in this episode. It was an entirely new topic that dovetails from our primary thesis on fascism, but it works here because they use it as a detour to go right back into the central theming.
It feels like Annie finally gets the writing she deserves for her character and Hughie’s internal struggle is becoming so deeply conflicted. I’m kind of won over by it too because I like the questions it raises and I love how much the episode leaves open to suggest that all these events could play out very differently.
A couple issues I have here, though: I’m a little worn out on the closeted homosexual thing. It’s just another layer of slapping gay trauma onscreen—even weirder that it’s central to the same episode where Maeve is revealed also to be gay. Feels a little done before and in a religious setting it really only works out to be plot dressing for blackmail in Ezekiel. A minor gripe, maybe, but still. Additionally, I think we’re pushing our absolute limit on what’s going on with Butcher. It’s getting more difficult to be empathetic towards a character who is doing pretty awful things because I think there’s a genuine desire for us to want to like him, but the suggestion of prior hardship without spelling it out beyond cursory foreshadowing is difficult. I am FULLY aware this is intentional. I know they’re creating a dichotomy to later show us that he’s neither good nor bad, just complicated, but these types of characters perpetuate stereotypes of toxicity in men—especially when you see that literally every woman in this show is also facing hardship on some level.
Review by filmboicoleBlockedParentSpoilers2021-07-05T14:42:47Z
It’s kind of incredible the amount of nuance that was able to be packed into Annie’s arc in this episode. And yeah, I’ll credit that to the fact it was written by a woman. Those minor gripes I have about how the commentary was getting too broad was significantly more focused in this episode. It was an entirely new topic that dovetails from our primary thesis on fascism, but it works here because they use it as a detour to go right back into the central theming.
It feels like Annie finally gets the writing she deserves for her character and Hughie’s internal struggle is becoming so deeply conflicted. I’m kind of won over by it too because I like the questions it raises and I love how much the episode leaves open to suggest that all these events could play out very differently.
A couple issues I have here, though: I’m a little worn out on the closeted homosexual thing. It’s just another layer of slapping gay trauma onscreen—even weirder that it’s central to the same episode where Maeve is revealed also to be gay. Feels a little done before and in a religious setting it really only works out to be plot dressing for blackmail in Ezekiel. A minor gripe, maybe, but still. Additionally, I think we’re pushing our absolute limit on what’s going on with Butcher. It’s getting more difficult to be empathetic towards a character who is doing pretty awful things because I think there’s a genuine desire for us to want to like him, but the suggestion of prior hardship without spelling it out beyond cursory foreshadowing is difficult. I am FULLY aware this is intentional. I know they’re creating a dichotomy to later show us that he’s neither good nor bad, just complicated, but these types of characters perpetuate stereotypes of toxicity in men—especially when you see that literally every woman in this show is also facing hardship on some level.