Now, this is a difficult episode to write about. On the one hand its an acting tour-de-force and pushes characters in new directions. On the other hand it sometimes tips into really silly territory and turns Dukat into a comic book villain instead of the nuanced, multifaceted character he's been up until this point.
I can't help but feel that it's trying to evoke a similar feeling to the amazing episode 'Duet', which was way back in season 1. It doesn't come close to that overall, but it does achieve a very satisfying back-and-forth between two strong characters. Sisko and Dukat get to really go at it and explore all the aspects of their relationship, finally letting the truth burst out. The actors both give it their all and along with the script they manage to create some truly captivating viewing.
But it's sprinkled throughout the episode rather than being consistent. The lulls are made up for by the excellent scenes with Dukat and his "demons", those being the exaggerated imagined versions of Damar, Kira and Weyoun. These three really move the episode along and provide gorgeously over-the-top caricatures of the real characters - and so much of what they say is true to the real ones while being far more honest and direct.
The episode fumbles things a bit with an unsatisfactory ending in which Dukat just becomes unhinged and accepts his new evil ways. It's hard to not see it as Benjamin pushing him towards that rather than trying to reign him in. At the same time, the truth is liberating and there's a morbid fascination in seeing Dukat admit that he should have killed every single Bajoran when he could.
The scenes on board the Defiant are also troublesome, notably from Bashir and O'Brien who seem to think that Sisko is more important than the thousands of Federation troops their supposed to be protecting. O'Brien even looks disappointed when the find two survivors and they aren't people he knows. It does all lead to a great moment when Worf gets to casually, and authoritatively, put Bashir in his place.
An episode that was aiming higher than it managed to reach, but is still quite captivating. On a side note, I'm watching Voyager alongside this and I can't imagine it ever producing something of this ambition or substance. The writing and characters on that show are just laughable in comparison to the complexity that has developed here.
Is that a sequel to The X-Files? To me that whole FBI agent plot (who has encountered a Vulcan reconnaissance team long before Cochrane allegedly made first contact?) seems totally pointless. Is that of any consequence to the main story? Or is Picard just free to go and won't see Fox Mulder ever again? If that's the case this episode is another inconsequential mediocre filler episode for the most part. A 6/10. The other part with the hunt for Jurati and what she tries to use Soong for is probably more important - but that's only a small part of this episode.
The only interesting part is perhaps the Q/Guinan interaction. Since TNG I wonder, where (or when) these two races have crossed each other's paths. I have to admit that I still don't understand Q's game. But Picard and Guinan obviously don't get it either. Jurati (aka the Queen) revealing parts of her plan to Soong is equally mysterious and hard to understand. Let me get this right:
So the Borg, who mysteriously appear from yet another timeline or an extra dimensional pocket of space, summoned Picard in episode 1/2. They almost killed him, so that Q rescued Picard from death (why would the Borg know that's gonna happen?) and hurled him into the alternate "Terran" timeline, that Q branched off from the regular timeline by manipulating Renée in 2024. The Borg knew (Why? And how could they know at this point since Q supposedly created this timeline only after making the decision to rescue Picard?) that in this alternate timeline (which must be yet another timeline than the one the Borg ship emerged from) there was a Borg queen imprisoned by humans. This Borg Queen was the last of her kind in this alternate timeline. She was awaiting her execution. This would mean the total eradication of the Borg in this timeline. They were defeated by mankind. In this alternate reality, this last Borg Queen lured Picard into time traveling to 2024 Earth pretending that's where the timeline could be fixed. She needed Picard to escape from her 24th century execution. For two reasons: she trusted Picard would free her for morale reasons and - of course - alternative Picard was supposed to be her executioner and was the only one who had the chance to liberate her. But in reality this Queen wanted to go back to 2024 to execute her own cunning plan. In 21st century California she wanted to stop Renée (who - for whatever reasons - is a Picard ancestor? It's that important?) so that this dreadful alternative Terran timeline prevails (It's not clear what Q was up to... He wanted to stop Renée, too. Why? Only to branch off the alternate timeline where he'd Picard fling into? His intervention as her shrink must have had the desired effect: before Picard intervened, Q created an alternate path where she was determined not to fly into space and which ultimately led to the universe of in which Picard became this cruel warrior in the first place. Why wanted Q Picard hurl into this terrible version of the universe? I don't get it. And why do the Romulans represented by the watcher try to protect Renée? Or don't they protect - just observe? How do they know that Renée will be important to the future of the galaxy? And if they knew, why doesn't this particular watcher - is she Laris or not? - doesn't have any clue wether it's best to help or stop Renée from being launched into space?) Back to the Queen: She never wanted to revert the timeline back to the timeline Picard came from. That was just a pretense. She wanted to change this timeline in a different way: Her cunning plan is to assimilate Earth before humans will become a threat. Stopping Renée will somehow preserve the Terran timeline (for reasons not known to us 'cause we don't know what the Europa mission will discover) and she knows this (cause she knew what Q has manipulated? How does she know?). Only preserving this Terran timeline will give the Borg Queen the chance to have a 400 years headstart (the other timeline where Renée flies into space won't allow her plan to materialize. Why? Wouldn't that equally allow her to quickly assimilate the whole Earth before Renée is even back from Europa? And if that's so, why didn't she travel to a time in the year 2024 in which the Europa rocket has been launched w/o Renée, who was discouraged by Q anyway?) During this 400 years time period she would have all the time in the world to assimilate humankind. In a couple of decades the rest of the Borg will eventually expand their space into the alpha quadrant (if the timeline we know from TNG and VOY is an indicator when the Borg will be able to reach Earth) and this Borg Queen (or her successors) will reunite with the collective. By keeping the alternate "Terran" timeline intact she would prevent regular's TNG (in which the Borg are also controlling vast stretches of the galaxy) timeline from ever happening. The Borg would dominate humankind in that alternate timeline long before those violent Terrans even started to develop warp technology and ultimately will have had the chance to defeat the Borg. And then there's Soong who seems to be important to both Q and the Borg Queen, right? Why? This part of the story is still shrouded in mysterious fog
Is that the general idea? Hmmm.... probably not even close. But you see my point right? Who is supposed to understand that w/o consulting the Memory Alpha wiki article? When does a plan become too convoluted to be a believable plan? When does a show's plot become too convoluted to be enjoyable?
Me: Agents of SHIELD is one of my favorite shows ever!
Also me: * falls practically an entire season behind and frantically scrambles to catch up before the finale *
Ah, the duality of man.
I do have to say though, binge watching 10 episodes in the last one and a half days has made one thing quite clear: this season truly had everything and the kitchen sink, didn't it? Space travel! Daisy and Jemma high on alien LSD! FitzSimmons trapped in a mind prison (yes, best episode ever)! Fake Coulson! LMD Coulson! Space bats turning people into zombies! An ancient alien deity kinda thing in a terrible wig! Deke's influencer girlfriend! The Monoliths! Time travel! I could go on! And I loved every second of it!
Good season finale overall. It went by so fast, there was so much action and thrills. It set up season 7 really nicely and I personally cannot wait for the next adventure. To be honest, halfway through the episode I expected them to kill most of the team so that the rest could pull an Avengers: Endgame and go back in time to try and fix things, but I like this outcome too. Sure, I could complain about a thing or two (like the fact that the writers apparently forgot about Snow or that making us think May might be dead just to turn it around 2 minutes later kinda takes the emotional impact out of the whole thing), but if y'all know me, you know I'm not really the type to focus on the negatives. And I don't mind the fact that they cannot seem to stop bringing Clark Gregg back. I didn't expect anything else. He is who the show was created for in the first place, after all.
Now, recently it's been announced that season 7 will be the final season. And I'm not even gonna pretend that I'm not devastated about it. Yeah, yeah, I expected this show to get canceled last year, so the fact that we know it's coming to an end a year ahead of time and that they're getting to end it on their own terms is a blessing. That's the best any of us TV watchers can hope for. Plus, 7 seasons is a terrific run for any show, much less one as criminally underrated as this one.
But then I think about the fact that the cast has already wrapped up filming the final season. I think about this SHIELD family going their separate ways. And my heart grows heavy with sadness.
I'm not ready to say goodbye.
Still, we as viewers have that last hurrah to look forward to. Bring it on.
Now at last an episode up to the first season's standards.
FIrst because MR WORLD IS BACK! Thank the gods, old and new.
What a surprise, turns out Bilquis eating out Steve Jobs was not a very smart move. Who could have seen this ? But that also brings a little interest in Shadow's actions, with an unlikely good cop/bad cop duo with Technical Boy that was funny as hell.
Where are all the other African gods ? Have they disappeared ? None of them want to take part in the war ?
There seemed to have been some interesting ideas with Marilyn Manson's character, guess we'll don't get to see it. But buck naked Odin going at the cars was gold. Obvious plot to get into the asylum, but he could at least have warned Cordelia.
And Laura's resurrection part was good too. Does she still have superpowers ? And can she bring back Sweeney from ashes with his coin ? I doubt it, the coin was his luck, not his life. Very cute that the blood infused with love turned out to be his. And wow, Samedi's potion is no joke as she was even brought back from this state.
MY THOUGHTS ON SEASON 2:
-WARNING: Spoilers Below-
I'm going to start this off with a question, why does everyone dislike this season so much? I found it so enjoyable to watch and I actually liked it just as much as Season 1.
Yeah this season lacked the flare that season 1 had but that doesn't make it bad in the slightest. Its story was decent and was fun to follow. I love how they're slowly showing the early stages of the war that's begun between the New Gods and the Old Gods. Personally I feel like the New Gods are going to win this but who knows? Maybe Shadow Moon has something up his sleeve that'll bring the win for the Old Gods?
One of the moments that completely shocked me was when the New Gods decided to fight back and shot up the store and in doing so killed Zorya. That was such an upsetting death, seeing the pain in Mr. Wednesday's eyes whilst he watched her die was heartbreaking. The scene when Czernobog laid his curse was so powerful though, i had so many goosebumps whilst watching it. 10/10 for the emotion there.
A strong character in this season was Mad Sweeney. He was incredible in season 1 and he hit the ball out the park yet again in season 2. Every scene with him in it was absolutely brilliance. How someone can act so well is beyond me. It was so painful to watch him die by Shadow Moon though. It was understandable though, seeing as he no longer owed Mr. Wednesday a single thing and he wanted payback, its just a shame such a brilliant character had to die like that. What I do wonder though is if Gods can come back, can Mad Sweeney? Hopefully Season 3 answers that question. And hopefully if its a new actor he'll be able to be just as good as Pablo Schreiber was.
One of my favourite episodes has to be "House on the Rock". The scene where the Gods had their meeting together and you got to see all of them in their "true" forms was great. It wasn't too major of a scene but the character design and the effects then were incredible. I also really enjoyed how not everyone is siding with Mr. Wednesday and how Shadow Moon admitted he believes in Mr. Wednesday, it was such a powerful moment.
I don't have as much to write for this season due to it feeling much quicker than the first. It was extremely enjoyable to watch but there wasn't as many plot elements that I personally picked up on to write about. I'm extremely excited for Season 3, can't wait to see how they'll play out the war that's brewing, how Czernobog will act after the death of Zorya and whether or not someone will return as Mad Sweeney. Definitely glad I watched this.
