If last week's penultimate episode was the show's dramatic peak, this finale is an elegiac send-off, with Mariko's loss really felt by all (and which Jarvis beautifully conveys that throughout). Sanada and (especially) Asano are really in top form throughout, especially during that cliff's climatic conversation. Great series.
Another solid episode to reward viewers who stuck through the slow start and made it this far. I'm glad they didn't try to adapt the incredibly lame "chat room" multi Jason reveal from the source material. The gun shop tease at the end of the previous episode left those who haven't read the book boiling over in suspense, and this episode delivered the payoff.
For the sake of the show, we'll ignore the fact that Blake Crouch doesn't comprehend the concept of infinity. If only a small fraction of an infinite number of Jasons made it back, the result is still an infinite amount. For example, half of infinity is still infinity. If 0.000001% of infinite Jasons made it back, then infinite Jasons made it back. That's just how it works.
Nonetheless, this makes for good "popcorn sci fi" if you don't think too hard about it. Don't even get me started on the quantum mechanics errors.
Anyway, all your questions should now be answered, with a big new question remaining. How do they handle all the Jason 1s? From their perspective, each one of them fought impossible odds across numerous realities to finally make it back to their family, following a similar journey as "our" Jason 1 with different decisions made along the way. Each of them are the "good Jason" and rightfully deserve to be with Daniella. So who gets her, and what about the others? Despite already knowing how the source material plays out, I find myself really looking forward to the finale.
[7.7/10] I love me some gray areas in my Star Wars. Don’t get me wrong, the light side vs. dark side stuff. But as I’ve grown older, I appreciate stories, including Star Wars stories, that acknowledge our communities and our choices are rarely that simple.
So I like the fact that the Nightsisters (or at least some kind of presumably related witches’ coven) are presented as a counterpoint to the Jedi, not the villains of the piece. This flashback serves a number of purposes. It gives us some of that vaunted backstory, to help us understand where Osha and Mae and Sol and others are coming from. It fills in the gaps of the events that loom so large in the histories of our twin protagonists, letting the audience see them (or most of them) after being tantalized by only being told about them so far.
But most of all, it establishes a different, but no less valid alternative to the force-users we know. We’ve seen the Jedi. We’ve seen the Sith. We’ve seen the Nightsisters who, while sometimes sympathetic (hello Fallen Order fans!), also seem to be harnessing some kind of black magic. We’ve seen the Bendu, who’s more neutral than gray. And we’ve even seen the more passive and meditative Bardottans. (Aka, the species Jar Jar’s girlfriend is from -- no I’m not joking.)
But we’ve never seen anything quite like this coven led by Osha and Mae’s mother, Mother Aniseya. I love that they have a different take on the Force. The coven thinks the Jedi view the Force as a power to be wielded, whereas they view it more as a thread, a tapestry between peoples and events, that can be tugged and pulled to cause changes amid that weaving. Their perspective on the Force is a collectivist one, where their connection to it is given strength by the multitude, in contrast to the Jedi’s view on attachments. And they don’t view the Force as directing fate, but rather as providing for choices -- one of the core ideas of the franchise.
That is all neat! One of the best parts of The Last Jedi is the notion that the Force does not belong to the Jedi. It is, instead, something that flows through all peoples. Exploring that there may be different religions out there, different means of reaching and interpreting it, adds depth ot he world and adds complication to the binary. It’s nearly never a bad thing to add that kind of complexity and ecumenical spirit to your universe.
More or less. One of the other things I appreciate is that the Coven and the jedi view one another with suspicion, even though they’re mutually respectful at first. The coven sees the Jedi as arrogant, too focused on power, too individualistic. The Jedi view the Coven as dark, as corrupting, as dangerous. I’m always a fan of shows that don’t present one perspective, but rather explore how the different vantage points affect the different views groups may have of one another. (Shades of Deep Space Nine from the other major star-bound franchise!)
This is all to say that the Coven is different than what we’re used to, but no less valid. The Jedi as we see them here are different than what we’re used to, but not invalid. And their twin approaches, alike in dignity, come through in the fulcrum between the Coven and the Order: Mea and Osha.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room with those two. The young actress (actresses?) who play the earlier version of the twins aren’t very good. That's no sin. Giving a convincing performance as an adult with years of experience remains startlingly difficult. But the reality is that, though these young actors are giving it their all, there is a put on, stagey quality to the performance that can take you out of the moment. I dearly hope the fandom is kind to them nonetheless. It’s tough being a young performer, especially in a high profile role. But despite a nice moment from Osha when she realizes the gravity of what she’s lost, a lot of the acting from the kiddos is apt to take the viewer out of the moment.
Thankfully, the writing helps make up for it. Not for nothing, given Lucasfilm’s current ownership, much of this feels like the first act of a film from the Disney Renaissance. Osha could be your classic Disney princess. She loves her family and wants to do good and be righteous, but she has this yearning for something different, beyond the garden gate. The episode lays it on a little thick in places, but it’s a venerable story beat for a reason. There’s something compelling about someone trying to make the best of a family situation that doesn’t quite fit them but yearning adventure out past the horizon. (I mean, hey, it worked for Luke Sykwalker.) Osha is roughly one “I want” song from joining the little mermaid and company.
What I like about it, though, is that you feel for all sides of this situation. You feel for Osha. She wants to have an existence separate from her twin. She doesn’t feel like she fits in with the Coven. She doesn’t want to disappoint her moms or her sister. But she doesn’t want to lie. She doesn’t want to deny herself. She doesn’t want to give up this thing inside her telling her she wants more, or at least different.
You feel for Mae. She admittedly, has signs of being the “evil” twin. (Though I guess they both seem to use their force powers to freeze that translucent butterfly? I’ll admit, it was confusing who was who there at points.) She feels at home in the Coven. She loves the immediate family and the wider one. She has power and ease, and the confidence that comes from feeling that you’re where you ought to be. In the end, she does a terrible thing, but she’s an eight-year-old lashing out at an unfortunate situation. In the larger than life confines of fiction, it’s an easy thing for me to forgive.
You feel for Mother Aniseya. She is trying to protect her people. She wants to raise her daughters in her own proud tradition. But she also wants them to find their own path to it. But, from the vantage point of being a little older and a little wiser, she knows that what you want can change. What makes sense in the exuberance of youth can fall out of favor when it makes contact with the knots and tangles of that great ethereal thread. Wanting to protect your child, to instill your values in theme, while respecting their autonomy as young people is an impossible balance. Aniseya handles it with understanding and grace.
Heck, you even understand Mother Koril, who is the more strict and belligerent parental figure here. The cultural conditions are mostly implied, but it’s easy to intuit how the Coven has been marginalized, diminished, possibly by Force. The girls represent their future, and it seems to have required a great deal of her and her partner to make that happen. Why wouldn’t she do anything to protect her girls, and mistrust the Jedi who would deign to take their future away from her and her family?
And you also feel for Sol. The Acolyte already conveyed a very fatherly vibe between him and Osha,but this episode cements it. I have my qualms about what happens to the young woman, but Sol seems searnest when he tells her that she could be a great Jedi, when he imparts that courage means pursuing honestly what you want, when he embraces her in the throes of tragedy and wants to take her on as a surrogate child. The estranged relationship between them in the present is counterbalanced by this fraught but touching connection between them in the past.
Of course, that past is no less slippery. For one thing, there’s still much that's alluded to that we don’t quite see. Presumably there was some conflict between the Jedi and the Coven that Osha wasn’t privy to, which we’ll see down the line. Presumably, it’s part of what spurred Mae to take the actions she did. Presumably it’s why there’s great regret among the Jedi who survived the encounter. And that's before you get into the fact that apparently Mother Aniseya channeled some forbidden magic, or at least did something controversial, to bring the twins’ lives into being. There’s plenty of lore and intrigue yet.
But for now, at least, we have two cultures at odds with one another, in ways that question and complicate our sympathies. This is Star Wars. We know who the Jedi are. We’re apt to side with them, to see them as Osha does, as peacekeepers and heroes of the galaxy. (Even if we’ve seen their ossification and dissolution over the course of the Prequels.) When Osha wants to be a Jedi, and her witch family tells her to lie, to deny herself what she wants in the same of something she’s uncertain about, it’s easy to see Indara and company as rescuers.
And yet, it’s also hard not to see this different means of reaching the Force, that is apparently all but outlawed, and not have serious qualms about the equivalent of religious persecution. The notion that the Coven is allowed to exist, but forbidden from passing on their knowledge to children is startling. It’s clear that there remains animosity between the Coven and the Jedi, born of mutual mistrust, with ostensible peacemakers and instigators. And it’s hard to think of Republic law allowing the Jedi to test and, with some permission, take children away to be taught in their fashion, without thinking of real life colonial schools, and so-called “residential schools” in the United States, that have a checkered history at best.
So while the show makes things a little too blunt with Mae and Osha standing across from one another on a broken bridge, you get the reasons behind the actions and anguish between these two young girls, between their various parents, between Jedi and the Coven. This is not black and white, good and evil, light and dark. This is something more muddled and uncertain than that. And it portends deeper and more interesting things as the mythos of Star Wars evolves before our eyes.
(Speculative spoilers: My bet is that Mae’s master is one of her moms, probably Mother Koril. THough I guess it being the comparatively peaceful and forgiving Aniseya would be a bigger twist. The law of conservation of characters suggests it’s one of them, unless it’s secretly Master Vernestra or something. But one of the moms would be the bigger emotional gut punch, so I presume and hope it’s one of them.)
CW caliber acting/writing. Stargate SG-1 caliber sets. Comic-con caliber make-up/costuming.
...and some of the dumbest Jedi ever...
This was a great episode but it made me wonder why did they lead the show and even bothered producing those first two absolute garbage episodes when they clearly are able to have decent ones like those last two?
Picking up the thread of the conversation two years after the first season is not easy. The plot of this series is quite intricate, and the messes that all the characters have don't make it easy. This first episode of the second season is excessively and needlessly too existentialist. Let's see how it goes on.
Weighing in as a book reader. I was disappointed with episode 6 being completely made up, not following the book. Well, they made up episode 7 too. The audacity of these show directors is mind boggling.
They actually did a pretty good job bringing the source material to the screen, but they absolutely butcherd it when they wrote original material. This is the same dumb and dumber director duo behind the last season of Game of Thrones, which they completely made up and ruined the series. BUT! They had good reason to do so, since Martin never finished the final book.
The Three Body Problem series is a complete trilogy. There was absolutely no reason to write an original plot...for two whole episodes out of an eight episode season. I can overlook the creative freedom they took with the characters. I just can't overlook them having the audacity to write their own plot.
Book 2 even goes into great detail about how nukes don't work in space (no atmosphere, no boom) and these two morons writing the show make nukes in space a major part of the plot. WHAT?! A complete slap in the face to Cixin Liu.
I do wonder what the police will make of all these dead ‘Jason’s’ they’ll keep finding
The fight scenes were quite impressive. I was not happy that Carrie Ann Moss was killed off right away. But overall a decent episode.
Somehow Giorgio is really grown on me. Now I’m a fan … it’s a great character.
It’s early days but Ncuti might have the best acting range of any doctor. As good as that episode was it’s a shame we have had some doctor-less episodes as I wanna see more of him.
Really interesting episode, not the "kids these days are on their phones all the time" kind one might have thought watching the trailer, but instead focuses on a much more serious issue surrounding the mentality of certain groups, and how those specific echo chambers function.
It's definitely an episode that is made by its ending. The hyperbole of the allegory might seem too exaggerated at first. But when things start falling into place it becomes clear that it serves a purpose and helps highlight the main message.
The final part is what makes the whole episode really work, for me the ending was quite fitting, given the point that the story was trying to get across, and Ncuti Gatwa was phenomenal in his performance, especially during the final scene.
The author of the book has the worst writing style I've ever read, but there was a mildly enjoyable story beneath the pretentious drivel and grammar errors. I was hoping the show would at least be decent.
So the show added a few new twists and somehow made it even more dumb than the book. Kind of funny knowing the author wrote the script for episodes 1-4 and somehow made his mediocre book even worse. Normally, you blame the adapter for messing up the source material. Make Blake Crouch 2 used a magic box to swap with Blake Crouch to write the show, and he came from a reality where he's somehow an even worse writer.
I also had to laugh when they exposition dumped the reason for Jason2 swapping with Jason. Like, it was implied in episode 1 and then confirmed in episode 2 and redundantly confirmed again in episode 3. In case you were comatose for the past few episodes or are reeeaaaaaallllllly bad at connect the dots, they spell it out explicitly and act like it's a big dramatic reveal.
I'll give this one more episode. Episodes 5-8 were adapted and written by a team of writers, not Blake Crouch. Hopefully they can salvage the back half of the series.
These "smart people" are so frustratingly dumb. It's just... AAAAAAAA!!!
From a somewhat interesting start this show really turned into a shitshow with absolutely ludicrous story, total absence of actual science and populated with drama queens, selfish morons and pacifists.
And the probe? Humanity's survival is at stake and they create something that breaks apart from shoddy manufacturing?
Did they get some DEI hire from Boeing to put it together?
I hope “our” Jason and Amanda are in another (third) universe, because it would be hard to explain why the box connects only two specific universes.
OMG! A major WOKE hit in this episode. Will they ever wise up?
Are you giving a negative review simply because you didn't understand the first episode? Should a television series be expected to tell its story in a straightforward manner from beginning to end? Or should we not pay attention to other aspects, such as cinematography, set design, and acting?
I would suggest that individuals with such preferences might enjoy watching "SpongeBob SquarePants" instead.
This show goes from strength to strength. Great pacing, acting, sets, music, the works! If you're not watching it, and can handle subtitles, then i suggest you find it and make some time.
The fifa logo for the banner :skull::skull:
UPDATE 3/18 6:50 PM EST: they finally updated it :joy:
I think this show is falling apart little to no funny left at all
You know fourteen seasons in I wouldn’t have guessed Linda and Louise would be my favorite dynamic, but honestly they’re a strong contender. Louise and Bob are obviously excellent too and home to many a heartwarming moment, but Louise and Linda are catching up. And what make them so rewarding is that it’s changed over time. Bob was always Louise’s favorite, and she and Linda had trouble connecting. What they have now is hard won over the course of the entire show, and now it’s so clear that so much of Louise’s daring nature, unabashed attitude, and unwavering sense of confidence and self comes from Linda. And seeing them vibe is so much fun. Linda is Louise after adulthood has given her (what even Linda would often consider boring) sense and wisdom, but all that means is she’ll say things that’d come out of Louise’s mouth like ‘let’s just hit them over the head with a heavy object’ and the only difference is she’ll reluctantly take it back.
It makes for a funny episode, but also one with a nice emotional throughline of Linda wanting to build upon and maintain this bond. That anxiety is deeply sympathetic, and so is Louise’s sense of betrayal at finding out what she thought was a partnership being her mother indulging her. This matters to Louise too, and nothing riles or hurts her more than being treated like ‘just’ something- just a kid, just a girl- instead of as Louise. And again they meet each other halfway. Linda believes in Louise’s convictions and lets her go after the jellyfish, and Louise indulges in both her mother’s and her own hidden but well established deep sentimentality for her family by hanging up seventeen whole dollars as a beloved memorial of something cool she did with her mom. It just hits for me. It pays off of 14 years of investment in the two’s relationship.
Also rewarding is the continued acknowledgement of the movie, for devoted fans. The B plot is just plain fun and more of Bob’s Burgers loving passionate and quirky weirdos. The pipe sequence is a surprisingly affecting capper to it all, and the show is unashamedly gleeful about each performance. It’s infectious, especially from Bob and Teddy. And to top it all off, a bit of Fischoder with killer delivery and lines. What more could you want from a Bob’s Burgers episode?
Fantastic and unpredictable turn of events. What a rebellious episode.
I don't know if it's the actress, the character, or both, but "Auggy" is the most obnoxious and irritating character I've seen in quite a while. Tiresome af, tarnishes any scene she's in.
This episode really gets the story pushed along.
As a person who never actually got into Halo the video game, and didn't know anything about the story, this series is still just as captivating and epic and well made. Easily one of my favorite things to watch!
2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024-12-31T23:59:59Z