Good episode that one. Lots of things to comment on. I love coincidences and casualities and seeing Barry in Dr Wells wheelchair was incredible. Not to say seeing Harry Wells in the Reverse Flash suit (I have to confess that I got excited). I love the way Tom Cavanagh plays his roles, absolutely different to one another, but brilliant. He is amazing. Indeed, Cisco training Harry to be Wells was hillarious, even when he asked him to say that famous sentence. It was cool to see their different reactions to that sentence (Cisco's expression was like holy crap! whereas Wells was like wtf). The Wells dynamic is gold! When Cisco said "give me Your best Wells" I couldn't laugh more. The same happened when he said "up the creep factor". That one was pure gold. And seeing Wells back in the Reverse Flash suit was wow, pretty haunting. Even the way he talked to Grodd made me think that he is still hiding something. I love seeing a bit of the Wells we all knew.
Besides, as Barry spends most of the episode on the wheelchair, we get to know more of the dynamic Cisco-Wells, which is something I've been eaiting for since Harry appeared at STAR labs.
This episode was not only about Grodd, but also about Barry's fears and trauma, which I liked a lot. I still think that Zoom is Barry's dad and, until someone tells me the opposite (which I wish, otherwise it will disappoint me to know it from the very first episodes) I will think the same. And come on, he appears just after Zoom, too obvious to tjink that Henry csn be Zoom. Anyway, seeing Henry back is so great. He shouldn't have left so soon and the way he did.
I love what the scriptwriter do in The Flash, those film references! That ending reminded me so much to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but with giant ones. Moreover, Caitlin's clothes and the fact that Grodd keeps her locked in a huge building...absolutely amazing.
Far and away the best episode Agents of Shield has ever produced. The only episode that can give it a run for its money is last season's spotlight episode on how May earned her nickname. There's a lesson there -- centering an episode on an individual story, particularly one that centers around one of the better actors in the cast, gives the show a focus that is often lacking when trying to juggle multiple intersecting plotlines at once.
This was a hell of a showcase for Elizabeth Henstridge. The production design team helped. (Production design as a plus in 'Agents of Shield"? I"m as surprised as you are.) The blue tint was a cheap way to sell the alienness of the world, but it totally worked, and the dessert topography really sold the desolateness of the environment and contributed to the sense of hopelessness in that world.
But Henstridge is what made the episode work. She sold the isolation, the small moments of crestfallen loneliness and discouragement, the little joys of success and friendship, the simple humanity of a survival story. Her burp, her wistfulness when she says "My dad would like you," and her conversations with an imaginary Fitz (a nice nod toward Fitz doing the same routine last season) all made her feel like a three-dimensional person in an extreme situation. There's a sense that this is Marvel's take on 'Castaway' or even 'Last Man on Earth', and doing this kind of laser-focused narrative requires a lot of the actors involved. These types of stories are, by necessity, character pieces; Henstridge was more than up to the challenge, and it deepened my appreciation for Simmons.
The actor who played Will was pretty good as well, and while his story could have felt too cliche, it worked in the context of the episode as a whole. Really, this felt like a well-structured science fiction short story as much as it did an episode of an ongoing series, and that's not a knock. Knowing Fitz and Simmons's relationship helped give certain moments more weight and significance, but it could almost work as a standalone piece. That's how strong and self-contained this was.
There was also a legitimate sense of menace from the planet. The zomibe-like astronaut, the tentacle creature, and the dust storms all suggested something frightening and alien about this world. It prompted so many great emotional moments from the two characters stuck on it. Doing an episode like this, so unlike AoS's usual M.O., was something of a gamble, but it paid off like gangbusters here.
6.8/10
Lincoln is one of the most boring characters on a show that has had to fight accusations that it's dull. Focusing the main story of the episode on him was a recipe for doldrums that the show lived up to. Even seeing him go all Static Shock on the power lines or bus or guards didn't do much for me. Accidentally killing a friend who's mistrustful of you should be a meaningful event, but it was constructed so haphazardly, and with such an uninteresting character, that I barely cared. The lack of chemistry between him and Skye/Daisy meant that I only groaned when they kissed. Daisy herself has had to overcome bland mary sue characterization, and pairing her with a piece of stubbly milquetoast doesn't do anything to help that.
I did appreciate Coulson's part of it. I go back and forth on his interactions with Rosalind. On the one hand, at times it feels like a dinner theater version of Hepburn and Tracy. On the other hand, when things are clicking, it makes Coulson feel like a human being and not just a delivery mechanism for exposition, high-minded ideals, and ill-fitting quips. I'm cautiously optimistic about the storyline, and especially pleased that they tied it to Coulson learning lessons from the "Real Shield" debacle.
Hunter and May's storyline worked well enough, as they're two of the better characters on the show, even if the "fight club to get into Hydra" plot felt a bit tacked on. May struggling to not just get right down to business in the pub while Hunter and his mate were Brit-ing it up was amusing, and her and Hunter feinting toward what happened during May's vacation was nice. I was surprised at how bloody they let the Hunter fight get, and it's always nice to see May kicking some ass, even if it felt shoehorned in. Again, we'll see where it goes.
And as usual, Fitz and Simmons are the best thing about the show, with Fitz doing everything he can to get things back to normal even if it's not what Simmons needs, and Simmons convincingly showing the psychological scars from her experiences. Are Fitz and Simmons's storylines any better than anyone else's? Probably not, but they're better actors than most on the show, and they sell the emotional undercurrent of all of their stories, which gives them greater weight than anyone but May can muster.
(Oh, and what was with all of the dutch angles in this episode? Seemed like a weird quirk in the way the episode was shot.)
There are two things that bugged me in this episode:
Rose, the actor for Liv, seems to have issues staying serious while acting. You see her smiling several times when she says her lines and it gets cut shortly after. At minute 3, when she turns back to the corpse for example.
Or the significant amount of scenes where she generally seems too lively. This was the opposite in episode 1. While there she said at the end she can step her game up, she's still undead. Even if she eats the brain of an artist who's upbeat and she behaved like that even before she did.
The second thing is the zombie make-up. From scene to scene it sometimes looks very unevenly applied, especially around the eyes and you can see it when Liv raises her eyebrows.
Other than that I loved it. The "lesson" at the end was great. The chemistry between Ravi and Liv felt much more natural. The introduction of the second zombie was better than I expected.
But I must admit, that I do understand if people don't like this show. It's - at least so far - nowhere near an action/suspense driven show, it seems to be one of those lesson at the end of each episode type of shows. These tend to be less good received overall.
This episode gets bonus points for a female character being protective of a male character as well as the male objectification through a female without any kind of specific buildup or social comment on it as if it is natural. Something that is usually not done in our oh so equality centered society/media but frowned upon when it is vice versa.
You did it "The 100", you did it.
You left us last week with a bait-and-switch bisexuality storyline that possibly and probably hinted towards actual dynamical characterization, only to have those hopes dashed and smashed and scattered to the winds, and then you pulled an almost complete 180 to make everything meaningful and interesting again.
How many times will I continue to fall for this?
Infinitely, if not 100, at least, I'd pre-suppose.
So, last week was basically the worst possible episode imaginable. Everything that was built-up and worked towards was all but obliterated with random acts of blindness as each and every character seemed to forget all notions of sanity and reason, leaving everything at face value.
We even learn that allllllll the bone marrow transplant army mountain dudes, except the crazy Son King under the Mountain and his right-hand generic brutish white-dude-stooge were killed in Clarke's Gambit... which honestly just made it more incoherent as to why Lexa surrendered.
Personally, I'm starting to question the saliency of the feminism in this racistly-depicted matriarchal warrior society, and perhaps Lexa's appointment is a post-apocalyptical role of blame funneling.
In a society of warriors, you can have a small, fancy lady queen, so long as we can all blame her for all our problems.
Point-in-fact, the PCP super-heroin drugging that generates the "Reapers". It's a persistence of the "Mountain Men" society of war-ready American (or, AMERICAN) descendents objectifying the external, the others in society, to be their blood property, while also building a subset of warrior-warring people-pets who maintain the "order" and delineation.
Perhaps -- as is most explicable and rational in the face of the irrationality of events -- Lexa's surrender was an ingrained notion of inferiority to the "Mountain Men", which Clarke entirely failed to recognize.
This, I could understand. It'd be deeply horrifying, but it'd be far more understandable.
And as this episode showed in a near-completely brutalistic manner, Clarke jumps to action out of worry, even without rationale or reason. Not only did she save (some of) her people, but she ended-up doing exactly what she wanted to prevent ... she painfully and horrifically obliterated the "Mountain Men", women, and children. She even all-but-line-of-sight-directly killed Jasper's girlfriend, who spent the last 12 episodes consistently saving and supporting every single one of Clarke's people ... even sacrificing her own friends and family for the righteousness of the cause of anti-blood-slavery.
Yet, what is just soooooo infuriating, but weirdly so exemplified, is this persistent delusion of exclusion that Clarke has for her nearest and dearest.
Finn objectively went entirely insane. He had a Nazi-ish massacre of a couple dozen of people under his belt, all based on noticing Clarke's dad's watch. A flimsier rationale could not be designed. Especially not for everything that happened, with Finn's twelve dozen "oops! my finger slipped" insane and persistent reactions as he kept gunning-down person after person, for absolutely and entirely no reason. And then it took three episodes for Clarke to finally mercy-kill him to spare him from a public flaying (a.k.a., a fully conscious separation of his body from his skin).
The frustration is consistently in the pacing and tone. There is absolutely no distinction between the rampaging idiotic murder of dozens of "Grounders", and the absolutely, entirely boring courtship of emotional reticence between Raven and Engineer McGentleman Scruff, Esq..
Clarke will kill a dad to revenge against -- not even coerce, just fully and irrationally and irreconcilably pre-revenge -- a son, then subject dozens of ostensibly innocent men, women, and children to excruciating and inescapable radiation poisoning, and then apparently reconnect with the mother who sent her to prison and orchestrated her own husband's murder for political maintenance, in the span of all but 20 seconds.
I mean ... hormones and the moon are real things, but like, come on, you guys. Seriously, I mean, come on. Is anyone really this entirely cynical and callous and unstable?!
I mean, even I am entirely subservient to blessed Selenic Sovereign ... but come on ... take a beat. Have a thought. Think about what you're doing, for like, I dunno, 3 seconds, instead of 1. Let's start there at least and see how it feels.
You are literally living in a post-nuclear society ... let's not consistently revert to the nuclear option ... no matter how much we miss our mum.
I, too, would enjoy a hug now and then, particularly in the most trying of times ... but you get a pillow or two, you squeeze 'em and put one between your legs, and you go to sleep and see how you feel in the morning.
Doesn't that sound far more manageable and tolerable than the latest mass-murder of the moment?
Cra'y cra'y, for days.
Anyways, of course Jaha then like tosses dudes to the "Tremors"/"Dune" lake leeches so he and Murphy can follow the drone to the island of lost dreams, where it turns out that there is a playboy bachelor billionaire lighthouse ... fuck you, "The 100", for exploiting my weakness!!!
Ugh, ok, I guess now I have to tolerate this story, though of course I can help but be bored with the stupidity that is a semi-sentient fancy-lady-hologram AI who speaks in abstract illuminati riddles and wants to continue to build this story as a pre-cursor to "The Matrix".
I mean ... sure, technically there's nothing else like this on TV, but also, novelty is not intellect nor entertainment, inherently.
I do like to contend though that Jaha suffered massive oxygen deprivation in his last few hours on the space station, and that explains why he's behaving like he is, because he is quite literally -- and non-mockingly -- brain-damaged. That would just be so wonderful, and would really clear a lot of things up, in terms of characterization.
And that's the thing, "The 100", you got me, I'll watch you next season, I will, and I would even, with much trepidation, recommend you to others to watch. You are definitely no "Hawaii Five-0", but you are assuredly some kind of deformed subversion.
Your pacing is horrific, your tone is consistently insane, and your narrative is like "What if only cynical, idiotic assholes survived the nuclear annihilation of humanity ... what would they do if we stick them all in the same room?".
Not to smash a tofu (vegan for "beat a dead horse"), but It's the nuclear fallout and only 2/3rds of the characters in your show are familiar with CPR and basic First Aid. Reflect on "Donnie Darko" for a hot second and revel in the insanity of "The Knick", antiseptics revolutionized modern society. The 1899 may have well been the middle ages, if not Ancient Egypt (-2999) compared to 1999, because of the societal and technological and medical advances. Never have we ever experienced such revolution to the fabric of our basic cultural and societal reality besides the notions of portable food storage (anti-spoilage) and persistent anti-bacterials.
Focus on that you sexy teen adults. I mean, come on. Have a conversation ... once. Just once. Please.
I love that the dude from "Lost"/"Scandal" is the very first person in the very last possible moment to suggest bone marrow donations. Like, you just went through some insane wars and murders and crazy power struggles, and no one ever thought to just have a fucking blood drive, instead of some kind of ghettoized Reganomic CIA insane doping regimen of creating cannabilistic soldier pets to harvest and dispose of these sanguine people-shaped sacks clambering all around the place.
Insane.
But I'll keeping watching.
So insane.
