Daaamn. Double cliff-hangers with a side of Cliff-shrapnel? Brutal.
Spoiler: The Candlemaker is truly evil. The Candlemaker is COVID.
Hmm. Let's let two superpowered but very emotionally and socially immature children play completely unsupervised for a couple of days. What could go wrong?
Okay, so for some reason, the 100+ year old kid still is still physically a kid. The show already has weird anti-aging phenomenon sprinkled all over. Okay. But, after 100+ years of life experience (even if a bunch of it was spent locked away), she still has the emotional maturity of a little kid? How does that happen? It just makes it a little more difficult to take her or her issues seriously.
Well, I suppose if Mr. Nobody was going to bolster his post-revenge-high mood-crash by getting stoned on blue Curaçao and then stumble-magic his drunken way into a doomed corner (on Danny Street in a psychoactive paintingspace with... them) and then, at his desolate lowest, get pep-talk coached into wresting back enough narrative control to guide everyone else out while forgetting to account for himself...
As I now think back over the many weirdly assorted elements of this episode, they do fit together into a chaotically odd but functional collage. And, think about it: if the seriously wacky-weird world that is Doom Patrol is going to escalate all the layers of wacky it's built thus far into an appropriately wacky and intense climax (too soon?), that does sound about right, doesn't it?
OTOH, as the credits were first rolling, I did have a minute or so of "what in Beebo's name did I just watch?!" going on there.
The improbability drive was working overtime with this one.
Daaam. Dark.
The team (or at least Beth now) has to wonder about the limits or conditions of Eclypso's true real-world power if he's attacking them specifically with illusions and psychological warfare instead of just taking them out head-on.
Overheard in the Doom Patrol writers room:
"If loose lips sink ships, what do loose butts do?"
"Let's find out."
That operating center of the Bureau of Normalcy is just so... abnormal.
At the end, that security monitor image with the cell ("zelle") number in the corner... I have to wonder if the use of cell number 2187 was a deliberate reference.
It ain't detention block AA-23, but...
That's okay. Finn didn't get the reference, either.
Okay, so the world of the lands surrounding that Stygian railroad weren't as thoroughly thoughtfully fleshed out as I'd've liked. But, it was a nice way for Donna and Tim to meet and return, and it gave us a last (and better) goodbye for Hank.
And for everyone mad that Hank didn't get his return, consider: Donna and Tim woke up in the bodies they'd left behind: how would that have worked out for Hank? :-(
This episode was seriously wacky and yet amazingly done.
It also gives me very much the impression of what might happen if the production team from Titans was asked to create something new and different with inspiration and input from both Legends of Tomorrow and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Did anyone else kinda-sorta want to hear IG-11, somewhere along the way, say "Come with me if you want to live."? ;-)
So the Fountain of Imperium is sort of a cousin to the Mycelium? Iiinteresting...
I don't know. I'm kind of all over the place on this one.
7 (good) bits: End scene with Cindy and Bobbie and Eclipso, maybe the bits with Richard and Pat, and maybe Rick's DoorDashing.
6 (fair) bits: Most parts with Jenny.
5 (meh) bits: Most parts with Courtney.
4 (poor) bits: Huge green flares (and a new crater) in the park in the middle of town and no one notices.
YMMV.
I just... what is... going... errg.
Lemme see if I can break some of this down:
Overall high-level storyline: fair (6/10).
Actual story-portrayal execution: ranges from terrible to fair (4/10).
Sigh.
That they can each mold their lightning power into the creation of a big lightning-sword? Okay, weird, but kinda cool.
That that somehow suddenly makes them all swordsmanship experts? WTF? No.
This episode was the usual-of-late The Flash mix of fairly well-executed moments and really poorly-executed moments, but that one... what the... I just... Sigh.
If nothing else, I did kinda like that Cecile Horton's mind-memory prison when being taken over by the mask was conceptually similar to Khalil Payne's when taken over by Painkiller.
My impression after just finally watching this...
First 40-45%: 4/10.
So many scenes felt clipped, rushed into the next, with not nearly enough connection to follow what was going on or why. Visually impressive, and I had the distinct impression that something big and interesting was going on, but I was very confused about what it was.
Last 55-60%: 7/10.
A little after we meet Sator, events started flowing somewhat more understandably. Still a bit confused here and there, but not as much. And the big ambitious sequences closer to the end were mostly well-executed (and in stunning detail), including some loopbacks that belatedly filled in some of the earlier-on confusion while completing the story well. Still not quite up to the greatness level the ads promised, IMO, but better.
I have the impression that a second watch would make more sense, in part due to some of the revelations near the end. My issue is that a second watch shouldn't be this necessary to get the story enough to appreciate it.
While I appreciate some degree of mystery and confusion up front that gets explained later on, that doesn't quite work any more when the confusion reaches a level that I don't understand why people are doing what they're doing.
I suspect that this would have been much better if given the additional time to flesh things out, especially the first half. Maybe as a limited series over four to six hours.
Definitely got the impression that Sidious was very much enjoying this (then quite rare) opportunity to flex.
I feel a bit like both major OMG-hangers from the Season One finale were effectively wrapped up a bit too quickly and simply, but were still fun to watch (especially all of Tally's reactions), and I'm now very curious to see how all these interesting pieces will weave and meet and evolve...
I imagine it'd be awfully hard to sneak around dark alleys and rooftops with that bright blue-white bat-beacon on the chest, but otherwise, nice Batwing suit, there.
As fun as all of that was, who else thinks that not hovering a while to search for Kayla (before blasting away into space) is going to come back and bite them later?
Interesting if odd way to tell Liz the story of how it all started. (The nachalo. The beginning.)
While it made for a rather interesting reveal presentation, I'm also kinda stuck on wondering what actually happened in that nest; was this whole experience an internal dramatization of her immersive reading, or an actual info-beam into her head, or...
Maybe she was holding the Resurrection Stone the whole time?
Best line:
"Oh, look at the time!" —Hondo Ohnaka
I know I've said before that this show can be at its best when it goes all-in timey-wimey wacko, but this wasn't it. This was far more farcical than anything else—from candied Fidel to pointless football—and so much of it just made no sense whatsoever, including Eva handing the Waverider and mission over solely to Mick (while the rest of the crew will now do... what?). There were some fun and funny moments, but not enough of them to make up for the Bay of Farce that was the rest.
Ryan: "Ok. So how do we dose that many people all at once?"
Luke: "You have to inject each person one at a time."
Ryan: "But that means…"
Me: "It's time to call Barry."
Nice seeing that brief cameo-moment of original-timeline Zari. I hope we get to see more of she who was the center of one of the best time-loop episodes ever.
So Behrad thinks he's a wizardly fry-cook on the level of such greats as Spongebob Squarepants and Odd Thomas? Hah. Likely story. ;-)
Hearing Detective Eames— er, Officer Lois say that most New Yorkers are "narcissists" was a fun little in-joke.
I do have to wonder, watching this, how much of Boba's drive to avenge his father comes from within vs. being stoked by old-friend-of-Jango Aurra Sing. Probably a mix of both, but it might say something about the influences of elders/mentors on the youngers' choices, such as Aurra Sing on Boba, Plo Koon (and Tera Sinube and Luminara Unduli and...) on Ahsoka, etc.
