Every season needs one Matt-centered episode. Filled with a dizzying mix of utter wackiness and seeming arbitrariness, but with that stubborn thread of persistent-if-evolving Purpose almost guiding him through to... somewhere...
Wow. Maybe "toxic co-dependent" wasn't so far off... :-(
[after watching a short film depicting the newly supercharged I'm-a-real-girl-now Aida learning that Fitz still isn't that into her and having the mother of all meltdown tantrums turning her onto her new everyone-will-burn path]
And this, kids, is why we never allow inhuman children to go through the Terrigen Mist process before they have accumulated significant formative experience learning to deal with the ups and downs of life. Ever. Right, Agent May?
Definitely enjoyed the final confrontations and resolution. A little hokeyness with the timing of the satellite decoy-handoff, but I much enjoyed just about everything else. Good stuff, good close to the big two-season story arc.
And there was something extra-satisfying about (1) learning that Shepherd was now being prepped for "enhanced interrogation" at a CIA blacksite and (2) Naz would be performing said interrogation. Well, that, and just the whole idea of neutralizing the beacon by electrocuting Shepherd over and over again. Yeeaaahh.
Then onto the two-years-later scene... I have layers of WTH going on in my head. Why is she there climbing walls and communing? What happened? And what happened, apparently all of the sudden, to the team? And Kurt took enough time away from searching for the team to personally come for Jane? Was there really no other way to get emergency word to her? And the box, and... suddenly the tattoos are all glow-in-the-dark-on-command? Whhaaaaa?? It feels rather off-the-deep-end all of the sudden. To date, the show's been mostly pretty strong in its plotting and planning, so I'm willing to give 'em a chance to flesh this out in the beginning of Season Three, but... I'll just focus on the end of Sandstorm and Shepherd (and that smile on Naz) for now, if that's okay.
Earth saved from the Daximite fleet by infusing the atmosphere with toxic-to-the-invaders Red Dust— er, I mean, lead particulates. Hmm. There's no way that those levels can be so quickly so high as to be so quickly fatal to Daximites and not have significant interesting effects on humans over time. We already have the term "lead poisoning" in our vocabulary for a reason.
Although I liked some aspects of the episode, some (including the savior-lead) just feel like careless sloppy writing. There's been a lot of strong potential peeking out all over this season, sometimes manifesting itself better than others. I just hope that the writing matures significantly next season, more thinking through of the connections and implications and verisimilitude of it all, and less careless contempt for the believability of fundamental plot components.
That, and more good excuses for crossovers with Earth-1. (Like Guardian getting some tactical lessons from Green Arrow. Or the Green Arrow suddenly finding himself in Earth-38's Gotham.) That'd be good, too. (Just sayin'.) ;-)
Oh, and, after Cat's rousing fight-back speech to the whole of National City, did anyone else feel flashes of last year's fight-back speech in Star City that led to the taking down of Damien Darhk?
There were definitely some weak plot-connectors in this one, arguably sloppily pasted together bits that felt like someone belatedly realized that the season is almost over and we're running out of time and we have to jam the President in there and this and that and...
The whole Air Force One sequence, the duh-what-did-you-think-was-going-to-happen shooting down of its escorts and then it. Sigh.
I appreciate that Kara wants to give Mon-El's mother a chance to surrender rather than die, but... This is Rhea. Stop seeing her as Mon-El's mother. She's not going to surrender or fight fair or do anything but Evil her Evillest Evil, more like a humanity-threatening disease than anything else, and reeaaally needs to be treated accordingly.
On the other hand...
Note to self: Whenever telling Alex Danvers to meet me outside, be sure to be very clear about what I mean by that. (And that parting shot... #like.)
And... "Do your thing, Artoo." Niiice.
I was surprised at how much I missed seeing an un-Mirakuku-maddened Slade Wilson. Our introduction to that concept ("it wore off years ago") was a decent explanation, but much too quick; I'd like to have see that slipped in somehow a few episodes ago, and then Oliver finally deciding to take a hopeful-if-desperate chance on believing in it now. But I can get past that. Seeing Deathstroke back in deadly action, with what must now be a terrible loyalty to doing absolutely everything he can to make life up to OIiver (and probably to Thea, too)... I hope he doesn't just quietly disappear next season. We can't just open that door and immediately forget about it like that...
"Uh, anyway, listen, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go find Rene and remove his head from his ass." —Quentin Lance
Ho-leee... That finale felt like it crammed two or three episodes worth of tension and advancement into— Was that really only one hour?
I think Jonas has some serious 'splainin to do. Has he really become that afraid of BPO + Whispers, or has he been misleading our favorite cluster all along, or...?
And good old Milton / Whispers / Cannibal? War, indeed. Don't mess with the Master Gorski. I found myself so hoping that Will had killed that sadistic loon, introducing his twisted brain to that concrete wall, but it seems that Will's plan reaches out a bit farther than that.
Meanwhile, Whispers (and presumably BPO) now knows about Wolfgang and Kala, in addition to Will, Riley, and Nomi. That changes everything going into Season Three...
And, while they neatly captured Whispers and Jonas, I didn't see Wolfgang being rescued in there. (Did I just miss it?) Perhaps they weren't able to get to him in that operation, and the plan includes some way of using Whispers and Jonas to get him back? I suppose we'll just have to wait—like the Sense8 junkies that we are—for Season Three to find out. I can wait. Sure. No problem. What shaking? I'll be fine. Really. Maybe.
Yes, Joong-Ki, your sister is a Terminator. And she will. Not. Stop. Until you are Cluster-fucked.
At this point, is anyone else apprehensive about Nomi and Amanita basically just going home as though nothing has happened? Even assuming that this "e-death" trick erased all concerns with police and hospitals and such, it's not like BPO will suddenly forget who and where Nomi is...
(As I pace out the brain-exploding effects of catching up on Season Two...)
It would seem that one calls Oswald a "freak" very much at one's own risk.
Anyone else see those snowy mountains outside the cell window at the end, and think of the long training time spent far away from Gotham that made Bruce Wayne into the person ready to become The Batman? Hmm... Too soon?
This show can be so hit and miss. I actually found last episode ("Hole Puncher") pretty decent, a bit of an upswing, kinda fun. Then this one. Some good stuff overall, and the characters themselves are their usual fun, but... lots of sloppy plot-execution bits gluing the whole story together. And supposedly taking out one guard in his cell was enough for Murdoc to slip out of the entire Supermax prison?
Sigh.
Pondering whether to tune back in next season...
Is it too much that I almost want Kirkman to designate Agent Hannah Watts's new office as "The Division"?
Now that President Tom Kirkman knows that the terrorist conspiracy wanted him in position as the Sole Survivor and new President, maybe he should hang out with Kurt Weller and compare notes. #SandstormDidIt
"Wanna put some pants on and help me save all of magic?"
Ah, Eliot, ever the wordsmith.
I was kinda wondering if we might sometime later see Persephone again. Julia's little sparks trick at the end makes me wonder that more.
Why do I feel that Sylvia is going to exemplify why the Poison Room is so carefully guarded?
When Adrian strode away from Oliver's desk and said "you can keep the knife", did anyone else have the compulsion to yell at Oliver to get rid of that knife as completely and immediately as possible. Could be nothing, but given the depth and complexity of Adrian's plans, on even the smallest chance that that knife is somehow associated with evidence of some other crime that, if found in Oliver's possession...
I suppose it's something of a testament to the brutal effectiveness of Promethius's writing and execution that some us -- okay, maybe it's just me and the voices in my head -- can be made so paranoid by details seemingly so small.
We all thought we'd seen and understood so much about Oliver and his darkenss, but this episode delved deeper than ever into Oliver's dark relationship with his Капюшон. Something else, indeed. One hood, two shadows.
I did like almost everything about this episode -- except maybe for the "I built the control-Z gun, even though I have no idea why I did or what it does" enormo plot-shortcut. I get that they'd written themselves into a spot from which the Legends had an awful lot to recover from in two mere episodes, but... really?
And... even the pre-Legends Leonard, roguish thief that he was, happy to mess you up any number of ways while he's stealing from you, was never a killer. He actually specifically avoided killing. So I, of course, found myself rather disappointed in this new depth of cold. Makes me wonder what sort of madness Eobard fed Leonard while recruiting him -- or if the writers just forgot who Leonard was while shoehorning him in here.
But, other than those... lots of packed-in fun, from Mad Baking Chef Hunter to Unappreciated Savior Rory. And I even find myself agreeing with Malcolm: Damien is always good for pretty entertaining bad-guy monologue,
Wow. So much in this one. So much already well-said. I'll just add that...
Up 'til now, I was actually almost convinced that Adrian, after basically steering Mayor Queen into the cornered position of declaring The Green Arrow to be shoot-on-sight Public Enemy #1, was trying to get Oliver to confess publicly that he is The Green Arrow. A sort of long and twisted version of making him dig his own grave.
But, now, it seems that Adrian doesn't care about that at all. It was all more about breaking Oliver and his Monster. At least... it seems so... so far...
Trust Marlee Matlin to show up just about anywhere and make things even more interesting.
I am curious though: did they say clearly which block the Bowmans were headed into? San Fernando was mentioned, but that's because that's to where everyone else was purported to be evacuating to. I didn't necessarily get the impression that that's where the Bowmans were headed. Was it? Or...? (As long as it's not Santa Monica, right?)
Alan kept me wondering 'til the end what he was really playing in that intricate mind of his, knowing that his daughter's fate might still depend on what he does and where he goes...
Does it seem to anyone else that Elliot and Margo have a tendency to panic themselves into wildly dangerous decisions a little too easily? I suppose it comes a bit from the quasi-spoiled shallow-esque brats they've been before all of this, but... sheesh.
I did have fun watching this season and this finale, admittedly because I still enjoy the character performances by the actors (especially Tom Mison), but there are times when the plotholes' capacity to suck me through into a pocket-universe of WTFery do make me stop and shake my head...
In this one, there was...
Henry: I hate you, Father! Die!
Ichibod: Wait!
Henry: Ergghh?
Ichibod: Because... Freedom!
Henry: Freedom good. Okay. Bye.
Me: <scratch my head> WTF?
And what was with Jobe declaring Malcolm's contract void? Just like that? I thought Hell had rules? Nothing has changed Malcolm's contract, Jobe. Malcolm's just a little less immortal than he was a minute ago. So what happened should probably have gone more like...
Malcolm: Why am I still bleeding?
Diana: Madam President, I'll explain why this was necessary later. <fires her gun>
Malcolm: <staggers back a bit, a new red stain spreading from a spot just left of his chest's center> Whaa...?
Diana: <fires her gun again>
Malcolm: <head whips back, stunned look on his face, new red spot on his forehead; falls to the floor>
Ichibod: <to Jobe> I believe this concludes your contract with Mr. Dreyfuss?
Jobe: <with the slightest of nods, bursts into gassy flames and vanishes>
I suppose that would tarnish this we-don't-kill-other-humans image the show seems to want to keep clean for its protagists, but this is a war, dammit, and not all of the demons are inhuman. Show that. (Add a little demony-red wisp of something escaping Malcolm's expiring body if it helps.) We can take it.
Anyway, these actors somehow still manage to make the rest of it fun. I could be annoyed at Ichibod's blithe declaration that he will most certainly escape his new Devilish entanglement, but I could also see how he would project such a bravado so as to reassure Diana that he will not give up on it, so, okay.
And the "Highway to Hell" outro (to the cavorting kraken in the background) was a bit blunt, perhaps -- we're they striding away to the beat of the music? -- but there was still something a bit funny about it.
Ah, well. Like others, I still enjoy the show ("This is a theater, not a morgue!"), but I really hope that the writers/producer seriously tighten up the plot construction for next season. Most of the more gaping plot holes feel more like cheap laziness than anything else; they can do better, and the show would do better...
I suppose we know now why Commander Jun Sato isn't around to be seen or mentioned during or after A New Hope -- although I'm actually slightly annoyed that those two pilots didn't demand that Sato just inform them of his plan (since they did all the work anyway) and then get the valuable asset that is "the best commander to ever come out of the Mykapo system" the hell off the ship, but maybe that's just me. Sigh.
