Wow. Something about being a Marvel TV character named Ward just really screws a guy up, doesn't it?
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...
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?
I guess that explains a bit more toward why Mario was so interested in the progress toward a Tetch-virus cure. I wonder if he's been spending more time stalking Lee as his infection has progressed. And, of course, will we find out how and when he was infected? Or is he just an early case of the Gotham-wide virus spread that we're apparently going to see start breaking out next episode?
A few randomish highlights and comments:
Applause for the Punisher of the evening, Ward Meachum!
Am I the only one wondering how interesting a novelization of this season's story solely from Ward's tortured and evolving point of view would be? Hmm.
Damn, but Davos is taking his feelings of abandonment and betrayal awfully deeply. And now, feeding on redirecting Joy's newly devastating daddy-issues to fuel his own vengeful plans? Dark. Maybe he and Karl Mordo should get together and vent.
And Joy. Sort of like experiencing all of Ward's last thirteen years of torment and disillusionment and despair slammed into just a couple of days. She looked so crushed. That won't be good.
And, yes, Danny, you abandoned your singular guardpost without warning or backup for a good while. Of course something happened while you were away. Duh.
Here's hoping that both Finn Jones (portraying Danny Rand) and the Iron Fist writing/directing team hone their skills -- which came off as a bit clumsy over much this season -- more fully before returning to us in The Defenders. Much potential -- especially with such strong support from Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing) and Tom Pelphrey (Ward Meachum), and of course Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple) -- but much rougher than the other Marvel Netflix series so far. We'll see...
If I ignore the reverse-the-feed-and-overload-their-power-systems solution, and even with AP-5's overdoing the arrogant monologuing, it was a fun diversion before the madness heats up next ep. ;-)
I have to wonder what they saw, and how much of that we'll see in near-future episodes. Maul is clearly after something specific -- some one specific, apparently now -- and I thought I heard Ezra say "twin suns" which sounds very Tatooine. Iiinteresting...
I didn't quite get why they allowed him to return his transit-clone with his memories of the encounter. He's clearly established that they won't be able to talk or threaten him out of continuing to attack them, so any little piece of information they can prevent him from obtaining about what happened and how they pushed him back... and what he offered the colony worlds' representatives... Sigh.
But other than that, fun stuff. And yet another don't-mess-with-Five reminder.
It is rather amazing how richly these few well-chosen flashback-brushstrokes of Kate/Kaplan's past fleshed out her history and motivations toward both Masha/Elizabeth and Raymond, as well as why she acted to help Liz behind Redd's back the way she did. A masterful filling-in and tying together of so much.
Honestly, after all this, it's become difficult to decide who should come out on top between Raymond and Kate (if either one truly must). Kate seems to be the only one who fully understands how Raymond's original mission of protection has evolved into an unshakable obsession of control to the point of itself repeatedly threatening the mission...
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...
These characters are all always good for their artistically agile snippery, but...
"You know of Swayze?" earned a quick use of my pause button so that I could resume breathing before continuing. (And the following recitation did not disappoint.)
I do hope we get to see more of Ethan in the future. He's almost like a little mini-Martin, minus the extremes of Martin's haunting suicidal demons, and maybe yet another lifeline for Martin's own future. And watching the two of them together is just good fun.
Wow. Maybe "toxic co-dependent" wasn't so far off... :-(
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'.) ;-)
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...)
"Wanna put some pants on and help me save all of magic?"
Ah, Eliot, ever the wordsmith.
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.
Trust Marlee Matlin to show up just about anywhere and make things even more interesting.
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.
Anyone else thinking that Red must be pretty desperate to interrogate Stone to have attacked an FBI prisoner-transport like that. That's going to be awfully difficult for the FBI to just shrug off this time...
Mick was all over it this ep. That intro, his near-mentoring of George Washington (terrifying as that thought might have been before). The real inspiration behind the brilliantly sneaky tactics that won the American Revolutionary War. Wow.
My only real gripe was near the end. We can't let the Spear-fragment get away! But we can't shoot Rip! But... But... Oh, dammit, just shoot him in the leg and reel 'em both in. I appreciate the we're-not-killers theme they keep trying to push (while shooting redcoats left and right--uh, waitaminute...), but that doesn't have to go hand-in-hand with a we're-idiots theme, does it?
Wondering more and more if we'll find out somewhen along the way who this cryptic Deep Throat is. (Room 105, 11 14 PM, ???)
I gotta say, while Detective Cruz is arguably a bit of an odd character, I'm really getting to like the guy. Hope we get the benefit of his assistance more often.
The sequence of birth memories at the end was, as many have pointed out, amazing in so many ways. I'm not sure if this is the intended sequence, did it seem that it started with Riley somehow picking up from her father the memory of her own birth (perhaps via his strong association between that and his playing), and then cascading from her through the rest of the cluster? IAC, beautifully presented. Wow.
In addition to all the utter amazingness that has been Orphan Black's fifty-episode story...
(Wow. Did they really cram all of that into a mere fifty episodes? Wow. Did I mention wow?)
There's something oddly funny about the whole Orphan Black story being a memoir told by Helena.
"My story is an embroidery — many beginnings and no ends, but I will start with the thread of my sestra Sarah, who stepped off a train one day and met herself…"
Thank you to everyone involved in bringing us this incredible embroidery, from stunning beginning to final-trip end.
I like how Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. split its season into multiple sub-books this time -- "Ghost Rider" and "LMD" and "Agents of Hydra" -- across and at the end of which we see that the season's Big Bad Villain wasn't Eli Morrow and it wasn't Holden Radcliffe and it wasn't AIDA. It was the Darkhold.
Just because I can't help pondering pieces of the season's end...
Based on his description of this huge planet-spanning war and the nature of that portal he opened to return to it, I have to wonder if we'll see Robby Reyes and Stephen Strange crossing paths at some future point.
And... was that...
Phil Coulson, Agent of S.W.O.R.D.?
Phil Coulson, Enjoy to the Inhuman Royal Family?
Phil Coulson, Man on the Wall?
Whatever it is, it'll be Phil, so it'll be cool. So... back to work.
The Laurie episode. Where she seems to connect as some semblance of the supporting, re-affirming positive-enabler she once was to just about everyone around her. Watching her accept and leave Nora there was hard. Watching her the entire time she was on that boat (after Nora's "elegant" concept) was harder. She seemed so happy just then, almost peaceful. I really do hope that Jill and Tommy's utterly lovable phone shenanigans were lifeline enough, but... leaving it right then... sigh.
The depth of wow just continues to amass, toward what promises to be the oddest of storms...
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.
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...
