If the entire season of boring bus metas was building up to that single opening scene of DeVoe storming the black ops site, IT WAS 100% WORTH IT. That was so badass and so well done. Not to mention David as DeVoe was hella accurate. Damn. That was such a good episode. About time we got some Original Team Flash scenes.
I read the first two books but not the third. I think watching this show may be better if you don't know how things pan out. Normally an episode where people don't have their powers would bother me, and if they didn't know who they were it would bother me even more, but this was done very well, with plenty of traction on all fronts. Plus their chosen identities were fascinating.
I like Marina's makeup. Purple lipstick, flashy eyeshadow, dangling hexagon earrings. All a good look on her.
Fog is trying to redeem himself and is letting Julia be part of magic. That scene with her in his office was touching. I like Dean Fog.
The only thing I wish I knew is the books description of the animals current plaything scenes with Quentin. Maybe I'll read those. In the past, the show has found ways to stay true to the multi-layered lathered-up descriptions in the books.
Loved how the horned God talked to Margot, calling her the "little boy high king."
May have graded a bit high on this one, but I missed the show.
Also: Dear person who went thru the first five eps here and gave them fake synopses: Alice and Quentin confront a dog? Dean Fog gets a new suit? Margot eats a muffin from Josh? I think you can do better. I did like Julia drinks schnapps, tho.
[7.8/10] My favorite episode of the show so far. “Partners, Am I Right?” finally delivers the lived-in, layered dynamic between Clint and Kate that I’ve been wanting, while also delivering some top flight action, and making Kate’s family situation compelling for the first time in the series.
I’ll confess, I abhor the schmuck bait from the end of the last episode. If you’re going to have Jack hold a sword to Clint’s neck, it’s pretty cheap to immediately deflect into one big misunderstanding when you start this one.
Still, I’m willing to forgive it because the interactions between the assmeled are legitimately good here. I don’t know what the cinch is exactly, but Tony Dalton’s Jack is more recognizable as someone wearing the masque of the genteel bumbler while hiding a sinister side beneath. Likewise, I initially thought Eleanor took her daughter teaming up with an Avenger a little too much in stride (maybe it was just being starstruck.) And yet, the show assuaged my fears, having her take Clint aside and basically tell him “Don’t get my daughter mixed up i this dangerous shit.” There’s a patina of realism in this heightened reality in that. I’m increasingly suspicious that Eleanor herself may be involved in some malfeasance, rather than being hoodwinked by Jack, but it’s still nice to see her responding to all of this the way a mother might.
If that weren’t enough, II love love love the scene of Kate showing up to Clint’s place to spend the holiday together. It gives us a reason to like Kate a little more -- she has empathy for her would-be partner, knowing he’s been through a lot and wanting to make sure he’s not alone at a difficult time. In the same way, it makes us like the two of them together more too. The way they banter about trick shots and trick arrows, shuffle through holidays movies, and come up with plans using what turn out to not be dry erase markers is funny and endearing.
Things get serious too though. I’ll admit I forgot that, in the right hands, Jeremy Renner can be a damn good actor. As much as I enjoy the MCU, he hasn’t always had the chance to show that. But hearing him talk about sparing Natasha when he found her, processing what he’s lost and the depths he fell into when he became Ronin is powerful. Some of that’s thanks to the writing, which is better across the board here. But a lot of it comes down to Renner’s performance, which makes Clint an open wound who’s still living with his pain and trying to warn Kate off from it. Seeing him confide in her a bit, open up to her a little, helps cement the partnership in the episode’s title.
After indulging in some of the slack tide hangout vibe that, vitally, let’s us get to know these characters and see them together when they’re not adventuring, the episode also provides them each with solid missions and objectives. Clint strongarms Echo’s lieutenant, Kazi, with a persuasive argument that Maya’s personal vendetta against Ronin is a losing battle that’s going to lose both her and Kazi standing in the eyes of “the Boss.” For her part, Kate gets her own amusing set of interactions with the Larpers, using the connection to retrieve the trick arrows and secure themselves the studio/merchandise-mandated new costumes. One is dramatic and convincing, the other is fun and light, and it’s a good balance. (Hello Thanos fans!)
But the climax of the episode pays things off in a big way. Snooping through Maya’s apartment and discovering that she’s after Clint’s family ups the stakes here. There’s a threat here that goes beyond Clint himself putting his life on the line. The set piece itself is strong, with too many quick cuts for my taste, as usual, but a lot of hard-hitting action and neat wrinkles like Kate's ziplining adventure to liven things up.
There’s the added benefit of making this a four-way fight where who’s on whose side isn’t necessarily clear. Clint and Kate are a team, of course, but Echo has her own agenda, as does the Widow sent after our hero. The shifting alliances, coupled with Clint’s efforts to keep Kate out of harm’s way, makes for a unique dynamic to the fight.
Plus hey! Yelena! It’s nice to see Hawkeye paying off the tag from Black Widow. The debut is well-handled, with the masked assassin fighting like a widow and giving hints of who she is before the reveal happens. At the same, Yelena’s presence is a complicating factor, in a good way. She’s the sister of someone Clint is still mourning, and as he tells Kate, her mere presence means business has picked up. If Clint’s going to keep his word to Eleanor and stop Kate from falling into serious danger, then he has to dissolve their partnership almost as soon as it truly begins. That’s good stuff, which serves both the plot and the characters.
Overall, this is a winner of an outing which kicks things into gear. The dynamic between Kate and clint has never been clearer or more compelling or more endearing, and with connections to other events across the MCU, we’re getting meaningful developments for Clint as he processes the events of Endgame, while orienting Kate within a wider world.
I thought it was pretty neat. It's not Endgame, but it's not trying to be. It's a pretty small, kinda old-school self-contained superhero movie that doesn't do much to heavily worldbuild. It doesn't even have a post-credits scene with Sam L Jackson. But I thought it was pretty neat for what it is.
What?! But why?!
There better be some ressurection happening pretty soon and not in the last episode. The kid was tolerable only around Klaus. Come on!
The cast has different range of acting skills and some characters are written pretty one note to begin with (and it works most of the times). But it's really hard to watch Ben's actor trying to be evil. They could have written around this issue, by implying that he is good actually and just fails miserably at being intimidating or evil on purpose. But nope, he supposed to be legit at being this way... It's hard to watch.
I don't get people that want the show to end. Just stop hitting play and it will be ended for you. Why are you torturing yourself if you don't like it?
I do agree with the other replies, part 1 was great, 2 was meh. I liked the supercharged Flash fight, nice action, but the ending of it by meditating nah.
This episode was so painful. Hard to believe that a comic book show is one of the most thoughtful, emotionally honest things on TV. Season 3 is just excellent. It's an 8 or a 9 from me each week, and I'm honestly not sure what a 10 would even look like at this point.
[7.5/10[ In hindsight, it was probably inevitable that Rafa and Trace would intersect with the Bad Batch. They’re both a set of characters introduced in season 7 of The Clone Wars, and so since this crop of Bad Batch episodes feel as much like a sequel to those TCW episodes as anything, it makes sense that we’d see the Martez sister make an appearance here. While they aren’t my favorite characters in the franchise, I like positioning them as helping out the burgeoning rebellion (I assume?) and running into conflict with the Bad Batch who’s on the same mission for purely mercenary reasons.
There’s also some good setups and payoffs. The show isn’t exactly shy about Omega working on her bow-firing prowess. But there’s a tidy little arc to here inability to consistently hit a target, to her stand-off with Rafa leading to the dangerous situation at the Corellian droid disposal facility, to her good aim and ability to block out distractions to save Rafa’s Gammorrean bacon.
I'll admit that the action didn’t wow me here. The direction was largely indifferent and, while appropriate to the situation, most of the goings on at the droid disposal looked like one big gray mess. But there were some nicely staged set pieces even if I didn’t love the framing and editing of them. Omega getting trapped on a conveyor belt of doom is an old trick to build tension, but it still works. Wrecker’s big damn heroes moment while Tech is tinkering offers some minor excitement. And the combination of the Bad BAtchers and the Martez sisters figuring out how to use the vaunted strategy droid head to turn their old enemies against their immediate threat is a clever way to extricate everyone from the situation.
The game of hot potato between our heroes and the Martez sisters is a little rote, but it gives the two groups something to fight over and chase after, which serves the narrative’s purposes. We don’t get much in the way of ideological differences between the two sides, just ction, but it at least provides a means to show them working against one another when their interests in possessing the head conflict, and then the two groups working together when it’s a necessity to escape eh facility’s security droids.
In terms of little mmets, it’s troubling to see Wrecker’s headaches continue, to the point ath now he’s even briefly using the “good soldiers follow order” line. The poor lummox is a ticking time bomb, and I hope the Bad Batch (or somebody) figures out how to neutralize the chip (thereby giving them the knowledge and motivation to do the same for Crosshair) before it’s too late. On a different note, it’s a cheap gag, but I got a kick out of Rafa stealing Trace’s distraction idea, Rafa saying “Is there an echo here?”, only for Echo to respond, “Yes, I’m Echo.” Dumb, but funny.
Otherwise, the peak of this one is the end. I like picking back up the theme that Hnter and his comrades aren’t exactly sure what to do now that the war is over. Fighting for the Empire doesn’t seem right to them, and the notoriously transactional Rafa even admits that sooner or later you have to take sides, a late-breaking sign of character growth from her arc in TCW, and a hint that Hunter and company may eventually make the same choice. The conflict between protecting themselves and staying out of sight versus fighting against the successor organization to the one that trained and deployed them is an intriguing one. Hunter taking the head for himself, but giving the data download to Rafa is a nice middle ground on Hunter’s And I’m also curious as to who Rafa and Trace are working for. (My money’s on Bail Organa, but I’d like to be surprised!)
Overall, another good outing of The Bad Batch that once again connects the series to other Star Wars projects, but feeds back into the clones’ central story of finding their place in a post-Empire galaxy.
Interesting twist, or further back story to the iconic character…..was great bringing Kal-El’s mothers consciousness into the mix, added more unexpected history.
Only have one question, did I miss them say a short distance shockwave? as Morgan Edge’s assistant, Leslie Larr, seemed to be unaffected
It seems that giant fella could have easily killed Barry, why did it not do that?
When they managed to get a picture of Jennifer from a Rittenhouse's piece of electronic equipment followed by their surprised reaction, that must have been one of the dumbest moments of the show. They already discussed in a previous episode the theory about Rittenhouse travelling to the past to save her, so it was obvious Jennifer means something to Rittenhouse. They obviously forgot about their own past deductions.
Whenever you're feeling down and thinking you're a worthless piece of sheet, just take a deep breath and let a glimpse of a smile decorate your lovely and simply human face, because deep down you know things could be worse, you could have Ashley's job (the regular Ashley, not the "also Ashley", I don't really know what that one does).
I like the period, the first moments of the Empire. With sixteen episodes in total I hope we get a lot of world building aside from the main story.
Anyone else thinks Hunter looks a lot like Rambo ? I Don't think it's intentional, though.
Me? Crying about Avalance? It's more likely than you think. I wish they would stop toying with my emotions. Yes, Sara's done some bad things in the past, but she's working so hard to redeem herself. She's been through so much, she's overcome so much pain and darkness. She deserves to be happy. I love her. And Ava is amazing as well. Her jealousy was fantastic. And she was so heartbroken at the end! I want to die.
This was such an intense episode, but they still managed to put some of LoT's trademark humor in there. It's really impressive how they manage to balance all the serious, intense moments with bits of levity and it never feels forced or overdone (which is my problem with a lot of Marvel movies, for example). Good job, writers.
It's always great to see John Consantine. Sara's right, they should just get him a bed on the Waverider. And how happy was Gary when John kissed him? Nobody on this show is straight, I'm telling you.
Rory has the Fire Totem, Zari has Air, Amaya's going to get her Spirit Totem back eventually, Kuasa has Water, Sara's got Death (I wonder if they'll ever let her use it, though). I'm curious as to who's going to wield Earth. It didn't seem to work for Nate.
Okay. So here's the short recap for everyone confused:
Geralt saved Duny, father of Ciri (the hedgehog), by calming Calanthe down. As the price for saving his life he got the Law of Surprise as payment: Whatever's already in Duny's possision without him knowing it, is now Geralt's. Paveta, Ciri's mother, was pregnant at that moment and Duny didn't know about it. Therefore Geralt is destined to be Ciri's foster father. But both Calanthe and Geralt weren't fans and didn't honour the deal. So Destiny got angry and fucked things up for Calanthe and her kingdom by letting Nilfgaard invade Cintra successfully. Geralt knew about Nilfgaard's advances and wanted to save Ciri from it - by doing that he fulfilled the Law of Surprise and took his role as Ciri's foster father seriously. But he was too late. Cintra has fallen, Calanthe killed herself, and Ciri is on the run. There she meet elf kid, wandering into the Brokilon, trusting and following fake Mousesack for some time, before realizing her mistake and running away from Nilfgaard again. They are searching for her, because she has a power that seems to fulfill a prophecy about something End of the World-ish.
As I said again and again before: The books are not really that much more straightforward, maybe even less than the Netflix series. And they are intertwining lore and background only explained in the saga with the short stories of the prequel books, while also fleshing out Yennefer's and Ciri's story. And all of that within 7 episodes.
PART 2:
References, references everywhere. I caught the "Return of the King" one with Ray.
Oh shit, good ending. "Gideon" "I'm here Captain" "You always are". Damn, that line was so hot. But seriously, no one reprogrammed Gideon? I get that Sara's just acting as Captain and that Rip is the prime administrator but come on, shouldn't you at least considered informing Gideon not to listen to Rip? I already know this is gonna be so much fun. In the wise words of a friend: "the Legends are idiots". I really hope this is a plan or something, otherwise Damien is a dumbass for letting Evil Rip go.
The Sara seducing women through time topic is becoming quite repetitive to be honest. In part, I'm glad Ray interrupted them. Star Girl was totally wasted, but so were there rest of the members of the JSA.
Anyways, good episode and good character development of Ray. Can't wait to see more of Evil Rip next episode and what his plans are all along.
"You always have a choice". No, you don't. Sometimes you really don't have a choice. If a guy is trying to kill you and you don't have invulnerability, you cannot afford the risk of a long fight where you may end up dead. If the only way to stop him is by killing him, then there is no choice.
That pickpocket was the fella that Spike killed in a late season of Buffy. I recognised his voice. Anyway, do people really not notice when their watch has been nicked?
Damn Barry, leave Caitlin alone would you? Wasn’t enough to barg in to her home unannounced, you had to destroy all the work she has done? I get that they’ve been friends for a long time and he’s trying to look out for her but that was soooo patronising!
it's really sad seeing Elliot in pain crossing the line but he's got no choices anymore. this show gets better episode by episode.
The best show on TV right now. Despite other people suggesting that season 1 was better, I feel this season was amazing and better then the first. I think its more polished and the sound track it perfect, especially this last episode with the use of the song "The Moth & the Flame".
I have to admit it, I really liked the episode. At first I thought it was all going to be about James and his Guardian alter ego, but they did great connecting both storylines.
That's what I call an invasion! But really, Mom-El is a crazy ass bitch. She just made Lena open a portal to bring a freaking army of Daxamites to create the new Daxam on Earth to bring with her son. And all of this thanks to a pep talk. I love Lena. Her character is just amazing and the writers have been playing with her evil side overcoming her good side but at least we know where she stands. However, there's one thing that gets me. Lena is so smart but in the last couple of episodes she's been just too naive. I would've thought her mobile phone was password protected. That's when Lena should have noticed Rhea is pure evil incarnate. She just took one of her calls! Damn you, Rhea, you're the evident evil that ever eviled. I really love her thought process: So my son won't leave Earth with me. Ok, don't worry, if he doesn't come home with me, I'll being home to him. I guess that's right: home is where the heart is.
I'm not a fan of James. Never have been and I guess never will. Buttons episode did a lot of good to his character. Mechad Brooks did a good job at showing a deeper side of James. Also thanks to that beautiful boy who was nothing but perfect during the whole episode. He was just so sweet. Besides, for once James was extreme useful. He actually was a hero without suit. But seriously how does he do it? He's running CatCo,which is not an easy job but he's also Guardian, which is also a demanding job. Juggling like this is not even normal.
Idk why but Mon-El's acting the minute he saw his mother went down. He looks so tense while talking to her. It's just unnatural and too awkward. I guess it should be like it but you know, I find it stiff.
And Lena being knocked out, I guess it's just plot wise. She can't know Kara's Supergirl, unless she already does.
This is Cinema. I guess this is what older people were feeling when movies like Star Wars the original trilogy or LOTR were airing. This movie is going to be generational defining and I am glad that I am a fully grown adult with opinions and taste to really see how good this movie is
No idea why so many people don't like this but love the cartoon.
The cartoon has always missed something I can't put my finger on, but it made it boring and me unable to follow it.
This series however is so much better! I still can't put my finger on what it is, but this series finally actually has it. I can finally follow with interest.
I hate that all the haters talked down on this while it wasn't even out yet, and I'm glad I did not listen to them!
Not terrible so far. I'll withhold judgement until I'm further in, but the casting is excellent. Especially Kitara and Sokka.
The earth bending in particular looks incredible! Can't wait to see the earth kingdom parts.
Am I the only one that really liked the episode? Sure some things were rushed or off but they also had great scenes/elements from the anime! I like how they also try to make it their own. I do wonder how people like it who don't know the original (feel free to comment to let me know :wink:)
Say what you will about this movie but ain’t no way you don’t want to see more of nana and her badassery.
This is one of the strongest episodes so far. That ending is wild. Marc Spector, Stephan Grant and a hippo roll into a mental institution inside his own head. What a trip!
Good luck making an entire campus of students seeing what actually happened shut up about it. So many people must've seen it was Cate doing it all, makes no sense.
