wolfkin

This show comes off as so weirdly sincere. Not like forcing tears from you like A Dog's Purpose or A Dog's Journey. This was a particularly good episode.

QuickRecap:
The friend request (and that's what I'll call even if when it's something such as "liking" or "rating". They're all fuctionally friend requests) this episode is a couple who sent a package that somehow ended up at Mile's place. Also Cara's boss is pressuring her to write about the account, which violates her agreement with Miles that only he would write about the account. Also Rakesh gets some information about how their boss might be behind the account. Their clue from last episodes to try to look into connections leads them to their first friend request who they quizz about the account older.

Resolutions: The first friend can only tell them that Henry gave bone marrow to someone whose identity he can't disclose. Though Cara's interview with the boss we learn he's revealing the big project in like a few weeks. The family's package was their dead daughter's violin ends up in the hands of a poor girl who turns out to be the owner of their daughter's heart via transplant. Finding that out heals them enough to move on. And finally the big resolution is that Cara decides to write the article and tells Miles who doesn't take it well.

Now with regard to the major resolution it's cheesy, it's predictable, and it's telegraphed. BUT what GFM does well is that it feels mostly real. In most TV shows I have to handwave why people are fighting because while it might make sense for Person A and Person B to be fighting rarely does it match their words. In this episode a lot of things turn out right. Rakesh discovers Cara's secret and rather than blab to Miles leading to a stand off where he pretends he doesn't know and bullies her into admitting it thus starting a fight. He tells Cara he knows. He doesn't blackmail her or anything he tells her to come clean and she agrees. That's already 15 steps ahead of a normal TV fight. It's realistic. Then during the fight which was delayed unrealistically with the rest of the plot (but whatever you gotta save the best for last I get that) she comes clean and basically tells him the whole deal. Not the WHOLE deal. She doesn't explain the pressue he put on her but she does explain how her saying no wouldn't stop it from happening.

My estimated resolution: Miles talks to his hosts and they agree to let the newspaper be the official written branch of the account ID and thus everyone gets what they want.

Sidenote: Cara's boss is kind of a dick. I think he's a little bit overstepping his bounds in telling her how to write her story.

There are so many aspects of this show that are beyond cheesy. It's really family friendly if your family is my hyper christian aunt. And yet..... and yet.... even with more lens glare than a J. J. Abrahms fun project. All designed to mimic the Lord's approval it's just so done not badly. There's a lot of Christian media out there and most of it is gutter trash. This isn't that. Yes I understand athiests hate event motivated atheism as much as some of them hate "athiests hates Christianity" trope. This show has the former but not the latter. This episode is like another perfect microcosm of the series. It's certainly not the camera work but maybe it's the acting and maybe it's being so well lit I can actually see things but it's just so charming. Is it a bit much to expect that a homeless father and his son would randomly trust this random man who offers to give them a hand? Maybe. I was just rewatching episode 2 of season 1 the other day and there a single mother didn't actually trust miles to the point where she kept his driver's license while he waited for her job interview. This time he just trusts. I think it's an interesting contrast and I get why. They can try to expain it away by saying the situations are different and Miles has gotten better at inserting himself or maybe the father was in greater need being homeless or even the man-man trust but the truth is we can't spend time every episode having Miles overcome New York distrust. It's more real but it'll becoming boring episode by episode.

But in short this episode is another charmer even though this "who is behind the account" thing is being dragged out a lot I don't mind because as cheese as it is to say it's a really fun ride.

There is a thing that modern Superhero TV shows constantly try to do and I hate it. They try to make "has super powers" into a minority. The sort of thing that people are ashamed of. It's weird and it's stupid and it always screws with motivations in weird ways that don't make any sort of human sense.

Let's look at Vickie our meta this episode. Vickie a long time ago somehow got meta powers. She learned this when she blew up an ATM machine like Gambit. She made it a bomb and it blew up. This was an accident but it ended up killing Grace's parents. She didn't know anyone died because she ran before the explosion and no one told her people died. This is her backstory.

But there's this thing that happens over and over in The Flash where Barry and crew will go to some target and try to protect them. Nearly EVERY TIME the target refuses protection. It happened with the criminals metas with Cicada and it happens here with Cicada2. I don't envy TV show writers sometimes but they suck at this. If you tell me a serial killer is hunting gay people and he's coming for me, my first response isn't going to be "but I'm not gay I'll be fine, I don't want my family to think I'm gay so I won't hide from the killer of gays". This is a motivation that doesn't make sense. They also try to do this thing where people are ashamed of being metahumans. "I can't tell my family I have powers! They'll never trust me again?" But WHYYYY? That doesn't make sense. You haven't done anything wrong (as far as you or they know). You aren't out of control. Theres literally no reason for your family to hate you. Even worse when the family does find out. They see her trying to help the flash defeat the super scary serial killer that's killing people (Cicada) and what is their reaction? "I want daddy not mommy" "How could you keep this from us?". I mean they act like she lied about a bowling league to go bank robbing. This doesn't make any sense. Every episode I check the comments of this season I see people saying variations of "nora sucks" but they never say why and honestly Nora is perfectly fine it's motivations like this that don't make sense. This is the thing that's ruining this season.

There's no reason for the city to be scared of metas anymore it's been FOUR YEARS of this. We've seen lots of neutral metas. Like the paramemdic who swapped powers. He wasn't a hero or a villain he was just a dude. the first thing I would think if my sister had Gambit powers was "Is she a superhero?" not "eww gross I can't trust her". Nothing people do this episode makes sense. Nora was right though. It's her choice whether to tell people she's a meta but the show has this "if you don't tell everyone every secret you have you're not being emotionallly available" bull that they're trying to shove down my throat. It's so rage inducing because that's not how relationships work. Yeah it's how every relationship on the show works but in real life sometimes your wife has a secret or two. Sometimes your husband listens to showtunes and loves musical theatre and that's just his little secret. Sometimes your daughter is secretly into monster trucks even though she hates getting dirty. This doesn't stunt their ability to love and be loved.

This leads us to Cisco and Ralph. Where once again the show doesn't understand what right and wrong is. Ralph buts in and trys to shove Cisco's new girlfriend into the team. Rather than being told to mind his own business and not tell someone else how to run their relationship the message of the episode is literally the opposite of that. Cisco says "let me handle my relationship" and the show says "nah Ralph was right". But why? Why does Cisco have to tell everyone about being Vibe. At that point why bother with the costume and secret identity? It's not a secret if you tell everyone. Why does Barry not just go around openly doing speedster things. This episode was written by Kristen Kim and Sterling Gates but they don't understand why people keep secrets. Barry doesn't tell people he's the flash because people come and go and if everyone knows who he is he's vulnerable. The same thing applies to Cisco. He hasn't been dating this girl since childhood like Barry or married her like Caitlin (and Robbie). He's just officially "dating". His last girlfriend was from another earth and shared his powers. that's different. Goldie was a super villain that's different. This new girl is a REGULAR person. Why would we bring her into the team? The very idea is ridiculous which is why even Ralph has to invent reasons for her to be on the team. "Maybe she'll get bit by a radioactive spider"

The good parts of this episode were Nora and Tom Cavanagh's characters. Everything else was people acting stupid for stupid reasons and the show then justifies stupid without examining anything. As weak as the idea of needing consent is to police psychopaths. At least it's semi reasonable within the show. I know how people think. They hate Nora for whatever reason, they'e gonna hate how Barry refuses to cure this girl. But the problem isn't that he wants consent. It's that the only reason to need consent is because you're treating being a meta human like a minority and thus the cure is removing someone's cultural heritage from them which you should get consent for. But SUPER POWERS AREN'T A CULTURE. I HATE HATE HATE HATE that scene in Black Lightning. Jefferson Pierce find out his (ex) wife is looking into how to "cure" his daughter who doesn't want her powers and he blows up like she's trying to find a way to cure her of blackness. "this is her heritage". it's a stupid nonsensical argument that isn't justified by anything in any show ever and yet EVERY super hero show uses this logic. It's find to make a metaphor of how being a metahuman is like being a minoritiy. It works after a fashion but UGH.. just stop.

So I skimmed past a headline that said something like

The Orville finds itself in Identity Part 2

It inspired me to remember that Part 2 came out and catch up. 20% of the way in this is a fantastic episode. It's excellent work. All around.

There's a scene where Isaac reveals that he choose his designation in honor of an intelligent human (Newton) and Kylon Prime tells him to change it. We assume he refuses because he's later referred to as Isaac which is confusing because a) it's never brought up again or leads anywhere b) it's unclear if the other Kylon is calling him Isaac because of his old designation or because they all maintain a database of designations and Isaac never actually updated it. The point being it's a wasted scene. Well not whole scene but that line is wasted. There is no point in ever revealing why he's called Isaac. The only thing gained by it is trivia. When it's sci fi trivia night and someone asks what is the name of the robot on The Orville you can remember isaac because of newton. But it does little to expand character, setting or plot. and that small line might be my biggest complaint of the episode.

The thing of it is this episode actually did bring to mind something that I've been thinking about and that's the humor. Sometimes it's a bit non-sequiteurish. It's finally occurred to me that it feels like someone went through the script and then just inserted jokes without telling anyone and they filmed it. Things like the pee corner. If you literally clip that out. The rest of the episode feels like a real spec fic. That said the phantom script editing IS the Orville identity.

That said in no way did The Orville find itself in this episode simply because it found itself in the episode where Isassc began a relationship with the doctor. Or the episode where Bortus had tried to defend having a girl. Or even the episode where starsigns were taken seriously by a budding new civilization. Are there still random jokes someone clearly is inserting into the scripts without supervision? Yeah but all of that is part of the identify The Orville has long ago established for itself. This show has the potential to become a long remembered science fiction classic. It has everything it need to inspire spin off movies and books and RPG and games and sequel shows. And it's had all that long before Identity Part 2.

Another bad episode of "Let's pretend characters just met". This episode is Chunk's first solo case and the problem is because of that they have to restructure Chunk's character. These are always frustrating episodes where characters who get along are fighting for no real reason. Characters fight for no real reason often enough. TV characters always act out of logic but sometimes they act out of character and that's double annoying. Chunk is a person who has been learning and studying everyone but now he rejects every bit of their advice. Not because he knows something they don't. Not because he trusts someone they don't. Not even because of a hunch. Just... .because. This sort of thing ruins episodes not because they're bad but because they're inconsistent. This often happens with the thematic impressions of a show. Bull started off being about a guy who picks jurys. Now it's a courtroom drama about a guy whose smarter than everyone and occassionally features jurys. It's not a bad show it's just not what I signed up for when I watched the first three episodes.

Chunk: I know you're angry [that I didn't take your advice/instruction]
Bull: You don't know anything, that's the part I can't get you to understand.

I mean dang even for the situation and even for the character of Bull that's pretty harsh. Of course in the end Chunk turns out to be right because there's no point in having him defy everyone and be wrong. It's not that kind of show.

For a cliff hanger episode it felt rather satisfying. One of the most surprising things about The Orville, a sci fi show form Seth MacFarlane is how episodes feel full and meaty. Cliffhanger episodes can often feel like cheating. They cut right when everything gets good. I'm happy to say though that doesn't happen here.

There's a plot point that involves a child leaving the ship and it does feel weird that he left and no one knew what was going on. It feels even more weird that the child was able to elude the planet natives using none of his special skills. But big changes are coming to The Orville this episode when Isaac falls unresponsive and the ship has to go to the mysterious homeplanet Kaylon to get him fixed.

I was genuinely surprised they turned him off without any sort of formal announcement. i think it would have made more sense for the Kaylons to use him to send a goodbye message or shut off message like French Stewart in 3rd Rock from the Sun. They also hint at the fact that save the intercession from The Orville Isaac would have been recycled but they don't indicate why. Is it because he was an inferior model for diplomacy only? Is it because he's corrupted with feelings? It's unclear.

I think it's a testament to the strong writing in this series that Sheehan isn't my favorite.

The plot is picking up finally on episode 4. It's hard to complain too much because so much of the show is entertaining. But this is the episode where things happen like someone finally appears suspicious and an episode where someone else joins the dead. More importantly we apparently get a "full" understanding of what made Luther what he is today. Which is still too ambiguous for my tastes. Ellen Page's character and her "I'm no one so I'll be nobody" behind is literally the most boring person in this book. The most interesting parts of her story even at the end of this episode are that she has a very interesting name and her boyfriend.

Klaus finally stops being Nathan long enough to do something. Which is pretty Nathan of him. You can see from episode 2 people will non-stop be comparing Klaus to Nathan. But at least this episode he gets fleshed out finally, which is as hard as moving the plot when No 5 won't tell anyone anything, because Klaus is constantly high and acting all "Nathan-y". When you see a child with the power to speak to the dead you kinda assume they grow up messed up and Klaus is but this episode we finally get a little bit of a glimpse at what he could be if he weren't so messed up.

This episode's action scene is.. the motel shoot out. It's short but it's the most interesting sequence in the episode. Klaus uses the dead to sow strife among Cha Cha and Hogger (I foget their names), and uses their argument time to try to signal someone that he's trapped, and when he's about to be rescued a short but memorable gun fight happens ending with an escaped Klaus with the time travel briefcase. It's a calamity of moving parts that isn't stretched out because this episode actually has things to do. Finally.

Allison is beautiful.

For me the thing that sticks out even more than the girl thinking Damon Wayans is a "handsome man" . I thought that was sweet. What sticks out to me is the fight Murtah has with his wife. First off it's a stupid fight to have "oh no my wife when she was a teen married some guy". Who cares? She married me and had kids with me and- here the kicker, she's not in anyway interested in him. I'll never understand this fight. At least on shows like Friends Ross was confronted with Pablo in his face. He had to meet him and that inspired jealousy. But this is a name. There's zero reason to be jealous.

Then on top of that with absolutely no inciting introspection or discusison with anyone he decides he doesn't care. Like why not just start there Murtah. I mean dang man I love ya and your wife and your marriage and I actually jive with what you were telling Bailey about how your wise elder act is just that an act. But then getting legit angry at your wife for being divorced is not that big a deal at this point in your marriage.

Ok that fight really is centry to everything I didn't like about this episode. The rest of it was basically everything I want in a basic LW episode. It's not overly deep. It's not overly cheesy. It had stakes I cared about enough to invest. It's not the greatest episode but it's better than average simply by being ideal.

Umbrella Academy is getting better. There's some more information on No 5 and what will basically be the major plotline. So at least the plot is starting to move. Between the monkey butler and the robot mother these kids are messed up. The scene with Diego and Mother really shows that. Still don't know how Ben died and I swear by my count we're missing a 7th child.

The relationship between Luther and Allison is interesting because I don't know what to make of it.

Even more secrets show up regarding the death of the father, and No 5's location is leaked to his enemies. I'm still waiting for some other secrets to leak like Klaus is talking with Ben constantly and whatever Vanya's inevitable super ultra power will be. Also what Allison said to Claire.

The show isn't as colorful as it could be. All the advertising suggested a vibrant show with a strong huge. Instead it is, not. But thankfully it isn't the dreary dull desaturated or grey/brown/darkgreen we often see in scifi shows.

The action scene for this episode is a shoot out in the mansion itself. The first action is Diego throws blades at the helmets which bounce off. But why? Why go for the head and not the body? Actually why didn't they throw another nice at the body since the heads are so problematic. Nevermind they do throw knives again. And we finally get what was hinted at before and that's a better look at what Luther can do and why he's so big. Or maybe not? It looks like instead it was just a view of why he wears long sleeve shirts.

Mary J Blige. I thought her voice sounded familiar. She's kinda putting it down on this show.

So while I'm not the biggest fan of the whole Mockl'n what if everyone was gay and straight people were outcasts thing. I kinda worry we're going to tap that well too often. But to be fair it's not as if they've run out of ideas. The other episodes are interesting and creative and this episode wasn't bad.

the synopsis is basically a whodunit focusing more on a mystery (albeit very lightly in order to make room for social commentary). It is generic upgrade season and they invite a Mockl'n Engineer that is the ex-boyfriend of Bortus with a secret. He's into women not men. This is an, as you would expect, forbidden nature for men to have. Since Mockl'ns are a violent species, this is a death sentence. Inevitably over the course of.. what felt like maybe 3-4 days the Mockl'n engineer falls for the Talia and she takes on the role of "that one girl who is super accepting of everything" and reciprocates those feelings. While they stroll through the set piece of the week (old timey New York), someone kills the Engineer and masks their identity. The identity is revealed to be Clyd'n mate of Bortus. Someone who discovered is "filthy deviant secret" and killed him for it. When they finally put him away there is a plot twist. Maybe it wasn't Clyd'n and maybe our Engineer is still alive. Yes he is and they turn him in to save Clyd'n condemning him to death from a culture that doesn't understand "free love".

So the humor didn't cross the line this episode as it does so rarely. This is a very classic Trek:TNG style episode but with like two jokes but they're restrained and amusing jokes that don't go on a bender. The first where they double check that they said "no torpedoes" had me considering whether or not the engineer lied and they were going to legitimately take over the ship. The second was a tally of the crazy things that happened on the ship. It all worked.

The flaw of this episode is that the plot doesn't work. So our visiting Engineer expert has a secret and someone kills him for it. The problem is that the person in the brig would be revered by the Mockl'ns for killing the Engineer. The Mockl'ns wouldn't want justice because the Engineer's secret is a shame to the Mockl'ns. They would have killed him themselves. They DO kill him themselves. So this whole drama of the Mockl'ns trying to get justice doesn't make sense. It only peripherally makes sense in that for whatever reason the Mockl'ns never got to confirm with the prisoner that the secret was real which doesn't make sense because they would have already sent the message. And maybe the Federation would still have locked him up. I suppose that makes sense and it's not crazy to believe. It just feels like it could have been written better.

But overall a solid episode that I didn't really care for.

EDIT: On re-watching another thing I wanted to highlight is that while I like our new security chief, heck I even think they gave Alara a good goodbye and Talia has a pretty respectful welcome that both keeps the momentum of the show while acknowledging our attachment to Talia. The problem is Talia is a newcomer. Yet she knows all the hot gossip [until she doesn't because it makes for a great joke]. It's a weird gap that and the lack of characterization. She appears to be a mix of Riker and Kirk in that .. sort of slutty way. But it only feels that way because we don't really know much about her.

A solid episode of Manifest though flawed. Everyone is acting like Real_Dad attacked someone without provocation but mysteriously ignoring the fact that 828_Racist actually threatened his son.

This episode our new character Zeke (which will be the name of my future first son by the way). With his lack of desire to return there was a while when I thought he might be a serial killer or something. After all so far we haven't really had any 828 passengers who are bad people. We had a domestic abuser who lost his memory. We have the Spy_Passenger who I still don't understand.

So by the way 828 racists are a thing apparently. I don't know how people who write TV think hate groups work but these are Alex Jones like conspiracies and you see them in every show like this, Manifest, The Event, Flash Forward and each time it's just silly. No one would buy this. Much less successfully start an entire movement on it. After all there are people who think they're saviors where are they? Why aren't they debunking the livestream which should clearly show that 828_Racist threatened a child. Why don't the police know that matter of fact. Why isn't Real_Dad pointing this out. This is TV writing. People do things for reasons and then when asked about what happened they stutter "uh uh uh.. i just lost control". No you didn't. You had a reason for what you did. Oftentimes a mitigating one.

Another thing I don't understand. Why is it so hard to remove spray paint? that must be the most ingenious invention ever created because NO ONE can solve it. They just all use water and scrub uselessly. Why doesn't ANYONE go out and buy some solvent. There are pages and pages and pages on how to remove spray paint but all you ever see is a bucket of water and a scrubbing brush. It's my understanding that if you get it while it's wet, maybe that'll work but considering how long that X was there you're going to need more than that.

But look how minor my complaints are this episodes. Spray Paint and super effective "racism". Like the one where-- that was last episode. Like Last episode this was pretty good, even with my nitpicks. I didn't mind Olive_theDaughter even though there was plenty of potential for her to insist that she should have been filled in earlier. The whole "everyone who knows dies" thing kinda feels contrived. They're drawing conclusions with barely any evidence. Correlation is not causation. People who know have died but that doesn't mean knowing is what makes them die.

Oo ooo oo.. Also. they played Bananagrams. As a board gamer I like to see fun games being played. not boring family games like monopoly and connect 4. Bananagrams is an excellent family game. it's exactly the sort of family game modern families should be playing.

There's so little I can dock this episode for. One of the few flaws I find in this series is that it doesn't treat it's non-white non-normal women fairly. Talla had a super relatable problem of being unable to find a man who could tolerate her being superior to him physically. She suffers from emasculating unintentionally all the men to whom she is attracted with her stature and her ability. It's part of what made Captain Mercer compelling that he's one of the few who didn't care. But now she's gone which sucks because she was one of my favorite characters.

My favorite character was Doctor Claire Finn. She's great. This episode engaged in a trope that's sucked since I was kid even before I was aware of it. It's the trope of the black girl dating the abnormal guy. You see it in Saved by the Bell and Family Matters and all sorts of shows and a few movies. It's also been subverted a lot more lately. But still I've been waiting for this Claire-Issac relationship to come to a boil for a while now. Which is honestly one of the many many many things this show does right. Rather than randomly throwing the two into a relationship for laughs. There's build up. You as a viewer feel like this relationship makes sense. Even if you disagree with it, you can understand why it's happening. That's incredible. Also for a relationship that's quite frankly laughable all the players perform realistically. Realism is something the show is 80:30 on. Sometimes it's amazingly real and sometimes there are family guy style jokes that remind you this is a comedy and not an adventure show.. but it's also an adventure show. Everyone with regard to this relationship acts realistically. Claire most importantly of all is in full awareness that the relationship is crazy. She doesn't have love goggles that make her unable to see Isaac as he is when he does foolish things. One of the things I like about Claire is that unlike most people she's able to explain things to the robot characters. Often people explain things to robots like they're a slow child. They use euphemisms that the robot can't comprehend. They use slang and try to explain the slang with more slang. Claire is clear and to the point with Isaac.

I could go on and on about this episode but it's just so sincere in it's robotic relationship that it works. They don't mock the relationship event though there are many jokes about it ("dating a vaccuum", John and Gordon racing to tell the bridge about the date). There's humor where Claire and Isaac are the butt of the jokes but there's almost none where it's at their expense.

And then in the end there's real tension when Isaac breaks up and then finds himself at less than 100% function. This relationship is based on a premise I hate and yet by the end I'm hoping Isaac evolves and develops a level of attachment to Claire that could be noteworthy. I'm hoping her changes his faceplate potentially. But for now they have the simulator which is to it's benefit child-free.

Actually this was a pretty solid episode. Unlike last week's rage monster episode. This one works on pretty much every level. Team Flash (which I'll point out is a term I hate because not everyone has a Batman-like family and The Flash has always been a more solo hero than team based but at 5 seasons in this will probably be the only time I mention it) actually takes a good step towards solving the big bad Cicada problem. Try to use his daughter to get through to him on a personal level. it's a brilliant idea that they should have tried AGES ago when they first learned Cicada's backstory.

They use cheesy handwavy technology to go inside her head. They use cheesy handwavy biology to explain that the head has a psychological immune system that will fight them. Honestly that makes so much less sense than the first sentence in this paragraph I literally signed and almost rolled my eyes in person by myself. But narratively it works fine. They have to get in and get out quickly or the brain protection will attack them. The two interesting results of this are [spoiler](1) [spoiler]the name drop of Red Death[/spoiler] and (2) [spoiler]the girl is evil[/spoiler].

Think that second result is interesting. I feel it's somehow related to [spoiler]the dark metal or meta metal or whatever we're calling it this season that was left in her head because "it was too dangerous to remove"[/spoiler] which means either we kill a little girl or we fix it.

This is a reprieve from the worst characteres on the show Caitlin/Killer Frost. a) why is she still named Killer Frost? It makes no sense and I will complain about it every chance I get. NOTHING ABOUT KILLER FROST MAKES SENSE!!! I have to rewatch the episodes with her father to even see if her being a metahuman before the explosion makes sense b) just bloody integrate the personalities already. I mean what happens when everyone else is dating and they finally need to give Caitlin a boyfriend? Does he date both of them? Do they each get their own boyfriend? Ugh the whole thing is just stupid but we don't have to do anything about it this episode.

Ralph and Cisco are a fun team. It's good to see Ralph just wanting to connect man-to-man. There's not a lot to say about their interraction but it was charming. Hopefuly they give Cisco a new love interest and hopefully they don't take her away for no reason. We don't need Cisco to be the Xander "Zebo" Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) of the group.

What. the. heck. did. I. just. watch?

My first instinct was to replay the whole thing just because there's no way I just watched 25 minutes of show. Man I've forgotten how engrossing this show can be. I am not even sure I have words to break down what just happened. True to form You're the Worst showcases a couple that's perfect for each other because they literally are and remain the worst. I mean the love story at first had me wondering if there was a hidden backstory to Jimmybecause everyone kept calling him Jake. Only to have it go for a wrenching when Gretchen takes the lead of the story. At this point I imagined they were writing a movie together which explained a few oddities. I lived in the AOL era and dick pics weren't really a thing then.

Gretchen tapping in should have given up the jig. In retrospect the clues were there I just didn't understand the background. But there are so many aspects that are just so true to the show from the way this super heart-felt narrative being weaved fades apart. Gretchen stops caring about logic even less than Jimmy did. (First International Mainstream Blockbuster with Graphic Sex and so many murders). But there are moments of genuine glee like when Jimmy is startled to learn that "the reporter who asked you the question was [him]". I laughed really loudly at that part. But this entire effort suggesting at least a step forward for our "worst" couple ends up being a facade with no real point, which turns out to be their opinion on marriage ceremonies next episode. The whole thing finally begings to go somewhere and the episode is over.

Um, what happened? Who wrote this episode because they deserve a raise and everyone else needs to be fired because this episode so far (50%) is EXCELLENT. And the couple that is literally the worst is having a legit fight. But let's back up.

This episode picks up on the event that happened last episode Cal is missing. So the entire family is kicking up a storm. Dad wants to spy hard, Michella kidnaps the spy passenger (I don't even know when she learned Autumn was a spy because I must have fallen asleep last episode, something that happens regularly but I try to rewatch later to see what I missed) to find out what she knows. Assuming the infomation matches this is a reasonable act. Mom calls the cops which is a reasonable action given that she doesn't know what's going on.. wait is that right? Because Dad and Mom fight about this. Did he not tell her about all the stuff going on? I swore he did and she scoffed him off. Either way we get the "Don't protect me" speech which I usually agree with, but again I don't think he was protecting her because I thought I remembered him telling. If I have that wrong I have to reassess everything to do with Mom and how wrongly she's been acting. Not this episode though.

Dad: This is the drawing that is the only clue to where our son might be
Mom: I know this place
Dad: Are you sure?
Mom: it's made out of crayon I don't know.

wow. a great response to a stupid question. You have no leads. What do you care if she's sure. Then they have a drive that's just as awkward as it needs to be (with bonus product placement). Before they scour the town and have a legit fight. I mean a real legit fight over real legit things. I was so shocked that I suddenly realized the entire episode has been good and I had to get my notepad++ open just to type this mid-episode. They have a fight about whose fault it is that Dad moved out.

Mom: If we lived together this wouldn't have happaned
Dad: Yeah, I agree but it's not your fault
Mom: Wait what?!?!

Holy balls. Where do you get the cajones to say something that stupid hombre? I mean do you not like your wife? I thought you wanted to have her sleeping next to you? Because that's exactly how you keep her sleeping next to your replacement. She is rightfully offended at his presumption that she blames herself. After all it was his decision to leave.

Uh oh. I just hit unpause and it got stupid.

Dad: You kicked me out
Mom: You didn't fight for "us" (Ed: Ugh really?)
Mom: You left because you know what you did. You didn't make Cal the number one in your life.

Chicken-head says what? (I'd like to apologize for the unnecessary sexism. it's not cool. I was just super frustrated with the dialog) Like dang Grace you've been blocking Ben from doing what he needs to do FOR the family.

Dad: Everything I've done has been to keep Cal safe.
Mom: But no one else is blowing up their families why can't you be normal like them?
Dad: I'm a main protagnist do you not get how this works yet?

Alright the episode has gotten cheesy and product placy but you know what it hasn't got? Bad.

Dad: Mom, see this car? (Ed: because it's so ridiculous everyone needs to see it - https://i.imgur.com/2wkwI4G.jpg)
Dad: I think someone is following us. There's a single car behind us on this two lane highway with infrequent exits. Why else would a car be behind us.
Mom: But.. how can they keep up with us and not get lost we've been driving straight down the highway
Dad: I don't know but we're not driving a normal direction we're going straight
Mom: Does this car have any off-road features or anti-lock brakes?
Dad: I'm glad you asked that because all the base models come with both of those and for an extra $1000 we'll throw in linen seats.

Michella and Jared show up to do information exchange with the spy passenger Autumn

Mich: Thanks for switching to our side
Autu: You're welcome.
Mich picks up the information she brought autumn from the table behind her rather than from a brief case or any sort of envelope she would have been carrying on her. thus indicating she came in. Put the envelope down and walked in to talk to Autumn rather than just holding on to it for whatever reason.

Do the show runners even car about prop logic?

Mich: Did you guys get the location I sent you?
Mom and Dad: Yes.
Mich: I know it took you guys hours to get where you are but I'm coming too.. wait hours for me to get there don't try anything stupid like going to find your lost and missing son in the middle of winter.

But these are all relatively minor complaints in this show. I mean after this episode i can see what they were trying to do with Grace's character act. it just made no sense until now. In retrospect those earlier episodes are even worse because it was intentional. they need a firm steady hand to keep the characters and their motivations consistent and reasonable with the long term serial nature of the show. This shouldn't be impossible. But even the mythos ending was great. The hiker from Michella's vision isn't Cal in the future as I thought it's another time skipper, this time a hiker who skipped two years . He's an interesting addition to the cast and we've barely met him. This has got to be one of THE BEST episodes of the season.

Ed: Some of the conversations have been paraphrased for laziness reasons. Some have a bit of creative license in them

It's not enough that they're in the quarantine. But EVERYTHING has to go wrong. Not just that they had a pregnant woman but she has to give birth then and there.. not just that but the baby isn't angled right not just that but after the cesarian that baby is suffering AND the mother is suffering. It's just .. frankly it's just ridiculous. Because that's just one of the maybe 5 medical plotlines going on in this episode.

And on this episode of Shawn is the worst doctor: I thought the lightbulb thing was stupid last episode but it turns out he literally meant the lightbulb AND the yelling. Dude if you're an ER doctor and yelling is going to throw you off your game. Why are you an ER doctor? This doesn't make sense. There's been plenty of yelling before and he's not going thought an emotional crisis. As sad as it is I actually found the lightbulb messing with him more credible than the yelling. Which is doubly funny because one of the plotlines to this episode is that Shawn isn't a delicate flower and you don't have to treat him with kid gloves.

However in contrast to the last episode Edit: almost nobody dies. Which is whatever. Maybe having 5 stories going on at once actually helped because there was less room for stupid nonsense you typically see in a show of this budget.

ok so let's talk about it. It was stupid in Black Lightning it's stupid in half the X-Men stories and it's stupid here. The "cure" debate. Both Cisco Ramone and Lynn Stewart both work on finding a cure to super powers. Both of them have VERY GOOD REASONS FOR THIS. In the former Cisco points out that people like Fallout can't live their lives because of their meta powers. In the latter Lynn is confronted by a daughter who is scared of, resentful of and has no control of her powers. In both cases even researching the idea is seen as stealing identities.

I'll never forgive the show's writers for making Caitlin the ONLY PERSON IN THE ENTIRE SERIES WHOS POWERS FRACTURE HER PERSONLITIES. Everyone can get powers and it's fine. Caitlin gets power and now she's got Disassociative Identity Disorder. Everything they do is just making it worse from trying to retcon her backstory so that she's always had the Killer Frost personality. to the very fact that it's called Killer Frost.. WHY? Killer Frost was the character on the other world where Cisco was known as something not Vibe. But he didn't take on his evil name. Why should Caitlin. And rather than trying to integrate the personalities into one cohesive person which would be interesting and make sense. They're going full on "Let's just have two people" which means until even now she's not in control of her powers. And YET.

i said AND YET. Killer Frost AND Caitlin both see finding a cure for meta humans as some sort of wacky eugenics rather than the solution for people like Fallout who because of how dangerous and out of control their powers are they're locked up never to see other people because even if they're doing good they could be used as a weapon.

I'm so offended by this storyline. It makes me seething angry because it's so stupid.

But hey the plot line where apparently Nora has been being led around the nose by Eobard Thawn is just silly. The dude is so dead his entire family line is killed. The only way he works as a character is as a Time Ghost. Waiting for the timeline to catch up with him and we've already done that story. Nora shouldn't be trusted because she's sucking as a person why is someone so unaffected so unwilling to keep her cool for 20 minutes.

So what we have here in this episode is lot of my "favorite" medical show tropes. Honestly I'm surprised they didn't sneak "the patient who knows what the doctor is really going though" in there. But we do have another one that's equally frustrating. The patient who questions medical advice from doctors.

Medciene: We have another doner
Patient: How many markers does he have?
M: 5/8
P: That's not good my father (who is locked down under quarantine) had more. I can't go though all this again.

Like bruh you're literally on deathbed. Who refuses to take the chance with a doner.

It's not a medical show without a big huge event and in this two parter it's an unknown viral airborne pathogen that initiates a quarantine. I can't wait to hear how they explain how this happened. But never fear we have Doctor Shawn Murphy the worlds worst doctor on the case. A doctor with no tact and no ability to not say exactly what is on his mind no matter if the information should be spoken in front of patients or not. This week on difficulties only Shawn will face it's "light bulbs". The man is paralyzed by a light bulb that is buzzing. I want to believe that there's something going on with the light bulb and Shawn is just hyper aware of it and it's going to be key to why people are getting sick but by the end of the episode. Nah. Just Shawn being Shawn.

A solid episode. Great drama. Great policework. Stakes to care about in the major and minor plotlines. This episode did everything that MacGyver (3x11) did wrong this week. The series wide technical issues are still there. The body cameras that the cops are never without and are clearly not the footage we see based on the angles the footage shows. Here's a minor hint: If the character is peaking around the corner, then they will only expose their head. Therefore, the body cam footage shouldn't show the peaking around the corner.

But to be honest the fact that I'm literally complaining about the body cam footage parts shows how great this episode was. It might be my top 5 of the season. I even cared about the episodic characters. I care about the pregnant woman trapped in a relationship with.... I dunno a drug kingpin or a gangster or a gun runner whatever he classifies as. I cared about the black man who didn't want to take no muss from the cop but still let them survive in his apartment. I was invested in the two (IA?) guys who showed up late to the party [spoilers] and as much as I didn't like them. I felt reasonably sad when one died saving his partner[/spoilers]. Even the B-Plot about the break-in and the new investigation about it and whether or not it would be revealed that Lucy and John were having sex that night was interesting. One of my bigger complaints in the show is how idealized the police are where one lie can get you kicked off the force but IRL you can shoot a 7yo in the head and not get kicked off SWAT. But even that was toned down this episode. There's a minor theme about the truth setting you free but the only one who buys into that nonsense is John Nolan because that's the sort of thing a white guy might think but Lucy knows better. Even Commander West knows this and is clearly only using this to trick John Nolan into giving himself up. It's the sort of theme that would be super annoying if a full episode was dedicated to it but in this episode it was used exactly as much as it needed to be.

ok so here's the thing with MacGyver as a series. This episode kinda exemplifies what you will be getting most of the time. Which is to say it's uninspired. It doesn't fail anywhere really except at being entertaining. Mac and Jack get kidnapped and have to literally MacGyver their way out. This is the sort of premise that made MacGyver. But here it's just.. uninteresting. What's actually more interesting here is the B-plot where the B-Team (Bowser, and the ladies) have to steal a necklace. Do computer stuff do it and return it all without getting caugh. Honestly it's much better executed than Mac and Jack. It's fun at least. But even that plotline like the other one lacks stakes. In a previous episode I recommended you introduce your friends to it if you want them to like this show. This is an episode you recommend when they already hate it. It's not going to change minds much but you will be able to argue "See it wasn't terrible" because that's what this episode is, not terrible.

I mean for crying out loud the B-Team has to do a jewel heist from a terrorist. This should be exciting and with tension and stakes it could be because it's written well. things go sidways, they have to improvise but there are beliveability issues. That might have to do with editing. Bowser has shown himself to be a crafter. The show has made good and bad use of that before but here.. he needs to come up with a mini fashion show in one day and at no point do you see this. It's one day he gets the ultimatum and the next scene we see him in it's the next day and he has dresses. I would have liked to see him working on the dresses to see the ladies appreciate his ability to come up with dress designs or maybe work with him or something. I don't know where the dresses come from and it's just like "magic" with a lot of money and it feels uninteresting. It doesn't do anything for me and I wish it did because it could have been interesting. I think it fails because they try to introduce a personal plotline to the B-Team. Bowser asks his girlfriend (B-Team lady) to move in with him and she hesitates. Which leads me to two points:

1. I feel like guys don't understand the pressure of surprises. This shouldn't have been a surprise let's move intogether moment. This is something you talk about but that's not TV romantic so it never happens and then creepy guys aren't great and learning from IRL social cues take their social cues from television and we get weird neckbeards or white knights.
2. Why did she hesitate? I think that could have been another good area to explore. Maybe she's unsure of Bowser (unlikely) or maybe she has personal issues moving in with a man (reasonable) something to talk about or discuss. Instead she just half way through the heist says yes. Heck it could have combined with watching Bowser making all the dresses in one night being commanding and considerate and deliberate all things that could seal the deal with her and it would have conbined the emotion of their relationship with some serious stakes into a good episode. Instead we just have this sort of solid lump of an episode where nothing awkward happens except they treat a terrorist like a clueless socialite. Heck they write her like a clueless socialite until the last line when they suggest she's going to jail.

This show need to stop trying so hard. I don't know how it gets so many things wrong so often. This kid talking about his podcast like it matters is just off.

Finally having a group meeting is one of the smartest things they've done. I really don't think they needed a traitor element in the first place but we'll see.

Also in pro news the kids are apparently transferring houses. Between mom and dad. Which does respect his fatherhood status even if it might mean complications for the kids.

Honestly this episode is much smarter than the last episode. Even with the cheesy podcast stuff.

Like this "Holy Grail" thing where everyone is like "yeaaahhh right". As if no one has ever used the "holy grail" to mean something important before.

and then just like that an episode that started off rocky, was going smoothly then nosedives ruining a 6/10 episode to 3-4/10 territory. Lady Cop blames an amnesiac for beating his wife when the guy can't even remember his name. As if that makes any sense. At the family house young Olive invites her new-Daddy home to eat dinner to cheer up her mom because children understand complex adult dynamics either 100% or 0% depending on the episode and when real daddy summoned by his son via text shows up real-Daddy and new-Daddy get into a fight over the dumbest thing ever. You're ADULTS. act like it. Even if you wanted to yell who gets into a fist fight? No wonder Jordan Peterson thinks he's a genius he's learning everything about manhood not from historical cultural myth but television. But just everything about that scene is stupid.

"It doesn't look like a happy reunion" - what? You literally just walked into the house mr "Who is this man and why is he in my house that I'm exiled from"

"You are the whole reason this family is messed up" - WHAT??!? The dude disappeared in an airplane. He didn't mess up his family. Someone else messed up his family. He's literally innocent in all of this.

Olive sucks. Olive sucks worst than her mother and her mother SUUUUUCKS. Everyone on this show sucks to a little degree. But good grief.

And we have the second episode with a couple cheating to get back together (You 1x07-08)

This episode like so many of this series had the potential to be solid. Ending it by having white guy do the podcast is silly. Except plot twist.. good plot twist it's an insurance policy something the podcast host is too dumb to understand. Then finally having other people's callings show up is brilliant. Everything about this ending is compelling enough to make me want to see what happens next. If only the middle didn't just suck donkey balls so frequently.