The Expanse does its mid-season really well like it did in Season 2. It ties all the loose knot in a very coherent structure altogether, at the same time: Avasarala's hunt for Jules-Pierre Mao, Errinwright's conspiracy and Anna's involvement in the higher ups, Bobbie's post-traumatic experience, Prax's quest for his kid, and finally James/Naomi's strained relationship. Most story arcs that have developed for a while now (some even from early Season 2) all come to a closing to a very satisfying end.
Even Prax's story arc end in an unexpected conclusion, as he managed to save his kid - I was expecting it to end tragic, with the supposed foreboding (Prax's chat with Amos about taking care of him and all). Amos, despite not getting his major arc here, comes out the shiniest perhaps among all of the main Roci's crew. The contrast between him and Prax, and his words to Dr. Strickland, "I am that guy", makes his character stands out.
The story arcs cost interesting characters, but at least not before they are developed and has served their arc to its end though I still regret Admiral Souther's early and too cliched demise in previous episode. This episode 6 almost feels like Season 2's episode 5 where Miller bids us farewell with his sacrifice, even the end of the episode as something emerges out of Venus. There is also one unused story device: a protomolecule trace on Rocinante. I wonder how this will play out.
Most solid episode of the season so far. Nothing extraordinarily amazing, but it's just The Boys at its best like in the first half of Season 1.
What I like the most is that everything that happens leading to the climax in the Herogasm is just frantic, chaotic, a lot of stuff happening at once, unplanned, unpredictable, and consequently, tragic. Just a lot of things coming out together at the same time, including the tying up of loose ends of plot points (e.g. with A-Train's demise and his conflict with Hughie).
The episode keeps the comedy and jab at corporate speak intact, but does not overdo it so we get straight to the crux of the matter. From Homelander, Starlight, Kimiko/Frenchie, Hughie, A-Train, even Ashley - the plot revolving around those characters are about what makes them really them. They all have struggled with the question whether power (be it through V or executive position) made them into a terrible person they do not like, but it is all actually on them. Power only explicate their attitude. Like Butcher in the previous episode said, "With great power comes the absolute certainty, that you will turn into a right cunt."
It was interesting to see how each characters react: Hughie portrayed as an insecure man, A-Train tasting his own bitter medicine, Starlight getting tired of the play-pretend and politicking she has played all over the years, and of course, Homelander being Homelander. I find it especially best with Hughie and A-Train. Hughie, when in S1 he acted as our moral compass, here we see him as someone fragile, a man unable to keep up with the pace of the world he's living in and feeling defeated by his girlfriend for not being a breadwinner. A-Train, a great end to his arc, as he realizes that he has caused so many harms to others due to his toxicity, he realizes that he can only bring a little bit of justice for his own brother. He can't run away from his past like Frenchie said, I think it's very poetic.
Also it's refreshing to get a brief character development with Soldier Boy. Hoping that there is more to this character in the next seasons to come.
Last but not least, the fight with Homelander was intense. The unexpected Butcher x Hughie x Soldier Boy tag-team is great, especially with the confused, defeated look Homelander gave to them. I'm expecting this will drive Homelander even uncontrollable, especially now with his inner monologue and everyone either against him (Starlight, Maeve, if she is still there) or leaving him (Noir and possibly A-Train). The show seems to be planting the seed of conflict between our Boys in the future to come. Hopefully this will pay off.
If The Boys is usually chock full of superhero films parody, then this episode feels like a love letter to Logan (2017) and (the trailer version of) The New Mutants (2020). This is even more so with the casting of Shawn Ashmore, who played Iceman on X-Men, as Lamplighter.
It opens up with Homelander being sexually aroused by Stormfront while crushing the head of a thief in an alley. It recalls the scene back in Season 1 when Homelander casually rips through a gunman's chest for a show, but this time it's even more vulgar. As Homelander gets more aroused, his grip on the thief's head gets firmer, until it eventually crushes him into pieces. Then, fast forward to the end of the episode, we see Homelander confronting Stormfront, and her opening up to Homelander about her past, while she preaches of the importance of purity of their "race". They then continued to make out. There is something to be said here about indulgence in sexual and power fantasy.
This episode also starts to recenter the orientation. If in the first season we get to see the story progresses from the eyes of Hughie - the only seemingly sane person among the ragtag group of rebels - this episode shows how others see Hughie. Butcher, always an efficient, ruthless killer he is, is contrasted to Annie/Starlight who believes she retains her compassion even though she's a supe. Annie relentlessly tries to stop Butcher from senseless killing; though for Butcher she still inhibits the one thing he hate the most. "What you can't stand is in my blood, I'm a subhuman to you," Annie confronts Butcher. Yet when situation forced her to take extra measures, Annie sees herself doing something that only Butcher would do. "I'm not like you," she insists. However they then find what really makes them similar, but different at the same time: their attraction to Hughie.
Last, The Boys never stops to take a jab to corporatization of superhero. '"'A-Train' is a trademark. You're just another nobody from the South Side of Chicago" reminds me of the very early episodes in S1, when Homelander thought they were still bound by corporate rules (something that he seems to try to break free in this season).
I love how the show so far has put so much details in its science-fiction. Almost like they're putting back the science in science fiction. The coriolis gravity effect when pouring water was a nice touch in Eps 2. They have been fairly consistent the physics as well. The logics of air and gravity are used seamlessly in the storytelling, not as mere plot devices but actual environment that has to be considered by the characters.
The episode has shootout, and perhaps it's one among the better ones I've seen so far in TV series. Typically TV series just throw a crowd shooting at each other without taking cover like amateurs (even though they're supposed to have military training). From The Walking Dead to The Mandalorian, shootouts always look dumb and incompetent. But The Expanse manage to direct it to look as if the ones shooting were actual soldiers with military training. They take cover and aim their shot. They also don't waste too much screen time depicting the shootings, which makes the event effective and has a sense of decisiveness.
The plot takes twist and turn, and when it does twist, there is no holds barred. What happened to the characters are shocking and feel like out of nowhere, adding to the sense of danger and urgency the episode plays out. Unlike the previous episodes, this one is more focused on Holden's story, that helps exploring characterization and depth this promising TV series has.
Love comes and ends in the strangest place, and perhaps Miller's love story is one of those few that makes sense when one person's sacrifice saves millions others.
The episode concludes their arc beautifully. It starts with a weary, hardened life of a Belter in a routine job, got caught in webs of strings larger than themselves, then they got back right at where they started - the mystery, the bird, the girl, even though they might be a mere artificial replica of it. Their obsession and goal might seem strange to some, but having lost their job and purpose, it would make sense to cling on something that they have been pursuing all along. The scene where we thought they might find refugee in salvation in the Nauvoo evokes the disorientation they have been having, and the way this episode closes back to what led them to this in the first place is done right.
The last few minutes were mesmerizing and beautifully sad. Blue glimmering light shines upon the dark hallways of abandoned station. "There's alien life in the universe, and I'm riding it," said Miller, before they end up appreciating what waited for them in the end of the hallway. Strong performances by the actor has made them one of my favorite characters in The Expanse, and I will miss their wit, but this is a concluding episode well done.
So much development we get in one episode. We get to see more of Avasarala with her two "aides". We get to see how Errinwright turns out to be still an ambitious, "ends justify the means", just right after he looked vulnerable earlier. There is a lot of pressure between them and Mao as well. We get to see Holden acts as righteous, grudge-filled captain. This is one of these times when I wished Miller was still alive to kick some sense to Holden - he's a good counter-balance.
There is a slight contrast here between Naomi and Holden: the Belter right to the core and the Earther who ends up as Belter survivor. If Dawes and Johnson fought for how they handle power, Naomi and Holden "fought" for how differently they see values in human's life. Holden dreams big and loves to play hero, but Naomi, a Belter since birth, knows the value of life on the ground. The refugee crisis on Ganymede Station is both emotional and powerful, as the big guy Champa touched his chest, gesturing a Belter's loyalty. It might be idealized as the other commenter has said, but it is the other extremes of previous episodes where a Belter would space out Martians out of hatred.
"They're just people. But they snap their fingers and we jump."
Interesting episode showing the clutch of corporation in the lives of the superheroes. Heroes have to obey metrics--viewership, social media likes--they have to perform, to play the role of heroes to satisfy the demands of the markets.
The life threatening crime of robberies are made mundane, as shown when Homelander and Maeve have a casual chit-chat about their employers while performing cool action stunts of "saving the world". Which, in actuality, is a no-mercy beatdown of a guy who surrendered as soon as they appear. But they have to play their part: "the bad guy shot first", that's why it's legal to murder him. In the same vein, Starlight has to upgrade her costume, to show a "transformation" from a country girl to a metropolis supe. She doesn't like showing off her body, but once she signed the contract, her body is no longer hers--it's of the corporation. The supes may have physical power, but the billionaires have political and cultural power.
We have watched this mundanity before in the form of other entertainment--Marvel Cinematic Universe. Life-threatening actions were played out as jokes and mundane routines. And us the viewers enjoyed it, because it gives us "cozy feelings". But, like most performers, heroes hide secrets. And that's where the Compound V plot kicks in.
This episode attempts to show what sci-fi usually does: a commentary not of the future, but of the present. The subplots are knitted neatly to each other, marking a distinct theme. We tread carefully as plans and ploys unfold--and failed--but as they go, more possibilities were opened up. We watch our Hughie becoming more convinced of his place in The Boys. We see his conscience in opposition to the other veteran members of professional killers.
The great thing about this show so far is how everything is not portrayed as merely black and white. Superheroes may do bad, but they are all still humans who submit to corporate governance. While our boys may seem to have clear motives of taking down corrupt heroes, but they too are vested with their own interest. Hughie acts as our moral compass--the only ordinary guy, who happens to be trapped inside this clusterfuck.
The Boys does its job best when they jab at mockery of how the show biz operates. The first thing Vought does then they know that Queen Maeve is bi is to capitalize it: make her sexuality as a performance in their newest movie. But not only that; they need to make Maeve not just a bi, but a lesbian, and her partner - Elena - has to be made to wear men's fashion. Because "lesbian is a bit more easy to sell" and "Americans are more accepting of gay when they are in clear-cut gender role relationship". Companies like Vought, like its real-life counterpart (Disney), cares much more about how something sells than the nuance behind it. This parody is even funnier considering that they have a Jon Favreau look-a-like and a guy named Joss (Whedon?) who handle the Dawn of Seven movie production.
Aside from that, the episode continues the tense relationship between Starlight and Stormfront, and we start to see how Stormfront attempts to pull strings to maintain her position in The Seven.
Two things I notice though: the part where Homelander murdered a bunch of civilian in the public, that turns out to be an imagination feels a bit like cop-out, however it is interesting that it parallels Hughie's frustration when he lost Robin back in the first eps. of Season 1. The way Noir and Butcher confrontation is handled also feels a bit too easy, especially after the big build up about them being Vought most wanted in earlier episode.
This finale feels like not just a finale for Season 2, but Season 1 as well. It wraps up the plot that has been worked on since Season 1, and in some ways turning it to full circle, e.g. Butcher's quest for Becca, A-Train subplot, Hughie's self-discovery, and the rest of The Boys's relationship with each other.
As usual, The Boys does the best job when they take a jab on current corporatist-political climate.
“People love what I have to say. They believe in it," Stormfront confidently said. "They just don’t like the word Nazi." A racist superhero is Vought's darling - one that casually screams lingos like "white genocide" to young boys. Seemingly contradictory considering Stan Edgar, who would be target of racism, is Vought's CEO. But Edgar insisted that it is not about him. "I can’t lash out like some raging, entitled maniac," Stan Edgar responded as he smiled when confronted on what he did, "That’s a white man’s luxury." Anger drives demands for securitization. Demands for securitization drives demands for Compound V. Vought just "play with the cards we're dealt." Like Maeve's bisexuality that Vought plays, racism is just another card to eventually drive profit. Be it racism or empowerment, they are all smoke and mirrors.
But of course the thickest smoke and mirror is not a mere woke capitalism - something we can already obviously see. The thickest smoke is one that makes us think that within this war of attrition, another hero existed, and they would fight for our cause. We follow them as they march - our symbol of hope. This episode reveals something that has been foreshadowed very early in this season: "it's a fucking coup from the inside," said Raynor, before her head got blown into bits. Neuman, an obvious parody of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, raised into the spotlight as an opposition toward Vought and Homelander. But as it is revealed that it was her who was blowing people's head, and she has blown the church leader's head too as soon as she knew he has files on supes, it is revealed that she is actually a controlled opposition by Vought. Like the politicians who hail from Democratic Party, a part of ruling oligarchy, The Boys takes another jab that we should really never trust heroes, be it in the form of supe or another.
This reveal is also a very nice setup as it closes the arcs on Season 1 and 2, and prepares for another arc coming in Season 3. It gets interesting as I had myself asking, "can Homelander end up being our hope now?" This sort of dilemma is what piqued my interest in The Boys; we can't really easily label one as evil and another as good, as - like in real life - today's enemy can be tomorrow's ally, and vice versa.
That being said, I do not think this episode is a perfect ten. Butcher's quest for his wife, for example, was quite unsatisfying. Becca, despite having a lot of screen time, does not possess actual agency, and more like a side character who happens to be involved in Butcher's bigger story. Despite revolving around his infatuation with his supposedly long-dead wife, the way the subplot climaxes leaves much to be desired as Butcher seemingly sidesteps Becca's death. How would Butcher reconcile with such heavily emotional feeling, after years of losing her, finding her, and now he is losing her again? How would Ryan, her son, react to the loss of the only guardian he ever knew in all his life? Those questions remain unresolved. We get to see more time of Hughie and Starlight bonding - while it resolves the tension in their relationship, there is not much resolution or development going on in that aspect.
In addition to that, while watching girls trio beating up Nazi is fun to watch (though it seems to lean more on the cathartic side too much) - and especially funny since it is another parody at Marvel, the forced "girl power" scene in Endgame - Maeve's appearance seems a bit too convenient, deus ex machina that resolves not just the issue with Stormfront, but also Homelander. The Boys has been sort of weak in the last three episodes in employing deus ex machina, something I wish could be worked on more on the next season.
All in all though, this is a much better finale than Season 1's.
The most obvious best part in the episode is of course Stormfront. The show doesn't pull punches. Stormfront makes a really good portrayal of today libertarianism: social media savvy, all about women empowerment a la Sophia Amoruso's "Girlboss", but does not care with the have nots, and is extremely prejudiced towards marginalized groups (e.g. ethnic minorities). Casting a female Stormfront (instead of a male one like in the comics) is a good touch as it highlights the point that without class or racial sensitivities, you'd get people that talk of empowerment as long as it only benefits them.
However there is another part, a slightly minor scene in the big move that drives the plot forward. When it is revealed that Starlight successfully leaks Compound V to the media, A-Train confronts her. She justifies her action: "there is much more than having good cars, houses, etc" (the things possible when the supes rose into stardom). Disappointed, A-Train cut her short, "the only people who say that are the people who grew up with money."
This short conversation shows what The Boys can do best: nuance. A-Train might be a jerk, but he too is a victim of the system. Like the blacks Stormfront murdered later in the episode, A-Train came from lower class background. His supe power helped him to climb the socioeconomic ladder, being an athlete in place of his brother and of course being a part of The Seven. This is in contrast to Starlight, who was raised by relatively affluent mother - who was obsessed with getting her child into stardom herself - always in spotlight and sufficient wealth since a young age. Starlight yearns for a meaningful life; A-Train desires a luxurious life he never got before his rise to supehero status.
A-Train was introduced as a jerk, no-good drug abuser; but after the anticlimactic conclusion in S1, with limited screen time he's been having in S2, we are shown more layers to A-Train's perspective. The show does this sort of nuance well with Maeve too.
The only obviously antagonist in the last episode is Homelander - as he went into more a narcissitic, mentally unstable character that may explode at any given time. But I hope even with his unpredictable deranged action we can still see the way he handles conflicting expectations he will face in the following episodes, esp. with the appearance of Stormfront, like when we saw him juggling between his individuality and personal branding in S1.
We are used to the typical imagined repressive dystopia, where our movement is limited and our will is repressed. But what if what happened is the reverse--a world where we willingly surrender our will, because of, as Huxley aptly put it, our "infinite appetite of distraction"?
That's what this episode is. A very good satire on a media-saturated world, where we . A world where everything is consumed as pure entertainment, and what we worked hard through and through (the endless cycling) ultimately is to reach the goal of consumption. It is a world where distraction is structurally offered in every chance--a world full of copious amount of advertising, that we cannot resist or even reject, as rejecting makes it our loss (literally, as skipping commercial costs a dime here).
As it is a world of mass consumption, as its consequence, it is also a world restraining for women. As women is judged first by her look and second by her other qualities. Abi, a good singer on her own, nevertheless has to submit as a porn actress as she is deemed too pretty and too hot. Even the woman judge has to agree, though she must shed her tear in silence.
The ending strikes as powerful as it reinforces the whole theme of the episode. As Bing attempted to kill himself after pointing out all the fault in the world--the facade and the inauthenticity--then judge is then silenced. But only for a brief moment. They then continue to judge and value the amusement of Bing's speech as an entertainment--a "performance"--as the shocked audience then also greet Bing with a thunderous applause when the judge offered Bing his own show for a heart-breaking speech. Eventually, the supposedly revolutionary Bing agreed with the offer. Bing became Che Guevara of his world, but even more ironic is the fact that he commoditize himself--he ended up being as the very reason of the existence of the farce he criticized.
Walking Dead's strength is always in its focus of character, and this episode shows that well.
We finally get a closer look of Negan through the classic "two characters in one room" scene. We get to look that, beyond his violent act and ill-mannered joke, Negan truly believed he did what he has to do. Classic philosophers have pondered a lot on the question "what would the world without the law be" and in a post-apocalyptic Walking Dead zombie world, that world, Negan believed, would require one despot that can maintain order. "I like killing people," Negan said, "But it's about killing the right people. You kill one right people, and you could save hundreds more." When Simon proposed in massacring The Hilltop to scare away ones who remain, Negan rashly opposed the idea, underlining that "people are resources" and he is "the one in charge".
All the sequences in this whole episode step away from the portrayal of Negan as comical villain who simply love to murder people. It shows that Negan, like many real life despots, calculate his actions and believe in an orderly societies maintain through a balanced oppression. One can easily be reminded with Philipinne's Rodrigo Duterte, Jakarta's Basuki Purnama, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, and other oppressive despots who said things similarly to Negan.
And of course, like real life despot, an authoritarian figure won't stay that long without the support of their people. In this episode we are shown the dynamics of Negan's most trusted elites through their table discussion about the possibility of Savior withour Negan - how different kind of people eventually submit to the ideals of maintaining order through power. People react when their safety is threatened as with the labors in Savior's clutch react when the base is out of power. But as Negan returned, they all too returned to bowing down to him, as if realising that their ultimate source of safety has returned. "Everything will be okay as long as our leader is here" is a common belief in societies with long history of dictatorship like in Indonesia and Singapore - and apparently The Savior's workers also have this mindset.
Not the finale we need, not the finale we deserve either... I was expecting at least a 90 minutes run. But regardless of the amount of them being cut, and sped up, I'm glad it was not a jumble mess like Season 5 finale.
A lot in the episodes feel like a callback to Season 1: the Rocinante dinner time (like the one they had with Alex and Miller), the landing and assault on the Ring surface (like the Assault on Thoth), and the negotiation/politics (like the whole Errinwright debacle). They were not as intense as the 1st Season given the time constraint, but enough to get all the things going.
The space battle leaves something to be desired, esp. on the UNN & Mars side (very far from the tenuous chaotic high command conflict back in Season 3), and the Belters' side could have more improvement (wish we could see more from the old guy Walker), but it's enough to convey the direness of the situation. Holden's crew raid is executed better than the space combat side, just like in the Thoth Station assault. Marco's demise was a bit cut short however, which feels a bit anticlimactic after they all went through. Similarly, the roundtable meeting was very simplified, without much tense and direness like we see during the tension between Earth Mars in Season 1-3 (like in Bobbie's trial), but at the very least it gives enough reason for a resolution to come up and conclude the series.
Again, this could've been more: it has improved from the less than average Season 5, but still it was not a very satisfying conclusion to this fantastic series. Alas, this is what we have. I hope we could still see more from The Expanse.
The finale of the Ilus arc already happened on previous episode; this episode closes the other stories: Avasarala's campaign, Bobbie's post-military life, and Ashford's/Drummer's hunt for the terrorist. Those plot points feel disconnected at earlier episodes in the season, but now it's tightly knitted to each other.
This episode is also a send-off to two characters. They managed to make Ashford a likeable character in the last two seasons, he really seemed like an ex-space pirate that has found his way through diplomacy. His death thus feels like a lost to a "civilized" side of the Belt, who has seen the both sides of the story. However, they could have raised less death flags for him. When he told Drummer to save the beer for after he came back, it was a glaringly strong and obvious death flag.
Meanwhile Miller, who retains his riposte and gruff character, finally has to be brought to end again. Holden's final moments of the protomolecule remains on his ship, which he seems to think to symbolize everything about Eros and his venture with Miller, was a sad farewell.
The Expanse does their best finale mid-season, and here we have one more season finale that hits all the right note but never went to go fully satisfying. Regardless, it manages to close the relatively self-contained season - kinda different from previous The Expanse season when story arcs go toward the other first half. Some would say it's been a filler season, which I don't disagree, but it never lost all the stuff that makes The Expanse great. Ready for Season 5.
Previous episodes made me think there was a clear-cut definition of who the "bad guy" is, which kinda disappointed me as I expected The Expanse to have more nuanced characters. This episode proves my suspicion was wrong - and The Expanse is still The Expanse.
It's a little bit harder to pinpoint Murtry as the bad guy here, as he seems only want to maintain order - and exacting revenge while at that - though in a rather megalomaniacal, self-centered way. "Now you know," he said to Holden, "This is the shit I have to deal with," sounds exactly just like authoritarian personalities when they rationalize their doing. On the other hand, the other party is not completely innocent at all, since here we are reminded of the O.P.A. strain that holds nothing but contempt to Earthers by their ploy to damage the RCEA. Even as far as to new solar system, they can't get out of their old political squabbles - "playing their old games".
The scene with Lucia's husband depict this best. Whereas Lucia insisted her husband to fight, to be someone strong in her place, he angrily retorted, "am I not strong enough, because I don't want to bring killing to this planet?" The husband reminds me of the scene from earlier season with Maneo Jung-Espinoza - whereas others would fight for their pride, identity, and live for future generations, the ordinary men just survive to live for today.
And identity is the focus of this episode. Belters think once they got taken away, they wouldn't be able to return. It's a result of years of oppression - they became paranoid because that's what the Inner always did in the past. Earthers, meanwhile, thinks that they're some universe-wide police which can regulate what can and can't people do. They're not merely arguing over some territory on the planet for the resource. They're arguing about who can claim the identity planet. A planet to call home.
All that under the backdrop of political campaigning back home, where politicians argue about colonization. Which makes the situation on Ilus actually more delicate - the majority of marginalized Earthers themselves are in crisis, but intergenerational suffering by Belters render the same marginals invisible in their eyes. Which made me recall a great review on Parasite: "the marginalized can look very heartless, even to each other. They don't have enough privilege to blur such social cannibalism with sweetener or perfume."
The episode benefits from its focus to Ilus and Earth's arc; relying only to subtle connection to other subplots they have developed in earlier episodes: the deal with Marcos Inaros (which I suspect will be connected to Bobbie's arc as well).
In a world where bodies are cheap, disposable, and replaceable, being a Meth makes one not just a metaphorical but literal God. Sharing their "bone and blood" is seen as a blessing, where their artificial immortality allows them to take the same shapes for centuries to come. Ghostwalker's rambling about his faith and the closing fight scene tread on this theme of body and mind, Altered Carbon's strongest suite. Between this theme of bodily significance we are shown the way truth and lies closely interwoven, as the Bancroft case seems to end soon.
However the intricate plot rests on a bit shaky acting. The reveal from previous episode needs better acting from the parts of both Kinnaman (Takeshi Kovacs) and Lachman (Reileen Kawahara). The mind-shattering should have given devastating impact to Kovacs, yet we barely see its effect. The same can be said with Ortega-Takeshi interaction, which we're not given enough time to feel the strong emotions between the two.
The rest of it seems to be nicely knitted though, as subplots begin to show their entanglement to each other. Perhaps not the easiest to follow - as the other comments seem to suggest - but that's just what you have with cyberpunk in the vein of Blade Runner.
"And when the best and brightest start leaving, it's gonna be just people like you and me left on this rock. Mars died the moment they discovered those new worlds."
This is the kind of moments I watch The Expanse for. The struggle for survival, the struggle to live the good life for the ordinary men. The great changes affecting our protagonists' lives the rest of the people in the universe too - and it's through their views we get to see the breath of life in The Expanse universe.
Bobbie's story arc has been up and down in this season, but it has made a very good world-building: the life on Mars, life of colonization, the underworld, the unemployment crisis - while Holden gets to venture the new world, million others have to face a consequence of his action and decision. It's kinda surprising that Esai Martin seems very humane considering his initial appearance.
Holden's venture, on the other hand, remains rather bleak. It's not the greatest point of the series, especially with how they write Holden on-and-off: sometimes as a white knight who strive for the good of all, sometimes as a reluctant hero who seemed to be annoyed at every turn. The mini plotpoint with Amos seems to hint something more, but leaves much to be desired, especially with his love interest, Wei, who appears merely as a potential obstacle in the soon-to-happen climax.
The Expanse always does their best in the episodes nearing finale however, and especially their cliffhanger ending. In just a matter of minutes, suspense returns, reminiscing the Season 1 where they investigate protomolecule for the first time. There is something eerie on seeing a projection of a dead man, glitching in the matrix, letting out a rather restrained scream.
Legion has been playing with the boundaries between illusion and reality, but until this episode it's been maintained under the pretext of it being "memories". This episode plays out that boundaries again (and in a nice believable twist with King the dog being figment of his imagination and Lenny that is actually a man called Benny), but not only that, it also extends the boundaries further with pivotal scenes in reality (such as dr. Poole actually being The Eye).
As with time travel, however, the illusion/reality bend is a plot device difficult to master: with the right pull it could be a clever play of foreshadowed subtleties, but plays it too much and you lost all the novelties. We've seen this ruined initially great shows such as Heroes and the anime Bleach, but we can see how it is employed wonderfully in shows such as Awake. Legion has just started on treading this plot device and I hope to see this plays out more cleverly in the next episodes.
In other notes, in line with the illusion/reality bend plot device, the show has been starting to explain how things work in their world, also giving other spotlight to other mutants and their powers, sometimes in not so subtle way (e.g. direct reference to Kerry/Cary age and physical body). The transition between explanation and characters acting like in their world feels rather rough sometimes, but I'm hoping this would be smoother as the story unfolds.
This is the best episode of Star Wars Visions. It didn't try to bite more than it can chew (didn't misunderstand the whole Jedi/Sith trope like the other episodes do) and the 15 minutes duration didn't overstay the welcome. This is the episode worthy of its own series; even as it stands, with the air of mystery like that, it already feels like a pilot episode.
Anyway this is the one that I would say a proper Star Wars in anime form. This could pass as one of Expanded Universe episodes, perhaps sometime before The Phantom Menace (they even get the hairlock right!). It plays the classic master-apprentice dynamics with a cautious wise master teaching his over-eager apprentice itching for action (the dialogue about Jedi philosophy was excellent - something that sorely lacking in the new Disney Star Wars). They were drawn by the power of a dark entity, that might seem to have more secrets than what meets the eye (again, they did it right with the signature yellow-eyed dark side wielders!). There is enough suspense in this episode that I got to watch this seriously, and they also did the action choreography right as with other TRIGGER anime. Great characters as well.
My only complain about the episode is the kind of abrupt climax. Though if this is supposed to be a tease, then the episode did it really right.
Not the most satisfying finale, but still a well-done one. It gets the tense evenly spread across: despite properly knowing who the major characters are by this point, The Expanse manages to convince me that any of them can be at a stake at any point. Well, perhaps except the main Roci crew.
The shootouts were well made: other series should follow what The Expanse does with their shootouts: doors and corners. People take covers and shots are taken carefully. I think I'm used to watch movies/shows where character's death happen for the shock value, that I expected something to happen when Amos, Alex, Dr. Volovodov, and Reporter Monica were doing their job.
However the writing on supporting characters could've been... more on par with previous seasons. Ashford came off as... a bit more reckless, and the way Amos justifies it ("He's a pirate") seems to be not the strongest plot device to make the story moves along with the tense, as everything that leads to the climax of this episode ultimately rests on his decision alone. We were introduced two new captains but they act as nothing but stocks to show that Ashford appears not to be the single commander (he seems to be though). There is something that feels a bit... artificial, after a very humane and rational Ashford we've seen in previous episodes. I feel like the episode attempts to replicate the Ganymede crisis on previous half-season, but in a more downsized scale.
I am not too sure with the resolution of Melba's arc either, with her having a change of heart then suddenly coming to the rescue, not to mention she is aboard Rocinante now, where she should've been a war criminal, murdering people in Seung-Eun? It seems to be too convenient. As is with Holden's and Rocinante crewss fate, who appears to get out of the trouble without having to face the criminal prosecution accused to them earlier.
That being said, this finale is a fitting end for The Expanse's run in Syfy. As it moves to Amazon Prime, a brand new channel, so does humanity move to new systems opened by the Ring. The three season that has occurred in The Expanse so far seems to be about how humanity discovers interstellar travel.
After the last, this was a great episode. The power politics during UN-MCR meeting was tense and Aghdashloo's Avasarala appears bold and masterful.
But the kick was the whole scene on Rocinante's attempt sneaking into Ganymede. "I know your type. Go save the world, if you think you can." That line and what happens after shows that we might like to play hero, but things may not go as well as we thought. Might seem wrong to let wrong-doings slip on our watch, but intervening it with our moral high ground on the top don't make things necessarily better. There's a wide gap between taking harsh life as granted and idealizing how that life should be.
It portrays perfectly how Holden and the crew has gone from your average ice haulers to someone who games on politics like Avasarala and the other. And yet, like the other commenter has said, "We aren't expected to take sides because each of the three groups [four if you count Holden] are simply humans trying to do what's best for their respective populations."
All of them are spun in this game of power, each with their own take on it - it is not too far off if some people may call The Expanse as sci-fi Game of Thrones.
This is certainly not The Boys' strongest season finale. The plots feel awkwardly resolved and the key plot points they've been developing just ended up as nothing. It feels really underwhelming. Of course there are some positive notes about this finale as well but bear with me, let's go through three most crucial problems for me.
First, Black Noir. What a disappointment. They've been building up Black Noir for at least four out of eight episodes in this season. They even showed him as a person, a real individual with emotion and vivid imagination this season after the previous two he had only been a mute killing machine. And he went down just like that. Sure the conversation between him and Homelander was tense - but that was it. Unfortunately, Black Noir's imaginative flashback, as I've suspected in the previous episodes, serve as nothing more than plot device to move the story forward.
Second, Soldier Boy. The hunt for the ultimate weapon to destroy Homelander ultimately just ended up in vain. Where did it go, the riled up spirit of The Boys in bringing Homelander down? They have the weakest excuses to portray this change of heart. With M.M.'s plot, well, I guess, okay, as he has his own personal vendetta against Soldier Boy, it's still understandable. This is to put aside that they went with the "Soldier Boy kills my family" plot too easily (we didn't get to ever see what actually happened and it's brushed off as nothing more than "racism", which is quite disappointing since there were plenty of rooms for flashback this season).
But then there's Butcher. He ended up beating down Soldier Boy because Soldier Boy hit his kid? I mean, sure it's his kid, but where's the man-with-a-mission-to-kill-Homelander-no-matter-what-it-takes that we've seen for all these three seasons? If Butcher was a little smarter - and he actually is with his cunning tactics and all! - he could've stopped Soldier Boy for a while, let Homelander pats Ryan's back, then when Ryan is out of sight just finish off Homelander by then. Soldier Boy doesn't even seem to hold anything against Ryan (especially after he knows Ryan is Butcher's son). The whole charade about beating up Soldier Boy is a really weak plot point just to let Homelander alive to be the ultimate big bad in next seasons.
Still here? We'll get to Homelander but let's talk about Maeve briefly. What's her end goal? At first she seems to be an ally ready to take down Homelander, but when it comes to actually facing Homelander she can't see the forest for the trees. Rather than staying true to her goal to kill Homelander, she was just absorbed with herself, punching Homelander around only to get herself beaten. Sure, Maeve isn't the most tactical ones, but she's been supplying Butcher with everything so far.
Last, Homelander. As soon as the fight ends, my biggest question is: what would be Homelander's yet another reason to NOT kill Butcher, Hughie, and co? Our Boys have been picking a fight with him since Season 1. It's clear our protagonists are pests to him, but he keeps giving them leeway. At this point isn't it easier to just get rid of them all when Ryan's not looking to prevent our Boys messing up with him again? There's a fan speculation that predicted Homelander is going to be depowered, then he's going to live the whole Season 4 under Vought's protection while our Boys track down the biggest big bad: Compound V. I think I like that better since it's going to show how Homelander will struggle with his weakness and humanity. But I guess the showrunners wanted to keep on getting Homelander more unhinged and even more unhinged and violent, as shown when he lasered a guy in a parade. With this direction, I'm expecting the show to end in a high note with chaos everywhere like perhaps in the comics. I just hope they don't prolong this much further - maybe Season 5 at most.
Then there's some plot devices like Tempo V, powering the army with V, etc that are left unexplored, which feels a bit like nothing more than filler to get the plot moves forward. And the fact that they kind of go with cliffhanger in this finale reminds me of Season 1's rather weak, cliffhanger-ish finale as well (perhaps that's their pattern: the real season finale is in the even-numbered seasons).
That said, this episode is still quite entertaining as it kept me guessing where the plot would go. It's not as frantic and riled up as Herogasm (Eps 6) and the direction is not quite satisfying, but it's fine. The theme of this season is "family", they stay true to that up to the finale. Soldier Boy's dialogue with Homelander is good. Talk about how toxic upbringing would make you become toxic as well, while thinking you can do better than your parents.
I like that they are planning to use the political plot with Neuman in Season 4 (I thought it was going to be wasted after the nice development in Season 2) as The Boys' forte is taking a jab at politics and corporatism. I do hope we will see what Stan Edgar envisioned as Vought "getting out of the supe business in the next five years."
I also like what they did with Ryan, coming together with Homelander, and the way Homelander is normalizing Ryan to violence. This is the consequence of Butcher's acting asshole-ish to everyone and sure hope our Boys will see the consequences of his action, especially with the sweet reunion with everyone at the table in the end (feels like the calm before the storm).
All in all, not a bad finale, but a bit too disappointing in the way they resolve the plots that have been built up all this season.
Finally something actually happened after they dragged the season for absolutely nothing.
After four mediocre episodes in a row with three of them being filler, this episode is decent enough. Those previous episodes serve no actual purpose other than waiting for the plot to trigger itself by that call.
The dialogues in this episode could be better and so could the way the scenes are cut, especially for the first half. People seem too eager to join The Mando in his quest for the sake of moving the story. However the last 5-10 the minutes is quite watchable with enough tense. The brute killing in the last scene seems to suggest they're going with the "evil Empire" cliche, but I wish they could do better than that next episode.
It seems like the story just started to be set in motion and we will be left with more questions as Season 1 ends, which unfortunately seems to be Disney+ business model: just make cute Baby Yoda stuff for moms and Star Wars reference for dads, figure things out later in Season 2.
On positive notes, it's nice that they attempt to do more world-building like shocktroopers having signature tattoo, each Imperial province having their own insignia, and the Imperial warlord trying to convince people that the world is better with colonialism.
Others might say that this is not as intense as previous episode, which might be true in terms of action and moving the plot forward. But I find this episode is still intense in a different way: more emotional investment.
"Family" and its unfortunately related cousin "abuse" seem to be the the theme that knits together different story arcs of the episode: the obvious Butcher flashback, Kimiko and Frenchie, MM with his family, Soldier Boy, and Homelander.
The episode kind of speeds up the pace in showing Soldier Boy's villainy through a recreation/imagination of Black Noir's flashback; although I'm not too comfortable that they present Noir's flashback at face value (instead of being an unreliable narrator), I think it still kinda works.
It is shown that Soldier Boy is an abusive, selfish bully with anger issues you would typically see among band leads or celebrity groups. While some have defended Soldier Boy's action by comparing him to Homelander ("at least Soldier Boy is not psychotic, emotionally unstable narcissist! He is a normal person not grown in lab!"), I think they missed the point of the show: the biggest issue here is exactly what would happen if people with power (influence) have additional power (literal superpower) while being protected by multi-billion dollar company. They possess all the impunity to wreak havoc. Like MM said, "no one should have the right to wield such power."
This theme of abuse is explicated with Butcher's flashback. No one is inherently "good" or "evil" - you are shaped by your upbringing. As the scenes between his memories, his reflection, and his projection in current time are cut seamlessly back and forth, Butcher slowly realizes that he mirrors the man he hated the most. Yet he fully accepts his succumbing to that darkness while bringing Hughie with him through his personal vendetta against the supes - not caring about the risk towards others who he claimed he loved. Even with parents, one may grow to be a contemptuous person if they live in an abusive family, and it's a cycle that is very difficult to break. Butcher's flashback is certainly the spotlight of the episode for me.
Even with Kimiko's story in the background (her saying that V only explicates what kind of person you are), considering that we've been shown how the character's social lives shaped them into what they are now - Kimiko with her abducted kid background, Hughie's insecurity with his zero to hero job, etc - the message stays strong, countering the superhero cliche of inherently morally good and evil person.
I'm hoping this dynamic could be further explored in the next episode (or season) with the Soldier Boy and Homelander encounter when it's revealed that Soldier Boy is Homelander's father, at least he feels so. An abusive father meets a narcissist kid-who'd-wanna-be-a-father. The ending of this episode becomes revealing when tied up to the earlier convesation between Homelander and Maeve: with Homelander echoing Soldier Boy's words that he "used to dream of having kids" with Maeve, it becomes apparent in this episode that the relationship between Homelander and Maeve (and Soldier Boy and Crimson Countess) it is not something exactly out of pure love.
"Having kids" is not a romantic statement: it's a purely masculine, self-centered ego of having someone of your blood - of your similarity - that you can be proud of. Who the partner is doesn't matter; they are only means to that end. And in that Soldier Boy shares something in common with Homelander as shown through his delight of accepting Homelander readily as his son, albeit lab-grown. He only wants to see a better version of him.
Last but not least, I love the jab at corporate this episode still throws. Ashley spinning breaking news about Starlight in a similar way Disney would spin stories about their abuse and mismanagement; and that A-Train being zombified, again, with the heart of Blue Hawk embedded in his body, serving only as Vought's puppet. I'm not sure if that's the most satisfying end to A-Train's arc, but seeing his disappointed, grim look, his lack of agency, I guess the character suffers a lot. I just hope this will be the last of his arc and the show doesn't squeeze him further.
That said, with the reveal at the ending, I am not sure I am 100% satisfied as I was expecting Soldier Boy bringing down Homelander, or rendering him powerless by the end of the season. Looks like Homelander will continue to be the main villain. I just hope they don't prolong the "mentally unstable" trope too much and find ways to keep the show interesting. Looking forward to the finale.
At first this episode might seem like a filler, but it serves as a good episode for the characters to breathe and immerse in the moment they just experienced.
One thing I liked from the episode is contrast.
On the cold Earth we get to see Amos and Clarissa walk through a forest the kids planted on field trip. Clarissa spoke of field trips, saying that her dad was one that donated his money to plant that much trees, and throwing references like "Schroedinger's parents", unaware of her upper class upbringing. Amos never went to field trip and didn't catch her reference. He asked instead, what does her dad get in return for planting those many trees? For Amos who grew up in the streets of Baltimore, the idea of charity field trips where people give something (plant a tree) for free is unimaginable. Clarissa then talked of her time with her distant father, and how a caretaker should be a good person. Amos rejected this idea: “There are ways that you can live a good life without being a good person.”
Other character arcs that weave the threads the plots in this episode similarly have that contrast. Avasarala struggles with uncertainty and seemingly loss of husband, as the acting secretary-general calls her for other duty. We get to see Holden aboard Rocinante, a place he would call home, but his home is manned by strangers, none of his families. In a way, Holden is alone in his home. Similarly, Filip asked Naomi how could she betray her family and if she doesn't think them as her family anymore. Naomi retorted shortly, "I guess I don't." He "family" is no longer them - but one of Rocinante crew.
Speaking of Naomi, her relatively sluggish plot line in previous episodes pays off decently in this episode. Drummer's coming to terms to temporarily ally with Marco, the one who killed two of her friends knits nicely with Naomi's story.
And there is of course Filip's story. All he has ever known in his life is the (delusional) grandeur of his dad: the swashbuckling rebel of OPA who fights for his people. Marco portrays himself a determined, righteous hero of the Belt, and his son knew no better. He never saw Marco as someone would do wrong, until Cyn - Marco's own crew - confronted him, trying to assert his duty as a supposedly foster father Naomi believed him to be. "I've never seen the two of you like that before," Filip, shaken, told Cyn. "Wouldn't be the first time," Cyn replied. And then there was the line when Filip was told that Naomi "saved everyone" during her time in Behemoth.
Filip was (is?) still a naive young boy, seeing the world only through the lens of his self-proclaimed hero of a father. He sees his father's quest as nothing but a struggle of one man to do things right where others failed. A firebrand agitator, Marco blamed everyone else as wrong, and he as right. It was the first time Filip sees the possibility that Marco himself might be as wrong. As Filip desired to know further, Marco snooped on Filip's conversation with Naomi in disgust, but unable to intervene as doing so would prove that Naomi does hold a grain of truth. And that seems to be why Filip might still worth saving - after previous episodes showing him as no better than a hard-headed boy - free from the clutch of his ambitious father.
All these are achieved with very good acting of every cast members. There were some minor slopes and disappointments, such as Clarissa's modded fight that was choreographed very poorly (they did it better in Season 3), and Bobbie and Alex's minor, relatively swiftly resolved win. But this is still a pretty decent episode, and one that has nice character development.
Up until this episode The Boys Season 3 has been solid with only a few dents, but this episode the dents are getting bigger and they're kinda showing.
First of all, everything doesn't seem to be too well-paced here.
Butcher and Hughie just had a convo in previous episode about not showing him taking Tempo V, but then in the lab he just outright stormed the bullets and showing off to the others about his newfound power. And same with Hughie, who somehow got a dose too. Worse thing the lab situation doesn't seem to be even that bad. They don't seem to be outnumbered nor outgunned, and they've seen worse before. Facing Gunpowder, it's understandable why they'd need a V; but this? Seems kinda forced to me as if the writers need to just waste those Vs already.
Still on the lab: The Soldier Boy reveal seems to be a bit hurried. Butcher suddenly randomly opening up stuff while in fact they realize they're onto something dangerous which may or may not have Soldier Boy in the lab is not just reckless (we know Butcher is) but dumb. Aren't they there to find a superweapon? When Soldier Boy escaped, they just ended up stopping the search and went back home. Granted there's the situation with the team, but the whole thing about this supposedly mysterious Soldier Boy and the search for superweapon just feels really anticlimactic.
Then, the thing with Vicky and Stan Edgar. The way she outted Edgar is a surprising twist, and I kinda like that Homelander Magneto-esque speech about choosing their own kind. But it seemed to be paced oddly interspersed between fillers and actions going on with The Boys.
There are a few death flags as well (though hopefully it's just false ones): either KImiko or Frenchie or both with their "one last run" convo; MM with the "you're natural-born leader" convo; and of course Alex/Supersonic with the "I'm gonna help you cause it's the right thing to do." That's just a straight death flag and it's proven true by the end of the episode - which again, is kinda odd paced, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
To note that this isn't a bad episode at all, but it feels like things are kinda jumbled here and there, making watching especially the second half a bit tedious. Not to mention that the first half isn't as packed and well-structured as prev episodes (it's the moment they started playing the "3 seconds still shot" too much that I felt that it's a bit too filler-y). The A-Train Pepsi parody is well done though - The Boys is always the best at parody but I hope they can do more than that.
Hopefully it will get better.
Outlandish episode especially for a pilot. I like that the premise rests on a real life event, the so-called Piggate of David Cameron, which is a rumor of him getting intimate with a dead pig. The tense is well made. The way the reveal is done is also surprisingly nice. There's a few noticeable plot hole but nothing too distracting.
My only complain about this episode is the message it's trying to come across: a rather tired cliche of government surrendering to the demands of social media. It overestimates the so-called "power of social media". The dynamics as the story goes on is interesting - there is constant ping pongs between the government and the people (social media), the play between the media and the government, and the government getting live feedback through a soldier camera during the raid.
However the notion that government can submit to social media is a tired cliche that have been proven wrong for quite some time after Arab Spring. As we can see from Russia, China, Indonesia, Philippine, heck even USA, government always has the most deployable resource to influence information in social media. From political influencers and bots, to memes. I don't think the "slow, bureaucratic government" trope still fits well in this information age. As we adjust to the speed of information, so does the government.
So while the technical aspect is nice, the message is a tired cliche, which strikes me as the weakest.
I quite liked this first episode, kinda sets up the tone quite nicely, but the degradation in quality (due to budget, executive meddling, or whatever) is showing. The initial scene with the girl and the animals took almost 5 minutes of its own, with many still shots of the girl's expression and surrounding that don't actually contribute to something meaningful in the episode as a whole - the kind of directing you see in Walking Dead's filler episodes.
But I kinda liked how they tried to make up the shortcomings of Season 5. They tried to visually show the impact of the catastrophe caused by the asteroid shots on Earth. They tried to show how Rocinante crew tries to deal with Alex's departure/loss, something that was horribly executed in Season 5. I also quite liked how they tried to portray Marco more as a bullshitter, but it could've been done better than some abrupt speech about the people of Ceres out of nowhere. Speaking of Ceres, the decision to make Dawes' death off-screen is such a big disappointment, though understandable due to the actor having conflicting schedule. Still, disappointing.
Downside here is Filip's arc. I get it that they're trying to show him as wanting to get the recognition he wanted, but we haven't seen more what he is capable to do. So far we only sees him kill and nothing much. No leadership qualities, no camraderie qualities. So him bursting out in anger just came off some sort of angsty teen worse than Anakin in Star Wars.
Is The Handmaid's Tale a fiction of the past or a reality? Its Hulu adaptation is neither. It's a comforting fiction that we tell ourselves: a ghost from the past we still believe are still haunting us, when the ghost has become nothing but a wrinkling specter, its position taken over by another restless, invisible spirit poltergeisting our home.
The Handmaid's Tale imagines an oppressive religious America where women are treated like cattle for breeding the children of wealthy elites - where the wives are infertile and in need of third parties. Infertility is on steep rise and as such a select few fertile women are captured by the state and forced to continue the line of the most affluent.
This fiction of oppressive religious America seems like a myth that is not going to die soon - a myth perpetuated in America's first half of 20th century and still alive and kicking. Religion is all but dead in America indeed, but there has never been a time where it takes its most crude, vulgar secularization than today. The rise of right-wing extremism is not waged under the banner of Christianity, but under the banner of scientism, with Shapiro, Hitchens, and YouTubers like Sargon as its prophets. This is something Americans seem unable to admit: science prevails and wins over religious fundamentalism, but only in its pseudo-scientific form, with nothing but science in its name. In a sense, its zeitgeist is a disenchanted form of Christianity, but under the pretense of secular knowledge.
Whereas women of The Handmaid's Tale suffers from infertility, the reality of our society today happens because of poor working conditions. More Americans suffer from low birthrate due to stress and illness caused by heavy burden of work - yet giving birth remains a wish dreamed by many would be mothers. Like a liberal American myth, this issue seems to be glossed over in The Handmaid's Tale, focusing instead on women, though shown of varieties different colors, who seem to lack of any social classes. They all seem to be equally middle class, robbed of their individuality to be cattle of affluent aristocrats. First half of this episode seems to show this as a shocking revelation to the audience, but I find that this is nothing too new when you are already familiar with lives of lower income people, especially of marginalized ethnicities and in Global South - though of course in less vulgar ways.
That said, this episode is pretty decent pilot that conveys the world the writers intend it to be. The narrative structure is effective: a back and forth scenes of the life of Offred, before and after The Red Center - a form of disciplinary institution. The whole episode seems tense and bleak, with repertoire of greetings acting almost like mantras, said by subjugated people to each other in the hopes the saying will guarantee their safety from the all seeing eye. And when the particicution happens in the episode's second half, it acts almost like a carnival-esque moment, where emotions are unleashed without control, without proper object. Offred, crying when she beats the man, unleashes her frustation not on the man himself, but on her situation that disciplines her in such ways. In making a society where everyone is a spy to another, this episode does a great job. Regardless, the premise seems to be lacking, but it's still an enjoyable pilot episode when I turn a blind eye to its failings.
The episode is built upon faulty premises.
Lightsaber prowess and force power are two different things. You can be proficient in lightsaber combat without having ANY force-sensitivity (e.g. Grievous) and the other way around, you can be masterful in force but lacking in lightsaber feat (e.g. Jocasta Nu).
Lightsaber crystal also doesn't reflect the wielder's sensitivity to sides of the force. You can be a morally uptight Jedi wielding red lightsaber (e.g. Adi Gallia) and a sith wielding blue (e.g. Exar Kun, or Anakin after he fell to the dark side. Notice when he was knighted as sith by Palpatine his saber's color DID NOT turn red). Red crystal is actually a synthetic color that can't be generated by lightsaber crystal. Sith forged it intentionally to channel their dark side.
HOWEVER the execution of this episode is good especially compared to other episodes so far.
The faulty premises end up being an important plot point, and a good one at that. Characters are quite well-developed given the very brief duration (perhaps except the villains). World-building, although sparse, gives quite a good idea of how lives looked like on that planet. Animation is really well-done especially the lightsaber combat and the chase scene. And the music is reminiscent of Star Wars without having to be exact copies of the films, which I really appreciate.
So if Production IG is given a much better brief to the mechanics of Star Wars universe, I believe they are much better suited to produce more Star Wars films than Disney currently does.
