Friday, May 12, 2017

Sense8, Season Two, Episode Eight: All I Want Right Now Is One More Bullet


Shits about to get real and I'm so there for it.  Jonas is back and Lila's got plans for both Wolfie and Berlin. This means that we are going to have an action packed episode.  We know that there's a power struggle going on in Berlin between the mob bosses thanks to Wolfie killing his uncle last season. What isn't clear is exactly where Lila fits in and what she has on deck for our Wolfgang. 

After the big reveal with Jonas I thought some shit would go down there for sure because Will and Wolfie were both in attendance. It's actually Wolfie who recommends caution and rather than going after Whispers, they decide to search him home when he gone.  Wolfie explains that when people leave in a rush, they always leave something behind. We don't learn much from Jonas beyond the fact that the reason he's still alive is because BPO wants leverage over Milton/Whispers.  What kind of leverage does Milton provide exactly? It seems to me that fact that Whispers has a wife and child should be leverage enough to keep him in line; that is he cares for his family. What I don't doubt however is that someone like Whispers would need to be on a short leash because he seems to enjoy violence far too much.

Still on a high from his time at pride, Lito makes his way in to see his management team.  Not only was he a grand marshal his speech was viewed 2 millions times on youtube. How's that for going viral.  Lito starts to talk about the different projects he wants to be a part of only to be forced to stop when he's informed that his lawyer should have spoken to him before he came to the office. It seems that Lito's management team is no longer going to represent him because other clients don't agree with his "lifestyle". Lito is shocked by the betrayal but is told that he lied to his management team.  With no future in the business and no agent, Lito makes his way out of the office, avoiding eye contact with everyone though that doesn't stop them from staring at him. In the elevator, another actor hugs Lito and thanks him for what he has done but steps away the moment the doors open. 

The next morning, Lito is in full on depression and while Hernando and Daniela The Fetishist are enjoy margaritas, Lito reaches for the ice cream. Hernando tries to dissuade Lito by pointing to the amount of time Lito is going to have to spend on the treadmill to make up for every bite he takes but Lito is past the point of caring.  At this point, it's clear that Hernando and Daniela The Fetishist don't take Lito's pain very seriously and think that he's just being dramatic. 

Finding no sympathy from Hernando and Daniela The Fetishist, Lito decides to pay a visit to Sun. Of all of the members of the cluster that he could choose, why would Lito think that Sun is a good idea? Sun finds Lito lying on the ground crying about the end of his career but she doesn't miss a beat and simply keeps on moving. Lito follows Sun to the love motel where she is saying and continues to cry.  In frustration, Sun reminds Lito that she has lost everything and has no one while he still has Hernado and Daniela The Fetishist. Sun reminds Lito that her brother will kill her if he finds her.  Lito is smart enough to figure out what Sun is saying but he stays put, acknowledging that Sun would never take to her bed in tears.  Lito is there he believes precisely because Sun wouldn't take to her bed in pain. Lito grabs a stuffed animal and hands it to Sun before grabbing one for himself.  The two of them lie in bed holding their stuffed animals and settle in for a good cry. 

Capheus is sleeping when Githu makes a little visit.  Capheus is ordered outside at gunpoint. Githu is there to tell Capheus that now that he is running for office, Capheus has come to the attention of the boss and this is not a good thing. Githu isn't there to kill Capheus, and warns that if that were to happen, Capheus would never see the bullet coming. Graffiti drawings of Capheus are all over the city with the word courage. It's kind of hard to miss. Capheus accepts Githu's warning for what it is. 

Will is struggling with Riley's absence and is tempted by the heroine he used to hide from Whispers.  It makes sense, given how long that Will was on drugs.  Kala shows up for a visit and stops Will from shooting up, giving him instructions on what he needs to feel well instead.  While Kala is helping Will, she's also there to get some advice. At this point, Kala is very much thinking about telling Rajan the truth about her being a sensate.  Kala wants to encourage Rajan to be more open and she's certain that something is wrong because he returned earlier with a bloody nose, claiming that it was nothing.  Will quickly picks up on the fact that what Kala is really concerned about is the fact that she's fallen in love with Wolfie. 


That night, Kala awakes to find that Rajan is not in bed. When Kala makes her way downstairs, she hears Rajan arguing with someone on the phone.  Rajan warns the person to stay away from his family but when Kala enters the room, he tries to play it off as though it's nothing. Rather than confronting Rajan, Kala heads to the roof for some cuddly time with Wolfie. I cannot blame her for this one because who wouldn't rather cuddle with Wolfie? 

In Berlin, Felix is tired of running the club as a money laundering business. Felix wants to quit but Wolfie advises him to keep going for now.  Wolfie is far more aware than Felix about what is at stake. Felix is simply oblivious and likes to spend his time partying and chasing women. 

When next we see Wolfie, he's trying to relax in the sauna.  Wolfie doesn't get to enjoy his sauna in peace because he's joined by Fuchs. Fuchs knows that Wolfie isn't concerned with what is going on in the underworld but he guesses that Wolfie is concerned with Lila.  Fuchs is in love with Lila and is certain that she doesn't return his feelings.  Fuchs then admits that he overheard a conversation Lila had and that it was all about taking a hit out on him.  What Fuchs doesn't know is that he and Wolfie aren't actually alone because Lila has stopped by for a visit. Lila calls Fuchs and tells him that someone tried to get her to put a hit on him and that she played along to find out who. Lila lies and claims that the hit was arranged by Wolfie and that she is calling Fuchs now after learning from Felix that he and Wolfie are together. Fuchs cuts short his sauna and tells Wolfie that he has to go for now.  Lila informs Wolfie that this is how a girl like her tells a boy like him that she likes him. 

Wolfie now knows that a showdown with Lila cannot be avoided. Rather than ask his cluster for help, Wolfie appears to each of them in turn.  At this point, they all know Wolfie so well, they know that he's in need of help and they are determined to be there for him despite his claim that he's going to handle everything. The sensates start to marshal their forces. Nomi, who's all dressed for her sister's rehearsal dinner trips and knocks herself unconscious, leaving Amanita and Bug to pull her share of the weight. Amanita does face time with Riley and Diego in Chicago to try and figure out who Lila has brought with her to the dinner. Diego is clearly concerned when he sees Riley hacking into Interpol. I'm going to have to assume that Bug talked her through this because thus far, Riley hasn't shown any skill at hacking. Bug sends a ping to all of Fuchs men in the restaurant and now Wolfie knows who has to be wary of.

Wolfie and Lila settle in for dinner and Lila does her version of aggressive psychic flirting. For Lila, there's only two sides to this war. Wolfie is either with her or against her.  Lila has decided that she wants to turn Berlin into a safe haven for all sensates and do to so, she's going to take control of the sapiens who currently reside there.  This is not something that Wolfie will agree to because he believes that Berlin belongs to everyone. 

In an awesome moment, Lila's cluster appears behind her and Wolfie's cluster appears behind him. Yeah, we've gone Matrix baby. Kala is first up and she throws Lila's wine into the fire saying, "bring it bitch". Who knew Kala had that in her but I guess this is what happens when you threaten her man. Sun, Will and Wolfie work together to take out Fuchs men. Wolfie and Lila take stock of their ammunition and as luck would have it, both of them are out of bullets, hence Wolfie's desire for just one more bullet. Wolfie starts to close in but the police arrive. Wolfie is forced to flee when Lila takes on the role of damsel in distress, assuring that the cops will be suspicious of Wolfie and not her.  Lila is evil but she's damn good. 

This fighting isn't as thrilling as the fight between Detective Moon and Sun even though there's so much more at stake here.  I do however love that the Wachowskis took a page out of the Matrix with the fight scene. Paging Agent Smith.  Though they are different, the two texts do have some similarities, one of which are the awesome fight scenes.  

I'm glad that they returned to Lito and his journey of coming out.  Lito had that triumphant moment at pride and it makes sense that it came with a consequence. It's an effort to force Lito back into the closet.  What bothers me is the fact that Hernando and Daniela The Fetishist don't seem to take his pain very seriously. In Daniela's The Fetishist's case, being a straight woman, she wouldn't have first hand experience with the pain of homophobia but the fact that she couldn't scrape up some empathy reinforces my negative feelings about her. What I don't understand is Hernando's reaction. Why talk to Lito about the damn ice cream? Lito actually felt the need to leave his own home to look for comfort.  I'm equally disturbed by Sun's reaction. Yes, Sun is having a terrible time of it and she's absolutely alone but to say that because her problems are severe than Lito's and that he's got no reason to cry just diminishes the harm that a heterosexist society is capable of inflicting.  

We have to talk about Will, who was on heroin for months.  Am I the only who noticed that since he stopped taking heroin that he doesn't seem to have any withdrawal symptoms? The only side effect Will seems to have are track marks on his arms.  It doesn't make sense to me that Will could use heroin for months and not develop an addiction.  Kala showing up and simply taking the needle away from him should not have been enough to get him to stop using. I'm further irked by her suggestion that what he needs is sleep and vitamins, as if that's all it takes to stop doing smack.  Sense8 dropped the ball here but I suspect that they do so because there's so much going on in the story.

If it were not for the fact that I believe that the sensates have plot armour, I think I would be really concerned for Capheus at this point. I'm not sure exactly how much thought Capheus put into his decision to run for office but now he cannot deny that there may be consequences.  My biggest issue is that everyone is calling him Van Damme rather than his own name.  The idea that a Black African man has to take on aspects of whiteness to be respected is beyond problematic, especially given the colonial history of Africa. What the hell were the writers thinking with this one?  At this point, I've pretty much given up on Capheus getting out of the shadow of Van Damme but that doesn't mean I'm not disgusted by it.