Supernatural, Season 14, Episode 4: Mint Condition

We open with an angry rage nerd being attacked by a possessed Panthero toy

Yes, it’s going to be one of THOSE Supernatural episodes where we focus far more on the weird and whacky than anything deep. And yes, I usually give these episodes a lot of eye rolls and snark -but honestly, they work. Supernatural can be so mopey at times, it helps to have something just a little fun and dramatic.

Also Dean laid on his bed watching horror movies is just adorable. Umf. Also he puts on glasses this episode. Double Ummmf.

So Dean is lurking in his bedroom watching endless horror film marathons and generally avoiding everyone. Sam tries to poke him to encourage him to leave (which comes with lots of brother snark because Dean will always taunt and poke at Sam because they’re fun like that) and seeing as Dean is completely unwilling to discuss his feelings, he dangles this case in front of him

A possessed Thundercat toy is Dean Winchester kryptonite. He’s up and away

They move in, posing as insurance investigators to learn about the violent toy which focuses on a comic shop with Stewart the nerd rage who is more than a little annoying. Samantha who runs the place and is more sensible and aligns closely with Sam and Dirk who is enthusiastic happy nerd. The three of them run the comic shop, the previous owner having left it to Sam and Dirk (not Stewart - he was fired for stealing and it’s apparent the former owner had a big big big thing about people stealing) who rehired Stewart despite his many many faults because he is their friend

The episode is very old school Supernatural - which, again, i like. I like to see the brothers dealing with evil spirits - these used to be the bread and butter of their work and it’s nice to come back to it, nice to see them handling this day to day evil rather than just dealing with the biggest, scariest world destroying monsters out there. These daily monsters still matter and it’s so much fun to go back to them,

So we follow the same paths, tracking down the recently dead, why he has a grudge, figuring out what cursed object the evil spirit has been attached to - and then burning it, saving the day and destroying the horror movie villain brought to life in the process - all alongside Dean’s issues with horror movies and Sam’s issues with hallowe’en.

The Last Ship: Season 5, Episode 5: Warriors

The Last Ship: Season 5, Episode 4: The Tropic of Cancer

The Marginalised Swansong


Gay Maris/Lesbian Shark

Venom in the Veins (Elemental Assassin 17), by Jennifer Estep

Gin fears someone is gunning for her friend, and chairman of Ashland’s biggest bank. But Gin, the assassin known as The Spider, doesn’t sit back when someone she cares about is under threat.

 
But when she learns the mysterious and deadly Circle are involved, she wonders why - why would they be invested in this? Gin needs to know if she’ll ever hopes to take on the force that killed her mother

Of course, as an assassin, Gin has left some orphans in her own wake… and when confronted by one of those Gin has to face that the pain she lives with every day is also something she has inflicted on someone else

I have to say, in some ways Gin is the worst assassin there is. Sure she always kills her mark but she is kidnapped by her enemies and tortured like every single time. There has to be a better strategy for killing people than being kidnapped by them and then managing to stab them as you escape. This is not a sensible tactic and, honestly, it’s kind of tired at this point - I mean this is the 17th book and we have these torture porn scenes in almost every book. It feels just overdone now.

Especially since Gin is supposed to be so powerful and so scary and lethal. Can we see

that? I mean, all her magic, all her skill with knives - there was never even any real reason why the big bad in this book would be that big or bad. She has no great super powers or great training - we could have had an enemy

I don’t think it even fit with this book. The whole conflict of the book up until the inevitable kidnapping, was finding out what the enemy wanted and protecting Mosely from her attacks. It was even about letting the big bad show her hand and trying to discover what she wanted what she was doing and why the Ominous Circle was involved. And that was interesting and really different- because for most of this book we were in that investigation phase and there was never any real question of whether Gin COULD kill the bad guy, so much as whether she’d have to. Or, perhaps, whether the enemy would give Gin a reason, or an excuse, to do so. Because Gin isn’t a bad person - and there’s a whole interesting conflict there on whether Gin, the assassin, can hunt someone down because she’s PRETTY SURE the bad person is bad, even if she’s not entirely certain. Because she is the good guy and she can’t just kill people because she thinks they’re bad. Apart from anything else she’ll be very very busy in Ashland

And this all worked - and most of the book is interesting and even a little different because of that. Why is the Circle involved. What does the big bad want, why are they supported and can Gin protect Mosely and continue her ongoing investigation into the big bads that ultimately killed her mother. Ongoing with that and Gin’s personal issues these worked really well together We didn’t need another “aargh, I’m captured and tortured” moment or Gin nearly dying to take down her target AGAIN.

Charmed, Season 1, Episode 3: Sweet Tooth

So, the theme for this episode is social justice concepts that the writers don’t seem to entirely understand and then actively sabotage!

Anyway, the sisters are training in a simulation to fight big bad demons with Henry and it all goes wrong because Maggie starts texting her sorority sisters mid battle, Macy freezes up and can’t use her powers and Mel decides to cast a super powerful spell she’s learned which catches them all in the blast radius

So, lessons learned: Macy needs to stop overthinking things and actually just go with the low and use her powers. Maggie needs to stop letting her sorority concerns distracting her. And Mel needs to be less reckless with her magic

I mean, even low level D&D adventurers know to watch your spell blast radii

Henry also has a big dramatic speech about the big bad Harbinger that they’ve heard so many times before they can quote it. He reveals that the Harbinger must have possessed someone - so Mel wants to charge in throwing magic around campus which Macy and Maggie don’t agree with and Henry suggests they wait for the elders to give them some input. Mel mocks the very idea, deciding they’re washed up has beens

Hey, y’know passion for social justice should not really come with dismissing experienced people because they’re old: especially since there’s a strong implication they’re female as well.

Mel decides she wants to cast a spell that will lure all demons within 20 miles so they can find the Harbinger. Macy is less thrilled with this plan and suggests they listen more to Henry since he was right about the whole spirit board thing. Mel will not succumb to his patriarchal control

So we have the reckless magic theme - in addition to throwing magic nukes within spitting distance and wanting to being mass attacked by who knows how many demons, Mel also repeatedly freezes entire rooms full of people, just asking for people to come in and find the room frozen or for her to unfreeze and not be stood in the correct place and everyone will notice her teleporting (or notice they’ve lost time). Henry, exasperated, puts a magical tracking bracelet on her to alert him when she uses magic

She is, naturally outraged by this because it is restrictive, infantilising. I could now have a discussion about having female characters show agency by having them repeatedly make obviously ridiculous and dangerous decisions, react with aggression when criticised for them and eventually have a man control them and seem JUSTIFIED because their decision making is just so bad it feels like someone has to. But I don’t have to - I just have to drop this Spunky Agency link here.

Macy does some science and they realise the Harbinger could probably be exposed if it ate sugar. Uh-huh, in the US? It better not eat. Anyway this prompts Macy to bake lots of biscuits (Americans, Henry is right) so they can get people to eat them and expose their monsterness. They go around pressing biscuits on people - including Angela. Angela was the woman who went into a coma when she was attacked by the Ice Demon professor and she has woken up - just as the Harbinger arrives. Mel is quick to realise they may be a link and talks to her, offering biscuits and reconnecting. It doesn’t work - which I’m honestly thankful for because otherwise the universal presence of sugar would make this the shortest possession ever

A Discovery of Witches: Season 1, Episode 7

Diana and Matthew make their goodbyes to Ysabeau and Marthe (who are now totally on side with Diana now) and get in a helicopter to go to Diana’s aunts in America

Can a helicopter cross the Atlantic? I assume it’s just taking them to the airport.

Anyway they arrive in Madison and their aunts house - which is haunted - or magical; either way it’s extremely nifty, fun, a little creepy and an extremely convenient source of Deus Ex Machinae since it can do a whole lot of stuff. The house likes Matthew (of course) and if your magical house doesn’t even keep undead blood drinking monsters from your door, what’s the point.

They meet Emily and Sarah - Emily is super welcoming, Sarah would rather have a squad of MAGA hatted zombies vomiting on her porch. But Diana’s main concern is to confront them in a rage demanding to know if they knew she was spellbound. Sarah is horrified at the idea that she had been spellbound… but Emily suspected that Diana’s parents were involved

Sarah is horrified - her emotions run from high to outerspace - and Diana is devastated at the idea that her parents thought she was such a terribad awful monster that she needed to have her magic bound (remembering that this is generally only done to evil witches who are terribad awful). The house steps in to give us a useful flashback

Her parents magically bound Diana when she was a small child to try and protect her from Knoxx who is terribad awful and was heading over to examine her magic and discover her specialness. Because they bind her they stop her being revealed to Knoxx.

With Diana safe, her parents then leave because they know Knoxx will hunt them now and they leave Diana with Emily and Sarah… Emily suspected something was going on

Diana mopes a little but it quickly turns into this romance of awfulness because her mother talked all about her Shadow Prince. And that’s probably why her spell binding broke. Because they were meant to be

Hey, remember when he craved her blood and he had to flee to Scotland in order not to murder her? Anyone remember that? No?

Emily and Sarah have their own angst - because Sarah is deeply upset that they didn’t tell her about all this. She’s hurt but also somewhat guilty - thinking Rebecca (Diana’s mother) couldn’t trust her because she’d fly off the handle and go into a rage while Emily would be careful. I mean, we’ve barely seen these characters but… yes? Emily’s even sensible enough not to challenge this pretty accurate assessment of her character - but pulls out the plus of this. Rebecca trusted her to look after her daughter - knowing she would be a passionate warrior and carer for Diana.

This little snippet of their beautiful relationship really makes me wish they’d appear more often

The Walking Dead, Season 9, Episode 4: The Obliged

Doctor Who, Season 11, Episode 4: Arachnids in the UK