Supernatural, Season 8, Episode 8: Hunteri Heroici

Obligatory starting gore – a man and a woman meet for a romantic moment, seemingly making up after a fight and his heart explodes, showering her with blood. Gah, she’ll never get those stains out.

Sam and Dean are avoiding Mrs. Tran’s calls (she, Kevin and Garth are on Garth’s secure house boat. Don’t ask) and Castiel (WHO IS BACK!!!) is awesome (of course) and has turned off his celestial radio – wanting nothing further to do with heaven.  But he still wants to help – he wants to become a hunter! (Wait wait wait, Sam wants a normal life, Castiel wants to be a hunter? G’bye Sam – don’t let the door hit you on the way out). And he finds the case of the jumping heart. They take him – but he’s not allowed to zap ahead and he’s not allowed in the front seat. Poor Cas.

To  the morgue to see the body where the Detective there fills them in (there’s an original diagnosis of drugs – which is ridiculous and the detective thinks so since drugs don’t EJECT your heart from your chest. If they did those “this is your brain on drugs” adverts would be a lot more dramatic. Castiel’s angel senses can see there’s no contaminants). Castiel’s angel senses are pretty useful – EMF, sulphur, state of health of the victim, but not that he was having an affair. Sam and Dean extrapolate from Olivia’s – the woman who saw him die – witness statement and leave Castiel with his perfect “I’m trying to understand” face.

Time to talk to the dead man, Gary’s husband. First Castiel tries and it goes as well as you’d expect, followed by Sam smoothing it over and asking real questions. Poor Cas. Then in comes Olivia, yes, the mistress, and the wife’s very good friend. The Winchesters try to find a tactful way of bringing up the affair later, Castiel says it outright “he was sleeping with her”.  It’s awkward but not as awkward as it could be as it turns out they had an open relationship and the wife knew all about it.

It’s time for someone else to die – the man is about to jump off a roof to commit suicide. He screws up his courage and steps out – onto empty air. He doesn’t fall. It’s only when he looks down that he actually falls to his death. The detective calls them in to the case – seems like a simple suicide but the 2 people witnessing his 10 seconds of standing on air put it in the weird category. Dean comments that it’s out of a cartoon – heart leaping out of his chest, needing to look down before falling. They then get to explain cartoons to Castiel.

Confused they decide to sleep on it and try to convince Castiel to book a room (he doesn’t sleep, he can stay here – Sam and Dean less than happy with the idea of Cas “watching over them” while they sleep). The conflict is averted by Castiel’s angel senses picking up the police band and an odd robbery – a bank has been robbed and the security guard has been squished by a giant anvil dropping on his head. Another crime right out of the cartoons.

To the crime scene where the detective is already waiting for them. Seems the thief has hit other places – not killing people, but he leaves a “black hole” behind – a large painted black circle. Sam goes with the detective to find out more about the previous cases while Dean gets Castiel to life the anvil (angel strength!) and see that under it and the splattered body is an X – just like in the cartoons. More cartoon rules – including painting a door or black hole on a wall and being able to walk through it.

At the motel room, Dean tries to talk to Castiel about being released from Purgatory – how there’s always a downside to these sudden resurrections and how it took him a while to get himself back together. He suggests that Castiel drop in on heaven and see why he was resurrected – Castiel refuses, angrily and vehemently and won’t look at Dean. Dean closes his lap top and sits opposite Castiel and tells him “talk to me.”

American Horror Story, Season 2, Episode 7: Dark Cousin

Grace is in a hospital bed and is rapidly losing blood. The nuns/nurses caring for her wonder what to do – especially since Dr. Arden was the one who performed the botched sterilisation on her. Grace reaches out to a woman in black mourning clothes only she can see and says “I’m ready” the woman leans over to kiss Grace – and as she does she sprouts giant black wings. Before the dark angel can touch Grace, the nuns succeed in resuscitating her.

Sister Demon Lettuce wanders up to see Dr. Arden playing with his plants and tells him about Grace – accusing him of being “all thumbs”. She mocks Dr. Arden’s clumsiness and how they may have to send her to a “real” hospital, but that would involve exposing Arden’s handiwork. Arden protests he didn’t perform a sterilisation. Arden gets angry with Sister Demon Lettuce’s tone and says he’s in charge, she laughs at him and he slaps her. She warns him that if he touches her again, he’ll die. He raises his hand – and he’s thrown hard against a wall by invisible force to clarify the chain of command.

From here we go to a Black inmate, Miles, with aggressive, heckling voices in his head, urging him to be a hero. In response to them – he cuts his hands with a bacon slicer. Uckies uckies and yet more uckies. Sister Demon lettuce comes down to see the mess – and see something written in the wall, in blood – a name in Aramaic. She asks Miles about it and if he “summoned her” but he can’t even read it (and is an awful mess with the no arms and all). She leaves and orders him to be put in isolation so as not to “reward” his behaviour.

Miles is strapped down so he can’t pull his stitches out and tells Frank that he doesn’t want to live any more. Frank leaves – and the dark angel appears saying he summoned her. He manages to pull out his stitches and she asks him if she should kiss him and make it all go away. She kisses him, her wings spring out again, and Miles dies.

She hears a noise and turns in anger, demanding to know who looks upon Shachath. Sister Demon Lettuce enters the room and the tension hits the roof. She tells Shachath that she did what she had to do – now leave. But the angel sees Sister Mary Eunice is possessed by a fallen angel, tells her she was invited and that the human girl she’s taken hostage is calling to her. She cries and cowers towards Shachath angel begging for release before the demon reasserts itself and tells Eunice to shut up. Shachath leaves – but intends to return and we get a dramatic shot of Sister Demon Nun in the dark.

Arden is checking on Grace and is determined she lives since he doesn’t want to take the blame for the savagery (interesting to see Arden refer to it so) of the botched hysterectomy that has caused an infection.

Meanwhile, Kit’s lawyer is telling him how very very screwed he is with the confession Threadson cobbled together – and Kit bludgeons the lawyer with his office supplies.

  We have a grossly vile scene of Lana being raped by Threadson. When she’s alone, Shachath comes to see her. Lana is sobbing and crying and thinks death would be better than living. Shachath encourages her to let go, her wings sprout and she leans down – but Lana stops her. Threadson returns, making even less sense than usual. The rape has apparently clicked something in him and he gives her a choice how to die – strangulation or having her throat cut. He pulls out a hypodermic needle to inject her. Lana fights back – smacking him with a picture of Wendy, injecting him with his own syringe and then strangling him with her chains (but not to death, alas). With his key she frees herself and runs – stopping a passing car and getting in. Out of the frying pan and into a car with a man who is a bitter misogynist after his ex-wife left him. Oh Lana just can’t catch a break. Shachath makes a reappearance – and the man shoots himself while driving at 50 miles per hour. Poor Lana.

And she wakes up… in Briarcliff. Oh poor Lana.

 Time to catch up with Sister Jude panicking over the dead body of Sam Goodman, the Nazi hunter. As she starts to call the police she sees an article on the television about the missing girl she ran over – and the word “murderer” painted in blood on the screen. This leads us to a flashback in 1949 where the drunken Jude has missed a singing gig and a man from her band arrives to kick her out. She tries to seduce him (with comments about him being a “coloured man”) but he pushes her away, and tells her about the hit and run. She packs and runs, taking a big bottle of booze with her drinking as she drives and trying to avoid news reports about the girl being hit in the hit and run. After lots of confused and blurred camera work, it seems she crashed her car into a tree – in a nunnery.

Haven, Race and a Blatantly Repeating Pattern

Haven is now well through it’s third season and it’s about time we looked at this show’s racial inclusion.

Or lack thereof. In three seasons we’ve had 2 regular Black characters and a few, one off-episode roles and precious little in the way of other POC. After three seasons that’s a long time to go with such a poor record.

And I know some people are going to point out that Haven is set in Maine which isn’t the most diverse of states. There are multiple problems with this argument. Firstly, the idea that there are these little white-topias lurking around is dubious. Sure, there may be places where POC are few and far between but rarely so utterly erased. If it is utterly erased then, being the cynical (and realistic) media watchers we are, we have to question if this is the motive for choosing this location rather than one where a more diverse population demographic would be demanded.

Besides, we’re disinclined to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that POC erasure is because the writers are faithfully staying true to the actual population demographics. In show after show, in even the most diverse of cities, we’ve seen a similar erasure and it feels more than a little naive to decide that the same erasure in Haven is okay because they’ve picked a setting that would “justify” this overwhelmingly White cast.

However, it is the treatment of the POC that do exist in the show that doesn’t encourage me to extend any further benefit of the doubt, even among the bit characters. They include a Black man in Season 1, Episode 3, Harmony, who is willing to make people insane and dangerous for the sake of curing his White wife. Eventually, he gets virtually exiled from the town - put on a boat with the other mentally ill people and sailing off into the sunset. And a Black woman in Season 1, Episode 5, Ball and Chain, who acts as nanny to a woman who keeps having children, sucking the life out of men to do it. I don’t think anyone can be encouraged by such “inclusion”.

In season 2 we pick up a regular Black character - Evidence (Evie) Crocker, Duke’s estranged wife. I was, warily, encouraged by the inclusion of a regular Black character, but it quickly became clear she wasn’t going to be a major character, not even to the extent that Claire became in Season 3. But the main problem with Evie is that she came on the scene as someone who was out to corrupt loveable rogue Duke. We knew Duke had a shady past and we knew he was involved in morally dubious activities - and here was Evie trying to lead Duke astray, lead him to seek ill-gotten profit rather than answers. Take that and contrast it with Audrey who has been leading Duke away from his nefarious schemes, getting him working with the police and generally making an honest man of our roguish Duke. It’s difficult not to see Audrey and Evie as in competition with each other, especially with the sexual tension between Audrey and Duke, with Audrey the “good path” and Evie the “dark path”.

This only becomes more pronounced when we find out that Evie isn’t just a self-serving opportunist out to make some money, but is deeply involved with Reverend Driscol and his anti-Troubled activities. Audrey wants to work with Duke to help the Troubled, Evie wants to recruit Duke to the people who want to wipe the Troubled out - stark contrast and competition. And to achieve that Evie manipulates Duke, lies to him and keeps an immense number of secrets from him. In the end, when her duplicity is discovered, rather than reveal the truth to him she decides to run to the gun toting men and demand they tell Duke the truth.

Stephen King references in Haven

 Haven on Syfy is loosely based on a Stephen King novel - as a homage to that, the show includes a number of subtle Stephen King references in several episodes

How many did you spot?


Sarah





Magic Hour, Part 2






Magic Hour, Part 1

Review Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

Three Parts Dead is outside of our genre, as it falls squarely into the category of high fantasy, rather than urban fantasy, though it does include mages, vampires and gargoyles.  In an alternate earth there are Gods which are worshiped for their ability to provide for human society.  Essentially a legal contract is formed with a God in which they agree to provide certain services for worship. The crafts people are in charge in writing these contracts and ensuring that the letter of the law is followed.  When Kos dies, it endangers the city of Alt Coulumb. He must absolutely be resurrected but with various claims on his person, this is going to be difficult and Kos will not necessarily come back as the God Alt Coulumb knows.

Tara who is an associate at international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao is tasked with bringing back Kos and arguing the side of Alt Coulumb.  With the help of Abelard, a priest who practices his faith by chain smoking, they must take on Tara's nemesis, and deal with gargoyles who have their own claim to Kos' body.  

I chose to read this book because it was recommended to us and the cover showed a Black female protagonist.  Let's be honest, people of colour are highly erased in the fantasy genre and when they do appear, they are most often sidekicks.  Had I not seen the cover of this book however, I would have no idea that Tara is Black.  I understand that in an alternate world, markers of Black culture would most assuredly be different but non-existent does not make sense.  I don't even really remember a descriptive passage in which we are told what Tara looks like.

I really wanted to like this book, but I feel that Gladstone got to caught up in his own story.  After about 60 pages in, I actually started to wonder whether or not I was reading the second part of a series rather than the first book.  The fact that I had to turn to Goodreads to confirm that I was really reading the first book evidences a shortcoming in how Gladstone chose to frame his world.  There was not nearly enough world building and I felt as though I was reading an already established cannon, rather than being introduced to a new world. I constantly felt like I was missing something and the story didn't really pick up for me until about the two hundred page mark.  Having to read 2/3 of a book to get some excitement makes for a slow and boring read.

Dark Angel Season 2, Episode 2: Bag 'Em

 Max reconnects with our favourite side-kick, Original Cindy! Lamenting about the lack of grooming that goes on in Manticore, Max fills Cindy in on everything that has been happening, destroying Manticore, the disease that will kill Logan et al. But Cindy isn’t a fool – she puts 2 and 2 together and realises that Logan is Eyes Only. Cindy does her usual job of reassuring and encouraging Max.

Meanwhile in the woods, a group of transgenic kids lead by an X6 teenager see the light in the sky that signals them to regroup. Despite their misgivings of what happened during the fire, they obey orders and report in to the military patrol on the bridge – which shoots them. In the same woods, a group of Hive-Mind X7 clones chase down and capture a reptilian transgenic. They take it back to base– and the one in charge is Agent White, put in place to clean up the Manticore mess who is very unimpressed by transgenics.

Max returns to Jam Pony with minimal difficulty, but Logan is concerned about the destruction of Manticore – the news is saying it was a VA hospital and framing the S1W – and his friend Asha who runs the group. Sketchy and others don’t believe the story though, having followed Eyes Only know about Manticore and transgenic people escaping.

Meanwhile Alec is living his version of the high life in a motel, which is interrupted when a bunch of run away X6s go to the shop for food – confused at there being barcodes on products. The girl he is with notices the barcodes on the back of the X6s necks, just like Alec’s. Her attention attracts the shop assistant who notices them stealing – so they raise the bar from shop lifting to armed robbery. Alec is not amused.

Fleeing the police, Alec tracks down the X6s (and 1 X7) and they quickly take him for a commanding officer. Alec tells them the truth about the bogus signal and that Manticore tried to kill them.  The X6 commander insists they regroup and go to the rendezvous point because they have orders – Alec snarks and laughs at them.

Logan gets in touch with Max and shows her the rendezvous signal, realising that, unlike Max and her group of escapees, the escaping transgenics may not have even realised Manticore was trying to kill them and may walk back into their cages – or worse. Max insists on going to help, calling the transgenics her family. She arrives in time to see Alec’s group of X6s report in – and manages to drive her bike through the gun men before they’re slaughtered, calling them to run and grabbing their wounded.

She returns with them to the barn where Alec and the X7 is – Alec is less than thrilled to be reunited with Max.  They do some hurried field medication on the injured X6, including cauterising. Max insists it’s their job to get the kids to safety, Alec decides to throw popcorn at the X7 and snark instead. She encourages them to get names and think of themselves as people not soldiers.

Review: Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K Hamilton, Book 10 of the Anita Blake Series

I normally begin my reviews with a summary of the book’s plot. So I’m going to scrape some plot out here to write about

Anita has, after the drastic events of the last book, decided to end her 6 month separation with Richard and Jean-Claude and re-bound the marks since without the marks being properly linked all three of them are walking around with a great big target painted on their foreheads. Unfortunately, because Jean-Claude is an incubus, uniting the marks means Anita gains the adeur, becomes a succubus and gains the mystical ability of having to have sex every 5 minutes.

There’s also a new force in town kidnapping shapeshifters and making a play for Anita’s leopards, a new Nimir-Raj in town interviewing to lead the leopards  and  a battle that results in Anita being clawed by a wereleopard. She now has to not only rescue her leopards and keep her people safe – but deal with both the demands of the ardeur and the urges of her beast.

I’m going to say something that will shock a lot of people who have read this book. This book had potential.

No, really, it did. We had Anita and Richard finally realising they need to work something out with Jean-Claude and stop doing the whole running for the hills thing (or the turn into acid thing). With the addition of the new leopards we could have actually developed Anita’s connection with the leopards and actually give the Pard a culture on par with the wolves (there’s a reason why Anita keeps using the wolf words for the leopards – because they don’t have words! They even shifted from a French Heraldic naming system to a Hindi naming system). We could have had an exploration of the political implications of an alliance between the vampires and the werewolves – and even working the hyenas into the system and where that left the rats. Especially with them developing a “Shapeshifter coalition”. Part of that could be pointing out that Chimera isn’t actually much of a threat and it’s only because the big hitters abandon the weak  groups. They could have developed the sheer mess Richard had made of the pack – perhaps even working with Raina’s munin rather than making it another one of Anita’s arsenal of one-off-powers we forget about until they’re needed. We could have had a greater examination of what marrying the marks meant beyond just the ardeur and even some more definition as to what powers Jean-Claude and Richard actually have. We could even have had Anita remembering she’s a Necromancer or, y’know, has a job.

Because there was actually a lot more to this book than the ardeur and the endless humping, though it is the first step down the road that leads to all the books being consumed by humping. But none of it was developed – there was just a lot of random, seemingly pointless, events that didn’t develop into anything, added nothing to the characters and nothing to the plot. Damian and Gretchen being released from the coffins – not developed. Gil, the werefox, what was the point? Faust and Meng Die introduced – why? The Swan-King and the Swanmanes – added nothing. Even the core of the shapeshifter coalition could just have had Christine (a pre-existing character) turn up and say “shifters going missing” and covered everything that was needed there. Ronnie and Anita going out dancing? Pointless. Paris strutting her stuff at the Lupanar? Pointless. Richard’s angst about some werewolf killing someone on her wedding night? Pointless! Even that whole leadership challenge was covered in the damn epilogue! Chekhov’s gun,folks! Or Chekhov’s damned arsenal in this case!

Misfits Season Four, Episode Five

Finn has a photo of his mother with several men.  Fin is in conversation with and man and says his mother had sex with someone photo and is in search of his father.  The man does confirm that he did indeed sleep with Mary and says that he is sorry that he wasn't there for Finn and then tells Finn that everyone used to call his mother anal Mary.  The man then backtracks and says that he not Finn's father because he had anal sex with Mary.  Finn grabs the photo back and puts an x through his face.  Great more slut shaming.

The Misfits are hard at work and Jess asks Finn if he believes he can have a relationship with some guy he has never met before.  Finn replies that this is a journey of self discovery and asks for a little bit of support. Greg shows up and calls Rudy to his office. "We are going to do some grief counseling. I guarantee there will be some tears and they won't be mine." Greg says. Greg is so creepy he makes me nostalgic for Sean. In the office, Greg asks Rudy why he thinks that Curtis blew his brains out. When Rudy tells him that he is intense, Greg replies, "you want intense. I'll give you the intense of me skull fucking your living brain." Greg then starts asking if Rudy is suffering from overwhelming feelings of loss and despair.

Jess is walking when she runs into Alex and they pause and say hello. When he does not follow up with an explanation for his behaviour, Jess turns to leave. Alex then pipes up and says that he is sorry for lying to her. When Jess says that she wants to punch him in the face, Alex tells her to go ahead if that is what it's going to take for her to feel better.  Jess takes him up on the offer and punches him.  Alex grabs his nose in pain and Jess apologises. Alex then asks Jess if she wants to go out with him.

Finn has knocks on a door and says that he is looking for Don Wilson when a young woman answers.  Finn holds out a picture and asks if the man in the photo is Don.  When the girl asks what this is all about, Finn replies, "I think he's my dad too." Inside the flat, Finn looks at pictures and the girl tells him that her father is sick. Finn then enters Don's room and Don invites him to sit.  Don admits that he remembers that night and so Finn asks if he slept with Mary. Don admits that he did and so of course Finn asks if it was normal.  When Don says that it was on a washing machine, Finn asks if it was vaginal. Don replies, "you have obviously heard about the whole anal Mary thing. I always hated people calling her that. I just don't think that people should have judged her and so to answer your question, yes it was normal sex."  Finn surmises that this probably makes Don his father.  Finn asks if Don has any fatherly advice and Don says do not get cancer.  Don starts to cough up bloody mucus.

Finn is in the kitchen with his sister Grace and asks if Don is going to get better and learns that the cancer is terminal.  Finn then asks about Grace's mother and learns that she died a few years ago in a car accident.  Finn asks about other siblings and Grace says that she has none.  Finn says that he wants to help and asks what he can do.  When Finn leaves, Grace goes into Don's room and he has died, so she puts her hand on his chest, and uses her power to bring him back.  When Don awakes, he tells Grace, "you can't keep me alive for ever."

Finn is back at the community center and he tells Rudy about Don's condition.  Rudy of course wants to know if Don has a car but Finn says that as Don was coughing himself to death, he didn't feel it was appropriate to take a tally of all of his worldly possessions. They are interrupted by Greg, who wants to know what they are talking about.  Rudy takes the opportunity to slip away and Greg tells Finn that that he was fucking ecstatic when his father died because he was a judgmental prick. Greg then says he had a little jig on his grave and proceeds to show Finn this.  He then tells Finn to think about this, when he is out there scraping off graffiti and cleaning up dog shit.

Outside, the Misfits are power washing a wall that is covered with graffiti and Finn tells Jess about his sister and points out that Grace is not on her own now because she has him.  Rudy pulls Finn aside and tells him that it is brilliant to use Don's cancer to get into Jess' knickers. Finn denies that this is what he is doing. Rudy says that he has rubbed off on Finn and now he has all grown up.

Back at Don's flat, he is still coughing when Finn calls Grace and asks if it is okay for him to visit. Grace does not answer right away but finally says yes.  When Finn hangs up the phone, Jess comes around the corner.  Finn tells Jess that he is going to go and see Don and Grace and how good it feels to be helping someone.  Finn then asks Jess to go out for a drink after but she says that she is meeting Alex. So much for his denial of using Don's death to get closer to Jess. Finn says that Jess should kick him in the balls, so that he can get a date, but Jess tells him to have fun with his sister and walks away.

Finn is with Don, who says that it must be hard for him to see him like this. Don then says that he has to discuss something with Finn before Grace gets back and asks if Finn knows about the storm and weird powers.  Don says he knows that they just met but there is no one else he can talk to. Don admits that Grace has power and she is using it to keep him alive.  Don says that he has been letting Grace do this because she had no one else, but now Grace has a brother. Don asks Finn to persuade Grace to let him die and asks him to take her out because he has ordered a nurse to look after him. Grace enters the room, and Don says that everything is okay and they are getting to know each other When Grace leaves the room, Don says, "Finn she has to let me go, I want to die."  Finn goes to see Grace and asks her to go for a drink but she says that she has to look after for Don.  Finn tells her that Don has booked a nurse because he thought that they should get to know each other and that they should have one drink, or maybe ten. Finn suggests that they are going to have so much fun.

Grace and Finn leave together and they struggle to find anything to talk about. Finn is about to tell Grace about Don, when he sees Alex and crouches down.  Finn asks Grace if Alex looks a little bit gay to her.  Finn says that Alex has a date with Jess and he wants to find out if Alex is gay, so that he can destroy his relationship with Jess before it even starts. When Grace asks about Jess, Finn says that she is just a mate.  The two of them sneak into a parking garage and Finn uses his phone to spy on Alex, who is being handed a folder by someone.  Finn says, "I think he's paying for sex." When Finn's phone goes off, they duck down and hide, but Alex is walking in their direction.  Finn uses his power to make a can fall to the ground and Alex walks away.  Grace is ecstatic to learn that Finn has a power.

Finn takes Grace to the bar and makes a comment about how Alex didn't waste anytime sticking his cock up some guy before seeing Jess.  He quickly rushes through introductions causing Jess to ask what is going on. Finn says that he has no idea and tries to make small talk but Jess again asks why he is being so weird.  When Finn lets it slip that he knows Jess from community service, Grace says that Finn told her that he was studying engineering.  Jess leaves to go to the bathroom and Finn follows and tells Jess that Alex is gay and that he is pretty sure that Alex is paying men for sex. Jess tells Finn to "fuck off."  Finn holds out his phone and says, "watch the video and tell me if you still think Alex form the bar isn't gay."  Jess walks out of the stall and tells Finn that he is really possessive. Finn replies, "at least I am not gay. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it unless you are pretending that you're not gay, so you can trick girls into having sex with you." Jess asks why anyone would do that and leaves, telling Finn that his phone is down the toilet but not to worry because she didn't flush.  Finn calls out, "he's gay and you know it."