American Horror Story, Season 2, Episode 8: Unholy Night

 It’s Christmas! Time to murder a charitable Father Christmas bell ringer!

Ah American Horror Story, you do know how to set the tone.

After poor Father Christmas is shot multiple times in the head, we move back to 1962.

Little girl Suzie comes downstairs to find a blood stained, shaved Father Christmas waiting for her. HE’s 6 days early and broke in through the window. Good ol’ Santa muses on how silly the whole Father Christmas idea is and then asks Suzy to take him to see mummy and daddy – who he kidnaps at gun point. (He really should have put in a “Ho Ho Ho” there). He ties to couple up with Christmas lights, questions the amount of Christmas decorations they have and rambles on in an extremely spooky manner – before killing them both.

Everyone got the Christmas spirit?

Back in 1964, In Briarcliff everything is getting ready for Christmas (apparently Sister Jude banned Christmas after it didn’t go to plan last year, but Sister Demon Lettuce has brought it back. AND banished the damn singing nun. Who says demons are bad?) Unfortunately Sister Jude threw out all the ornaments so Sister Demon Nun decides to take things from the inmates to decorate the tree – dentures, locks of hair wrapped in ribbon, making the creepiest Christmas tree you ever did see. Even Arden seems rather disturbed by the display.

Elsewhere in Briarcliff, Frank is praying desperately over Grace’s body, clearly traumatised by having shot her last episode. E blinks and hallucinates Grace looking right at him. He promises to make it right. He tells Arden they should tell the police about the monster, Grace, Sister Felicity (presumably the dead, nameless nun), Kit et al – but Arden reminds him he shot an unarmed woman.

Sister Jude, demon hunter is in the building. In her old office she appears behind Sister Demon Lettuce and holds a razor to her throat. She realises the demon is using Sister Mary Eunice’s innocence and purity to move through Briarcliff despite all the religious iconography and threatens to slit her throat. Sister Demon Lettuce responds with some flashy telekinesis until Arden interrupts.

Sister Jude is escorted out of the building by security and Arden tells Sister Demon Lettuce about Frank’s pesky conscience.  Sister Demon Lettuce has a plan and goes to see an inmate in solitary with a Father Christmas suit – it’s the Murdering Santa from Suzie’s house!

Time for a flashback to 1963 where Murdering Santa, Leigh Emerson, was an inmate at Briarcliff after killing 18 people (presumably including Suzie’s parents and possibly little Suzie). It’s Christmas and Sister Jude is trying to make everyone presentable for the press. Jude keeps him shackled and insists on him being in the Christmas photo to remind the public that, without Briarcliff, he would be out among them. The photographer arrives (early – because of unprocessed Sister Wet Lettuce) and Emerson rips out an orderly’s throat with his teeth – and it’s all photographed. Presumably this is the Christmas debacle that lead to Jude cancelling the celebration.

In 1964, this is the man Sister Demon Lettuce wants to dress up as Father Christmas. Even he thinks it’s a bad idea and mentions what Christmas does to him. Sister Demon Lettuce describes the source of his mental illness – he was arrested for shop lifting and when in prison at Christmas, 5 guards gang raped him. And now he can see who is “naughty” and “nice” and who deserves to die.

Once Upon a Time and Empty Characters of Colour

Once Upon a Time is now in the middle of their second season. Since it is a show based on fairy tales, we expected a lot of erasure. Far too often, fairytales that are represented in television or movies, are of a European origin and this is generally taken as an excuse to have no roles for people of colour. We’ve repeatedly said before how damaging erasure can be; but subverting the fairytales and adding characters of colour beyond servile roles is simply not done and certainly not done by Once Upon a Time, though they have changed several of the female roles from object to subject in their story. The gender presentation is certainly far from perfect, but the fact that it is so far removed from the original tale is often enough for texts in this genre to be presumed progressive, even as they reify harmful racist and heterosexist tropes.

The first character of colour we were introduced to was Cinderella’s fairy godmother.  Unfortunately, the character did not last long and was quickly killed off by Rumpelstiltskin for her wand. You may actually have had to quickly pause the show to notice her, since she spent so little time on screen. Once Upon a Time has killed off quite a few characters since it first began airing last Autumn but it is fair to say that the characters of colour have either been killed off or dropped into the plot box at a much higher rate, thereby reaffirming their disposability. 

The second character of colour we were introduced to was the magic mirror/Sidney Glass. Though this character certainly did not add much to the racial inclusion of Storybrooke, we expected a lot from him because the role was played by the fabulous Giancarlo Esposito. Of all of the actors on Once Upon a Time, Espositio had the most impressive body of work, and this which includes screen and stage work. Instead of giving Espositio a script which would have utilised his amazing talents, the mirror/Sidney Glass was little more than a submissive, feckless servant. It came as no surprise when the character was quickly disappeared. Now that Espositio has since moved on to Revolution, there is little chance that the only male recurring character of colour will ever be redeemed. He remains the only character of colour who received a back story explaining his origin in Fairyland; however, it continued his unrelenting story of service and sacrifice.

One of the more galling elements about the second season was how much the introduction of Lancelot and Mulan was hyped. We saw it repeatedly advertised and promoted - we were going to get Mulan, we were going to get a Black Lancelot! Inclusion! We were finally going to get some decent POC roles.

Of course, being cynics we didn’t get our hopes up - and rightly so. After so much endless hype, Lancelot managed to scrape up an entire 2 episodes before dying. He didn’t even die on screen, he was murdered by Cora at some undisclosed time at the past and afterwards quickly dismissed and forgotten. All that hype for a scant 2 episodes.

It’s fair to say that we were annoyed by Lancelot’s early death and  the fact that his role as servant for Snow White and Charming cemented him as little more than a built in aid to guide and protect the White characters.  Lancelot started as an antagonist working for King George but almost instantly, he converted to the side of Snow White because... actually, we’re not even sure why; everyone seems to flock around Snow White. From that moment on, Lancelot fought for Snow, traveled with her, advocated for her - does he have a life? A family? A story of his own? Who knows? We’re not shown any of it. This is a problem Once Upon a Time has with all of the POC in the second season.

So many of the side characters have had their past and their histories explained. Even side characters like Ruby, Cinderella, Dr. Hopper, Leeroy, Captain Hook, Jefferson have had their story told, which has given us a greater understanding of who these characters are and what motivates them. This makes it particularly telling that neither Lancelot or Mulan have had similar treatment to date. Why are these two characters of colour deemed unworthy of the greater characterisation given so freely to less important White characters? We know Lancelot had an entanglement with Guinevere from what he described, but that’s it. Much of it is left for the viewer to assume based on Arthurian legend. In the case of Mulan, the characters development is based on the viewer having watched and remembered the movie Mulan. What do we know about Mulan? She has a crush on Prince Phillip, helped him on his quest to find Aurora and, on his death, decided to protect her. We have been told nothing about her, her past, or her motivations.

Mulan, is yet another awesome character who was constantly hyped. Who is Mulan? She’s a sword and some angry eyes - from the Michonne school of character development. Even Aurora, who we know little about, is better developed - at least we saw the castle she lived in and the kingdom she was once a part of. Mulan is coded as a weapon from the beginning thus erasing much of her femininity. With the exception of Emma, most of the female characters have at some point worn a dress or an opulent gown. There are many ways to express femininity but it is rather telling that traditional forms of gender conformity and even performance are continually denied Mulan. It’s yet another reminder that White women are allowed the flexibility of choice, while characters of colour are sequestered in narrow roles which mark them as lesser. The role left for Mulan is servant, and like all servants, her job is to protect and blend into the background.

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Review: House of Shadows by Walter Spence

Eugene has a difficult life with his sister, impoverished and with a mother who is, at best, neglectful and at worst outright abusive it is not a life with many opportunities. So when Penelope, a wealthy, generous benefactor appears to give them every advantage it seems like a wonderful gift and that they’re finally given a chance at life.

That is, until the price arises and one of them has to die. Faced with an impossible choice, Eugene elects to be Penelope’s prey – but death is hardly the end of Penelope’s plotting. After decades of unconsciousness, Eugene arises as one of the Breed and the last scion of a major House whose legacy (and his continued existence) requires him to learn extremely quickly.

There are a lot of vampire books out there and it sometimes feel like many of them are telling very similar tales. It’s always a pleasure, therefore, to find a book that seems to be bringing some genuinely unique elements to the genre and some fresh angles. Eugene’s reluctant passage into vampirehood, how he was moulded before transition, even following his journey from childhood adds its own angle.

In terms of pacing, it started slow, introducing us to the characters and bringing us towards the inevitable. Thankfully, once we get that transition, we hit the ground running. Eugene has to learn a lot about his new life extremely quickly and nothing is going to stop to allow him to catch up. There were a couple of tangents that were, perhaps, not entirely necessary but I think they all added up into building the character, the worlds and different facets of the story.

The world building is nicely restrained. It’s clear, especially if the lexicon in the back, that this is a very broad world and a lot of work has gone into characterising it. But the author resists the temptation to dump vast amounts of unrelated information on us. In fact, in keeping with Eugene’s own confusion, we often have words and references used and have to extrapolate their meaning. Like Eugene we’re plunged into a world we don’t know and have to keep up and learn as we go. I think this lack of explanation both keeps the story moving and excellently conveys the theme of being out of depth, of being overwhelmed by the new information he was faced with.

The decisions made by the characters, while not always perfect, were well informed – or, at least, based on reasonable emotion and didn’t frustrate me. The action stayed good and the story progressed well.

I found no great flaws in this book – but I did find a couple of minor stumbling blocks.

The first stumbling block I found in this book was the language. It’s not as bad as some books out there, certainly, but it is overly elaborate and overly formal. Part of that is because Eugene is trying to “better” himself with a determination to be educated and well spoken after Penelope gives him the resources. It’s even lampshaded in the book with his sister accusing him of having swallowed a thesaurus. But this language starts long before he meets Penelope and is used in everything from dialogue to describing action. Sometimes I think a more casual tone would have been better.

The second stumbling block for me is how quickly Eugene grows as a character. We see some growth and development throughout the book which is always great to see – but at the end he seems to make a monumentally enormous leap, gaining leadership and tactical skills and a considerable amount of cunning that seemed so extreme as to be almost out of character. I think, perhaps, too much “downtime” happened when he was a guest of Winterfax so a lot of growth happened off-page. One minute he was resentful, almost-suicidal, hostile, relatively sullen and completely ignorant – and then he pulls off this awesome and epic victory.

Not that I dislike that victory – far from it. The ending of this book was truly excellent. We had Eugene coming into his own, we had a great foundation for his future and we had some major hooks for a new book laid out with a new antagonist and new machinations. It just needed a bit more foundation.

Inclusionwise, sadly, this book falls a little flat. We have very few POC who are referred to in an exoticising manner. We have a gay couple that appear for a few paragraphs in which they are dogged by so many euphemisms that Eugene may as well have just pointed at them and screamed “ZOMG GAYS! GAYS!” In fact “zomg GAYS!” pretty much sums up all we know about them and Eugene’s discomfort.

We do have Agrenta, a vampire with a mental illness. Or, rather, an insane vampire since she fits more the role of random and incomprehensible seer than any actual mental condition so I’m not going to really consider it inclusion.

Any women in the book were also largely side characters – but then, anyone who isn’t Eugene is largely a side character, this isn’t a book that has sidekicks or a group cast. There are numerous women in a variety of positions – from the abused servants to the generous and crafty Penelope, to his sister to the icy and unapproachable Andraceil. None of them are particularly developed characters but then, no character is except Eugene – it’s very much his story.

I enjoyed this book, it was great fun and I’d strongly recommend it. I’ve been vacillating back and forth on what rating to give it for a long time. I think the series definitely has potential to be 4+ and even reach a 5, this book is definitely above a 3.5 but probably not a 4. Call it a 3.75 and well worth both a read and watching.

A copy of this book was provided by the author for review.

Dark Angel, Season 2, Episode 3: Proof of Purchase

 On the side of the unexpected, it turns out that Normal is a great fan of rule-less cage fighting and we open at one of these brutal matches. And the grand champion steps in the ring to fight a new challenged – Alec, fighting under the name of Monty Cora, using his X5 genes and Manticore training to beat his opponent easily, and win Normal a lot of money.

Not being entirely a fool, Alec tries to retire after this big win – but it’s too late. A transgenic fighter called “Monty Cora” has attracted Agent White’s attention – and he sends his goons with tasers to bring Alec in.

He wakes up in a cage and, to save his life, he offers to make a deal. He will hunt transgenics for them if they don’t kill him. White agrees – but gets some insurance. He implants a tiny bomb next to Alec’s brainstem timed to go off in 24 hours. In that time he has to kill 3 transgenics and bring back their barcodes.

Meanwhile Max and Logan are enjoying a great evening at his home, joking, laughing, making dinner. Until Max tastes the food and they realise that this may pass the virus that kills Logan – quickly dampening the mood pretty severely. Max leaves after they have a scene over their frustration (well acted enough not to hit my angst alarms).

Joshua is out and about, tracking down the last known address of his “Father,” Sandman. He’s moved though and the current residents are an enterprising couple combining a porn shoot and housework. When he rampages through he not only ruins the setting but gets photographed.

Logan also gets a cryptic message from Lydecker – and Lydecker tells him Max has odd DNA which has attracted attention, but he doesn’t know why. He also puts Logan in touch with a Manticore lab tech who worked on creating the virus and they set him to work finding a cure.

At the bar, Max hangs out with Original Cindy, sees Asha and, far more worrying, hears Sketchy talk about what he thinks about Manticore from Eyes Only’s bulletins – he gets a lot wrong, transgenic monsters that want to feed – but he knows about the barcodes. He also has a tabloid newspaper – with the picture of Joshua on the front cover. Max grabs it and sets off to ride to the rescue.

Max goes to see Logan and ask him to use his contacts to find Joshua – and Alec drops in (not knocking of course, transgenics never do) and after much banter he offers to help, claiming exposure hurts all of them. Max agrees to take him to Terminal City – where she’d go if she needed to lie low. It’s a place where there were a lot of biolabs, when the Pulse hit they lost containment and nasty stuff escaped, not a worry for transgenics but it keeps most of the general population at bay, leaving the closed off area only to the desperate.

2 homeless men tell them about a lizard man and a panther woman – which Alec scoffs at, but Max wants to see them in the sewers. While down there Max gets a call from Logan telling her the address Joshua broke into – and that it is owned by a Sandman, a name Max recognises. She leaves Alec in the sewers and goes to the address. Alec stays down in the sewers, hunts down the panther woman, fights her, kills her and takes her barcode. He pastes the skinned barcode into a book and checks his watch – 8 hours left to get 2 more.

As Alec walks past the homeless in the desperate area he is recognised by an X6 sleeping rough who greets him as a commanding officer.  Alec tells the teenager to follow him. After establishing he’s alone, he chokes the kid unconscious and cuts off his barcode.

Alec takes the barcodes to Agent White and asks for more time but Agent White isn’t happen. He opens a box and dumps the unconscious X6 – Alec left him outside a hospital, alive and bandaged. Alec says that he was just a kid, Agent White isn’t amused and plans to kill him. Alec asks for one more chance but he has to get 1 more in the remaining time and gives him a taser.

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