Beauty and the Beast, Season 2, Episode 7: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Reynolds is up to no good – or so it seems since he’s contacting someone to plant a big bomb to remove a threat of exposure by killing someone.

Vincent and Cat are enjoying some intimate time together before Cat brings up Vincent ripping someone’s heart out of their chest. That really does kill the mood. Which is probably a good thing – I mean, if talk of heart ripping doesn’t kill the mood then there could be a problem. Vincent assures her that his beastiside won’t be released again – that it’s probably just a reaction to him killing so many people on assassination missions (which are totally ok and no-one is even slightly concerned about the morality of them). Next topic – his handler; Vincent is absolutely sure his handler (Reynolds) who disguises their voice and could be absolutely anyone is completely trustworthy and totally won’t kill him like all the other beasts he’s wanted murdered because… REASONS!

Then Reynolds complicates matters by calling and inviting Cat to Thanksgiving (isn’t that awfully… soon?) which has a brief angst with Vincent because he can’t be invited to meet the parent which has a backlash angst of Cat so not being ready to call Reynolds a parent yet. Also Vincent, the assassin, thinks it’s a bad idea to spend quality time with an FBI agent (or a cop – but we’re not talking about that and when was the last time Cat worked a case?). Cat tells Reynolds she and her boyfriend have plans – and she and Vincent plan to cook a full on traditional Thanksgiving.

At work (my gods, she does work!) Tess snarks all the holiday supplies and stomps on Cat’s buzz by telling Cat Gabe’s suspicions about what Vincent’s last mission may actually be – he may be the last name on the list. Cat clings to Vincent’s trust and the fact that Vincent is different from the other beasts – Tess isn’t all that convinced, the whole heart ripping thing is a pretty hard sell.

Gabe is trying to sell the whole “Vincent isn’t a monster” to Tori, the daughter of the heart ripee and she’s not buying either. She doesn’t intend to tell the world but she’s not happy – and also wants to know if their plan to revive her dad really just included a normal defibrillator. He’s interrupted by Cat and Tess barging in with Cat quickly focusing attention on her and Tori being quickly shuffled out of the room.

Gabe’s been trying to identify Vincent’s handler (it’s about time someone tried to do that) – but someone has wiped all of Gabe’s files. Which looks suspiciously like what Muirfield managed to pull off in season 1 (before they were retconned from being all powerful organisation to a single factory whose existence was dependent on the continued breathing of one, not very skilled, man).

Vincent, meanwhile, has been sent to a warehouse to find his target which all his Beastisenses insists is abandoned. He calls Reynolds who orders him to keep going (and what, kill an empty warehouse?) and follow orders soldier – no thinking for you! Vincent sees a light blinking in the window and throws a metal pipe through it – triggering the bomb we saw Reynolds’s lacky set up in the beginning of the episode. The whole warehouse explodes in a huge, completely over the top explosion. Staggering to his feet Vincent breathes into his phone and Reynolds says his codename – Vincent doesn’t answer and hangs up.

Mocking Bird (Miriam Black #2) by Chuck Wendig

Miriam’s life is turning around. She has a home, after a fashion, a job and a long term relationship with Louis.

And she hates it. She hates her job, she hates her boss, she hates being trapped in the trailer, she hates not moving around and, as much as she hates to say it, she hates not seeing people’s death any more – she needs to see those images.

Unable to live in this little box she hits the road again, only to be derailed by the seemingly infinitely patient Louis who has a job for her – a friend who thinks she’s dying and needs it confirming. Seems simple enough for Miriam, albeit odd, but when visiting a reform school for troubled teenaged girls to see this woman she touches one of the students – and sees her horrific death at the hands of a serial killer.

This is a death that Miriam has to stop – and there’s only one way to cheat death; to balance the scales with another death.

Grim and dark and grim and dark. Am I sounding like a broken record? That’s right it’s the problem with reviewing sequels again! How do you review a second book in a series that has many of the same strengths as the previous book without sounding repetitive?

The answer is, of course, that you do sound repetitive – but if it’s repeating the same comments that still apply, then is that a bad thing? This book continues the darkness that the first book established. Miriam lives in a very dark, gritty, unpleasant world only exacerbated by her own self-destructive impulses. Her outlook is bleak, she has no time or patience for sugar coating everything – she knows she’s odd, she knows everything around her is pretty awful and she won’t pretend it is otherwise. She has little time for hope and largely dismisses it – things are bleak, when she has a good thing she screws it up and, due to her extremely broken self-esteem, if things were good then she wouldn’t deserve them. And probably drive them off.

But, despite those same opinions being prevalent, we still see a glimmer of Miriam’s hope. The fatalism that so characterised Blackbirds isn’t gone – but it’s reduced because she does have a way to change things – fate isn’t written. But that method of change involves killing people which means it’s not something she can use casually – but also flows into her own self-loathing and moral crisis. Her spending most of the book trying to save the victims of a serial killer means she has embraced the power of change – she doesn’t accept the inevitable fatalism of the deaths she sees – but she has to balance the cost of stopping those deaths. But this, in turn, leads to her moral crisis and further self-loathing: she is a killer. She may be a killer with the purest possible motives, but she remains a killer which is something else to beat herself up over. Especially when she realises that the killer themselves are actually approaching their kills from exactly the same viewpoint – they’re killing for what is, in their eyes, a pure motive. We’re left with the very difficult question of what separates Miriam from the killer? Where is Miriam’s moral high ground – and does she actually have any at all?

Witches of East End, Season 1, Episode 7: Unburied

Wendy is tied to a chair in a magic circle – and Ingrid is not happy with her, appears to be torturing her – and uses magic to stick her hand in Wendy’s chest. I’m assuming this is evil Ingrid from the past life who was resurrected.

At the bar Freya and Killian are continuing their endless pattern of him flirting and her telling him not to – which this time leads to passionate kissing – and she wakes up next to Dash. And has a moment of terror when he reveals she talks in her sleep though he didn’t understand her.

Freya runs home looking for a spell and looks in the grimoire with Ingrid (who assures Freya she’s not judging because her own judgement has been flawed lately) to control dreams – until Wendy arrives and Ingrid runs out the door – tension still thick with the whole “you murdered my past self” thing going on. Freya decides she wants to have her cards read though Wendy is all wary because the cards show what they want to show, you don’t just ask them questions and get answers.

Ingrid goes to work and rambles about her dark side to her character-less GBF when a customer arrives with a list of books he wants her to bring him and a bad attitude, she laces into him, they argue and generally assure us all that they will definitely be sleeping together by the end of the season (it’s Lifetime, I know that trope).

Freya needs hair to complete her dream spell so offers to cut Killian’s hair in time for his mother’s library party thing – because there’s no way this could be misconstrued. But he starts repeating what he said in the dream and more flirting and sexual tension follows until they’re interrupted by another staff member before anything can happen. She makes and drinks her potion.

Ingrid is still moping and Joanna drops in thinking Ingrid will be confused. She quickly summarises her past life as major reasons why she should be confused but she also has done some detective work (Ingrid is the smart one) – she’s looked through all the old photos and realised there are none of her and Freya as older women. They always die young – about the ages they are now. Joanna confirms that and tries to be reassuring (insofar as you can be) but Ingrid has already left.

Joanna and Wendy catch up in the garden so everyone can recap everyone else.

Once Upon a Time, Season 3, Episode 8: Think Lovely Thoughts

We open with a flashback – and a crooked find the lady game (is there such a thing as an honest find the lady game?) The man, Malcolm, gets himself beaten and robbed by a mark who is not amused, despite his son trying to intervene on his behalf. And the innocent young boy? That would be Rumplestiltskin.

To the present and Neverland and Pan maintaining the charade that Wendy is sick and dying to Henry unless he uses his special belief power to save them all. Naturally Henry continues to fall for it hook, line and sinker and is just eager to do whatever Pan needs him to.

Regina vents to Gold about how very very annoying it is working with the Charmings and how very naïve and silly they are – though Gold does confirm that Neal is alive and on the island (so the distraction of rescuing him wasn’t a lying distraction, just a distraction). Regina smells more to the story but Gold is tight lipped – and leads us into a flashback to Kid!Rumple and his dad leaving him with 2 spinning women while he wanders off on some scheme – but when Kid!Rumple gets upset Malcolm gives him the doll we’ve seen Rumple angsting about.

Back to the present and the Charmings (and Hook) are moving on Pan’s camp while Emma and Mary Margaret discuss Mary Margaret staying on the island with David. Emma tells Mary Margaret that she’s giving up and there’s always a way (I know the story doesn’t intend this, but in my mind Emma is saying “see, all this hopey wish on rainbows crap is REALLY ANNOYING when it’s your life up the shit, isn’t it Snowy?”) The group runs into Rumple and Regina and Regina shows them Pandora’s box. Unfortunately Neal also spills about Henry being Rumple’s undoing and the Charmings (and Hook) all draw weapons assuming he’s hunting down Henry because it’s not like Rumple didn’t already have multiple opportunities to kill Henry over and over again, right?

The whole cast turns on Rumple which prompts a flashback to Kid!Rumple. Having spent some time with the spinning ladies they declare that Rumple is a spinning prodigy! He thinks he can make lots of money so he and his dad can live together – alas, no. The spinning ladies warn him that Malcolm is well known as a liar and a cheat, for Rumple to be a success he needs to go away, alone, where his father’s reputation won’t follow - and they give him a magic bean. They also shatter his illusion – Malcolm is at the pub, indifferent about his child

Back to the present and Rumple protests his innocence (which no-one believes) and that they need him because he’s the most powerful (which Neal, perhaps sensibly for the first time ever, points out makes them more wary not less) so to prove his good intent Rumple gives Neal Pandora’s box, since he doesn’t have the dagger. Just as the box can stop Pan, it can also stop Rumple. Neal warns Rumple against using magic – yay, depowered again! Regina was right Rumple, you should have kept away from these people.

Rumple warns Neal that Pan destroyed his father and we have another flashback – Kid!Rumple finds his dad in the pub and the remaining confidence he has in him is badly damaged. His dad blames his bad reputation and Kid!Rumple shows him the bean – how they can use it to go somewhere and have a fresh start. He suggests they go to a place he used to dream of – Neverland.

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast: Autumn 2013, Episode 7

It's time for another episode of our podcast, back again for the Autumn where we discuss our book of the week and some of the shows we've been following all through our social justice analysis.

You can join us here and you can listen live on our youtube channel, here, or in our sidebar. All will also carry a recording after the show is finished. As ever all our previous podcasts can be found in the archive

The podcast begins at 7:00pm EST

18th November - 25th November: The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C Hines

25th November - 2nd December: The Fall of the Governor by Robert Kirkman

2nd December - 9th December: Deadshifted by Cassie Alexander

9th December - 16th December: Blood Wager by Connie Stuttle

16th December - 22nd December: Goblin Quest by Jim C Hines

Atlantis, Season 1, Episode 8: The Furies

The team has a job – to escort treasure to the city of Heliopolis across the desert (the chest of wealth is the brideprice for his son, Philamon) – something Hercules considers completely and utterly suicidal. Until a vast sum of money is dumped in front of him, Hercules agrees to the job. Even if it does come with a failure clause of having fingers removed.

Of course Pythagoras isn’t overjoyed by this – and as they travel down the streets (they’re sneaking around Atlantis again? Is this a requirement or something? They’re not even doing anything nefarious this time!) Hercules having to undermine is previous, apparent, courage by having him scared by a goat. Along the way home, Jason catches and nearly stabs Pythagoras’s brother – Arcas.

He comes home with them, parties much more than Pythagoras and he and Hercules gamble into the night – also getting Hercules to agree to bring Arcas with them to Helios. Pythagoras doesn’t seem to be his brother’s biggest fan.

So concerned is Pythagoras that he goes to see the Oracle. He asks pretty clear questions, she responds with cryptic rambling. I’m pretty sure the show wants me to believe the Oracle is actually magical or psychic in some way, but she talks like a fairground card reader and Mystic Meg is more clear with her predictions.

The caravan they’re supposed to join with this chest leaving at dawn and they’ve all wandering around in bright sunlight for some time now so they finally drag themselves to the horses. They load up, meet the soon-to-be-groom Philemon and Arcas starts a fight with a man carrying a murderer’s brand before the caravan master breaks it up and lays down the law – he decides who travels with them and in the desert they do what he says. There’s a woman on the caravan who asks Jason to place the saddle blanket on her horse either because she’s woefully inept or because she’s flirting with him – I suspect the latter.

Jason is bemused by Arcas’s anti-murderer prejudice because he’s Jason and he makes good use of his bemused look. Pythagoras expositions that their father was murdered, Arcas was very young and it affected him badly. As they leave the city the caravan master explains the murderer – he’s Otus, was a slave (on the same island Pythagoras grew up) and had his tongue cut out for being outspoken – and then got his revenge.

At the first stop, the brothers show they actually like each other, the soon-to-be-groom thinks it’s unlucky to have a woman with them and she and Jason flirt some more. But Hercules notices something off about her – he dresses as a highborn lady but her table manners are not refined.

Fangs for the Fantasy Book of the Week

Every week on the Fangs for the Fantasy podcast (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show. The review for the book of the week always goes up on a Monday.

To give people a chance to read along with us, every Monday we’re also going to include a list of our planned books of the week for the next few shows, so people can get the books, read them and join in the conversation.

 Our podcast will be at 7:00pm EST tonight 

11th November - 18th November: Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

18th November - 25th November: The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C Hines

25th November - 2nd December: Under Wraps by Hannah Jane

2nd December - 9th December: The Fall of the Governor by Robert Kirkman

9th December - 16th December: Blood Wager by Connie Stuttle

Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School #2) by Gail Carriger

Sophronia continues her education at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality learning vital lessons in fashion, etiquette, deportment, information gathering, poison and other essential arts of the budding secret agent.

And there are definitely plots afoot, the airship school is moving to London to examine a new technology which seems surprising – and suspicious. There is definitely something covert going on – something that Sophronia would investigate anyway, but has all the more reason to do so when her best friend seems to be threatened by it. She has a full array of skills given to her by the spy school and she’s more than willing to put them to the test.

With sequels, it’s always hard not to seem repetitive in a review, especially if everything a book got right in the first book, it continues to get right in this book. We still have that wonderful contrast between the elaborate, stifling trappings of idealised Victorian femininity with the deadly, artful skill of the espionage agent. We still have them USING the trappings of idealised femininity as espionage tools – and this is even further emphasised with the boys from Bunson being so very clueless and incapable because they have not been trained. The blending of these seemingly completely alien elements is such massive fun while, at the same time, continuing that refreshing challenge to the idea that a woman cannot be both stereotypically feminine AND powerful (even dangerous) at the same time.

The world is the same as the Parasol Protectorate Series but doesn’t just rest on it but expands it. We don’t just have the collection of werewolves and vampires in Victorian England with a fun dash of steampunk elements – there’s much more emphasis on the devices and gizmos that so epitomise steampunk and these in turn are interwoven with the supernatural elements. What does it mean to travel at great distances with advancing technology when vampires are bound to their territories? What will they do to escape their tethers? How does it disadvantage them when technology evolves to make humans more and more mobile while their Queens cannot leave the Hive house? It sets up a whole new angle on the world for more fascinating discovery and exploration.

This book did a good job of developing beyond its original excellent (and hilarious) premise and putting some meat on the bones. Firstly we have an extended storyline, the beginning of a meta-plot, with the rivalry between the Picklemen and the Supernaturals; and even between the werewolves and the vampires. This plot promises for lots of ongoing hooks for Sophronia to be involved in more than just random school hijinks. What particularly makes these plotlines – and the world and concepts revealed through them – so fascinating is having read the Parasol Protectorate Series, this book brings a different angle. There was never any real question of Alexia’s position on the pro/anti supernatural side with both her love interest and her own abilities so the whole question never really arose and her loyalties were obvious from a very early juncture. Seeing the same world through Sophronia’s eyes adds more levels because Sophronia isn’t inherently affiliated with any faction – and has members of the different factions all with some influence on her.