Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 9: Sins of Omission

Opening Scott angst an extra recapping – with worry about his asthma returning, the chimera and everyone feeling bleak and worried. All with his own worry about the fact he can’t fix it. Everyone is worried and pre-occupied (looking at Malia and Stiles and Parrish – all keeping secrets). Scott feels especially concerned about the fact they haven’t told the Sherriff about Parrish’s body snatching – and they haven’t told Parrish either.

Lydia and Stiles are out looking for the Nemeton and the bodies around it – but they don’t know where it is. The Sheriff is desperately looking for other possible chimera out there using medical screening – but Hayden and Corey seem to be ok. Both Kira and Deaton are still absent.

Scott is recapping all this to Theo – and how utterly inadequate he feels.

Theo goes to see his Dread Doctor allies/masters/whatever and they are injecting themselves in their withered, heavily scarred flesh which plumps them up to new life. Theo wants them to let Hayden alive – apparently they promised him a pack. The Dread Doctors are pretty indifferent to his wishes and demands and are suitably menacing about their refusal.

Liam and Hayden are a rather nauseatingly sweet couple now. But she’s bleeding mercury. Bad sign.

Scott continues to worry at school and even Liam is hiding stuff from him ahead of the full moon – Liam is edgy and not all that willing to take Scott’s help. More angst for Scott.

Stiles and Lydia are looking for the Nemeton and failing – Lydia keeps wanting Stiles to talk to Parrish but he refuses because, unknown to her, he killed Donovan and is still having issues with that. Lydia overrules – they’re telling Parrish.

Theo reminds Stiles what they will find if Lydia does find the Nemeton but also thinks that maybe Scott will be more ok with the idea of killing for self-defence. Stiles is really not dealing well with this.

Sherriff Stilinski has a new plan to find the Dread Doctors – by looking for their failures with UV light which will show up the mercury they bleed. How he’s going to tell his officers they’re looking for people with UV light I don’t know.

He goes looking through the library with a UV light and finds that there was mercury spilled there – and he remembers Clarke telling him about Donovan and Stiles in the library. Which is when Theo decides to tell something big about Stiles to Scott before sirens interrupt them.

Undead and Unappreciated (Undead #3) by MaryJanice Davidson

Betsy has not taken well to learning that not only is she a vampire but the queen of the vampires. Sure, her mother and her best friend adjusted to the change amazingly but even with that support, Betsy cannot seem to stay out of trouble.  When Betsy learns that she has a half sister, she is drawn to investigate. Just like everything else in Betsy's life, nothing runs smoothly.  In between dealing with a strike at her vampire club Scratch, and dealing with a hurt Eric, Betsy now has to keep a close eye on her sister because she is the child of the devil and destined to the rule the world.

I know from the introduction, it seemed that a lot happened in this book but that is certainly not the case.  Only in the most generous description can Undead and Unappreciated be called a filler and I say that because the entire series is absolute mindless fluff.  It begins with Betsy going to AA and pretending to be an alcoholic in order to deal with her need to drink blood. Look, I know that for a lot of people vampirism is a metaphor for addiction but to be clear, it's a horrible analogy. So, Davidson has Betsy do this horrible thing and it goes absolutely nowhere.  It's nothing but a launching pad for Mark to tell Betsy that he is a recovering addict and for her to temporarily beat herself up for not knowing such an essential detail about a man she calls a friend before going back to obsessing about shoes and Eric's control issues.

Betsy goes all evil vampire Queen when she finally gets around to reading the Vampire bible.  It only took her two books to get around it and naturally she decides to barricade herself in a room with it, ignoring the advice to read it sparingly because it causes mental illness. Also, can I get a side eye on the whole woo woo causing mental illness? In Betsy's supposedly mentally ill state, she attacks Jessica, calls Marc a leech, has sex with Eric and tries to kill Tina. When Betsy gets back to herself she has a mess to clean up.  Though Jessica isolates herself for a few days, she is quick to forgive Betsy and Tina and Marc follow suit.  Betsy is briefly able to go outside during the day but beyond that, nothing much happens.

Then there's Betsy's kid sister Laura.  Betsy's father lets slip that Ant has been pregnant before and gave the child up for adoption.  When Besty learns that Laura's mother is actually the devil and that Laura is destined to rule the world, Betsy is in with both feet temporarily and I say temporarily because Betsy gets over the whole hell spawn thing pretty quickly and starts to angst over her fear that Eric is into her kid sister.  Betsy has amazing priorities doesn't she?  Even when she meets the devil, she considers selling her soul for a pair of shoes.  The Devil/Laura storyline goes absolutely nowhere.  When I said that nothing happens in this book, I absolutely mean it.

The Strain, Season 2, Episode 6: Identity

We have an ominous vampire walking the street… in daylight.

Ephraim catches up with his contact in DC who is apparently an old friend who seems quite blasé about the whole hidden identity thing. We quickly learn that outside of New York news is being very carefully controlled and they don’t realise how terribad it is.

Ephraim tells him the plan to unleash his anti-vampire bioweapon and what he needs his friend Rob to help spread it around. Rob points out it’s not that easy to get the DoD to unleash a bio-weapon over New York City. Funny how that works. Instead they’re going to go with Rob’s contacts

News reports that the president is being impeached for responding so poorly to the disaster and congress and senate have pretty much devolved into childish brawling. So it’s business as usual. Rob’s contact, Leigh arrives and Ephraim shows her his method of taking down the vampires which looks hella awesome. It also reveals just how bad the vampire menace has become with over 3,000,000 infected.

We get some long winded war stories before Leigh finally sets up a meeting. And we get some flirting, kissing and going home to have sex between Leigh and Ephraim. Because we really need this right now. Really. Anyway the next morning Ephraim is outraged to realise the people Leigh is meeting will only actually deploy the cure if they get a whole lot of exclusive proprietary rights because Business.  

Ephraim gets his meeting with a big boss man, General Dean Rushing, who wants Stoneheart to help. That would be Palmer’s company and a very bad idea. They manage to get him on side. Leigh also gets her side of the deal all set up and it’s all looking good.

They return to Rob’s house to find Rob dead – and an assassin waiting. He kills Leigh but not Ephraim (damn it) who shoots him. The assassin has Stoneheart’s corporate logo on his phone

Let me repeat that – the assassin has his employer’s logo on his phone. The assassin is carrying a brand name. The assassin is carrying proof of employment. The. Assassin. Is. Carrying. Identification. Of. His. Employer.

Really?

Back in the city, Fitzwilliam joins the merry band (and Zach, who needs to be eaten). Nora also has the unenviable task of reassuring Zach while his dad is away. Fitzwilliam tells them about the properties Palmer has been buying while Vasiliy is all suspicious and untrusting. Fitzwilliam also spills on Palmer’s motivation – wanting immortality since he has always been plagued by ill health (I kind of thought everyone already knew this).

Falling Skies, Season 5, Episode 8: Stalag 14th Virginia

Execution time – actually no it’s another stupid “let’s start the episode half way through then flash back” nonsense, so let’s ignore that and flip back 7 hours.

Weaver tries to appeal to Marshall which obviously goes nowhere – she’s convinced they will be happy dappy allies forever more. I don’t think that’s going to happen. She also wants him to point fingers at any other collaborators.

That night she goes driving by herself off into the woods and Weaver follows her. In the woods she speaks to someone she calls “sir.” Who is willing to bet it’s an Overlord? Whatever she’s talking to we don’t get to see for convoluted attempts to develop tension and drama.

The rest of the Second Mass who have come to fort Virginia aren’t especially happy with the sainted Masons being locked up. Marshall ends up locking them all up. Even her own Lieutenant Wolf finds her blatantly ridiculous position to be, well, blatantly ridiculous. Of course she won’t listen to him – but Weaver is there to scoop him up.

And take him to where Marshall was meeting with an Overlord. I am shocked. Truly I am shocked by this revelation. This is my shocked face. Behold the shock.

   

The soldiers continue torturing Ben and Tom decides to debate the prison guard who snaps because it’s so terribad hard for him to torture and kill people – and his own best friend was killed in one of Marshall’s purges. Since he’s a torturer I’m not even slightly sympathetic with him following orders, or comparing people to rabid animals. Hal and Ben talk Maggie and Isabella which apparently gives Tom hope listening in to his teenagers talking about women. Personally I think the conversation is vaguely skeevy and Tom listening in rather more so. Tom then using it as a way to talk family with evil torturer guy just finishes it off.

He manages to make a lot of progress with Evil Torturer guy revealing more people in the 14^th are less than comfortable with Marshall’s paranoid obsession with spies and traitors. Of course none of them could speak up without the inspiration of the Blessed Mason.

Anne is still doctoring people while under guard but her patients are rapidly losing patience (yes I did that. I have to find something to amuse myself watching this) with the over the top stormtrooper routine (honestly, like a doctor has to pull a sharp object to kill you). Anne also learns her husband is due to be executed and doesn’t take it well. But her patient is willing to listen to her as she tells him how amazing St Tom is – though it all goes wrong when she describes her half-Espheni daughter.

Infinite (Ignite #3) by Eric Crouch

Pen and Azael can no longer avoid their final confrontation – which they cannot both walk away from. Driven to reclaim Michael’s soul, Pen cannot avoid Azael and Azael is driven to bring his sister back to his side – or destroy her and everything else in the process

But while they are focused on their epic show down, Lilith changes the whole nature of the game: there’s a new ruler of Hell and sibling rivalry is not part of master plan.

I loved one excellent element of this book – Lilith. Oh yes, I loved Lilith. I loved how her mythology was so centrally part of her story. I loved that she was the character who would not submit, who plotted so very excellently and whose defiance should, as she pointed out, have definitely being predicted. She is Lilith, the woman who would not submit, who would not be secondary to any man. The death of her children was just the last straw – just the idea that she was a gentle, submissive servant means anyone who falls for it thoroughly deserves the stabbing they get.

Her backstory, her depiction, her craftiness and, even to a degree, how she seems to slowly degrade down the same path when she gains power herself. It’s really well done, contains a lot of challenges against misogyny and is fascinating to read.

The introduction of Lilith as an independent force added a new layer to this series that, while sorely underdeveloped (more on that later), really widened the story. This is in addition to the ongoing examination of why Heaven failed and how it lost its way – expanding on what was already established in Engage.

On top of that we have some really nicely written action scenes and lots of hacking and slashing. We had Kala and Ana – a previously excellently established same-sex couple, one of which is a Black, disabled angel – with a lot of excellent depiction of her furiously objecting and fighting back against any idea that she is weaker or less capable because of her disability. We also had some nice debate about Ana’s pacifism – and how it can really only work for her and her campaign because she is surrounded by people who are willing to fight on her behalf.

Killjoys, Season 1, Episode 9: Enemy Khlyen

D’avin is in a fight for reasons against a hulk who seems to feel little pain. Alvin is also involved trying to hide some weapons he’s smuggling. Alvin tries to talk to him about it but D’avin counters that he’s not from Westerly and his years of fighting other people’s wars are over.

So much to unpack there and it’s just a few lines… that’s the kind of thing Killjoys does well.

He heads to Pree’s bar who is having a big day but also having to kick out his own rowdies – which is what he puts up with the Killjoy crew for, specifically D’avin since, being off Lucy, he has to live somewhere. Of course without a ship he can’t actually chase any decent warrants as a Killjoy either.

But Dutch has come to visit. It is very very very awkward. So very awkward. Lots of awkwardness. Really really awkward.

Dutch and John are much much much less awkward and kind of awesome. He’s also contacted Carline from  few episodes ago who has finished fixing Dutch’s broken neural link so they can track down Khlyen and kill him dead. Which means strapping Dutch into a machine to do some brain riding

This ends up with her in Khlyen’s vision seeing various locations which she describes before they have to pull her out before permanent damage sets in. But she knows where he is – a hidden part of the RAC where he is clearly a very respected member. Dutch is horrified by the idea that she thought she escape Khlyen and ended up working with him after all.

Alvin decides to give D’avin a book about his faith to pass on to John because “he seems into sacrifice.” D’avin rightly calls this very very creepy. He mainly wants to know that D’avin isn’t going to tell the Company about the weapons he saw – to which D’avin is clear: if there’s not a warrant, it’s not his business.

Dutch and John go to Pree’s bar to plan their raid on the RAC, with D’avin sort of trying to involve himself and being pushed away firmly by John – but Dutch wants his help. Awkward. They tell him about Khlyen on the officers only floor of the RAC – where they bring the RAC to places which “need order” (which sounds waaaay more ominous to me than it does to any of them). The revelation has shaken Dutch’s priorities a little – now as much as she wants Khlyen dead, she also wants answers.

D’avin decides to strike a deal with Alvin.

We join Dutch for some memories, of Khlyen being kind recruiting her as a child and some hints about her family history – her name being dishonoured and her father relying on her to redeem it. It’s all a nice, sweet memory. They’re visions/memories from the neural link. Prompted by this she shares with John some of the better memories she had with Khlyen. John nicely skewers it, pointing out how she’s grown and developed since they first met (her in a blood stained wedding dress apparently) and Khlyen isn’t the one who made her who she is – she made herself. Regardless of what she wants to do – John is definitely on her side and supporting her.

Defiance, Season 3, Episode 11: A Demon in my View

The prison transport carrying Nolan and Irisa has crashed/exploded/had badness happen. Berlin comes across the wreckage, strewn with bodies. She finds one survivor: Irisa.

Nolan is missing but alive (as Irisa knows because of the alien tech in her head) though he has been taken by someone. Why is Berlin around? Well she was heading back to Defiance when the VC attack was over and now wanted to help Amanda in the aftermath of Nolan shooting people. She’s also not impressed with the “not in his right mind” excuse since Irisa used the same reasoning for killing Tommy. Irisa tells her about the attack but it’s a pretty sparse description

Looking at the bodies, Irisa realises some of them have been killed by an Omec (or the same “animal” attacks that they had in Defiance.

T’evgin himself has been captured by Kindzi who is now draining his blood to stop him escaping because he’s so super powerful. She also maintains that whole sexual/family sexual thing that makes them so very very creepy.

Kindzi is also the one behind Nolan’s kidnapping – she’s brought him to her lair and is having Yewl check him over. Despite being controlled Yewl is still snarky. Kindzi has taken Nolan as abet because he’s oh so special. I’m with Yewl “why him”. When Kindzi talks about his beauty, Yewl points out she’s a lesbian. She also makes a very unsnarky but still quite brutal summation of how sickening Kindzi is (though unfortunately linking it to mental illness, because otherwise that would be an epic take down). Kindzi gets rid of her and decides to remove the arc tech from Nolan’s head herself.

Which Irisa also feels on the road. She feels pain and then Nolan disappear.

When Nolan wakes up Kindzi is there to lie about why he rescued Nolan – claiming that Irisa is in on the plan and is currently giving them a cover story in Defiance. And now it’s sexy time.

Afterwards she praises him for brutal random murders but he says he was actually being possessed at the time and hallucinating. The Omec know all about it – they have a “warrior echo” that keeps telling them to kill people even when common sense says no. Nolan plays nice and tries to act like everything is normal but Kindzi clearly sees through his plan to escape and tases him.

When he’s all chained up she explains how he no longer gets to be her special valued pet and now gets to be snack food. This is interrupted by Irisa and Berlin arriving looking for Nolan. Kindzi tells them that Nolan and T’evgin are on the run because T’evgin loves the “lesser races” and hates the Votanis Collective so liked Nolan killing the Castithan vice-chancellor. As cover stories go, it has a few holes in it, it has to be said. She invites them to search. And find nothing

Dominion, Season 2, Episode 6: Reap of the Whirlwind

In the aftermath of David’s bombing there’s a lot of burning and screaming and despairing all done with lots of drama. Claire despairs

Zoe is pissed that David picked his own target but David points out he split the city in two and gave her the half with the food production. She’s outraged about the amount of destruction and death he caused. When she pulls a gun on him he again tempts her with his advice and expertise. He promises to make her a true leader and Jasper is already on side.

David’s plan is to make a broadcast to the city before Claire can (because his bomb took out Claire’s radio tower). He’s even written her a speech – and he is damn good at speeches.

While they hand out food to the desperate V1s, David reassures the constantly invisible and ignored Zoe. She begins her speech – but quickly goes off message, ignoring David’s words and speaking from the heart as a V1 to V1s.

Jasper is still bleeding to death though, very very very slowly. Eventually he loses consciousness and dies – and David tries to empathise by talking about how Claire killed his son (somewhat revisionist history) and how it continues to hurt – but also leaves both of them with nothing to lose.

Claire et al are doing what they can to fix things – the whole trench was actually part of Vega’s design, Gates put it there so they could detonate it if Vega was falling to angels. Arika wants Claire to strike now, especially with the food supplies on the other side – but Claire doesn’t want to turn this into an outright civil war – nor to be fighting her own people when Gabriel attacks.

Claire remarks that city is being torn apart. Gates archly points out the city was always torn apart thanks to the V system her dad created. She also considers whether she should be more ruthless as her father would have been though Gates is totally against her becoming a ruthless killer and how he’s totally inspired by her

Arika brings some reality to the “go Claire” party and opens the windows so they can hear Zoe’s speech. Gates sees only one solution – him sneaking to the other side to cut off Zoe’s broadcast and play Claire’s own. Claire decides this is far too risky and forbids him. Of course he does it anyway, forcing her to get on side.

A member of the rebellion approaches David with a radio – on the other side is Arika. Oh you’ve got to love how good she is at the crafty plotting. He’s affronted that she has her tentacles in “his” rebellion but she chuckles because she was in waaaaay before David, having read the writing on the wall long ago. She tells him about Gates and how he needs to stop him – but not kill him.  Because the war helps them both, apparently

So Zoe sends out soldiers and Gates has to play cat and mouse guided by Claire. Alas, Zoe’s soldiers aren’t all that smart and outright shout about looking for Gates – which proves there’s a leak in Claire’s camp.