From Dusk Till Dawn, Season 2, Episode 7: Bring me the Head of Santanico Pandemonium

Seth has found another of Malvado’s properties (he does enjoy less than salubrious locales) and decides to pass on a threat through a Calebros waitress, which gets him an introduction with the big man himself after being patted down by a man who apparently has 4 arms. After much back and forth, Seth offers a deal.

All is not going well with Richie and Santanico because of her ruining their little dinner with Seth – he accuses her of making everything harder because she’s so revenge focused she doesn’t stop and think. She has a more direct way to get uncle Eddie’s info though it offends Richie’s honour – she has not very flattering opinions of that honour

While Seth, while not Santanico’s biggest fan, isn’t discounting her vampy instincts and demands to know what secret Sonja is keeping – Sonja tells him about an abusive ex partner (lover and in crime) who she had take the fall for one of her crimes – I rather suspect there’s more to it but since Seth isn’t exactly forth coming about the Calebras or why he is now insisting both they and Eddie drop the idea of stealing from Malvado, he isn’t exactly in a place to throw stones.

Seth absolutely fails to convince Eddie to drop the job (and Eddie is both misogynist and dismissive of Santanico and Sonja hating each other being a problem) and all he manages to do is completely offend the older man because Seth has completely forgotten all his people skills.

Discarding the code, Santanico and Richie go to steal Eddie’s info only to be found out by Eddie and to have Sonja turn up to reveal Seth has already stole them – and she’ll show them if she still gets to be in on the deal (and Santanico has another “I want to kill Malvado more than anything so trust me” speech).

Richie catches up with Seth trying to hire new minions and after a very easy kill and a quick slap down, Richie leaves with the info and Seth hissing slurs against Santanico

Which brings us back to the beginning and Seth making a deal with Malvado. Again, aimed at his hatred for Santanico.

So new gang, Richie, Eddie, Sonja and Santanico – and Seth drops in to try and kill Santanico until Eddie calls time. This is his job and even though he has no idea what’s really going on he doesn’t want the Geckos to ruin his last score. After his rant, Santanico insists that Richie tell Eddie the truth

iZombie, Season 2, Episode 1: Grumpy Old Liv

Season 1 ended horrifically with Liv’s brother badly injured and needing a blood transfusion. Which poor Liv can’t give because of the whole zombie thing.

iZombie you already ripped out our hearts and ate them with the death of Lowell (NOT OVER IT!) tread carefully!

We do open 3 months after the surgery and little brother Evan isn’t dead no thanks to Liv – and both he and mother Eva are pretty pissed about that. Especially since Liv can’t tell them why she said no.

Poor Liv, she advises herself to ”harden herself” and act like a monster. As she tells Ravi, Major and Peyton are also avoiding Liv as well now they know about her zombieness (Major is also struggling to get a job. Ravi also almost uses the terrible and misogynist “bros before hos” line but walks it back after a look from Liv).

Crime scene time – and at least Clive’s ignorance means he doesn’t hate Liv. An old man, Wendell was killed with a car being dropped on him deliberately. His sister-in-law fills in his history – Wendell was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 30 years ago and has been bitter and unpleasant ever since.

Brain snack. (Ravi also has a new Rat he deems “New Hope” she deems “Final Hope” and there’s a nice Star Wars quip there too). Liv swears off all relationships until she is human again (she has a new room mate… which is… fine.) and Ravi sums up why they’re having trouble developing a new cure in glorious passive aggressive terms. I do like them together especially since snark makes exposition fun. Anyway to find that lost cure ingredient, they need to find Blaine

Who is now a funeral director.

Lt Suzuki also died last season (though the reason was somewhat covered up) and his widow is being honoured in his stead. That cover up has Clive all kind of suspicious – and about Liv and Major for that matter (since they made up a false alibi). Clive is not buying their reasoning. Liv’s snacking on brains has also left her very very grumpy which makes her less than sympathetic interviewer as they chase leads (but she does do grumpy well).

That grumpiness also comes with a side order of racism which Ravi could have slapped down a little harder (Asian drivers? Really? It’s also really clumsy since it’s applying an east-Asian insulting stereotype and lumping in Ravi) – and Liv realises what Blaine’s new business is and goes to visit.

Z Nation, Season Two, Episode Four: Batch 47

Predictably, this week opens up at a green house with two people pushing their way through the vines to get the pot seed pods. It's not too long before the presence of the stoners becomes noticed by the green zombies.

Outside the greenhouse, Odegard gives a lecture to people about how the greenhouse contains the herbal vaccine against the zombie virus.  Members of the crowd ask for proof and Odegard replies that for years batch 47 had been hidden away until he found it. Holds up sheers and asks who has what it takes.  What he doesn't know is that Murphy and Cassandra are in the crowd. From the back of the crowd Murphy tells Cassandra maybe they won't have to go to California.

Murphy barges into Odegard's tent and is told that they are closed for retail sales of Z Weed. Murphy turns down the weed for himself but points out that Cassandra might wants some and then suggests that he has something Odegard is going to want to hear.  There's a zombie hand sticking out of some weeds and Odegard calls it a phylo-zombie which means it's part zombie and part plant.  Murphy moves his finger in front of the zombie hand and it mirrors his movements.  Odegard tries the same trick and nothing happens.  Murphy then exposes one of Odegard's zombie heads and the moment he touches the zombies face, it calms down and stop trying to bite.  Odegard realises that he is dealing with the real Murphy but asks to see the bites to make sure.  Murphy asks how real batch 47 is and Odegard pulls out a paper saying that test subjects remained free of the zombie virus but the test results which include reports on side effects has been lost.

The conversation is interrupted by a phylo-zombie killing another one of the harvesters that Odegard sent into the greenhouse.  The next person to volunteer asks that her baby told that her mama loves her before entering the greenhouse.  Unknown to everyone is the fact that Doctor Kurian has been spying, and naturally he has recognized Murphy.

In the arctic, Citizen listens to a radio report which says that Murphy has been seen in Minnesota.  Citizen Z is impressed that he was able to understand the message because the person spoke in Spanish.  Citizen Z then gets on the radio looking for Delta X Ray Delta but of course gets no answer.

Warren and crew show up at the greenhouse and are told to wait until they are called.  Doc is of course happy to smell the Z weed.  The woman volunteer crawls out of the greenhouse yelling for help. Vasquez shoots the zombie but it keeps moving so he is forced to bash its head in to save the woman. Warren and crew help the woman into the waiting tents. One of Odegard's men comes out side because of the commotion and tells Warren and crew to go and wait in the garage for their turn to try and harvest.

Cassandra gets her toke on and is clearly loving it.  Odegard tells Muprhy that he stumbled on this place and all he had to do was harvest it and get the world out.  Odegard says that the government was growing a lot of dangerous plants and the workers got trapped inside becoming phylo-zombies. Murphy snarks about the population being worried about GMO tomatoes. Odegard adds that they have not been able to get close enough to batch 47 to get a good sample.

Warren helps the injured woman to her child and Doc uses maxi pad as a bandage to cover her wounds.  The woman tells the child that they haven't found the cure yet but are getting close.

Murphy walks boldly into the greenhouse with Odegard on his heels.  The vines immediately wrap themselves around Odegard so he uses a sharp knife to free himself.  This causes Murphy to stop and complain about getting a stabbing pain. They continue to move through the greenhouse and when Odegard is stopped by a phylo-zombie, Murphy uses his mojo to free him.

Cassandra waits outside of the greenhouse for Murphy and she has Odegard's guards pointing weapons at her.  Odegard and Murphy make their way to batch 46 and Murphy is forced to stop because he can feel the phylo-zombies.

Wish Bound, (Grimm Agency #3) by J. C. Nelson

Marissa, through various adventures, has found herself in the awkward position of being the handmaiden of the Black Queen, one of the most powerful and dangerous beings in history. Even as someone who started (and stopped) the apocalypse, that’s a tall order to stop.

She has enough to deal with what with cursed birthday parties, lethal cursed cheeses and a whole postgnome cult. She doesn’t need evil Black Queens – or evil dead enemies being pulled out the very vault of hell.

Marissa faces the hardest test of all – does she let her friends save her even if it may be at great cost to themselves? Can she live with being saved.

This is a major turning point book – one so full of answers and revelations that it has changed the course of the entire series. In fact, it’s so dramatically ended, so dramatically changed course that I don’t even know if the book series is going to continue after this – because this feels like an ending and a dramatic conclusion of everything that the book has been leading towards.

We have all the answers of Marissa’s heritage. We have all the answers of Marissa’s origin but also her relationship towards Grimm which has always been complicated and far more than an employee or even a mentor. It, coupled with his relationship with the Black Queen, brings it all together with wonderful complexity and makes it all emotionally involved and twisty and fun.

The story itself is epic – literally world controlling with lots of amazing twists. So very very twisty – as Marissa fights the delicate balance of being a Handmaiden of the Dark queen and also trying to oppose her. There’s a lot of battling the different kinds of magic and finding all the nifty little loop holes to get around things. It’s a very delicate balance and I really liked it. I know I’ve used the word a lot – but there’s a lot of complexity and a lot of different angles.

The tone of the book strikes a very careful balance – and a very well done one. On the one hand it’s a dark world. After all this is a world with the end of the world at risk, there’s a terrifying appalling war coming and the grimness of that is clear. We have the abominations of flesh, the desperate fight to survive and, of course, a desperate loss for Marissa as well as the traumatic feel of the lost she suffers in the battle and the life changing revelation of what she is. Her friends make extreme sacrifices on her behalf

The Leftovers, Season 2, Episode 1: Axis Mundi

We open with naked people. Ah, yes, it’s on HBO.

A naked pregnant lady, caveman chic and an Earthquake to be exact. She gives birth during the quake which leaves her all alone in a prehistoric landscape…

…am I even watching the right show? Seriously I know it was going to reboot but what’s with the prehistory prequel?

Cave lady is bitten by a snake saving her new baby and eventually dies, leaving her baby to be found by another cave lady.

We move from this ancient scene to the same pond in the (presumably) modern world and several teens playing in the water. We meet Dr. Brian Goodheart (who is doing science in the water) and Evie. There are, oddly, lots of signs declaring the water forbidden to none residents and forbidding the taking of water.

Evie goes home to the rest of her family, brother Michael, mother Erika and father John (who is a deep sleeper with a cruel cruel family). The water Evie brought back is still treated as super special. Even after a short time I think these guys are kind of fun.

Ok, time for some more randomness – including a crack in the road that is covered in a protective glass box and a woman watering her garden in a wedding dress (hey, why pay all that money for a dress you’re going to wear once? Good on her for getting her money’s worth!) and a hermit on a pole with “miracle” carved into it (well, sort of helmet) all of which combines with the cave man opening to make me think we’re playing a game of Madlibs. Michael delivers breakfast to the hermit and gets a letter in exchange.

Definitely madlibs

Michael sets up among several market stalls catering to tourists – and the tourists are there because Miracle, Texas, is the only town in America which had no Departures. No-one vanished. Michael is there to sell water from the Jaden spring the (pond at the beginning). The tourists arrive and it’s clearly a religious experience for many and others – especially the sick and disabled, are definitely there for miracles like some kind of Texan Lourdes. The tourists even come from outside the US (so I take it this town may be the only place in the world without a Disappearance). Michael is offering his water – but won’t set a price and refuses to say it is more than a “souvenir” when people clearly want magic super water. He also tries to encourage them to attend a church service.

The Strain, Season 2, Episode 13: Night Train

Eichorst is overseeing some ominous construction – one that looks like a giant slaughterhouse with added incinerators. It’s for processing “sheep” honest. Ooooh catch that wit.

Vasiliy has his own construction project – making his truck ultra-secure while everyone prepares to say goodbye to Zach (I care even less than Abraham). Anyway Ephraim and Nora plan to try and make their disease bomb while they’re travelling as well.

They’re on the last train out of New York – while huge desperate crowds gather at the station. As they prepare to leave (in a very nicely set scene) Ephraim and Nora have a couple moment (oh yeah. Because this is needed). And Kelley is lurking around (in case Ephraim actually manages to move the plot forward)

They finally get on the train and to the huge relief of everyone the train drives off. Yay freedom

Well until the Master stops the train by simply putting 8 gazillion vampires on the tracks. 7 gazillion get squished then the train derails. Nora and Zach flee one way (they were separated from Ephraim) who tries to follow them. Kelley and the spider vamps are on the train. While Ephraim fights Nora and Zach run down the tunnel – and into Kelley.

Time for a Nora vs Kelley duel over Zach (oooh look symbolism – and further making Nora be epitomised as Kelley’s replacement) and Zach begging for mercy for Kelley distracts Nora – and she gets bitten

That leaves Zach and Kelley – and he hugs her. Kiiiiilll him! Doooooo it! Dooooo it!

Instead she takes Zach away. Presumably to the Master.

Ephraim comes and finds Nora on the floor – and there are worms crawling under her skin. She pushes her sword against the third rail of the train track, electrocuting herself while Ephraim is all sad.

Eldritch is still evil while Coco is playing the crafty sexy advisor/manipulator pushing Eldritch to assert himself more to Eichorst and the Mastery

Gus introduces his little army to Quinlan who introduces himself by killing someone and thoroughly terrifying the others (he also has a verbose speech trying to encourage everyone to embrace their inner knight) in a huge human vs vampire fight. They find it inspiring because the script says it’s so. Personally I think a whole lot of released prisoners listening to a posh monster calling on the unity of mankind would laugh uproariously.

A Red-Rose Chain (October Daye #9) by Seanan McGuire

The Kingdom of Silences has declared war on the Kingdom of Mists. The new Queen Arden is far out of her depths and has little idea how to respond…

So she throws October at the problem. She’s no trained diplomat but she has good friends and she is very good at thinking on her feet

And with both the old Queen and a kingdom that considers Changelings beneath notice, it’s going to be a hard fight to be heard or listened to – or to stop a war that the King of Silences so cruelly wants. Even if she could stop the war, the ongoing injustice and cruelty of the Kingdom of Silences cannot be allowed to continue.

The story is immensely fun, as I definitely expect from this series. October Daye continues to be a scrappy character who runs around well out of her depth as is her wont. But she fights, she struggles and she rests on her friends and her unique abilities to get things done even if she so often has to make things up on the spot

The writing and pacing is, as always, excellent – always keeping me on the hook, reading until I reach the end of the books and all the… well not exactly twists and turns so much as constant questions and confusion. October doesn’t know what she’s doing and that’s really well portrayed in the text. She’s been thrown into a situation beyond her control and she has no plans, she’s incapable of planning in these circumstances. All she can do is run and hope to keep up and hope an answer, some answer presents itself so she can stop a war and save the people she loves

I really like how this is, in turn, reflected in Arden, the Queen. She’s also supremely out of her depth, after all she has only assumed the throne recently and before that she was a book store clerk. Without weakening her in the slightest she is depicted as exactly what she is – a woman who is completely overwhelmed and terrified and needs nudging back into the correct direction. It doesn’t make her a bad person or even a bad queen – any more than October’s flailing makes her and it’s a nice parallel between October and the Queen as we see them both try to adapt to a situation that is so far beyond her. As an extra bonus October’s epic speech to get her back on track is awesome.

The Last Man on Earth, Season Two, Episode Two: The Boo

Carol and Phil are still separated, with Carol waiting for Phil at the gas station and Phil waiting for Carol in Tuscon.  Carol tries her best to amuse herself by talking to an inflatable doll and doing scratch tickets.  She has also finished ridiculously designing the shirt that lead to her separation from Phil in the first place. Each time we see Carol, she is doing something ridiculous and desperate to try and find Phil.

In Tuscon, Phil has discovered that many of his personal items have been burned, including Babe Ruth's bat.  Phil has taken to his balls again, wondering why Carol hasn't arrived and how he can send her a message.  Phil's first attempt to find Carol involves blowing up some balloons and tossing them into the air, only belated realising that for this to work, he should have used helium.  When Phil sees a train track, he gets another burst of inspiration.

A desperate Carol lies down on the ground but sits up suddenly when she hears a train whistle.  Carol follows the sound to the tracks and arrives in time to see a long train go by with a message from Phil, saying that he is not a jerk and is in Tuscon.

Still awaiting Carol's arrival, Phil starts a new plan.  He sends a steamroller down the street. On the roller is a message to tell Carol where he is.  Naturally, any plan involving Phil isn't going to work out quite right.  After the steamroller rolls over Bryce, (one of his balls) it crashes a few hundred feet away.  A defeated Phil falls to ground, smacking himself in the head, screaming that he deserves to be alone.

Phil's moment of self pity is short lived because Carol arrives.  The two of them kiss and then bicker about where Phil left Carol.  Phil promises to never let Carol out of his sight again and the two have sex on the road.  Carol is excited to return to the cul de sac and see the others.  When they get back to Phil's burnt out house, Carol is surprised, claiming that this isn't like the group and questioning why they didn't leave a note.  They decide to take their reunion back to Carol's old place, where Carol confesses that she originally thought that Phil left her at the gas station on purpose because they had a fight.  It wasn't until Carol saw the train that she believed that Phil truly changed.  Phil says that he just wants to be a better man for Carol.  Shouldn't he try becoming a man first instead of the weird manchild that he is now?