Containment, Season 1, Episode 7: Inferno

This episode the writers decided they’d much rather be writing The Walking Dead so decided to put Jenna, friend Suzy, Teresa, Xander, Teresa’s mother, Jake (who arrived to give the encrypted drive Jenna just in time to helpfully soot Teresa’s mother’s kidnapper) and three extras (one of whom dies) in the top of the secure clean room tower to have lots of tense moments where they kill zombies trying to reach them

Sorry, did I say zombies? I mean drug addicts. And this is troublesome. Because you could have replaced these drug addicts with zombies and quite literally not have appreciably changed the plot in any real fashion. This is disturbing because this is so often how we regard drug addicts. Not as people struggling with an illness. Not people who are hurting. Not people who, all too often, have underlying mental illnesses (not that people with mental illnesses are much better treated!). Even killing these zombie-addicts, battering in their brains, burning them, blowing them up, without even the slightest hesitation or moral quandaries. People generally feel worse about killing savage dogs than these people.

It got so extreme that when one of the drug addicts bites Teresa’s mother (yes, he bites her. Bites her, really? Drug addicts bite now? Are they also hungry for BRAAAAAAINS?), I actually thought she was going to turn. In fact, that’s pretty much how everyone treats her – she has to leave the tower for fear of her turning into a zombie and eating everyone infecting everyone

We’ve already established that this disease isn’t airborne. They couldn’t tuck her in a corner? It also meant she, Teresa and Xander, having just reconciled, have to be so sad.

I’m sorry you appear to be having a tragic goodbye scene with characters I don’t give a shit about. Moving on.

I do like the moment Xander turns to Teresa’s mother and tells her to give it a rest with her constant attacks because damn she is not helping.

Allison Hewitt Is Trapped (Zombie #1) by Madeleine Roux

Allison Hewitt was hard at work in a bookstore when the zombie apocalypse broke out.  Now she's trapped in the store room with her boss, a few coworkers and a couple of the store's regular customers. For now, things seem okay because they have a few supplies but Allison knows that they cannot afford to stay in the store room.  As she and her compatriots look for someplace safe to live, Allison cannot stop thinking of her mother who has cancer.  When Allison learns that her mother may have moved on to a place called Liberty Village, Allison must choose between staying with her fellow survivors or heading out on her own to find her mother.

What drove me to read Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, is the fact that the book is written in a series of blog posts.  For me, this amounted to a unique device to tell a story.  Unfortunately, the blog concept didn't really work and left me wondering if Roux had actually read a blog?  If you are writing a blog post about something which happened, it should read like a recollection and not like the events are current. Furthermore, writing about past events should evoke some kind of personal introspection which these supposed posts were absolutely lacking.  The only way in which Roux stayed true to the blog format was by having comments at the end of each entry.  The comments became the only real representation of a blog post; however, they also served to pull me out of the story because they included brief snippets from what I would call less than side characters and their peril.

It has to be said, Allison's ability to keep her laptop safe and continue to find free wifi to post as the world falls apart really made no sense to me whatsoever.  Why would someone prioritize this as a form of record keeping in a zombie apocalypse?

Chick-lit is a guilty pleasure of mine but after reading Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, I'm not sure that it lends itself well to a dystopain zombie setting. The very nature of a zombie apocalypse means darkness and suffering juxtaposed to Allison's upbeat attitude really felt at odds; it made this apocalypse seem so sanitized.  I was particularly irked by Allison's love life.  She doesn't know if her mother is alive or dead, is fighting for food and shelter, yet somehow she manages to fall in love with an older married man.  Given the threat to her life and safety, am I really supposed to find her drama as the other woman believable or even interesting? Every time Allison went on about how much she hated Collin's wife, I couldn't help but shake my head. Who the hell would be worrying about this shit now? Worse still, Allison stopped just short of wishing his wife dead on several occasions and then had the nerve to wonder if she is a bad person.

12 Monkeys, Season Two, Episode Seven: Meltdown

The episode begins in 1959 on a military base.  Soldiers are playing poker and suddenly they splintter. I have to admit this threw me for loop because these soldiers have not had any connection to the story to date.

We next shift to Cassie and it's clear from her behaviour that something strange is going on.  She injects herself and then splinters to 2044.  The sound of the machine gets Jones and Eckland out of bed.  It's clear that despite all of the walls that Jones has put up, Eckland has gotten through to her. It's really nice to see Jones happy for a change but of course, this cannot last.

Everyone gets together and Cassie tells them about her interactions with the Witness.  She does however hold back that Witness not only appeared to her as Aaron but as Cole as well and that the Messengers made her drink their hallucinogenic potion. There's a lot of doubt as to what really happened to Cassie though she is insistent that she didn't hallucinate her time with the witness.

It's not long before the splintter machine starts acting up.  It shoots out a test subject from five years ago and the soldiers from 1959 also make an appearance. For Jones this is a case of chickens coming home to roost.  This is all a distraction to stop them from shutting down the machine before it turns the facility into a crater.

Cassie is taken over by the Witness and she kidnaps Sam and locks him in a room with a gun pointed at his head.  Seeing how desperate the situation is, Eckland decides to sacrifice himself to buy them a little bit more time.  It's sad as Jones begs him not to do it but Eckland seems to think that sacrificing himself for a beautiful woman is a great way to go out. There were so many things to love about this character and his exit from the show happened far too soon.

Ramse and Cole both confront Cassie, with Ramse more than prepared to shoot Cassie in the head to protect his son.  Seeing how precarious the situation is, Cole directs Ramse to shoot him instead, certain that Cassie will not allow him to die. This is meant to be evidence that despite the recent distance between Cassie and Cole that they know and care about each other.  This plan works and Cassie rushes to Cole's side.  After confirming that Sam is okay, Ramse shuts down the machine.  The crew doesn't get to party and celebrate because the machine shoots out some negative energy and Sam disappears.

After things have calmed down, Ramse and Jones talk about the possibility of Sam surviving but Jones has no firm answers for him.  A despondent Ramse grabs his bag and leaves the facility.  Both Jones and Cassie are riddled with guilt for what they believe to be their role in what happened.  Jones gives Cassie injections to take so that the Witness can never take control of her again.

Penny Dreadful, Season 3, Episode 5: This World is Our Hell

While last week’s episode was the awesome story of the awesome Vanessa who is awesome, this week’s story is of Ethan’s which is… fraught. We have Ethan and Hecate, low on water with dying horses (hey Hecate likes horses, total redemption guys!) who totally hates mankind and god and would really really like Ethan to join her in dark awesome evilness. Kaetenay and Malcolm – with Kaetenay happily willing to cut a swathe through everything to get to Ethan. And we have Marshal Franklin, his men and Rust who politely reveals some back story to let us all know he is an implacable force of endless tenacity that cannot be slowed or stopped and who you really really really don’t want to fuck with.

It’s a… volatile combination.

Thanks to various people we do learn Ethan’s backstory (partly while sharing terrible parent stories with Hecate. Hecate’s “I was given to satan as a 5 year old” totally wins, for the record). Ethan was sent to the army by his dad and his commander then ordered him to slaughter innocent Apache. Which he did – then killed his evil commander and reported to the Apache – Kaetenay in particular – to turn himself over to be executed for his crimes

Kaetenay decided far more usefully to make Ethan fight against the United states to protect the Apache. Which meant facing overwhelming numbers and, in Kaetenay’s words, resorting to greater and geater evil

Which… ugh. Look, we’ve said before that drawing on real life horrors like the genocide of Native Americans is something to be handled with great care and caution and respect, if at all. Further to this, even while this depiction doesn’t shrink away from the brutal genocide of the Native Americans, there’s then a whiff of blame for what Ethan become (and Kaetenay feeling a level of guilt and obligation towards him). And… really taking the massacre of Native Americans and making it a werewolf origin story is everything we spoke against.

Ethan and Hecate also talk morality with her all for evilness – and pointing out he’s kind of being led into this eternal guilt by the orders of others. He says his guilt is the best thing about him while she points out god won’t forgive him and if he ever wants to be free from guilt he needs to embrace his sins, praise satan.

Y’know this would be great advice if we were talking about shaming of innocent acts by an oppressive church and awful advice when it comes to “hey murder and massacres are totally ok!”.

Kalona's Fall (House of Night #11.5) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

I think the easiest way to sum up this short story is to re-write it in a way that makes sense (for House of Night anyway). So I’m reading Mother Earth as a troll who absolutely loathes Nyx while Nyx is that House Guest who won’t take a fucking hint (she taught Nyx everything, clearly). I can now follow the plot which now seems a lot more coherent. So:

Mother Earth: Ah Earth, so peaceful and special, just me and my children…

Nyx: Helooooooooooooo

Mother Earth:… you’re still here? All the other immortals fucked off years ago

Nyx: No, I’m going to stay here forever and ever…

ME: Oh. Yay. And I see you have tattoos now

Nyx: Aren’t they wonderful

ME:… yes… I’m sure. In no way does it look like a sugar high six year old was let loose on you with a sharpie.

Nyx: Look the book has illustrations!

ME: Thankfully that means less text.

Nyx: I love Earth and my fae just love frolicking here

ME: You mean your slaves that exist to serve you love taking holidays as far away from you as they can possibly get? Funny that…

Nyx: I’m just so lonely…

ME: I wish I was… I know, if I give you a companion you can spend more time anywhere I’m not. Sun, Moon, get down here and create some poor sap to endure Nyx!

Nyx: Oh thank you! Hey, they’ve created two?

ME: Oh, how surprising. I totally didn’t do that on purpose so they would both compete for your affections and drive you to distraction. Not At All.

Game of Thrones, Season 6, Episode 6: Blood of my Blood

A large part of this episode follows Sam and Gilly going back to his parents’

And it’s not a bad storyline, we see how utterly terrible his dad his, how he constantly demeans Sam, how he hates Wildlings and how he really needs to be stabbed with something repeatedly. I also like  how, while Sam utterly fails to stand up for Gilly (that falls to Sam’s mother and sister), Gilly doesn’t hate Sam for that – I think this is important. I know we’d probably all want Sam to stand up to his evil dad, but this is the man who has been abusing Sam his entire life- a lifetime of self-loathing and fear and pain shouldn’t just vanish because Man Now Has Woman To Protect.

Sam decides, somewhat unwisely, to run off in the middle of the night with Gilly, the baby and rhe family sword. This will not end well.

How do I say this without sounding awful? Because I’m sure there’s a lot to unpack in Sam’s story and it’s a very touching little story

But “little” is the operative word. And there’s so much going on in this world with more pivotal characters (Arya) and more world changing events (Daenerys, the Dorthraki, Meeren, Kings Landing, Winterfell, North of the Wall). I’m kind of “ok this is nice… but I’m not sure I care.”

Now to storyline I do care about which better have a twist to it: Margaery has apparently gone all High Sparrow devotee and confessed her sins (her sins are… lying about her brother’s terrible gayness – who is absent, of course, because he’s not a character, he’s a plot point. That’s literally the total extent of them) and is totally ready to do the walk of shame but doesn’t have to because Tommen has also converted

Ink and Bone (Great Library #1) by Rachel Caine

The Great Library of Alexandria was never burnt and, more, has spread across the entire world. Part religion, part supreme national body, its power is unquestioned.

Jess Brightwell is a book smuggler, from a family of book smugglers. His entrance into the Library as a scholar was initially planned to be a way for his family to get access to more and precious books

But while going through the vigorous training procedure to join the Library, his already complicated loyalty becomes stressed. Something which doesn’t get simpler as he learns some of the Library’s many secrets – and the length which the Library will go to protect those secrets and its global control.

Well that was a surprise – I didn’t expect something nearly as unique and original as this.

The whole idea of the Great Library surviving, of it becoming a major international force, charged with the maintenance, protection and furthering of knowledge is really well done. This creates a whole different world – not just politically with the Great library being like a world religion with its own laws, army and rules – but with a different world map all based on how the Great Library has radically changed society. And it’s not just the map, it’s also how people think. The library has an almost religious significance, recording your personal thoughts in your journal to be kept in the library after your death has become both a funerary rite and an incredibly important ritual to people – to the extent that even armies at war will keep emergency reserve journals for people to fill in. The whole idea of reading one of those journals has become almost a sacrilege

Actual books have become incredible precious objects of such value because of the power of the library and the purpose knowledge has. A whole black market as built around it – precious actual books and what they represent compared the alchemical copies that the library produces – temporary copies that anyone can read, beamed to specially prepared blank books.

Not only does this fascinating world setting serve as an excellent backdrop, but through it we also see the excellent depiction of how this well meaning organisation can be corrupted. How the promotion of knowledge – even pushing forward thinking ideas for the time like educating women. Because the library was about learning, preserving and spreading knowledge. And how easily the “spread” of knowledge becomes the “control” of knowledge – again, the good intentions are really clear there: The idea that knowledge has to stay in Library control – because if information is spread willy-nilly, well, who can be sure if it’s true or right? Or maybe dangerous? Maybe its lies? Maybe is should be kept secret? Maybe it’s dangerous?

The Last Ship, Season 2, Episode 10: Friendly Fire

This episode we follow Rachel and the ramifications of her murdering Niels last episode.

On the plus side, using his genes and Science she does succeed in creating a cure that is contagious. Inject someone with the cure and they can literally cure other people by breathing on them – she knows because she injected herself. She is now the anti-Niels.

We also get some interesting insight into her past. Her father was a reverend who didn’t believe in medicine – relying on faith healing. A reliance which had his wife, Rachel’s mother, die from malaria which could have been treated

Her dad’s words were “god chooses who lives and dies”

And now we have Rachel not only becoming a doctor to save millions of lives, but also killing someone to do it. Rachel has made it clear: she is making this decision now

Of course, killing someone on the ship does get investigated, despite no-one really missing Niels the mass murderer.

Chandler, Mike and Andrea all take part in the investigations and quickly discover that Niels didn’t die of natural causes and that someone probably killed them. A doctor. And suspicion quickly falls on Rachel

For extra pressure, the crew quickly realises that Rachel killed Niels and they suspect that Chandler and the rest of the chiefs all knew about it – maybe even ordered it. This goes against al of Chandler’s sense of order and decorum

He confronts Rachel and she confesses – no shame, (though I think there’s definitely guilt there) and no hesitation. She would happily do it again and her only regret is how little Niels suffered. Chandler resolves to confine her to her quarters, only allowing her to work – and to hand her over to the non-existent civilian authorities as and when time allows.