The Last Ship, Season Three, Episode Twelve: Resistance

This is it folks, the penultimate episode of the season. The Last Ship has easily become one of my least favourite shows this summer.  At this point, I don't think they can salvage the hot mess it has become.

Kara and the crew are headed to Las Vegas as the regional leader tells the people how much better they are doing now that they are no longer living under Michener's old rules.  It seems that the crew is headed to San Diego to hopefully meet up with The Nathan James.  Unfortunately they only have one can of beans they and so plan to stop and stock up.  Oliver asks for the radio to be turned off and Kara wonders why the military is going along with what the regional leaders want. Oliver explains that they are doing it because they were trained to serve the people.

On board The Nathan James the crew is told to report to General Bradley and turn over Chandler. They quickly come to realise that the military as they knew it has been disbanded.  Sasha talks about how this whole thing has been a text book coup from things like ration cards, riots and forcing Michener to make unpopular decisions. They then present an alternative leadership to the leaders. They plan to grab Bradley and make Castillo show his face. Cue Meylan, who points out that they are invading a country with a single ship. Well, at least someone has a bit of reality but you know that's not going to stop him from playing along. Tom however is certain that nothing is impossible with will, courage and a good plan.  Oh the platitudes.

The regional leaders are fighting about control. Castillo thinks that his region should be in control due to his geography and the supplies he controls.  He then declares that he is putting boots on the ground and is not leaving. Roberta is not impressed and threatens to stop her oil shipments.  Allison has to be the grown up in the room and tells the leaders what they are going to do. Allison says that her job is to settle disputes, clearly she is acting like the POTUS.

The next step is to take out the Nathan James as it arrives.  Allison has arranged for Colonel Witt to take care of The Nathan James. Of course, Roberta takes the opportunity to take a piece off of Allison for underestimating Tom in the first place.  The weapon is armed and Allison announces that in hours The Nathan James will be in the bottom of the ocean.

Tex is driving and Kara wonders why there is no power.  They decide to stop at a small grocery market but are attacked in the parking lot.  The looters demand that Tex and crew hand over all the food they have.  Tex says that they stopped because they have no food. Bob, the owner of the market fires a blast into the air and Kara and Tex use the distraction to disarm and scare away the looters. Bob doesn't lower his shot gun and questions why Oliver looks familiar before inviting everyone inside.

Once inside, Bob says that new shipments of food stopped coming and then days later, soldiers arrived and took what little food he had.  The citizens of Las Vegas, left and followed the food. Those who are not peace keepers are working 16 hours per day to keep lights on and the water running and return are given one ration of food. Bob hasn't eaten in three days and cannot travel because of a bad leg and no car.  They offer to take Bob with them but he says that he's been there all his life and wants to die in his home.  Kathleen pulls out their last can and offers it to Bob. Oliver tells Bob that hope is coming and tells him to hang in there. Now Bob recognizes Oliver and the two men shake hands.

Winter Halo (Outcast #2) by Keri Arthur

Tiger is one of the few reviled Dechet, super soldiers created by humanity to fight the shifters - before the shifters dropped the bombs anyway – left in the world. She lives alone, literally with the ghosts of her fellows.

But missing children, children being experimented on by dark forces possibly from beyond the world destroying rifts, is something Tiger cannot ignore. Her gifts and training will be essential to Jonas and his allies if he wants to get these children back.

Of course, the ancestral hatred between their people is something else they’ll have to over come

I reviewed the first book in this series very favourably and a lot of the stuff that happened there remained awesome in this book as well. The world building – with the war between the shifters and humanity, the creation of the dechet, artificial fighting beings as weapons for humanity are all still there and excellent. The idea of vampires as a vicious, terrible threat constantly lurking outside the light is a wonderful change from a genre so replete with super sexy angsty vampires. On top of that we have the wonderful addition of the rifts and the new threats lurking against shifter, human and dechet alike.

This leads to the current wonderful conflict with Tiger, our protagonist, a dechet having to leave the comfort of her isolation in the last book to chase her demons and save some children. And we have the ghosts, which are also awesome.

These are all excellent things that were in the last book and they continue to be excellent in this book.

But they continue, they don’t really progress. We don’t really know more about the world than we already have. We know the big bad guys plan, kind, but I’m not sure of their motivations yet. Or at all. We get hints here and there – of the hybrid creatures from the rifts who have different motives (whatever they are). We have some hints of others joining in because of bitterness over the war… but barring as few immortal beings this war has been over for 100 years; I need some more development to see why so many people are

In this book we have a lot of things happening but it all feels a little… disjointed. Partly it’s because of the way the motivations are presented: everyone cares about the missing kids. And I get it, kids are missing and being tortured and experimented on this is terrible – but so is the actual plan to destroy the entire planet which seems to be way down everyone’s priority list. When what Tiger does actually derails or damages other plans – like her infiltration of the big bad company it’s all about the kids, occasionally thwarting other plans in the process, but only as a tangent. It feels odd that we have this major apocalyptic thing that everyone’s kind of brushing over for the very noble cause if these kids.

The Last Ship, Season Three, Episode Eleven: Legacy

Roberta is keeping busy having her goons give Tex a beating because he stole sensitive information from her.  Tex however simply calls her, "crazy as hell."  Roberta demands to know where his men went with her, "shit".  Once again, Tex is unresponsive so Roberta reveals that she went by his place to see what information she could get out of his daughter Kathleen, only to find that Tex still has an answering machine and it has a message from Kara, saying that she is on her way. Roberta is all smug as she plays the tape and Tex responds by charging her and grabbing at her necklace. Roberta's goons step in and pull Tex away and lock him in his cell.  Tex however is laughing because now of course he has the tools to escape.

It's Michener flashback time.  The president is in his private residence having a drink when he is approached by secret service agents. One man takes the drink out of Michener's hand and then Michener is attacked from behind and murdered.

Oliver walks into his office to find a power hungry Allison waiting for him.  Allison it seems is not impressed that Oliver chose to wear the brown suit rather than the grey one. Oliver however sees his suit choice as his last bit of power. Allison wants to talk about his speech and Oliver expresses concern that it effectively kills America. Allison believes that the virus killed America and that their actions are saving what's left.  Allison promises that if Oliver complies there will be a place for him in the new world and again tells him to wear the grey suit.

Takehaya and the crew make plans to engage with  Peng in Tokyo Japan.  Peng it seems is headed to the Japanese national archives and Takehaya is certain that Peng wants to erase Japanese culture.

Jacob and Kara's car is stalled on the side of the road when they hear the news announcing Oliver's impending speech.  Kara is certain that this means that Jacob must go on the air because someone must counter Oliver setting up the stage for the regional leaders. Jacob however isn't so certain and accuses Price of playing him because he was tearing down Michener while they were plotting Michener's murder.  Kara manages to get the car started and so they get back on the road.

The Strain, Season 3, Episode 3: First Born

Last episode we saw Ephraim deciding to screw everything in the name of his son. So time to catch up with said son who is breathing much better now with vampire goo in him. We get an unnecessary flashback to his birth and him being born with a caul, which Kelly thinks means they’re totally super connected. There are many superstitions about babes born with the caul – but I don’t think “vampire mother connection is one”. She also wants him to be totally team Master which is a hard sell.

Ephraim is finally deciding that maybe selling out the whole world for his son may be a bad idea, but he can’t develop that (and it’s a bit late anyway) because Quinlan steps in with his own much more fascinating back story

He was born after his pregnant mother was infected by the Master, way back in days of yore (we know this because Ephraim asks personal questions about vampire reproduction). In 58AD he was being dragged around in a cage by humans displaying him (who apparently knew about vampires and even respected them and didn’t recognise Quinlan as one. Ok I want to know way more about vampire society way back then). He is found and rescued by Ancharia, a hunter, who quickly nurtures his humanity and forms a really good maternal bond with him, while they run as far as they can from the Master

Quinlan is known as the Invictus, the one prophesised to kill the Master

The Master seems to know this as well because he hunts them down – he does try to recruit Quinlan, first by appealing to him, then when he sees Quinlan is too human he seals him in a cave with Ancharia, relying on hunger to make him eat her. Which he does – but only when she asks him to, professing her love for him as a son

This doesn’t make him very enamoured of the Master. Nor does it making him less human. But he’s not ready to bring down the Master so he runs instead to come back in the future (about 1,000 years in the future).

Exodus (Imp #8) by Debra Dunbar

The elves are once again up to no good.  Now that they've managed to secure the blessings of Angels who simply want to be rid of the work of improving humans and hunker down in Aaru.  The elves plan to leave Hel behind and become the new rulers of earth.  Sam knows that she has to put a stop to this but what can one Angel of Chaos do?  Sam turns to her angelic boyfriend only to find that things in Aaru have gotten so out of control that he doesn't really have the time to help.  With a baby dragon living in her backyard and Wyatt refusing to house her newly acquired guests things are about to get complicated for our favourite imp once more.

I am going to say upfront that I unabashedly love this series.  I read it in one day and simply could not put it down.  I kept saying just one more chapter, then one more page, then one more paragraph until I found myself at the end.  Exodus is filled with action and laugh out loud moments.  With lines like, "Nobody destroys a tray of bacon and gets mercy, Nobody." It's impossible to read and not giggle. For the record I tend to agree with Sam on her assessment of the importance of bacon.

Sam has grown so much as a character since we first met her in A Demon Bound. Yes, she's still scrappy, with a good head on her shoulders and loves a good fight but she also has grown to care for the people who have become members of her household. Sure, for the large part these beings have been fostered on her throughout the series and they started out as an imposition but now she's not willing to risk their safety.  Even the lowly demons in her household have come to mean something to her.  At times I do miss some of the antics that she got up to but this new mature Sam is still full of great one liners which tend to fill some of the void.  I even like the way that she considers how her relationship with Wyatt has evolved.  When Wyatt refuses to help her house the elves, she doesn't push him and instead considers the fact that though they are no longer lovers, she wants to retain their friendship. Yes, our favourite little demon is all grown up.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see a lot of Sam and Gregory having intimate moments in this novel. I miss the way he used to call her cockroach.  There always seems to be so much going on this series that these two never get any downtime.  I will however say that I'm annoyed that Gregory seems to have no problem simply dropping things in Sam's lap without consideration of how he is changing her life and thus making it more difficult. For an angel, he's not a very considerate lover at all.  This is why I love when Gregory inadvertently promises a farmer to put in a word with the good man upstairs, that Sam doesn't let him foist that responsibility upon her. Other than drinking coffee and caring for Sam, Gregory hasn't really evolved much and I think it's time he begin to change as well.

Fear the Walking Dead, Season Two, Episode Eleven: Pablo and Jessica

The first question this episode seeks to answer is exactly how Strand and Madison escaped after being stupid enough to make enough noise to attract walkers.  Victor screams for them to head to the lobby and Madison ducks down into what looks like a kitchen when she hears Alicia scream. Hands reach for Madison and she's trapped, so she grabs a bottle, takes out the walker and slathers herself in its blood. Madison then coats Victor and he's clearly not impressed. Together they make their way outside to discover the car is gone. Victor is certain that this means that Ofelia and Alicia left them behind because the dead don't drive; however, Madison is not convinced.

They head over to the next building which is empty.  Victor forces Madison to drink some water and once again the debate begins about what happened to the girls. They stop to catch their breathe in a stairwell and Madison defends her position by saying that it wouldn't be like Alicia to leave.  Victor however argues back Alicia would if it meant surviving because she's independent and self reliant. Madison admits that she made Alicia that way. This is when they hear a knocking sound and shouting. As they get closer, Madison recognizes Alicia's voice. The mother and daughter reunite and Strand, who always has his eye on the ball, demands to know who the hell Elena and Hector are.

So, Nick is walking around his community and he sees the little girl who lost her father crying. An old woman approaches the child and comforts her. Nick heads into the hospital where he finds Alejandro. It seems that Nick feels remorse for putting the community in danger and has come up with a way to make up for what he did.  Nick, thinking like the junkie that he is, wants to cut the oxy with the powdered milk so that they will be able to stretch the oxy that they trade for food and water.  Nick argues that the junkies won't know the difference and will be happy because they will get high faster.

So it's time for the Jessie Pinkman/Walter White moment and the two work together to make the new pills.  Alejandro is impressed with Nick and Nick asserts that this will give the colony some hope. Nick turns the conversation to Alejandro surviving a walker bite. Alejandro asserts that Nick doesn't believe his story (yeah well he's a junkie not an idiot.) Alejandro suggests that Nick is having trouble because acceptance requires a leap of faith and that is something Nick would have trouble with.

Madison decides that they need to make a partnership with the other residents of the hotel. It's really smart actually.  Madison tells Ilene and Oscar that they need each other and when they balk, she reminds them that they haven't left the hotel. Madison thinks they should clear out the dead and then use the land for crops.  Interestingly, Strand is pretty silent during this and allows Madison to lead. It makes me wonder if Fear the Walking Dead is going to actually allow a competent woman to lead a group for a change?  Is that being too hopeful? Unsurprisingly, both Oscar and Ilene want Elena to leave but Madison argues that Elena did what she had to do. You know damn well that if Elena had done that Alicia and Nick, Madison wouldn't be so quick to be understanding and forgiving. Finally, Madison points out that others will come to the hotel and they might not be as peaceful as they are.

Victor and Madison head into the hallway for a tête-à-tête.  Strand is convinced that Ilene will not live peacefully because she is being driven by grief.  I think that Strand has read this situation correctly. Madison however is worried about losing their new home.  Strand makes it clear that he doesn't see the hotel as his home and that he lost his home when he was forced to shoot and bury Thomas.  I really like that they brought up the fact that Strand is still mourning the loss of the man he loved, even if I haven't forgiven them for killing off Thomas in the first place.  Strand does however agree to help Madison clear out the hotel.

Fear The Walking Dead, Season Two, Episode Ten: Do Not Disturb

Last week in the ballroom where Madison and Strand were stupidly making far too much noise, we saw what appeared to be the remains of a wedding.  This week, Fear the Walking Dead decided to give us the backstory of the wedding. Elena watches as the wedding festivities are underway.  The bride and groom prepare for their first dance while in the corner, the father and mother of the bride argue about leaving the wedding early.  The father leaves to be with his daughter and the mother decides to discuss the illness which is spreading like wildfire with Elena. Elena however is unconcerned, confidant that the hotel is well secured.  Elena's confidence is not enough to calm the mother of the bride who is concerned that the U.S. is closing its border.

On the dance floor the father of the bride collapses.  People familiar with this universe know exactly what is going to happen. Predictably, as the daughter bends over her father's corpse, he turns and makes a snack of her face.  The room turns into pandemonium and Elena responds by locking everyone in the ballroom. So yeah, I guess that means that the hotel remains secure.

In present day Fear the Walking Dead turns to the Travis and Chris road trip. Travis is struggling to walk but he keeps moving ahead. Things still aren't great between father and son but who can blame Travis given that Chris has gone full on creeper.  They come across a car and a taco place across the street. Travis starts to hotwire the car, attempting to teach Chris how but Chris is more interested in checking out the taco place for supplies.  Chris has to cajole his father and promises to return if he gets into any trouble. Chris heads into the restaurant and sees some water and canned goods but he hears noise coming from the back.  Chris starts loading up his bag and a guy comes out from the back and he is attacked by a walker.  Chris takes out the walker thus saving the guy but then he hustles back to his father and the car. Chris doesn't waste anytime in encouraging his father to take off, fully aware that he stole from whoever was in the back of the taco place.

Father and son are on the road and Travis's foot isn't getting any better and that is what finally induces him to let Chris drive. In a moment of normalcy, Chris fiddles with the radio but of course picks up nothing. They talk about the future and while Travis retains hope that someday they will be able to return home, for now the plan is to find somewhere secure to hold up. Travis gives Chris driving instructions and for a moment it's as though the apocalypse hasn't happened.

The car runs out of gas and so Chris and Travis decide to make camp for the night. Chris suggests that they make their way to the border so that they can have access to water but Travis is quick to nix this plan believing that water will draw in people. They don't get to enjoy their campfire for long because the guys Chris stole the food from show up. Chris fesses up as to what he did and hands his father a crowbar but Travis refuses it. Travis and Chris hide briefly but it's not long before Travis announces their position.  Yeah, Chris may not be right but Travis is still far too trusting. At any rate, introductions are made and after a lot of mistrustful looks, they all agree to camp together for the night.

Back at the hotel, things aren't looking for Alicia.  Alicia heads into the hallway and quickly finds herself surrounded by walkers. With no few choices left, Alicia forces the elevator door open only to find that the elevator is a few feet down.  With time running out, Alicia leaps into the shaft and grabs a hold of the chords.  It's a great move. Hand over fist, Alicia pulls herself up only to see  flashlight above her. Yes, Elena has managed to survive.  Elena helps Alicia out of the shaft and then puts an axe to her throat demanding to know where some mysterious he is.

Zoo, season 2, Episode 12 & 13: Pangea & Celementine

It’s a double episode season finale – yet I find myself with surpisingly little to say which is a little odd. But I think a lot of this double episode involved a lot of emotional stuff that I didn’t really care about

Like Jackson and Robert Oz who are now totally bonding and being super loving parent and son now with a whole lot of reminiscing and playing happy families. The whole “you infected my mother and turned her into a rampaging hell beast” seems to have been rapidly dealt with and moved on. Someone’s been hitting some major family therapy.

Anyway, while this takes up a lot of the episodes, the plot has finally decided it can keep circling the whole 19^th century resurrected extinct animals on the island of Pangea. Hold on to your sense because this gets headachey

So, Robert knows all about the scientists on Pangea where the sabre tooth cats are around – the scientists belong to a group called the Shepherds who live on Pangea doing very very very weird things with genes (and somehow have been doing so for several centuries) in the interest of saving the world – which they think may go awry because of human progress.

So told to us by Dr. Nealson. And Robert is actually a member and the only reason he was working with Davies and the Noah initiative was because he had been planted thereby the Shepherds to control Davies (apparently) and creating the kill-all-the-animals-gas. This is all the Shepherds doing apparently (along with their Victorian genetics lab).

While there someone in the writing staff also realised “oh shit the mother cell! We forgot!” and quickly pasted them into the whole 19^th century geneticists. So our fairground guy with his x-ray machine managed to x-ray a gajillion animals (including jellyfish, creatures you can see through anyway), he then realised that he was causing problems like electric ants and blizzard lizards and earthquake sloths so quickly came up with a new formula to make these animals sterile and/or/maybe dormant right up until Reiden (manipulated by the Shepherds – because, yes, they’re behind everything) used the Mother Cell that woke up the X-ray based X-men animal team.

I can literally feel my brain cells dying here.

Oh and the sabre toothed cats cause volcanoes. Y’know, fine, why not?

So, Dariela (who is pregnant and therefore evil animal bait) and Abe pick up a red shirt to go find some sabre-toothed DNA and some really really really ZOMG really bad CGI. Red shirt dies. Abe grabs the DNA and they can return to base

But while they’re doing that we have Mitch and Jamie who, since Robert Oz gave Davies the gas, are taking the desperate steps to stop Davies going ahead with the Noah initiative by destroying his DNA bank. After all if he cannot repopulate the world with animals then he can’t annihilate all the animals in the world – he doesn’t actually want to destroy humanity. Apparently

So Jamie and Mitch try to steal/destroy the DNA store (which is kept in a giant non-refrigerated box?) and succeed thanks to Logan showing up. Yes, Logan who Jamie pushed out of plane which he survived because reasons (I don’t really care). The best part of this is that everyone –including Jamie – are united in saying “hell no we don’t forgive you!” which is nice to see. There’s definite no-insta forgiveness here and I love the many times he turns to Jamie and she totally shuts him down

Of course he’s well on his redemption train and by the end of the episode he’s happily put back in team good guy. Oh and his name is Edward