Grimm, Season Six, Episode Five: The Seven Year Itch

"When something itches my dear sir,

the natural tendency is to scratch"

For whatever reason, even though there are only eight episodes to go in this series, the writers cannot let go of the whole Wesen of the week thing. Come on people, you did this for six years, don't you think that the public is owed just one bloody season dedicated to the overarching meta rather than releasing it in drops and dribbles once again?  

Grimm begins with a bug like creature crawling it's way out of the earth. As someone who has a phobia of every damn thing creepy and crawly, I'm a little bit uncomfortable at this point. My first response is to think that someone needs to smack it with a fly squatter or an industrial can of Raid. Unfortunately, because said bug is so huge, it's going to take a lot more than that to deal with it. Its first order of business is to kill a man who's walking his dog.  

Eve spent most of the last episode in the tunnel trying to get to the bottom of the purpose of the magic stick and listening in on Nick and Adalind.  Well, she's still down there.  Eve regains unconsciousness after touching the magic stick. Her knuckles are bloody from making the markings all over the wall. Upstairs, Nick is in bed with his rapist and dreams of being shot. 

Renard arrives home and checks on his sleeping demon child. I gotta say, I like Renard's new place.  At any rate, after checking on Diana, Renard picks up her murder dolls  and the stick she used to compel him to kill Boneparte. Renard wisely keeps the stick and puts back the puppets. I think it's going to take a lot more than confiscating the murder stick to stop the demon child. Renard heads to his room where Meisner is waiting for him.  This time, Renard tries a new tactic and is nice to Meisner, thanking him for helping out Adalind, Diana and himself. It's not often that Renard is humble but it's not enough to appease Meisenr. In frustration, Renard marche downstairs, declaring that Meisner can have the bedroom. Rightly, Renard's first reaction is to pour himself a drink and Meinser advises that Renard should battle his demons by visiting them in hell. Meisner then multiplies and Renard is treated to several versions of Meisner dead on the ground. 

The next day, Rosealee and Monroe head to the OBGYN to find out if Diana's prediction about multiple babies is true.  It turns out that the demon child was right on the mark because Rosealee is having not one, not two but THREE babies.  I think that this would be a call to go into panic mode but Monroe (who's super cute in this moment) tells Rosealee that they can do this. Rosealee however doesn't seem convinced.

Nick begins his morning by telling Hank about his dream. It seems that Nick believes that he should be carrying the stick with him wherever he goes.  Nick compares it to how a cop feels when they are not wearing their service weapon. Hank however thinks that it's best that Nick let this go and suggests that there's a reason someone buried the stick in the first damn place. Predictably, the conversation is brought to an end when Wu calls about the dead body in the park.

Colony, Season Two, Episode Four: Panopticon

From the moment I saw the title of this episode, I was absolutely intrigued. I realised immediately that this would mean a shift in Colony.  For the most part, Colony has really been action based and a panopticon would necessarily force a more sedate telling of the narrative because it would have to preclude large gestures.  Panopticons are a mechanism of control in which the party being watched changes their behaviour because they are never sure if they are being observed at any particular moment. It's an insidious way of controlling a population because while not violent, it is effective in removing free will.  A person is forced to conform because the risks of being caught for aberrant behaviour is extremely high. 

The episode begins with a meeting of the Vorlaufige Globale Autoritat (VGA).  Helena Goldman comes before all of the delegates to account for what is going on in her area.  Helena is quick to point out that she's already replaced Proxy Snyder but that is not enough for the VGA, who are considering a total rendition on the Los Angeles Bloc. Goldwin instead proposes the kind of surveillance that was employed to stop the rebellion in Seattle.  The VGA takes a vote on this and for now, they decide to go ahead with the surveillance program but warn that they will be keeping a close eye on Los Angeles from here on it.  If Goldman doesn't get the block under control the next vote will be for rendition. Everyone will be watched. 

There's a lot going on with the Bowmans. Charlie and Will have just returned from a harrowing trip over the wall.  Gracie is steadily being indoctrinated into the government cult.  The fallout from her resistance involvement has placed Katie in jeopardy.  Somehow, the Bowmans must make a plan to go forward and acknowledge all of the pain that they've been going through. The warm feelings of returning home are short lived because Kate has no choice but to tell Will that Bram has been placed in a prison camp, after a failed attempt to go under the wall.  There are recriminations here on both sides. Katie blames herself, feeling that her involvement with the resistance encouraged Bram to join the resistance with his teacher and attempt his reckless plan.  Will is troubled that he didn't see what his son was up to. Both parents blame themselves and they are both right and both wrong at the same time, making the situation that much more complex. 

The first order of business for Will and Kate is to attempt to save the son they still have.  Charlie is clearly not the boy they lost contact with a year ago.  Living under Solomon's reign has made Charlie withdrawn, suspicious, watchful and quiet.  It's clear that his days of childhood are far behind him now. This is really evidenced by the difference between Charlie and Gracie, who having been with her family the entire time still retains much of the innocence of childhood.  It's Gracie who excitedly shows Charlie his new room and gives him a tour of the house.  For his part, Charlie is less interested in scoping out the house and more interested in collecting oranges should there come a time when access to food is limited.  Will tries to get Charlie to talk by bringing up his experiences in the military but Charlie simply blows him off.

Charlie is clearly not going to allow himself to be taken hostage again.  When Gracie's tutor rings the door bell, Charlie's response is to grab a knife and hide under the bed.  When he decides that he doesn't like the tutor, he places a book on the stove which starts a fire.  It's enough to freak the tutor the hell out and leave the house.  Kate tried to tell Charlie that they simply couldn't dismiss the tutor, so he decided to handle it his own way.  Things however aren't all doom and gloom with Charlie.  On some level he wants to regain part of who he used to be. Charlie grabs a pair of scissors to cut his hair and when Kate volunteers to help, he's happy to sit and have his hair cut in a style similar to what he used to have. Even when Kate suggests that the long hair reminds her of Will, Charlie is determined to be able to look in a mirror and recognise some semblance of himself again.

The Magicians, Season 2, Episode 2: Hotel Spa Potion

So the gang makes it back to Brakebills, easily passing through the fountain portal because convenience.

They’re greeted by Dean Fogg who has been waiting for them and they quickly fill him in – they have to kill the Beast (so he doesn’t suck the wellspring of Fillory dry, destroying all magic) and to do that they need some uber battle magic – and they found a work book in the armoury that suggested a connection to the school

Battle magic has been outlawed at Brakebills for many years because of some pesky deaths. But when it was taught it was taught by a 500 year old pixie who said they’d need her one day. Being both a mischievous pixie and fond of “I told you so” she makes the whole gang – including Dean Fogg and Professor Sunderland, go through a lot of tedious and difficult clue searching to track her down. I actually really like all this clue hunting, it’s clever, it’s fun yet still manages to carry how hard and tedious it is. And though Bigby is a bit of a shallow sexual stereotype, there was a decent portrayal in the snapshot we had of her of a being whose culture is just rather alien to ours

Still no hard feelings (or hard feelings if you want to go the innuendo route and follow the many many times Bigby talks about when she and Dean Fogg had sex) and she is convinced to hand over the mega death spell that will kill the Beast to Alice and all her handy god like power she has at the moment.  So long as she makes sure no-one else is within 20 feet. That sounds like a fun spell.

But that power is slowly fading – and she hasn’t mastered the spell yet

To add some oomph, Dean Fogg has some extra painful and unpleasant ways to give them more power in the upcoming battle. Because if there’s one thing that is always clear here –magic is always unpleasant

Well, except for Professor Sunderland’s aphrodisiac oil, massage and light bondage cure for Penny’s hands. He tries to take the next step and she considers it – after graduation

I… applaud and am vaguely surprised. This show. This show. This show which can’t even claim a shred of decency draws the line at teacher student sex? I mean, great the line is drawn and it should be but it’s surprising that a show that has students “empowered” by magical rape and semen guzzling finds a moral conscience anywhere.

The clue hunt takes up a large chunk of the episode and is kind of fun – but in Fillory, Elliot is definitely not having fun

Emerald City and Gender the Good the Bad and the Mediocre

One of the ways in which we examine gender, is by employing various tests that have become popular on the internet. We’ve all heard of the Bechdel test and more recently the Mako Mori Test. We consider whether there is more than one female character, and if said characters have a conversation with each other, about something other than a man.  Though the Bechdel Test has become the standard, Emerald City reveals that media can easily pass this test while still portraying problematic elements when it comes to gender.

I must admit to being absolutely smitten with Emerald City since the very first episode. I knew right away that we weren’t in 1939 anymore and that there wouldn’t be an endearing scene of a young girl singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a barn.  What I didn’t know is exactly how far Emerald City would stray from Warner Brothers version of this classic tale. This Dorothy comes with a gun and she’s not afraid to use it.

Dorothy with a gun gives you the shivers a little doesn’t it? Just admit it you’ll feel better.  Well, the first time Dorothy pulled out that gun, I got excited but as the season passed I’ve come to discover that Dorothy’s reliance on her gun evidences her absolute stupidity as a character. In Emerald City the Wizard has outlawed magic and each time Dorothy pulls out her gun, she gives people evidence that she’s a witch.  Lucas warns her about this but Dorothy refuses to see simple common sense.  The only time that the gun has come in handy, is when Dorothy manages to trick the witch of the East into killing herself and incidentally, this moment marks the last time that Dorothy actively saves herself.

I know that some will argue that since Dorothy originally freed Lucas, and Tip that she’s proactive but these are but two incidents among the many times that Dorothy has needed to be saved.  One would think that upon suddenly finding yourself in an unfamiliar world that a moments caution just might be a good idea but not Dorothy, who just happens to be the avatar of the spunky agent, running towards trouble without pausing long enough to even make a half assed plan.  If it were not for plot amour, Dorothy, gun or not would already be dead. Who decides that it’s a good idea to enter a castle masquerading as an acolyte of the witch that you killed and then step inside a fricking tornado? Dorothy that’s who. Who decides to run into a town filled with soldiers, who are actively looking for you, without wearing so much as a disguise or creating a backup plan? Dorothy that’s who. Heaven’s save us all from such stupidity.

A point can be made that since Dorothy is a woman out of place that maybe she would need more support, more help, more time to adapt and, yes, some rescuing. But with the large number of female characters here it would be nice to counter this example elsewhere and have more women not under the thumb of a man, dependent on a man or being saved by man. Even Lady Ev, who is politically powerful, and not under the Wizard’s sway or in his shadow (perhaps the only women who, due to not being of Oz, could actually be totally free from his influence) had to have a scene where she was saved by Jack. If anything, it was a scene that robbed from her storyline. Lady Ev building a relationship with Jack, by learning to see him as a person, didn’t have to be forged by her being saved by him. That Jack's rescue occurred directly after Lady Ev told the Wizard off, served to undermine the strength of her character.

Fortunately, Dorothy isn’t the only female character in Emerald City, there’s also West and Glinda, who are both powerful witches.  These women are capable of picking someone up and slamming them against a wall, using nothing more than magic and yet, they are subservient to the Wizard. Look, Vincent D'Onofrio is amazing to watch as The Wizard but there’s no way he should be policing either of these women. Sure, Glinda does give him some virgins ostensibly to act advisers; however, in reality to act as spies but Glinda shouldn’t have to be calculating given her power. Naturally, the Wizard is more than happy to take these so-called advisors to bed, thus expressly breaking Glinda’s rule about their chastity.  Whether these women have sex or remain virgins is not up to them because they don’t have the power to oppose Glinda or The Wizard.

West, runs a bawdy house and really isn’t much better off than Glinda. Yes, West takes a special joy in trolling The Wizard whenever she can, but it’s clear that she feels impotent in the face of his false power.  West has survivors guilt from the last confrontation with the Beast Forever and wrongly believes that the Wizard is the one who managed to save Emerald City. West doesn’t see her own value anymore and so it’s easy for her to allow the Wizard to run roughshod over her.  That this low self esteem is based in PTSD does not suddenly justify having an extremely powerful witch in a position to continually have to answer to a man who is inferior - at least in terms of power.

Finally, we come to Anna, who is an adviser to the Wizard.  Anna is clearly very smart and has an intuitive understanding of the politics at play around her. Unfortunately, Anna is so eager to show her loyalty the Wizard, that she has no problem letting slip that she is well aware that he doesn’t control the stone giants. This lands Anna in a prison cell until the Wizard decides that she can be useful again.  For all of the things that Anna is able to see and understand, she has no real power. At anytime, the Wizard can choose to imprison her once again. Anna seems to exist simply to serve the Wizard. We don’t even know why exactly Anna decided to throw her lot in with the Wizard rather than Glinda.  At this point she’s a bit of an enigma. At the end of the day, Anna is yet another powerful woman working for the Wizard, with very little to show for it. I suppose we should be thankful that she spurned his romantic advances but as displays of power goes, having the ability to control who one will be romantic with is a basic right and not a display of power.

The 100, Season Four, Episode One: Echoes

It occurs to me that The 100 is the perfect show right now. Let's face it, with Agent Orange as president, we are living in terrifying times. The 100 illustrates with its dystopian setting how much worse things could actually be thus ironically providing a sort of mental break.  It's not an accident that we have seen the popularity of the dystopian drama in recent years.  With Echoes, The 100 returns for its fourth season and once again, the population of the earth is in peril which only Clarke and her cohorts can stop. Yes, it's rinse and repeat but it never fails to be entertaining. 

Echoes begins right where the season finale ended. Clarke and Bellamy (who has gone back to being good thank goodness) don't get to celebrate long because it seems that ALIE left the humans a parting fuck you.  The nuclear reactors are breaking down and the earth will be flooded with so much radiation in six months that no human will be able to survive it. If that were the worst of it that would be bad enough but the The 100 has more drama in store for us.

Octavia climbs down the tower and sees Indra being cut down.  Octavia rushes to Indra's side to report that Pike is dead. I've just got to say one last time that The 100 didn't do right by Michael Beach. He's an amazing actor, who wasn't given anything near his ability to perform. Clarke gets busy trying to help the wounded but it's clear that they blame her for what happened. Clarke is quick to pick up on the vibe and instructs Kane, Jaha, and Abby to get out of the city.  Before they can make a move however, Roan is discovered alive. 

Abby and Clarke rush to examine him and discover there's no exit wound from being shot by Kane. Echo however is not down with either woman helping Roan and instead uses the opportunity to seize power. Echo announces to the onlookers that Skaikru is responsible for what happened and that Azgeda is now in control of Polis.  Bellamy of course is shocked, even though flip flopping is kind of Echo's trademark at this point. Not even a small hiccup of having an ambassador stand up and suggest that Polis should be ruled by a counsel of ambassadors until commander can ascend stop the ambitious woman. Echo doesn't even blink and quickly slits the woman's throat and then orders that Skaikru remain in Polis.

It seems that Echo can give orders but Clarke and the rest of Skaikru are not about to follow them. Using the the passageway in the flamekeeper's temple, Skaikru makes their escape with the exception of Octavia, Bellamy, Clarke, Jaha, Kane and of course Clarke. Indra arrives and greets Kane with a warm hug. Kane really has come a long way since arriving on earth in terms of his relationship with Grounders.  The reunion isn't pleasant for long because Indra is quick to inform everyone that Azgeda has 1000 warriors in Polis. Unsurprisingly, Octavia and Indra's first response is to go to war and Kane goes into strategist mode, wondering how many tribes they can get on side.

Teen Wolf, Season 6, Episode 10: Riders on the Storm

This episode should have been epic, it has many of the elements that would make it all epic and parts of it were.

But it was also distracted as all the characters who have been disappearing kind of came back and split up into little groups and all did their own thing and sure I like most of them (but my gods why are Liam and Theo still around?) but there wasn’t a huge amount of coherent addition to the plot so it’s kind of distracted. Also, I have an utter pet hate about power fluctuations and for the whole season the Hunters have been near unassailable but now we regularly see individual cast members happily taking on small armies Hunters. It’s a real pet hate for me. If something was invulnerable you can’t just de-invulnerable it because it’s convenient.

But one of those disjointed moments? When we see Melissa and Chris. Now everyone knows I love Melissa and Chris. And Melissa and Chris kissing was awesome. But did they add anything@

Even Stiles confronting his mother’s weird mental creation thing. It was emotionally amazingly satisfying to see Noah stand up for his real son, oppose her save Stiles. But it also kind of took stiles out of the main battle to actually achieve anything and since a cornerstone of this whole plot has been, save Stiles Save the World (or something similar) it was unsatisfactory to me to have him not actually play that huge a role in this actual episode.

So, Stiles is back – pulled across with Lydia’s awesome emotional connection to and there’s a brief moment where they fear it’s all gone wrong. But Malia applies her special brand of logic: Lydia thinks it worked, Lydia isn’t wrong so it must have worked. Simple. They go looking

While Stiles escapes from the Hunt via portal and the intervention of his dad (because Noah is always awesome), he arrives at his jeep (his actual relic which makes sense). He goes looking for Scott

While Scott is dragged around by Liam the very annoying. It seems Garrett’s plan to control the hunt means merging the hunt world with this one which means the entire of Beacon Hills becomes lots of train stations with lots of tracks around. Ok this metaphor is being stretched a little…

… Garrett leaps in with backup hellhound but Stiles intervenes nicely to prevent Liam and Scott from being incinerated (can’t Liam be a little incinerated?) with some fun snark (“Bad guy, right, I didn’t misread that?”) before reaching for the liquid nitrogen to de-flame Parrish (and his damn asbestos underwear) while not causing Liam severe injury via freezing chemicals. This stops Parrish being a Garrett stooge and then he’s pushed away to parts unknown – and will someone please try to define a role for the hell hound other than “convenient plot power that does whatever we need him to”? Lazy writing guys, super lazy writing

Blade Bound (Chicagoland Vampires #13) by Chloe Neill

Merit and Ethan are finally getting married. Everything is finally going her way

Until Sorcha returns, bringing winter to summertime Chicago, threatening the entire city and having one terrible demand: that the city and over Mallory and Merit

But no-one believes that her ambition is so simply satisfied with revenge

I am a little bemused about the mayor taking the lead so much. In fact, this has been a thing that has bemused me throughout this series: why is the mayor all powerful, how come they have so much authority and why is no-one else involved? I mean, if the third biggest city in America is evacuated because of a supernatural menace isn’t the president obliged to make a speech or something? Shouldn’t the governor of Illinois actually notice?

The story gets more and more epic but at the same time it’s clear the author wants this to be very very local. This is the Chicagoland vampires, it’s a story about Chicago so even when we probably should spill a little beyond the borders.

I think this probably centres on a general underlying issue I’ve had with this series from the beginning. It has an element of simplicity that kind of hangs on the story. Like keeping the story focused only on the Chicago authorities, making the mayor pretty much a complete authority within her realm and having her and her minions make decisions which are pretty dubious. It serves very much to make our main characters look intelligent, insightful and martyred but it’s a little clumsy (we see something similar ion how this series is pretty disjointed in how vampires are treated, flirting between viciously hated and violently oppressed minority to moderately tolerated/ignored other and back again within a pretty short space of time).

This bleeds over into the plot as well – it’s quite predictable with a lot of conflict resolved quite easily. Ethan makes a speech. Mallory manages to translated a centuries old mystery in a couple of hours. It adds to the story being a trifle… predictable? The arc is not one that surprised me even once and there was nothing resembling a twist

Beyond, Season One, Episode Six: Celeste

In last week's episode, Holden at last recovered his memories from the Realm. This led to a reconciliation of sorts between Holden and Willa. When Willa took him to see Arthur, who still wasn't communicating, Holden began to piece together even more. Willa took Holden to see the machine and after a vision of an ice bridge cracking beneath Willa's feet causing her to fall into a deep cannon, Holden decided to destroy the machine.

This week's episode begins with Holden explaining to Willa the reason he destroyed the machine. After the vision, Holden now believes that the Realm is too dangerous and that they don't belong there. Unfortunately, Willa won't get on side because she wants to see Arthur wake up from his coma and this is enough for Holden to consider that perhaps Willa has actually been using him all along and isn't really invested in a relationship with him. 

Holden heads home and decides to work out his frustration by mowing the lawn.  While doing so, he has a vision of him and Willa holding hands.  Holden dials Willa's number but hangs up before she answers.  When Holden heads in, Holden finds Diane getting ready to go out.  Diane explains that now that he is out of a coma that she wants to get back to work. Ian (yep, the pastor that Diane is  supposedly not sleeping with) has offered her a part time position at the church. 

Holden isn't the only one who's upset about the argument. Willa sits at Arthur's bedside and puts the stolen recording on his chest saying that he could have told her about Frost. 

It's flashback time. Frost and Arthur are taking care of a patient who is in a coma. Arthur suggests a treatment but Frost is quick to say no believing that the patient won't survive.  Frost counters by suggesting that they use the machine but Arthur isn't convinced that it's ready for a test run. 

Probably to take his mind of Willa, Holden heads to a cabin to meet with Jeff, who has gone all conspiracy theory which flies right over Holden's head. Jeff cleans his rifle and talks about Tess Shoemaker and how she is the one who signed Yellow Jacket out of the hospital. Jeff adds that when he went to Yellow Jacket's house to follow up, he found it empty. At this point Jeff is determined to get vengeance for Kevin's death and is now certain that the best way to do so is to trace Hollow Sky's tax records. Since Jeff has become so unhinged, Holden decides that perhaps the next course of action is to simply back down. Jeff absolutely refuses to stop saying that he doesn't have a choice and that finding Kevin's killer is what the universe wants him to do. 

In a bid to gain some independence, Holden heads to the DMV to take his written drivers test.  A message appears on the computer screen asking Holden for help but it isn't visible for long. Charlie is sitting at another table and she starts whispering answers to Holden.  He accepts two answers and then tells Charlie that he wants to do this alone and doesn't have time to talk right now. Charlie responds by leaving and pulling the fire alarm. 

At the university, things aren't going great for Luke, who's called into the Deans office. It seems that someone on campus got sick from  drugs and so they have decided to question him given his past. The Dean however does offer some understanding given the family issues Luke is dealing with. Luke is quick to deny that it's him and so the Dean asks him to give up the source or to face expulsion. Luke tries to snark it off but the Dean is not having it.

After meeting with Charlie outside of the DMV, the Holden and Charlie take a walk around the city.  Charlie talks about her experience as someone who spent years in a coma. Charlie explains that she can see the world in algorithms and equations. To prove her powers, Charlie causes a car accident by encouraging a little girl to let go of her balloon. 

Charlie and Holden then head to a junkyard where Holden tries to display his ability by punching the ground. Holden tries several times and only manages to hurt his fist.  As they talk it through, Holden reveals that the only other times he's been able to access his power he was enraged.  Charlie starts punching Holden in the face ( admit it, this is something you want to do as well) and when he finally responds by grabbing her fist, the car windows around them explode and the alarms start sounding.  

Tom helps Luke pack up his shit to leave campus.  I guess Luke made a decision. 

Luke asserts that for the record, he wasn't the one selling the drugs and that he and Riley will be taking a break.  Luke then asks his father to tell his mother because he doesn't want to deal with Diane's reaction.  Tom agrees to do so but warns Luke that he will get a job and pay him back the tuition he wasted.