After the End (Archive of Ink and Soul #1) by Patricia Thomas

When Kadie wakes up in The After she is completely out of her depth. She thought she was just a normal woman who recently had her heart broken

Now she learns she is a character in a book. And not even a main character – and she’s a perfectly normal woman lost in a world of fictional characters – a world of wizards and vampires and shapeshifters and who knows what else

Not only is she lost in this world – but she’s also being hunted. She doesn’t know why – and nor does the mysterious Archive that controls this world – but until they learn the answer they’re not letting her wander into danger. No matter what she wants

It’s interesting how this series works with The Apprentice which is set in the same world but not the same series. That book did an excellent job of setting up the world, the factions, the way the Archive operates, the way of the world and its characters and the setting. And this world is wonderfully complex and involved and fascinating that it really benefitted from having that book to introduce everything – the ideals, the concepts, who everyone is and what they could do and why was all so very involved that that excellent book was a great way to introduce us to the series

It also introduced us briefly to a few of the conflicts of this series: but primarily focused on the world itself. The amazing, beautiful, rich world is introduced and displayed.

And this book now pokes the holes. Or more of the holes. While we saw hints of injustices in The Apprentice this takes it to the next level. We see how Prosaics are treated, almost shunned in the magical cities, certainly treated with contempt and derision and even good people treat them more like small children or pets. Awkward, burdens, not necessarily to be hated, but certainly to be at best pitied and definitely shuffled out the way. Certainly not treated as important or useful or worthy of making their own decisions

Once Upon a Tome, Season 6, Episode 19: The Black Fairy

Time for an episode with some pretty huge revelations

Starting with a flashback with Fiona – the Black Fairy – giving birth to Rumple and meeting his new fairy godmother: Tiger Lilly. And her child was extra special because he was the Saviour

The Saviour. Yes, Rumple was a Saviour

And because of that there was a big prophecy saying that the Saviour is doomed to die when he confronts his big bad enemy: created at the same time of him with a crescent scar on their wrist

Time to check every baby around to look for this scar… it’s probably a good thing that they didn’t find anyone because if they had that would raise the question of what Fiona the desperate mother would do to that baby.

In desperation Fiona badgers Tiger Lilly into giving her access to the fairies psychedelic vault of secret stuff so she can design a spell – a black curse – that will banish all children to a land without magic (a curse which will end up in Rumple’s hands and he in turn would eventually pass on to Regina – yes, that curse).

Tiger Lilly draws the line at banishing all these babies – and Fiona rips out her heart and threatens to crush it. Apparently wanting to crush fairy hearts and banishing babies is the catalyst for turning someone into the Black Fairy. Which also puts a crescent mark on her wrist – yes she is the evil her son must die defeating. Showing what an arsehole prophecy really is.

Blue decides to step in: restoring Tiger Lilly’s heart and drawing a line under all this. Tiger Lilly offers Fiona one more solution – the shears of fate severing. Black Fairy could sever her fate, give up her powers and then she will never be a threat to her Saviour child… instead Fiona demands she keeps her powers and severs Rumple’s Saviour fate instead. Preventing him from becoming the Saviour he was destined to be

Blue puts her foot down and banishes Fiona the Black Fairy – who is dragged through the portal promising that eventually she will return to her beloved son. Tiger Lilly and Blue decide to drop baby Rumple back on his father who now blames him for the loss of his wife. And lo begins Rumple’s less than happy childhood.

In the present world everyone is looking to try and restore Blue so she could share her secrets and help find the other half of the magic wand they’ve found (it’s at Granny’s, but we’ll get to that). We get lots of snarking from Rumple about how effective the Saviour is. Black Fairy makes her move and kidnaps Blue but in the process she loses Gideon to Rumple who puts one his bracelets of magic cancelling (hey these things would have been so useful in previous seasons, just saying) so they can find out where Gideon’s heart is

American Gods, Season 1, Episode 1: The Bone Orchard

There has been so much anticipation for this series and it’s finally here! I admit this was a book that really divided Renee and I. While the world setting was amazing, it was just a bit long winded and rambly, the pacing just a bit drawn out. But that’s the kind of flaw that is really easily addressed in a television format

Except… except…

If I hadn’t read the book I think this first episode would frustrate me immensely. Because there’s that pacing issue. This actually reminds me of The Leftovers, in that so much time and energy is spent on awesomely setting tone and theme with some really awesome CGI and some excellently chosen music and Shadow’s very powerful but understated acting carrying so much emotion with his body language.

But it’s also kind of rambly and more than a little convoluted and bizarre to push those themes. I think I’d definitely be intrigued by all of the imagery of this episode – but if I hadn’t read the book I wonder if I’d be more frustrated, more confused and more lost in the sheer random bombardment of imagery and emotion.

It starts well with a nice Viking recap – the Vikings arriving in North America and being greeted by a truly comical number of arrows. Deciding that this is maybe not for them they plan to sail home – except the wind is not co-operating. They need Odin to step in and make it right. Odin isn’t listening so they begin a series of terrible sacrifices before the wind picks up and the can finally leave. And lo, the voice over says, when Leif arrives later he finds his god is already there.

So this extra gory (super super gory to an almost comic degree) intro is basically to say Odin is in North America

And now to the present where we join Shadow Moon, soon to be released from prison only to tragically have his release speeded up – because his wife has died. He’s released and he begins one of the most difficult journeys across America anyone has faced (who doesn’t fly United Airlines anyway) involving storms, awkward airline staff and general discomfort

Shadowhunters, Season 2, Episode 5: Dust and Shadows

So last episode we had Jocelyn killed, Alec doing the killing, and everyone kind of angsty. So let’s continue that

Now, Jace saved Victor-bad-guy who runs the Clave in New York and because of this he has been exhonerated of being a terribad awful traitor. Y’know, I think he is still kind of traitorous since he did, for no apparent reason at all, support Valentine for all that time. But hey, everyone makes terrible bad decisions all the time on this show

But one good decision is Victor decides that Jace shouldn’t be leading missions and grounds him to the Institute – for saving him. Now we’re supposed to all think how terribly unfair and mean this is to Jace – but Victor makes sense. Jace decided to save Victor rather than stopping Valentine run off with a powerful magical artefact: he is emotional, undisciplined and doesn’t make good decisions and can’t be trusted to follow orders. These are reasonable points.

But this show has never been reasonable.

Speaking of, Izzie is injured from her fight with the demon last episode and the wound is not healing. Of course, like any sensible person and a warrior she decides to ignore it and hope it goes away. Because it’s a terrible decisions and this show loves terrible decisions. Thankfully Victor has a stash of horny healing paste for her.

Yes, there’s a salve that helps heal wounds but also makes people super horny. Or maybe that’s the acting and it’s supposed to make people feel super euphoric. Either way this will end badly.

Clary is not going through the normal stages of grief because a) bad acting (seriously most of this episode there is no indication that Clary is bereaved at all and her tone is identical to what it always has been) and b) she intends to use warlock magic to bring her mother back from the dead. Everyone tells her this is a terribad idea. She doesn’t care. Of course she doesn’t.

She goes to Magnus because he’s the warlock everyone goes to when they want something because he’s everyone’s favourite servant warlock. He says this is a bad idea and, for once, actually refuses them. Yes, Magnus can say no. Let us mark this on the calendar.

Doctor Who, Season Ten, Episode Three: Thin Ice

Bill is now officially a companion and given that there's a step learning curve, Bill has a lot to pick up quickly. The Doctor very much sees himself in the role of teacher and is determined to guide Bill up to a point.  As we saw at the end of (Smile) the last episode, instead of returning to London, the Tardis decides that the Doctor and Bill need to travel two hundred years into the past to a Frost Fair. It seems that the Doctor's skill at negotiating with the Tardis have grown a little out of practice from spending so much time trapped on earth keeping his vow to guard whatever is in the vault.  

Bill is only the second Black companion and like Martha Jones before her, she has concern about travelling backward in time as a Black women. I love that Bill points out that slavery was still legal and that there might be dangers that she has to face based specifically upon her race.  Unlike the 10th Doctor, this time, the Doctor doesn't quickly blow past her concern nor does he take a great deal of time to alleviate them though. 

In the preview we are treated to an elephant of all things walking on Thames. It's impressive and in fact, the entire set this week is impressive.  It's not the elephant which is the concern though, it's the "lock-less monster" living below the water, consuming people at will. The first person to die is young boy with a life straight out of Oliver.  The Doctor reaches for him, attempting to stop him from being dragged under, but only manages to save his sonic screwdriver. The fact that the Doctor doesn't seem emotionally affected by watching someone die really disturbs Bill, who has never seen anything like this before. Bill wants to know how many people the Doctor has seen die. When the Doctor says he doesn't know, she wants to know how many there were when he stopped counting and he doesn't have an answer for that question either.  Bill begins to get angry and demands to know if the Doctor has ever killed anyone.  As Whovians, we all know that at his heart, the Doctor is a pacifist; however, he most certainly has killed in the past and will kill again. The Doctor tries to put everything into context for Bill but she has no patience for any kind of equivocation or explanation.  The Doctor says that he is over 2000 years old and that he has to move on when people die otherwise more people die.  That's a very telling response. 

Right now, the big concern should be what is going on with the creature living below the Thames. It would be nice to take the time mourn the loss of a life, especially the loss of someone so young but if they stop, the only thing that is certain is that more people will die.  When you cannot do more, sometimes you just have to move on, particularly if moving on will mean saving others. 

The Originals, Season Four, Episode Six: Bag of Cobras

If I had to use one word to describe Bag of Cobras, it would be predictable. I'm fully aware that The Originals is on the CW and that comes with a certain amount of limitations but it would be nice if they could simply shake things up from time to time.  Just about everything about Bag of Cobras was predictable because it feels like a plot we've seen over and over again, right down to someone confessing that they hate Klaus because years ago he slaughtered their family. 

With Marcel locked up, and the Hollow continuing to present a threat, the alliance with Vincent is absolutely vital to the survival of the family. Elijah heads to see Vincent, who has been doing research in the violent history of New Orleans.  Vincent originally balks at the very idea of inviting Elijah in because the Mikaelsons still have Marcel locked away and he doesn't exactly trust the original family but sometimes, you have to make a deal with the devil to survive. Even more importantly, Vincent knows that The Hollow wants the Originals, and Marcel did in order to take their power, so that it can leave the ghost realm it exists in and manifest in this plane of existence. It seems that The Hollow comes out of hiding every few years and uses its power to commit violent crimes in groups of four.  

Now that they have some idea of what The Hollow wants, it's necessary to smoke out its adherents and so predictably, the Mikaelsons decide to throw a big bash and claim that Marcel is co-hosting it with them in order to ensure a higher turnout. People may hate the Mikaelsons, but apparently they love Marcel. I must admit that this makes no sense to me. The first time that Marcel ran New Orleans, he was brutal with the covens and killed anyone who dared to use magic, so someone needs to explain to me exactly why it is that they would have any love for Marcel at all.

Once the party invitations go out, Sofya pays a little visit to Josh.  Sofya convinces Josh to make her his plus one so that they can look for Marcel together. Josh is resistant at first but Sofya promises that she will deal with Klaus, while he looks underground for Marcel.

Hayley is the one Mikaelson who has decided to bow out of the party in favour of getting Freya to do a seance at the location of her parents death, so that she can find out what the Hollow may have wanted from them.  Freya warns that this might be difficult but Hayley is determined to go ahead.  Hayley sees herself as an infant crying in her crib as her parents are being slaughtered. Just before her father dies, he manages to hide a set of keys under the floorboards.  Hayley quickly retrieves the keys and heads to a storage locker to find out what her father was determined to keep hidden.  Once inside the locker, Hayley sees items from her childhood and asks Freya to leave her alone to go through the items. Inside a teddy bear, Hayley manages to find a set of human teeth. Ummm okay. This is clearly what her father was trying to hide. 

The party is in full swing and Vincent makes his way through the room shaking hands with people, in order to be able to perform a tracking spell to find out who is in league with The Hollow.  An impatient Elijah tries to hurry Vincent along. Vincent finally uses the tarot cards and learns that whoever is in league with The Hollow will show evidence of a snake and surprise, surprise, that turns out to be none other than Dominic. Elijah has a meeting arranged with Dominic and it gets off to a bad start because Vincent and Dominic start throwing magic at each other.  Elijah steps between them as though the two men are just fighting toddlers and sends Vincent off so that he can have a word with Dominic. 

Supernatural, Season 12, Episode 19: The Future

Kelly is still pregnant with the Antichrist baby and has had all her illusions shattered with Dagon making it clear the baby will kill her and how she, Dagon, doesn’t really care. Dagon has abandoned all illusions of playing nice and has Kelly reduced to a prisoner in chains. She doesn’t care about Kelly. She just wants Kelly’s baby and that baby will then unleash carnage against heaven and earth with lots of bodies piling up which will be totally awesome.

Why does she want all this death and destruction? Well, we’ve not really gone into much detail here beyond the fact that Dagon is dismissed as Lucifer’s “side piece” and beyond that bit of misogyny, when she’s in communication with Lucifer it’s clear he’s promised her a future which has him, her and the baby ruling the world. It’s also equally clear he has absolutely no intention of seeing this deal through

Are we really doing this? Are we having this ancient and mighty prince of hell being willing to do all this and destroy the world because of her unrequited love for a man?

In despair, Kelly decides to commit suicide to spare the world the horror that her baby will cause – and except the foetus isn’t having that and magically resurrects her.

This does cause Kelly to have a big change of heart about the baby – she’s decided the baby is now good and actually wants to save her. Dagon is less convinced pointing out the baby is actually saving itself, but Kelly is riding this holy-baby train

At the Winchesters we have Sam and Dean continuing to try and find Kelly and find some solution when Castiel finally returns – after weeks of no contact and not replying to any of his messages. He’s been in Heaven working with the angels to try and find Kelly

Dean is, naturally, furiously pissed that Castiel has been AWOL for so long and like every other time Dean just has real trouble dealing with hurt emotions beyond anger and pouting. Which he responds with both. I still like the subtlties here – even angry, Dean takes the time to tell Castiel they were afraid for him since this is a time with Princes of hell and all sorts around so it’s not safe. There’s also a really nice moment when Castiel tries to return the mix tape Dean gave him – and Dean barks “it’s a gift, you keep those.” I like the subtext here, this awesome way how men who are just really bad at communicating emotions manage to communicate them through these kind of interactions. Dean telling Castiel the tape is a gift is the gruff-I-Don’t-talk-about-emotions ways of saying they’re still friends, even still family even if Dean is pissed at him, that hasn’t changed.

We also get a look into Castiel’s thinking – he’s not had a great run for the past season. He hasn’t actually had a great run since he first met Dean and Sam. And he needs a win. He needs to actually have achieved something, to have brought a victory to them and to have taken something out of their hands. Especially clear when he asks Dean whether he could kill an innocent – Kelly and her baby. Dean dodges the question saying they will find another way: but I think he’s not dodging it because he can’t – I think he’s dodging it because he knows the answer is that yes he can. And he doesn’t want to face that or admit that – and Castiel doesn’t want Dean to become that person.

The Handmaid's Tale, Season One, Episode Three: Late

The Handmaid's Tale is the dystopian story of what the right wing really wants for women.  Women's bodies aren't their own and their only purpose is to produce and or raise children. They are to be second to men in all things and be submissive in all matters.  If you happen to have the misfortune of being a Handmaiden, matters are that much worse. I've struggle to review these because after all, what can really be said about story which lays itself bare episode after episode, leaving no room to guess about the agenda or possible horror. There are no wink wink nudge nudge moments, only unrelenting darkness from which there is no escape. It's hard to watch in one sitting without stopping for a moment of respite and to be fair, that's exactly what the creators intend.

There have been some notable changes between Atwood's book and this television adaptation.  One of the most obvious ones is the ways in which the television series has included people of colour. In the book, Black people were seen as the children of Ham and sent off to live in the territories. Hannah, Offred's baby was a blonde child and far younger than the mix raced little girl that appears on the show.  Luke most certainly was not the man of colour that he is today and Nick was not a man of Asian descent. Even though the book was written in 1985, separating the races in this fashion feels far more realistic than the inclusion that's presented in the television program because I don't believe that a state like Gilead wouldn't also be incredibly racist to go along with the sexism and homophobia it seems to have in spades. It's not that I want a less racially inclusive show, it's that it just doesn't seem to make sense in this setting.

There were really two story lines going on in Late. One was what happened to Offglen, who we were told was taken in by the authorities and the other, the possibility of Offred's pregnancy and how this changes her interactions. When Offred and Offglen finally made a connection, one of the first things Offglen revealed is that she had a wife and a child.  As the trust grew, we learned that Offglen was also some part of a resistance force.  When Offglen is taken it's easy to assume that her crime was being part of the resistance. Offred realises that she doesn't even know Offglen's real name or have anything to hold onto. When someone it taken, they are truly gone and absolutely erased.

In her prison cell, even the name Offglen is removed from her and she is called Handmaiden 8967.  Offglen no longer belongs to someone and since she doesn't qualify as a person, she's simply a number, a non entity. In desperation, Offglen tries to stroke the genitals of the guard watching her and for her trouble she is thrown into a wall in disgust.  Offglen is taken into a room where her lover is already waiting. The prosecutor appears before the judge and charges Offglen and her lover with "gender treachery". Neither woman is given the opportunity to enter a plea, let alone defend themselves, before the judge issues a sentence of death for Offglen's lover and redemption for Offglen because "God has seen fit to make her fruitful". 

Straight from the mock trial, Offglen and her lover are placed in the same van. Because both women are gagged, all they can do is express their love and sorrow with their eyes. They reach out and hold hands and touch each others faces and hair. It's a moment of anguish which Alexis Bledel sells without a single word of dialogue.  When the van stops, the two women try desperately to hold onto each other but Offglen's lover is dragged away from her and hanged.  The scream that comes from Offglen, as she is driven away while her lovers dead body swings in the breeze is the most chilling thing I've seen on television. It's a moment not to be forgotten and a moment to be feared. This is what the religious fundamentalists mean when they scream, "kill the gays", and this is the pain they inflict.  The only measure of relief in watching this is the knowledge that this is a drama.

When Offglen awakes, she's in a hospital like setting and her genitals have been bandaged. Aunt Lydia enters and seems to take some perverse pleasure in telling Offglen that now she will no longer desire what she can no longer have and that the stitches will come out in a couple of days. Gilead is so awful that female circumcision is one of the weapons in their arsenal to punish and control women. It's so horrific that I don't even have the words for it.

Offwarren has been left with no idea of what happened to her friend but she must continue on with the daily rituals and hope to remain unnoticed and this means shopping with the new Offglen.  When Offred returns, Rita has a spread laid out for lunch is and is kind and accommodating. Rita even places a white rose on the table which Serena Joy apparently cut herself.  Given the cruelty of Gilead, this sudden bout of kindness is not something to celebrate or even accept, it's something to worry about.  It's Rita who explains that Offwarren hasn't asked for her monthly sanitary napkins yet and though she's only a few days late, everyone is hopeful that this means that she is pregnant.

Serena Joy's happiness at the possibility of Offred's pregnancy extends to inviting her to and visit with baby Angela.  Offred is forced to sit apart from the wives as they studiously ignore her and go on about how pretty the baby is. It's Serena who offers Offred the chance to hold the baby, assuring the other wives that since Offred has already had a child that she knows how to hold a baby.  Offred holds the baby for a NY minute before Angela is reclaimed by Mrs. Butler.  This is when the other wives notice that Mrs. Butler has been injured. It seems that Offwarren dared to bite Mrs. Butler when she attempted to take the baby away. Mrs. Butler cannot wait to get Offwarren out of her house and calls her an ungrateful girl.  Once again, the gap between wife and handmaiden has been made clear. What exactly has Mrs. Butler done for Offwarren but participate in her rape during the ceremony, perform a mock labour while Offwarren's body was wracked in pain giving birth and then steal Angela away from Offwarren, not even allowing Offwarren to hold her child for anything other than feeding. Why should Offwarren be thankful? Wives and Handmaiden's may both have to wear the yolk of patriarchy but Wives are extremely explicit and wield the only power they have to oppress Handmaidens.