The 100, Season Three, Episode Six: Bitter Harvest

A ton happened on The 100 this week. I find myself having to repeatedly remind myself how much I really like Michael Beach because I hate the hell out of Pike. Here's the deal, on the Arc, Pike was a teacher which should have made him well aware of earth's history and still yet, he is determined to move forward with this scorched earth policy in a war. Pike hasn't even questioned what happens when they run out of bullets.  When Marcus confronts Pike on the Grounders who are being kept in internment, Pike spins it to claim that they are being imprisoned for the purposes of protection. Say what?  How does this teacher not know that this has always been wrong and lead to disastrous results? Pike however is certain that he is not there to be liked and to get a job done. It's ironic that their first election lead to the rule of a dictator.

For her part, unlike her brother, Octavia continues to work to avoid a war.  She rides out to spy on the Farmers who are taking soil samples.  When Hannah spies a Grounder kid, she says hello in a cheery voice just before ordering the rest of the farmers to kill the kid. Were it not for the intervention of Octavia, who by the way has to tolerate poison sap, the kid would have died.  I don't understand how Hannah, who believed her child to be dead not that long ago, justifies this decision to herself.  In fact, at this point, I'm pretty sure that I don't like Hannah either. She didn't go into the mist to save her own son when Sakiru found themselves in a Grounder trap and then she has the nerve to blame Octavia for it all when she and Pike were the one's being blood thirsty.  Yep, Hannah can join Pike and Jaha on my list of people who need to go.

If Pike had not slaughtered the Grounder army in the first place and treated them like the allies they were at the time, he could have simply asked for Skaikru to have access to the land for farming, instead of having to goad Bellamy into doing whatever was necessary to feed their people.  The logic in his position just doesn't make sense to me and it is even more troublesome that even with hindsight, neither Pike or his supporters can see the error of his way.

Marcus continues to marshal his forces and though he is horrified at the fact that he is sending kids to die in order to avoid a war he continues on. Chief among Marcus's regrets is insisting upon the election which gave power to Pike.  This earns him a kiss from Abby. Are we supposed to say aww at this? They better not make these two a couple. I know that they've been dancing around it for awhile but I don't want to see Abby with the man who had her publicly punished, I don't care how much they rehabilitate Marcus's character.

Marcus manages with the help of Miller to get a bug placed in the Chancellor's area and this is how he learns about the plans for the Grounder village.  Marcus tries once again to talk sense into Bellamy but Bellamy is too far under Pike's sway to stop.  Miller is then forced to say a tearful goodbye to Brian. When I saw this moment, I knew that Brian was wearing the red shirt.  Clearly, Miller and Brian are a thing but am I the only one who doesn't remember this being explicit before now?

So, Octavia warns the Grounders, who at first believe that she is threatening them.  Octavia is told that she doesn't know as much about them as she thinks. I believe that this is a valid point worth making because Octavia has been spending a lot of time self identifying as Grounder when she isn't. It's a problem and amounts to appropriation. The Grounders take a page from Pike's playbook and use the poisoned sap which burned Octavia to lay waste to the land making it useless for farming in the future, killing Monroe in the process. I gotta say that I am team Grounder in this instance.

 It's fair to say that Octavia wasn't completely successful in her mission and now she has been captured by the very Grounders she was trying to warn.  Pike is certain that Octavia was colluding with Marcus and demands that Bellamy find evidence of this.  How much kool aid has Bellamy been drinking anyway to agree to this betrayal? Does this mean that The 100 is going to turn Bellamy into a double agent?  I much preferred Bellamy when he at least had the appearance of being autonomous than the robot he has become.

Unfortunately for Skaikru, Pike isn't their only problem. Jaha is walking around selling the City of Light; however, Abby is on the case.  Abby let's Raven go back to work but she is concerned that all of Raven's pain mysteriously disappeared though her leg is still damaged.  The people of Skaikru are swallowing the tech hand over fist because they want an end to their pain. ALIE is up to something searching for some kind of code her creator made.  It's Jaha (who really needs to die) who figures out that it's on the 13th Arc.  He is also smart enough not to tell Raven about the tech being the cause of the destruction of the world.  As smart as Jaha is however, he doesn't realise how the tech has effected him.  When Abby questions if Jaha would allow Wells to take the tech without testing, Jaha freezes because he has forgotten who Wells is.  Jaha tries to cover but it only heightens Abby's distrust and she takes away the rest of the so-called keys. Yeah, I'm team Abby on this one.

Sense8, Season One, Episode Twelve: I Can't Leave Her

Riley has been captured by BPO and Will is determined that he must save her.  We learn that from childhood, he has felt driven to save people and so the risks he takes for Riley, are an intrinsic part of his person.  With the help of Nomi and Amanita,  Will races towards  BPO  because  not only has Riley been captured, but Whispers has chartered a helicopter and his headed to the facility at the same time. Yrsa appears to Riley and warns her that she has one last chance to save her cell.  We get a flash to Angelica killing herself when discovered by Whipsers because that was the only way to save the other sensates.  Riley manages to grab a gun but the members of her cell shows up and Will manages to talk her into not giving up.

What follows is essentially one big prison break with all of the senseates showing up as their specialties are needed. I loved watching Sun kick ass, Kala awakening Riley, Capheus starting the ambulance and even Lito charming a worker to find out where Riley was being held.  This episode marks the second time Will and Lito have met, the first being in the epic Sense8 orgy scene.  In the moment, Will seemed to have no problem having sex with his cell but it's clear now that he has realised what actually happened, he's not at all cool realising that he had sex Lito.  Considering that the sensates have little control about how and when they are visited Will's astonishment and discomfort raises the issue of consent. This is something that Sense8 needs to delve into in the second season.

Having the senseates work together shows that despite being so far apart, coming from so many different cultures and in some cases not even speaking the same language, they function completely as a team; together they are a force to be reckoned with. Even watching Aminita and Nomi working together was amazing. I love that Sense8 took the time to once again remind us just how much these women mean to each other.

As much as this episode is about breaking Riley out of BPO, it's also about Riley's loss and Riley's fear, along with Wolfie dealing with his family issues. We already knew that Riley's husband and infant child had died but we didn't know how.  Riley continues to relive that faithful night.  Her husband rushes her to the hospital after things didn't work out with the midwife and then ends up getting into an accident and dying. Riley gives birth in the crashed car next to her dead husband and tent walks into the mountains hoping to find help for herself and her infant. When Riley notices that the baby has died, the pain overwhelms her and she lies down on the ground, promising her dead child that she won't leave her.  We know that Riley is only alive because Yrsa sent a helicopter for her.

As for Wolfgang, it's time to face his uncle Sergei and deal with the consequences of killing Steiner. An over confident Wolfie shoots Sergei, only to find thanks to Will that his uncle is wearing a bullet proof vest. Wolfie is forced to flee and if it were not for Kala showing up to pull a Macgyver and making a homemade bomb, Wolfie would have died.  Wolfie finally confronts Sergei and this time he has the upper hand because his uncle's gun is out of bullets and all of his minions are dead. Wolfie explains that as a child, he strangled his father and set his body on fire because he couldn't take the abuse anymore. Wolfie blames Sergei in part because he knew about the abuse did nothing. Wolfie then calls his father a monster, Sergei a monster and then himself a monster, before emptying his gun into his uncle.  Kala sees the whole thing and has tears streaming down her face.  Wolfie explains that this is why Kala needs to marry Rajan. Never has the gulf between these two been wider.  I don't want to see Kala go on a mission to save Wolfie from his demons and I don't want to see her marry Rajan either.  I want Wolfie and Kala together though so I hope that Sense8 can fix this.

Lost Girl, Season 5, Episode 16: Rise

So last week Bo pretended to go all evil – and of course it was pretend. In addition to locking up all her friends in a burning buding, she also left them the protect-against-Bo horseshoe and called Bruce – the huge fae, to come knock down the wall and get them all out. Of course it’s only luck that they weren’t all squished anyway during the fire – but as far as Lost Girl goes this is a genius plan

Step 2 on this genius plan is for Bo to pretend to drain Tamsin to death by draining her chi – while actually sneaking her the key to her cage allowing her to escape

The plan doesn’t last because Hades, calling on the big dark awful inside her, and appealing to her rocky rocky oh-so-rocky relationships and presumably doing some dark woo-woo (I’d hate to think Bo is one weepy movie away from going all dark side) drives her over the edge to unleash her inner evil and his master plan – to drain the entire city with her chi sucking. The entirety of Toronto is being nommed on by Bo – including the elders that have finally gathered to actually do something

Not only does Bo put everyone on the ground (including all the police who had conveniently gathered in one place), but Hades then raises these people as his own little slaves – I think this is raising the dead but not mainly because the show doesn’t want Bo to have actually killed the city of Toronto (because that would require one hell of a redemption train).

Of course the good guys are all kind of doubting and worried about what this means and Bo going dark – but Kenzi is adamantly pro-Bo throughout. Because she’s Kenzi and that’s who she is.

They’re also protected by this surprisingly multi-purpose horseshoe which stops them being among the drained and enslaved masses and also stops bullets fired by said drained and enslaved masses. It’s a pretty nifty horseshoe but since it was forged by the gods we can’t exactly argue against that.

Bo herself arrives to turn the tide and, despite an emotional and nonsense laden appeal by Kenzi (honestly, Kenzi’s sarcastic commentary and nervous babble completely makes this episode – as it always has. Oh Kenzi you were missed), she drains her friends. In doing so she is hit by a whammy of all the love and emotion she has shared with them – specifically Tamsin, Dyson, Kenzi and Lauren – and the power of love shatters his control. Normally I say that sarcastically but in this case it completely works, especially following awesome pep talks from Lauren and Tamsin

What Really Happened in Peru (The Bane Chronicles #1) by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan

Of the characters in The Mortal Instruments series and The Infernal Devices series, it's fair to say that Magnus Bane is the most interesting.  When I discovered these short stories, I chose to read them to learn more about his life before his entanglements with the shadowhunters. Being immortal, it suggests that Magnus must have had adventures we can only dream about

As the title of the story suggests, it's all about finding out exactly what Magunus did to be banned from Peru.  After each mini memory, we are told that this is not the cause of Magnus's banishment. It leads one to believe that Clare and Brennan are leading up to some sort of spectacular  debaucherous tale of excitement and adventure, only to have the short story end with no answer as to why Magnus got banned.  Did these two authors just run out of ideas?  Did they just decide at the 65 page mark that they had written enough to legitimize a sale and therefore no longer felt duty bound to at least answer the basic question of What Really Happened in Peru? Someone needs to tell Clare and Brennan that when you ask a question, writing an ending like the following is a cop out.

"The High Council of Peruvian warlocks met in secret, and a letter was sent to Magnus several months later announcing that he had been banned from Peru, on pain of death, for “crimes unspeakable.” Despite his inquiries, he never received an answer to the question of what he had been banned for. To this day, whatever it is that actually got him banned from Peru is—and perhaps must always remain—a mystery."

The upside to What Really Happened in Peru, is that we got to find out a little bit more about the childhood of typical warlocks. It seems that warlocks largely come into being when a demon rapes a human female.  A lot of the time, Demons use rape by deception to accomplish their reproduction. The Warlocks who make it to adulthood do so because there mothers love them unconditionally despite the circumstances of their conception or the markers of what they really are, like Ragnor Fell's green skin for example.  "Our fathers were demons," said Catarina. Our mothers were heroes".

Magnus it seems is the exception to the rule.

Magnus's warlock's mark was his eyes, the pupils slit, the color lucent and green-gold at the wrong angles, but these features had not developed immediately.  He had not been born with Catarina's blue or Ragnor's green skin, had been born a seemingly human baby with unusual amber eyes. Magnus’s mother had not realized his father was a demon for some time, not until she had gone to the cradle one morning and seen her child staring back at her with the eyes of a cat.

She knew, then, what had happened, that whatever had come to her in the night in the shape of her husband had not been her husband. When she had realized that, she had not wanted to go on living.

And she hadn’t.

Magnus did not know if she had been a hero or not. He had not been old enough to know about her life, or fully comprehend her pain. He could not be sure in the way Ragnor and Catarina looked sure. He did not know if, when his mother knew the truth, she had still loved him or if all love had been blotted out by darkness. A darkness greater than the one known by his friends’ mothers, for Magnus’s father was no ordinary demon. (pg 34-35)

I like that there's absolutely no shame for the victim or denial of what they went through to raise their children to adulthood. By talking about the reaction of Magnus's mother, it makes it clear that rape is a violation and some people never ever get over it. It also explains why Magnus is as powerful as he is and why he is so ready to accept the love of those who are mortal.

Supernatural, Season 11, Episode 15: Beyond the Mat

The word “meh” comes to mind. I think this review is going to be a pretty short one because I simply don’t have anything meaningful to say.

We have a monster of the week episode – but it’s something we’ve kind of seen before: someone makes a deal with a demon and it ends up coming due and they regret it. It’s not  bad episode, but we’ve seen a lot of these episodes and storylines, a lot of these deals and it really doesn’t add to any real meta, or be all that intriguing in its own right

I think there’s some comment there about these deals, desperation and especially how such a physical profession as wrestling, a job which hurts and damages bodies can push people into a corner. It’s a note on how disposable even famous people can end up – because there’s such a narrow time when an athlete’s career is viable. It would be a nice point but it’s kind of lost among lots of wrestling fanpoodling

I guess if I was even remotely a fan of wrestling that may have meant more to me… but I’m not. I also just didn’t see this as fitting with the Winchesters. I have many many many crticisms of Supernatural (especially the disposability of minorities – showcased yet again with potentially great character Simmons being summarily dispatched while SACRIFICING HERSELF, damn it! She’s supposed to be a demon! Can’t even a demonic Black woman find some sense of self-worth and not jump in front of the white guy’s death?) but one thing it has done very well is characterise the brothers. Their history. Their issues. Their pain (oh so much their pain)

And this wrestling didn’t fit it to me. I mean, I can’t even picture John Winchester, obsessive hunter, who so neglected his boys it was Bobbie who played catch with Sam, taking his sons to a wrestling match (now, Bobbie? I could see him doing it).

On Creating an Inclusive Fandom

© 2006 alborzshawn, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

Fandom is an amazing, huge and incredible place which can bring people together in common nerdy joy. It’s a wonderful place for bonding, commonality and mutual love

It can also be a very narrow place. Sadly fandom can very often look very homogenous - because marginalised people: POC, women, LGBT people, disabled people and more are constantly driven out of THEIR fandoms

And I say “their” for a reason. Despite the tests cishet white fanboys often try to impose on marginalised people like they are interlopers on someone else’s space. But fandom is everyone’s possession - fandom belongs to marginalised people as well: but they are so often driven away from what should be equally their space

As such, making fandom inclusive is not just about basic common decency, but it’s also about acknowledging that common ownership. Making fandom inclusive isn’t bringing new people into fandom - it’s about allowing fans access to their own culture, their own spaces which they are unfairly robbed of

I can understand, in theory, the idea of wanting to have an open forum. A forum where everyone is welcome, everyone is free to express their opinions, everyone can exchange ideas and there is no-one there to suppress ideas or quiet anyone.

It’s a nice idea. And if you believe it, you’re either hopelessly naive (in a slightly touching, “bless your heart” kind of way) or you’re being deliberately obtuse.

You cannot have a space where everyone feels welcome. You cannot have a space that everyone feels comfortable in: not when some people seem to thrive on hurting others (at worst) and are so utterly unwilling to confront their privilege or the realities of the world that they don’t care what damage their flailing inflicts on those around them.

Your space cannot welcome both the bigot and the minority. You cannot have a space welcoming for women which simultaneously is welcoming for men who think “go get me a sandwich” and “get back in the kitchen” and a range misogynist slurs are the height of witty repartee. You cannot welcome both the racist and the POC. You cannot welcome the homophobe or the transphone and the LGBT person. Yes, it has to be a choice.

Teen Wolf, Season 5. Episode 18: The Maid of Gévaudan

This episode is the return of Crystal Reed – and while I like her and I really like the role she plays… I kind of think the whole point of this episode is “Crystal Reed guest stars” rather than anything particularly useful

Don’t get me wrong, the adventures of Marie Jeanne, the hunter who killed the first Beast and founded the Argent family is a pretty epic one but it doesn’t add any knowledge to what we already know. Like the idea that the Beast will become a complete beast when it remembers it’s original (hidden) name – Sebastian Valet? We knew that. The methods they used to kill him? Well, basic anti-werewolf things.

The fact he was a sister to Marie Jean is a nice touch and the whole story itself is pretty epic. But I’m kind of sat here thinking that it’s a really great story, but why is Gerard taking a time out to tell it to Lydia?

Who isn’t convinced she’s the beast killer anyway – and after story-time goes looking for Parrish. Honestly I think she was two seconds away from “that’s nice old man, but I have shit to do.”

But Crystal reed was awesome.

Meanwhile in the present the actual beast is rampaging around the school presumably killing lots of extras off screen and giving all our heros liberal coatings blood

Scott is super duper heroic, saving people, getting people to safety and constantly putting himself in the Beast’s path, knowing he cannot win but buying lives with his own – because he’s Scott and beneath the goofiness, the hot abs and not being quite as funny or snarky as his fellows, his defining feature is being a really good person.

Malia makes and appearance and so does Braeden and her shotgun (which, coincidentally, is also her defining feature. A gun. Because she has had ZERO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT) which eventually stops Scott being eaten

Blade Song (Colbana Files #1) by J.C. Daniels

Kit Colbana is a member of the Aneria - a race descended from the Amazons. Because she is half human, her people don't fully recognize her, leaving Kit essentially alone in the world. As a trained assassin and killer, Kit is more than able to make a living.  When Kit is contacted by the werecats to help find a missing kid, Kit cannot resist taking the case.  As someone with a history of being abused, Kit cannot help but get emotionally invested in the case, even if it means she has to deal with the Cats main enforcer Damon.

Blade Song is a PNR/UF which means that while this story could very will exist without the romance angle, it is weaved into the plot.  Unfortunately, at times the romance feels quite forced.  From the very first meeting between Damon and Kit, it's clear that they are going to move from hating to each other to loving each other.  It makes Blade Song extremely predictable as far as that storyline is concerned. It's one thing to portray the dislike between two characters and another to make the love interest actively abusive.

No fear, damn it. I could still breathe…barely…and he wasn’t trying to kill me. He just wanted me afraid while he yelled at me.My blood is noble. My heart is strong. My aim is true. I am aneira…my heart is strong—No fear, damn it. I could be drowning in it, and he damn well could smell it on me, but I sure as hell wouldn’t show it.

This above passage is very heavily framed as saving Kit from her own stupidity but it sets the tone of things to come. There are several times in the story where Kit asks Damon to back away and give her space. At one point she becomes so desperate, she hides in the bathroom and sleeps in the bathtub. Then there's the fact that Damon simply refuses to respect her wishes when she asks him not to touch her.

His hand spread open over my neck and despite my intention to ignore it, I almost groaned at how good that felt. I was tempted to lean into—And then I realized I was—“Damn it,” I snapped. “Would you stop? I thought I made it clear, I’m a little freaked out by the fact that you keep touching me even though just an hour or so ago, your Alpha was telling you that you might be killing me soon.” (pg 46-47)

Damon spends much of the time in the book trying to convince Kit that he is not going to hurt her and with good reason. Because Damon bruised Kit's neck so badly, she could barely swallow.  He claims he didn't know how fragile she was and that is why he didn't hold back his strength but the fact still remains that he hurt her so badly that he bruised her.

One of the things that irks me about the relationship between Kit and Damon is that she spends so much time saying that she doesn't want a relationship and that he wouldn't be good for her. Since Daniels was determined to force these two together, we never get to see Kit follow through on this. Given the fact that Damon physically hurt her, violated her trust and didn't respect her enough to stop touching her, this all should have been reason enough for Kit to refuse a relationship, particularly given her history of abuse.

Much of Blade Song is filled with Kit being triggered by different events. The descriptions of her abuse are quite graphic but it makes sense given that she is remembering what happened to her and trying to find a way to put it behind her. The years of abuse not only place Kit into a position to be triggered, they effect her daily life. Kudos for Daniels for actually portraying PTSD rather than having her character live through horrific events and remain untouched by them.  After being told repeatedly how dirty she was as a child, Kit showers almost compulsively.  Not only does she want to wash the past away but any suggestion that she might be less than.  Often in this genre we see that a protagonist has a troubled past but rarely do we see the follow through with how said protagonist deals lives with the pain. As much as this was difficult to read, it made the story feel real to me and made Kit relatable.