Grimm, Season Five, Episode Fourteen: Lycanthropia

As you may have guessed from the title, This week's Wesen of the week had to do with Lycanthropes. It appears in Blutbad families and have handled them in the past by killing any child manifesting any lycanthrope traits because during the full moon, Lycanthropes become insane and extremely dangerous. It is considered a genetic defect.

Doyle Baske is on the way to visit his mother when he gets into an accident.  Doyle quickly hops out of his car and when he notices the sun is starting to set, Doyle begins running. Before he can arrive at his mother's, we see a werewolf like creature with red eyes.  Is Doyle a werewolf?

Nick wakes up, grabs a bag and leaves a sleeping Adalind in bed.  Nick manages to get the vault open that he has been trying to open ever since they moved in.  He finds that it leads to another tunnel with a huge drop.  While Nick is looking into the hidden compartment, Adalind apparently gets up and answers a call from Renard.  Adalind immediately asks about Diana and promises to meet Renard the next day without speaking to Nick about it. And so the lies begin.

The next day, Doyle is found unconscious in the middle of the street by a trucker.  Nick and Hank show up to investigate and are immediately suspicious of Doyle.  They drive him back to his car and question him about why he is covered in blood yet shows such little injury.  Doyle explains that he was attacked by a man and his dog.  The cops then drive Doyle to his mother's, where he asks them not to tell his mother that he was attacked.  Hank is immediately suspicious given that his mother lives in a remote area.  The cops collect Doyle's shirt to test it.

Adalind meets with Renard and things do not go well.  Renard explains that Meisner passed Diana on and she is alive and well and not with the royal family.  This however is not enough for Adalind because she wants to see her daughter immediately.  In frustration, when she goes to grab a glass of water, her Hexenbiest powers manifest. Renard is quick to notice this and Adalind makes it clear that Nick is not to know about this.  Renard reminds Adalind about what happened to the last Hexenbiest Nick lived with claiming that he doesn't want Adalind to get hurt.  Adalind turns the tables on Renard and claims that she doesn't want him to get hurt. If I were Renard, I'd be a little worried by that threat.

At the station, they have identified there different kinds of blood on Doyle's shirt.  All three blood samples are human and since Doyle reported a dog, the first thought is that he ran into a Wesen.  The cops decide that it's time to get Rosealie and Monroe involved.  They all head out to the sight where Doyle crashed his car and following Monroe's sense of smell, they track Doyle's steps.   They all end up in the woods where they discover two dead bodies.  A little further down the trail, Monroe picks up the scent of Lycanthrop.

In the meantime, Eve is scoping out Rachel.  When Rachel leaves the house, Eve breaks in.  After a brief search she finds Renard's cheap ass election poster and takes a picture.  Eve then takes a picture of the shipping container the poster was sent in.

Back at the station, Nick and Hank decide that it's time to meet with Renard while Monroe and Rosealee head off to see if they can find a cure.  Renard warns Nick and Hank that since Doyle is old money, arresting him might not be such a good idea.  They decide to bring him in for questioning and lock him up in a cell to see if he is a lycanthrop.  Nick then calls Monroe to find out that they don't have a cure but are able to knock Doyle out using a tranquilizer.

The cops head out to the Baske residence and inform Doyle that they need him to come in for questioning. Doyle is adamant that he cannot leave the house that night. When Nick and Hank insist, Doyle claims to need to grab his jacket but uses it as an excuse to run.  Nick and Hank tackle Doyle and place him in the car as his mother goes ballistic.

The 100, Season Three, Episode Nine: Stealing Fire

Murphy and Clark have spent the last 24 hours locked in the same room that Lexa died in.  The bedding is still stained with Lexa's blood.  Titus makes an appearance because he plans on keeping his promise to Lexa to get Clarke out of Polis safely, Clarke however wants to see the Aden (Lexa's chosen successor) to make sure that he will keep his promise to keep her people safe. At the purification ritual, not only does Aden promise to keep all of Arkadia safe but so do the other nightbloods.

If that all sounds to easy, that's because it is.  Ontari arrives and her first act is to attack Clarke. Ontari only stops her attack when ordered to be Roan, the king of the Ice Nation.  Gotta pause to say how happy I am to see the ever so hot Zach McGowan. I hope that we will get to see a lot more of him. Ontari however doesn't even blink -- announcing that when she becomes the new commander -- she will take out Clarke and all of Arkadia.  I gotta say, Ontari is one scary chick and I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley.

At Arkadia, Pike is in full on tyrant mode.  Pike makes his way to the jail and announces that everyone is going to be executed.  Lincoln steps forward to advocate for his people, taking full responsibility for the assassination attempt. Lincoln is backed up by Bellamy (finally showing some common sense), who claims that were they in the same position as the Grounders, they too would have leaped through the open door and tried to escape.  Pike actually has a moment of humanity and decides that only the leaders: Lincoln, Kane and Sinclair will die.

Bellamy and Monty then meet with Harper and Miller who are distrustful despite the fact that Bellamy shows Miller that he has been bugged.  Bellamy then tells them about the planned execution. Harper snarks about whether or not Monty's mommy knows where he is.  Bellamy gives up on convincing them of his sincerity and asks Miller and Harper to let Octavia know that he will be waiting for her at the drop ship.

Octavia is very distrustful though Bellamy greets her with open arms.  Octavia stabs Bellamy in the neck with a tranquilizer. Later, when Bellamy awakes, he finds himself in a cave with Octavia and a very disapproving Indra.  I'm totally team Indra and Octavia on this score, particularly when Octavia points out that no one would need saving were it not for Bellamy's actions.  Octavia decides that she doesn't need either Indra or Bellamy's help and heads to Arkadia alone to rescue Lincoln.

Pike has a second moment of humanity when he allows Kane to have a moment alone with Abby. Abby is determined to do something to stop Kane's execution but Kane is steadfast that Abby cannot get involved because the people of Arkadia are going to need a leader.  Abby reaches out and it looks for a moment like they are going to kiss (the shippers must have been screaming at this point) but Kane pulls away, not wanting this to be harder than it has to be.

Back at Polis, though Clarke is still thinking about what is best for her people, she clearly is still very much grieving for the loss of Lexa.  Clarke wonders if Lexa is really inside the tech and wonders if she will see Lexa in another form.  As much as Clarke mourns however, she is very much adamant that Ontari cannot become the new commander though it is her right as a nightblood to fight for the position. It's clear that Murphy wants out and honestly, who can blame him. Playing up on Clarke's feelings of loss, Murphy suggests that since Lexa is part of the IT now, it won't matter who gets chosen as the new commander.  He's certain that Lexa will have a positive influence on the new commander.  That hope and prayer is shot right of the water by Titus, who responds that the tech amplifies pre-ascension characters. Given Ontari's hatred of Clarke and Arkadia, this most certainly will not be a good thing.

It seems that Ontari has taken a page out of The Highlander.  The horn goes off announcing a new commander.  Clarke, Murphy and Titus run into the room to find a bloody Ontari, who has a bag filled with the heads of the other nightbloods.  Ontari declares herself the victor as the last remaining one. Luckily for Clarke and Murphy, Roan has the good sense to pull them out of the room.  Roan takes them to a secret tunnel, thus paying off the debt he feels he owes Lexa but makes it clear that when they see each other again, they will be on opposite sides. Murphy can tell however by the look on Clarke's face that they aren't going anywhere.  I gotta say that at this point, if I were Murphy I would have ran through the tunnel and left Clarke behind, particularly given that his safety isn't going to be high on her priority list.

Clarke and Murphy head to the flamekeeper sanctuary determined to steal the flame. Naturally, who should they run into but Titus, who blames Clarke for Lexa's death. Nothing like taking responsibility is there? Clarke is adamant that Ontari cannot be the leader and so Titus explains that they have no choice because if someone who doesn't have the nightblood takes the flame, it will kill them.   Clarke then remembers that Lexa didn't kill everyone at her conclave. How convenient. Titus admits that there's one other possibility - Luna, the woman who Lincoln claimed would take in him and Octavia at the end of season one.  Titus however doesn't feel that Luna is worthy because she fled the trials.

Ontari, who seems to have a thing for perfect timing, throws Murphy into the room and announces that she is ready for the purification ritual. Titus agrees and has Murphy escort Ontari to the commander's quarters to begin the ritual.  We have to pause for a moment.  I don't understand why Ontari would agree to this for one moment.  As a member of Skaikru, how would Murphy even know what this entails? Yes, Murphy plays the scene well but it doesn't even begin to make sense.  The moment Ontari and Murphy leave, Titus, who calls Clarke, the flamekeeper, gives her the commander kit, which includes a journal from the first commander (a.k.a. Rebecca), so that she can go find Luna. We all know that Clarke is going to end up with that tech in her head right?  It's the only thing that makes sense.

Clarke does think to ask about Murphy and Titus promises to get Murphy out of Polis.  Murphy stands to the side and flirts with Ontari as she takes a bath supposedly for purification. Playing the game to the hilt,  Murphy assures Ontari that he believes that what she did was smart. Roan marches in with Titus, who readily admits that he gave the flame to Clarke.  Roan puts a knife to Titus's head but Murphy calls out that they need him for the ceremony. Titus it seems doesn't want to be saved because he grabs Roan's knife, slits his own throat and whispers, "for Lexa" before falling into Ontari's bath. How's that for an exit?

Ontari won't be stopped that easily and tells Roan to light the pyre to signal her attention to the role of Commander.  Roan point out that she doesn't have the flame but Ontari argues back that no one will know this and that the only witness is Murphy. Murphy is quick to point out that he likes his head exactly where it is.  Clarke rides away from Polis on a white horse and looks up when she sees the red smoke in the sky.

Indra hears the horn and realises that means that Lexa is dead.  Indra decides to leave and Bellamy attempts to lay down a guilt trip, claiming that Indra is choosing her people over Octavia again.  Indra however is not swayed and simply states that Octavia is a member of her people and asks Bellamy to tell Octavia that she is sorry.

Back at Arkadia, after telling his people to have faith, Lincoln, Kane and Sinclair are lead from the jail.  Harper uses the radio to say that "the packages" are on the move and is overheard by Monty and Hannah (who I like less and less each time she appears). Hannah figures out that Octavia is helping with the escape and she quickly notifies Pike, who orders Bryan and two other guards to stay in the bunker room with the prisoners while they go look for Octavia.   Pike quickly discovers he has been lead on a wild goose chase and when he returns to the bunker room, he finds it empty. What Pike doesn't know is that they were hiding on the floor.

Wynonna Earp, Season 1, Episode 1: Purgatory

New show, following Wynonna Earp, descendent of Wyatt Earp and general troubled lady – and this is an episode full of exposition. Normally I’d complain because that would suggest an epic amount of info dumping but this is really well done – the information well presented and paced among the action. This huge introduction was so well presented, lots of points to the writers for that

Wynonna’s heading home on a bus which, unfortunately, breaks down and a nice lady she just met decides to get off the bus… which is most unwise as the bus is surrounded by ominous scary shadows which promptly rip her heart out. The rest of the bus drivers off – afraid – but Wynonna insists on getting out of the bus to help. It doesn’t go well… until her alarm on her phone goes off on her 27^th birthday – and Wynonna suddenly kicks serious arse and stabs the monster – Revenants – in the eye. So we have an introduction to the stakes and her abilities.

That’s a nice intro to the action. And when she finally gets back into town to see her Aunt Gus for her dead Uncle Curtis’s funeral. Now for the intro into her home life in Purgatory – she clearly has a troubled past, even her aunt thinks she’s “damaged” beyond repair and she has spent time in a mental institution. She has been in trouble with the police (and sasses the sheriff most awesomely) and isn’t fully popular with everyone round town, though she has some fans, including her sister, Waverly.

Through her interactions with Waverly and various other people in town we learn about the Earp curse. Whenever an Earp reaches the age of 27 all the men the original Earp killed come back and the current Earp (the heir), with her new minted shiny combat skills, brings them down, all around the town of Purgatory. It’s a fate Wynonna has been running from ever since her tragic childhood when Revenants attacked their family and killed their older sister, Willa, who was supposed to be the heir. On top of that, Wynonna, using Earp’s fabled Peacemaker gun, tried to shoot the Revenants and hit her dad instead

Zoo, Season 1, Episode 4: Pack Mentality

Ok can I take a moment to poke the new intro voice over? “We were chosen as experts…” yeah, no. Abraham was chosen because he was friends with Jackson and Jamie was chosen because Miles pitied her.

Though, to be fair, just about every character did have a chance to show off some level of expertise as they all head to Biloxi where the prison was attacked by wolves last episode

For reasons unknown, this whole mission is off the books – which means they have to make up a cover story. For equally unknown reasons, Chloe doesn’t even bother to back their cover story up with anything and she ends up with a suspicious (and kind of arseholelish) FBI Agent Schafer who quickly skewers her cover and she ends up having to spend the rest of the episode saying “it’s classified”

Can we address that? I mean does this even work? Can a foreign agency really go to a foreign country and then blow off any local organisations questioning them by saying “classified” without actually presenting any kind of official documents or permissions that allow you to be in the country and operating on a mission? I can’t imagine it’s that easy

And I really don’t see why they are confidential – after all, we’ve seen this is a global problem. The French can’t be the only ones who have noticed this and it’s clear that they could use some official clearance. At very least they wouldn’t have to autopsy a wolf in a hotel room with coconuts! This makes no sense and seems to be just used to inject unnecessary drama.

Anyway, this bemusing element aside, they’re trying to figure out what happened with the wolves. After some initial conflicts (Jamie’s utter obsession with Reiden global as well as Jackson taking issue with Mitch’s hostility towards his dad. Which is a little unfair because Jackson himself shared that scathing view not so long ago). They manage to get over it and Chloe, who is doing a decent job of being a firm leader who has good reasons for her decisions and keeps all her people in line.

Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices #1) by Cassandra Clare

Though its buildings have been repaired. the Shadowhunters are still dealing with the results of the war.  At the Los Angeles Institute, Emma, Jules and the entire Blackthorn family are very much on the front lines of the destruction. It's been five years since the war ended and though she has been told by the Clave that Sebastian is responsible for the death of her parents, Emma is convinced that he is not the guilty party and is determined to find out who the murderer really is.   Julian has been taking care of his younger siblings after having to kill his father in the war.  Julian struggles each day to keep his family together and to hide the fact that it is he and not his uncle running the Institute.

It all comes to a head when the fae arrive at the institute wanting to make a trade. Years ago they had stolen Mark Blackthorn and forced him to be a part of the Wild Hunt. When Emma learns that there are bodies being discovered in the city with the same markings as her parents, Emma becomes convinced that this is the long awaited clue she needs to discover who murdered her. With bodies piling up in Los Angeles, the fae are determined to get to the bottom of what is going on and since no one will work with them but the nephilim, they offer to trade Mark for the identity of the killer.  The clock is racing. Somehow they have to find the murderer without letting the Clave know what is going on.

Finding out that Cassandra Clare had written yet another Shadowhunter book didn't please me at all.

 She has after all written the same series twice and simply changed the name of the characters.  To be perfectly honest, I didn't go into Lady Midnight with a lot hope which is a good thing because I avoided any disappointment. It's official, Clare is going to drain this world for every dollar it can produce because she suffers from an extreme lack of imagination. Love triangles and angst abound in this 500+ page tome to which I unfortunately sacrificed hours of my precious life.

Sure, this time Emma isn't a young girl with no idea about what really inhabits the world but Clare once again has teenagers saving the world.  TEENAGERS.  Of course there are no reliable adults and the kids always know better than anyone how to deal with danger.  However, with all the danger, they still have time for relationship angst, love triangles and sex.

Clare is nothing if not repetitive and this holds very much true for Lady Midnight. I am sure she wanted to give us an update from The Mortal Instruments Series and the Infernal Devices Series but to do that she had to forcefully ram in Clary, Jace, Jem and Tessa in such a fashion, it felt like she was trying to push a square peg in a round hold.  If the focus of this story is supposed to be about the Blackthorn family and Emma, why is it that we had to read repeatedly about Emma's former crush Jace and how he is the shadowhunter of his generation? What was the point of squeezing in a Jace/Clary love scene into the book?  Why did Magnus supposedly accidentally run into Emma and Jules to impart some crucial information and then absolutely disappear from the story?  Sure, it was great to learn that Magnus and Alec have adopted a demon child together but it had nothing to do with the plot of Lady Midnight.

Even if were to forgive the awkward cramming in of characters, there's still Clare's appalling writing style to deal with.  I have never read such verbose descriptions of eyelashes, hair and facial expressions in my life -- causing me to wonder if Clare believes that her readers will forget what her characters look like -- if she doesn't describe them in painful detail every few pages.  Emma is a blonde, Jules has blue eyes and Mark has heterochromia. I didn't need to have these simple descriptors repeatedly mentioned in the text to remind me, as though I had the attention span of a toddler.  Her descriptions are at times ridiculous. "It was there in the way his lashes brushed his cheeks when he concentrated," thus causing me to wonder how long are dudes eyelashes really? How can he even see if his lashes are long enough to touch his cheeks when his eyes are closed?   Then there's the purple prose:

Supernatural, Season 11, Episode 17: Red Meat

This episode gets a resounding “meh” from me, sadly. The whole episode focuses far too much on the eternally overused tropes of this series: the brother’s deeply unhealthy co-dependence.

It’s another break from the main meta as Sam drags a highly reluctant Dean on a monster of the week mission involving werewolves. In the process of killing said werewolves and saving the hostages (Michelle and Corbin who I just thought of as cute beard guy but apparently has a name), Sam gets shot

I actually like this. I like this reminder that every fight, no matter how standard, how run of the mill, can end up with a Winchester being killed. I like the reminder that, despite them having come back from the dead enough times to have their own religion, they’re both still basically human. A straw bullet, a knife, a claw in the wrong squishy place and it’s game over, end of the Winchesters. And in a fight it doesn’t matter how much skill and experience you have: a stray bullet will still kill you.

Except, plot armour. Because despite what I’ve just said, we know the Winchesters will not die (at least, not before the ratings do). Neither brother is every going to REALLY die. So all the tension about whether Sam is dead - first from the bullet and later from Corbin who wants Dean to save him and Michelle rather than focus on getting Sam to a hospital.

Oh an aside – dear people of the internet, in the unlikely event I ever take a bullet and you are in the position to provide me with ad hoc medical treatment, please do not do not DO NOT remove the bullet. I know Tvlandia is convinced all bullets are made of radioactive cyanide and need to be removed from the body in seconds or death will ensue, but it’s a lie. Bullets are nice, inert (and, because of the heat of being shot, likely germless) lumps of metal that don’t need removing right away (or maybe not ever, yes the doctors may leave you with bullets forever more). And whatever terribad damage you think it’s going to do, it’s nothing compared to the damage amateur surgery using non-sterile tools on a writhing, in pain victim is going to do.

Grimm: Nick, Adalind and the Rape No-one Talks About

This isn’t the first time we’ve spoken about issues on Grimm. In fact, recently, there were so many issues that we simply did a post calling it all out because it was almost impressive how many terrible elements they managed to cram into a season.

And yet, here we are again because Grimm has managed to sink to a particularly galling - and sadly predictable - depth. Nick and Adalind have slept together for the first time and are heading to coupledom.

That paragraph pretty much sums up the problem with this whole romance because “Nick and Adalind have slept together for the first time”, is not what the show says. Monroe and Nick himself have both openly spoken about Nick having slept with Adalind once (or maybe even twice) before.

Let us be adamant on this point: Nick has never slept with Adalind before. Nick has never has sex with Adalind before. Nick was raped by Adalind

I’m repeating this for emphasis because the show is determined to gloss over this and rewrite history:

Nick was raped by Adalind.

This was not having sex. It certainly wasn’t a romance. This was rape.

For it to have been sex and not rape, there would have to have been consent. That is the ultimate definition of what rae is - having sex with someone without their consent. Coercing them into sex by whatever means: force, manipulation, intimidation, taking advantage of their incapacity or deception. Yes, I know I am repeating myself a lot here, but  I am repeating myself because the writers of Grimm have completely lost this very basic and unquestionable definition of what rape is.

Lucifer, Book One (Lucifer New Edition #1) by Mike Carey

Lucifer, having quit his job as hell's keeper, is happy running Lux (his piano bar). Lucifer is offered   a mission to stop a creature which is providing wishes for mortals, because God does not want to get involved.  As a boon, Lucifer requests a letter of indulgence from God, which gives him access to an alternate dimension outside of creation.  Of course there's a catch. When Lucifer enters the portal, though he will effectively become a God,  he cannot return.  Lucifer, not satisfied with the deal decides to take action to make it more to his liking, thus drawing attention of the angels and Amendial in particular, who is determined to go to war. If that were not enough a whole host of supernatural beings are determined to use the portal for their own ambitions.

Let me start off my saying that if you pick up this comic in the hopes of a connection between it and Fox's show Lucifer, you will be sadly disappointed.  Vertigo's Lucifer is a far cry from Fox's and the storyline itself is vastly different, even though both use some of the same characters.

As a protagonist, I must say that I found Lucifer very engaging.  He's always one step ahead of everyone who is out to get him.  Even when he arrives naked and unarmed in the "realm that knows no mornings", Lucifer is able to outwit his adversaries by playing their own game. No matter who proposes to bring an end to him, Lucifer is always more than ready to deal with them, making deals when necessary, sometimes using force and other times, simply being more cunning.  He makes for a very interesting protagonist, even if he is the classic antihero.  It's very difficult not to root for him.

Much of this comic concerns predestination.  God supposedly knows how each situation will turn out because of predestination. This gives rise to the question as to whether anyone truly has free will? Lucifer is determined to be an independent agent whatever the cost and this is why he actively questions what the catch is with his letter of indulgence.  If people are just playing out the roles they have been given, then choice is all an illusion.

My biggest problem with this comic are the moments of transition. Carey randomly introduces characters and they suddenly disappear, as Lucifer moves onto something else.  Several pages later, the character may or may nor appear again, forcing the reader to try and remember not only who this character is but why they are relevant.  At times, I actually was lost and had to go back and search for the initial introduction of said character to figure out how they fit in.  Book one has absolutely no flow to it whatsoever and I can imagine reading it as individual comics (how they were first released) would have made it that much more difficult to follow.

Carey introduces several marginalized characters to the story and unfortunately every single one of them is problematic.  Ray is a young gay Indian man and he is infatuated with a young man who unbeknownst to him is a White supremacist.  Though Ray's family does not know about his sexuality, his friend encourages him to ask Karl for a date.  When Ray finally works up the courage to ask Karl out, Karl uses it as an opportunity to set Ray up to be beaten up by his White supremacist friends. Karl stops just short of sodomizing Ray with a broken bottle. Later, a guilty Karl calls emergency services. While Karl waits for help, he is confronted by the angel Melios about his actions.  It seems that Karl attacked Ray because he was disturbed by his attraction to him. I am sick to death of the idea that gay bashing is the result of a closeted gay man.  Not only was the beating of Ray graphic and visual, to then have it arranged by another gay man is beyond problematic. In fact, this little snippet of the story is absolutely toxic. Neither Ray or Karl are major characters in this story and Ray's bashing seems to exist for the soul purpose of having Jill Peterson (Ray's friend) realise that she is magical now and able to see the different paths of destiny and exact punishment. It's Jill who kills Ray's attackers save Karl, promising to get to him later.  We never learn if Ray survives or if Karl gets the justice he deserves.  It's just a small little subplot for the growth of Jill's character. Need I say what's wrong with this?