Zoo, Season 2, Episode 5: Moon and Stars

Chloe is dead

No, really, actually dead. Yes, I expected her to miraculously recover as well

So I’m going to begin with a lament to Chloe – a character who deserved so much better. A secret agent with all the skills and knowledge that implied, who was reduced to a love interest. A leader whose leadership was co-opted. A decision maker who never ever made a good choice. A strategist whose decision making was beyond appalling

My gods this character deserved better. She had so much potential and realised none of it. And now she’s dead because she has absolutely no purpose except for angst for poor poor Jackson.

So introducing a new character – Allison, super-rich deputy Secretary of Defence who owns an orchard which is dying and adding agricultural collapse and starvation to the panic the end of the world is happening. Remember, most people are not eating meat now – so losing orchards full of fruit is terribad awful. She’s the one who donated the plane, because she has awesome planes she just has lying around. Oh she’s also Mitch’s step-mother who (you will be shocked to hear!) Mitch has issues with. He spends all his time snarling and sniping at her. He spends all his time snarling and sniping at everyone. Everyone. It’s beyond tiresome now. Someone needs to slap him. Speaking of things that need slapping – everyone’s putting Dariela in the dog house now for not leaving the door open and dying next to Chloe.

She’s also Myka from Warehouse 13 (who would be so awesome) and I’m sad that she’s reduced to this shit. She (and Abe) are better than this.

Anyway, the trees are dying and food under threat – so what is causing this?

Snakes

Women and Death in Fox's Wayward Pines

The first season of Fox’s Wayward Pines, was very faithful to it’s source material - the trilogy written by Blake Crouch. What separates Wayward Pines from others in the dystopian genre is that instead of zombies or aliens being the threat to humanity, evolution as a response to the ways in which we have destroyed our planet is the threat. It’s a stark warning that humanity, despite its ingenuity, is indeed vulnerable and at it’s best, Wayward Pines warns its viewers not to assume that human superiority is indefinite.

As much as the concept of Wayward Pines stands out in the dystopian genre, akin to many similar texts, it fails when it comes to gender.  For some reason, the dystopian genre cannot move away from the idea that a straight cisgender white male is meant to save humanity from its destructive tendencies. Season one began with Pilcher, the megalomaniac  creator of Wayward Pines doing battle with former secret service agent Ethan Burke for control of humanity’s last town.  Gee, two white man battling for power how original. The first death of a speaking character in season one is Beverly. Beverly is the first person to admit to Ethan that something is wrong with the town and that she is not there of her own free will.  She includes Ethan on an escape plan she made with the now dead Bill and together they try to get out of Wayward Pines.  Even though they remove their tracking chips, it’s not long before their absence is noted.  Ethan does his best to distract the townsfolk so that Beverly can escape but she is quickly captured and executed in the town square by Sheriff Pope.  Beverly is killed as an abject lesson that people are to follow the rules and to show Ethan exactly what kind of world he is living in now. Sure, Ethan is upset about the execution for a New York minute, but he quickly forgets about Beverly and moves on.  Beverly ends up being less valuable than an end note.

Beverly’s death seals the antagonism between Ethan and Pilcher and from this moment on they are at odds.  Even when Ethan appears to capitulate to Pilcher after learning the truth about Wayward Pines, he cannot bring himself to follow orders and murder former lover and fellow secret service agent Kate Hewson, when her uprising fails.  Kate leads two rebellions during her time in Wayward Pines and both failed. Ethan’s rebellion ended in victory and though it cost his life, Ethan died a hero, even if he was not universally viewed that way by the citizens of Wayward Pines.  Though Kate is a former Secret Service agent like Ethan,  Kate’s skills were never primary to her character and instead, Wayward Pines spent much of its time fixating on the love triangle between Kate, Ethan and Ethan’s wife Theresa.  

When Ethan and Pilcher died at the end of season one, I had greatly hoped that Kate and Pam would come together to rule Wayward Pines and usher in a new day but it was not to be. The show skipped right over Kate and Pam coming together, to Ben (Theresa and Ethan’s son) waking in a hospital room with Jason in charge. Kate only appeared in one other episode and it was to die when the second rebellion she managed to lead failed miserably, leading to loss of life, the exile of Ben Burke and Xander and her own suicide. Unlike Ethan, whose death was heroic and resulted in saving the town from an invasion by the Abberations, Kate’s death served no higher purpose.  Kate’s suicide ultimately represented her powerlessness to change anything about Wayward Pines.

In season one, Pam, as Pilcher’s sister was a trusted member of the inner circle. This put her into conflict with Ethan but never positioned her as a co-antagonist with Pilcher because ultimately, he made all of the decisions and she functioned as a blunt weapon to carry out his wishes. Like Kate, Pam didn’t have a happy ending.  In season two, having determined that Pilcher’s grand experiment to extend humanity's time on earth was a failure, Pam began a plan to exterminate the town by infecting its members with small pox. It was the last ditch effort of the desperate.  Of course, she had to be stopped by Dr. Theo Yedlin (Ethan’s replacement), even though he fully acknowledges that there’s so much desperately wrong with Wayward Pines. Pam’s punishment was death at the hands of the neo fascist leader of the town Jason Higgins.  For Jason, Pam’s betrayal was too much because he had grown up seeing her as a mother figure, thus greatly foreshadowing the relationship he had with Kerry.  Like Kate, Pam only appeared in one episode of season two, and it was essentially for her to die.  Like Kate, Pam’s death served no higher purpose in the show and seemed to occur simply to give the insufferable Jason some manpain.  

Theresa is the third major female character to appear in season both season one and two and akin to Pam and Kate, she is also dead.  Theresa is a former Secret Service Agent turned stay at home mom, who spent most of the time on the show worried that Ethan would have another affair with Kate, or worried about the survival of her son. At no point, could Theresa’s character ever be seen as powerful and even when put in the situation to fight for her life during the Abbie invasion, it was Ethan who came to the rescue.  Alone and adrift in the wake of Ethan’s death and Jason’s control of the town, Theresa seemed to wander around Wayward Pines like a ghost, never doing much concrete to find Ben. In fact, Theresa’s inability to formulate a plan to find her son or affect any change is symptomatic of her complete impotence.  

Wayward Pines, Season Two, Episode Nine: Walcott Prep

Walcott Prep, is the penultimate episode of the season and I think that the episode should have been called, "EWWWWWW".  Damn Wayward Pines.  Clearly the purpose of Walcott Prep is to build yet more anticipation for the coming conflict between the humans of Wayward Pines and the Abberations. Tension has been building as the Abbies have been gathering outside of the fence and now that Margaret has returned to the Abbies, things seem bleaker than ever.

Theo decides that it's time to take action. He has no idea whether he is going to live or die but the one thing he is certain of is that Wayward Pines needs a leadership change.  To that end, he approaches Xander, who believes that Theo is there because he's upset that he wasn't chosen by Rebecca.  Theo explains that he is there to seek Xander's support in overthrowing Jason.  Xander is down with this idea but then questions what Theo's plan going forward from there is.  Theo really has no answers but before he can really begin to discuss options, CJ arrives to announce that they've both been requested at the mountain. Theo vows that with or without Xander's support, Jason's time is over. 

With few options left remaining to the citizens of Wayward Pines, for the first time ever, Jason makes a pragmatic decision - everyone should return to stasis until such time as the Abbies go extinct and the humans can once again inhabit the earth.  There's a couple of things wrong with this thinking that no one really brings up.  They don't know for sure how long to stay asleep for, or even if when they do choose to wake whether the Abbies will in fact be gone, or have expanded their control of the globe.  As of now, they have one month's worth of food but seem to have no plan to preserve said food for when they awaken.  There's very little discussion about environmental changes which will occur and how it will affect life in Wayward Pines. There are so many unknowns but they refuse to address them in their eagerness to get away from the Abbies. Interestingly enough, this is the solution that Blake Crouch, the author of the Wayward Pines trilogy chose for the residents of Wayward Pines. 

With the decision made, Jason decides to announce it to the town.  Those who survived stasis the first time aren't very concerned but that isn't the case for the First Generation.  C.J. takes the time to talk to the kids assuring them that they will be just fine.  He's asked if people dream in stasis and responds sometimes you do, clearly a reflection to his hallucination of his long dead wife. 

It's flashback time.  Pilcher is preparing to go into stasis with the future residents of Wayward Pines but feels that he cannot do so until he finds a baby to pass on his legacy. To that end, visits Walcott Prep and watches the pregnant Abigail, who is from a rich family. The family wishes to cover up Abigail's pregnancy and so Pilcher's desire to adopt is a perfect option for them. Later, Pilcher meets Abigail and the two quote Animal Farm to each other and actually bond. As Pilcher takes his leave, Abigail announces that she wants her child to be called Jason.  Things that make you say hmmmm. Proving that the best-laid plans of mice and man oft go astray, Pilcher later gets a call informing him that something has gone wrong with Abigail's pregnancy. 

Pilcher now must secure another child and he locates said child in Boise, Idaho public hospital.  A nice donation to the hospital cements his plans but he is told that the mother wants to meet him. And just who is this mother? Well, it's Kerry.  Take a deep breathe. Yes, this means that Jason has been fucking his own mother. EWWWWW. Cannot unsee. Cannot Unsee. 

Kerry talks to Pilcher about wanting to move beyond her past.  She says that she got pregnant by someone she didn't know very well but she's a survivor because she's lived through years of abuse from her father and stepbrother.  This raises Pilcher's concern and so Kerry quickly denies that neither her father or stepbrother are the father of the baby.  Somehow, I don't believe her.  Kerry then talks about her desire to use the money from the adoption sale of her child to travel the world. The more Kerry talks, the more it seems that Pilcher is beginning to feel a connection with her. Ultimately, Pilcher promises Kerry that she can indeed be a different person and have a different life. 

The Beast Within by Julie Evans

This book is a struggle for me – because when I write a DNF review I normally have a minimum read requirement. I try to read at least a decent percentage of the book before I put it down and say “no, I can’t do this. I won’t do this. I don’t deserve this!”

This book is a little over 100 pages long, so reading a decent chunk wouldn’t be so hard… I tried to convince myself.

No… this was horrendous. I could not endure my way to half way, reaching a quarter is out of the question

I am trying not to be excessively cruel about this. I mean I didn’t drop this book because it was offensive, insulting or outrageous. I dropped it because it has, quite simply, some of the worst writing I have ever read. Quite possibly the worst. I actually spent a decent chunk of the last week grabbing random friends and demanding they read 5 pages to check to see if I were hallucinating.

I was not. I even had to resist the urge to email the publisher back and ask if they were serious, was it April Fools, were they trolling me and/or if they realised they had an editor who was being bribed by the competition?

Here is an excerpt of text:

So when Em came around this morning with the groceries I asked her to get me, she said that I was going out with her tonight, and she wasn’t taking no for an answer. When I went to protest she held her arms up in the air, and said“Stop there before you say another word, you are coming out with me and that’s that so don’t argue, I know it was awful what happened but it was nearly four months ago, and you need to start getting out of the flat and back in the land of the living, so you are coming out with me tonight, to the new club that hasn’t been opened all that long, up in town: Crimson Moon. So I’ll pick you up about 9 o’clock, so be ready.”
“Okay but I’m not staying out too late, just for a few hours.”
“Great, that’s fine. I’ll see you later Kat, and make sure you’re ready.”
“Fine, see you later.” With that, she was gone.

Containment, Season 1, Episode 13: Path to Paradise

And so we come to the last episode of Containment where they try really hard to make this plot make sense. Actually, that’s a lie. They don’t try that hard. Not hard at all really – I mean, I can see why they wouldn’t, why start putting effort in on the last episode when you’ve not bothered all season?

So Alex is still being all persecuted by the evil Sabine Lomas who has decided to set Internal Affairs on him now. They don’t do anything, which is probably fortunate for her because why, in the name of all that is sensible, would Lomas WANT more investigative scrutiny?

Anyway, it does nothing except waste my time – and Alex sets his dad (who is an awesome police detective whose story about not being recognised because of racism would have been far far more interesting than… well, this show) to find Leo the journalist. He does this using unspecified awesome detective skills because who needs details?

So what is Alex doing? He is investigating some people who are being snuck out of the cordon – evil Office Meece is sneaking people out with the help of earnest-but-clueless-cop who Meece shoots (because evil). Alex shuts them down, pointing out a 48 hour quarantine isn’t sufficient because the virus mutates and any of them could be carriers – and cops can’t make this decision because they don’t have an MD

Excuse me?

Excuse me? Did Alex – no, did ANYONE on this show – dare to shout someone down for not respecting a doctor’s professional opinion?

This whole show is BASED on unqualified fools deciding doctors are lying to them because who the fuck cares about science?! This is the show!! How dare the writers pull this?!

Ok, let’s keep going, nearly there. Sabine is also blowing up these escape tunnels which puts a time limit on the whole escape. Alex goes down and finds… Jenna leading the escape. It’s a desperate, painful scene – actually it’s a great scene (honestly if I have to say anything positive about this 13 week sentence pretending to be a show, it is that the acting is excellent. Really excellent – these actors deserved better. I kind of hope the actors all band together against the writers. Hopefully to eat them).

To Love a Wolf (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #4) by Paige Tyler

Every werewolf on the Dallas Swat dreams of finding the one and Landry Cooper is no different. Things haven't been easy for Landry.  During a tour overseas he was badly injured, causing his werewolf gene to kick in.  The memories still haunt him but with the help of his pack, he has been able to put some of it behind him, though not deal with it fully.  When in the process of cashing a check he meets Everly Danu, like all things in Landry's life it quickly gets complicated.  The bank that they are in gets robbed and Everly is taken hostage, thus forcing Cooper into action.  You'd think that taking out five bank robbers single-handedly would make someone a hero but for the internal affairs division, it only makes Cooper look suspicious.  It all implodes pretty quickly when Cooper finds himself dealing with a ghost from his past in the military and the Danu's reject him because he's a werewolf.  What's a good werewolf to do when it seems that the stars are aligned against him?

To Love A Wolf had a very surprising beginning.  Rather than having the book begin when Landry and Everly meet, Tyler begins the story with Cooper in Iraq attempting to ensure an area doesn't have anymore IEDs hidden.  I found myself drawn to Cooper immediately as he tries to disarm the bomb which would change his life forever.  There's a lot of military jargon in To Love a Wolf and Tyler took care to make sure the readers always understood what was going on by having Everly be a civilian who needs an explanation. I will however admit that at times it made my eyes wander off the page though.

It's been clear since the first novel that the point of the Special Wolf Alpha Team series, is to pair one of the SWAT werewolves with "the one".  Woo woo is used to justify the insta love which of course brings about the HEA.  Yes, To Love a Wolf actually very much matches the standard script for all paranormal romance which I normally find extremely annoying.  What makes To Love a Wolf stand out is that when Tyler got to the point in the typical paranormal romance where the couple reach some stumbling block to their relationship, she actually made it believable.  It makes sense to me that seeing a werewolf kill her mother would make Everly mistrust Cooper and every other werewolf.  It made sense to me that Everly would instantly flea after seeing Cooper's claws and fangs, so traumatized by witnessing the violent death of her mother and believing the man that she loves (after only three days) to be a monster.  In those moments, I deeply felt for Everly.  It made her feel real to me and not like some standard love interest.

More than any other book in this series so far, I think that Tyler tried to infuse plot points into the story so that it would be about so much more than her chosen couple falling in love and walking happily into the sunset with each other.  That being said, Tyler wrote alot about the negative relationship between SWAT and the FBI. I understand that sometimes jurisdictional issues occur but to have Tyler constantly frame the FBI as incompetent is ridiculous.  Yes, Cooper is the explosive expert but am I really expected to believe that FBI agents would just waltz into a barn where explosives just might be without getting it checked out first? It pulled me out of the story because of the high level of ridiculousness.  If they were so careless, how the hell did they become FBI agents in the first place? Then of course, the FBI has to be wrong about apprehending Cooper and have an attitude about not getting the spotlight.

12 Monkeys, Season Two, Episode Thirteen: Memory of Tomorrow

Memory of Tomorrow is the last episode of season two and it is filled with revelations regarding the Witness.  That's all well and good but I'm still irked by the fact that 12 Monkeys seems to have completely stopped caring about the virus altogether.  Sure, the world coming to an end should take top priority but the entire point of this show was to stop a virus which had killed off a significant portion of the earth's population.  It seems as though they are committed to this bait and switch though we know that Cassie will eventually die as a result of the plague that no one seems to give a damn about right now.

Having failed to stop the paradox, Cassie and Cole are now living together in the little cedar house and it's Christmas time. This is Cole's first real Christmas and he is nervous about giving Cassie the butterfly hair clip that he purchased but he need not have worried because she loves it.  In return, Cassie gives him a razor but Cole refuses to shave.  Cassie's last gift to Cole is a card announcing that he is going to be a father.  Cole is overwhelmed but happy.

As we know, all good things must come to an end.  The first sign that something has gone wrong is when Cole finds that he is the only one who can move when everyone is frozen.  He sees Lillian, who informs him that it's not over.  Cole finds Lillian in a mental asylum and it quickly becomes obvious that she's a Primary. Cole tries to deny to himself that time is ending and to right off Lillian but when he drives away and finds flora turning red, he realises the truth of what Lillian told him.  Cole returns to the asylum and learns that all he has to do is drink a tea made from the leaves and then he can travel back to anytime he's already been and take control of his body.  Yes, they've given Cole a new super power cause he's extra special like that. This is a conundrum for Cole, because by travelling back and stopping the paradox, it means that his child with Cassie will never have existed.  Lillian however tells him that while "death can be undone, love cannot." Lillian also warns Cole that when he returns to his real time, he must not try to save Ramse because it's a trap.

Cole writes this was home on the walls of the house and drink the tea. Cole shifts through some key moments and finally ends up back in 1957.  This time when Cole confronts Charlie and his wife, he has the upper hand. Charlie pleads, explaining that the paradox is the only way he can be with his wife forever in the red forest.  Cole understands and even hesitates because in this moment he is well aware of what he is giving up but he shoots Charlie nonetheless and is splinttered forward in time along with Cassie.   Even with Lillian's warning, Cole is not prepared to let Ramse die and Jones is not willing to lose Hannah for a second time, so it's off to Titan.

Cole doesn't get to mourn the loss of Cassie's love for long because when she makes the comment "not every caterpillar becomes a butterfly" she does the impossible and remembers. Now we know what Lillian meant about not erasing love. The first challenge which Jones, Cassie and Cole have is to convince the daughters to come with them and for that Jennifer needs to impart some wisdom.  Having cast aside her fortunes, Jennifer goes classic and says quotes from Braveheart, Independence Day and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It's Jennifer at her absolute funniest and best. They all head to Titan and manage to save Hannah, Deacon, Ramse and Whitley. For this, I'm extremely thankful because 12 Monkeys doesn't need to get any whiter than it already is.  Big moment over, Jennifer suggests that it's time to get moving but Ramse is determined to find the Witness.

Vision of Heat (Psy/Changeling #2) by Nalini Singh

Faith is an F-Psy, one of the rare Psy who can see the future. And she’s one of the best of the best, literally worth billions from her forecasts

Until her visions become more unpredictable, dangerous and horrific – and she sees not just economic trends, but some brutal murders. The killer stalks her dreams and she fears she may be heading for the inevitable insanity that everyone expects the F-Psy to suffer – or she may crack enough for even her limited freedom to be shattered… for her “own good” of course

But is the only alternative the mysterious, ominous werejaguar who seems so obsessed with her and will not stop until he has demolished all her walls?

It’s difficult to write a review when nearly everything positive I want to say about this book I have already said in my review of Slave to Sensation, mainly the world setting. The whole history and complexity of Psy society, their different powers and abilities and how they’ve evolved with the introduction of the Silence is excellent. I like that we can still see crumbs of why the Psy would have turned to Silence even as we also see how it is so terrible for them now. I like as we explore more and more of the Changelings own history as well – particularly since it shows a lot of their brutal pasts (even if there is a sense of giving the male love interests tragic pasts because nothing makes brooding alpha males sexier than deep seated childhood trauma, apparently) and that their society is also not perfect. It would be easy to paint Changelings as good and Psy as bad but there’s clearly more involved in that. I also like how we had a brief introduction of humanity to this series – just a reference because more wouldn’t be relevant.

I like how this has been developed and the introduction of the Netmind and what that actually means for the Psy race. This world setting is not only fascinating and unique but it is also growing and developing.

The writing continues to be excellently paced and well balanced, bring in both the world building and action and development in a well balanced manner.