Wynonna Earp, Season 2, Episode 8: No Future in the Past

This is the episode so many shows need: it’s the episode that answers ALL THE QUESTIONS. Oh every series needs this.

It starts quiet with a much more gentle and touching relationship between Waverly and Wynonna - with Waverly continuing her exploration of the fact that she’s likely not an Earp. She talks about how cold their father was, possibly because she wasn’t his. And how Willa hated her - to the extent she arranged to have her fall through a frozen lake. She remembers Wynonna rescuing her, which Wynonna doesn’t.

Of course Wynonna insists she’s still an Earp.

Wynonna also goes to her doctor’s appointment where she continues to freak out over the possibility of having a child. The doctor catches on her anxiety and tries to offer her options - like adoption - but Wynonna is just completely spooked by the whole possibility and just runs out

And then vanishes, apparently into a black truck, leaving blood behind. Dolls is… perturbed.

E gives all the details to Sheriff Nedly who still manages to be low key awesome and he identifies the truck as belonging to Juan Carlo… so it’s probably ok since he’s a good guy. Dolls is less safe and checks in with the order at their fire station since Juan Carlo runs them - but they’re pretty much opting out as well. They fight demons. This isn’t a demon issue so they’re out. Dolls is not amused - “neutral men are the devil’s ally” is a nice quote.

Wynonna does manage to leave a message for him identifying where.

She has sort of being kidnapped (the blood on the floor is from Juan-Carlo - Wynonna smacked him one) by Juan Carlo - who was moved to act after the Widows dropped in to see him (he says “I put you in a box” showing some connection) and one bit him. They want the next seal

Juan-Carlo takes her to an abandoned church but he insists that everything she do be of her free will. Though he presents her with choices which she can’t say no to - truth about the widows, the Earp curse, pretty much everything. Free will but no real choice there

She goes in, badge and gun in tow, and says the words - and appears in the past as a ghost to see everything

And we mean everything

Starting with Bobo, antagonist of season 1 and serious Wyatt Earp fanboi back in his living days trying to get Doc to come help Wyatt take on the literally demonic sheriff of Purgatory and Doc not being a fan since he’s all grumpy and maudlin.

Then to Purgatory itself - Wyatt has managed to shoot and defeat the Sheriff there, evil Sheriff Clootie but his three evil wives (the Widows) are on the warpath and it’s down to the local preacher to deal with them

That local preacher would be Juan Carlo - damn I was wrong, looks like he isn’t an angel after all.

There’s a lot of back and forth here and revelation after revelation all really well done and drawing on all the questions of the last season - but to put it all together:

Wyatt shot the demon Clootie and then bound him in the Earth with some magical help from Constance Clootie, one of Clootie’s wives. Yes Constance is the Stone Witch that Doc had so much trouble with. While Constance hates Wyatt for the death of her sons, she can prioritise and imprisoning her husband was up on the list.

To keep the demon Clootie down Constance made three seals and she, Bobo and Juan-Carlo hid them in separate places. This is the man the two Widows wish to resurrect.

She also helped Juan-Carlo in imprisoning the two Widows in a box which could only be broken with a force of nature (or the explosives Doc used while visiting the Black Badge Facility)

Killjoys, Season 3, Episode 5: Attack on the Rack

Time for the war to get into full swing - starting with kidnapping three Rack captains (and I do love Dutch tipping the sex worker one was with at the time. Less so that we’re clearly supposed to be shocked, disgusted or think less of Captain Cardiff because he’s into pegging)

The three captains (Cardiff and two silent nameless people) run Racks and have been kidnapped so Turin, assisted by Fancy, can expose the Hullen to them so they can clear out their own Racks. They have a captured Hullen to show this special healing power and warn them that everything is terrible and they need to take steps (after proving that Cardiff & co are not Hullen because they bleed).

And they’re going to launch a masterclass by cleansing their own Rack. The plan is, Johnny breaks into the Rack, unleashes paralytic gas then Dutch leads a few squads of loyal Killjoys (techs?) to spoke them all and brutally murder the ones who Hullen heal

Sounds like a plan. And it starts well - the gas is released

And then all the Hullen get up and start killing people - including Benjy one of the two sacrificial grunts on Dutch’s squad so she can feel all sadness that she didn’t keep the extras alive. Oh Dutch, if you dressed then in red shirts you wouldn’t feel so bad.

So with most of the extras duly dead we can get to focus on the core team + 1 extra. They look at the dead Hullen bodies and find they’ve all been taking lots of anti-paralytics - which means Dutch & co have a mole in their organisation

They start moving through the Rack but are ambushed leaving Dutch to continue alone after convoluted circumstances have her remove a number of her clothes of course

That leaves Johnny and D’avin to be tortured (Johnny’s brains being painfully wiped) while the last red shirt is killed after being revealed to be the mole. Well that was easy. They also remind us that all Hullen are evil yet united so are definitely not a good thing in case

Honestly the amount of time torturers waste on dramatic monologues that serve only to remind us how evil they are.

Also I wish to express my objection of sexy guys being tortured by being tied fully clothed to chairs and having sci-fi lights shine on them while they act in pain. Whips and chains exist, folks! And leather! And rac… ok I’ll stop now

So Dutch keeps moving through the ship and finds the Genetic Bomb from last season which Turin just left in a drawer somewhere with all those flat batteries and pens that have run out of ink (I can’t be the only one who keeps those, right?). She takes it and some weapon to go for some more wandering through the ship until she runs into Banyon

The two fight while Dutch rants about he’s totally going to take down the Hullen and then stabs Banyon

Who bleeds and doesn’t heal

Yes, Banyon is human. And the whole reason why she joined to clean up this Rack is she’s been trying to investigate Level 6 since forever and she suspected Dutch was involved

Yes they can now be besties. Banyon can be a mentor figure. They’re excellent and strong and intelligent and completely get over the whole stabbing thing and Banyon is now totally team Dutch and this is going to be amazing - MAKE IT SO

Killjoys Banyon had better survive that stab wound. If she dies we will have Issues.

Dutch finally gets round to freeing Johnny - but D’avin has already been taken away after demonstrating his ability to explode Hullen eyes with his brain

So what are Dutch and Johnny to do when it’s just them, lots of Hullen and a genetic bomb that kills everyone with a certain genetic code that they conveniently stumbled across even though it’s quite bemusing that this was stored along side pistols?

The Mist, Season One, Episode Six: The Devil You Know

Because of The Mist is not a reasonable answer to all of the events that took place in this episode.  From the very beginning, The Mist has had its characters jump to feelings of immediate peril and act in ways that seem far out of proportion from what they've personally witnessed.  Unlike the 2007 movie of the same name, a television show has time to expand upon a plot and slowly move towards a crescendo.  The pacing at this point is absolutely horrid and has destroyed any kind of enjoyment in this show.

The cast continues to be large, unwieldy and divided. In a show of this nature, a large cast is necessary because it will require a large rate of attrition. The entire point is to have The Mist ever so slowly cause death and unbalance among the cast members but it seems as though the writers just want to do 0 to 60, bribing the audience each week with a few good shots.  This week for instance, we got the Mist coming out of Mia's mother's smashed in head and the Mist coming through the key hole of a door.  Yes, those scenes were awesome and added to the whole creep out factor but it's not enough to making for the continual problem of bad pacing. 

At the church, Link takes his concerns about Nathalie's idea about the mist to Father Romanov, who has seperated himself from his parishioners.  It's clear that Link feels that Romanov is shirking his duties by hiding in his office and that the only way they're going to get through this is by prostrating themselves before God. Before this episode, Link showed absolutely no signs of being some kind of freaked out religious fundamentalist but the writers escalated this minor character in order to increase the already overly tense situation between Romanov and Nathalie.  Unsurprisingly, it turned out that Nathalie can handle herself just fine and though she had to endure a slap across the face, she had no problems sacrificing Link to the Mist and then playing feeble old woman in need of protection, thus triggering Police chief Connor Heisel's protective instincts. Connor may no longer see himself as a cop but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel a drive to protect others.  

Speaking of Connor, it's clear that he saw something in the Mist and he is slowly bonding with Nathalie, even as Romanov tries to remind him of civilisation by talking about being by his wife's beside when she was dying.  Romanov is trying to play on Connor's sense of loyalty by pointing out that he didn't let the Heisel family down and that Connor's wife was faithful to God, even in the face of an early death from cancer.  It's clearly manipulative and Connor sees right through it.  At this time however, it's worth pointing out that Connor made such a big deal about Mia and Bryan being criminals in episode four and yet by episode six, with no explanation, he's ready to take off the badge that clearly means so much to him without us seeing any further escalation which would engender such feelings.

At the mall, Alex and Eve decide to work out their angst riddled relationship with a little shopping and why not, they're in a mall. Alex wants to know why the smoke monster bypassed her and is certain that this means that there's something wrong with her. Look, I get Alex is a teen but really? Couldn't the reason be that there's something special about her rather than something wrong? Who whines about not being eaten by a mist monster? 

Eve decides that since the shopping trip distracted Alex that the residents of the mall need some distraction as well. She prints off some pamphlets encouraging citizens to stay indoors, making it look as though the pamphlets came from the government or the military. Gus catches Eve at this task and Eve of course responds with snark, causing Gus to wonder how they got there. Yeah, I wanna know how you got there as well Gus. When the residents of the mall find the pamphlets, conveniently just next to the doors, they experience a sense of relief as a cautious Gus looks on.  This of course is going to come back to haunt both Gus and Eve.

Zoo, Season 3, Episode 5, Drop it Like it's Hot

The news is reporting on all the drama of the last episode by saying New York is the latest city to be “ravaged” by flying hybrids

Ravaged? Methinks that’s a trifle exaggeration I think. I’ve seen more violence at footbal games.

The hyrbids are currently chasing the drone on the improbably expensive plane and my they can fly fast to keep up. The gang hastily hatches a plan to drop the drone in the Mexican volcano

These would be the eruption causing volcano birds. They’re  going to drop in a volcano. Yes. Yes they are.

With all the birds smacking the plane (which just causes rumbling… I mean a moderate sized goose can take down a plane if it hits the engine - all of these giant birds just bounce off) then our torture monkey in the basement (this plane has a basement, just run with it) manages to escape and hide in one of Jamie’s flash cars.

The same car Abe, Dariela and Jackson put the drone into and drop into a volcano

Oops.

The hilarious thing is that this is everyone’s reaction! Abe, Mitch, Jackson, Jamie “we just dropped a guy in a volcano!” “whoops, how embarrassing!”

Abe, Dariela and Jackson also do some secret sharing: Isaac is imprisoned and Abigail is Jackson’s sister. Jackson has embraced this weird sense of responsibility for the evil stuff his sister does and somehow this takes priority over saving Isaac. So this ends up with Jackson going down to the volcano, coincidentally running into Tessa again who just happens to be passing through this part of Mexico. As you do

They want to convince the remaining residents to evacuate from the volcano and while doing so get to spend some time bonding including Tessa explaining why she’s extra pissed at his dad because she always always wanted to be a mother and now can’t be; while Jackson brings out a tragic dead family from is-this-the-first-time-it’s-been-mentioned land? I mean shouldn’t this have come up before at some point? Is this a hasty copy and pase job?

Anyway, duly sad and bonded again they go to an old woman who is known as a witch because she can apparently control the hybrids. Eerily they see that the volcanic ash and smoke also hasn’t reached her little clearing. When introduced she asks Jackson if he is Mr. Duncan. Jackson says yes, because why not? So the nice men with the big guns take him to a shipping container where they have a giant baboon hybrid locked up - and it speaks and knows Jackson’s name and I just don’t know any more. Talking baboons! Here’s lots of action and fighting and Jackson destroys the clicker thing he uses to control his trained lions and Tessa tries to appeal to them because he’s Abigail’s sister and everything is confusing and nothing works

So Jackson calls his lions. Without any machine, just using his woo-woo - definitive proof he has woo-wooo

Of course I would like to point out controlling lions is nothing compared to the fact the last time we saw these they were in Seattle and now they’re, where, Yucatan? Teleporting lions!

Outcast, Season 2, Episode 9: This is How It Starts

The main storyline here is Rose and Giles. Because Rose is being utterly torn up and traumatised by the fact that she killed her best friend. Yes he was possessed but still her friend - the horror of it is eating at her, consuming her and it’s really well acted as she tries to deal with this.

All the while Giles s supportive and loving and caring and trying to help her

And then she gets sick - of course the opening symptoms of flu also resemble the opening symptoms of possession. Giles panics and calls Kyle - who can’t get there because of other plot lines - and Rose insists she be restrained. Through it all the emotion and the acting is so powerful here

Eventually she convinces him she was just ill and gets free - and she seems to have been right - but when she is apart from him she commits suicide.

When Kyle arrives and starts to blame himself for being late Giles denies it - he says that Rose killed herself not because she was possessed but because every day there was a possibility she would be. He hates what she did - but he respects her choice to make this decision

And that, everyone,is a grade A Marginalsied Swan Song. Take a marginalised character who has been pretty peripheral to the cast, suddenly put them front and centre even have a beautiful, emotional, powerful goodbye scene - and then kill them. This is not ok. No matter how beautiful and emotional and deep the bond between her and Giles is, it’s clearly being thrown in too belatedly and too shallowly to properly develop this character.

Kyle didn’t attend on account of being kidnapped by Blake who is doing his very best to be the worst character on this show. The possessed woman he questioned last episode he has now kidnapped and is assaulting, abusing and sexually assaulting her - why? I mean, he’s completely fixated on Kyle, why throw in this completely characterless (does she even have a name?) woman just for him to abuse? Do the writers think we won’t realise he’s a bad guy without him threatening a random woman with rape? This is a trope, this reduces the woman to a tool and is just unnecessary. Yes she helps Kyle escape (and then vanishes) but the man with the burning hands couldn’t finangle his own escape?

After rambling a lot Blake is apparently getting visions because why not. There’s nothing like a good vision to drag the plot along when you’re out of ideas. Anyway captured plot device frees Kyle, Blake is thoroughly beaten and he escapes to run to Dr. Park

Shards of Hope (Psy/Changeling #14) by Nalini Singh

Aden is the leader of the Arrow Squad, the most dangerous and highly trained Psy on the planet. When he and his fellow Arrow, Zaira, wake wounded and captured they know there’s a new enemy out there they have to stop

Of course, holding an Arrow isn’t easy.

While bringing down this new enemy is a focus of the squad, Aden has a deeper mission: how to help his Arrows, his damaged, dangerous, Arrows, adapt to this new world without Silence and hope they can finally find a future and a home; an idea that has become alien to them.

There’s a lot about this book I loved - because this is a story that has been brewing for a while - the story of the Arrow Squad. We had an introduction with Vasic but this really does take their story to the next level of detail.

With the Fall of Silence and with the Arrows going from whispered, almost mythological, force hiding in the shadows to being very open and involved in dealing with the problems of the fall of silence it’s such a huge shift for them

The Arrows themselves are such an excellent representation of the challenges of Silence. All of them have lethal, terrifying powers and were given the strictest and most brutal of training and the most rigid Silence to actually survive them. If anyone cannot live without Silence, it is the Arrows - not only are they powerful and dangerous but they’ve also been deeply traumatised pretty much from birth because torture is how they’re trained

Damaged, lethal, rigidly controlled - it’s going to be hard for them. What I really liked in particular was Aden and Zaira learning how to even behave around children, how to raise children, how to learn the basic thing about them. With all Arrows recruited as very small children and tortured by the program since then the very alienness of play is perhaps more stark than any depictions of the torture they suffered

From that I also liked the little offshoots of concern - like how the older Arrows will manage with this changing world they don’t seem to fit in. Or what to do with those members of the squad who have been so utterly hurt that they’re not entirely functional.

And then there’s those whose Silence did actually cover up a monster - the emotionless killers who secretly enjoyed it. How do you find them and what do you do with them?

I do think that, perhaps, this was just a little but simplistic in some issues, especially in relation to Psy with dangerous powers. I mean, we had Psy literally fearing their own extinction due to their rates of suicide, mental illness and violent crime as well as uncontrolled dangerous powers - this is while Silence was enacted. So introducing their hyper-dangerous Arrow children to having to write essays as punishment just seems… well if that worked then why would the Psy have ever enacted Silence. I think it would have been better if we had seen them incorporating more of the lessons, mental exercises etc of Silence to show WHY these tactics work now.

Travelers, Season One, Episode Four: Hall

Very early on we learned that there are several Traveler cells in the past working to avert what ever disaster has lead to the near extinction of humanity.  The Director is the person from the future assigning tasks and has clearly established protocols to be followed. One of them is that Traveler teams are not to be in contact with each other.  The cell that we are currently following are new to the mission and just like us (read: the viewer) they have a lot of assumptions about what their job entails and how the different Traveler groups are meant to interact with each other. This week, MacLaren's leadership is really tested for the first time and he has to decide how much he's going to stick to the rules. 

MacLaren and Forbes are on a stake out and they watch a shady deal go down between two groups. Forbes is confused because it looks like the shady deal is about car parts but it clearly has something to do with future tech.  Things go south quickly when one group tries to steal the tech and a shoot out occurs. MacLaren and Forbes leave their position and move to deal with the aftermath. When MacLaren approaches a man who is dying on the ground, he gets a message from the director. MacLaren tells Forbes that he is going to chase the party who got away and suggests that Forbes stay behind and wait for back up. You know damn well that MacLaren is going to get caught in a lie sooner rather than later at the rate at which bullshit just falls from his lips. Anyway, MacLaren gets into contact with Philip and Marcy to help out with their new mission. Philip is tasked with finding the messengers coordinates, and Marcy with grabbing her medical bag. It's Carly with impressive cache of weapons who picks up Marcy because Philip is still recovering from being shot.

When MacLaren arrives on scene he discovers that the Traveler he's been ordered to assist is one of the men from the exchange he and Forbes had been watching go down. Hall the leader of the cell and Carter, aren't exactly welcoming to MacLaren when he first enters, unsure about whether or not MacLaren is actually a Traveler. They're particularly suspicious because the mission was given to MacLaren by an adult and only children can pass messages from the future. MacLaren explains that giving the message killed the already dying man.  Given the seriousness of Luca's injuries, Carter and Hall decide that they really have no choice but to trust MacLaren. 

Now that trust has been established, MacLaren wants to know exactly how Carter, Hall and Luca ended up in this position.  It turns out that  Carter, Hall and Luca were on a mission to get a piece of tech and pass it on to another cell. The Russian travelers were in a difficult position because with their historian dead, they were in a tight spot in terms of cash. Now we know why Philip has memorized the outcome of so many sporting events and even winning lottery combinations. Hall agreed to give Russians money for passing on the tech but the Russians decided to turn on Hall's cell in the hopes of selling the tech to someone else. This really throws MacLaren because if Hall is to be believed, it means that Traveler cells are turning on each other.  So much for the greater good I suppose. 

MacLaren's reaction to learning that Travelers turn on each other is enough to alert Hall to the fact that MacLaren must be a new arrival and so he immediately seeks to throw his weight around. A small argument ensues about the damage to the tech but it is brought quickly to an end by the arrival of Marcy and Carly. Hall, Carter and Luca's problems are about to get a lot worse because Marcy doesn't have the equipment she needs to be able to treat Luca and they cannot go to the hospital because they have a criminal record. If that were not enough, Carter is bleeding internally. 

Maclaren steps aside when he gets a call from Forbes to inform him that there are three dead bodies at the scene.  MacLaren lies to Forbes AGAIN and claims that he lost the car that he was chasing. In the meantime, Marcy has been working on Luca but has been unable to remove the bullet. At this point, Marcy is certain that if she operates on Luca that he will die. The only solution is to use Carter's blood to save Luca's life and since Carter is coughing up blood, he's going to die anyway. Hall isn't pleased with his options but he chooses to go along with it. Marcy spends the night operating while MacLaren heads off to run interference. 

Trevor, who hasn't been involved in this latest mess is spending the day adjusting to his new life. Trevor is out on the track with his friend and dude can really run. Unfortunately, when Trevor tries to throw a football, it turns out that he didn't inherit his host's skills. Trevor gets a visit from Mrs. Day, one of his teachers about a meeting she has set up with Trevor and his parents regarding his academic achievement. 

Having done her part to aid Marcy, Carly is on her way home when she is ambushed by Jeff.  Clearly having not learned anything from his first few interactions with the new Carly, Jeff tries to be physically aggressive, only to find himself bent over in pain when Carly responds by kicking him in the nuts. Carly makes it clear that they are no longer a couple and that if he wants to see his son, he needs to start paying child support before driving off. 

Philip is still going through his own issues with adjustment to his new life. Philip gets a visit from Ray, who has brought percs with him.  Unfortunately, Ray's visit gives him a chance to check out the list of names and dates that Philip has written on the wall. Ray incorrectly assumes that this list has something to do with Philip's ability to so accurately place bets. Sensing Philip's vulnerability, Ray is able to blackmail Philip into giving him some more winning bets to place. 

For some reason, Jeff decides that he is going to interrogate Marcy because he's made a connection between her beating down her assailants and Carly's sudden ability to defend herself and defy him.  I really think that the writers are stretching this connection really thin because there's no real reason that Jeff should assume anything in common between Carly and Marcy. Marcy dodges all of Jeff's questions and so he changes tactics and brings up that Marcy is living with her social worker. Jeff ponders if Marcy is doing so well, why she is living with David. At this point, I really want to see Jeff take another shot to the nads. Jeff points out that Marcy's living arrangements would make David guilty of fraternization and could lead to David's dismissal. Rather than answering Jeff, Marcy answers her phone and walks off. The call is about Luca, who accidentally opened his stitches up in his sleep. Marcy returns and stitches Luca back up.

Shadowhunters, Season 2, Episode 17: A Dark Reflection

Clary now has visions nightmares because she isn’t special enough. And she needs more sexual tension with Jace.

She’s also all torn up about leanring her brother Jonathan is actually still alive! Yay! But he’s also been injected with demon blood which is probably not good. He’s also been raised by Valentine completely alone who is super duper evil. Therefore he’s probably Made of Evil and terrifying and we should stab him repeatedly

So Clary wants to find him and hug him.

Because Clary’s logic train doesn’t so much derail as it does spontaneously combust while carrying nuclear material.

Basically, whatever the worst possible decision you could make in a situation? That’s what Clary does. It is known.

Jocelyn kept a box of baby keepsakes for Jonathan but disguised Jonathan/Sebastian has intelligently raided it to make sure they can’t track him. How very forward thinking of him.

Alas this means we have to track in on Jonathan and Valentine- and it appears that Johnny boys issues have grown exponentially with Valentine around (which makes sense since Valentine is pretty much the source of all of his issues). His desperate need for validation and family and to be seen as a hero or a good guy are yelled out and Valentine desperately has to tip-toe around his raging dangerous super powered son to manipulate him

First they’re trying to get Cleophas, Luke’s sister who fell off the planet but is apparently in Valentine’s custody, to fix the Genocide Sword - which she can’t do (this would mean undoing Clary’s work and she is the total bestest). His mind control serum (of course he has that) isn’t working well on her because Iron Sister Mojo. this also allows her to send off a fire message, but not escape. She also takes the opportunity to taunt Jonathan and say how Clary is so special and smarter than he will ever be.

So Valentine resorts to plan B - if you have the Sword the Cup and the Mirror you can do badass cosplay. Also you can summon the Archangel Raziel and ask him for whatever you want. This would be bad.

Since they have the cup and the sword they now need the mirror. Which means beating up a warlock called Elliot who apparently knows where it is. Elliot uses inefficient magical suicide rather than tell them where the mirror is. Really, Valentine and Jonathan just kind of watch him chant a like 5 minute death spell and all they can do is yell at him.

He doesn’t actually have the mirror, he has a sigil on his arm which shows the location which now vanishes.

Over to Alec Jace and Clary and we recap the above - what the shiny objects can do when lined up together and how the Clave totally doesn’t have the sword

Clary: ZOMG THE CLAVE LIED! I AM SHOCKED! SHOCKED!

Uh-huh.