#1x02 Out of the Past

[brinleyparke]

Casual Outfit Inspired by Josef Kostan

This outfit is inspired by Josef's casual outfit when he meets up with Mick after Lee Jay breaks into Mick's apartment in episode 2 "Out of the Past". Since Josef is filthy rich, I chose only high-end/luxury items. The shirt is Versace, the jeans are Alice + Olivia, the jacket is Blumarine, the boots are Steve Madden, the belt is Prada, the earrings are Bliss Diamond, the lipstick is Chanel, and the mascara is Too Faced.

[brinleyparke]

Same about the whole Mick calling himself a monster thing. He does it in eps 1 and 3, too.

I love Mick 70s-80s style, too. I like his how he dressed in present-day (present at the time it was filmed), too:

I also wish we had more Bobby scenes.

I had the same thought about the 25 year old bottle.

I never noticed the lemons and apples, or at least I never acknowledged them. But he does have a coffee maker and coffee because he makes some for Beth and Josh. I also assumed it was for clients.

Lee Jay is the worst.

I love Josef's casual style, too. It's not a far cry from Mick's casual style. (See gifs above).

Now that I think about it, it is pretty funny that Beth barely knows Mick but trusts him anyway and is willing to risk everything for him.

I also assumed he robbed a blood bank. Or he maybe he had emergency packs in his car or something.

I have a headcanon that he called Josef after Beth presumably runs off after finding out he's a vampire.

Mick in that final scene made my heart physically hurt. The way he is hunched over himself and staggering out of the elevator shows the agony that he must be in. The scene made me hurt not just because of his obvious physical pain but also because of the shame in his body language and his voice when Beth came into the room. Alex's acting here is 💯 Oscar worthy.

I love Josef's protectiveness and tough love in this episode.

There is a goof in the scene where Lee Jay shoots Mick. We see Mick get shot in the front of one shoulder, but when he turns and falls onto his front, the holes are on the opposite shoulder.

Moonlight rewatch for millionth time

Episode 2 random thoughts and feelings I had while rewatching again: cause I’m bored and have nothing else to do or watch. And I love this show

Mick: monsters don’t get happy ever after. Me: Stop saying you’re a monster! Stop it now

I like Mick’s early 80’s look, it had a 1970ish vibe to it

I know Mick probably panicked but he should have just snapped Lee Jays neck before running off

I like how Beth’s like talk about my feelings? No I’d rather get to work bye lol same girl

I think I’ve said it before but I think Beth purposely picked out a 25 year old single malt to maybe catch Mick in a lie or maybe get some sort of reaction from him

I wish we got more Bobby scenes

My head canon is that Logan and Mick met over World or Warcraft and Mick beat Logan who then threatened Mick (think end game with Thor) and Mick was like oh okay I’m so scared then Logan hacked him and went to his place and was like oh shit my bad uh friends? When he realized Mick was also a vampire

I love him but Mick really needs to think things through before he acts

Ilene deserved better I’m glad she gets justice in the end

Lee Jay in fact did not understand

Mick says vampires don’t have a club house that they hang out at and yet we have this episode where we have vampires at a club that has freshies then several episodes later another club where they all play pool. So what’s the difference?

I never noticed this before but Mick had random lemons in his fridge

There’s like four or five of them in there. It’s most likely for clients that come over but he also has green apples in there too.

Lee Jay is the worst

I like Josef’s casual style in the way that something about it still feels very expensive and true to Josef’s personality

I like how Beth is a ride or die when it comes to Mick. She’s only known him a week but she’s already willing to break the law and go against her boyfriend and friend to help prove his innocence

I wonder what happened to Julia after this episode, I’m sure she went to therapy for everything that happened but it’s just strange we never see her again especially when Josh died

Is it bad that when Mick is running and jumping on the rooftop that StarWars bad lip reading of Yoda singing “now run jump” etc etc was playing in my head? Lol

Where did Mick get that blood packet from and why didn’t he get help for the silver buckshots in his body? Did he just rob a blood bank ? Because I highly doubt Guillermo would let his friend go off on his own in such a vulnerable situation

I like how they didn’t drag out the vampire secret for very long. Sometimes I feel like when writers and directors drag things out like that for too long it becomes a bit stale once things are actually revealed

[becoach-a]

actually wait i'm not sure where beard lives in relation to ted, and i have no idea where the pub is in relation to ted

[spaceprincessleia]

Skeleton Crew 1x02 | Way, Way Out Past the Barrier

[waltricia]

3x03 — Forces of Nature

“Call Me Simon” has been my favorite piece of scoring from the show. I’ve listened to it on repeat sooooo many times, particularly during the past few months. It plays in 1x02 while Simon watches Daphne dance with other men. As Bridgerton scoring goes, I think this piece sticks out. There’s something very mystical and haunting about it. There are elements of it that sound like a clock, tick-tocking and then striking midnight. And I think that makes sense for that season 1 episode because it’s Simon’s flashback episode, and that scene leads into the final flashback.

Although the thought crossed my mind that this song could possibly be brought back, I was really not expecting it to. So when it came up for this Polin scene, I bounced around my apartment for ten minutes.

And it fits so well, especially considering the clock aspect because time is beginning to run out for Colin.

Not only was it brought back, and not only does it fit for the scene, it was mixed beautifully. During the close-up shots of Pen’s lips and Colin’s eyes, my favorite sound effect, the heartbeat, is layered onto the scoring. Those sounds bring us in closer to the moment. And when Debling takes Pen’s hand, the song goes hollow and spins out in a way that makes my blood run cold and gives me full-body shivers.

And then it’s followed by the Happier Than Ever cover- another haunting song that I think pairs perfectly with it.

10/10. Brilliant.

[lets-steal-an-archive]

I doubt this'll get far enough to reach anyone who might have anything kicking around but yelling into the void has worked before (e.g. Supernatural, The X-Files, bonus X-Files):

Back in June 2024 TV Writing added a nice little set of 12 Xena: Warrior Princess scripts.

I made the four scripts Cousin Liz shared many years ago into pdfs and sent them to TV Writing, they were added in October 2024.

In December I stumbled on a new upload of the 2008 Photobucket images of "The God You Know" shared by LadyKate63 and made the draft where all of the page numbers were visible into a pdf. I sent that along with the first and last of season one to TV Writing:

Xena Warrior Princess 1x01 - Sins of the Past (READ NOW)

Xena Warrior Princess 1x24 - Is There a Doctor in the House (READ NOW)

Xena Warrior Princess 6x12 - The God You Know (READ NOW)

Finally, my question:

In celebration of the pilot first airing on 13 March 1995, is there anyone out there who still has any of the Creation Entertainment scripts from Xena: Warrior Princess kicking around that they'd be willing to email* to TV Writing, XenaGabrielle, and/or me?

—

Update 02/23/2025:

We're up to 42 Xena scripts, 6 Hercules (crossover episode) scripts, and 3 Xena outlines/beat sheets!

Beat Sheets, Outlines, Misc. Unproduced:

Xena: Warrior Princess 2x00 - The Last Days of Socrates (Unproduced Episode Outline)

Xena: Warrior Princess 4x07 - Locked Up and Tied Down (Outline)

Xena: Warrior Princess 6x11 - Dangerous Prey (Beat Sheet)

Xena: Warrior Princess 6x00 - Fallen (Unproduced Episode)

—

*If you send any you'd be willing to share directly to TV Writing he won't tell who donated what (e.g. less than a month after he added almost all of the remaining the latest drafts of the Supernatural collection, someone scanned and emailed Supernatural 6x01 and he hasn't shared who donated it to me, one of the original lunatics who started building that collection in 2019 and retired the project in 2024).

**The owner of XenaGabrielle will also change the contributor info to me, when I cold email fan collectors working on a public script collection I use the old project account.

[raayllum]

The way as soon as Callum brings up their separation for the first time since... ever, honestly, to her, Rayla apologizes for the first thing she can think of that also feels safe. She can't Apologize for leaving because that's too loaded, and she was trying to protect him, but... A little callback to "You know you can't sneak up on me?" (1x02) as well.

And then the very next thing out of his mouth, which again is very neutral overall, gets another apology. "I know my leaving hurt you" / "I know, I'm sorry". She clearly would've apologized for every word that came out of his mouth no matter how minor or heartfelt. But Callum's decided that what's past is past, and that Rayla - realistically - was always going to leave, but what they can do is move forward together now that she's always going to do everything in her power to come back (and not leave again, either).

So that's exactly what they're going to do.

With plenty of heart eyes of course

[amuseoffyre]

Just had a little epiphany about why Stede reacted so intensely the way he did on Calypso's birthday night.

We know from his past experience that he's been deeply unhappy for a long, long time. He has a habit of removing himself from a situation when he's upset/distressed, so he can hide away alone rather than face the scorn of others, which is cemented by the fact he was emotionally abused by his father for showing negative/'weak' emotions and bullied by the Badmintons for crying.

Mary said herself that she thought she had heard him crying sometimes when he was alone at night. Specifically it was in the past tense - she'd heard him and only approached him about it later.

Alone is the key part here.

He's always been on his own. He's never had people really show concern or check in with him when he was having a hard time. More often than not, they would laugh or belittle him for it, so he's become used to squashing down the emotions and taking them somewhere to hunker down and let himself have his grief and distress in isolation: after Jack upsets him, when Ed's shaved in the academy, after they escape from Zheng.

The crew had to help out in 1x01 but even then it was out of necessity and obligation. The closest we really came to anyone intervening before Ed was in 1x02 when he has a complete breakdown in front of everyone, so they don't have a choice but to stop and Olu explains what happened to the chief.

The only time someone actively comes looking for him when he was upset is at the academy. Ed finds him on the beach and says, relieved, "there you are" and we know how that scene ended.

No wonder Stede reacts the way he does at Calypso's Birthday - the scenes really do run parallel from start to finish:

Stede is distressed and runs. Ed watches him go, hesitates, then goes after him. Stede marinades in guilt/grief and seems surprised when Ed shows up. Ed reassures him and offers his emotional support and assurance that he'll be all right. Kisses.

Stede is distressed but he's no longer alone. He can be upset and someone will care enough to come after him and comfort him and love him enough to make sure he's all right. No wonder he got caught up in it, knowing that someone cares and cherishes him despite everything. And no wonder Ed reciprocated, seeing such a tangible expression of passion from Stede.

[miamc]

the writing says mike loved el from the moment he found her in the woods which would be the ending of 1x01. finn says the love came “after he found out all the craziness about her” which would be middle of 1x02…so do you not realize that either way you slice it, mike fell in love with el immediately in S1? whether it happened in 1 second or 1 day is irrelevant, the point is mike has been in love with her the entirety of the show. we as the viewers know mike loves her before he tells her because we see him blurt it out while she’s not in the room. do you think the writers had him blurt out something that wasn’t true while he was ranting about his feelings?? that’s not how tv works.

mike explicitly said that when he first saw el, he knew right then and there that he loved her. that’s a lie. he didn’t love her at the end of s1 one either as the season place over the course of a week. do you really think mike fell in love with el in 7 days during the most stressful time of his life? even if you like mileven and wholeheartedly believe that they’re in love, there’s no way you can think that that happened so early on. that would have come much later at least around the ending of season 2 and the beginning of season 3?

you said it’s irrelevant whether it happened in one second or one day as if that’s what this is about. both of those are ridiculously untrue. it didn’t happen in one second, it didn’t happen in one day, it didn’t happen in a week, and it didn’t happen in a year.

even if you love mileven, don’t mistake grief, guilt, and basic human empathy for romantic love. and also, working under the assumption that byler is happening, obviously finn isn’t going to spoil it. the answer he gave was very lacklustre and dull and if i was a fan of mileven i would be disappointed and confused. especially since it contradicts the monologue from the show.

and if the monologue was genuine and worked then why would el ignore him afterwards? they explicitly show us that el is ignoring mike. she walks past him into her room and mike comments on it. why would that be? she just got what she’d been asking for the entire season, so why would she be mad? why wouldn’t she and mike have a heart to heart after that? it doesn’t make any sense. the only possible conclusion to draw from this is that there was something about the monologue that el did not like and it was significant enough for her to not speak to mike at all after that. the season ended without them even talking after the monologue.

it would have been more believable if mike said that he fell in love with el during snowball scene or when she returned in s2. but he didn’t. instead he chose to say something incredibly cliched and explicitly untrue. he said what he said because he was panicking and he thought el was dying. and even then he had to be pushed into it by will.

so like it or not, the “big show stopping” monologue of the season which should rely on mike being honest and vulnerable, was not only prompted by will’s lie, but also had a major lie from mike himself.

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things (1x02): “The Weirdo on Maple Street” Review

Just like the previous episode, this one contains neat homages and references to different 80s movies that help lay out the structure of the show and its story without overshadowing it. It also incorporates unique call-forwards to future episodes (specifically in season 4) that, when viewed again on rewatch (especially having seen the play The First Shadow), recontextualizes the entire mytharc.

Ironically, despite the name of this episode deriving from a famous Twilight Zone episode, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” they have very little in common plot-wise with each other, and the themes present in that particular episode will come into play later in season 4, specifically with Jason’s witch hunt against the Hellfire Club.

Part 1: Mike, Dustin, and Lucas meet El

The interactions at the beginning between El, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas is a combination of both amusing (since they’re 12 year old boys who are implied to have never really talked to girls their age) and gives some initial insight into each character.

Mike is the one who comes off the most empathetic to El’s plight in this situation (note that he took off his coat earlier and wrapped it around El to keep her warm). He’s genuinely concerned over why she’s out in the rain looking scared with barely any clothes on (save Benny’s T-shirt), and he’s the the one who gives her clothes to wear. I also think it’s interesting that, when El refuses to have the door to the bathroom closed for privacy, Mike agrees to keep the door open slightly.

I know this is often attributed by most of the fandom to Hopper since he’s the one who makes a big stink in season 3 about El having her door open three inches (something that’s played as a recurring joke), but this episode introduces it first with Mike’s arrangement with El, as well as El’s desire for a semi-open door due to the trauma of being locked in solitary confinement at the Lab (as we’ll see later on).

By contrast, Lucas and Dustin come off as insensitive, even though that likely wasn’t their intention. Dustin’s dialogue about El, from asking out-loud whether she has cancer due to short hair, or if she’s deaf, or even if she slept naked, indicates he views her in the moment as a curiosity. That curiosity certainly peaks when he later finds out she has powers, and he will eventually move past this initial perception of her. Lucas is a lot blunter in openly noting that El doesn’t act like a normal girl, speculates that she came from Pennhurst (the asylum which would later make an appearance in the season 4 episode “Dear Billy”), and uses phrases like “psycho” “freak” “weirdo” and “something wrong in the head with her” (The latter phrase would later be used by the Duffer Brothers to describe Angela in S4, although that had less to do with mental illness in Angela’s case and more to do with her being a genuinely vile human being).

While we're on this topic………let’s discuss Lucas’s initial attitude towards El, and how the fandom reacted towards it.

I am aware of the negativity that got directed at Lucas in the first season because of this, to the point that even Caleb McLaughlin was not only painfully aware of it, but was even on the receiving end of fandom racism because of it. It doesn’t help that some of these fans who trashed Lucas in this season would later go on to defend Billy in season 2, and either pretend that his racism towards Lucas wasn’t a thing, or use Lucas’s initial behavior towards El as a justification for why it was okay for Billy to treat Lucas like shit. I am deeply sorry Caleb was on the receiving end of that at a young age, and he deserved a helluva lot better than having to put up with that kind of racist bullshit.

While I wasn’t happy about the terminology Lucas used to describe El, it’s important to note he is 12 at this point. Like any kid his age, he is going to say stuff that, in hindsight, comes off as insensitive at best, and hurtful at worst. A lot of this can be chalked up to ignorance surrounding mental health issues and abuse, as well as the fact he’s facing a freaky situation with someone who isn’t acting in a way considered ‘normal.’ The result is falling back on stereotypes and cliches about abnormal people that he likely picked up from movies like John Carpenter’s Halloween (which is referenced in the comparison Lucas and Dustin make between El and Michael Myers) and other kids his age who discussed that stuff with the same levels of ignorance.

Third, just like with Steve (who acts callously insensitive at different points in this episode), Lucas is being presented with flaws and biases that he must overcome. This is how a character arc is supposed to work. They start out one way, undergo a journey, are forced to confront their flaws, realize they need to make a change, and apply those lessons to become better people than they were before. It's why I find it eye-roll inducing how many idiots in this fandom fall into this Puritain-esque way of thinking where, if a character has ever said or done anything remotely uncaring in the past, the idea is they should never live it down, EVEN IF they have long since apologized and put in the work to be better.

I want to be careful not to infantilize Lucas the same way fans have done with Billy or Angela to try and absolve them for their disgusting behavior. Unlike those two, whose intentions were based on getting a kick out of sadistically hurting others to make themselves feel superior, all the while never apologizing and doubling down, Lucas’s initial attitude was more rooted in seeing El as an inconvenience to their goal of finding Will as opposed to just wanting to make El’s life a living hell (like Angela) or taking his anger out on others (like Billy).

Again, I’m not saying this attitude was okay. It was immature in the same way Steve’s initial reaction towards Jonathan putting up Missing Posters for Will was callow. However, it’s not rooted in the mean-spirited cruelty some fans have accused it of being, and it’s supposed to be a point for both Lucas (and Steve) to grow from.

Speaking of El, just like there was the implication El was intentionally starved at the Lab, we get more subtle signs of how she was abused: Her reaction to putting the fresh pair of clothes Mike gives her on her cheek (indicating she’d been in that hospital gown for quite a while). Her panicked reaction later in the episode when she’s forced to hide in Mike’s closet, triggering a PTSD flashback to when Brenner forced the orderlies to lock her up in solitary confinement. Her flinching at little things, like when Dustin claps in her face, or the lightning outside (though that is likely due to never having been outside the Lab before now and being unfamiliar with lightning), or when Lucas points to the blood on her, or when he later angrily demands from El to know where Will is. Even the scene of her almost stripping in front of the guys, while played for laughs, all but spells out how she never had access to privacy and was under constant watch.

El’s situation and reactions remind me of Genie, a real life case we studied in my psychology class in school involving a feral girl from Los Angeles who'd spent 13 years of her life locked in a room and chained to a toilet by her parents (specifically her father, though her mother and brother also enabled this due to being at the receiving end of his abuse as well). She was constantly subjected to the rage and neglect of her father, including beatings, malnourishment, isolation from the outside world, and constantly being kept in the dark. It’s even been speculated he may have sexually abused her at various points as well. The dude was a real piece of work, and the damage he did to her severely affected Genie's physical, mental, and emotional development, to the point she learned not to make any noises (lest her father beat her with a wooden plank) and didn’t develop the language and communication skills kids her age would have picked up by that point. She was eventually discovered in 1970 by a social worker, who alerted authorities and had her taken to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The case got public attention and the father, who was unable to handle the media scrutiny, committed suicide, all while leaving behind a note where he refused to take responsibility for what he did to his daughter.

It's unclear whether the Duffer Brothers based aspects of El’s character on Genie, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did (If this is true, and there was an interview I missed talking about this subject, feel free to link to it in the reblogs). Both girls are abuse survivors who were stunted in their growth and development because of what they were put through. In the case of Genie, her father’s abuse of her caused lasting physical damage, including having limited gross motor skills (i.e. basic functions kids learn during development like standing, sitting, walking, etc) and impairing her ability to communicate and learn new words and vocabulary.

In El’s case, she also has limited vocabulary and is unfamiliar with certain words (like “friend”) but she’s shown to understand concepts even if she doesn’t have the words to name them. The abuse Brenner subjected El to was along the lines of Operant Conditioning (i.e. rewarding and punishing behavior, and behavior based on the removal or addition of stimuli), and was done as a way of molding her into the weapon he wanted (in stark contrast to Genie’s father, whose abuse stemmed from wanting nothing to do with his daughter and resenting her existence). Unlike with Genie, we see that El did develop gross motor skills (i.e. the flashback Terry has where she sees a three year old El playing with Kali/Eight, and the rainbow room in season 4 with the special kids playing with toys), and there clearly was some attempt at raising El to make sure El could understand and communicate with Brenner and the orderlies in order to spy on the Russians. The abuse in question was specifically tailored by Brenner: Keeping El isolated from the outside world, and limiting her knowledge to only what Brenner wanted her to know. Drilling into El that she was expected to perform certain tasks on his command, and punishing her with solitary confinement if she disobeyed or refused. Allowing the other kids at the lab to bully El because she was slow in the development of her powers and hoping that the ostracization would produce the results he wanted.

There’s also the trauma associated with memories El has repressed, but have slowly started to seep through. For story related purposes, we don’t yet see the flashbacks to the Massacre at Hawkins Lab and the events leading up to that (at least not until season 4), but it is subtly alluded to in the scene where Mr. Clarke finds a piece of El’s hospital gown in the tunnel she used to escape. AKA the same tunnel Henry/One/Vecna led her to in 1979:

Like I said, this episode contains several call-forwards, and this is one of them. It explains how El knew where to go to escape the Lab once the gate opened, and “The Monster” elaborates on WHY she finally did.

It’s pretty clear Mike and El’s interactions at the house during the day are meant to invoke Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, with Mike faking sick to stay home (the difference being Karen sees through it, but allows Mike the day off because of what happened to Will, while also telling him he can always talk to her if he needs to), showing El around his house, introducing her to Star War toys the same way Elliot did with E.T., and even making food for her. There’s even the later scene of El wandering the house during dinner and Karen nearly missing her, similar to Elliot’s mom having near misses with E.T. when Gertie brought him downstairs. These scenes have a nice charm to them, and have always been fun to watch.

Another movie this episode pays homage to in one particular scene is a 1985 Harrison Ford film called Witness:

Witness centers around a German Amish boy named Samuel Lapp who, after the death of his father, travels to Baltimore with his mother Rachel to visit her sister. Like El, this is Samuel’s first time in a new environment other than his Amish community, and his initial reaction is one of quiet curiosity. While at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, waiting for a late train, he ends up using the restroom and becomes an eyewitness to the murder of a detective that takes place there. Because Samuel saw the culprit of the crime while hiding in one of the stalls, Samuel and his mother are forced to cooperate with a police detective named John Book (played by Harrison Ford) in helping to track down the killer. When El points to Will in the science photograph next to Mike’s trophies, this is a direct homage to the scene when Samuel points to a photograph of Lieutenant James McFee, indicating to Book that McFee is the murderer.

In both scenarios, what follows is the untangling of a massive conspiracy: In Witness, it centers around police corruption and illegal drug dealings. In Stranger Things, it’s centered around government corruption and the Upside Down. The big difference is that while Samuel is still present in Witness, the movie shifts focus to John Book as the main character, especially when he’s targeted by corrupt cops and forced to go on the run and hide within the Amish community to protect himself, Rachel, and Samuel. Meanwhile, El remains central as a character, and ironically enough is the one working to protect Mike, Dustin, and Lucas from Brenner and the Demogorgon while hiding among them.

Speaking of Brenner (who has physical similarities to Chief Paul Schaeffer, the main antagonist of Witness, as well similar personality traits of demanding loyalty from his men without feeling obligated to return it), his reaction towards Will’s disappearance and finding the ooze in the shed at the Byers house takes on a whole different context after having seen The First Shadow (or Season 4 for that matter). The play reveals that, as far back as the 1940s, Brenner was aware of the Upside Down. Granted, he hadn’t actually seen the dimension with his own eyes. The most information he got was from his own dying father (who was a part of the fateful Philadelphia Experiment in 1943) and maybe even Henry/One/Vecna (depending on what kind of information Henry willingly or unwillingly provided to Brenner). In any case, his lack of surprise over Joyce’s phone call to Flo about Will and some kind of animal on the other end indicates he knew Will was in the Upside Down and was being hunted. Not that Brenner truly cared about Will in the grand scheme of things.

In regards to Will, for those who are interested in what was implied to be going on with him in the end scene with Joyce and the lights flickering and the recorder playing “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” this is how things looked like from his perspective in the comic The Other Side:

The show already hinted at this, with Will hiding and the Demogorgon chasing him, but it helps give more context to why the Demogorgon temporarily turned its attention to Joyce and stopped pursuing Will.

I am curious about the Demogorgon’s decision not to go after Joyce despite trying to tear through the wall: Was it just trying to scare her away in the moment, or did Joyce manage to outrun it quick enough that it went back into the Upside Down because it decided she wasn’t worth it?

Speaking of which, let’s talk more about the Byers family, including Lonnie and Hopper:

Part 2: The Byers, Lonnie, and Hopper

I forgot about the tense exchange between Joyce and Hopper in this episode. Her insisting that it was Will’s voice on the other end of the phone and, when Hopper remains skeptical, bringing up how she’d recognize Will's breathing the same way Hopper would recognize his daughter’s breathing. To her credit, she does regret that and realizes how low of a blow that is, and Hopper, despite being hurt, doesn’t take his anger out on her, and recognizes her outburst as coming from stress and frustration over her son’s disappearance rather than vindictiveness. Add in how these two have history with one another (especially from their interactions in The First Shadow when they were attending high school and were already starting to realize they were attracted to one another) and there’s a lot both Joyce and Hopper are willing to overlook when it comes to each other’s flaws.

Hopper’s depression is hard to watch. I’ve never had a kid, and I have no intention of having one either (especially with the way our world has gone), but I understand what it’s like to be in that kind of mental state between wanting to care and yet being so beaten down by life and what it has taken from you that it’s hard not to slip into apathy.  Compared to his time in New York City, where Sara was still alive, his wife was married to him, and he felt rejuvenated with a purpose, Hopper in the beginning of this show is directionless, burying himself in booze, drugs, and women, all while putting in the bare minimum into his 4 years as chief of police. Then, after Joyce's son disappears, and his best friend Benny is murdered while it's staged to look like a suicide, Hopper is forced to realize he still cares, and no amount of drowning himself is going to change that. As he bitterly notes to the woman he’s sleeping with:

BTW, note how he never references the last time a person got murdered in Hawkins. That was a clever way for the Duffer Brothers to later lay the groundwork for the Creel murders in 1959. As depicted in The First Shadow, Hopper saw the bodies of Virginia and Alice Creel around the time the police arrested Victor for their deaths.

I will go more in detail about Joyce’s arc as it develops this season, but there is one comparison that is relevant to this episode: Her similarities to Florence “Rusty” Tullis from the 1985 film Mask, which is based on the real-life story of Rocky Dennis. The Duffer Brothers have cited the movie as an inspiration for how they wrote Joyce’s character, as well as how Joyce’s costumes were designed. Both women are single mothers working to provide for their sons, both of them have sons who deal with mistreatment because of their physical appearance (Will because of his clothes and Rocky because of his Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia (CDD)), both of them are overworked and stressed and turn to drugs (Joyce’s chainsmoking in this episode and Rusty’s addictions, which becomes a source of conflict between her and Rocky), both of them worry constantly about the well-being of their sons, and both of them are perceived as being “unstable” when in fact they are fiercely determined and would go through hell to keep their sons alive and safe. In Joyce’s case, that involves going back inside her house at the end of this episode to keep in contact with Will despite a monster lurking within her walls.

On the other side of the parenting spectrum is Lonnie Byers, and his establishing character moment tells us everything: He’s dating a woman half his age (though Cynthia doesn’t appear to be a teenager as Joyce implied in the previous episode), his first appearance is shoving Jonathan into a wall before making a half-assed introduction between Jonathan and Cynthia and makes a pretense of trying to hug Jonathan despite Jonathan not wanting him to.

Then there’s Jonathan looking for Will throughout Lonnie’s house, including in the trunk of Lonnie's car:

Just this scene alone makes me question what kind of child custody dispute went on between Joyce and Lonnie during their divorce, and if Lonnie at one point took Will without Joyce’s permission. I can buy he’d do it for financial reasons (and we’ll see that aspect rear its ugly head when he later comes to exploit Will’s funeral and file a lawsuit to get money to cover his debts) but other than that, he just comes off as a lazy bum who wants nothing to do with his sons. Makes me question why on earth he even wanted kids with Joyce in the first place.

I talked about this in my review of The First Shadow, but Lonnie in this episode pretty much is the same as he was in the play: He’s lazy, he has no desire to make anything of his life, he’s costing off other people, and he’s a douchebag. The only difference is instead of being in his 20s, he’s a grown-ass adult well into his late 40s, and a deadbeat father on top of that. I know a lot of people hate Lonnie (and rightfully so), but the most I can muster for him is contempt as opposed to the burning hatred I have for characters like Angela.

Jonathan is a mixed bag in this episode. On the one hand, his love and devotion to his brother is on full display, and it’s a combination of sweet and sad given the circumstances. His interaction with Nancy at the school and her giving genuine condolences to him over Will’s disappearance was a highlight (and was when I started to care about Nancy the first time I watched the show), as well as the flashback to his conversation with Will and the playlist he introduces to him.

One of those bands he recommends btw is The Smiths, and one of their songs, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” has been used in the marketing for season 5, specifically in reference to Jonathan:

I’m sure plenty of fans have already made speculations, but all I can say is I hope this doesn’t foreshadow something bad happening to Jonathan because…………YIKES!! “Why do I give valuable time to people who don’t care if I live or die?” I’m not really surprised that Jonathan has depression and self-confidence issues, partly because of his parents’ failed marriage, his worries about becoming like his father, and being an outcast, but if his perception is that people don’t care, he is DEAD WRONG. And I’m not just talking about his family when I say this.

In any case, his attempts to boost Will’s self-confidence despite struggles with his own, and to encourage Will to chart his own course regarding things Will likes vs what other people tell him he should like, is one of the best moments in the show, and a life lesson that needs more applicability (especially when it comes to fandom culture).

The part where Jonathan loses me is towards the end of the episode. You all know what I’m talking about: The photographs he takes of Steve’s pool party.

First off, I want to make clear that, in spite of what he did, this wasn’t a deal-breaker for me in terms of liking his character. Yes, I agree it was creepy and wrong to take the pictures without the others knowledge or consent, and to his credit, he does acknowledge later that he shouldn’t have done it. The only good thing that came out of that was inadvertently capturing the Demogorgon on the picture he took of Barbara at the pool, but that in no way excuses the other photos he took. Contrary to what my time on Tumblr may suggest, I’m a private person, and I’m someone who does NOT like having pictures taken of me without my permission. I also imagine plenty of other people feel the same way, and I get why some fans were upset by this scene. It doesn’t help that the screenplay contains this tidbit regarding Jonathan’s motivations:

This does hearken forward to what Robin later tells Steve in season 3 about how outcasts like herself still desire to be popular and normal (which is specifically associated thematically in the show with being accepted). As much as Jonathan has embraced the identity of outcast, I don’t think it’s completely out-of-character for him to want that as well, especially if it’s tied to being accepted for who he is. At the same time though, out of all the ways he could have expressed that, this was the worst way to go about it. Again, the reason I don’t hold it against him is because of his apology to Nancy, similar to how Steve would later apologize to Nancy and Jonathan for his behavior, and Lucas would apologize to El for his. Characters start out in a flawed way and go through an evolution. That’s how it works.

Speaking of Steve and Nancy………..

Part 3: The Pool Party

We get our introduction of Tommy and Carol in this episode, and I completely forgot that the first thing Tommy does is stick his finger in Barbara’s ear to be a dick. Charming. 😒 And you have Carol being snide to both Nancy and Jonathan. Lovely. 🙄

They say you are judged by the company you keep, and they take that principle and run with it here with Steve. Whenever Tommy and Carol are around, we see a callous side to Steve fueled by those two’s toxicity, and it’s not pleasant. I even question how much of the Pool Party was his idea vs Tommy and Carol’s who wanted the excuse to party hard and shack up in Steve’s huge house. It reminds me of Risky Business when the Tom Cruise character, Joel Goodsen (whom Steve shares parallels with) has his parents leave for a trip, and he's put in charge of watching over the house, all while his friends pressure him to exploit the opportunity to party and have sex. The big difference is while Joel’s friends try to help him once the shenanigans go over the top, Tommy and Carol would have left Steve out to dry. The pool party was for their benefit as opposed to Steve’s.

Steve’s line about how his mom is traveling with his dad because she doesn’t trust him makes me question what goes on in Steve’s family. We’ve never seen Steve’s parents (they don’t appear in The First Shadow either), so we have very little information to go on, but that line alone makes me wonder how much his dad’s cheating has impacted Steve. It reminds me of the fractured relationship between Ted and Karen, where emotions get suppressed and it’s hard for anyone to say they “love" someone because that entire marriage is NOT running on love. In Nancy and Mike’s case, they act like this is the norm, and we will see how it impacts their relationships with Steve and El in the future. In Steve’s case, I wouldn’t be shocked if he picked up the womanizing aspect from his dad. As for why his mom would stay with his dad if he was cheating on him………..there’s an episode of Freaks and Geeks (a show that was a big inspiration for Stranger Things) where one of the main characters, Neal, finds out his dad (whom he’s looked up to in the past) has been cheating on his mom. Angry and betrayed, he publicly lashes out at his dad through mean-spirited jokes at his expense during a party, and later flees to his room in tears. When his mom later goes to visit Neal to comfort him, it’s revealed she is aware of her husband’s infidelity, but is working to keep the peace, noting that it’s a complicated situation for the both of them. Given that Steve's mom hasn't divorced his dad yet, it's possible their situation and how they're handling it could be similar to Neal's parents.

I remember there was a period prior to season 4 where there was this idea in the fandom that Steve had actively gone out of his way to bully others, including Jonathan. I agree that there were instances of him being self-absorbed and dickishly insensitive, but I never got the impression from watching the show or reading the supplementary materials that he actively went out of his way to make others lives a living hell the way Billy and Angela did. Tommy was certainly guilty of that on a constant basis (something the Eddie Munson prequel Flight of Icarus explores), but the two instances Steve was antagonistic towards Jonathan (i.e. the camera incident and when he thought Nancy had cheated on him with Jonathan) had more to do with specific circumstnaces rather than getting his kicks making other people miserable like Angela did with El. Otherwise, his entire attitude towards Jonathan seemed rooted in indifference.

Like I’ve said, it’s not great, and I’m not surprised there were multiple characters like Robin, Keith, and Eddie who referred to Steve as an asshole and a douchebag (because that's the image he projected), but this isn’t the same thing as active maliciousness. We even see Steve get uncomfortable with Tommy when he makes a nasty joke about Jonathan killing Will, and Steve tells him to shut up, indicating he finds that inappropriate and crossing a line.

Speaking of projecting an image…..we see plenty of that at the pool party, with Steve smoking (which I don’t think he does again at any other point in the show) and shotgunning beer cans to impress Nancy and the other partygoers (with the exception of Barbara). Even his answering the door for Nancy and Barbara in dramatic fashion while “Raise a Little Hell” by Trooper plays in the background is a cliché unto itself. However, it’s noteworthy Nancy doesn’t seem bothered by this, and the exchange between her and Steve in that moment makes it clear she knows he’s purposefully being a cliché, but finds it amusing, which is why Steve continues with it.

In fact, if we look at Nancy’s behavior in this episode, it comes off less like she’s throwing herself at Steve (as the Montauk script depicts) and more like she’s thought this through and decided this is what she wants. Apart for Barbara, Nancy doesn’t particularly care for what Tommy and Carol think of her. We got hints of that in her discussion with Barbara in the previous episode, and we see it in the scene where she talks with Jonathan in front of them despite their snide comments about him.

This is a big reason I strongly disagree with the idea Nancy’s interest in Steve has anything to do with wanting his approval (or Tommy and Carol’s approval for that matter) or even elevating her social status in high school. She certainly didn’t give a damn about what they were thinking of her in this moment with Jonathan, or how it would look to others to be interacting with the local outcast. She genuinely felt bad for what Jonathan was going through and wanted to offer some words of comfort.

On top of that, she’s seen Steve without Tommy and Carol by his side enough times to recognize he is a different person without them around. She has enough intuition to trust that, even if she’s still navigating the way this relationship is going, there are desirable qualities in Steve beyond his good looks (in contrast to the Montauk script where she barely knew him and was only going by his good looks and charm). So her making the decision to have sex with Steve comes off less like she’s operating under pressure and more like she’s made the decision that this is what she wants, even against Barbara’s protests.

Speaking of Barbara, I’ve never understood this idea the fandom has perpetrated about how Barbara was worried over being left behind by Nancy to join the popular crowd.

First of all, if Barbara really pegged Nancy as that superficial, there is no way she would have remained friends with Nancy for so long.

Second, the idea of Barbara being jealous of Nancy climbing the social ladder comes in direct contrast with how she acts at the pool party. Barbara makes it clear at the beginning that she’s only there for Nancy because Nancy asked her to be, and doesn’t make the effort to socialize with anyone else there, all the while looking disgusted with Tommy and Carol and unamused at Steve showing off. That does NOT translate to jealousy. That sounds like someone who doesn’t want to be in the same room with these people. The only reason she even makes an effort at shotgunning a beer can (and getting a deep cut on her thumb that attracts the Demogorgon's attention) is because Nancy pressured her into doing so. This was not done because she gave a damn about impressing Steve or Tommy or Carol.

Third, Barbara’s concern for Nancy wanting to have sex with Steve isn’t entirely invalid, and it sure as hell does NOT constitute slut-shaming like some fans have framed it as. Barbara knows that Tommy and Carol are toxic people, and the fact that they’re hanging around Steve doesn’t make Steve look good. While she is interested in Nancy’s relationship with Steve (as we saw in the previous episode) it’s natural for her as a friend to be worried about whether Nancy is rushing into this too quickly, especially because Barbara doesn’t know Steve very well and has no clue how Steve is going to treat her. As we see in later episodes, some of her concerns were valid and others were not.

I get everyone is entitled to their opinions, but sometimes I wonder how much of these takes from fans are rooted in projection and bad-faith interpretations. 😒

I should quickly talk about the sex scene between Steve and Nancy, and how it was changed from the Montauk script from being a rape scene to consenual. I am fine with this change for several reasons:

I have never been a fan of shows that use rape as a plot device to drive another character’s arc (especially a female character). I have seen plenty of shows that have done this where it ends up going horribly wrong in the writing process and comes off as gratuitous, as well as enforcing the idea that this kind of trauma is necessary for a person to stop being naïve and grow up. Just…………YUCK! 🤮

 When it comes to the subject of rape, there are plenty of shows out there that try to tackle this subject and either end up being extremely tone-deaf, or perpetrate the rape culture aspects they were trying to avoid. True Blood. Game of Thrones. 13 Reasons Why. General Hospital. The Umbrella Academy. Even The Boys wasn’t immune from this: Contrast the somber way Starlight’s assault from The Deep is depicted on that show to how Hughie’s sexual assault and rape at the hands of Ted Knight and the shapeshifter in season 4 is handled. That's also including how The Boys showrunner, Eric Kripke, admitted that Hughie's assault was intended to be played for black comedy. There are so many pitfalls with this subject matter that it would have reflected badly on the show if the Duffer Brothers had fallen into them. There’s also the question of whether the Duffer Brothers had any interest in actually depicting Nancy’s trauma over being raped in a thoughtful intelligent manner, or if was simply a means of driving Nancy into Jonathan’s arms while glossing over the ramifications of what happened to her.

As I stated in the previous episode, changing Steve’s character not only improved him, but also improved Nancy and Barbara by extension. Steve’s motivations for wanting a relationship with Nancy become more complex than simply wanting “another notch under his belt,” Nancy’s crush on Steve is a lot less shallow and more about seeing through the image he projects and wanting to get to know the real Steve Harrington, and Barbara has more of a personality here where she’s caught between wanting to support Nancy but also being wary of Nancy’s relationship with Steve and this new side to Nancy that she’s seeing. She also isn’t someone who abandons Nancy like in the Montauk script, but is reluctant to leave Nancy at Steve's house alone (and only does so at Nancy’s insistence), making it much more heartbreaking when she’s later dragged into the Upside Down.

Part 4: Song Choices

We get a nice selection of songs in this episode, including the one that would become the signature song for season 1 and for both Will and Jonathan: “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by The Clash.

While The Clash has refused to assign meaning to the lyrics, especially in regards to whether those lyrics were in reference to events going on in the band at the time, my interpretation of the song is that it’s about someone in a relationship where they’re not sure if the other person wants them there, and is demanding a more direct answer about where they stand. “One day it’s fine and the next it’s black,” certainly gives the impression their relationship is tumultuous, and “this indecision is bugging me” makes it sound like both parties can’t agree on where to go from here. Ironically enough, it doesn't seem to apply at all to Jonathan and Will’s situation, where neither of them have been in a romantic relationship yet, and both brothers are supportive of one another in spite of their parents' messy divorce.

“Raise a Little Hell” by Trooper is played in the scene when Steve answers the door for Barabara and Nancy. Initially, the song seems to foreshadow that this is going to be a rumbustious party, but in comparison to the Montauk script, the party in this episode is tame. On top of that, the song itself really isn’t a party anthem, but a motivational one encouraging the listener to change their circumstances if they’re not happy about their situation and “raise a little hell” in the process. It's a big reason why it's been adopted as a sports anthem. Considering that Steve is an athlete himself, I'm not surprised he likes it.

“I Melt With You” by Modern English has always been a personal favorite of mine, and I was happy with its use in this episode. Despite being a dance song, the lyrics have a dark undertone to them, depicting two people falling in love as the world is coming to an end. It’s similar to Prince’s “1999” and R.E.M.’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)” where the singer has accepted the inevitability of their world being screwed, and is more content with living in the moment rather than worrying about what can’t be changed. In the context of this episode, with a group partying while (unbeknownst to them) the Upside Down is beginning to leak into Hawkins, and even claims one of the attendees later on (Barbara), the song is appropriate for that scene.

Finally, we have “Hazy Shade of Winter,” by The Bangles, which plays when Nancy and Steve have sex for the first time.

This was a remix of one of Simon and Garfunkel’s songs from the 60s, and while I like the original, I’m a bigger fan for The Bangles version. It has a very eerie tone to it, dealing with regret and the passage of time over the seasons as the singer lambasts about opportunities and hopes slipping away. It’s not exactly an uplifting song to be playing during what’s supposed to be a romantic moment, and given what happens to Barbara the same time Nancy is consummating her relationship with Steve, it’s dark foreshadowing for the guilt she’s going to be feeling later on over Barbara’s death.

Final Thoughts:

One more thing I wanted to mention before closing out this review is the poster of The Dark Crystal in Mike’s bedroom:

The Dark Crystal is a 1982 fantasy film set on a distant world that, while once green and fertile, has become desolate and corrupted due to a fracturing of the eponymous Crystal, which has created two different races: the Skeksis, who act as the tyrannical rulers of the planet, and the Mystics, who act in opposition to them. The main plot deals with a Gelfling named Jen who is tasked by the Mystics to retrieve the broken shard of the crystal and return it to the original source, thereby bringing balance and stability to their world. All the while, he’s brought into conflict with the Skeksis, who killed his parents in the past, and want to use the crystal for their own selfish desires.

Given Mike’s love for fantasy, I’m not surprised this is a favorite movie of his. However, I’m curious if the themes and story of that movie could have been used by the Duffer Brothers as inspiration for how they mapped out the Upside Down.

I remember having a theory back in season 3 that the Upside Down was once a prosperous world before the Mind Flayer showed up and turned it into its personal hellhole. While I still think that’s true to some extent, there’s also the question regarding why this dimension, which was depicted as a hellscape when Vecna arrived, and even before when the USS Eldridge was transported to it in 1943, suddenly replicated the exact image of Hawkins and the rest of Earth the night El opened the gate and Will disappeared: November 6th, 1983. This has been presented by season 4 and The First Shadow as an anomaly that hasn’t been explained yet, and could possibly have connections to Will’s disappearance.

In regards to how this ties back to The Dark Crystal, is it possible the Upside Down may have been “a green and fertile land” at one point, like the planet in said movie, before some catastrophic event happened that threw that world into chaos and desolation? Just like with the Skeksis, the Mind Flayer is taking advantage of the situation to impose its rule, but maybe that tyranny has been upset somehow by Will’s arrival, similar to how Jen’s quest in the movie threatens the Skeksis’s hold on power. There’s also how the Skeksis are responsible for the creation of the Garthim, which involved using the dark crystal to splice different species together and turning the resulting creatures into their personal attack dogs, as well as creating crystal bats which act as their spies in the sky. Likewise, it's possible that the Mind Flayer, through its own power, may have been responsible for twisting, or even creating, the inhabitants of the Upside Down to become Demogorgons, Demobats, and other hideous monsters that serve it.

The only difference I see has to do with how the main antagonists are dealt with:

In the movie, there’s an established connection between the Skeksis and the Mystics, where the death of one results in the death of the other they are connected to. Skeksis are essentially the worst aspects of their former counterparts, the urSkeks, in contrast to the Mystics which represent their positive aspects. They are one being split into two extreme animated personalities. As the movie reveals, the solution isn’t killing the Skeksis, but healing the crystal to allow the two parts to reunite.

In the show, they have not introduced a positive counterpart to the Mind Flayer (at least not yet), and since the Mind Flayer is interconnected with every part of the Upside Down (including Vecna), there’s a real chance its permanent destruction would result in the total annihilation of the Upside Down (similar to how Sauron’s downfall led to the destruction of Mordor in Lord of the Rings). While they could go this route in season 5, the names for the last two episodes (i.e. “The Bridge” and “The Rightside Up”) imply that dealing with the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down is more centered on fixing something that’s broken between the two worlds, similar to fixing the crystal in the movie, which could be the key to permanently defeating the Mind Flayer instead. Just like with Jen, that could be Will’s role in this story for season 5.

And to officially close out this review, this is what I ended up getting for my birthday! 🥰

[brinleyparke]

Semi-Formal Outfit Inspired by Mick St. John

Inspired by Mick's semi-formal outfit in 1x02 "Out of the Past". The shoes are Jimmy Choo, and the purse is Michael Kors. The jewelry is vintage white gold.

[thegreatimpersonator]

Hi everyone! Here’s the newest addition to my Creator Shoutout Series (august 25- september 1)! I want to appreciate editors and their creations that i love from the past week. To track this series or look at previous shoutouts, please check out the tag on my blog *creatorshoutouts.

halsey: lonely is the muse graphic by @nsidereus

longlegs gifset by @celine-song

maisie peters: the band and i gifset by @antoniosvivaldi

chappell roan: hot to go gifset by @chappellnchill

longlegs gifset by @swrots

sabrina carpenter: short n sweet gifset by @james-beaufort

succession: shiv roy gifset by @jakeyp

samia: the baby gifset by @killherfreakout

yellowjackets: taissa turner gifset by @fadeintoyou1993

sabrina carpenter: taste music video gifset by @skainatblida

longlegs gifset by @uservillanelle

halsey: the great impersonator gifset by @illusionisle

yellowjackets: jackie taylor in 1x02 gifset by @sydneyadmu

bottoms: josie gifset by @buffysummcrs

succession gifset by @kvtnisseverdeen

paramore: you first graphic by @cellphonehippie

parks and recreation: the fight gifset by @bellamysgriffin

yellowjackets: natalie scatorccio gifset by @chappelroans

halsey: favorite lyrics gifset by @dieincalifornia

maxxxine gifset by @gettingscrazy

heartstopper anniversary gifset by @charliexspring

maisie peters: there it goes gifset by @entertainmentpdf

sabrina carpenter: taste graphic by @piecesintoplaces

paramore: hayley williams eras outfits gifset by @userparamore

yellowjackets: shauna and jackie gifset by @miwtual

daisy jones & the six: outfits gifset by @robbstakr

scream 1996 gifset by @ghost-face

yellowjackets: taissa turner gifset by @taiturner

[veryloudbrain]

walter + henry "masterpost" (canon)

season 1

1x01 they sit together at dinner(?). before wille grabs their attention, they seem deep in conversation and HENRY GLANCES AT WALTER’S LIPS (im delulu ..but not really). this is their first canon interaction. i cannot make this shit up. i’m losing my mind. they sit together in class. they stick close (walter is fucking leaning on henry) at the very first party (after wille’s initiation). they’re both drinking. walter is spotted without henry for like a literal millisecond (idk where his mans went). walter and henry hang with stella and felice (at least until felice runs off to throw up lol) when wille is like,, crowdsurfing (using that term loosely) walter is not with henry mans lost him where is he.. (probably throwing up somewhere idk)

1x02 simon sits between them at lunch.

they sit together in class (on monday? the party was friday.. i assume)

math tests are handed out. they sit close and show their grades to eachother. (comparing results maybe ?)

wille mentions they take private lessons.. together ? over the weekend ? bro i cant defend them. (not that i want to)

henry joins rowing practice. they’re wearing MATCHING SHIRTS. i cannot make this shit up.

they’re both attending rowing practice still when august.. kisses simon (LMAO)

they debatably sit together at the movie night. they’re social distancing for some reason but no one is between them. henry looks over at walter (i’m delulu, he was probably looking at august) after The Jumpscare

1x03 the week after the horror movie (exact day unknown) henry sits with wille in class, but walter is in the seat literally next to him just,, with a space lol

(same week) they work out on the SAME GODDAMN MAT in p.e (either that or their mats are placed so close they don’t show a space.. idk which is gayer tbh)

they stick together during the parents day, but sit in different rows in church (..for some reason?)

after church neither of them are spotted interacting with any adult or even eachother in the background. they went ~poof~

i think you see walter entering his dorm? but it could be a different background actor honestly i don't know

for breakfast the day after: henry mentions to walter that his dad recognized his surname.

“no, i know” “how long have you known?” “i know because my… my dad recognized your surname”

this convo confirms to me that they didn’t know eachother before hillerska.

note: the convo was very light-hearted and henry was smiling (this has lead to theories about their parents having dated in the past, i also heard that uno, walter's actor, confirmed this but i haven't seen this for myself so i'm not sure)

1x04 they sit together while watching erik’s funeral on TV the Society "meeting". henry is never technically explicitly shown to drink or take pills but he seems inebriated and picks up a pack of pills from the table so i'm gonna assume he did both (so much fanfic potential i'm clawing at the walls)

1x05 they’re not sitting together in class, both having 2 desks by themselves until wille joins henry. walter is in the seat directly behind him. (side note: henry is wearing the same goddamn sweater he was at the Society meeting. was it washed or does he just stink of booze in class ? LMAO)

plot explained why they aren’t sitting together !! walter was meant to do a presentation with alexander and therefore left the seat for him.

they sit together again in class. this would be the week after the class they didn’t.

henry attends another Society “emergency meeting” (alexander was caught with the drugs) (this isn't walty but idc)

henry looks stressed/conflicted after the 2nd Society emergency meeting, but walks out with wille. (probably hard for him cause he can tell something’s going on between wille and simon, but pinning it on alexander is also a shitty thing to do)

they(walty) stand together outside before the whole lucia thing starts.

walter is fiddling with something with his left hand. it doesn’t show up in the shot, but henry is right there on his left. (they were obviously having a thumb war /j)

they’re both talking with wille after the lucia thing, but they’re so caught up in their conversations they don’t even bat an eye when wille’s whole life falls apart (it's not funny but it's really fucking funny)

1x06 at breakfast sometime after the video got out. henry and walter are talking abt how wilmon sat together at the movie night and that they talked abt it after.

h “remember the movie night?” w “yeah” h “when they sat next to eachother” w “exactly!” h “we talked abt that” w “yeah we talked abt that!”

(as if they weren’t also sitting next to eachother)

in class sometime that week (tuesday or later) they sit separate in class again. walter is gossiping (or just talking tbh idk) with some other students while henry sits alone. wille sits next to henry and henry attempts small talk with wille to cut the tension) (walty are once again only separated by the aisle lol)

they sit together in church on christmas day (or eve ? i’m not sure honestly)

they also talk together (+vincent och nils) outside church after. henry quickly noticed wilmon hugging (gay noticing gay frfr)

[i need it to be known this was initially written by me right after season 2 came out and i rewatched everything]

[highly-flammable]

Little Klamille Things - Season 1 Edition : 1x04

Previous: 1x02 and 1x03

(Disclaimer: I am in no way a fan of the plotline of Klaus compelling Cami, but on the other hand it would have been out of character for a POS like Klaus to not compel humans not on vervain, so it’s a bitter pill I have to swallow.)

1x04: Girl In New Orleans

This British Guy Is Giving Me a Whiplash

The first thing Cami said in the episode, as she stood in the doorway watching Klaus in front of the painting, was, “No offence, but I’m not sure I follow why you’ve invited me here.”

As she should, considering this guy followed her around on multiple occasions, complimented her on her masquerade ball look in a very clear display of attraction, had a heart to heart with her over her trust being broken in the past after she left the ball upset, admitted there was a spark between them, and then told her to give another chance to Marcel. Now he was inviting her to his house out of the blue, and upon her arrival, what should she find? The painting they had spoken about on the night they met months ago, on display. Klaus was obsessed with the memory of that one night, and he wanted her to know it. And then he kept talking about how seemingly evil acts can be rationalized by attributing their necessity to survival in a harsh and unfair world. Who could blame Cami for being confused?

Also, given that Klaus is supposed to look like a twenty-something guy and Cami was still under the impression that he was human, his monologue should have really weirded her out (all that over the course of my life yadda yadda yadda, like buddy, you look twenty-five!). She was so open-minded, she didn’t get enough credit for it.

I Don’t Want to See a Therapist, I Want to Hang Out with My Crush

After pointing out what she thought Klaus’ issues might be, Cami made it perfectly clear that it was a professional that he should be talking to, not her. She at this point was far from a professional herself, having just finished her master’s (she was apparently still working on her thesis though), and would only go on to get her license after season 2. Moreover, this was again her attempt to make sure a bad boy like him or Marcel wasn’t going to reel her in.

Meanwhile, Klaus himself had never wanted a therapist and actually just wanted to spend time with the pretty girl who he thought had the bandwidth to understand him. On some level, he was rationalizing that he needed to pull her into his world because she would be a useful spy, but even then he couldn’t help but admit to her that the reason he had invited her was because he enjoyed her company.

Speaking of Klaus being kind of embarrassing honest with her, we actually rarely see him lie to Cami over the course of the show. Up until 1x03, he was playing human in front of her, but we see him letting her in on his secret in this episode, as well as trying to explain his mindset for waging his war against Marcel. Being Klaus, he of course didn’t trust her to not disclose things at this point, hence the compulsion, but he did not want to lie to her during their time together. The fact that he did not just share things about himself to Cami on a need-to-know basis actually further necessitated him having to compel her to forget things. At any rate, from this point, he was almost always genuine with her, and if he was deflecting from something, he was trying to fool himself just as much as he was trying to fool her.

If Only We Were Just a Boy and a Girl

When Klaus later tried to convince Cami to take on Davina’s matter, Cami demanded to know why he was even bothering to be polite about it when he was going to force her to do it anyway. Klaus’ response? “Because I like you.” He meant it too, but being Klaus, he had to backtrack and water it down a bit so he went for the thread of liking how her mind worked. And even then, he ended up admitting to her that under different circumstances they might have been friends.

Now we have seen a lot of naysayers claim this moment was out of character for Klaus, since Cami was human and humans meant nothing to him, but she already meant something to him, and their previous interactions did a good job of establishing that he actually had enjoyed being just a human guy in her eyes. He liked being someone whose reputation did not precede him, who wasn’t seen as a loose cannon ready to go off (all through his own faults, of course), a person who was likeable. As such, the different circumstance he spoke about here was: had he been human. Up until Cami herself became a vampire, his regret when it came to their dynamic was that he wasn’t human like her, not that she wasn’t immortal like him.

Dark Mirrors

That day, Klaus showed Cami a piece of his troubled soul, and in turn, she trusted him to see her own plight over her brother’s incident in the church when she would never tell anyone else around her what she was dealing with. Klaus was friendless at this point in his life, but so was Cami because she couldn’t be real about her grief with people who were by comparison normal. She had been hiding behind a bright smile, and it took being around someone like Klaus for her to feel like she could verbalize what her own demons looked like.

They found each other when both were dealing with new roles in life: him being an underdog in a political landscape and an expectant father, her being a twin who was now left alone in the world. And during their conversation at the church, Klaus understood why Cami was drawn to that dark painting in Jackson Square. And with time, his understanding of this side of hers would grow. In 3x08, Aurora talked about Cami being drawn to Klaus because she had a dark side of her own, but this was not exactly news to Klaus. He knew of it starting from this episode.

Last but not the least, when he came to her house in their last scene of the episode, she first saw him in her mirror, which is just a delicious touch.

Whose Queen Is She?

I personally find it utterly hilarious that Marcel was boldly claiming to Rebekah in this episode that he had already found his queen in Cami, and in the very next scene, it was Klaus at her bedroom window. In the eyes of the rest of the world, it was Cami and Marcel courting, but they hardly knew each other. She and Klaus, meanwhile, were having secret conversations and actually learning about one another.

A Little Detour to Put A Pretty Girl to Sleep

One thing that I enjoy (and antis hate) is that Klaus unexpectedly popped in on Cami quite a few times, a trend that began with this episode. I saw some claim that their scenes came out of nowhere when this motif was used, but I think that was actually the point. His fascination with her, growing into deep attachment, meant that she was at the back of his mind a lot, and this appeared to be a way of showing it. Klaus would have a completely unrelated scene with others and then get back to Cami because all through that he wouldn’t be able to get her off his mind and whatever hanging matter would be there, he would have to see it through. In this episode, after their church conversation, he sent Cami off, got into that nasty business with Davina and Tim, went to the bayou for Hayley and then circled back to Cami because he remembered she couldn’t sleep at night.

When he arrived, he only spoke about believing he could help with her nightmares and insomnia. So his original intention behind the visit was simply to help her sleep. It was when Cami started hypothesizing about what might have happened to Sean using her newfound knowledge of the supernatural that Klaus started taking a harder line and ended up compelling her to drop her investigation (which I am not a fan of, even though I do see his twisted perspective).

Grief and the Things it Makes You Do

As much as I hate that Klaus compelled Cami to drop her pursuit of the truth regarding Sean, his palpable fear towards her mentality is quite interesting to me. Lest we forget, his youngest brother Henrik being killed was the catalyst for Esther and Mikael turning their family into vampires - a fateful choice to say the least. Klaus was never good at reining in his own impulses, but when he saw that Cami in her grief was heading down an ill-advised path, he had the urge to pull her back. He wasn’t capable of escaping his demons, but he wanted her to escape hers (oh, how noble it seemed in his own head).

By the way, there is a reason the acting in this scene is so acclaimed. Leah was fantastic in every single beat (it has been talked about a lot so unfortunately there isn’t anything new for me to say), while Joseph did something fascinating with Klaus here. When he first entered the room, Klaus was preternaturally still, very clearly not human, but as the scene progressed and more emotions came out, he started looking more and more human.

[raayllum]

Dark Magic, a Brief Dissection

There are four scenes in the series I think best embody the pitfalls of dark magic from an ideological standpoint, even if you don't touch on the fact it's just a malevolent magic system + the harm it does to the user. Two are in season two, and two are in season six.

The first is the infamous reservation from Sarai in 2x05 that dark magic is too ideologically easy, because it is always easier to dehumanize and to strip away the fact that someone or something might be a person than it is to recognize it. The "you keep calling it a monster" and "there's no shortcut" are things that other episodes echo as well (6x05, 1x02), highlighting key take aways. The biggest one, though, is the idea that

We see this directly happen with Viren even before the events of 2x05, as we see him go from necessary horror to necessary horror in order to save Soren. He coins Kpp'Ar to get the staff, yes, but also to preserve his status; doing so alters his appearance both literally and emotionally in the eyes of his wife; when she's frightened and denies him her tears, he takes them by force; and then when she leaves, he blames the son he saved. He thought dark magic would give more than it would take, and when confronted with the opposite that Harrow had also learned ("We may not pay now but we will pay the bloodprice eventually"), he couldn't handle its lesson of accountability, because it's usually easier to blame others rather than yourself.

Viren fell down that slope in quick succession, climbed the mountainous Storm Spire twice, and it took falling off that mountain for him to get his head back on straight, to realize that rather than having no choice, he was continually making bad, harmful choices. This likewise ties back into 1) using his wife as spell parts leading to the dissolution of their marriage, because being treated as a thing is not something you can come back from and 2) rejecting using Soren as spell parts, and instead using himself in S6. And also ties into what S6 makes plain for Claudia in terms of the mindset that dark magic encourages:

I don't know if there's much to say about this aspect that the screencap (and earlier paragraphs) don't already say on its own tbh. Dark magic "shattered" her family forever (6x06) and Claudia refuses to "let anything break" them apart further (3x09). She treats dark magic as a glue to hold things or people together, but in doing so treats everything around her as parts, including herself (her blood, hair, leg, and even her body taking on more animalistic forms through spell consumption). And that leads you to breaking things, including yourself, your relationships, even without necessarily realizing it. (Doesn't mean that it can't be put back together in some true form, though.)

But if dark magic is so bad, then why do it? I think Callum's arc answers this perfectly in terms of what it offers and why people (at their best and operating best they can under terrible circumstances) take it:

Dark magic offers unlimited power with the promise of control and desire, but this agency is an illusion. It took time for Callum to learn the truth and other characters (Viren, Claudia) didn't/don't know how tangibly true it is, but dark magic robs you of your agency by making you vulnerable to Aaravos. The Startouch elf didn't have to possess Claudia to make her do what he wanted, and doing so might've thrown a wrench in needing her to perform the quasar diamond spell with love if she wasn't on board with him as is. Viren, despite having no knowledge that Aaravos can possess him, is terrified of being used again (6x05) and mandates that saying no to Aaravos and dark magic is "the path of freedom" (as opposed to fate).

Callum of course gets this promise of power ripped out entirely from under him even after he rejects it (2x08) as he learns the full extent it lets Aaravos control him (4x04), and continues to engage with dark magic under duress even past that point (5x08). It's one of the ways arc 2 and him as a character recognizes false binaries and reconciles dualities: the choice isn't between "powerless human" or "powerful dark mage," but that you can become a powerless human by being a dark mage.

At the same time, 6x08 finally makes it truly, clearly explicit that dark magic can be used morally under extreme circumstances and through self-sacrificial methods (particularly for a character with a very complicated relationship towards sacrifice). This is doubly so considering that it required using the Staff of Ziard, which others have thought was extremely dangerous (Ibis, Kpp'Ar) and worth sacrificing for (Ibis killing Claudia, Kpp'Ar being willing to let Soren die), and it was still seen as the right thing to do, not only for Viren. Whether we'll see another instance of dark magic use in this way is unknown, but I could see perhaps Callum being allowed to have it in his back pocket (light and dark inside him and all that, and idk if they'd clean slate him again) as continued proof. If anyone can navigate the pitfalls appropriately (and same with primal magic), I think he's in the best position to do so.

[goodwhump-temp]

Jake Green Whump | Jericho (2006)

IM BACK. 1x01 Pilot - Emotional, car crash, leg injury, bleeding, limp, weak, ambulancia 1x02 Fallout - Climbing/leg pain cont., limp, shot at 1x03 Four Horsemen - Limp cont. 1x04 Walls of Jericho - Slight limp 1x05 Federal Response - Confronted by Eric, mysterious knowledge, begins to talk about past 1x06 9:02 - Mitch lore, angry, knocked unconscious, punched, thrown, held back 1x07 Long Live the Mayor - Jonah lore (🥵), manhandled 1x08 Rogue River - Shot at, flashbanged, held at gunpoint, Iraq lore, hospital invaded 1x09 Crossroads - Spaced out (beginning), shot at, suicidal 1x12 The Day Before - Flashback; Afghan/Iraq/Contractor lore, wanted, friend dying, 1x13 Black Jack - Voluntold LOL (04:50), shoved, gut-punched w/ stick, pain 1x14 Heart of Winter - Truck flipped, leg pinned, bleeding, pain, slowly freezing to death, hypothermia, tired x3, comforted, guilt, confesses PTSD, emotional pain (+dad bonding), crying 1x15 Semper Fidelis - Hypothermia recovery, limp, betrayed, confrontation, held at gunpoint, knocked unconscious 1x16 Winter's End - Limping 1x17 One Man's Terrorist - Held at gunpoint, hostage 1x18 A.K.A. - Pinned, held at gunpoint 1x19 Casus Belli - Angry, worried, arrested 1x20 One if by Land - Hostage, interrogated, knife put to throat, shot at/surrounded 1x22 Why We Fight - (Flashback; POS/family drama), shot at, sobbing x2

2x01 Reconstruction - Manhandled, angry 2x02 Condor - Tackled, scared, angry 2x03 Jennings & Rall - Aggravated, more Jake lore! 2x06 Sedition - Surrenders, manhandled, [tortured; restrained, isolated, sleep deprived, heat exhaustion, dehydrated], coughing, hallucinating, weak, jolted awake