#I’ve been rewatching the earlier seasons and I think that they foreshadowed him becoming a researcher

[great-tusk]

I am going to start hyperfixating on Gary AHAHA.

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x10-- And the violence spread.

So, that’s it for season five. I’m still trying to sort out how I feel about the season as a whole and Wackner’s arc. I’m hopeful that writing this will help me decide.

This episode has a Previously, and it’s rather conventional. I’m guessing it’s here to bookend the season, with conveying information being only a secondary objective.  

Did we see Rivi scream, “You’re done, Wacko, you’re done! Canceled! Canceled!” in the last episode or is that new to this previously? I feel like I absolutely would’ve had things to say about a) Wackner being called “Wacko,” which has been RIGHT THERE this whole time, and b) the use of “Canceled,” which is a thing Rivi would never say but is VERY thematic (you know, cancel culture and also Wackner having a TV show and also this being a TV show that’s wrapping up* Wackner’s arc).

* The way things end this episode, I’d say we’re done with Wackner. The Kings have said they aren’t sure about the plan for season six, so never say never, but I think that if we see Wackner again, it will be as part of a different arc.  

I went back to 5x09 and while we do see the same shots of Rivi screaming, whatever he’s saying in 5x09 is in Spanish. So either he was saying this in Spanish or the dialogue here is totally new.  

I’m a little sad that I knew in advance Robert King had directed this episode, because I want to know how long it would’ve taken me to guess. I’d like to think this first shot, of Diane flopping down on her bed in a very pretty floral print dress, then Kurt flopping down in the opposite direction, would’ve given it away. We usually don’t get shots that are both striking and kinda balanced unless RK’s directing.  

This also has some big season three opener vibes—the scene where Diane turns to Kurt and says, “I’m happy,” thus jinxing the entire season.  

Diane and Kurt are about to go on vacation, which means, of course, that Diane and Kurt are definitely not about to go on vacation. I’ve watched 12 seasons of this show; I know all the tricks!  

If I didn’t get it from the initial staging of the opening shot, the camera panning to Diane and Kurt’s suitcases and then back would’ve been another clue that RK directed. He ALWAYS has the camera in motion.  

I love that Diane’s travel outfit is a dress you could wear to a fancy party and a statement necklace. Of course it is.

And if I needed evidence that RK and MK wrote this episode (which I didn’t; it is a finale so I knew they wrote it), Diane quoting Waiting for Godot is a clue there.  

I really should read Waiting for Godot, shouldn’t I?  

“Wow. Educated and a good lay,” Kurt responds. I know that the political stuff between Diane and Kurt can get more than a little murky, but banter like this reminds me why they stay together and why politics never drive them apart. Also, it’s really nice to see Diane and Kurt have some fun banter that isn’t about politics.  

And Diane making kissing noises and asking Kurt to meet her halfway! This just feels like I’m spying on someone’s private life and I love it. Not in a voyeuristic way, since this is actually a little uncomfortably private, but in a, “ah, yes, these do feel like real people” way. This is the kind of “a little goes a long way” character moment I always want more of, and Kings episodes ALWAYS include stuff like this.

And there it is. The phone rings as Diane and Kurt are about to start out for the airport. Diane thinks the call must be for Kurt, but it’s for her. It’s a very flustered Liz, informing her that STR Laurie’s execs are on their way to the office for a surprise visit.

If the Diane/Kurt scene didn’t tell me that Robert King directed, I almost certainly would’ve gotten it from the sudden cut to Liz, walking through the hallways and doing a million things at once with a ton of background noise. No one loves chaos the way Robert King loves chaos.  

This episode STRONGLY reminds me of the Wife season five finale. It is equally chaotic and also spins a ton of plates. But, mostly, the similarity I see between the two episodes is that they are both extremely fun and captivating to watch because of how much momentum they have, but everything just feels slightly hollow and not exactly focused on the thing you want to see.  

(Shout out to my friend Ryan, who messaged me the 5x22 comparison before I could message it to him!)  

I decided I should rewatch the first few minutes of 5x22. I am now 15 minutes into 5x22 of Wife and 2 minutes into 5x10 of Fight. Oops.  

Apparently, STR Laurie planned a surprise visit because they heard RL was dysfunctional. You don’t say!  

I felt like 5x09 concluded with STR Laurie being won over by Allegra and the RL team, so this is a bit of a surprising place to start the episode. But, since Diane seems surprised too, I’ll allow it.  

Now Liz and Diane have 90 minutes to agree on a financial plan! Kurt’s on the phone with the airline before Diane even hangs up with Liz.  

Diane is determined not to lose out on her vacation and asks Kurt to change the flight to 8:00. “Kurt, we are going on this vacation if it kills me!” is a line I would worry was foreshadowing on basically any other show.

The RL/STRL PowerPoint template is pretty ugly. They want to call 2021 their best year yet, thanks to the deal between Rivi and Plum Meadow Farms we saw last week. Even though we saw champagne and signatures, the deal isn’t done yet because Plum Meadow can back out if Rivi goes to jail.

RK also loves close-ups more than any other director on the show; I do not love close-ups.  

The Plum Meadow deal is such a big deal that for the quarter, they go from $45 million to $5 million without it. They should just not say numbers. I can believe it’s big enough to take them from a modest profit to being behind projections or whatever, but I can’t believe that they have $5 million in other business and $40 million on this one deal.  

It seems that Rivi was arrested. I don’t think it is ever said in this episode why. I assume the arrest relates to his behavior in Wackner’s court, since there were police officers there, and I suppose that Rivi is a big enough deal the police would actually take him to real court, but are we not going to address the weirdness of Rivi being arrested in a fake court where his employees are being tried, then taken to a real court by the same people who just an episode ago were disillusioned with real court? This seems like a plot point.

Carmen on a frantic phone call in the backseat of a car feels very 7x22.  

Who is James that Carmen has in her contacts!? And why does everyone always put Liz in their contacts as “Elizabeth Reddick” when everyone calls her Liz?  

Carmen calls Marissa to go argue in Vinetta’s court since she’s on Rivi duty. Carmen doesn’t take Marissa’s job in Wackner’s court seriously and then notes that this instruction is coming straight from Liz, so Marissa falls in line.  

Wackner’s case of the week is about rural Illinois wanting to form its own state separate from Chicago. There’s a farmer who feels like his tax money is only going to the big city and he wants it to stay in his community.  

They’ve just now added stage lighting to the set of Wackner Rules, dunno why they wouldn’t have done that earlier!

I don’t know what standing you’d have to have to bring a case about wanting to divide the state in two to court, or if this is even something a court would or should decide, but, sure, Wackner and Cord, go for it. There are no rules!  

This map splitting Illinois into two new states that Cord is holding is a dumb prop because Galena, where this farmer is from, is in the same section as Chicago. Do I pause every reference to Chicago on this show and then google information to see if the writers bothered to look it up or pretend they’ve ever set foot in Chicago? You know I do.

“Secession!” the audience screams. Does the audience of Wackner Rules really want to see this?

A Good Fight Short! And it really is short: “Stop this obsession with secession and breaking up the Union. It’s boring and it’s dumb, end of song.” I feel like that’s the thesis statement for this episode, or one of them (that this episode seems to have about ten thesis statements is kind of my problem with this episode, tbh). This episode is very much about danger of things becoming too fractured—the COTW, the copycat courts, the firm drama—and I feel like the writers come around to just saying no, this is enough, we need structure and consistency.

But more on that later. MUCH more on that later.

Marissa is swearing more because “the world has required it.” She notes this to Wackner as she calls him out on the secession case. Cord barges in.

Take a look at the employee of the month poster on the back of the door at 5:39. Then at 5:40, look at what’s in the box just to the right of the center of the screen: it’s an employee of the month poster with Wackner on it! Cute easter egg. (Would Marissa definitely notice this and have questions? Yes. Is this here as a cute easter egg for eagle-eyed fans? Almost certainly.)  

“Insane is just one step away from reality if you get people to believe, and you know what makes people believe? TV.” Cord explains when Marissa asks how they can possibly be litigating this case. That’s thesis statements two and three, folks. The first is that if you get people to believe, then anything is possible, which sounds like a tagline for a Disney movie but is actually super dangerous; the second is that reality TV is a way to persuade people and change opinions.  

So we’ve got: (1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules don’t actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. Let’s see if there are more.

(Yes, these theses do kind of add up to a whole—The rules don’t matter, so if you persuade people, through reality tv, you get factions of people believing their own sets of rules and facts—but what I'm interested in tracking throughout this episode is how well the writers actually bring these theses together.)

(And this is setting aside that key themes in previous episodes, that I think many of us were looking for resolution on, included outlining the flaws with the extant “real” justice system and exploring the role of prison in the justice system. From this episode, I don’t think the writers ever intended to really tackle either of those issues. That’s fine—I'm not sure that TGF has something to say about prison abolition and I don’t want a thought experiment where the writers actually try to fix the legal system—but feels a bit disjointed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but 5x08 and 5x09 needed to do a better, clearer job of setting up this finale. The key themes of Wackner’s arc were always present, but they needed to slowly narrow the scope so the resolution felt inevitable and clear. Instead, we spent time on things like parking spaces (when we could’ve had a real plot about how Wackner’s court gains legitimacy through violence, incarceration, and playing on people’s frustration with the real systems) and Del’s focus groups (when we could’ve instead done a plot about Wackner gaining fans who wanted to use his methods to do ill). Everything I just mentioned in the parentheticals is in the show! It’s not subtext! We see it all! We see Cord use violence and prisons to enforce Wackner’s rulings; we see the cops turn to Wackner out of frustration; we see that the people drawn to Wackner Rules and to Wackner’s court are increasingly sounding more and more like right-wing populists! I can’t be too hard on this arc because, again, all these ideas are there. I’m not coming up with them on my own!)

I’m just saying: this ending would’ve been a lot clearer and a lot more interesting had the writers focused on what I mentioned above instead of the distractions of the last two episodes.  

Whew, that was a ramble. Hope you’re ready for more rambles.

On a similar note, I’d like to reiterate my problems with how the writers used Marissa after the private prison reveal. I don’t have much more to say than what I wrote last week, but it’s another example of the same problem. Marissa objecting to Wackner’s court because she notices what it’s becoming and how Cord plans to use it for political gain (two Illinoises (??) changes the Senate and the Electoral College...) always was going to be part of the endgame. Marissa only seriously objecting after the fourth or fifth line Wackner crosses feels bizarre.  

Cord does NOT like that there is another court, and wants to protect Wackner’s IP. Wackner, as we saw last episode, does not feel threatened by the other court. In fact, he seems to be excited by it.  

I love Liz questioning Diane’s outfit like it’s unprofessional. It’s a little low-cut and showy, but I don’t think unprofessional is the word I’d use for it.  

Now they have 45 minutes to decide The Future Of The Firm and Diane wants to be considered a name partner. Oh, that debate is still raging?! Every time I think it’s done it comes back, which should probably be a sign to Diane that her options are to leave and start something new, jettison Madeline and the others, or step down. Staying on as name partner and calling it a black firm is just not an option.  

“Diane, there is a split in the firm that...” Liz starts, before asking some associates to leave the room. Ha! The reveal Liz and Diane aren’t alone is a pretty fun touch.

“The Black equity partners don’t want to be in your work group,” Liz informs Diane. “Because they think they’ll be punished by this firm?” Diane asks. “No, that’s paranoia. We don’t punish here,” Liz responds. “Of course you do. My fracking client. My union client. The Black lawyers who work on those cases—they're considered traitors” Diane says. “Because those CEOs are racists,” Liz counters.

Lots going on here, and I’m not sure I understand it all. Why would the equity partners—who are partners—feel like they’re being punished by being in Diane’s work group? (And also what does a “work group” mean and why haven’t they talked about it in the past?) When Diane starts talking about the lawyers who staff her clients, she’s not talking about equity partners; she is talking about associates.

And people are giving associates shit for working on Diane’s clients whom they happen to be staffed on!? That’s sad, though believable.

“So what do we do? Only bring in clients who can pass the racial smell test?” Diane asks. I mean, actually, yes. IF the goal is to be a black firm and to have that designation mean something in moral terms rather than marketing terms, then yes.  

“It’s okay if you’re a drug kingpin like Rivi, but it’s not okay if you want me as lead attorney?” Diane says. Also, yes. Diane makes good points here.  

“Diane, this is not about you,” Liz counters. Um, sure, but it has to be about something, Liz. Unless you’re trying to build a firm you don’t control that makes 88% of its revenue from a drug dealer (40 million out of 45 million this quarter = 88%; I told you they shouldn’t give me numbers) but happens to have black people in charge, you have to grapple with this question. I don’t think anyone who’s fighting for the firm to be a black-led (not owned, bc STRL) business is the type of person who thinks that having a black-led firm that does all the same shit as any other firm is in itself a good thing, so you NEED to address your client list. Madeline is anti-Rivi, anti-Cord, anti-Wolfe-Coleman (the rapist guy), pro-social justice, and pro having a black led firm.  

“I mean, why... why do white people personalize this?” Liz asks. “Oh, now I’m just a white person?” Diane responds. I... don’t know what to do with this! Liz is right that Diane is taking this personally; Diane is right that Liz needs to deal with the rest of the client list. But no one is saying the things that REALLY need to be said: That all their decisions are meaningless in the shadow of STRL, and that deciding to be a black led firm isn’t the end of the discussion if they haven’t decided what types of clients they want to have.  

“What happened, Liz? Last year we were intent on an all-female-run law firm,” Diane starts. Oh, THIS AGAIN! Diane never learns, does she? She never seems to realize that no one she’s approached with this idea is NEARLY as in love with it as she is. She probably still wonders to herself why Alicia—who partnered with her at the end of season seven basically just because it was the easiest, most frictionless thing to do—didn't seem more committed to their firm.  

“Diane, there is history here that we are trying to...” Liz says, but Diane cuts in to note that women (women like Diane Lockhart!) have history too! In fact, she’s spent “35 years fighting gender discrimination to get to this position.” “And we have spent 400 years fighting racial discrimination to try and, you know...” Liz starts, before cutting herself off to get back to the ticking clock.

Sigh. Just talk about the actual thing instead of talking around the thing, guys. Diane is obviously deserving of A name partnership, in the abstract. This is an undeniable fact. And while Diane is definitely making this about herself rather than the big picture, I don’t think Liz trying to trump Diane’s 35 year career with the history of black people is going to win her any arguments? Like, just say what you mean and say it clearly. What Liz, I think, wants to express is that Diane’s individual accomplishments aren’t the issue here and everyone thinks she’s deserving (though Liz suggested Diane was not deserving a few episodes ago, which I didn’t understand then and don’t understand now). The problem is that Diane is trying to fight a battle that’s about something much larger than herself with, “but I'm a good lawyer!”  

And that’s KIND OF what Liz is saying here, if I add all her sentences up and read between the lines, but, again, why not just say it?  

“Alright, now we have 43 minutes to fix race relations, gender relations. STR Laurie’s gonna fire our asses, and you know it,” Liz says. I am curious what that would look like. Wouldn’t that just mean that STRL wouldn’t control them anymore? I’m sure being fired would be bad and all, but wouldn’t it free them from the contract they wanted out of last year?  

“Let’s split the firm down the middle. I hire half the lawyers, you hire the other half,” Diane suggests. What does this mean? Why are you hiring your employees? Huh?

“You hire the white associates, and I hire the black associates?” Liz confirms. This seems like a very bad idea that would make things a lot worse and open them up to lawsuits! I also still do not know what they’re even talking about. And I don’t know why Allegra isn’t a part of this conversation.

“I’m not saying it’s good. I’m just saying it’s what we’re left with. It's what we can agree on,” Diane says. I really wish I understood what “hire” meant in this context because I don’t understand why they have to split anything or why this has to be done now and I don’t understand why this would possibly be a good solution. Can you imagine the backlash when people realize all the white people report to Diane and all the black people to Liz and that people were taken off of the accounts they’ve worked on for years to accomplish this? And this must be something that the employees would know about eventually; otherwise they could just randomly assign half to Liz and half to Diane.  

I’m sad Madeline isn’t in this episode because I feel like we needed to see more of her POV as well as the associate POV. I don’t really understand the divides at play within the firm or what the staff and other partners are asking for, but I suspect it isn’t this.

Hallucination Jesus is back, and at least there’s actually a point to him this time (he shows up when Jay is in Vinetta’s court and reminds Jay that Vinetta will rule based on her religious beliefs). I still dislike the hallucinations.

Jay advises Marissa, who is Jewish, to talk a lot about Jesus in her defense.  

Charmaine Bingwa is really great as Carmen, and obviously she is not fluent in Spanish, but it’s so funny to me that the only time you can hear that she’s Australian is when she’s trying to say Oscar like she’s speaking Spanish.  

"I know you’re hiding something when you speak English,” Rivi says to Carmen. Heh.  

“Community court” is such a nice, unthreatening term for referring to Wackner and his copy cats. Thanks for that, Carmen!

It’s a smart plan to mention Jesus a lot, I guess, but Jay and Marissa both should’ve realized that Vinetta is too smart to tolerate obvious pandering. I’m a little surprised Jay doesn’t get up and argue since Marissa is, obviously, not familiar with the New Testament.  

Marissa wins this round with facts and logic.

Why is the judge who was handling Rivi’s previous charge now in bond court? Make it make sense.

I like that Carmen calls out the ASA for swearing hahaha  

Why... would this Matteo kid just casually mention he was holding a gun, omg.  

In Vinetta’s court, you can be charged with murder and tried because... you had a gun and also there were murders at other times. Coolcoolcool no problems here.

Community courts for civil cases? Sure. That’s basically arbitration. Community courts for criminal cases? Bad, bad, bad idea.  

Vinetta’s reasoning: “Those murders happened on our street, and the police haven’t convicted anyone because they don’t care. We care. This is self-defense. And how is it different from your court?” Aside from the whole imprisoning people in her basement thing, Vinetta’s not wrong. I almost brought this up last week but hesitated because I couldn’t remember the details enough to decide if I wanted to recommend it, but there’s a book I read a few years ago that seems relevant here: Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. Again, been a while so don’t take this as a wholehearted endorsement or anything, but from what I remember, the central issue at the heart of the book (it’s non-fiction) is that a poor black community (I think in LA?) doesn’t trust the police (in part) because the police don’t solve murders, and then with no way of getting justice through the court system, there’s more violence as a stand-in for justice. https://www.vox.com/2016/8/26/12631962/ghettoside-jill-leovy-black-crime

I’m not sure if that’s QUITE what Vinetta is saying but it seems similar, and it’s a decent point (though not a justification for her court). Why should she trust the system to improve her community when it’s ignored her community for years?

I like that the writers chose two very different, very understandable characters for their community courts. It’s easy to see why Wackner and Vinetta feel the need for alternative courts; it’s easy to see why others would trust them. This arc doesn’t really work unless there’s a legitimate frustration with existing systems...  

Marissa calls Wackner’s court a “joke,” which she should understand by now isn’t the case. (Marissa’s smart; she knew it wasn’t a joke the second she saw David Cord get involved.)  

Vinetta accuses Wackner of copying her court, which alarms Marissa. This isn’t addressed again, and I don’t know if it’s true! I could really go either way on this. On the one hand, I absolutely believe that Wackner saw/heard about it, liked it, and did it himself without thinking much of it—and if this is the case, then the ending where Vinetta gets in trouble for violating Wackner’s IP is a lot more of a gut punch. On the other hand, I don’t really feel like the seeds for this were planted. We see Wackner innovate a lot and try new things and he has an explanation for why he does everything—how much of that is Vinetta? And Vinetta clearly watches the show and likes it or she wouldn’t have recognized Marissa, so it’s a little hard for me to just believe her claim when literally all I know about her is she has a court that looks like Wackner’s and she is aware of and feels positively towards Wackner rules. Also, Wackner knows about Vinetta’s court (from Marissa) and sounded excited about it last episode. Sure, he didn’t necessarily know which one it was, exactly, but I assume if he’d copied the idea and then heard about a case involving people from the exact same community where he found the idea... his reaction would be different. So IDK. My reasons for doubting Vinetta’s claim are probably based a little too much in things I’m not meant to spend that much time paying attention to.  

“I fucked up. It’s in the same court, but now it’s a murder case,” Marissa tells Diane. I do like hearing characters admit when they fucked up!  

Diane hears that STRL is delayed, so she heads out to help Matteo. When she goes to change into her pantsuit, she finds that she’s grabbed Kurt’s bag by mistake. “Of course. That makes sense,” she reacts.  

Diane pushes her flight to the next day, also telling Kurt, “And yes, for some reason, I took your suit instead of mine, so fuck it.” I love it when the characters feel like real people.  

I am not sure why Kurt is getting to the office when Diane is leaving or why Kurt is there—to pick Diane up on the way to the airport, maybe?

Carter Schmidt walks into RL at the worst possible time, threating to blow up the Plum Meadow deal. Another 5x10 to Wife 5x22 similarity: he’s in both episodes.  

Liz heads out to help Carmen with Rivi, and then STRL arrives. Oops.  

Credits!

One thing about Wackner’s court that should definitely be a warning sign even though it seems noble: he ignores just about every warning sign, like this rowdy crowd screaming WE LOVE YOU WACKNER or the potential interests at play in a case about secession, because he thinks his fair judgement can overcome these obstacles. If the world worked that way, there’d be no need for his court in the first place.

Is anyone representing the State of Illinois in this trial? If not, then... how is it happening?  

Dr. Goat, some dude who claims to have some hidden historical document about how Illinois is actually two states, is clearly making stuff up and yet Wackner indulges him and Cord. I feel about this the same way as I feel about the Devil’s Advocate: That Wackner would not allow this to go on for more than five seconds before calling bullshit and therefore there is no reason I should have to sit through it.

Why is some guy screaming, “No taxation without representation” like dude you absolutely have representation. But of course, I’m expecting him to be logical, and the point is that he is not.

Dr. Goat’s Latin phrases—shock!-- don’t actually translate into anything like what he said. Even though this information is verifiable by a quick google search, the crowd starts screaming “Liar!!!!” at Marissa. If only I could say this felt unrealistic.

Wackner asks Dr. Goat to bring in the document.  

“You look like you’re heading to the beach,” Vinetta says to Diane, who looks like she’s heading somewhere but definitely not to the beach. Vinetta asks where Diane was headed on vacation. Diane says she’s headed to Lake Como, and unnecessarily clarifies that “It’s in Italy.” She assumes Vinetta doesn’t know that... but Vinetta does.

“So you’ve been there before?” Vinetta probes when Diane says it’s beautiful there. “Just once. We don’t get away often. We thought we’d splurge,” Diane says. Vinetta stares at her and smiles, and Diane hits her head on a basket that’s hanging in Vinetta’s kitchen. If I just write out the dialogue here, it sounds like a perfectly average conversation, but everything about this conversation is so charged: Diane is afraid to look like a wealthy white woman; Vinetta’s pleasantness is pretty clearly also a way of sizing up Diane.  

Vinetta shows Diane pictures of neighborhood children and young adults killed as a consequence of gang violence. You can see she’s not trying to do anything other than help her community, even if her methods are highly questionable.

Diane argues that Matteo should be given over to the police; Vinetta disagrees: “The police haven’t arrested anyone for those murders, any of these. Since the BLM movement, they’ve pulled back from our streets. No one’s coming to help. That’s why I started this court. It’s not a joke to us.” Wait I’m sorry did Vinetta just blame lack of good detective work in black communities on... the BLM movement?!?!?! Is there any foundation to this!? Why can’t it just be that the police weren’t actually doing a good job of policing/finding justice and were being antagonistic towards the community instead of being helpful and no one trusted them?? That explanation is literally right there.

Jay suggests the Jesus strategy, again.  

“It’s women! We could just move on, install men,” STRL guy says. I don’t know if he’s joking, but ugh. Also, what is RL if it has neither Diane nor Liz? A bunch of lawyers who will all promptly quit when they see their bosses get fired and a few opportunists?  

Kurt is watching golf in Diane’s office, and the STRL people love it. Of course Kurt accidentally makes friends with them.  

Court stuff happens. It’s not good for Rivi, and then Liz and Carmen come up with a theory: Plum Meadow is stalling the deal so they can find Rivi’s more stable second and make a deal with them instead.  

Wackner giving Dr. Goat a single point on his stupid little board, for any reason related to his obviously fake totally unverified document, is dangerous. Why would you signal to a crowd that’s clearly not interested in fact that they have a point? That’s basically egging them on.

I know Wackner’s judgment is obviously not 100% sound—need I remind you of the PRIVATE PRISONS?-- but I thought it was more sound than this.  

Wackner shows off his knowledge of paper and proves that Dr. Goat’s document is a fake. Why... did he just give Dr. Goat a point???  

Or is he moving the point from Dr. Goat to Marissa?  

Dr. Goat sounds like a fake name I would call a character in my recaps long past the point of anyone other than myself remembering the joke. (See: Mr. Elk)

“The truth is ugly. The only thing uglier is not pursuing it,” Wackner tells Marissa. How is taking on a case about very obvious falsehoods, funded by someone with a vested interest in the case, that gets people riled up, some noble pursuit of truth?  

STRL and Kurt are now drinking and discussing hunting, while Diane’s arguing for Matteo in Vinetta’s living room. Vinetta is—as was always obvious, sorry Jay—far too smart to fall for this patronizing bullshit. She screams at Diane and plays back a recording (on a baby monitor) of Diane coaching Matteo to lie about his faith.

Soooooo yeah no you can’t do that, that is bad, recording conversations between lawyers and their clients is not good even if it leads to you exposing their schemes...

Then Vinetta places Diane under arrest, which obviously isn’t going to end well for Vinetta.  

Liz and Carmen suggest a post-nup to Rivi to see if Isabel is planning on turning on him.

“I’m going to have to kill her,” Rivi says sadly. I don’t think Rivi will ever kill Isabel because we already did that with Bishop.  

I’m going to assume that Diane chooses to stay in basement prison instead of calling one of the many, MANY, MANY people she could call to get her out/take down Vinetta because she doesn’t want the situation to be publicized or further deteriorate. That said, it’s really not clear why Diane just accepts being sentenced to basement prison with a cell phone.  

Love the STRL man looking at that picture of Diane and HRC. They’ve gotten so much mileage out of that photo.  

Wackner’s court has no rules, but at least since it has no rules, I can’t complain about how its rules make no sense!  

What is this, debate practice?! Ugggghhhhh I can’t deal with this case for much longer.  

Marissa takes a breath, then decides to pursue a strategy she knows could blow everything up.

“Then why care what Judge Wackner decides? Why should you defer to him? Why defer to anyone?” Cord says that’s the point—the people have decided to trust Wackner. “So if you don’t like this court’s decision, you’ll just start a new one?” Marissa asks. “I guess,” Cord concedes.  

“So then why does this matter? This court?” “It matters only insofar as we continue to agree that it matters,” Cord says. “So if you don’t like Judge Wackner’s rulings, you can just ignore them and create a new court?”

Good point, Marissa. Good point. (Does this count as a thesis?)

“I’m guessing that I will like the way the judge decides,” Cord says. Well, that’s basically a threat.

Wackner takes a break and heads to chambers—without Marissa.  

Kurt goes to visit Diane in basement jail. He’s granted a conjugal visit, which means Matteo gets moved up to the bedroom so Diane and Kurt can have some alone time.

Diane is staring at an image of Lake Como in her cell. I thought it was odd she brought a printout of her vacation destination with her, so I LOVED the line where she explains that Vinetta printed it out for her. COLD. (You know who also would’ve done this if they’d for some reason had a basement prison? Bree Van de Kamp. You know what show DID do a basement prison arc I’d rather forget? Desperate Housewives!)  

I love how Diane responds to basement prison by making jokes non-stop.

“I thought the craziness would end with 2020,” Diane says. Nope.

Kurt brought alcohol; Diane brought pot gummies.  

I love that Kurt has never had pot before. I was going to say that I bet Diane’s had a few experiences with recreational drugs when I remembered we had a whole damn season of Diane microdosing.  

Christine and Gary’s acting and their chemistry really bring these basement prison scenes to life. The writing and directing are really sharp, but it’s the actors who make these scenes something special. You can tell Diane and Kurt love each other a lot. You can tell they’re disappointed about their vacation and exhausted by the chaos of the day. You can tell they’re in disbelief over this situation but also find it funny.  

Didn’t Rivi and Isabel have an adult daughter who died of COVID a few episodes ago? Weird she isn’t mentioned in this scene. Maybe from a different marriage/relationship?

Isabel called the SA’s office because she thinks Rivi’s a threat? I think this is a power play.

Heh, Carmen saying, “Shut a black woman up!?” in disbelief in court. Love it.  

Isabel instead flips her story and supports her husband and fights for his release. With no intervention from Plum Meadow, this gets the judge to free Rivi. I don’t really understand what’s happened here or why. I get the resolution, but I don’t get why Isabel called the SA or why this went away so quickly. I still don’t even get why Rivi’s been arrested.

Diane and Kurt put up Christmas lights for ambiance and talk about how they never go on vacation.

“I wanna see the pyramids on this coast!” drunk & high Kurt insists, hilariously. “I mean hemisphere. I like the Aztecs. They, they care about people.” I’m not going to transcribe the rest of the dialogue because it loses its magic when you’re not watching the scene.  

After some fun banter about travel and movies, Diane changes the topic. “I should quit, shouldn’t I? That judge upstairs? She looked at me like I was the most entitled white bitch on the planet. And that’s the way they look at me at work.”

Kurt tries to say that’s not true, but Diane knows it is: “Yes they do. I’m the top Karen. And why do I care? I mean, I... I could find another firm. I could quit. I can’t impose my will on people who don’t want me.”

YES. I see a lot of debate over what the “right” thing to do is here. But I think we are long past “right” and “wrong.” At a certain point, this stops being about absolute moral truths. If Diane doesn’t have the respect of her partners and employees, that is a very real problem for the firm and for Diane. How can she continue to impose her will on a firm that doesn’t want her, all the while claiming to be an ally? (The back half of that sentence is the most important part.) Forget whether or not Diane “should” have to step down. Forget what’s “fair.” If the non-Diane leadership of RL thinks the firm should be a black firm, and the employees of RL think so too, and Diane just doubles down on her white feminism, she’s creating an even bigger problem for herself and ruining her reputation in the process.  

Kurt stands up on the prison cot and warns Diane she might make a decision she’ll regret. This scene is so cute. Why can’t other shows do drug trips where the characters just act silly and have great chemistry? Why does it always have to be some profound meditation on death whenever characters get high?

“I think I like starting over. I like the chutes and ladders of life. I mean, I want the corner office, but then I wanna slip back to the beginning and fight for the corner office. I mean, I think maybe it’s better that I don’t get the top spot,” Diane says. LOVE to hear her admit this. I’m not sure I would’ve come to this conclusion on my own, and it sounds like it’s a bit more about how the writers like to write (you know, the “we love our characters to always be underdogs”) than Diane, but... you know what? I believe it. I fully believe it. Diane LOVES to fight, LOVES to feel like she’s in the right, LOVES power plays and to be making progress. She LOVES winning. The fact that she isn’t just choosing to retire right now, even though she’s past retirement age and has a great reputation, is in itself enough for me to believe that she would find it fun to repeatedly start over.

Plus, it’s a fun new direction for the show to take in season six, because they’ll get the same sense of conflict without the actual conflict. This season’s arc was firm drama and resulted in a firm name change... but it didn’t feel like a knock-off of Hitting the Fan. Diane trying to work her way back into power (I assume by becoming a better actual ally, otherwise doesn’t she just end up in the same exact situation?) should also provide conflict without being repetitive.

Hahahahahaha Kurt immediately reacting to this serious statement by being incredibly silly and horny and then Diane singing “I Touch Myself” to him, man, I love these two. I want to know the story behind this song choice.

Wackner emerges from his chambers. The score is tied. Wackner calls Cord corrupt and notes that they can’t just decide to call Downstate Illinois a new state based on his ruling. Now it’s thesis time!

“I was taken by Mr. Cord’s arguments of individualism. So much of our country has been built on people finding their own way, not being held back by bureaucracy. Yet, if we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos. And that was not the point of this court. Or at least not my point. Judgment for the defense. There will be no Downstate Illinois.”

“If we only follow individualism, that way lies chaos.” is probably the clearest of the many theses of this episode. To recap, we have:

(1) Factions are bad. (2) People are persuadable and the rules don’t actually matter. (3) Reality TV changes minds. (4) Institutions only exist when we collectively agree they exist (5) Individualism = chaos.  

But let’s put a pin in this for now and let the chaos of individualism play out.  

The crowd does not like Wackner’s decision, and decides that an appropriate way to express their displeasure is to make anti-Semitic remarks towards Marissa and then start throwing chairs. What nice people.  

As the crowd goes totally 1/6 on Wackner’s court (thanks for pointing this out to me, Ryan—I cannot believe I didn’t make the connection myself!), the door slamming into the desk finally pays off since Marissa and Wackner are able to use it to keep the crowd from reaching them.  

They immediately turn to the police, or they would, if they could get service. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that as soon as things get bad, they want to involve the existing system.  

Wackner Rules is, somehow, still taping in the midst of all the chaos. I don’t know if I think they’d air this, but someone certainly would. (I wonder if any of the cameras we see in these scenes are actually the cameras filming the other angles of the riot.)  

Cord shakes his head and walks out, unharmed.  

“You think they’ll kill us?” “I think they might,” Marissa and Wackner fret.  

“My dad said the whole world would be a better place if everybody realized they were in the minority. ‘No matter where you are,’ he said, ‘Make sure you keep an eye on the exits, and make sure you’re closer to the exit than the Cossacks are to the entrance.’” Marissa says. Love Eli Gold coming through with thesis number 6 (and maybe thesis number 7).  

“Your dad sounds a little paranoid,” Wackner says, correctly. Remember how I mentioned I accidentally wound up watching 5x22? Eli calls Alicia and responds to her hello with, “DISASTER!!!!” I miss him.

“He was, but he wasn’t wrong. He said, ‘Stay away from parades. They’re cute until they’re not. And don’t trust any pope who was Hitler Youth.” “What’s that law called?” “Godwin’s Law. My dad said anybody who argued for Godwin’s Law has never been near an actual crowd. Crowds love you, they hug you. Then they grab a gun and try to kill you.”

“Why? Why do they do that?” “I don’t know. Hate is fun. It’s clear-cut.”  

I really like all of this. It is a little preachy, but it isn’t wrong and it’s self-aware. And, more importantly, it’s in character. I absolutely believe that Marissa would tell lots of stories about Eli in a moment of extreme stress. It’s nostalgic, probably comforting, and it also helps her feel like she’s on the right side with the right arguments. So, even backed into a corner, she’s still a winner: she has theory on her side.  

Wackner speaks a foreign language (I do not know what language but I wish I did) and says, “A guy could get killed doing this,” which makes him and Marissa laugh as things crash around them.

Idk about you all, but I couldn’t really get myself to actually worry about their safety during this scene. Maybe Wackner’s, just a little, but I got the sense we were supposed to focus more on the chaos and destruction and monologuing than on the actual danger. That’s not to say the stakes didn’t feel high, but rather to say that this didn’t feel like an action sequence where you don’t know what’s going to happen next. The point was to watch the court fall and think about why it fell, not to worry about if Marissa would live.  

Diane and Kurt are woken up by sirens and loud noises. The cops arrive and are shocked to find professionally dressed white people in a basement cell. They let Diane and Kurt out with compassion, but scream, “don’t you fucking move” to the people on the floor.

“It’s okay, they didn’t do anything,” Diane says. This is, as I theorized earlier, probably why Diane just sits there until her punishment blows over instead of escalating things.  

If the cops weren’t there to free Diane, why were they there? Why, because they like David Cord and David Cord has gotten Chicago PD officers to protect Wackner’s IP.  

If I had to say one thing in favor of Vinetta being the originator of the community court idea, it would be that it’s SUCH a gut punch to watch Diane and Kurt walk away from their bizarre little adventure as Vinetta gets arrested in the background, and it hits ten times as hard if Vinetta’s only being charged because some white guy is claiming IP that’s actually hers.

(I think Vinetta is probably, at this point, actually being arrested for imprisoning people illegally, but, still.)

“Pfft. Some judge,” one of the cops who adores Wackner says of Vinetta. Racist much?  

Marissa and Wackner emerge from the backroom. “I think I better get back to work,” she says, meaning her RL job. "Me too,” Wackner says, grabbing a Copy Coop apron. He’s an employee of ten years.  

I don’t think this lands as well as it’s meant to. I think the point is supposed to be that Wackner’s just some guy—not a billionaire, not an academic, not a judge, not a lawyer—with an idea. But it’s a little too neat. And it doesn’t explain how Wackner financed his court initially, nor does it explain why he has basically unlimited access to Copy Coop space and resources. I’d buy it if he were the OWNER of Copy Coop, but I have so many questions about him being an employee.  

Diane tells Liz she’s actually going on vacation this time, and they laugh about how Kurt bonded with STRL.

“I want you and Allegra to be name partners. I’ll be an equity partner,” Diane says. “Why?” Liz asks. “Five years ago, when I hit rock bottom, this firm took me in. So I don’t like the idea of splitting this firm in two. And I can’t lead if no one will follow.” “And your clients?” “We’ll manage them together.” YES! I love this. I don’t love it because I necessarily think it had to go this way, but because it’s so refreshing to see Diane say that she actually is willing to take a step back because she cares about the firm and the people there more than she cares about being a name partner. This isn’t something we usually see. When we hear “this firm took x in” it’s usually being said incredulously against someone who’s decided to leave and steal clients (cough, Hitting the Fan, cough).  

It’s been pretty clear for most of this arc that Diane and Liz like working together and they like their firm, but that no one (other than Diane, I guess) is willing to let RL lose its status as a black firm, and that the employees and equity partners weren’t going to be satisfied until Diane stepped down. Diane really had three options: Stay and piss everyone off and claim the whole firm for herself, quit and go somewhere else and totally abandon the good working dynamic she had, or step down and put her money where her mouth is.  

Also yeah the clients were never actually going to be an issue! They were only an issue because Diane intentionally went about informing them she was stepping down in a way she knew would make them worry!  

“I think I need to prove myself,” Diane says. I’m not sure that’s the key issue or that she can ever prove herself fully, but we’ll worry about that next year.

“I missed you,” Liz says. “I’m here,” Diane replies. “I know. Thank you,” Liz says.  

Diane decides she’s going to move downstairs so Allegra can have her office. I think there’s another office on this floor, since she, Adrian and Liz all had offices. This feels a little bit like Diane’s in love with the idea of making things difficult for herself and maybe hasn’t fully grasped the point, but, you know, I’ll take it.  

Diane tells Kurt her decision and he asks if it was the right thing to do. She says she doesn’t know—but she says it with a smile. Kurt notes he’s going hunting next month with the STRL folks and will put in a good word for her. Ah, yes, because STRL still controls all of this and all of this is moot! Thanks for the reminder Kurt! Diane says she wants in on the hunting trip. Of course.  

And the elevator doors close. Remember how closing elevator doors was a motif earlier this season??? It’s back!

Then we get a little coda with Wackner Rules airing a new episode that’s just violence and destruction. This sequence seems to straddle the line between being there for thematic reasons for the viewers and there to show what happened in the show’s universe, but I think it’s main purpose is theme, so I will not go on a full rant questioning why Del would want to air this.

A white blonde lady in an apron watches the destruction of Wackner Rules. She looks concerned. “That was violet,” she says with dismay. And then we see she’s holding a guy in a jail cell in her kitchen.  

And then we see other courts, as America the Beautiful plays. One’s in a garage debating kicking someone out of the neighborhood; another is across the street about the same case. There’s one in Oregon about secession. There’s one among Tiki Torch Nazis deciding only white people can own property. There’s (inexplicably) one about pronouns. There’s one with arm wrestling, one that happens while sky diving, and a bunch of others. It’s pretty ridiculous, and not necessarily in a good way. It feels at once like the natural extension of the Wackner Rules show and like an over the top parody you’d see on another show. Tiki Torch Nazis screaming “only white people can own property!” is the opposite of subtle writing. Tonally, this sequence feels more like the zany humor of Desperate Housewives or the insanity of BrainDead than anything TGF has done before (and TGF’s been plenty surreal), and it doesn’t quite work for me. It feels like it is trying to prove a point in the corniest, most on the nose way possible. It almost feels like it’s parodying its own plotlines.  

On my first watch, this ending for Wackner left me stumped. I knew the writers were making an argument against individualism (Wackner’s speech + the repeated references to The Apprentice) and cults of personality. But I couldn’t figure out a real life analogue to Wackner’s court, and since this ending was so obviously trying to be About Something, that bugged me. Sure, that last sequence could be an argument against people making community courts, but WERE people making community courts? I didn’t see the urgency.

And then I talked to @mimeparadox. And as soon as he said that it was about factions and people playing by their own sets of rules beyond the justice system, it clicked. I’d been looking for Wackner’s plot to be a commentary on the legal system. It is much broader than that. It’s a commentary on the weakening of democratic systems (the Big Lie, etc.), more broadly, and Wackner and his common-sense approach are just a way to get liberal viewers to go along for the ride.  

Now that I understand the point, or what I think is the point, I like this conclusion. Circumventing the system leads to chaos; that’s why we have institutions and bureaucracy, and I think the show is arguing that these institutions should still be respected despite their flaws. The many theses of this episode all come together to make this point (though the reality TV stuff is a little more tenuous and I'm a little shocked we got through all of this without any commentary on social media?): If we stop having a shared belief in institutions and instead follow individual leaders (whom we may learn about through reality TV), the rules will stop mattering and we’ll end up with a fractured country and widespread violence.  

But, and maybe this is just about me being upset I missed both the obvious 1/6 parallels AND the point of the arc the first time through this episode (my defensive side feels the need to also note I first watched this episode at like 5 am when I was barely awake), I don’t know that I actually think this episode does a great job of driving its point home. There are SO many moving pieces to the Wackner plot and SO many references. There are so many threads we never return to from earlier in the season, and there’s so much that strains credulity (like Wackner taking Dr. Goat seriously for more than a split second). It’s pretty clear what the themes are—even though I’m saying I missed the point my first time through, I've hit on all these themes separately in past recaps and posts—but, I dunno, something about this episode just feels scattered. Maybe it’s all the moving pieces, maybe it’s all the moments where it sounds like the characters are voicing related ideas that don’t quite snap together to form one coherent picture, or maybe it’s that Wackner’s plot gets two endings (the actual ending + the coda) and it’s up to the viewer to put together how they relate.

I really don’t know. At the end of the day, I think there was a little too much going on with Wackner and that the writers needed to use the episodes between the private prison reveal and the finale to narrow—not broaden—the scope of what they were trying to do with Wackner. But I also think that what they were doing with Wackner was really, really smart and original. I don’t think I can overstate how impressed I am that the writers took an idea that sounded, frankly, awful when I first heard about it and turned it into something captivating and insightful that I was happy to spend nine weeks watching.  

Overall, a few bad episodes aside, I thought season five was the strongest season of TGF yet. I haven’t seen this show be so focused in... well, maybe ever. Having two overarching plots that received consistent development and felt like they were happening in the same universe at the same time REALLY helps make season five feel like a coherent whole, and I can’t wait to rewatch it.  

[snowdropsandtigers]

Post-Season One Rewatch Miscellany

Okay I think details are already fading even though I finished in three days, so let’s try to get some thoughts down.

- Vic’s initial coping mechanism is art. After that scares her father, and with her meeting with Manx looming ahead, that’s when she chooses to cope via drinking to forget. Later on, it’s similar; she’s helpless to do anything when she thinks her only way to fight is gone, so she turns to drinking and stops trying to make her family relationships okay. She doesn’t cope well with being helpless, and the drastically worse situation she’s in when Manx becomes aware of her existence pushes her into the things she was trying to avoid. It’s also something she can do with Craig, who she always valued, but earlier thought of as too busy with weed for her. He’s her only real, unconditional support at the time, as she’s become more isolated due to her family crumbling and her boyfriend inadvertently pushing her away.

- On that note; normally I get at least a little unhappy when you have a story in which the main girl doesn’t want someone who’s pining for her and then realizes he’s great, and on my initial watch it did surprise me a little. This time around I still feel a little pang over Drew, mostly over how it foreshadows what she’ll lose later, but I really do like how there’s no judgment in any of it. There’s nothing to say she needed to choose differently at the start, or that she should be judged based on her ability to select a man. She just wanted to be with someone who was there for her at the right time, who she valued, and who wouldn’t abandon her the way everyone else had one way or another. Also, he was a genuinely nice guy who never gave her a hard time over his feelings. I felt for him all right during my first watch, but now I really like him in much the same way as I really like Lou.

- It’s just so awful to watch Vic’s hopes and dreams crumble throughout the season. She tried so hard for everyone that in the end she couldn’t see herself following up on that for her own sake. Of course she didn’t feel like she could go to art school, given the responsibility she felt she had already failed in to protect people, and the baby that was all she had left of her best friend. She didn’t feel like the same person who wanted to go, and she’d feel like the person she was trying to escape becoming—a disappointment to her loved ones (Craig in not saving him), and pregnant before she could find a life of her own. All of that would build up over the years until by next season, unable to find and save kids from Christmasland for years, she feels she’s just as ruined and hopeless as Charlie says she is.

- Relatedly, as on my first watch, I continue to appreciate the irony in how much Charlie ruins and damages what he claims to love and want to protect. He destroyed families and stole children’s futures, and we watch him traumatize Vic long before he decides he’s going to hurt her. We watch him watch her suffering over Maggie and it doesn’t get through to him whatsoever, anymore than Jolene could get through when she actually tried. We watch an episode where Bing, who he hires to hurt people, abducts and sexually assaults her while Charlie discusses her purity with a guy who, even with his own misogyny, seems more clearheaded in his lack of a madonna/whore complex. (Sure, he didn’t ask for that to happen, but that’s the kind of thing he did encourage Bing to do, and he even validates it later. It’s a natural consequence of his words and actions.) Given everything in the season, it looks like Vic would have been well on her way to escaping Haverhill like she wanted, without having ever tasted alcohol or weed first, if not for his effect on her life. It may not be a certainty, and of course none of that made her a bad person like he said, but he did definitely push her in that direction at an important turning point in her life. I haven’t gotten that far into the book, but I keep remembering the line “what Charlie Manx couldn’t do, she did to herself.” (Or something almost exactly that.) This holds true for the show, and it’s also so true of the man himself. We see that with him and Jolene too, with her desperately wanting to believe in him, him being unable to give her a reason to, and the way he doubled down on it by trying to kill her right after. We’ll see more of that in season two. There are immensely sympathetic reasons for him to be messed up and do the wrong thing , just as with Vic,* but we can also see how his opportunities to have the things he wanted become lost, as with her. I love how he and Vic are narrative foils in this story about both how suffering can inform you and limit your choices—taking into account that limits which “only” exist in your head are still very real—and how your choices are your own. It’s very satisfying to me. A good pair of foils is just…neat.

- Speaking of! Vic has so many foils. Her father, her mother, as a parent. Her own son as the victim Charlie does successfully (if temporarily) take away, where he failed with her. Maggie, as the girl who was hunting Charlie before Vic wanted to, and the girl who wants to try for a normal life just when Vic is newly determined and desperate to hunt him with her. Jolene, who got to meet him before he showed himself as who he chose to be and had to do the hunting on her own. Bing, who we meet as someone who shares her desire to escape his current life circumstances. And Millie. The other daddy’s girl. All throughout the season we watch Vic lose faith in her father, and I couldn’t help thinking, when the calls from Christmasland started, of how Millie would go through the same thing next season. They barely interact and they don’t have a relationship, but I am absolutely fascinated by the fact that Millie goes down a similar path, that her own connection to her mother got her calling on Vic for help and gave Vic help in return, and that she must be feeling some things about how her father let her walk into the world alone, but also what she did led to his death. Not wholly unlike how at the same time, Vic is still disillusioned with her own father and watches him be murdered before she can offer him forgiveness or the hope of reconciliation. That is a wonderful mess of feeling and potential narrative fodder.

- When I heard this wasn’t getting renewed, I tried to look on the bright side. At least it wouldn’t get awful, which it still had the potential to do, and it could remain a story I loved. But damn, I rarely vibe with a show the way I do with this one; not even with shows I love do I tend to feel as on the same wavelength as I felt with NOS4A2. So many other things have gotten renewed that are less good, that don’t try to do as much with their characters, or that I just plain don’t care about as much. Whether or not things would’ve gone badly in the end, this show deserved the chance to keep trying. It’s hard to explain, but as a whole it felt unique, unlike much of the television I’ve seen over the years. The show it reminds me the most of is Buffy; mainly in their protagonists, which is the thing I love best about both shows, but also the blend of the personal and the supernatural, the grounding of the supernatural in real life. (After making this observation on my own when watching the first time, I discovered that Vic’s original creator, Joe Hill, said he thought of her as a Buffy in a different time of her life. I love finding connections between my favorite stories, but finding that it was also a connection the writer was making, and the influence is there, was very pleasing.) But it’s very much its own thing. I would’ve loved to see more of it. In the unlikely event that someone has gotten this far and not seen it because it was cancelled, or left it unfinished for the same reason—I’ve seen a couple say that over the last six months or so—I’d encourage you to not let that be a factor! It’s very complete as it is, and rewarding in how it unites characters with themes. I could’ve done with so much more of it.

*I truly appreciate how sympathetic this show is with everyone. Everyone. Every major character is framed as someone to feel empathy for at one point or another, and this is true for most, if not all, of the minor characters too, if I remember this right. We’re asked to carry that empathy when we look at them, when we look at the story as a whole. This show is so stressful and yet so kind, so empathetic. In my opinion, it is so stressful in part because it’s kind and empathetic, because you feel so much for the people who are suffering. I could feel that, and that’s part of my love for it.

[pluviophile-bookworm]

AWAE 1x6 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

It’s been literal months since my last rewatch, and you guys were obviously not satisfied with my randomly dug-up first impression of the show that I posted a couple of days ago to make up for the lack of reviews, so here I am with another one. Today we’re delving into the penultimate episode of the first season. I have completely forgotten what to expect, so this will be almost like a first time watching. Here we go:

Oh, that’s right. I remember now. This is one of the parts that I loved most from the original book, and it’s a really important moment in the show as well, one of the parts that were satisfyingly closely adapted. It’s the time when Minnie May is ill and Anne is the only one who can help. A very dramatic scene, and a crucial one for DiAnne’s friendship after they were forbidden to fraternise in the previous episode. 

Wait, Aunt Josephine was there? This is the situation in which she appears first? I had forgotten and I honestly thought it would have been something different. Apparently I’ve forgotten that at first she didn’t act like the cool old lady we’ve since come to love.

I’ve always thought it was incredibly impressive how Anne immediately knew what was happening to Minnie May from just a vague description of the symptoms. Her difficult childhood experience comes in handy sometimes, I guess. That’s at least a slight silver lining to it. 

I love how fiery, passionate Anne transforms into a sound, sane, level-headed nurse when Minnie May needs to be taken care of. It just popped into my mind - does Gilbert know about this? And how come it was never brought up in later seasons?

In my commentaries on the third season, I've said more than once that Minnie May was like God - she often fixed whatever trouble and misunderstandings the older characters would get in. Now I see she’s doing it again, in a way - her illness and Anne helping her get over it is what convinced Diana’s parents that Anne is a very good person and a suitable friend for their daughter after all. I wonder where everyone would have been without this little one. 

“It’s a big world, son.” It is indeed, and Gilbert will see at least some of it - but at what cost, really, at what cost? Having never lost a parent, nor a loved one of another kind, I can’t possibly imagine the pain this boy would go through later in the series. Now, seeing John Blythe on his deathbed breaks my heart. 

It’s amazing how much some people need to forgive. Accidentally get her daughter drunk, and you’re the devil. Save her other daughter’s life, and you’re suddenly a saint. I was never a big fan of Eliza Barry, and, well, this case is not helping. I mean, it took so much for her to forgive Anne’s minor innocent mistake. I can’t help but wonder - how much would Jerry have had to do to get her approval, had things not turned out the way they did (I’m referring to both his eventual falling out with Diana and the unjust cancellation of the series here #renewannewithane)? How many favours would he have to do her family before she would have been able to forget his origin? I guess we’ll never find out now. Unless... #renewannewithane

Anne seemingly equating herself and Diana to Josephine and her “companion” makes me suddenly see why people ship them romantically, although I personally don’t. I mean, neither Anne nor Diana knew at the time what exactly Josephine’s relationship with her partner was like, but still, for me as a second-time viewer, the subtext is certainly there. 

Diana’s prospective future as the wife of some “wealthy, handsome gentleman” could very well have been foreshadowing to her eventual marriage to Fred Wright in the books, but it is a bit of an ironic statement in the series where she first went for Jerry, who, to quote Aunt Jo from earlier, is “one, but not the other”. But I’m getting carried away here. 

Listen, I dislike Mr. Philips as much as the next person, but he’s sort of (unwittingly?) acting as a matchmaker for Anne and Gilbert, like teachers sometimes do. By making none other than Anne go give him his school materials every day, he is making them interact even when Anne might otherwise have chosen not to. So that is one good thing he’s ever done. I’m keeping score from now on. 

Anne’s sudden realisation that when Gilbert comes back to school, he will likely be an orphan, reminds me of her reaction later when it happened. And it’s not so much later either. Having been an orphan all her life, she seems not to realise quite how much he’s going through. Gilbert has been forced to become an adult all of a sudden by his father’s death, but Anne still has a lot of growing up to do.

John Blythe’s funeral is an odd contrast to Mary’s Easter which would come later - both are people Gilbert loves dearly, both deaths make him grow as a person, both die of an illness - but while his father’s funeral and the days before it are gloomy, dark and achromatic, Mary goes with a smile on her face, surrounded by her big family, in the middle of a colourful festivity. I don’t know why I’m commenting on this right now, I just suddenly became aware of the parallel and simply had to point it out. 

The snowflake that thaws on Gilbert’s palm and slowly rolls down reminded me of a tear - a tear that didn’t roll from his eyes. It might as well have been meant to symbolise that precisely. If that’s the case, job well done.

The blue ribbon that Anne wears now - John Blythe gave it to Marilla... I wonder if Anne was ever made fully aware of what exactly went on between her adoptive mother and Gilbert’s father when they were young. I mean off-screen, of course. 

Much better off than you were? I don’t think so, Anne. I mean, of course she might be right to a degree, but right now Gilbert’s pain is something she can’t comprehend. She shouldn’t try to. She shouldn’t assume she does. Being an orphan is not something to pass on “extensive knowledge” about. It’s an experience that everyone goes through differently. Saying Gilbert is lucky was definitely not the right thing to do. Not right now at least. But I should stop saying how I think Anne should have reacted, or I might come off as hypocritical. I’ve never experienced what either of them has, after all. Moving on.

It seems Aunt Jo has become the cool old lady we know and love. Her conversation with Anne in the clubhouse reminds me so much of the one they had at the end of season 3. I think that one was, in a way, meant to parallel this one. Of course, I’m not going to try and reinvent the wheel here, I just think it’s beautiful how subtle this show is when it comes to foreshadowing and callbacks, even to a viewer who goes into it having read the books first. I’m glad I get to rediscover this now when I’m rewatching it, and my reactions get to be a mix of re-encountering forgotten details, judging earlier episodes with regard to what happens in later ones, and just overall basking in the magic of AWAE once again. 

Anne wanting to be a bride but not a wife is so novel yet so relatable all at once. I mean, don’t get me wrong - I don’t want to be a wife, nor a bride myself, but I can definitely see why a girl, especially in Anne’s time, but even today as well, would want to walk down the aisle wearing a white dress without being burdened with the conservative version of a wife’s duty. 

Anne’s first encounter with Aunt Jo happens in such a different way from the book, but it’s even better, the way I see it. 

Anne is so unapologetically feminist and I’m all in for it. This character is so important even today, and it was so horrific to see her story cut short over trivial issues. #renewannewithane

As both Anne and Ruby are rambling away and Diana is trying her best to say the proper things, I figure Gilbert must think, at least for a moment, about how weird and incomprehensible girls are. And with Anne’s especially apropos mention of the word “wife”... I can just see his eyebrows doing the confusion dance - you know, despite the pain he must be in. 

I just love how Gilbert never even remotely hides his great respect and admiration of Anne. And even though there are underlying feelings of a different kind here, I’m quite sure he would respect and admire just as much any other intelligent, independent young woman deserving of it. Meanwhile, Billy has shown that he’s just a misogynist of the worst kind, no matter if the girl is an “ugly” orphan or a conventionally attractive girl with both parents alive and a substantial wealth. I don’t mean to deem anyone incorrigibly bad, but I do think Billy might as well be. 

What about “Gilbert’s father just died and you’re still acting like the petty little misogynist you are” doesn’t Billy get? I know what Gilbert did was sinking to his level, but I believe he deserved every bit of it. 

I wonder - I might have forgotten - if Gilbert knew before this conversation with Marilla, about the kind of relationship she and his father had. I wonder how much of it he found out from this conversation.

Ah, here we go, the Shirbert written communication begins. And it doesn’t begin very smoothly - as if to foreshadow how many bumps on the road its future holds. 

See, Josephine would have liked very much to be married to Gertrude - only the times she lives in wouldn’t allow it. She is of the marrying kind - just not of the conventional wife kind. And that’s beautiful, and exactly what Anne aspires to be - and will be one day, of course. She has done a good, nay, brilliant job choosing a role model.

To sum up this episode: Minnie May’s illness brings DiAnne back together; Aunt Jo’s first appearance is a meaningful one, as expected; John Blythe’s last days and the aftermath of his death; an important detail of Marilla’s past; thoughts on what it is to be a wife; Shirbert’s written communication begins, very clumsily, of course. 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

8x01-8x03 Re-Watch Part 3

8x03:

Okay, so obviously the biggest thing in episode 3 is Morales talking to Rick. I whole-heartedly believe he is meant to be a foreshadow/proxy of Beth (once again, of Rick finding Beth inside the helicopter group) but he’s also kind of an anti-parallel because he’s antagonistic and not at all loyal to Rick, where I’m sure we can all agree that Beth will react the opposite way toward seeing Rick again.

I feel like they spend most of this scene kind of trying to prove or rub our noses in the fact that Morales = Beth. They do this mostly through dialogue. So, think of most of this as being said in some way between Beth and Rick, Rather than Morales and Rick.

Morales: “As soon as I saw you, I knew you’d made the same trip as me. From there to here. I guess we aren’t the same [people] we used to be.”

At one point, he also says, “You’re the Rick from Alexandria?” as though he’d heard of him but didn’t know it was Rick Grimes everyone was talking about. He also calls Rick “peaches.” As in peach schnapps?

When telling Rick about his past, he says, “I lost my family. I lost my mind.” I always saw that as a tie to Carol. This is really subtle, but Carol says almost that exact same thing in S2. She gets mad that everyone is walking on eggshells around her (this is at Hershel’s farm) and she says, “I lost my daughter. I didn’t lose my mind.”

And I’m not saying that Morales is necessarily a Carol proxy here, but rather that they’re putting this in to tie Beth to Sophia and the missing girl symbolism.

Morales also says, “That’s what I know.”

Rick tells him that many of the people he knew—Lori, Andrea, Glenn—are now gone. The names would probably be different for Beth, but you can see Rick telling her that since she left, they’ve lost Tyreese, Sasha, Glenn, Carl, etc.

And there are interesting symbols around them, like fishing nets and other ocean-like equipment. As well as lots of fire extinguishers.

Of course Daryl kills Morales, and that’s that.

This is also where Eric dies. Aaron actually first takes him and sets him up against the trunk of a tree. Anyone who’s read Frangipanilove’s “trunk” posts knows how significant that is. 

To me, they’re just really heavily paralleling him with Beth here. And we all talked when this aired about how similar his death is to what we believe happened with Beth. Aaron returned and his body was gone. He’d wandered away. Aaron sees him as a walker.

With Beth, we don’t think she actually died and turned into a walker, but Daryl believes she did, and would have empathized heavily with Aaron at that point. Not only that, but Aaron starts trying to follow Eric and Scott stops him, even saying, “No, we gotta go. We gotta go right now.” Which was Daryl’s line to Beth at the prison.

After that, we even see Daryl in the background watching Aaron as he grieves. So this was very obviously meant to be a parallel of what happened with Beth.

Of course Aaron requests to be Gracie’s guardian, and Rick gives the baby to him. Since both Gracie and Aaron are Beth proxies, I think this is really just to relate them symbolically. Of course Aaron becomes Gracie’s dad in the show, so there’s that. But I also think this is just putting the two Beth proxies together. I genuinely hope Aaron and Beth meet and become friends. So this might foreshadow something like that as well. It’s just that most people I wanted her to meet and be friends with have now died. :/

In this episode, we also have Tara, Morgan and Jesus leading captive Saviors along the road. This is where Jarod whistles Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

At one point, Jared sees Morgan wearing Ben’s armor and remarks that it “didn’t do shit for him,” which is similar to what Daryl said to Beth about faith. I’m not sure how, exactly to interpret this. It really might not be a Beth-returning thing in this case. In both cases, someone who has passed (Hershel/Ben) is mentioned.

But then something else interesting happens: a walker with no eye attacks Morgan. This DOES suggest Sirius symbolism of some kind, and I’ve already talked about the Morgan death fake out foreshadows. So maybe this is a Beth parallel, or maybe it just points to Morgan’s arc in Fear. I’m really not sure right now.

So, if you go back and read my Sugar Plum Fairy post HERE, you’ll see that I was hoping that it meant Beth was about to appear (because we’ve always thought that; every single season). I lay out the sequence of the Nutcracker ballet, in which the Dance of the Sugar Plumb Fairy comes right before the Coda, and hoped that meant Beth would appear sometime soon after episode 3. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

But I still think I was right about the sequence. Just not about when it would happen. So I’m kind of seeing a thing where it’s Sugar Plum Fairy song, followed by the walker attack (which probably represents one or both of the wars—AOW and Whisper) and then we see the one-eyed walker which represents Sirius/Beth’s return).

So if I had to guess—and it IS just a guess—I’d say it points to Beth’s return after both the wars and also that Morgan’s death fake out is mixed up in it. And again, that’s exactly where we are in the narrative in S10. Just saying.

There’s a kind of random scene where Gregory, after leaving Gabriel back at the Sanctuary, shows up at the gates of Hilltop and wants to be let in. This is kind of random because it’s such a small potatoes scene, and doesn’t, on the surface, seem to have many TD vibes. Gregory wants to be let in. At first, Maggie says no, and most of the Hilltoppers agree with her. But then she relents and lets him in. End of scene.

The reason it caught my attention is that there are a LOT of small Beth symbols here. They tell a random story about how Gregory once ate a little girl’s sorghum pancakes. We’ve always equated pancakes to Beth because Bisquik is mentioned at Grady and it’s self-rising, which makes it a resurrection symbol. And then there’s the sorghum, which has been a prevalent symbol, especially in S6 around Denise, and a grain that alcohol can be made out of. Plus, Kal (Hilltop guy) flips Gregory off. 

So I’m not entirely sure what this points to—again, probably something we don’t understand yet—but after watching the scene, I really couldn’t ignore it.

Maggie also says of Gregory, “he’s not worth killing. Not yet, anyway.” Which is a foreshadow that she will eventually kill him. Just saying.

At the end of this episode, Zeke and Carol reach Gavin’s outpost. This is where most of the Kingdomers were killed. It sort of ends on this note, with this being a cliff hanger ending to the episode, so I’ll talk about this more in the 8x04 rewatch, but it’s interesting that they were shot and killed with the guns Rick and Daryl were looking for earlier in the episode.

I’m not sure exactly how to read into that. Again, I’m assuming that the missing weapons Rick and Daryl went in looking for represent Beth, and I might be wrong about that. But if they do, it kind of suggests Rick and Daryl searching for her and she’s in some other place entirely. 

I’ve said this probably foreshadows something we don’t understand yet, but it could also parallel the missing 17 days, and them looking for her body when she’d been transported to a completely different place. 

Come to think of it, that’s exactly what happened with Rick as well. Michonne and Daryl searched for his body, but they were never going to find it, because he wasn’t in the area anymore. The helicopter took him away.

Okay, that’s it for today. Thoughts?

[autisticmight]

how does someone who knows little-to-nothing about it get into sanders sides? i saw thomas' vines, and i've been sort of tangentially aware that the facets of his personality that he portrayed in the vines have since become characters, but there's a whole bunch of new ones??? what the fuck is a janus???? HELP. tldr where do i find The Lore? plz obi wan ur my only hope

it’s very simple!!! you hyperfixate on thomas sanders’s content in, like, 2016? and then he uploads a video called ‘my true identity’, which is a bit weird, but you love those vine characters. then he uploads more, and it becomes a trend. apparently people in the comments are shipping the prince guy and anxiety. you rewatch the new year’s video an embarrassing amount of times with your dog

i had a whole paragraph here about why i like the series, and why i dropped it and then picked it up again, but it was just a block of lowercase text and i guess it’s kind of hard to read

anyway, here’s the playlist of every episode, but i’m going to put a summary of the series and individual episodes under the readmore, while also ranking them, because i am Special Interesting and i like being useful. and i guess i’m gonna write using. like. actual grammar. if the readmore doesn’t work, then. have fun reading my infodump

here we go

Sanders Sides: A Summary

Fictional Version Of Thomas Sanders (known as Character!Thomas, and will be simply referred to as ‘Thomas’ henceforth) has ‘Sides’, which are parts of his personality that have been exaggerated and personified. It’s a nice little series set in some kind of semi-urban fantasy world, but mostly in Thomas’s living room. It mostly uses the idea of ‘Sides’ to represent the inner schemata of an individual. In simpler terms, you know when you’re conflicted, and you end up arguing with yourself? Yeah, it’s that.

Also, don’t read the comments, unless you want to disregard the care I’ve taken to not put spoilers in the Season 1 Summaries.

Season 1

I’d like to split this into parts, because there are a lot of things in earlier episodes that conflict with later characterisation. However, it’s also fun to watch them, and then rewatch them after some of the longer episodes, and feel your heart shatter!

This half of Season 1 was made solely by Thomas. It tends to be a bit more scattered, and can be watched out of chronological order, or completely skipped. Yes, I’m telling you that you can skip literally all of this section, if you want to. However, these are also the easiest videos to watch, and offer a taste of Silly Sanders Sides Hijinks without the emotional commitment.

My True Identity (6 min) - Thomas delves into the three aspects of his personality; his Logic (Teacher Guy), his Creativity (the Prince, also called Princey), and his Morality (Dad Guy who is Not Thomas’s Dad). At this point, the characters are far more similar to their Vine counterparts, and the characterisation clashes with later episodes. (3/5 - A nice way to see if you’ll enjoy the humour of this series)

Way Too Adult (5 min) - Thomas is asked by his family to help cook Thanksgiving dinner. Dad Guy pops up and discusses with Thomas how he can better learn to take care of himself. Features a talking stove, which is part of the reason why I classify this series as urban fantasy, and the start of a running joke. (2/5 - A fun, albeit rare, look into Dad Guy being responsible. I actually prefer this to My True Identity, but ranks lower due to conflicting with later S1 characterisation.)

Taking On Anxiety with Lilly Singh (6 min) - Thomas hopes and dreams to get rid of his Anxiety, who is a sassy, snide guy, sitting on the staircase. Princey, as the embodiment of Thomas’s hopes and dreams, is... Usurped by an imaginary version of Lilly Singh, who helps teach Thomas how to cope with feeling anxious. (3/5 - Introduces some secret tools that will help us later. The tools are Thomas being able to travel to various places in his head, and also Anxiety.)

A New Year of Lying to Myself... In Song!! (7 min) - The first video wherein you realise that this is A Thing. Thomas welcomes in the new year, hoping that 2017 will be better than 2016. Logic shows up to help him figure out some New Year’s Resolutions, accompanied by Dad Guy and Princey. Anxiety joins in to point out that Thomas has rarely, if ever, kept to his resolutions before. Through the first musical number of the series, the Core Sides and Thomas figure out simple, achievable resolutions that Thomas can use to improve his wellbeing. (4/5 - Unintentional foreshadowing in the form of a bop.)

The Dark Side of Disney (6 min) - Princey, not for the last time, enthuses about the wonders of Disney. However, Anxiety also appears, insisting that Disney is not as wholesome as it first appears. They argue and bond, despite the fact that Thomas still hasn’t redacted his statement regarding his hopes and dreams to get rid of his Anxiety. (2/5 - I have strong feelings on the meaning of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’, both of which are shrugged off in favour of the tryhard-edgy ‘blegh stockholm syndrome’ and ‘blegh change yourself to get your man’. Still, it’s a fan-favourite for a reason, and the endcard always makes me smile.)

I’m in a Disney Show!! (6 min) - Princey enthuses about the wonders of Disney, because Thomas is in a Disney show. He talks about what happened, while the Sides (mostly Logic) suggest clickbait titles in order to entice people to watch the video. (2/5 - L*gan P*ul is mentioned, as he was also in the episode.)

The Mind vs. The Heart (6 min) - Thomas finds himself split between following his mind, Logic, or his heart, Morality. Features onesies, and looks further into the characters of Logic and Dad Guy. (3/5 - Pretty calm and peaceful, to be honest. It’s nice.)

Then we move onto the second part of Season 1. This is when Thomas’s friend, Joan, began to offer their input into scriptwriting and directing. They’re most of the reason why Sanders Sides is an actual series, instead of being silly skit characters in short vlogs. From here on in, episodes become more complex, and work on an actual timeline.

Alone on Valentines Day (9 min) - Thomas is rather upset that he will be, as the title says, alone on Valentine’s Day. The Sides try to help him figure out how to get a date with an imaginary version of his friend Valerie, but each of them has a weirder way of going about it than the last. (4/5 - Far more cohesive than previous videos, but Thomas still wasn’t fully out as gay, so his hypothetical date is a woman. Yes, I took points off because of that. Yes, I’m about to erase the 3/5 to make it 4/5 because Valerie is a delight.)

Losing My Motivation (9 min) - When Thomas finds himself procrastinating, Logic takes it upon himself to find out which side is causing it. In order to get into a deductive mindset, Logic dresses up as Sherlock, while Dad Guy joins in as Watson. Once the case is solved, an important piece of information is revealed: the Sides have names. (Logic’s name is revealed) (3/5 - It’s just a fun little video, and I can’t keep giving every video from here on in 4/5, or that’ll ruin the whole thingy.)

Sanders Sides Q&A (9 min) - Exactly what it sounds like. There’s not much else to say. (2/5 - I love it, but it’s not really necessary to understand the whole series. It’s just extra characterisation.)

Am I Original? (12 min) - Thomas finds himself in a creative rut, trying to think of a completely original idea. Princey requests full creative control - “full-on Daydream Mode” - in order to rapidly consider and enact many different concepts, all while trying to make something that has never been seen before. (Princey’s name is revealed) (4/5 - Important characterisation for Princey. I originally rated it lower due to Thomas’s inability to rap, but upon rewatching, i found that the ending dialogue between Princey and Thomas was worth two points, rather than the single one I gave it previously.)

My Negative Thinking (13 min) - When Thomas messes up in an audition, his ego - Princey - is out of commission and being cared for by Dad Guy. Therefore, the only Sides available to aid him in this situation are Logic and Anxiety, neither of whom can help Thomas in the way he wants to. Anxiety is worsening Thomas’s mental state, so Logan proposes a debate in order to combat those cognitive distortions. (4/5 - A fan-favourite episode which offers a lot of insight into Logic and Anxiety as characters. It is useful as a tool for identifying cognitive distortions in real life, which may help with the individual’s mental health. Even though it introduces another running joke, it’s educational and fun, and it develops their relationship in a positive manner, I just don’t particularly enjoy it.)

Growing Up (15 min) - It’s Thomas’s birthday! He’s in his late twenties, and he’s still a kid at heart. He hasn’t done his laundry, he's silly and immature, and he feels like he isn’t at the point that he needs to be in his life. Therefore, all the Sides, except for Dad Guy, who ironically embodies Thomas’s inner child, work on trying to make him more mature. (Morality’s name is revealed) (3/5 - Features the concept of Voltron Shirt. I love this episode, but there is a noticeable change in audio quality at the end which affects how enjoyable it is.)

Making Some Changes (15 min) - Back in Thomas’s living room, and in opposition to his view from the last episode, Anxiety is worried about how life changes in unpredictable ways, and especially about losing contact with Thomas’s friends. Therefore, in order to keep Thomas’s friends permanently by his side, Princey gets them all to shapeshift. (3/5 - It might be skippable, but it’s just really, really fun.)

Becoming A Cartoon (10 min) - Adding to the whole urban fantasy thing, it turns out that animators can literally, physically turn people into cartoons. Thomas wants to be a cartoon. Princey catches Anxiety in his arms and says “everybody loves the villain,” and I think that’s all you need to know. (1/5 - Co-stars B*tch H*rtman, known for Fairly Odd Parents, Danny Phantom, and Being A Bigot, who did the character designs for the Sides, if not the actual animation. And the designs are kind of. Eh. Just watch some fanmade animatics.)

Accepting Anxiety (23 min) - Part 1: Excepting Anxiety (10 min), and Part 2: Can Anxiety Be Good? (14 min) - HOO. If the musical number or the animation didn’t clue you in, this video confirms that Sanders Sides is A Thing. Remember how Thomas hoped and dreamt to get rid of his Anxiety? Remember how he never redacted that statement, or even expressed a bit of remorse? Well, here, his wishes come true, and he doesn’t feel bad about it at all! That’s because he has absolutely no shame, caution, or fear of death. Yeah, he’s a mess. Therefore, the Sides make him take them on a magical quest to Anxiety’s Room, in order to un-mess-ify Thomas. (Anxiety’s name is revealed) (5/5 - The team really went above and beyond with this one. Like. Hoo. That’s it. Just. Hoo. Hoo. I’m an owl.)

And that’s Season 1!!! I’m going to add Season 2 in a reblog, because this has taken roughly three hours and it’s been really difficult to not spoil their names!!! which i did anyway because their names are all easier to type from muscle memory!!!

[kiss-my-freckle]

3x10 Rewatch: ...And the Woman Clothed in Sun

Francis has me cracking up at the open, trying to deepen his voice to impress Hannibal when he calls him. Fixing the phone lines at the old office. He has no idea what happened there at 7:30 on many a night, and he has no idea what he's about to step between. Hannibal quotes The Tyger. "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" Multiple conversations about acts of God and creations of. Bedelia and the lie she created to wiggle her way out of the situation she put herself in is paying off. "My journey to damnation began when I was swallowed by the beast." lmfao!! This entire conversation foreshadowing her finale scene. Another ugly face in the crowd. Jack, Alana, Chilton, Bedelia... all of them lying. "Will has not had his breakthrough yet." Breakthrough for Will, coming right up. Like Alana, she's doing what she must to keep herself alive. Will is hilarious too because he knows better than to buy it. "Suffering inside Hannibal Lecter's bowels for what must have felt like an eternity." He's there because he knows he's not strong enough to deny Hannibal. "I've seen enough of him." This ties in what Hannibal said to her earlier in the season. "I've taken off my person suit. I let them see enough." Ties in what Will said of his wife. "She's aware enough." And ties in what Francis said of Reba. "I shared with Reba a little, in a way that she could survive." Will's need to talk to her about Hannibal speaks to his weakness. He's getting personal with him through her. Francis takes Reba to see the tiger at the zoo. Quite sensual. Her fingers in the bottle as she pours their drinks... a close-up view of her wet fingers putting olives on a toothpick. Yeah... that's hot. The best way to play with your food. Someone should've taught Mason. Their sex scene is delicious. Like Will, he has a nightmare. Pearls becoming teeth, probably related to his grandmother. The Dragon with a gun in his hand, standing under the moon. He wakes alone, rushes out of bed and runs upstairs to stand before his Dragon god on display. He hears it growling, fights like hell to push him out of his head. Reba is ready to leave, and Francis certainly wants her to. He's afraid The Dragon will demand he hand her over.

Hannibal triggers the phone to make a call they wouldn't allow him to make otherwise. Speaking as an employee working at the office of Chilton's publisher, he orders a copy of Hannibal the Cannibal for Will. He wants him to read it. A close-up of his tongue licking the envelope for a card he sends to Bedelia. "He always includes a recipe." Will continues to foreshadow her finale scene. "If he does end up eating you, Bedelia, you'd have it coming." He's not kidding. As I said in a previous post, I do believe Hannibal refused to cross those boundaries with Will, having already told him he doesn't want to think about him anymore. "They are acceptable... to murderers and cannibals." The best of understanding. I love the double "And you" response. "You lied, Bedelia. You do that a lot. Why do you do that a lot?" She says she obfuscates to protect Hannibal as a patient, but it's not just about Hannibal, she has to keep herself off his dinner table. She had no problem informing them when she was granted immunity. Once claiming Hannibal was her psychiatrist, now claiming she was his. Everything to protect herself, like blaming Hannibal for the death of her patient. "Not the first time I've lost professional objectivity in a matter where Hannibal is concerned." His death was on her. She tells Will he's there visiting an old flame. I love how he's fooling himself, getting personal with Hannibal through her. Especially when she makes comments like that. "You couldn't save Hannibal. Do you think you can save this new one?" I don't know what makes her think Hannibal needed to be saved. And this is coming from the mouth that said, "Almost anything can be trained to resist its instinct." Almost anything. Harder to train what's been playing out in the wild for as long as he has. Able to influence? Sure, but it's not exact. Bedelia telling Will she wants to crush the vulnerable bird. She wouldn't crush it, but that would be her first thought. Same concept with the shepherd's dog. Doesn't savage the sheep even though it wants to. She thinks Hannibal led Will to believe he’s a killer. "You're capable of righteous violence because you are compassionate." Will asks how she's capable. "Extreme acts of cruelty require a high level of empathy. The next time you have an instinct to help someone, you might consider crushing them instead." No different than telling Will to savage the sheep even though he's trained to resist his instinct. It's whatever suits her, however she can save herself the trouble... wiggle out of situations she gets herself into. That's why it pisses her off when she becomes the vulnerable bird, her meat back on the menu. Compassion gives Will the desire to help. He'd kill Hobbs to protect Abigail. His empathy allows him the ability to understand and relate to anyone, including Hannibal. He admitted this in the pilot episode. Cut to another flashback as Bedelia crushes her vulnerable bird while he's choking on his own tongue. Deep-fisted his throat, then passed out. It looked... sexual.

A lucky sign screen-spin like the one they do with Francis and the moon. Will shows the tree marking to Hannibal. It acts as a double for The Great Red Dragon and the Chinese character. Back to that theme of luck. Will setting aside what Hannibal said, puts his focus on The Great Red Dragon, then searches his face for a response. Hannibal basically tells him to look for those few pieces of art, that's how he catches up with Francis for their first confrontation. Demonic sexuality. Will is fighting to figure out how he chooses his families, still doesn’t want to bother looking at the way he chooses his own. "I like this Dragon, Will. I don't think he's crazy at all. I think he may be quite sane." I love how this hits against Will, the look in his eyes. "Can't pass on those terrible traits you fear the most." Will walks into the museum as Francis is chowing down on the Blake Watercolor. His escort informs him he's the second person wanting to view it, so Will knows he’s there. Not sure why he stares at Francis as he does, perhaps looking for the reason he smashes mirrors - his disfigurement. Francis knows that he knows, so he throws him like a rag doll and takes off. I'm like damn... after three years out, this is the man you throw him up against? Will isn't built like Hannibal or trained like Jack. Still fun to watch.  

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 1x12/1x13 We Are Grounders (Part 1&Part 2)

So I’ve come to the end of my rewatch of season 1. (The season 2 opener post will come soon. I’ve already rewatched it.) Overall my opinions on the quality of the season haven’t changed much, though I did like some episodes more and some episodes less this time. It was, however, interesting to see how much foreshadowing there was of later events and how many moments later got callbacks and parallels in later seasons. 

I’ve also tried to now keep track of the timeline and body count in every episode...but I’m now starting to realize, after how confusing the numbers got in 1x11 and in these two episodes, that I’ve probably given it much more thought than the writers ever did. In the end, I had to look up The 100 wiki – but it seems just as confused as I am.

Back when I first binged the show, some 7 months ago, I was posting about it on SpoilerTV in the daily discussion threads. Sometimes I wrote just a few lines, but about this two-parter, I wrote a very detailed post - and I wish I had posted it on Tumblr, too. Maybe I’ll dig it up and post it as an annex or something.  Funny thing, before that, after 1x11, I made my list of predictions for the two-part finale, and all of them turned out to be true. I liked it anyway - predicting things isn’t always bad, it may mean that the storytelling is logical and that plot points were well foreshadowed. But it’s also one of the reasons why I didn’t find it as mind-blowing as the S2 one or S4 , or even S5 one. (But it’s certainly miles better than the S3 finale. Although that’s not saying much, since the latter was pretty anticlimactic and is one of my least favorite episodes.)

I’ve always felt that Part 1 was the stronger episode, and that hasn’t changed.

Ranking and ratings of season 1 episodes:

1x12 We Are Grounders part 1 - 10/10

1x13 We Are Grounders part 2 - 9/10

1x08 Day Trip - 9/10

1x10 I Am Become Death - 9/10

1x05 Twilight's Last Gleaming - 8.5/10

1x06 His Sister's Keeper - 8/10

1x03 Earth Kills - 8/10

1x11 The Calm - 8/10

1x04 Murphy's Law - 7/10

1x07 Contents Under Pressure - 6.5/10

1x09 Unity Day - 6/10

1x02 Earth Skills - 4.5/10

1x01 The Pilot - 4.5/10

 Season 1 overall - 7.54/10

Part 1

One of the few things I didn’t guess about this finale in advance was Ark coming down the way it did. It’s kind of funny that Kane tried to have a sacrificial redemptive death, but Jaha got there first, and had his best and most useful and most heroic moment ever… but then the show didn’t let Jaha have a redemptive death but let him live. And then he went on to make terrible mistakes and be an antagonist for at least 2 seasons, before having a morally grey (and most suited to his character) role in S4.

Every time someone tries to sacrifice themselves on The 100, they live on, and almost every time a major character has a big heroic moment, they are brought low the next season and make terrible mistakes and/or do antiheroic things. 

I like it whenever the show has a flashback of the life on the Ark or goes into the past in some other way. And it’s always nice to have another little reminder of the time when Wells used to exist for 3 episodes, which usually happens through his father’s memories or hallucinations. Here it’s Jaha watching an old video of Wells and Clarke, which helps him figure out the solution to how to bring the Ark to the ground.

And look at Jaha opening a 97 year old bottle of scotch, “The Baton” This bottle is almost a recurring character - doesn’t it also appear in the season 4 finale?

I remember that I Kane and Abby’s chemistry was so obvious in this episode, and their scenes so close and extremely friendly (what a contrast to where they started... like mother, like daughter?) that I made a comment that they seemed like they were going to start making out any moment, LOL. And I wasn’t even shipping them then, it was more like “Wait, is this going to be a thing now?” Well, I wasn’t wrong, it just took them 2 more seasons.

A few bullet points about things first mentioned in this episode: 

First appearance of Tristan, sent by Lexa, who tells Clarke “I’m the man sent to slaughter your people”. Well, at least no one can say the guy is not honest and straightforward. Also the first time we hear about the existence of “the Commander” and learn that Anya isn’t actually the leader of the Grounders. An interesting bit of trivia I’ve learned since is that the Commander was originally supposed to be a child. JRoth must be really In love with this idea, since he went back to it eventually with Madi.

First time we hear about and see the Reapers, and the scenes with them looked like something right out of a horror movie and was genuinely horrifying. Lincoln not answering Finn’s question what they are but simply saying “Pray you never find out” was, of course, a way to keep it a mystery for us a bit longer, but now we know it was really more about, pray you never get to become one, which happens with Lincoln in season 2, while Finn will unleash his inner monster in another way.

 First mention of Luna by name, though Lincoln had already talked about her people to Octavia earlier in the season. I wonder how much of her role was already planned in season 1. With all the Mount Weather mentions and other things like the acid fog, Lincoln’s drawings etc., it’s clear that the main arc of the first 2 seasons was planned since the beginning, with Grounders as secondary antagonists that the 100 mostly deal with in season 1, and the Mountain Men as the main villains, who will get focused on in season 2. But I’m not sure that this was the case with any of the season 3 arcs.

Lincoln finally explains why he is helping the 100 and that it’s not just about Octavia: “What my people are doing to your people isn’t right”. The same reason why Maya and the other rebels in MW will be helping the Delinquents in season 2. In the show where people too often justify their actions by “it was for my people”, it is great to have characters who prioritize what is right. 

And god, how good it feels to hear lines like that again. Maybe JRoth and the rest of the writers should have rewatched season 1 and remember the things that actually happened in their own show? Back when they still hadn’t gotten it into their heads that the 100 were somehow the bad guys in that scenario because they were desperately trying to survive after being forced to go to the ground (sent by the Arker leadership because the Arkers were going to die in space), and that Grounders were somehow the good guys for attacking and trying to kill them all for no reason but paranoia and prejudice?

Two big things that happen to Finn: he has a reaction to having directly  killed someone for the first time (even though it was a Reaper) and then made his big love declaration to Clarke- only to be rejected, in one of my favorite moments of season 1. I’ve always found Clarke’s reactions throughout that storyline and particularly in this scene really relatable - her feelings for him haven’t gone, but she was hurt and couldn’t trust him or go there again. “You broke my heart... I’m sorry. I can’t.” I always thought that she would never give him a chance again, and that, while the feelings were still there, she was slowly starting to move on and that, in any case, he was her past rather than her future, long before he killed a bunch of people and she had to mercy kill him. Overall, while I really didn’t like Finn/Clarke or Finn/Raven as relationships, the atypical way the C/F/R love triangle was resolved (both girls reject Finn, and become friends) was one of my favorite things about S1.

Finn’s line “I should have fought for you” always struck me as odd (that’s not exactly what I’d say was the problem: he should have been honest with her and told her he had a girlfriend, or then he should have been honest with Raven and told her the truth, he shouldn’t have been playing both of them, he should have made up his mind and been honest about it rather than waiting for Raven to dump him…), and I’m not sure what exactly he meant (fought against whom? Or did he just mean, been more decisive and not let passively wait for things to happen?) but I guess it reflects Finn’s state of mind? He was always trying to play a white knight, first to Raven on the Ark, then to Clarke. And in retrospect, this may be one of the first signs that of where he ends up in S2, when he becomes violent and obsessed with the idea that he’s going to find and save Clarke. But the show has never been fully clear on how much his mental state was PTSD due to war and fighting, and how much his increasingly unhealthy obsession with Clarke.

Speaking of saving Clarke, the fact that Bellamy was able to be very rational about the fact Clarke, Finn and Monty were missing and focus on protecting the camp rather than going on a rescue mission, as opposed to the way he acted in 3x02 when he learned Clarke was in danger and immediately got dressed as an Ice Nation warrior and went on his own behind enemy lines to rescue her, says a lot about how much Bellamy’s feelings for Clarke became stronger between the end of season 1 and beginning of season 3.

This was the episode when Bellamy definitely became one of my 2 favorite characters, with how he dealt with the Murphy situation, and showed what a leader he had become. (Which Jasper also recognized, verbally and with a big hug.) If I were to dig up my SpoilerTV post I wrote back then, you’d see a lot of very embarrassing fangirling over Bellamy. ;) 

This time I was able to focus more on Murphy’s motivations and characterization, which I didn’t think that much before.  When  Murphy is trying to taunt Bellamy - after putting a noose around his neck - saying things like “You think you’re so brave”, “You think you’re stronger than me” – I’m pretty sure that’s what Murphy thinks, deep inside. He has a deep inferiority complex. Which is exactly why he wanted revenge on Bellamy in such a way, hoping to see him afraid and brought low. He used to defer to Bellamy in the early days at the ground, so when Bellamy threw him to the wolves, then later tried to kill him in rage, exiled him and showed multiple times how little he respected him or cared for him (compared to, say, a little girl), that must have brought on a lot of resentment. But the whole “I know the truth, you’re a coward” thing would work better if it wasn’t in a situation where Bellamy was risking his life to save Jasper and actually being just as awesome as Murphy was trying to prove he wasn’t, so the whole revenge attempt was a huge, pathetic failure by Murphy. And Murphy going on about how he’s maybe now going to become the leader of the 100 after both “the princess” and “the king” die, now seems less like a villain’s threat, and more like empty bragging that he probably didn’t even believe in himself. He knows he’s not a leader type and he’s much better at making people hate him than follow him.

The speech Bellamy gives at the camp is impassioned and emotion-driven and gets the Delinquents full of passion to stay and fight – for a moment, until Clarke gives her short speech where she simply points out that they’re likely to die if they stay and convinces them to leave. This is a good example why and how the idea of Bellamy as “the Heart” and Clarke as “the Head” makes sense: it’s not that he is all emotion and can’t think rationally or that she’s emotionless – both of these things are obviously untrue – or that he’s always acting on emotion or that she’s always making her decisions rationally (there are plenty of examples of either of them doing the opposite), but it’s how they tend to approach leadership and decision-making and the arguments they used to appeal to people: his tend to be emotional, hers practical.

Part 2

 …And Clarke points that out to Bellamy when she convinces him to go with the others rather than stay on his own to fight, in one of her many pep talks to Bellamy about what a great leader he is. “You inspire them”. (She’ll tell him the same in the S4 finale.)

The Blake siblings scene was beautiful and emotional and one of my favorite scenes in season 1. But now, after that relationship got a lot more dysfunctional in the following seasons, I can’t help but notice that, while Bellamy takes back his statement from 1x06 that his life ended when Octavia was born, saying it was the opposite, Octavia never really took back her accusations that Bellamy was at fault for their mother dying and pretty much everything. (In the following seasons, Octavia will keep the tradition of always blaming Bellamy for everything ever. She does, however, tell him“I love you, big brother”.  I believe she says that two more times, in the S4 finale and the S5 finale. But in the latter, it understandably doesn’t get quite the same response.

And here we go again, Murphy is once more captured and tortured by the Grounders… how many times does Murphy get tortured or has other bad things happen to him during seasons 1-3?

Fans who like Finn more than I do have argued that he jumped in and saved Bellamy during the battle because they are comrades. But since he was earlier willing to let Bellamy stay behind and probably be killed, I think the main reason Finn did it was because Clarke was showing concern for Bellamy and upset about him potentially dying.

 My main problem with Part 2 was always the scene where Clarke has to pull the lever and close the dropship door, before Jasper incinerates everyone outside. Or rather specifically, the scene where she and Finn stare at each other for a couple of seconds during battle, with dramatic music and all, which was weird because he was pretty close by and it looked like she could have yelled at him to get inside, and he could have come inside, so I was never sure if the scene was just badly done, or if it was supposed to be deeply meaningful (Finn starting to lose it and desperate to prove himself as her hero? A reaction to her rejection? PTSD? All of that at once?) but it didn’t quite work because she looked frozen and emotional, but he was just kind of blankly staring at her… And I’m afraid I still don’t have no idea what the scene was supposed to be.

In any case, the entire thing with Clarke’s dramatic and heartbreaking choice to close to door on Finn and Bellamy to save the others should have felt more epic and had more weight, but it kind of does not. It happens quickly, and then there’s more focus on whether the Delinquent crowd will act inhumane and lynch a vastly outnumbered Anya. And, of course, there’s also the fact that I’m pretty sure no one in the audience ever thought Finn or Bellamy were actually dead. But at least the scene where Clarke goes outside and stares at two charred skeletons was good because you really felt what she must have been thinking.  

However, I love the parallel/contrast to this scene in the S5 finale, when Clarke keeps waiting for Bellamy to come inside the ship and doesn’t pull the lever to close the door (while Raven is hurrying her to do it, same as Miller was here).

The visual of the Ark coming down is beautiful - it looks like a ‘falling star’ - a callback to the earlier conversations about making a wish on a star.

Kane and Abby looking at the Earth together kinds of reminds me of Bellamy and Clarke watching the new planet in the S5 finale. (Except the former two at this point aren’t nearly as close to pull each other in an embrace.)

The ending with the Mountain Men is well done, but that was one of the things I predicted at the time: that the finale will mostly be about fighting Grounders, and then the Mountain Men will appear at the end, and they will be very technologically advanced. With so many mentions of them, it wasn’t hard to guess they had to be the S2 antagonists who appear at the very end of S1 in a cliffhanger - shows often do that. (I actually didn’t even make the Mount Weather connection, since I’m not from USA and had no idea what it was. But the mysterious Mountain Men had to be different from Grounders and Reapers, and the opposite of what you’d normally expect from people called ‘mountain men”. Which doesn’t mean it was not a good twist - it’s just hard to fully surprise fans like me who have watched so much TV .)

Timeline: I used to think season 1 lasted about a month, month and a half, but now it seems that it can’t be more than 3 weeks, at most. And even that’s a stretch.

We know for sure that episodes 1-6 lasted 10 days (and a week passed between 1x03 and 1x04), but events in episodes 1x06 to 1x09 were happening very fast, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of days, and ditto for episodes 1x10-1x13. The only possible times when more time could have passed was between 1x9 and 1x10.

Body count:

Part 1: 

1 Delinquent (Myles), wounded last episode and now murdered by Murphy as revenge for the lynching.

1 patient on the Ark that Abby wasn’t able to save.

1 Grounder killed off-screen by Lincoln

2 or 3 Reapers

1 or 2 unfortunate Grounders being eaten or about to be eaten by the Reapers.

Part 2: Lots of people.

About 300 Trikru warriors (and some of the Reapers who had been fighting them, probably) – most of them burned in the ring of fire.

Either 31 or 29 Delinquents – first a redshirt Drew, killed by a scout before the battle, then a bunch of them in battle with the Trikru (or maybe burned). This is where it gets confusing. At the start of Part 2, Bellamy feels he’s failed and says there have been 18 dead, and Clarke tries to comfort him, saying 82 are still alive. But only 16 Delinquents were killed before 1x13. So, either 1) two more died of that illness or were killed by the Grounders off-screen, or 2) he was assuming Monty and Murphy were dead or would soon be dead. And in season 3, Bellamy tells Kane “Trikru killed 37 of my friends before you even touched the ground”. Out of the 16 Delinquents who definitely died in the first 12 episodes, 6 were killed by Grounders (3 directly, 3 by bio warfare/illness). That would mean either 2 more + Drew + 29 in battle, or Drew + 31 in battle.  In any case, in season 2, 48 were captured in Mount Weather, while 6 survived outside of it (Octavia, Murphy, Finn, Monroe, Sterling, and one boy killed by Tristan in 2x01) – which would make 54, plus Bellamy and Raven.

A bunch of people died in the landing of the Ark, but there’s no info how many. In 1x07 they said there were 2,237 people on the Ark. (Which means that, before they sent the 100 to the ground and Raven took the escape pod, there were at least 2339.)  In 1x11, Kane said there were about 1,000 survivors on the Ark. But he also said 1,500 died in the shutdown of the Ark, which definitely doesn’t add up, as it would mean there were about 2,500 people before that, and that’s without the few hundred that died with Diana on the Exodus ship (which Kane may or may not counted?). Either Kane is terrible at math, or the writers got things mixed up. Anyway, let’s say that 1,000 survived, that means about 1,200 died either on Exodus or due to the shutdown on the Ark. But some of the 12 stations probably exploded before touching the ground, so a few hundred more Arkers probably died.

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

GOT 8x01 liveblog below the cut:

--Love the new opening credits!

--Poor Missandei and Grey Worm look so uncomfortable rn

--Jon: “I had a choice: keep my crown or protect the North.” But that’s... not what we saw onscreen?? Not unless some variation of political!Jon is actually true. But knowing D&D, this may simply be their retconned explanation for the nonsensical writing last year. Well, that or Jon is trying to make his stupid decision look better in front of the lords.

--Sansa, I love you, but do you have to smirk when you raise your (very valid) concerns? It’s not helping anything and you have to know it.

--Yessss, mentions of the food shortage!! Now let’s see if they’ll actually do anything with it...

--Show!Dany, I’m still trying to like you, but you’re not exactly making it easy, what with the whole “whatever they like” reply to “What do dragons eat, anyway?”, and smirking when the dragons swooped in and scared the fuck out of everyone in the Winter Town. The Northerners haven’t given you the warmest of receptions and I understand your frustration over that fact, but that’s no reason to think their fear is funny.

--Ah, yes, the oh-so-subtle handholding in front of the entire hall. *sighs at Jon and Dany* [ETA: never mind, they aren’t actually holding hands... Dany is just resting one of her hands on Jon’s arm. Which isn’t all that much more subtle lol.]

--It’s 100% my shipper confirmation bias at work, but the way that they’ve blocked this scene really does make it feel like a Dany/Jon/Sansa love triangle to me. #sorrynotsorry That said, if TPTB choose to go a belligerent sexual tension route w/ Dany/Sansa I wouldn’t turn it down. ;-)

--They’re actually letting Arya show human emotion again? *tosses confetti in celebration*

--Bran and Jon reunion!! My Stark Feelings heart overfloweth.

--Sansa and Tyrion reunion! I like that they’re keeping that hint of tension between them over the way they parted.

--Tyrion: “Many underestimated you. Most of them are dead now.” Subtext: I have no intention of repeating their mistakes.

--Sansa: “I used to think you were the cleverest man alive.” Talk about a burn!

--OK, Bran is looking at Tyrion Significantly(TM) with music playing in the background almost ominously.

--Confirmation that Yara is alive!!! Also, she and Euron are a disturbing but kind of hilarious dynamic at the moment.

--The Arya and Jon reunion was A++. Sweet and heartfelt, but with a hint of underlying tension. And Arya’s comment that Sansa is the smartest person she knows just made my heart an even bigger pile of Stark Family mush.

--Oh, and the “Have you used it?” line re: Needle just hurts because it shows us and Arya how little Jon knows about what Arya has gone through and who she’s become. And Arya’s “once or twice” line just tore out my heart. She doesn’t want to tell Jon what she’s done, both because she’s afraid of how he’ll react and because that will finally make it real to her.

--I feel kind of terrible for Cersei. Yes, she’s made her own bed, but the fact that Euron Greyjoy is lying in it... *shudders* The fact that she’s still forced to resort to sleeping with a man she despises despite ostensibly being the most powerful woman in the realm is incredibly depressing.

--Ahhh, and now we have The Temptation of Bronn(TM)

--The rescue mission! Theon getting to shoot arrows!!

--Greyjoy sibling feelings!!!!

--And Theon is headed to Winterfell! ...He’s going to die there saving a Stark, isn’t he? *braces self for emotional pain*

-- ...you couldn’t have proposed this Jon/Dany marriage, oh, four or so episodes ago, Davos?? The mind still boggles that no one brought this very obvious diplomatic solution up on Dragonstone last season.

--Varys: “Nothing lasts.” 

Camera: *pans to Jon & Dany* 

Me: I n t e r e s t i n g

Also me: Is this foreshadowing, or a red herring to up the dramatic tension?

--Is that... something resembling a smile from Jon around Dany? And he actually looks like he might genuinely enjoy her presence and/or care about her? It’s a miracle! ...A miracle that we really could have used some of last season too, GOT!!

--“She doesn’t need to be my friend. But I am her queen. If she can’t respect me--” *nods* That’s more or less what I figured their initial dynamic would be like. And their attitudes make sense on both ends of the equation! (Note: I can’t decide whether that was a veiled threat from Dany or not; if so, though, she jumped to them pretty darn fast.) I’m curious to see where D&D go with this.

--Oh, only that many goats and sheep. *rolls eyes* I mean, I get it, the dragons are huge; they need a lot of fuel! But on the other hand, that’s an awful lot of food the people don’t get anymore... It’s a no-win situation.

--“They don’t like the North.” Huh, I wonder what it means that the literal breathing symbol of the Targs aren’t fans of being in the North. [/sarcasm]

--Look, I’m glad Dany feels comfortable enough around Jon to be playful, but... would it have been that difficult for her to give him one or two tips before he mounted this incredibly dangerous flying weapon of mass destruction??

--How are these waterfalls not completely frozen over?! It’s the North and it’s winter. I know, I know, I shouldn’t expect anything resembling realism from this show, but still...

--Ah, so Dany is the one who has the line about how they could “stay here a thousand years and no one would find us”, not Jon. But on the flip side, Jon has his eyes closed for the kiss, not open... at least, not until the dragons start to talk lol.

--Emilia Clarke has such a beautiful smile!

--Yeah, I’m still not feeling the J0n3rys ‘chemistry’. Oh well; you can’t win them all. At least they aren’t totally unbelievable as a couple this episode.

--Ugghhh, yet another joke about balls (or the lack thereof) in this episode.

--Arya and Gendry reunion? Arya and Sandor reunion? Yes!

--Wow, Arya/Gendry are so awkward together right now! Sweet, but awkward. And yeah, here come the shippy feelings again... I’m predictable that way lol.

--“As you wish, m’lady.” *squeals delightedly*

--“You don’t know any other rich girls.” The look on their faces!!

--Can I mention again how much I love that they’re letting Arya and Dany emote so far this episode? It makes a world of difference. Now all we need is for Bran to be allowed to show emotions...

--Ooohh, this must be the promised Jon/Sansa argument scene. 

--Good. I’m glad that there are already some consequences from the lords for Jon having bent the knee... the decision would feel incredibly cheap otherwise.

--And already we have more emotion from Jon in this one scene than in all of his scenes with Dany combined. I’m not saying Jon/Sansa is where the show is going, but it still works much better for me than Jon/Dany does. YMMV, of course, and that’s as it should be.

--”Do you have any faith in me at all?” “You know I do.” <3 <3 <3

--*sighs* Jon, it’s all very well and good to say that Dany will be a good queen, but you could, I don’t know, give Sansa some examples to help her understand why you think that instead of just expecting her to go entirely on your word?

--Ah, this must be the scene with Sam and Dany!

--Oh, poor Sam. I’m so glad they’re letting him be upset about it, though. His dad may have been an abusive dick, but his brother wasn’t... and besides, emotions aren’t always that clear-cut.

--“Now’s the time.” OK, but why now? Why now? Also, is it just me or did Bran’s voice sound different there?

--Jon and Sam reunion!!!

--Ouch, poor Jon. This revelation was always going to hit him hard.

--Jon (in a whisper, looking horrified): “That’s treason.” Uh, Jon, that doesn’t seem like the normal reaction of someone in love with another person? Just saying.

--“You gave up the crown to save your people. Would she do the same?” Samwell Tarly, asking the important questions! This question has always been one of--if not the--cruxes of Dany’s arc, IMO. That and her search for home/belonging.

--Ooo, is this the rumored scene with the WW symbols on the walls?

--Hmmm, this actually looks a bit like that clip from the trailers. Is Edd going to show up soon then?

--Hah! Called it.

--“Stay back, he’s got blue eyes!” “I’ve always had blue eyes!” LMAOOO

--Called it. I knew little Ned Umber was going to be the first named character death of the season. (For the record, I have him slated as the first named character death in my AU S8 fic outline, even though the chapter in question hasn’t been written yet.) Also, wow-- talk about a creepy way to display him!

--Still, that’s odd that he’s just dead rather than a wight-- oh, never mind he is a wight after all!

--Hmm, who are you, tall and mysteriously hooded man? (I mean, realistically everyone onscreen in the North should have their hoods up right now when they’re outside, but this is TV.) Could you possibly be... Jaime Lannister?

--Hah! Called it again.

--They’re going to cut to the credits now that Bran & Jaime have locked eyes, aren’t they? Yep, they just cut to the credits.

Additional Thoughts:

--I wonder where Brienne is... we haven’t seen her this episode IIRC. [ETA: Never mind, she is there in the background in several scenes, she just doesn’t say anything.]

--I wish D&D had given Dany more space to react to the news about undead!Viserion. This should be a big deal for her. Also, why is no one freaking out about the Wall coming down?

--Honestly, the pacing and tone of this episode could have used a little polishing IMO.

--I’m delighted that the show is letting characters speak positively about Sansa and her skills, but I wish the writing wasn’t so very heavy-handed about it.

--Ooo, interesting trailer, though still nothing terribly surprising. I’m curious to see what they do next episode... but not nearly as curious as I am to see what happens in 8x03 and beyond. ;-)

Overall, I enjoyed this episode! So many callbacks to earlier seasons. I may have deeper thoughts on a rewatch.

[annakie]

After attempting to watching Things That Aren’t Critical Role for a few days, I’m rewatching Campaign 1 from the beginning.

I’m on episode 9

It’d been over a year and a half since I watched any of this, and I really didn’t pay much attention the first time through.  IDK if I’m gonna rewatch the WHOLE thing, but I’m figuring for now... at least through the Briarwood arc.  It wasn’t until the Chroma Conclave stuff that I was totally invested in the show.

Man the first episodes are such a different energy.  And I mean, that’s typical for a long running show.  The characters themselves aren’t exactly who they’d become.  Vax isn’t so emo.  Percy is way quieter (Taliesin is by far the quietest person at the table.  Not that Percy was ever particularly talkative, but I remember in my big wrapup post I mentioned that I had a hard time getting a read on Percy for a long time... Oh, THIS IS WHY.)  

Scanlan is.... oh yeah now I remember why I didn’t love Scanlan that much to begin with (Trying to stare down Kima’s shirt?  Really Scanlan?)  And I’d forgotten how much Pike flirts back, and then pulls away.  The person Scanlan is here doesn’t deserve Pike, at all.  And look, I love all the canon ships but Pikelan ended up my favorite.  I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they struggled so hard and Scanlan actually grew so much as a character, and Pike waited for him to catch up with her.  IDK.

Anyway, Keyleth Grog and Vex are the most like the people they’d be, I think. 

I’d also.... not really forgotten THAT the Underdark arc that starts this off is so long but like... going through it again is just... I’m not surprised it took me so long to get through it.  There have been a couple episodes that have been nothing but very long one or two battle sequences.  Even going back and enjoying watching the show, a few of them were a bit sloggy to get through.

Also the sound is terrible.  The music is entirely too loud and is literally blasting so loud in some places that it’s distorted, you can barely hear what people are saying (and I’m listening on headphones.)  And the microphone setup is bad... you can hear people talking quietly to each other as loudly as someone who has the floor.  I’m so, so glad they eventually got past all of this and it became so much more professional.  I mean, they were doing the best with what they had, and I’m glad we have these episodes.  They just are... pretty rough.

Most surprisingly, Tiberius has yet to annoy me that much.  I’m sure that will come back in time.  Everyone’s so busy trying to survive this first arc that there’s not much time for much else.

I’m also watching on Alpha to cut down on time.  And the picture does look better at least, without all the clutter.  Remember how for awhile they were constantly putting a wipe in / wipe out window whenever someone would subscribe, with a little hamster waving?  That was INFURATING to have to watch on YouTube.  So distracting.  Also, they had iBuypower as a sponsor ad on the bottom and I have a huge axe to grind against that company, so seeing their ad constantly annoyed me. I don’t feel too bad about not re-watching the 3 year old announcements again, though I know occasionally cool things happened there.  I will be sad if they don’t show the credit sequence on Alpha, though.

It is really nice understanding the references to people, places and events this time around, and to not constantly be wondering what the hell is actually going on in the story.

Lol Tiberius just did his first counterspell and Matt says “Counterspell in this edition is SO GOOD!”  Which is another great thing... seeing all the foreshadowing which, of course they have no idea is foreshadowing.  There’s been a lot of places where I’ve wanted to point out little things like that and haven’t.  I should have been keeping a log.  Maybe next time.

Scanlan: I don’t like guns!.

Uh huh.

Also, Tiberius’ “I encourage violence.” moment was actually a little sad, and not as funny.

Scanlan and Grog tried hitting on Kima in earlier episodes... Oh no.  No boys.  No.  That’s never gonna happen.

Anyway... janiemcpants is cool with me posting our season 2 chatlog, so I’m gonna work on that here in a bit.  

[oscarlovesthesea]

Hey! Let me just start off by saying I'm very glad I found your blog and a fellow Dirk Gently lover. Its an amazing show. I saw your previous post about last nights episode and I just wanted to know; do you think that Broztly is going to become canon? Because I really want it to. A lot of people in the show have acknowledged that they thought something was up between them in every single episode so far this season. Do you think that its just a running joke or Max foreshadowing something?

First of all hi, nice to meet you! I love Dirk Gently so much, it’s such a brilliant show and literally all the characters are my children (except Priest, he can choke. And after last night’s episode Friedkin is in probation, let’s see how he does.)

To answer your question… honestly, I have no idea? The whole thing is a bit complicated and I’ve been in fandoms for way too long to actually give you a clear cut answer… okay, I’ll try to explain my thoughts properly under the cut:

So, the thing is, I would *love* for Brotzly to become canon. Also, I think it would make sense from a narrative point of view, because it seems to me like Dirk and Todd’s friendship is developing always more deeply, to the point that it feels like it could become something more. As you’ve mentioned already, the fact that characters have actually acknowledged it is meaningful because in Dirk Gently everything happens for a reason, and in this way they’ve really put a big sparkling sign that says “YO, TODD AND DIRK MIGHT BE GAY”. Also, once again, those two scenes I was shouting about earlier seemed particularly important to me: in the first one, Farah literally reminded us that we have literally no reason to believe that Todd and/or Dirk are straight, and the second one just… felt a lot like flirting to me? Because first you get Todd giving Dirk a speech that parallel one that Dirk had given Todd on one of their very first meetings, but this time in very different circumstances (they’re very close to each other now, and if the first season resulted into them becoming close friends, I can imagine this one ending with them becoming lovers as a sort of, natural progression?) and then there is that accent bit, which is so soft and pure, oh my god. but to be a bit more serious, I rewatched it a few times to understand what, exactly, had given me such a strong “they’re being interrupted” vibe and I’vecome to the conclusion that the way the whole scene is set gives you thatimpression: lights are dimmed, which implies an intimate moment, and the shotis really close to Dirk and Todd, so that you can hardly see anything else, andwhile Dirk says “no, I love it”, you can actually see him starting to lean veryslightly towards Todd – and then Tina (who in the episode has alreadyacknowledged the fact that there’s  a “vibe”between then) comes in and the camera abruptly pans out, and at the same timeyou see Dirk leaning back with his shoulders a little bit. The whole thing isconstructed to give you the idea of an intimate moment being interrupted (or, Imight just be reading too much into this – you know, I literally have friendswho are film students, maybe I should ask them instead of making shit up). Whichobviously leads to questions: how intimate was this moment really? Will we beseeing more of this? Will they get closer to each other? And I don’t know, itwould be wonderful for them to actually get together, and a bunch of things inthese episodes seemed to hint at it (“Todd, he’s perfect”, the way the huggedwhen they found each other again and so on). 

Onthe other hand, I’ve been queerbaited way too many times to tell you withcertainty that this actually means anything. I literally still have people onmy dash still hoping that Destiel might become canon (and shit, sometimes myheart still hopes for it too in spite of any logic) to tell you the level ofdesperation I’m used to deal with. And to be honest, I can see a bunch ofreasons why Brotzly may not become canon: for example, the whole first seasonwas constructed on Dirk finally finding a friend, so people might just be happyto label whatever is going on as bromance and leave it at that. Also, I shouldpoint out that the season already has one canonical gay couple plus acanonically bisexual character which, compared to lots of mainstream tv shows,is already… a lot. No, seriously, as a sad gay who will literally watchanything for one gay character (not even joking, I caught up with more thanhalf a season of Riverdale when I found out that they’d done a Kevin-centricepisode), the only adventure/sci-fi/epic tv shows I can think of with morequeer characters are Sense8 and Black Sails, both of which were pretty uniquein their genre. And while DGHDA is certainly unique as well, the questionreally is, will Max Landis actually want to go that far? And that is a questionI really don’t have the answer to.Closing with a glimmer of hope, though:there was a video from some months ago of Max Landis suggesting that we mightexplore Dirk’s sexuality more in this second season, and since literally nothingand no one will convince me that Dirk is straight and that we’ve been promisedlgbt characters in this season, we can hope.

Sorry I ranted so much and haven’t actuallyanswered anything, I just had a lot of feelings about this! Have a good day!

[polandspringz]

Okay, @ everyone who was correcting me for saying it would “fix Jaune’s PTSD” I hope you all realize that wasn’t really what I meant? I’ve gotten into enough debates on here because I made a rushed text post in reaction and used poor wording, so I don’t want that to occur here but what I was attempting to say was that it would help Jaune “cope” with the loss of Pyrrha because he helped saved someone else he cared a lot about (specifically another ponytailed female).

Also, I’m not one to participate or advocate for the RWDE section of the fandom, but I do sometimes feel they have valid points. A while ago, during volume 4’s run, I saw people making RWBY bingo boards for all the worst events that could happen in the season. Jaune having a healing semblance was always on there, but it makes sense. Jaune would become way too overpowered with a healing semblance, and for all the Jaune haters out there, it would be another trait that they say Kerry and Miles had tacked on to him to make their own character have a bigger role in the show. When I called him a deus ex machina, I realize some people may not know exactly what that is, but it was used at the end of volume 3 when Ruby’s silver eyes were revealed and when the lockers came down on the nevermore. Although some had been foreshadowed events, the heart of the matter is these things came out of left field sometimes and solved an issue. Rather than having Ruby fight the Nevermore with Penny’s weapon, we had a literal deus ex machina (machine of the gods) rain down in the form of rocket lockers that took down the creature and saved the day. Rather than Ruby fighting Cinder, her silver eyes miraculously “turned on” and saved the day. That happened again this episode, allowing Jaune to get the hit in. If Weiss is spared, which she will be, it doesn’t mean much to the story, because the threat of death has already been established in the terms of Pyrrha and Penny, but mostly everyone who has died had been a side character (team JNPR were the deuteragonists until recently, but they still were side characters at the time) If Jaune does get a healing semblance, the reason I would call it a deus ex machina (which are normally bad for the series) is that it eliminates the threat of death from any of the main characters. [see Mother’s Basement video on how SAO became the worst anime ever]

Note, I’m not saying that I want Weiss to die, but the fact is that putting her in a lethal scenario like this only to fix it is pointless and bad. I’ve rewatched the episode and although this was one we’ve been waiting for a while, full of rematches and such, that ending was more shock value after a break to get people to come back. Also, I like Jaune, and I feel like I’m one of the few people in the fandom who wants to see more of him and see him grow, but not at the cost of the story. Lastly, I’ll apologize once more for yet again not thinking through my wording when originally making this post, which I should have corrected earlier. Before anymore people call me out for my poor wording, please, can others direct them to this reply? Thank you.

THEYRE PROBABLY GONNA PULL THE HEALING SEMBLANCE OUT OF JAUNE NEXT EPISODE THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO FIX THIS

WE ALL DONT WANT IT BUT IT WILL FIX JAUNES PTSD AND SAVE WEISS SO LETS JUST ACCEPT THIS DEUS EX MACHINA

[youremyonlyhope]

The End of Time Part 2

Honestly, at this point I’m so ready to see Ten go.

And that’s not even like... me hating on Ten. I’m just literally itching to move on in this rewatch that’s lasted so long.

We’ll see how sad I am at the end of this.

Wrote that intro like 3 days ago and procrastinating pressing play. NOW I’m finally watching this.

Oh wow. Did not realize we saw the wreckage of the Time War in this episode. Also, I love “This Is Gallifrey” Overhead shot like Ani leading the clonetroopers. I see you. I don’t like Rassilon.  Blind Wave pointed out that there would have been millions of pregnant women when the Master became everyone, so what happened to the fetuses? I love that there’s a little screen with the Master as my girl Trinity Wells. You could see the little outline of the green screen on each of the Masters in the Beijing Army. Come on Doctor Who. You can do better. I love Donna so much. Also, I always thought she was saying “What did I...” before she falls, but Amazon’s captions says “I don’t want to die” and now I’m like which is it!!?!???? Awww the Doctor’s smiling. Ok see, the Master’s plan to find the source isn’t even like... evil... he genuinely wants to know why he’s heard this his whole life... I mean, this plan comes after trying and succeeding to take over Earth... but this part of the plan isn’t necessarily evil... if that makes sense. Basically, at this point I don’t blame him. “Worst rescue ever!” Oh Wilf. “But we’re in space” “Yep” Adorable. I mean, throwing a star/crystal/thing into a projection of Earth wouldn’t make it land on Earth... especially if they’re timelocked and Earth isn’t... but ok. Seriously, who is this random lady? So if corpses were changed, I’m assuming unborn babies were too. Great. 906. Doctor, baby, you’re burning up regenerations too fast. You were 900-ish when you were Nine. Now it’s been only 6 Time Lord years and you’ve regenerated twice as Ten and are about to regenerate into Eleven. “We must look like insects to you.” “I think you look like giants.” I’ve always loved that line. I mentioned this in my Tsuranga Conundrum post last night, but I love it when the Doctor shows how much they love life and beings and the universe. “i’d be proud.” “Of what.” “If you were my dad.” Awwwwwwww. UGH they’re making Wilf bring up the 4 knocks thing. 2nd time he and the Doctor have talked about it. Stop foreshadowing. “I’ve taken lives... Manipulated people into taking their own.” Ok. Ok fine. I’ll maybe forgive him for Waters of Mars. Since I’m 99% sure he’s talking about Adelaide. Yes, he is to blame for her suicide, but not in that way. He tried to manipulate everything else, causing her to commit suicide to right it all. But the Doctor always just blames themself for everything so... I’ll forgive Ten. “Well don’t you dare, sir. Don’t you dare put him before them.” Wow I love Wilf. But also, he knows the Doctor can be that selfish... “And please don’t die. You’re the most wonderful man and I don’t want you to die.” Awwwww Wilf. THE DOCTOR GRABBED THE GUN. I FORGOT ABOUT THAT. I knew he gets the gun at some point, but I thought he’d just pick it off the ground or something before the scene at the end. But NOPE. HE TOOK IT BECAUSE OF THE TIME LORDS. It can’t do much against them, but still. Is this his last Allons-y? Also I meant to point this out earlier, but if they’ve been in orbit all night, they should have orbited away from being directly above England... right? Ok they’re flying over the ocean, so they did orbit a little away.

“And will stand as monument to their shame, like the Weeping Angels of old.” see, this is why I don’t like the theory that they’re Weeping Angels. Because Rassilon compares them to Weeping Angels. He wouldn’t compare them if they’re going to become them. Unless... what he’s saying is that Weeping Angels are shamed Time Lords and that used to be the punishment... THAT could be a theory I guess. But still, I don’t think these to Time Ladies become Weeping Angels.

Also, why bring them along? “You didn’t vote for us to go to Earth, so you get to come along with the initial Time Lords that are going to meet the Master on Earth” - Time Lord logic. “Doctor, you said you were going to die... But is that all of us? I won’t stop you, sir, but is this it?” Oh no Wilf. But also, Wilf knows that the Doctor can get selfish enough to actually do that... I forgot about the Doctor literally just dropping from the ship into the mansion... Doctor... you’ve done some dumb stuff... but this is one of the dumbest... Oh yeaaaah, that was the Master’s plan, to become all the Time Lords too. Ok but also, he didn’t know the Time Lords were the source of the drumming at first (I’ve found the source of the ticking! It’s a pipe bomb!), so he had to have only come up with it after the star was found. So he went from “HA. TAKE OVER A PLANET AND BECOME ALL HUMANS” to “I can finally find out what’s wrong with me, what the source is!” to “IT WAS THE TIME LORDS? REVENGE!!!!!!!!” Ok, I was looking at Rassilon’s gauntlet just now... and my brain went “Infinity Gauntlet!” and I laughed. That gauntlet is too powerful. It killed that Time Lady without giving her a chance to regenerate, AND it can reverse the transformation of 6 billion people? Really? Also, yay my girl Trinity Wells is back! I’m glad that Temple (can’t remember his first name) seems to really love Donna. Enough to hold his future mother-in-law when there’s a planet in the sky, and then go running to find Donna. He seems like a good guy, I’m happy for her. I’m emotional. I want Donna to just have happiness. I just realized that for this entire scene, the Doctor’s just been trying to get the strength to get up after falling through a ceiling. Hey Naismith, this is partially your fault. WILF NO. I FORGOT HE WENT IN THERE TO SAVE SOMEONE ELSE. WILF I LOVE YOU. Wait. Wait. Waaaiiiittttt. The Doctor said “The Nightmare Child”... wasn’t there some child mentioned in an episode this season... oh wait it was the Timeless Child. Aww, I thought I had a breakthrough or something. “The Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres.” I. LOVE. THAT.  “To become creatures of consciousness alone.” First of all, why do you want that? Second of all, Dr. Owen Harper did it first. “You are diseased. Albeit a disease of our own making.” YEAH. AND YOU DID IT TO HIM LIKE 2 HOURS AGO FOR YOU GUYS, HUNDREDS OF YEARS FOR HIM. DON’T JUST SAY THAT LIKE IT’S NOTHING. YOU LITERALLY JUST DID IT. “No more.” NO MORE. “You never would, you coward.” But Nine said “Coward, any day.” sooooo There was a little music playing there as the Doctor pointed the gun at the Master, and I can hear the full version in my head. I just can’t remember what the piece is called. WAIT. IT WAS PLAYING WHEN THE DOCTOR DE-AGED AND FLOATED TO THE MASTER. THAT’S IT.

Also. I need to bring up the parallel of 6 billion people being linked by the Master’s network being the thing that brought him down last time, but this time he became those 6 billion people. I thought I’d mentioned it, but apparently I hadn’t. So there. Yay parallels!

Seriously, lady, WHO ARE YOU? “Get out of the way.” “Get out of the way.” Awwwwwwwwwww These people should not be cheering that the Gallifrey is gone from the sky, THEY SHOULD BE FREAKING OUT AND ASKING WHY IT WAS THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Also, still wondering how the Master goes from saving the Doctor here, to his state of mind in the World and Enough Time/The Doctor Falls. I guess a lot of time passed. I like the way the music dies once Wilf knocks.

Also, this scene is the reason that I finally realized that I hadn’t watched this episode. I explained it in either The Next Doctor or Waters of Mars, but because Netflix didn’t include the 2009 specials with the rest of the seasons, I skipped straight from Journey’s End to the Eleventh Hour. I assumed they’d just not even done a regeneration and I went with it for a few episodes. Then I was on tumblr, and saw a gifset of this scene; the Doctor saying “I’m alive,” then the caption of the 4 knocks, then a gif of it panning over to Wilf. And I realized this was from an episode I hadn’t seen. So I looked up the episode list, and saw 5 episodes that Netflix had just let me skip. All of the 2009 specials. And I had seen the Next Doctor when it aired, so I was surprised I forgot to go looking for it when I finally watched Doctor Who in order. And I had seen commercials for the Waters of Mars too, but I just forgot about the episodes when I finally watched the show years later. So, in the middle of season 5, I watched all the 2009 specials besides the Planet of the Dead. And because I was spoiled for this plot twist of a moment, I knew it was coming when I finally got around to watching the End of Time.

WILF. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU PICK 4 KNOCKS? AFTER TALKING ABOUT THE 4 KNOCKS THING WITH THE DOCTOR TWICE. TWICE. “I’m an old man, Doctor. I’ve had my time.” Wilf stop breaking my heart.  Oh god. His death is essentially a suicide. To save someone else. Like Adelaide. And he knew he’s been living as Ten for too long because of Adelaide. Oh no. Ok. I’m sad. Also, I hate the fandom turned that scene into just the “I’m in a glass case of emotion” gif. Which, I’d also seen before and hadn’t realized I never saw the episode it was from. Oh no a little Vale Decem started. “Did I miss something? Again?” Awww. Donna. Love. I know this music... NO IT’S SONG FOR TEN THE INSTRUMENTAL VERSION. I’M IN PAIN. Sylvia Noble smiling at the sight of the TARDIS? Amazing.

AHHHHH MY GIRL MARTHA. WITH MICROBRAIDS. Literally, the one complaint I have about Martha was that her hair wasn’t natural. So I love seeing her in a protective style. And my baby Mickey! Oh no. Guys. I’m getting emotional. I don’t need to say anything about how I feel about their relationship. I’ve ranted many times during my Monthly Martha Spams. But I love both of them so much, so I’m happy to see them. I like that Luke’s the only one who has a physical interaction with the Doctor during this goodbye tour. Especially since he didn’t get to meet him last time. Oh Sarah Jane. Oh Elisabeth Sladen. I’m glad we got one last Adipose. And I’m glad that Tallulah’s music is still played, even in this Cantina in the future. Also, I’m glad Tallulah got acknowledgement at all. The Doctor saluted Jack. After all those years of telling him to not salute. He saluted him. And after all those years of telling Jack not to flirt, he sets him up with Alonso. Awwww... I love Jack. Oh I nearly forgot about Joan’s granddaughter. “A Journal of Impossible Things” I never noticed the title of the book. OH NO HER NAME WAS VERITY LIKE THE FIRST PRODUCER OF DOCTOR WHO OH NO MY HEART. “Was she happy in the end?” “Yes. Were you?” I’m glad she asked that. “Well friends, and Nerys” bringing that joke back one more time. Oh it’s Minnie the Menace! “That women, who was she?” Seriously. TELL ME. I forgot he went to Donna’s father for the quid. Oh. OOOh my heart. I love Donna. She deserves so much. I can’t handle Wilf crying. I never noticed he also blew a little kiss. Oh. “Get rid of him, Mom, he’s useless.” “Listen to you! With a mechanic!” HEY. Hey. Jackie. Mickey is the best. You will learn this. Rose, girl, you are not dressed enough for snow. Neither is Jackie in her tights and shorts. What’s with you Brits? I forgot that it’s the Ood who sing for him. I think I was remembering Vale Decem as just what his regeneration was set to. But nope, it’s part of the story TOO.

Ok. I was emotional. And I was in awe of how amazingly and perfectly the music matches the scene. And then.... Matt Smith’s look of confusion made me laugh and snap out of it. I love how confused he looks. It’s adorable. I’m the same when Eleven turns into Twelve; sad during it, but then once Capaldi comes I’m just laughing at his face.

But seriously, Murray Gold. Amazing.

“Chin?... Blimey.” Love it. I love when they make fun of the Doctor’s features. Nine complaining about his ears, Eleven’s chin, Twelve’s eyebrows. Love. GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOO

FINALLY. AFTER 5 YEARS. I AM DONE WITH THE TENTH DOCTOR. 

Longer than his actual run. This is like when I watched Season 6 of Supernatural and stretched it out over a year and a half, longer than the time the show actually aired during, so by the time it finished I barely remembered how it started.

I do love Ten a lot. I just love Nine and Twelve a lot more. And I’m excited to rewatch Eleven since almost all of his episodes are ones I’ve only seen once (and I’m 99% sure I never actually properly finished season 6... but I’ll explain that when I get there.) and at least one that I’ve never seen (A Christmas Carol. Once again. Netflix had it separate. And by the time I realized I skipped it, I didn’t feel like going back. Still have not seen it.) so I’m excited to watch him again.

I feel bad that I’m not sadder...

Oh my god. I’m like the Tenth Doctor. He’d lived for too long, I stretched out his run for too long. And it was bad for both of us. Yay parallels!

Also, Wilf is the best.

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 1x01 Pilot

I’m a new fan of The 100, who first binged it last year, August to November. This is my first full rewatch of the show. I was planning to start it anyway and finish it before the season 6 premiere on April 30, and when I saw that Fox Serbia was airing a rerun (Monday to Friday, 40 min. after midnight, with repeats the next day), starting on 1st February, it was a great opportunity to start my rewatch in HDTV on my beautiful new TV. I decided to do write-ups and tag other fans on SpoilerTV website, as I did when I was first watching the show. But my posts turned into full blown essays. So, finally, after over a week, I’ve realized: Why don’t I post them on my Tumblr blog, too? I’ll copy my write-ups of the first 7 episodes, and then I’ll post my rewatch posts after I watch each episode. (The next one, 1x08, is on Monday’Tuesday.)

Spoilers below for all 5 seasons of the show. I go of on a tangents and make a lot of references to future events.

Rating: I'd give the Pilot 4/10, maybe 4.5/10 if I'm generous.

Episode opens on Clarke's voiceover. The first mention of how Ark came to be. There were "12 nations" with stations in the beginning, 97 years earlier, and the current Ark is "one station forged from the many". Which begs some questions: how did they manage to make everyone on the Ark speak English (and in American accents), why are they so culturally uniform? Did they try to do it by force? And why did big powers like China and Russia go along with it? But world-building has never been this show's strength. The opening scene shows Clarke drawing, and focuses on her father's watch. Some facts I had forgotten - the cells on the Ark were called "Skybox". Clarke says she is turning 18 in a month. This means she turned 18 sometime in late season 1 and was about 18 and a half year old in season 4. In season 5, she should be about 24 and a half year old. Abby is the first other major character to appear. Abby to Clarke "Your instincts will tell you to take care of everyone else first, like your father", stressing that this is the similarity between Clarke and Jake. "I can't lose you, too, I love you so much" First appearance of Jaha - on the video played to the Delinquents on the dropship. The kids comment: "your dad's a dick, Wells". Yes, he is. "If we knew for sure the Earth was survivable, we would send others. You are being sent down because your crimes have made you expendable". Oh god, he's awful. He became a more enjoyable character in season 4, just because of his interactions with other characters, but he's always been an a-hole. Jaha tells the kids to go to Mount Weather, explains what it is and that it has supplies for about 300 people to survive for 2 years. I had completely forgotten that there were so many Mount Weather references. This was clearly a storyline that was planned from the beginning. The first casualties on the show - 2 Delinquents who imitated Finn's stupid behavior on the dropship, but, unlike him, were killed when the ship crash-landed. When they land, it turns out they landed on a wrong mountain, instead of Mount Weather, due to a technical error. Who knew that this was the luckiest thing that ever happened to them? Clarke and Wells later insist that the kids should go to MW ASAP and find supplies. Every time someone in the episode talks about Mount Weather and says things like "We have to find Mount Weather to survive", it's so ironic now. No, you need to run as far from Mount Weather as possible. Run, run, fast, and don't turn back. At the end of the episode, they try to cross the river, and Jasper even finds a Mount Weather sign. In retrospect, they are so lucky they did not go through with it, after Jasper got speared, but who was to know? Kane looks so young compared to his season 5 self. And it's funny to see early Kane, who was kind of a bad guy. He's so pessimistic and insisting on ruthless solutions as necessary, a total opposite of where his views end up later. But the one consistent trait is that he's always been so stubborn about sticking to whatever course of action he thinks is best, and even naive about it. At this point, he's all about sticking to the rules. And here's Shumway, who seems to want the culling to happen even more than Kane does. I never understood what the supposed difference in policy was between Diana and Jaha. Diana was claiming to be fighting for the rights of the underprivileged? But Shumway is working for her, and wants the culling to happen, Jaha and Kane are intending for the culling to happen... What's the difference? They're all the same. Shumway is also the one to tell Kane about Bellamy's shooting of Jaha - and Kane says they have a traitor. Shumway close-up, he says nothing. Foreshadowing. Scene between Kane and Abby near the end of the episode. Kane says he's the only one willing to do what needs to be done so they survive. Abby: "That's the difference between us, Kane. I choose to make sure we deserve to stay alive." Ironic how they'll end up switching positions during the Dark Year. But then Abby starts hating herself over what she has become. The thing I liked best about the Pilot the first time was that it was really good at explaining the premise and getting a lot of info across, without clunky exposition. Oh god, about half of the Pilot was sooo cheesy. Most of the scenes with kids on Earth are so teen-soapy. That's why I initially preferred the stuff on the Ark (but then a few episodes later, I felt the exact opposite). Especially 90% of Octavia's lines in the Pilot are so cringey,I remember I only found it to be 'just OK' at the time I first watched it, good enough to keep watching, but I only got hooked around 1x05 when it started losing most of its CWness. But now, after having seen the rest of the show, the tone is so weird - so teen-soapy. I guess the first time, I expected the show to be like that, because of the channel it's on - a teen-soap take on post-apocalyptic SciFi. The pop songs and the scenes with kids enjoying the Earth were so corny but I guess they were meant to be, to make the contrast bigger when something bad suddenly happens, like Jasper getting speared at the end of the episode. Or that mutant deer, that was a good scene. Funny that we never get to see any of the scary nature stuff again. What happened to the man-eating water snake? The show pretty much forgets all of that later, because we get human antagonists on Earth. I also probably blanked out a lot of the cheesy teen-soapy stuff the first time, because I wasn't interested, since I didn't even remember some of it. All the potential pairings and flirtations that went nowhere now seem so random and funny. They were clearly just throwing anything to the wall to see what sticks. Who remembers that Octavia used to have a thing for Finn in the Pilot and said "Finn is mine" to Clarke, and he briefly flirted with her? Then there was Jasper's crush on Octavia, but that one actually did last a bit longer in season 1. The show really seemed to be trying to make Finn the main heartthrob. Of course, Finn's main interest was flirting with Clarke non-stop and following her around all the time. The fact he started hitting on her immediately in the dropship really makes him look bad now (whether or not that was initially intended - since they probably still hadn't planned for Raven's character to exist.)

And look, here's Kelly Hu as Kane's girlfriend/Abby's best friend, who was clearly supposed to be one of the mains, and then completely disappeared without explanation after the Pilot. Kelly Hu was even in the main credits for the Pilot, right after Bob Morley, who was credited 6th - after Eliza and Paige and Thomas McDonnel and Eli Goree and after Marie. Which pretty much fits their screentime in the Plot. I doubt they were expecting Bellamy to become the male lead, Finn and Wells were clearly treated as the male leads. Speaking of Bellamy - AARGH, that terrible slicked-back hair! My eyes, my eyes!!! I remember now why I had such mixed feelings about him in the Pilot, unlike others who said they hated him. I mean, he was clearly meant to be seen as an antagonist at this point, but most of the things he says about the privileged and the elite on the Ark is true. I still think that the Ark leaders were the first villains introduced on the show. They sucked. Even if we weren't supposed to see them as villains, and even if some of them later changed and developed (Kane). I wasn't sure how much of what Bellamy said was just him using that rhetoric to manipulate the kids. but the first time he says "let the privileged do something for a change", he said it before he learned about the wristbands. So, some of that anger was sincere. (And it was certainly justified.) A bit later we see Bellamy listening carefully and formulating a plan as Clarke is explaining to the kids that the wristbands are transmitting their life signs to the Ark. 

I don't know where the later idea of Bellamy as a completely hotheaded guy who can't act in a strategic or manipulative comes from. One of the first things we saw him do in the show was manipulate a bunch of younger people into something that would help him not get caught and executed by the Ark leaders, so he could stay and protect his sister. That's what he's doing for the fist few episodes. The first kids he convinces to take the wristbands off and make others do the same are Murphy and John Mbege. It's funny that Mbege's role was at this point almost as big as Murphy's. We still haven't seen Harper or Miller.

So many scenes of conflict between Bellamy and Wells in this episode. It seems like they probably meant for that dynamic to be an important one going forward, with the two of them as foils. "See you on the other side". Oh, god. Those lines will never be the same. It's actually Finn who said it first when he was about to cross the river by rope, but then Jasper went first to impress Octavia, and said that line for the first time. And here comes the spear. "We are not alone". Well, duh. But Clarke had to say that line for a very Lost-like ending to the Pilot. Geez, I can see how this bunch of clueless, silly kids with no weapons, fooling around, looked like such a dangerous invading force to the Grounders who saw them. Yes, the season 5 comparison between them and the heavily armed mass murderers from Eligius who immediately tried to kill the first people they ran across, was soooo apt... *sigh*.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Clock Analysis Part 3 - What Episode We’ll See Beth in and Why

Okay gang! New episode tomorrow and I’m super excited. So my guess for when we’ll see Beth is 8x10. It’s  based on a lot of evidence I and my fellow theorists have found.

The first is simply the sequence of events I’ve mentioned before in THIS POST and THIS POST. In 5x03, Bob dies from a walker bite. The clock in the room when he dies points to 8x08, which is when we found out Carl was dying from the same cause, so we can parallel the two. The VERY NEXT episode, Slabtown 5x04, is where Beth wakes up. So if Carl dies in 8x09, it would make sense for Beth to show up in the next episode, 8x10.

Not to mention, we always saw the music box as a symbol of Beth’s awakening (see my account name ;D). And then there’s the rule of threes. 8x10 is exactly three seasons after 5x10. Now, we did say this about 8x08. The MSF made sense to us as a time for her to show up because it would have been three seasons after Coda. But I read something the other day—a random article about 8x09) that talked about how death is especially common in TWD’s MSFs. I think that’s applicable here. The MSFs are about death, so perhaps we were always wrong about that. They wouldn’t bring her back in a MSF because those are reserved for major deaths, and this will be the opposite of that.

Historically (in the show) episodes 10 are often about life. 4x10, Inmates, Glenn survived at the prison. He had a mini death fake out on the bus, and in 4x10, they revealed him as being alive. (X, X, X). 

5x10 was the music box, and all about the survivors coping. 6x10 is where Rick and Daryl meet Jesus. Aside from the obvious JESUS symbolism, this is them finding a new community, new allies, and more survivors. Life! 7x10 is New Best Friends. There’s not one big example in this episode, but rather lots of little ones you could find. And it’s kinda built into the title, right?

So all of the above just shows that it makes sense for her to appear in 8x10. But it’s not all super-concrete evidence. So now, let’s look at—you guessed it—the clocks.

Let’s start with Slabtown, because that can be a discussion all by itself. Remember that as Beth wakes up, we see the second hand of Beth’s clock tick from 4 to 5, from 7 to 8, and then to 10. 

The prevalent theory was always that these numbers represented the episodes relevant to her story line in S5. (Which was yet more evidence that 5x10 was important and about her in some way: music box.) And I still think to some extent that’s true. It’s too much of a coincidence that she was in episodes 5x04, 5x07, 5x08, and then the music box woke up in 5x10 to simply dismiss it.

But now I also think it’s more than that. M-Nonny and others have argued that perhaps the 8 and 10 on Beth’s clock point to her awakening in 8x10. That actually makes a lot of sense. Why? Because the time the clock reads is 5:20, which points to 5x04, and this IS episode 5x04. That creates a tie between 5x04 and 8x10. So in 5x04, Beth awakens directly after Bob died from a walker bite. It would, again, just make a perfect parallel if she shows up in the episode right after Carl dies from a walker bite.

In terms of the numbers being tied to episodes, I’m going to take it a step further. I don’t have detailed evidence on this, but I honestly thing the numbers could also stand for seasons. She was in season 5, obviously. The second hand ticking from 7 to 8 is interesting because, even though Beth wasn’t in them, season 7 is when Negan arrived and 8 is a continuation of Negan. We believe Beth will be tied to the Negan story line, so it’s super-suspicious that these numbers specifically, rather than season 6, are what we see on her clock. If that’s the case, the 10 may also point to season 10, but we won’t know if or how that’s the case until S10 rolls around.

Other Clocks: Edwards’. I talked about this in Part 1 of my Clock Analysis. Remember the clock in Edwards’ office changes from 8:40 (resurrection) to 8:50 (8x10) and may show the episode in which the resurrection will happen.

Clock in 5x09: @wdway found this and I’ve honestly never heard any other TDer talk about it. True, I could have just missed it, but none of the theorists in my group had heard of it either, and generally at least one of us has.

So remember this scene where Rick, Michonne and Glenn talk in Wiltshire? This scene has always been suspicious to us because Glenn holds a bat (Negan foreshadow) and talks about Beth being alive in the present tense. 

This is one of the bats we saw associated with Beth (the other big one is in Inmates, which is an episode 10, btw) and felt like it was a clue.

So in the open garage behind Rick and Michonne, there’s a wall clock. Guess what time it reads? 8x10. 

So perhaps, just like the clock in Edwards’ office, it shows the episode where these clues will be fulfilled? Here’s hoping!

Other random 8x10 evidence:

In 4x16, we have the scene where the Claimers find Rick, Michonne and Carl. This is yet another scene that has way deeper significance now that we know Carl is dying. I’ve thought for a long time that this scene was a foreshadow of Beth at Grady. (See the post I did about it two years ago HERE. Also HERE.)

It’s mostly about subtle parallels. Carl wakes up in a blue suburban (Beth wore blue scrubs and the color is associated with imprisonment; there’s also the blue suburban they drove in 5x09). He wakes up to find danger around him. There’s also broken glass shown. He’s sexually threatened, but not actually assaulted. All parallels to what happens with Beth at Grady. And since it’s Carl who wakes up, in this analogy, Carl = Beth. So you can see that the entanglement is functioning on many levels. So why am I going over this? Because of something Joe says.

Remember he starts counting backwards from 10, planning to shoot Rick when he gets to 1, but Daryl shows up and says stop. And what does Joe reply? “You’re stopping me on 8, Daryl.” I picked up on this during my rewatch before S8 began, and saw it as yet another emphasis on the number 8 and season 8 being important. But they specifically emphasize the numbers 8 and 10. Obviously it wouldn’t make any sense to count up from 8 to 10 in this case. They kinda had to start at 10. So it’s either pointing to 10x08 or 8x10. Just saying.

I also think it’s important to note that in the next scene, where Rick and Daryl become brothers, Rick talks about keeping Carl safe, and how he’d do anything, even rip out Joe’s throat to make sure Carl stays alive. Major foreshadowing, y’all.

Finally—and this is one of my favorite evidences, again found by M-Nonny—in Coda, FG’s decides to be random and sneaks out of the church to go to the school, where he ends up being chased back by a horde of walkers, and the church is ultimately lost. I remember thinking this scene was so random when watching Coda for the first time. Since then, we’ve found lots of Beth symbolism in it, so it’s made more sense.

But check this out. One of the things we’ve analyzed to death is the bible FG opens and looks out. We’ve looked at numbers and stories and passages. All kinds of things. And here it is: *drumroll please* The passage he opens to is Chronicles 8:10.  

And whose name just so happens to appear on the page? Beth’s:

(Photo source: @teamdeluzzionaljb-blog)

And this happens in Coda, people. CODA!

It also occurred to me that it’s interesting that FG’s church is lost here. Here’s the minor spoiler: Carl will die in Alexandria’s church (which we’ve always felt had Beth vibes) and it will burn down around him. So in both cases, a church is destroyed. Just kind of interesting.

So this is most of my 8x10 evidence. I’m sure there is probably more we would find if we did re-watches looking specifically for this, but this what I’ve got.

Disclaimer: Despite all this, could I be wrong? Sure. I know I’ll have at least some haters hate on me if she doesn’t show in 8x10. All of this evidence points to SOMETHING big in 8x10. I think and hope it’s Beth. There’s a very good chance of that. But it might be something else too.

M-Nonny did remind me of one really compelling piece of evidence that may run contrary to this 8x10 theory. I’ll post in more detail about this next week, but it’s about the “how the harvest gets home” truck sin 5x16. When Aaron and Daryl find the wolf trap, the truck shave that logo on the side, and we’ve long thought “the harvest” is Beth. The license plate Aaron removes from the truck has an 816 on it, which may mean that Beth won’t show until the finale. 

And if she doesn’t show by 8x10, I honestly won’t expect to see her until then. But Alexandria is Aaron and Daryl’s home. The wolves go to Alexandria in 6x02 and even drive a “harvest” truck into the wall. So I’m hoping Beth will show up earlier (like in 8x10) and 8x16 will be when she finally arrives at Alexandria. *fingers crossed*

So, all THAT said, I’m totally going to get your hopes up about something else. Thanks to a Nonny for sending this to my inbox. (I’ll officially answer your Ask tomorrow, but I read it a few days ago and totally freaked out about it. ;D)

The following is the final paragraph of THIS ARTICLE, which was written by a blogger who received an advance screener of 8x09. Check out what she says:

So my group totally went to town on this, did tons of research and discussed with hundreds of comments. See, in the comments of this blog post, someone asked if the last scenes that caused tears of joy might be something with Negan or a Richonne baby. The blogger answered yes, but she wouldn’t say which one.

So my group morphed into super-hero researchers. ;D Here’s what we discussed:

My issue with this being a Richonne baby is saying that half the fandom will hate it. I guess those really angry about Carl might see it as switching one child for another, but I think those people would be in the minority. Saying half the fandom might want to punch Gimple seems really over the top if this is just about a Richonne baby.

This blogger isn’t a huge Richonne fan. She doesn’t hate them at all, but she doesn’t ship them in particular, and mostly just doesn’t really care, so she isn’t someone who’d have such a strong reaction to a Richonne baby.

The same is true of Carzekiel. We talked about it being a Carzekiel thing, but while she kinda likes the idea of Carzekiel, she doesn’t especially love or ship them, so again, it probably wouldn’t give her this extreme a reaction.

This blogger really loved both Still and Alone, and enjoyed the romantic moment between Beth and Daryl in Alone. Just saying.

If it’s not Richonne, then it must have something to do with Negan. Since we do think Beth is tied to Negan, we’re okay with that. Kind of hoping we’ll see who the prisoner was from the handcuffs Daryl saw in 8x02 (because we think it was Beth). Let’s just say lots of conjecture and head canons about these mystery scenes have been floating around my group the past week.

So we don’t know what these scenes are, and they might not be Beth, but we have high hopes. If they have to do with her, then this theory is wrong anyway because she’ll have shown up in 8x09, rather than 8x10. I’d be happy to be wrong in that way. ;D

And hey, even if it’s not anything obviously to do with Beth, I think these final, shocking scenes will be very important and tell us a lot. But here’s hoping they’re about our girl.

If you read the entire article, the blogger also says there are several unforeseen twists throughout the episode, and some are tied to Siddiq, who has Oceanside ties in the CBs. So once again, Oceanside comes into things, and that feels Bethish too.

Okay, I’ll shut up for today. Bottom line: I’m very excited for 8b and totally believe our girl is coming home. Thoughts?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

How Crazy Walker Chick (4x01) Helps TD

Good morning! How is everyone's weekend going? Okay, I know I said I'd try to get my Sasha theory out this weekend, and this isn't that. But I wanted to get this meta out of the way because it concerns 4x01 and we watched that almost two weeks ago now. I’m going to try really hard to get two or three new theories posted this week, though. Wish me luck!

So, Crazy Walker Chick. I've always thought she had some kind of significant foreshadowing, but in the past haven't been able to put my finger on what it was. Now, after seeing S7, and all the things we've figured out, I'm understanding it better. Let's dive right in!

First, let me reiterate what I've been saying all through this rewatch: 4a was a season of setups and major foreshadowing. Almost every big sequence I've watched so far seems to be a big foreshadow to me. There's a lot of it that concerns Beth's arc, but some that shows other arcs as well. I'll get into that here in a minute.

Also, if you haven't, check out THIS META about the first few seconds of 4x01 and Rick's gun garden. It's another sequence I believe is highly significant.

Okay, so it occurred to me that we had something of a contradiction at the beginning of Crazy Walker Chick's arc where Rick is concerned. (And you know if something seems off, it's usually a symbolic thing.) Remember that this is where Rick is playing pacifistic farmer. He doesn't want to lead, go on runs, make decisions, or even carry his gun. But before he goes outside the walls, Hershel badgers him into taking his gun for his own safety.

This seems contradictory to me because the whole point of Rick's arc in 4a was that he refused to be the sheriff anymore. That point would have been better driven home if he'd have refused to take the gun at all, or if he agreed to pacify Hershel but then secretly dumped it before leaving the prison. Why have him take it, have the camera focus on it, and contradict his arc like that. I mean, it would be understandable if he ended up using the gun in some way, but other than briefly pointing it at Crazy Walker Chick (CWC) he doesn't.

So the only explanation is symbolism. Whatever this sequence foreshadows, it will happen when Rick is the sheriff and the one making the decisions again.

Before he even meets CWC for the first time, we see three very potent symbols that have played a very prominent role in the symbolism since then. First, Rick shoves a dead rabbit into his bag. (Remember he's checking snares.) We've seen rabbits constantly. Perhaps the most prominent time was with Daryl and the Claimers when he and Lenny fought over the cottontail. I'll point it out in more detail when we get to that episode in the rewatch, but everything about that was about Beth. 

Next, we see *drum roll please!* a dead deer. (Deer Theory) 

Yeah, I don't think I have to explain that one. TOTALLY about Beth. Finally, we see a sick bore, that's actually still alive, but obviously close to dying. Plot wise, they used it to show the coming of the virus.

Symbolically, I'll say two things about this bore. 1) We've seen pigs as a symbol several times. It's not quite as prominent as some of the others, but it's there. We see Rick kill his pigs at the prison to pull the walkers away from the wall, and I've always thought that was important symbolically because there was such a tragic vibe to it. Nothing about it was matter-of-fact. But remember they pretty much said that the pigs probably helped carry and spread the virus. More recently, in S7, we saw the Kingdomers feeding larger pigs on walkers and then giving them to the Saviors.

So I’m gonna say something new here, just from thinking about this the past week. I think the pigs represent the things that make TF sick. Plot wise, it's usually a literal, physical illness. But I think they symbolically represent the emotional and psychological issues the characters deal with as well. Rick was dealing with some heavy stuff emotionally at the beginning of S4. (I'll get into what it all was in later posts, but trust me for now. There were unresolved issues from earlier seasons.) Not dealing with his issues led him to become the farmer and relinquish his leadership role. And that wasn't a solution. It was just him hiding from his issues. So I think him killing the pigs at the prison showed that he had to let go of those issues. He HAD to, or he and the group wouldn't have survived.

2) The other thing about the sick wild boar that struck me was that it might have been a subtle, early example of the Buttons theme. In that case, Buttons the horse died specifically because he was wild and refused to be domesticated. A truth that Daryl applied to himself. Now, this isn't exact because one of Rick's domesticated pigs also died from the virus, but the piglets didn't. They didn't even get sick. Rick had to actually kill them. And they specifically mentioned the wild bore at least twice, as well as having the camera focus on him. Plus, CWC wanted to take him back to her "Husband." So it just jumped out at me.

Okay, then Rick meets Creepy Walker Chick. The most basic thing about this (thanks to @wdway for pointing this out) is that Rick thinks she's a walker. Can't really blame him, given her appearance. But he thinks she's a walker and is truly shocked when she starts speaking to him. Think about that, guys. It's exactly what we think happened with Beth. Not only that she's alive when they think she's dead, but they think she turned. Daryl and TF (we think) still believe there's a Beth walker out there somewhere, and they were just never able to find her and put her down. So a woman Rick thinks is a walker and walks away from her. Remember all the songs they've had about the girl Rick left behind. Very interesting.

We have the introduction of the 3 Questions here, which is obviously a big part of the plot and affects all of TF. In fact, we don't particularly see Beth associated with the three questions at all that I can think of. Still, why 3? They could have gone with two, or five? They could have made the why an extension of one of the questions and said there were only 2. But no. Rule of 3s. 3 questions.

CWC's Appearance:

Rick searches her for a gun and finds only a knife. It strikes me that she keeps it in a similar place to where Beth kept hers. And yes, I know that many people would probably keep their knives there, but it's not the ONLY place to keep a knife either.

We also see her brown belt. Okay, this is another meta me and @wdway are working on which greatly concerns the Xs I told you to look for in the rewatch. A few people are helping us find them. Basically, Maggie has a brown belt she's had since S4 that has Xs all over it. Beth had a similar brown belt, slightly different in appearance, associated with her. We're reading really heavily into that for symbolism. I promise I'll get the meta written in the next few weeks. Bottom line, CWC has a similar belt. Hers doesn’t have Xs (kinda looks like 0s, actually, which could be an anti-parallel). But her belt is similar to Beth and Maggie's. So yet another way it might be showing who she is meant to represent.

Because of her baggy blazer, it's hard to see her shirt until the end. But it looks to me like it has both birds and flowers on it. 

The birds, especially, jump out at me, because they look a lot like these:

She tells Rick that she and her husband were headed to Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) for their honeymoon, but never made it out of the airport because the virus struck. I've always wondered what the significance of Mexico was. And I can't think of any particular ties for the show. But for those who watch FTWD, a lot of stuff happens in Mexico in that show. No idea if that's a thing. Just what I thought of. But here's what IS a thing. Puerto Vallarta is a popular tourist destination. And it's right on the ocean. So we have this woman, surrounded by all these other TD symbols, who was meant to travel from Atlanta to the sea. Hmmm. Greenroute anyone? (X)

She talks about how on the 4th night, they slept next to some huge marble sculptures, including one of some kids playing leapfrog. Two possible symbols from that. The frog symbol, which we saw prominently in Them, and a few other times. Frogs are highly transformative creatures and can be indirect resurrection symbols. But the leap frog thing also stands out to me. When you play leapfrog, it becomes a relay of sorts. One person jumps over the other, so that person skips completely over that spot of ground. It might be a metaphor of sorts for how they're doing the narrative. We leap-frogged over what happened after Coda, but that doesn't mean there's not a story there to tell. We just haven't heard it yet.

It also occurs to me as I write this that it’s interesting that Rick says he remembers the statues, and that both of them say the leapfrog one was their favorite. Kind of a random way to connect Rick and this strange woman. Just feels like a totally random detail. But it also serves to 1) emphasize the leapfrog symbol and 2) could show that Rick and Beth’s arcs will have heavy parallels. They’ll go through a lot of the same things.

Oh, and the whole 4th night thing? I've always just seen that as a reference to this being S4. But I can't help but point out that 4 seasons from this episode will be 8x01, the hundredth episode. Just saying.

She talks about how she had to be willing to do terrible things to survive. We see this line repeated a lot. Rick says something similar in 4x08. I know Carol mentions it to Ty in 4x14. Major theme. When Rick asks what she had to be willing to do, she says three things. (Again, 3.) And each of these three things were foreshadows of things to come for TF. 

1) Eating whatever they could find. (We see Richonne and Carl having a hard time finding food in 4x16. More prominently, I think this points to 5x10 when TF couldn't find food for so long and ended up eating rabid dogs.) 

2) Leaving people behind. The big one. The one we haven't actually seen fulfilled yet. Because when have we actually SEEN TF leave anyone behind? We haven't. They don't do that. The only thing this could point to is Beth. 

3) Hiding from people who needed my help. We'd already seen this somewhat in Clear, when they wouldn't stop to help the hitchhiker. We also see suggestions of it, such as in 5x02, when Rick doesn't want to help Father Gabriel when they hear him screaming, but Carl talks him into it.

Bug symbolism: Early on, we see this. 

Pretty sure it's a spider of some kind, but I don't know details. If anyone has any insights, let us know. But they've used bugs (ladybugs, cicadas, aphids) as Beth symbols before, so it stands out to me. I also think the web could be significant. We've also seen things like this in Beth scenes:

and I think it could represent the tangled web that her storyline will become.

We also see this. 

As I said in my rewatch, it reminds me of the ants eating the cookie in Sam's room in 6x08. His room in that scene was full of interesting symbolism, including green bats, owls, and other symbols we also associate with Beth. On TTD, they confirmed that the ants on the cookie represented the walker horde invading Alexandria. (In a morbid way, Sam was the cookie that would be devoured by the monsters.)

But the point is, the ants represent walker hordes. We see them on a log, but then we also see them eating this beetle-like bug. 

Like a ladybug, a beetle has a tough outer shell and is somewhat transformative. I think this represents the walker horde that forces TF to leave Beth behind.

Oh, we also see Beth’s sunlight through the trees, btw:

"You Get to Come Back." - Obviously this theory involves all of TF and the show at large. We see it reiterated in Rick's speech in 4x08, but let me promise you it's much more than that. I've been hashing out theories with several people--we'll get them written and posted eventually--but it's become obvious after S7 that this theme informs every character arc and motivation in the entire show. The obvious thing to say about Beth is that she will LITERALLY come back. Either way, it's fitting to have this theme here in 4x01, when Gimple took the reins. This show really is ultimately about redemption. But I think it's especially significant that this woman, with all her interesting symbolism, is the one that first says it in the show.

Okay, so we get to the end of this arc. Creepy Walker Chick goes full-Shane and tries to feed Rick to her "husband" who became a walker some time in the past. A few things about this ending.

1) Suicide. This woman kills herself, which was Beth's first arc. Again, it's an anti-parallel bc Beth realized she wanted to live, and this woman actually kills herself, but still. Hershel later tells Rick that some people are just too far gone. Rick isn't. Beth obviously wasn't. Some people get to come back.

2) She tells Rick she wants to "be like him" and "don't end it after." She wants to be a walker like her husband and is asking Rick to let her turn. So we have a situation where this woman was NOT stabbed in the head. Kinda like Beth? Which is why TF would assume she'd turned? Just saying.                                                                                                                                  

3) We don't actually see this woman turn (which may be significant and tie into #2 above) but the last thing we see is twitching movement coming from the burlap bag. We're meant to understand that this woman has kept her walker-husband (or perhaps parts of him? *shudders*) in this bag. She was going to try and feed Rick to him. But I think it's interesting that the last thing we see is the twitching movement of someone that is still live in some sense…as Rick walks away. Juuuust saying.

Overall…

Like I said, she's mostly an anti-parallel to Beth. In fact, her craziness parallels her closely with Lizzie, who I've always said is an anti-parallel to Beth. Lizzie, just like this woman, believed that walkers were still alive, were still people, wanted to feed them. Lizzie, remember, had a twisted take on the "we get to come back," theme. "It's okay. She'll come back. I didn't hurt her brain."

Could this woman have been Lizzie's mother? ;D Just kidding.

Anyway, my point is that this was a major foreshadow of coming themes. Many of them Beth's, but also Rick, TF at large, Lizzie, and in many way the other characters too. I'll try and relate this as I get into more detailed analysis of Sasha, Carol, and Daryl arcs as well.

But yeah. There's my take on Creepy Walker Chick. I've actually always liked this mini arc. It was just so stinking tragic and well-done. Great way to kick off 4x01. The tone, at the very least, was an accurate foreshadow of the heartache to come.