#SHE CALLED ME A WARHEAD BASICALLY asdfasdf

[roccinan]

Finally finished S5 vol. 1! Here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts if anyone’s curious:

I felt kinda betrayed by the Andres flashbacks because I kept paying attention to them expecting some kind of connection to the main plot. And there just wasn’t LOL. I can only hope that Rafael will do something extremely helpful for everyone else in vol. 2. Tatiana still doesn’t have a personality?? I was looking forward to her smh. Andres was idk, trying too hard to act like himself but the whole flashback just felt like a VR game or something where you play as Rafael and Andres is your father for some reason, and he has the same dialogue for every player. 

That said, the flashback heist itself was fun to watch. It was just bizarre seeing it in the middle of the bank heist for no reason. @ alex pina, you could have just removed all of it and cut it together into a side-story for release next month. You’re welcome for that brilliant marketing idea!

I still don’t see the relevance of berlinito? They could have completely replaced him with Sergio in the flashback or just had Tatiana be Andres’ partner. Just not a fan of this subplot. Even weirder is how it looks like Andres is actively trying to get his wife and son together- why would you do that and then act betrayed later?? 

That said, the 2-min flashback of Sergio and Andres in the last ep. was objectively superior to all of the above and the only scene where Andres actually felt like himself instead of some NPC.

ANYWAY, the bank heist!! Not a lot to say because overall I was pleased. It was fun, intense, and emotional, and everyone played really well off everyone else (for the most part lol). As an ensemble and as a whole, I loved it. I just didn’t like the individual bits and pieces, like-

Was expecting to see more negotiation on Raquel’s part. Martin didn’t really have the chance to be unhinged, like the writers were purposely pushing him to the side whenever a situation could use his craziness. I felt like Monica’s reactions were realistic (even though I was like “seriously!?” when they tried to save Arturo) but the execution was very awkward.

Please don’t cancel me, but I honestly forgot Helsinki and Palermo were together until they mentioned future dates asdfasdf. Maybe because I started shipping Bogota and Martin halfway through ep. 1- these two honestly had a lot Chemistry to me!? Is it just me :’D Like, they seemed to mesh very well to me. I’m sorry but I wish Bogota/Palermo was canon instead 

Speaking of Helsinki, I was hoping to see more of him! Was legit so scared when that happened to him. And hmm, personally I thought that Martin wasn’t angry enough at the people who threw the grenade. He worried for a couple scenes, and then went on being perfectly calm. which isn’t that big a deal, but really man? You kept trying to punish your own teammates last season but you don’t hold grudges against this? I wanted to see him go Feral and avenge Helsinki by blowing up someone else’s leg. 

I was hoping to see more Nairobi too :’) And so unfair that Oslo didn’t get a spotlight flashback asdfasf

Alicia’s water breaking arc worked better than I expected, so no complaints there! Not sure how I feel about them pairing her with Marseille(?) but it’s not something I’d complain about, I guess. The Manila-Stockholm-Denver triangle though... I did feel for it, but I was also like, “Manila read the room.” Monver are not breaking apart but I have a feeling Denver might die next volume

Lastly, Tokyo’s arc was beautiful. Everything I wanted for her and more. The surprise-twist Berlin parallel. The flashbacks to her ex-boyfriend. How she fell in love with Rio. Her love for her found family. How she went out so gracefully but so epically. Cannot think of a more Tokyo way to go :’D I don’t tear up often, but Tokyo’s death really made me feel. I’m still really shook over it. She was my favorite female character and top favs- I loved her, flaws and fucked up choices and all since the beginning, so her death really really got me. But it was so beautiful that I wouldn’t change a thing :’)

OK one last complaint: those Suicide Squad TM military special forces were so overhyped. you’d think with those introductions, they would be this elite amazing squad and they were just some guys in the end. Also miffed that they got the whole “these are UnHinGed criminals!!” intro. when that was supposed to be the angle on the banda from the outside. It just felt like they were shoehorned in there to make the banda look like sane, clean heroes by comparison. S1/2 Berlin could have taken on every member of that “elite” squad by himself and won, okay. These guys weren’t even as “dangerous” as regular ol’ Suarez and co.