#The Flash 3x09

[mspirations]

Caitlin Snow "The Present" - 3x09

[1liv]

[sophsun1]

[booasaur]

For All Mankind - 3x09

[britinbliss]

“all i need is him to be my loverboy”

[stargirlcentral]

Beth, you've gotta activate Combat Mode.

STARGIRL (2020- ) ↳ Frenemies: Chapter Nine | The Monsters

[911bts]

Season 7 Writers Room

The active writers for season 7 are: Tim Minear Juan Carlos Coto Andrew Meyers Lyndsey Beaulieu Taylor Wong Nicole Barraza Keim Bradley Marques Below is what they previously wrote for the show/upcoming episodes:

Tim Minear: 1x01 "Pilot" (w/ Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) 1x02 "Let Go" (w/ Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) 1x10 "A Whole New You" (w/ Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) 2x01 "Under Pressure" (w/ Brad Falchuk) 2x03 "Help Is Not Coming" (w/ Zachary Reiter) 2x11 "New Beginnings" (w/ Kristen Reidel) 2x18 "The Life We Choose" 5x01 "Panic" (w/ Juan Carlos Coto) 7x01 "Abandon 'Ships"

7x06 "There Goes The Groom" (w/ Nicole Barraza Keim)

Juan Carlos Coto: 2x06 "Dosed" 2x14 "Broken" 3x02 "Sink or Swim" 3x09 "Fallout" 3x13 "Pinned" (w/ Nadia Abass-Madden) 3x18 "What's Next?" (w/ Kristen Reidel) 4x01 "The New Abnormal" 4x05 "Buck Begins" 5x01 "Panic" (w/ Tim Minear) 5x13 "Fear-O-Phobia" (w/ Andrew Meyers) 5x16 "May Day" 6x02 "Crash and Learn" 6x10 "In A Flash" 6x17 "Love Is In The Air"

7x02 "Rock the Boat" (w/ Lyndsey Beaulieu) 7x03 "Capsized" (w/ Lyndsey Beaulieu) 7x08 (doesn't have a public title) (w/Bradley Marques)

Andrew Meyers: 2x15 "Ocean's 9-1-1" 3x10 "Christmas Spirit" 3x12 "Fools" 3x14 "The Taking of Dispatch 9-1-1" (w/ Nadia Abass-Madden) 4x03 "Future Tense" 4x09 "Blindsided" 4x13 "Suspicion" (w/ Lyndsey Beaulieu) 5x02 "Desperate Times" (w/ Lyndsey Beaulieu) 5x06 "Brawl in Cell Block 9-1-1" 5x13 "Fear-O-Phobia" (w/ Juan Carlos Coto) 6x01 "Let The Games Begin" 6x08 "9-1-1, What's Your Fantasy?" 6x12 "Recovery" 6x18 "Pay It Forward" (w/ Nicole Barraza Keim)

7x04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" (w/ Bradley Marques)

Lyndsey Beaulieu: 3x05 "Rage" 3x11 "Seize the Day" 3x17 "Powerless" (w/ Kristen Reidel) 4x02 "Alone Together" 4x10 "Parenthood" 4x13 "Suspicion" (w/ Andrew Meyers) 5x02 "Desperate Times" (w/ Andrew Meyers) 5x10 "Wrapped in Red" (w/ Nadia Abass-Madden) 5x12 "Boston" 6x03 "The Devil You Know" 6x10 "In Another Life" 6x16 "Lost and Found"

7x02 "Rock the Boat" (w/ Juan Carlos Coto) 7x03 "Capsized" (w/ Juan Carlos Coto) 7x05 "You Don't Know Me" (w/ Taylor Wong)

Taylor Wong: 4x06 "Jinx" 5x08 "Defend in Place" 5x14 "Dumb Luck" 6x07 "Cursed" 6x15 "Death and Taxes"

7x05 "You Don't Know Me" (w/ Lyndsey Beaulieu)

Nicole Barraza Keim: 5x15 "FOMO" 6x06 "Tomorrow" 6x09 "Red Flag" 6x18 "Pay It Forward" (w/ Andrew Meyers)

7x06 "There Goes The Groom" (w/ Tim Minear)

Bradley Marques:

7x04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" (w/ Andrew Meyers) 7x08 (doesn't have a public title) (w/ Juan Carlos Coto)

[makeitastrength]

You knew this was coming... what are your fave Chenford scenes? (Same deal, 1 per season, and only 1 honorable mention allowed!). Good luuuuuuck 😘

I did. I knew it was coming, and I can't even yell at you for the evil question because I'm the one who started it. Although actually, once I got started, it didn't take me that long. Somehow this one was easier than choosing my favorite episodes.

Season 1

I gotta go with the same scene you chose here, and that's the 1x20 separated-by-a-wall scene. It's intense, it's emotional, it's vulnerable, and it really illustrates how far these two have come in just six months. Despite the literal and metaphorical wall between them in this scene, it's a lot less of a barrier than it was on day one.

Honorable mention

I've always had such a soft spot for the scene in 1x13 with Tim and Lucy and the woman with the embryos. It's the way he says "But doing this? It won't put your marriage back together, okay? Nothing will. But you will come to hate yourself if you go through with this." Every time, I flash back to 1x07 and Lucy saying "I came here to remind you that you'll regret helping her. Because it's not gonna change her. But it'll sure as hell change you." And just... THE GROWTH! Look at this man learning from his own experiences and using that to talk this woman down. It's such an underrated moment and I love it so much.

Season 2

This season was SO HARD because there are SO MANY good chenford scenes. But truthfully, the end of 2x12 has always been my favorite. In just this one scene we see Lucy struggling with her recovery, we see Tim struggling to find a way to support her through her recovery, and then we see him finding the exact words she needs to hear and ultimately pulling a smile and an almost-laugh out of her despite the tears in her eyes. They're both so raw and vulnerable and I'm pretty sure this is my favorite chenford scene of all time.

Honorable mention

It was a close call here between the hospital scene in 2x11 and the ending of 2x02, but ultimately I have to go with the latter. I mean... she called Isabel to ask about his learning style??? And then she stayed up all night to record a whole ass audio book for him??? And then she helps him see it as a strength??? This man has ALWAYS been worth the effort for her and he's only just barely beginning to comprehend that.

Season 3

Season 2 was so hard to narrow down and now here I am in season 3 with the opposite problem. Not that I dislike season 3. I'm just realizing that my favorite chenford scenes aren't really in this season. I guess I gotta go with the wedding scene in 3x14 because like, excuse me you two, you are blatantly checking each other out and you are IN PUBLIC. Absolutely zero subtlety, just elevator eyes and sass and so much flirting.

Honorable mention

I debated between two parking garage scenes here... the end of 3x01 and the end of 3x09. Ultimately I'm going with the end of 3x01, because we all know Tim will go above and beyond his job description to help her and protect her, even if he refuses to take credit for it. And this scene really just shows that she's always been worth the effort for him as well.

Season 4

Probably to no one's surprise, it's the hug in 4x09. Hands down. The vulnerability on display here breaks my heart every time. It's the first time we see Tim really, truly allowing himself to fall apart. I will never be over the way he just sinks into her and lets her hold him together. This is my favorite of their hugs, and seeing the tears in Tim's eyes brings tears to my eyes every single time.

Honorable mention

I waffled back and forth for quite a while between the hug in 4x01 and the kiss in 4x22, but ultimately I had to go with the kiss because it's just such a great scene for so many reasons. I mean, THE KISS, obviously. But also, the awkwardness beforehand, and Tim being so adorably proud of himself, and the absolute disaster they both are in the aftermath. Tim's flustered "You know what? I don't have anything," is one of his best lines ever. And don't even get me started on him standing in the hallway as all the feelings slam into him at once. SO. GOOD.

Season 5

Picking right up from that honorable mention, I gotta go with the hand hold/airplane kiss scene from 5x01 as my favorite (and yes, I'm counting that all as one scene because it's continuous even though I'm sure it was filmed separately). From Tim "if your head isn't 100% in the game it'll get you killed" Bradford reaching up to grab her hand in a way that is definitely breaking character to their completely unnecessary (and very hot) airplane bathroom kiss that I have watched on repeat approximately 12984367 times. These two protect and ground each other in a way no one else can, no matter the situation.

Honorable mention

I... don't know. There are so many. I'm honestly so torn between the scenes in 5x19, 5x20, and 5x21 because there's so much emotion. Clearly I have a thing for moments of vulnerability, and we see those in spades here with Tim's shooting, and then the fear after the shoutout in 5x21 and the complex emotions associated with Lucy working undercover. 5x20 and 5x21 especially are really just digging up so much of Tim's trauma and I think it's pretty clear this is something they're both afraid to face head on. That's not really an answer. Can we count that as an answer?

Actually no, now that I've looked through the gifs I have a real answer. It's the end of 5x21. There's something just so human about Tim searching for meaning in what he went through with Isabel. And the way he hugs her with his hand on her neck gets me every time.

[goodwhump-temp]

Ray Palmer Whump | Legends of Tomorrow / Arrowverse

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW 1x02 Punched, bleeding, imprisoned 1x03 Reckless, hit by a rock (unphased), sad, worried 1x04 Knocked unconscious, captured 1x05 Gulag, beaten, weak, bruised/bloody, annoyed, restrained, tortured/electrocuted, sacrifice/beaten by hammer, weak, unconscious, carried 1x06 Bruised 1x07 Losing oxygen, passes out, heart attack, betrayed 1x08 Psych ward patient (brief), stranded 1x09 Stranded, upset 1x10 Guilt, shot out of the sky, sad 1x12 Thrown, dying, severe internal injuries, past self attacked, bleeding, weak, comforted, heartbroken 1x13 Gut punched, shot unconscious, heartbroken 1x14 Manipulated, heartbroken, choked unconscious, arrested 1x15 Imprisoned, fated to die, knocked unconscious

2x02 Imprisoned, attacked, weak, captured, restrained 2x03 Punched, knocked out, stranded, knocked unconscious, restrained, interrogated/punched, bleeding, angry, knocked down 2x04 Sad, unconscious 2x05 Identity crisis 2x08 Body slammed, protected (26:55) 2x09 Memory loss, kicked x2, hostage, thrown in trash compactor 2x11 Arm twisted 2x12 Fated to die, 1v1 swordfight, shot, unconscious 2x14 Punched x5, crash landing, stuck with Thawne 2x16 Memory loss, punched, pinned 2x17 Choked, killed, punched x2

3x01 Knocked down, painfully pinned 3x02 Allergies, imprisoned 3x03 Drowned unconscious 3x04 Younger self killed, dissapears, bullied, shaken, emotionally hurt (17:10) 3x07 Captured 3x08 Electrocuted, unconscious, mourning 3x09 Therapy, tackled 3x10 Table pinned 3x12 Shock (34:15) 3x13 Captured, leg (indirectly) hit, pain, choked, restrained/gagged, knocked down 3x15 Severely injured, dying/unconscious 3x17 Thrown, unconscious, choked

4x01 Nervous, hallucinating, lovelorn 4x02 Turned into a pig, carried 4x03 Lovelorn, undercover, pinned, knocked out (offscreen) 4x05 Lovelorn 4x06 Mean Constantine (15:25) 4x07 Knocked unconscious, choked 4x08 Shot (16:30), "dead" 4x10 Bug of truth, scared, arrested 4x11 Guilt 4x12 Thrown, unconscious, emotional, possessed 4x13 Tempted, stabs himself, pain, upset, fully possessed, missing 4x14 Possessed, missing, body threatened, throat cut, knocked down 4x15 Possessed 4x16 Possessed, Hell therapy, hit (lightly), collapses, upset,

5x02 Shaken, knocked unconscious, 5x03 Handcuffed, framed 5x05 Mind controlled, choked 5x07 Choked 5x08 Emotional goodbyes, crying

ARROW 3x10 Annoyed 3x11 Punched 3x15 Obsessive, insomnia 3x17 Jealous, trust issues/'betrayed', kicked, bruises 3x18 Shot by Arrow, bleeding out, hospitalized, weak, blood clot, seizure 3x19 Punched multiple times, choked, crash landing, pain, beaten/choked, more pain 3x20 Heartbroken 3x22 Intense crash landing, imprisoned, poisoned, unconscious 3x23 Restrained, caught in explosion

4x06 Caught in explosion, trapped, 4x07 Sad/angst

5x08 Memory loss, knocked down, kicked, trapped

FLASH 1x18 Crash landing 3x08 Brain pain, abducted, mind controlled 6x09 (Superman version) literally dies/destiny changed

[chaoticbug]

just wanted to say that actually some of the faults of season 7 of 911 truly highlight how different tonally 911 and 911 Lone Star are and how when Tim Minear came back from Lone Star, he didn't properly adapt. The way I explain it would be 911 is more focused on the emergencies and using the emergencies to further the character's story. There will be calls related to the general arc of the characters in each episode. Each episode has a theme that both emergencies and the character arcs abide by, for example 2x04 Stuck or 4x10 Parenthood. The emergencies are used to fuel on going character plot lines that will then extend outwards through the episode.

Meanwhile Lone Star is more character driven with the emergencies happening in the background. What is happening in the emergencies doesn't necessarily relate to the characters arcs for the episode, and you are far more likely to get an episode dealing with one big emergency or a character's individual plot line rather than a thematic tie in integrating them both

In season 7 there was a noticeable lack of emergencies and the ones we did have rarely tied into a characters personal arc for the episode (the exception is Maddie's story in 7x07). Instead the emergency calls were for the most part used as comedic relief as a break from the drama. Episodes 8-10 didn't have a single real emergency call in the way we have seen it in the show. 7x06 had one in flash back, and 7x03 was just the crew ship. That is about half the season that didn't really have the 118 responding to regular emergencies we have become accustom to in the show, creating a completely different tone and flow for the show.

Additionally, this season pulled several lone star plot lines that in my opinion didn't work as well for a variety of reasons.

Off the top of my head we have:

Bobby and Athena's house burning down in revenge arson (7x09)-TK and Carlos's condo burning down in revenge arson (2x12)

Bobby going off on his own and accidentally ended up dealing with a cartel (7x08) - Owen going off on his own and dealing with a cartel (3x03)

Athena taking her gun and going to the house of the man she believes killed Bobby and threatening to shoot him(7x10)- Carlos taking his gun going to the house of the man he believed killed his father and threatening to shoot him (4x18)

Bobby's heart attack (7x09) -Paul's heart attack (3x09) (ok this one might be a stretch)

The firehouse is taken over as a season finale by a previously disliked captain because of the actions of the current captain (7x10 911 2x14 LS)

Some of those may be stretches but my point being is they all felt too familiar as a plot point because they had been done similarly on Lone Star prior.

This doesn't mean that Tim Minear is bad show runner by any means, it just means he hasn't readapted to the overall structure of the stories we get in 911 and that 911 and 911 Lone Star despite being set in the same universe and one being a spin off of the other are fundamentally different shows with very different structures.

This also doesn't mean that one show is better than the other or has a more successful structure, it just means they are fundamentally different shows and changing the the flow of a show several seasons in will always feel a bit jarring.

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Nisei (3x09)

For years Penny tried to ignore the flashes. It seemed like out of nowhere, she’d be blinded by a bright, white light she couldn’t blink away. Sometimes during intimacy with her husband, his loving face would be momentarily replaced by a familiar stranger looming over her, causing her to cry and pull away. Other times, all she could hear was the whirring sound of a drill.

These flashes would only last a moment, and for years she told herself it was probably just a side effect of the stress her unexplained disappearances caused. A drug habit, fugue state, an affair, everyone had their theories about where she was when she went missing. All Penny knew was that, cumulatively, there were nine months of her life that she didn’t get to live.

But then something happened, and she couldn’t ignore the flashes anymore. Penny had been to the gynecologist plenty of times in her life, but this time she was filled with a sense of impending dread. It was a perfect storm of triggers, being so exposed, her legs spread in the stirrups, the smell of anesthetic, the sharp snap of plastic gloves, the cold metal-

They were strapping her down to the table, injecting her with something that made her vision blur. Her stomach felt like it was going to burst. She could feel the metal rod impaling her.

The next thing she knew, she was in the corner of the room screaming while her OBGYN looked on in horror.

After that, she recognized the flashes for what they were: memories.

* * *

After joining the MUFON group, Penny learned there were some memories all the women in the group shared — the light, the men, the pain. 

But, usually, everyone remembered something that was unique to their experience. Lottie remembered one of her doctors sardonically humming America the Beautiful as he arranged the drill bit. Betsy remembered hearing an Asian language being spoken above her. Quite a few women fervently remembered someone smoking a cigarette.

For Penny, she remembered comforting a young woman with auburn hair. But, just like all the memories, it came back in vague bits, vignettes that were difficult to discern. 

Someone screaming, “Stop! Get away from me!”

The distant sounds of beeping getting faster.

A sense of empathetic dread.

A trembling, red-headed woman who reminded Penny of her sister.

The warmth of holding someone in her arms.

Bright blue eyes filled with tears.

Today, she finally got to put a name with a face.

Dana Scully.

* * *

There was something surreal about knowing the ins and outs of a stranger’s body language.

Dana’s tendency to blink back emotions, the anxious swipe of her tongue across her lips, her need to shield her vulnerability by hiding her face in her hands — Penny knew it all. She had been at Dana’s side during some of the darkest times of their lives, yet she had to resist the urge to pull her into her arms like she’d done a thousand times before. The younger woman didn’t remember her.

Even though Penny found comfort in knowing these other women knew what she’d gone through, she understood why it could make someone uncomfortable. The intimate violations they’d all endured were dehumanizing, cruel, and seemingly senseless. Dana seemed to be a private person, having a room full of people she didn’t recognize talk about her trauma so openly seemed to be too much.

She said she wasn’t ready to discuss her experience, and Penny respected that. Trying to figure out what words felt accurate to the violation was a personal experience for everyone. 

Penny wishes she could take away her pain. The first time is always the worst, and this woman thinks they’re going to kill her. She doesn’t realize they aren’t that merciful. She isn’t sure why they keep allowing her to approach the young woman, let alone hold her for so long, but she isn’t going to question it. Physical touch that didn’t come with pain was rare here.

* * *

There were women just like them all over the globe, women who came together after their abduction experiences to offer support to each other. The people in their day-to-day lives might not have been willing to listen to them, but according to Betsy, some of the women from the European chapters of MUFON said they had caught the attention of people who hadn’t been abducted. There was even a woman who was interested in their stories, who cared enough to document their experiences and accompany the women to their doctor’s appointments.

Getting other people to listen was the first step to being taken seriously, to finding out who was behind this.

There weren’t many of them in Allentown, but they had each other. It was the strength of these women that got her through those experiences, and it was the strength of these women that would help her embark on this dark path they were all destined to walk.

Penny’s hand covers the back of Dana’s neck where an adhesive bandage covers the mark that will tie them together forever.

Dana doesn’t say much anymore, but when she does, it’s usually the same reassurance to herself.

“He’ll find me.”

“My partner, he-uh,” Dana stammered, turning away from the window when Betsy struggled to climb down from the MRI machine, clearly exhausted from the new rounds of tests she was forced to undergo. “He’s waiting for me.”

“I know this is hard, Dana,” Penny whispered, clasping the woman’s hands in her own for the first time in over a year. “But I hope you know you’re not alone.”

Dana offered a small smile and squeezed Penny’s hand before stepping out of the room.

“Do you think we’ll be seeing her again?” Lottie asked from beside her.

“We’re going to get out of here,” the red-headed woman whispers against Penny’s temple, wiping away tears Penny didn’t realize had fallen. “You can’t give up hope.”

With a smile, Penny nodded. “Yes."

Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Ao3

@gaycrouton

[mspirations]

Caitlin Snow "The Present" - 3x09

HD in Paris Anthropologie Lace Garden Pencil Dress

Thanks for identifying:

The Flash Fashion Blog

[raayllum]

Because I’ve been listening to “Poison” by Rita Ora and Reckless Driving / Orange Show Speedway by Lizzy McAlpine too much let’s talk about the

Rayla’s Duality as Callum’s Destruction and Salvation

Rayla is a character informed by duality. A compassionate ‘monster,’ a dual wielder of blades, her symmetrical markings, an assassin turned ally turned friend and lover. She embodies the moon accordingly, both secretive in what she tries to hide and too transparent to almost ever do so successfully. One of her biggest gripes in S1, after all, is that she cannot divorce herself from caring about Callum — what he thinks, what he feels about her — and she cannot successfully hide herself from him. She takes her hood off in front of him once — and she can never fully put it back on. 

I tie this into Rayla’s embodiment of the moon due to the dark and light sides she subsequently represents, which I’ve delved more into here. I also think it’s especially interesting that going forward into season four, Callum is actively seeking secrets regarding the mirror, while Rayla will (eventually) be trying to free her family from the coins; they are both, unknowingly, symbolically chasing after each other’s primal and personal embodiments. 

But, to stay on task, how does a duality of being both Callum’s salvation and destruction inform Rayla and their relationship?

Well it begins accordingly with their first meeting. As noted in the meta linked above, Rayla is routinely linked to light; her eyes illuminated in a flash of lightning before she shows mercy, arriving during the daytime at the castle, walking through a brightly lit doorway even as she stares Callum down, swords in hand. 

In the same night she threatens to kill him, she also saves his life. Over the course of a few hours they go from reluctant enemies to fire forged allies, already placing each other’s lives in one another’s hands. This is reflected even in the way Rayla is the catalyst for destroying one of Callum’s prior relationships — Claudia — or at least setting it in motion, while she also gives Callum a new relationship — herself — and perspective on magic. 

Callum’s search for magic will eventually lead him to both high-highs and low-lows, and bring out the worst and best in him. But more on that later.

Then there’s also the consistent pattern of Rayla getting Callum into ‘death’ adjacent situations... and also getting him out of them. She drops the egg that leads Ezran to going under the ice, but she also is the one who realizes Ez is alive and gets him out, restoring Callum’s family to him. Callum takes his initial anger and grief out on her regarding Harrow, but also returns to find comfort in her arms, and her arms alone. 

Rayla is the both the calm before the storm, the storm itself, and the aftermath, transforming him radically with unconditional acceptance as they go. 

Then, of course, there are the many times over the course of the series where Rayla saves Callum’s life or cautions him against risking himself, most consistently seen in 2x04, 3x01, and 3x05.

The “Book One: Moon” novelization actually makes this duality explicit, as Rayla explains the difference between moon berries and death berries, and how to tell them apart. 

“Wow. So they look identical, but they might kill you or they might save you,” Callum said.

“Exactly. Just like me…” Rayla smiled.

This is also reaffirmed in TTM, and we’ll touch on this more later, but: the first and last thing Rayla does in series, currently, is try to spare Callum’s life. In 1x02, it’s a terse declaration of “You don’t have to die; there are only two targets tonight.” Then in TTM, it’s Rayla being adamant that this matter should only involve her and Viren, and she can’t let Callum be dragged down with her: “I can’t risk you coming with me [...] I’m sorry.” And put a pin in that, cause we’re gonna revisit her choice in TTM as well as the Leap in 3x09, too. 

The ultimate theme that ties this all together is one that underlies many platonic, romantic, and familial relationships in the series, is

Love to the Point of Self-Destruction

We see this in many relationships in show. Harrow pursues vengeance and dark magic, decisions he knows are bad and possibly short-sighted, due to his love/grief for Sarai. Viren loved Harrow to the point of being willing to give up his life, but that was destroyed in an instant. We see this perhaps most notably in Claudia, who is willing to tear herself to pieces in order to keep her family together.

We see this in both Callum and Rayla’s relationship with one another. After all, the Leap is so notable because it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Callum would rather die with Rayla than live without her, that if there is any chance to save her even at great cost to himself, he will take it. 

But the Leap works out well. What about the times that it doesn’t, and the action is almost solely self-destructive? We see this most notably in Callum’s choice to do Dark Magic in 2x07 to save her and her choice to leave in TTM, as these are similar “I’m making a choice I know you’ll hate to try and protect you, damn the consequences” choices with mirroring motifs to boot (broader meta about the similarities here). We also see the increasing instability these choices wring of each other, as well. Rayla is broken down to tears on her knees when Callum falls ill, forced to beg and bargain for his life by her own love and conscience. Rayla’s choice to go into the portal is motivated mostly by her shame and guilt, but also love for her family and for Callum (as she is already worried about his well-being if Viren lives) and similarly brings Callum to his knees.

However, one of the most interesting aspects here is how Rayla’s duality as Callum’s destruction is that in and of itself can be two-fold. In trying to save his life in TTM by leaving, she basically destroyed their relationship and his heart in the process, however unintentionally they knew it both was. Rayla threatened to kill him in 1x02 and over three seasons later, she has, in some ways, finally finished the job. Just as she thought she had to kill a king and prince of Katolis, she did so; just not the ones (Viren and Callum vs Harrow and Ezran) that she expected.

And yet, according to Tarot and other associations, there’s more than one meaning to death, literal or metaphorical, which is to say

Death as Transformation

In Tarot and many mythic traditions, death operates as transformation rather than just destruction. This is also where Rayla’s path as Callum’s salvation, and indeed each other’s, comes in. Just as Callum strips away Rayla’s prior identity as a straightforward assassin by encouraging her to break the cycle, Rayla restores to him a sense of purpose and self-confidence he never had before by guiding his path to magic. Without having done dark magic in order to save her, Callum’s path to or ability to unlock primal magic could’ve looked completely different, if it happened at all.

We can see this in his sort of rebirth following Rayla’s departure in TTM, even if it’s somewhat for the worst. And we can see the best of it in the Leap, in which Callum stares down death and the love of his life...

and transforms, saving not only himself, but her as well.

Where do we go from here?

Doubling as a conclusion, the question of where do we go from here is an interesting one. What I can say is that I expect this pattern and duality to continue to play out, before it’s finally resolved in a mutual salvation type situation of selfless, non-destructive love, where choosing the other person is almost synonymous of choosing to love yourself, too.

Death operates as transformative salvation largely because true growth cannot exist without destruction of the old, without the acceptance that you can never go back to exactly who you were before, but must move onwards and forge a new identity by pushing on ahead. 

I expect something adjacent to this duality to play out in S4, perhaps with Callum’s vulnerability or love of Rayla leading to him being manipulated/used, but also being what saves and frees him in the end - and the same for Rayla as well. 

But for now, we’ll just have to see!

[sophsun1]

[extasiswings]

Do you have any spec/thoughts about the wildfire arc 👀

To go full red-string-conspiracy-board: Buck’s major emotional upheavals tend to be heavily foreshadowed or reflected by/outward as fire-based events—explosions or bombs or actual fires. Bombs caused the ladder truck incident that resulted in his leg being crushed, the apartment fire kicked off The One Who Got Away (after Eddie Begins) where Buck met Red, there was a bomb threat in What’s Your Grievance, the warehouse fire of Buck Begins, Survivors had both explosions during the shooting itself and an actual fire, and S5 was chock full of heavy-handed fire/explosion metaphors, primarily (albeit not exclusively) centered around Buck/Eddie/Taylor—a fire in Peer Pressure before Buck tries to leave the 118, explosions in Past is Prologue, the bomb in the car in Outside Looking In, and of course obviously fires in Defend in Place and May Day, although those are somewhat less applicable for this purpose (still relevant though!). [See also, additional relevant fires/explosions, Eddie (or Buddie) Edition—Under Pressure (for obvious reasons), 2x14, 3x09, Eddie Begins—the helicopter was burning in his flashbacks, Jinx, etc]

And it makes sense. Buck “I hide my true feelings from others” shoves them down deep to avoid even looking at them himself. And inevitably when Buck’s “true feelings” do come out, they’re explosive (hello What’s Your Grievance). So we have Buck in his breakdown era hiding his true feelings until they blow up, combined with the fact that Buck and Eddie have already been sitting on a ticking time bomb of Buck’s messy and complicated feelings about the shooting and the will and everything else between them for over a year, combined with the fallout of Eddie learning about the sperm donor thing. And now there’s a wildfire and the episode is titled Red Flag which is the highest threat warning indicating conditions where even the SLIGHTEST SPARK will set a blaze—

The heaviest-handed metaphor, my most beloved.

(Also relevant is the fact that the only other wildfire they’ve done was the crossover, which was pointedly only Buck/Eddie/Hen and which makes me 👀👀 with the Buck/Hen parallels and bestieism this season)

Anyway, I haven’t decided if I think 6x10 (In A Flash) is the aftermath of a near-death experience or if that will be in that episode itself, but I do think the wildfire is reflective of Buck reaching a tipping point in his current spiral that’s going to have major consequences for his arc—zero clue how that’ll play out though, there are about a million excellent possibilities.

Oh, and I think Buck and Eddie are finally going to have it out about the shooting and the will and the fact that they’ve never talked about those things. Yeah, that too.