#There were also a couple of questions I had been asking and then in 4x06 Subodhi LITERALLY just asked verbatim

[imminent-danger-came]

There was one time before s4 of Monkie Kid aired where I was like, "MK is totally gonna parallel Mei from 3x10 and he's going to leave because he's scared of his own power", and let me tell you, watching s4 was the most validating experience of my life

[blris96]

Hey B! Thanks for answering our asks! You're great 🤗 Although that double date was definitely all CHENFORD. its definitely split the fandom. Half are happy with the progress and the other half are disappointed, saying all they saw is friendship? Your thoughts as always...

Hi lovely anon!

Thank you! Y’all are awesome too! It’s truly no problem, I find them fun and it’s a nice way to break up my day of being knee deep in Excel for my 9-5! ❤️

This will be a long answer, so please hang in there! There’s a lot to digest and process here (it took me a while to think through all of it, which I love) and to get the full scope of what’s going on fandom wise right now, we need to go through both sides of the coin.

I’m of the stripe that the fandom will remain split until something meaningful happens. It’s been like that since Ashley’s first appearance in 4x06 and stuff really hit the fan. Or, that’s when I noticed things were split. Like always, I can see both sides of the coin here. First, for me, I don’t classify Chenford as a slow burn quite yet. I feel like it’s still very much a will they/won’t they ship. Chenford borrows a TON from the will they/won’t they category. They’re also a very different ship than the others I’ve shipped before with a completely different set of obstacles. With that, let’s get into the processing of what is occurring right now.

Let’s start with the flip side of the coin, the perspective of Chenford having no progress after 4x12:

This season, Chenford hasn’t really moved forward, they also haven’t really moved backwards either. They’ve been stagnant. Yes, we’ve seen some moments a la 4x01 and 4x09 to name a couple. But, we’ve mainly only seen Chenford through the friendship and partnership lens. Some may think that that’s on purpose and the writers don’t want to do Chenford least of all Alexi. The double date was indeed all Chenford! I think that’s a fact both sides of the fandom can agree on. But, friends do go out to dinner. Friends also double date. There was a lot of banter, some teasing and just overall things you’d do with a friend. They were flirty, but friends can flirt with friends too. They could have done a lot more with this double date. They could have had Chenford even more enamored with one another. They could have had Ashley leave the restaurant entirely. They could have had TimAshley break up and have her call out Tim on his feelings for Lucy (I think a lot of people wanted this, myself included). They could have had ChrisLucy not go on a do over date. Chenford when looked at in the scope of the full season up to now, has been stagnant for the most part on its face. That’s where some issues are coming from. Plus, the reluctance of the writers to spell anything out and leaving us to fill in the blanks. There’s been no direction of HOW to take the Chenford interactions since it’s been written vaguely on purpose. As such, there’s dissonance in the fandom, which is what you’re seeing now and why the question of what Chenford is still remains. There’s also the issue of the possibility the show will run out of road before Chenford gets together.

Going to the perspective that Chenford has had progress side of the coin after 4x12:

This is where I’m at right now. I haven’t lost my patience with Chenford yet! If we look at the full scope from S1 to now, Chenford has come a very long way with a lot of progress along the way! We went from Rookie/TO, to friends, to possible romantic interest all in the span of 18-24 months. 1x01-3x09 was 13 months since that’s how long the FTO program is. So, logically thinking, all of this has happened in under or at 2 years. That’s pretty quick! 3x09 was essentially a new starting point without the TO/Rookie thing hanging over their heads.

Like the other side of the coin, the double date was all Chenford here. But, they did this for a reason in my opinion. A double date is insanely tropey. They had Tim essentially grill Lucy after Chris left after they discussed True Crime shows. We saw a smidge of jealousy with the whole “you hated this guy last week and now you’re all sweet on him?” Tim only agreed to go to the dinner to begin with because Lucy called him a control freak, not because Ashley asked him! They had Tim invite Lucy for a reason and ignore Ashley’s want to invite her friend Byron and his girlfriend as the replacement couple. Lucy wasn’t even pining to go to Osia all day! We didn’t hear her mention it once. Tim went to the trouble of scrounging up a date for Lucy when he didn’t have to! An argument could be made for that he asked the first person he saw, but I view it as that he knew Lucy was sweet on Chris and asked him for her since he happened to be in the right place at the right time. Tim was trying to make Lucy happy. He didn’t have to. That says a ton right there that he wanted to make her happy. Not Ashley, Lucy.

The way the date went was interesting. You had Tim drawing Lucy’s attention away from Chris. Whether that was on purpose since he was uncomfortable at a fancy restaurant that clearly wasn’t his scene, or something else. Chenford’s body language was very in tune to one another. Facing each other on purpose is very coupley. Then we had Lucy taking the mushroom pancake off Tim’s plate. Friends do take food off each other’s plates, but they ask first! Lucy didn’t even ask and Tim let her do it. That’s a girlfriend move right there. They were so wrapped up in each other with the goat story, the scattering of Tim’s ashes over Dodger Field and themselves that they didn’t even really pay attention to Ashley or Chris! Chris even mentioned he was a Dodgers fan and Tim didn’t even notice. Tim is a massive Dodgers fan, so that was a subject they had in common and one they could have talked about. They didn’t! That says a lot. It also says a lot that it was filmed and positioned like Chenford was on a date with each other. Then we had Tim accidentally insult Ashley over the dessert and she excused herself. Neither Tim nor Lucy is socially incompetent. Yet, they behaved what was essentially socially incompetent in the presence of two other people. The only thing that mattered was each other. That was done for a reason. I think the further we get into this season, the more this will unravel. They’re laying the groundwork for something.

The ending scenes serve a purpose too, Tim was desperate in trying to get Ashley to give him another chance because he is so deep into trying to ignore whatever he feels for Lucy. The “she’s not my partner, I’m just her sergeant” was a flat out denial. He even said it didn’t matter in what they were talking about! Ashley meanwhile, I think knows it’s doomed, but she really likes Tim, so she’s staying for a bit. Likewise, Chris was waiting for Lucy. Lucy explained what her bond was with Tim, the whole “we have a shorthand”. That signifies to me that Lucy hasn’t fully realized what she feels for Tim yet. I will say that Chris was definitely more understanding than Ashley about the dinner.

Wrap Up:

Until the writers explicitly define what Chenford is and stop having us fill in the blanks (they filled in a ton in 4x12), this will be a split fandom in my opinion. Same thing with the progress, this will be a split fandom until something meaningful happens and the LIs are gone. I think everyone can agree that they’re starting to get to the end of their rope a bit. I think everyone can also agree the writers need to step it up in some aspect. We’ll see what the rest of the season brings. I think they’re laying brickwork right now to get us to that final destination. The LIs are just a step along the way.

[autumnsxxangel]

That meta on Vera that no one asked for

but I can’t stop thinking about. This whole season I have been wondering why Vera came back and now that his character arch is finished, I can finally sit down and really think about his purpose in the show. Essentially, it is to be Elliot’s mirror.

Esmail had shown time and time again that he adheres to the principle of Chekhov’s Gun very strictly. Whether it’s within an episode itself or in the over arching series (i.e. the knife Vera shows at the beginning of 4x07 which Krista uses to kill him in the end, the lolita references which builds to Elliot’s revelation, Darlene killing Susan Jacobs who ended up being vital to the Cyprus hack), any time he puts a ‘loaded gun’ on the table, it goes off. 

Now how does this relate to Vera? In hindsight, we should have known he was coming back and how that he would be important. The cast of characters are very trim in Mr. Robot. Everyone serves a purpose. If they’ve been there more than 1 episode, you don’t forget them and you tend to see them again. Characters that are unimportant in this show are one-offs. They serve their purpose and usually end up in jail or dead. They almost never have an residual effect on Elliot. Any character of importance only leaves this show in a body bag. That being said, Vera got a fair amount of screen time in season 1. On top of being a horrible abusive person and a drug dealer, he ends up manipulating Elliot into breaking him out of jail and kills Shayla. Then he fucks off and we were all convinced that we would never see him again. But how wrong we were.

Vera in season 1 was presented as a run-of-the-mill villain. He was very easy to hate and overlook because he looked and acted like a classic drug lord/gangster. In essence, he was a stereotype. But what the stereotype hid was how intelligent he actually was. He manages to manipulate Elliot and get under his skin while in prison and barely knowing anything about Elliot. He has a very high emotional intelligence (which they show in season 4 and I’ll get more into later) and he uses it very successfully on Elliot. However, since it was only the first season and we had no idea the rabbit hole we were going to fall into, we took his character at face value. In reality, that whole arch was just a foreshadowing. 

Now to season 4 Vera. We get a lot more facets of Vera this season, way beyond the gangster stereotype. Obviously, he is a horrible person, but we get to see his motivations and his goals. When he first appeared, many of us theorized that he would go up against White Rose at the end as a surprise challenger. However, it makes so much more sense that he only existed in this show for Elliot. I mentioned above about Vera being Elliot’s mirror and he is in two ways. He shows us who Elliot he really is and who he could have been.

Let’s look at the similarities between the two. They are both overlooked and underestimated, one because he’s a stereotype of a gangster and the other because he’s a stereotype of an introvert. However, they both have lofty, almost unattainable goals. Goals that they both managed to attain and still do not give them the satisfaction they desire. Vera managed to take over the DR in a matter of months and Elliot brings the entire economy to its knees. And yet, here they are. Vera wants to own Manhattan and Elliot wants to take down Dark Army. They are both men who are never going to be satisfied and that is, very clearly, going to be the death of them.

Most importantly though, they both suffered sexual abuse as children. Elliot from his father and Vera from his mother’s various ‘friends’. Now, it is well known that abuse tends to go in circles. As a child that grew up in such violence, it is not surprising that Vera grew up to be such a violent man. I am not excusing his behavior because I know people break the cycle all the time, but coupled with his ambitious personality, it is easy to see that he views violence as a tool and fully embraces it. He knows to advance in the world, he cannot be a good man. The abuse is also the reason he has such high emotional intelligence. Studies have shown that childhood abuse is linked to higher empathy. As a child he had to be able to read people as a tool of survival. That is the skill that showed him exactly which of Elliot’s buttons to push to break him.

Now to Vera being a mirror. Vera is essentially what Elliot could have become if he had retained his memories. He had already realized that violence was the only answer before Mr. Robot erased the memories. He attacked his father with a baseball bat and threw himself out the window. If he had not started disassociating, there is a likelihood that he would have gotten more and more violent against his father to defend himself, especially as he grew bigger. And once violence is learned, it is very hard to unlearn, especially when you go from feeling helpless to powerful (i.e the ‘little bitch’ story). It is not a far stretch of the imagination to assume that Elliot could have ended up just like Vera.

How does this relate to showing us who Elliot really is? Because this show is shown through Elliot’s POV, we sympathize with him. We feel pain for him. We forget the reality and the reality is that Elliot is a dick. He’s a horrible person. We see him as a hero, but he is an anti-hero at best and a villain at worst. Vera and Elliot’s lives run parallel with each other. Vera is the reflection of Elliot and knowing how violent Vera is forces us to look at the violence in Elliot’s actions. And Elliot, he is a very violent man. We just don’t see it that way because he isn’t physically violent like Vera is. His violence isn’t tangible. Rather, he is a destructive force to everyone and everything around him. 

Take the 5/9 hack. Elliot serenades us, manipulates us with ideas of fighting injustice, taking down the top 1%. He makes us believe that he’s doing a good things. He probably believed he was doing a good thing. The problem is that he doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions. As someone so intelligent, his scope of view is always very narrow and very destructive. We all saw the result of the hack. The rich were still rich and the poor still suffered the most. With his hacking skills, he could have done a number of things to equal the playing field without so much collateral damage. He could have hacked bank accounts and redistributed wealth. He could have erased debt. Instead, he chose the most destructive path possible, destabilized the economy, hurt millions of people, and didn’t offer any solutions to the problem that he created.

Then there’s Olivia and 4x06. 4x06 is important in that we finally got a chance to see Elliot from the outside. We get to see the collateral damage of Elliot’s actions and just how much violence he causes. Olivia called Elliot a monster and she was right. He is one. Elliot’s singular goal is to destroy things and he doesn’t care who he hurts to get to his goal. Does he feel guilty about it afterwards? Yes. But is it enough to stop him from doing it again? No. While Vera is highly empathetic, Elliot lacks empathy. So it begs a philosophical question - Who is more violent? A man who purposely hurts another or a man who causes others to hurt themselves/people.

So in conclusion, Vera was purposely set up to allow Elliot to recover his memories. He already killed some one close to Elliot once. Why wouldn’t he be the one to kill Mr. Robot? Their similar traumas was what allowed Vera to get under Elliot’s skin and to show him the truth. At the same time, he managed to get under our skin and show us the truth about Elliot.

P.S. Kudos to Elliot Villar for his performance. I hope he gets an Emmy nomination for this, at the very least.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

FTWD 5x15: Channel 5 - Analysis

Okay, let’s talk about last night’s episode. I liked it a lot. We saw a ton of interesting symbolism. I really like where this is going.

***As always, spoilers abound below for episode 5x15. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

We start with a video that Ginny's group made. Obviously, she ripped off the idea of making the documentary from Morgan's group and we see her making sort of a faux-cheerful documentary about her community. She makes herself and her people look better than they are. I also noticed she took the footage of Tom talking to Al and manipulated it to make it look like he was still one of her people and happy to be part of her community.

In the opening credits, we see a paper on a tree, which is probably the map from Ginny's community, but it also looks like the lens of the camera has been shattered. By the end of the episode, I think I understand why they use this for the opening credits, but I just wanted to point out that this looks very similar to a pair of Beth trading cards that were recently released. Just saying.

Morgan's group was on channel 4 on the walkie, hence what episode nine was called. This is called Channel 5 because Ginny's group is on channel 5 on the walkie. They’re very much setting up an “us vs them” kind of dynamic.

Overall, this episode felt like a replay of 5x10. Various parts of S5 in general, but especially Them.

Two weeks ago, someone pointed out that Luciana staying behind to help Ginny’s group with the oil was a lot like Beth being left behind at Grady. With that being the case, someone from that place going with Morgan’s group—Tom—could represent Noah, who left the group left Grady with Rick's group.

So I wondered whether Tom would live very long, just as Noah didn't. Well, what do you know? He died in this episode. 

I saw a lot of similarities in what was going on around his death. First of all, I know a lot of people were always confused about the fact that Noah was actually being very hopeful about the future and right before he died. Tom is the same way. He was very gung-ho about what Morgan's group was doing and wanted to be part of it. But then was tragically killed.

I also caught something else I think is a similarity. Ginny said Tom's track record for survival was against him. In other words, maybe he'd made questionable choices in the past and was somewhat toxic when it came survival. Morgan’s group didn’t mind and saved him anyway. The same could have been said of Noah. He always pretty much bowed to Dawn and couldn't really survive on his own. Rick's group saved him anyway, but he didn't last long after that.

Furthermore, Tom died after the detour to get medicine for Grace. In Noah’s case, they weren’t looking for particular supplies for particular person, but they were looking for something to fix the solar panels. So, they were on a supply run, which is similar. Just wanted to point that out. And if Tom = Noah and Luciana = Beth, then Ginny's group = Grady, at least in this analogy. And Ginny would be Dawn. Evil female dictator with questionable methods.

There was also a lot of talk in this episode about them finding a new home. It's unclear by the end of the episode whether what they were thinking would be their new home—a Humbug Gulch that's close by—will actually end up being their new home. But I couldn't help but think that maybe their new home won't be anywhere around here. They keep talking about how they’ve depleted everything in this area. Maybe it will be a matter of returning to D.C. and TF to find their new home. Don't get me wrong, they may stop a few places along the way, but they put heavy emphasis on this. Just a thought.

We saw Tom and Janis reunite. More than anything else, that reminded me of Sasha and Tyreese reuniting for a short time before Tyreese's death in 5x09.

Alicia says art makes sense to her. She’s talking about painting rather than singing, but it’s something Beth might've said. Reminiscent of her convo with Edwards about art being transcendent.

They check out places along the way, looking for a place where they could stay. At one point, Daniel apparently checks out a school. We don't see it, but we hear him say over the walkie that the school is gone. Burned down to nothing. Just reminded me of the school in Coda with the walkers.

The rabbi also says that June has faith, which very few people have any more. Obviously, faith was a Beth thing.

When talking to the camera, Wes says “bullshit” three different times. Maybe not super-compelling, but it is something Beth said.

We see Grace and Daniel giving Charlie to guitar lessons, which is kind of fun.

We heard a ton of fives in this episode. We heard the number 50 several times, including being 50 miles East of the Gulch. We heard the number 500, and of course there was channel 5. I can't help but think it's because it's pointing us back to S5. Remember in earlier episodes, the numbers on the mile markers pointed back to Beth episodes in S5. Now we’re still seeing tons of 5s.

Probably my favorite part of the episode that made me jump up and cheer was when a walker got through their convoy’s fence at night. Dwight killed it and found a sheriff's badge pinned to its shirt. I was so happy to see that!

In terms of the plot, it told them there was a Humbug Gulch nearby. John immediately wants to go there because he thinks it'll be a good place for them to settle. But a sheriff's badge, guys! A sheriff's badge! Remember this picture from Still that includes a sheriff's badge/star?

I think more and more things are pointing toward Dwight running into Beth at some point. Just the fact that he's the one that killed the walker with the sheriff's badge on it and showed it to everyone else is a big deal to me. Then there's what happens at the end, but I'll get there in a minute.

As I said earlier, it feels a lot like 5x10. Grace collapses because she's dehydrated. It's obvious that they don't have any water. And it's funny because they don't actually say they’re low on water. At least, not until the very end, but they keep saying Grace is dehydrated and needs fluids.

Obviously, if they had fluids, they’d give her some. They realize there’s a retirement home 50 miles away and hope that they might find something there to help her. This is interesting for a few reasons.

First of all, there's that 50 again. Secondly, in TWD 4x06, one of the Governor episodes, he goes to a retirement home to get oxygen for Tara’s father. There's a lot of significant Beth symbols in that sequence episode and in this episode they go to a retirement home again.

To be fair, this episode didn’t put a lot of emphasis on retirement home itself. If anything, while looking for supplies inside it reminded me more of the golf club than anything else. Still, the parallels were there. They find a couple of IV bags for Grace. The fluids help her feel better. So, we have another example of water saving someone from death.

They all make a big deal about how Ginny would never have made the detour to save Grace. She doesn't care about her own people individually enough to do something like that. She's out about the greater good. (Lots of shades of Grady here.)

John starts to realize that Morgan has feelings for grace. He takes June aside and says he wants to get married when they reach the Gulch. (Yay!)

As they try to cross a bridge, it breaks down. It can’t hold the weight of the cars, much less the tanker truck. The talk about getting people across and maybe patching/reinforcing the bridge in order to get the tanker across. That's when Ginny shows up. She once again tries to talk them into taking her help.

I have to wonder what Ginny wants from the group. Just the fact that she's chasing them around the countryside and trying to convince them to come with her shows that they must have something she wants. We already know she’s lying about stuff. We see more of her manipulation here.

If her operation is expanding as much as she claims, and have everything they need, Morgan's little group headed in the opposite direction really shouldn't be that big a concern to her. And yet, she's keeping tabs on them, chasing them around, and trying to put them in a position where they have to ask for help.

She ends up firing off guns so a walker horde comes and Morgan’s group is trapped, trying to get across the bridge.

At this point, Ginny randomly mentions horsepower. She's talking about how it’s better to ride around in a car than in the saddle all day. "Another form of horsepower,” is what she says. That's a pretty unnecessary mention of horses, if you ask me. There weren't even any horses in the scene.

She also fully admits that she tried to kill Tom saying she will apologize for her methods because they get results. Very Dawn-like.

Ginny tells Dwight that someone in her group saw Sherry a while back. She didn't say Sherry is with her group, only that someone crossed paths with her. Dwight nearly kills her. You can tell he doesn’t believe her and thinks she’s just messing with them. Which actually may be true.

They also have a conversation about how anyone who wants to go with Ginny’s group is welcome to. Morgan says no one will be forced to stay with his group if they’d rather go with Ginny. Just reminded me of Rick telling the people at Grady that after Beth was shot.

No one wants to go with Ginny. That’s when she fires off her gun, drawing walkers, and Tom dies. @wdway commented that it was a lot like the Governor bulldozing the prison in 4x08 when he didn’t get what he wanted. I didn’t think of that, but I totally agree. It did feel a lot like that.

After that, we see them sitting on the side of the road on the opposite side of the bridge. Tell me that doesn’t look like Them. 

On top of that, some of the crates they’re sitting on have white crosses on them. Guys, these look exactly like the crosses that signified Grady, and like the crates we saw in 4x01 that foreshadowed Grady. So whether this is to show this is a Grady parallel or that we’ll see Grady again soon, I don’t know (kinda thinking both), but either way, this is super significant. 

Let me say it better. If the crates we saw in 4x01 signified the Grady arc coming up, then maybe seeing these here, admidst other Grady and Them parallels, shows the return of that place/arc is coming very soon.

And, you know, it’s DWIGHT specifically who is sitting on it. (Yes, I’m totally pushing for this because it’s what I want to see happen, but we really are seeing evidence that this is where they’re going.)

We do see Tom’s grave, much like we saw Tyreese’s in S5 (but not Beth’s). Actually, we could see this as another Sasha/Tyreese parallel. Tom and Sasha reunited after getting separated and stayed together a short time before the brother (Tyreese/Tom) died. And in both cases, the sister (Sasha/Janis) was at her brother’s grave.

The group decides to walk to the Humbug Gulch location, which is probably 10-15 miles away. So they do. Much like in 5x10, they have to walk a long distance with no food or water, in the hopes of finding a new place to call home.

On the way, Daniel tells Morgan that, with none of them knowing how much longer they’ll live in this world, if something needs to be said, he should say it. Daniel was, of course, referring to Morgan telling Grace how he feels about her. But it could definitely apply to Beth and Daryl.

Morgan then does try to tell Grace how he feels, but she tells him not to say it. She obviously knows what he’s trying to say, but says it will just make things harder. So, they still have heavy parallels with Bethyl, because, at least so far, their feelings for one another are still unspoken.

We also see some evidence that Wes and Alicia might become love interests. Just saying. ;D

Unfortunately, when they arrive, the Wild West location is completely overrun with walkers. They have no food, no water, no supplies, and nowhere else to go. So they finally decide to call Ginny for help. Which is, more than likely, a huge mistake.

In terms of the plot, I think this is what both the broken bridge and broken glass in the opening credits was about. If the bridges always represent the communities (X), well, we literally saw a bridge fall apart under them. And the broken glass in the opening credits suggests a fracture of some kind. So I think this decision to go to Ginny for help is a major mistake and negative turning point for the group.

Dwight refuses to go along with the decision. I really liked this aspect of the episode. Dwight actually left the group to strike out on his own, refusing to go with Ginny. 

It's a little surprising because, of all people, you’d think he would want to take advantage of whatever Ginny or her people might know about Sherry. But he recognizes that it is not a good move to call on Ginny for help. He of all people knows how hard it is to extricate oneself from an evil leader.

Now, it looks like he’s going to be in next episode, so he's not disappearing for any length of time, and I’m trying not to get too excited about where they're going with this. But I’m always happy when one character strikes out on their own because there's so much potential. 

What will happen with Dwight? Who will he run into? Could it be a matter of the rest of the group being hostages to Ginny and Dwight having to save them? Or might he run into somebody else independent of the group? Somebody who may or may not be a sheriff? Like I said, trying not to get too excited about this.

And I'm not thinking that were going to see Beth next episode or anything. I’m just saying I'm really liking this story line. So, this pretty much ends the episode, with them calling for Ginny and Dwight striking out away from the group.

I'm very excited to see what happens next and where this leads. Next week will bring us the finale. Looks like it’ll be exciting. 

What did everyone else think of this episode?

[thefatlannister]

do you think they’ll come back to the whole “how’d you do it” convo with bellamy and clarke and he’ll find out about how she radioed him everyday? or do you think that was that cus it felt like a good place for her to tell him but she was also like yeet when an emotional aspect to the conversation came up

Well this is the question isn’t it?? I think everyone in the Bellarke fandom is probably asking themselves this right now.

So, I’ve been team “I don’t think they’re going to address the 2199 calls” since the beginning of the season. That’s for a couple of reasons: 1) I’m trying to lower my own expectations lol but mostly 2) Clarke does NOT say Bellamy’s name in 5x01, Eden. She says his name in the call at the end of 4x13, but the writers do not have Clarke SAY BELLAMY’s NAME in 5x01. Now, it’s extremely clear from context that he’s who she’s talking to (”I’m proud of you” + “this would be so much easier if I knew you were alive” + calling her other friends by name). 

So it’s not that I don’t think we’re meant to think Clarke was talking to Bellamy the whole time; it’s that after an 11 month hiatus, if “Clarke radioing Bellamy” was about to become a Big Romantic Catalyst for bellarke, I would expect the writers to really flag it in 5x01 by having Clarke say his name, thus kind of putting a pin in that for the general audience. So, going in to 505, I was very pessimistic about the chances of Clarke’s The Notebook calls to Bellamy ever being relevant again.

BUT THEN

When I was watching this scene, when Bellamy asked, “how did you do it?” I literally froze because - are they really going to go there??? are they really going to have her TELL him that she spoke to him every day?? that the memory of him, his love, his partnership, was what got her through?? Because honestly, between the pause and Eliza’s acting, and the awkward way the scene ended - with the conversation LITERALLY UNFINISHED - that’s how it FEELS. It feels like she was about to tell him that he helped keep her alive, but then she chickened out at the last minute.

Like, idk what the stage directions were, but Eliza’s acting here makes Clarke’s hesitation in response to this question very clear. And if the answer is only and always just “Madi,” what awkwardness is there to be had??? In any sort of just world, this “omission” on Clarke’s part is a set up for her to reveal, down the road, probably when her and Bellamy are embroiled in some sort of angsty conflict, that it was in fact HIM that helped her survive 6 years without a peer on the ground.

Now, I’m also not going to pretend that this show always does what is just lol. They drop threads all the time, and as Bellarke has been building for seasons now, there are several scenes that were seemingly set-ups for later reveals that were pretty much forgotten (2x09 “Love is weakness”/”I was being weak” and 4x06 “Clarke, if we don’t see each other again-” come to mind). However, there are a couple of reasons that I feel like s5 might be the season where these kinds of ~romantic bellarke~ threads actually come home to roost.

One of the reasons I think that is something that a lot of fandom, included myself, has picked up on, which is the relatively muted nature of Bellamy’s reaction to finding out Clarke is alive. Like, the cast and writers have told us until they’re blue in the face that Bellamy is less “heart” than he used to be, less fiery, but there’s a difference between finding balance and like, not having a visible/visceral/conflicted emotional reaction to finding out that, contrary to what you believed, you weren’t responsible for killing your best friend/partner/woman you’re lowkey in love with by proxy. 

Like Bellamy is clearly happy to have Clarke back, but he hasn’t verbalized really ANYTHING about how it feels to have this huge bomb dropped on him after he lived his life for six years in honor of her. After he mourned her and missed her and memorialized her and moved on from her. This omission of a nuanced reaction on Bellamy’s part makes me think either 1) the writers really fucked up and don’t care bout Bellamy/bellarke or 2) They’re saving big relationship-defining angst feelings about the Separation and Reunion for midseason Bellarke angst. Needless to say I’m hoping it’s door #2.

What does that have to do with the truncated fireside chat scene? Well, in my deepest darkest Bellarke wet dream fantasies, they have some blow up fights or angsty as shit moments later this season where all of these omissions and half truths and old wounds get put on the table, subsequently setting fire to the tentative automatic partnership bellarke have fallen back into. Something else that makes me hope we’re in for some knock-down, drag-out emotionally raw air-clearing angst is, of course, the last shot of 505. 

So I don’t know if the show is really going to go full love triangle, and honestly I don’t much care, because THIS SHOT is intentional. Arguably, the shot of Clarke’s reaction to becho kissing is the first objectively nonplatonic framing of bellarke in the show. This shot tells me the show is ready to acknowledge in some way that Bellamy and Clarke’s feelings for each other go beyond platonic partnership. And to me, THAT means the door is open for all their baggage to come home to roost later this season. Because we as a fandom know that if the writers ever had Clarke and Bellamy really fully put all their feelings on the table, there would be no backpedaling into platonic territory. But if they’re willing to frame shots like the one above, I think they might finally be ready to stop just dropping hints and actually follow their own trail of bread crumbs to some MAJOR developments on the bellarke front.

Which brings me back around (finally) to your questions: will Clarke ever tell Bellamy that she called him every day for six years? The short answer is i don’t know!! If we do indeed get some relationship-changing moments between Bellarke, I would say it is highly possible, even likely, because this fact would be such an emotional bombshell for them - for Clarke, because she would essentially be admitting out loud that she loves Bellamy, and for Bellamy because he wouldn’t be able to escape the implications of Clarke staying so intimately connected to him for 6 years while he thought she was DEAD.

And THAT’S why I think Clarke hesitated. Because Clarke had six years to come to terms with the fact that she loves Bellamy, a fact that she was able to work out for herself by “confiding” in him every day. But when Bellamy comes back down, she realizes that she was in love with the Bellamy that LEFT, the Bellamy that has remained static, a ghost at the other end of her radio for six years. But this Bellamy is solid and real and DIFFERENT and, as she finds out at the end of 505, this new Bellamy is someone else’s. This Bellamy has moved on from her in a way that she never did from him. 

So while I’m betting Clarke at the end of 505 was glad she hadn’t spilled the beans about Bellamy being her personal diary for 6 years earlier in the ep, I think it is a Definite Possibility that this fact comes back up at the MOST inconvenient (read: most CONVENIENT, for me) time so that Bellarke can really lean into that fucking angst like I know they want to. *Clarke voice* I still have hope. Here’s to the possibility of emotionally fraught Fights and Reconciliations and Realizations, anon. 

[zalrb]

How did you want the Merlin has magic reveal to have happened? I didnt like the fact that we didnt see Arthur struggle with it or a proper reaction because he was dying. If it had to have happened the way it did with merlin telling Arthur on his deathbed then i would have wanted Arthur to have already known without merlin knowing he knew. So like in the s4 finale Arthur sees merlin using magic and he's torn about what to do so ultimately decides to pretend he doesn't know in order to ...

“ How did you want the Merlin has magic reveal to have happened? I didnt like the fact that we didnt see Arthur struggle with it or a proper reaction because he was dying. If it had to have happened the way it did with merlin telling Arthur on his deathbed then i would have wanted Arthur to have already known without merlin knowing he knew. So like in the s4 finale Arthur sees merlin using magic  and he's torn about what to do so ultimately decides to pretend he doesn't know in order to  Protect merlin because the people are totally against magic. And also because he wants merlin to tell him when he's ready so he gives merlin opportunities and hints to tell him himself. I would have preferred for merlin to tell him willingly instead of having to tell him on his deathbed. Why do you think merlin couldn't trust Arthur with that secret? Do you think he didn't know how much he meant to Arthur? I sometimes felt he doubted that whereas Arthur never doubted how much he meant to merlin.”

OK so there are a few questions in this ask. In terms of this: Why do you think merlin couldn't trust Arthur with that secret?

I think it’s important to note that in the process of doing what he believed he had to to protect Arthur, Merlin actually ends up feeding Arthur’s inherited prejudice against magic

obviously to the detriment of his own physical and emotional well-being

So I believe in Merlin’s mind, it’s not really a matter of not trusting Arthur with his secret, it’s more about the fact that over the years, he’s felt he had to demonize magic in order to keep Arthur safe, which complicates then telling Arthur that he in fact has magic. Whether or not the show executed this well is a different story but in my opinion, throughout the series it’s been framed that Merlin coming out to Arthur about having magic is repeatedly obstructed by magic having an immediate negative impact on Arthur and so Merlin chooses Arthur every time.

In terms of this: Do you think he didn't know how much he meant to Arthur? I sometimes felt he doubted that whereas Arthur never doubted how much he meant to merlin.

As many blogs have pointed out, Merlin is normally not around for when Arthur expresses the intensity of his affection for him (particularly in 4x06)

which is part of what makes their relationship so bittersweet because Arthur cares about Merlin as much as Merlin cares about Arthur but Merlin isn’t always around to see that.

At the same time, Merlin has been privy to and has taken note of the lengths Arthur would go to for him:

which is why when he does finally come out to Arthur and Arthur asks why he never told him, Merlin specifically says that he didn’t want to put Arthur in an awkward position and not that he was afraid of what Arthur would do.

In terms of this: How did you want the Merlin has magic reveal to have happened? 

I definitely didn’t want a deathbed reveal, it was all too rushed and development/phases that should’ve taken at least a couple of episodes if not a whole season was done in an episode and it was too much too late, if it were to be a deathbed reveal --- I don’t know, I don’t think there’d be anyway I’d like that, it could be what we got and I’d think it needed to be an entire season and it could be that Arthur always knew but then he watched Merlin struggle and agonize over keeping the secret for how long and did nothing to offer him peace, I just don’t like the deathbed reveal at all, lol.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Comparing Voice Overs and How It Helps TD.

Okay, so I’ve wanted to do a voice over comparison scene for a while. Since we got Sherry’s voice over in 7x11, actually. I originally wanted to compare it to Beth’s voiceover of her diary in 4x10. I just haven’t had the time yet. But I’ve also realized that we’ve had more than just those two voice overs. The thing is, as it turns out, I’ve analyzed most (not all) of these VOs before in previous posts. So I won’t go into all the details. That would both be repetitive and make for a VERY long post.

I’ll list the ones I’ve seen/thought of. I’ll link the posts I’ve used to analyze them (the ones I have) before so you can read about them in more detail if you want. I would also encourage you to go back and rewatch them if you can. Turn on the subtitles so you can see what’s said in detail.

2x10 - Rick talking to Morgan in the walkie talkie. Some of this scene shows him talking (that part’s not a voice over) but other portions show the group loading up the RV and getting ready to leave Atlanta. Just talked about that one this last week: X.

4x10 - Beth’s Diary VO in Inmates. Probably the one I’ve gone into the most depth on: X.

4x06 - The Governor having an unseen conversation with Tara when we first meet her, telling her (half truths) about what happened to him in S3. This is short, so I’ll put the text here. Interestingly, the voices we hear are Tara’s and Lilly’s, but at this point in the episode, we haven’t actually met them yet.

Gov: I’ve been on the road for a couple of months?

Tara: By yourself?

Gov: Yeah

Lilly: Where did you live before that?

Gov: I was in a town.

Tara: Were there monsters there.

Gov: No. it was safe. Full of good people.

Lilly: What happened?

Gov: He just lost it.

Tara: Who?

Gov: The man in charge. I barely got out alive.

That’s the whole exchange.

5x16 - Rick’s speech in the finale to the Alexandrians. I did a post analyzing this speech, saying I thought it foreshadowed that we’d see Beth in S6. Obviously that didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean my observations about it’s foreshadowing were irrelevant. I’ll explain in a minute. Here’s the post: X.

6x14 - Carol’s note to Tobin when she left Alexandria.

“I wish it didn’t have to end, not this way. It was never my intention to hurt you, but it’s how it has to be. WE have so much here: people, food, medicine, walls, everything we need to live. But what we have, other people want too and that will never change. If we survive this threat and it’s not over, another one will be back to take it’s place, to take what we have. I love you all here. I do. And I’d have to kill for you. And I can’t. I won’t. Rick sent me away and I wasn’t ever gonna come back but everything happened and I wound up staying. But I can’t anymore. I can’t love anyone because I can’t kill for anyone. So I’m going, like I always should have. Don’t come after me, please.”

7x11 - Sherry’s VO, reading her letter to Dwight. Very sad, and lots of callbacks to Bethyl and Still: X.

7x16 - Maggie’s VO at the end of the episode, talking to Rick about Glenn.

Okay, so like I said, go re-read the older posts if you want details on what I think each voiceover may foreshadow, keeping in mind that some of them are a bit dated.

Today I wanted to concentrate on patterns we see when they use voice overs.  While there may be more than most of us realized (and it’s totally possible that I’ve totally forgotten a few) there really aren’t many compared to how many episodes are in the entire series. It’s not like they use a voiceover every other episode or anything. They use them at specific times for specific purposes. These are the patterns I’m seeing:

1 - There are two formats here: Letters to other people, and conversations with others that we don’t actually see them having; we only hear them.

Letters:

A. Rick talking to Morgan with the walkie talkie. This was a verbal letter, if you will, but it was still something obviously addressed to Morgan. Morgan wasn’t actually there, so we couldn’t have a scene with the two men speaking face to face. But in many ways, this was just Rick hashing out his own thoughts about things. Very much like a personal journal for Rick.

B. Beth read from her diary. Same kind of thing. This wasn’t addressed to anyone else, of course, but a diary is kind of a letter to yourself. It takes much the same format as Rick’s one-sided convo with Morgan, except that Beth is just talking to herself.

C. Sherry’s and Carol’s were both letters to previous lovers. Actual letters that were read by the recipients (Dwight and Tobin) but we the viewers heard them in the voice of person who wrote them.

Convos we don’t see, but hear:

A. The Governor and Tara. We hear Tara and Lilly’s voices, asking questions, followed by the Governor’s answers. But we don’t see them have the conversation. We just hear it as we see the Governor’s journey.

B. Maggie’s convo with Rick in 7x16. We do actually hear Rick’s voice asking if she thinks Sasha killed herself and saying Maggie made the right decision to come help. So it’s obviously a convo they had but we don’t see. We see other things while listening to them talk. It follows the same pattern as the Gov and Tara from S4.

2. The VOs talk about the past. 

Rick tells Morgan of Jackie’s death and the CDC being a dead end. These are things that happened back in S1. 

In Beth’s diary voice over, it talks about having found the prison, Lori’s baby being due soon, and Beth finally accepting the prison as her home. This was in season 4, a full season after all that happened. 

The Gov and Tara talk about what happened to him before he met Tara and Lily. About the town he lived in. 

Rick’s speech to the Alexandrians is only slightly about the past. He describes what just happened with the walker, and talks about how he used to think he’d have to kill the Alexandrians to save their lives. It’s a very recent past, but it’s there. 

Carol mentions to Tobin that Rick kicked her out and she meant to leave, but things happened and she stayed. So not only the past, but a nod to S4. 

Sherry talks about her past with Dwight and everything that’s happened to them. She talks about their earlier plans, them dating, and who they used to be. 

And Maggie talks about when Glenn first met Rick.

3. The Vos foreshadow the future. 

Okay, here’s where this gets important. We haven’t seen proof of all of these foreshadowing the future yet. But by looking at the precedent set by a few of them, we can see that all of them eventually will.

Those that have already foreshadowed the future in ways we can see:

1. Rick’s walkie talkie convo foreshadowed MANY things. He talked about having hope that Morgan could hear him, which foreshadowed Morgan and Rick reconnecting at some point. He talked about the thing Jenner had told him. He didn’t state what it was, but that was a setup to learn it at the end of S2. (End mirrors the beginning.) He talked about going to Fort Benning, which didn’t happen, but there was more talk about that place later in the season, and it’s what originally spurred their journey, which led them to Hershel’s farm (and Beth!). And finally, he said they were facing a long hard journey, maybe harder than they could comprehend. Yeah, I’ll say. He also talked about the group becoming very loyal to one another, which we saw in S2.

2. In Rick’s speech to the Alexandrians, we definitely did see foreshadows of season 6. At one point, it talks about people from outside getting in, hunting them. I’d say that’s a pretty good foreshadow of the wolves. He also says, “they’ll find us” and show Glenn and Nicholas, which I think was a pretty obvious foreshadow of the two of them on top of the dumpster. He also says they’ll try to use us and kill us. At the end of S6, enter Negan. He also says, “We’ll survive, I’ll show you how.” Maybe that’s more practical than prophetic; something Rick says he’ll do and then does, but still. Foreshadow of the future. Even in S7 we saw people training, getting stronger, etc. (And let’s not forget that during that speech we see both the music box and the Morse Code chart in the same shot. Just saying.)

3. In Carol’s letter to Tobin, she talks about how more threats will come. If they conquer this threat, another will come in its place. It foreshadowed that even after they killed the Saviors at the satellite station, another threat (Negan) would follow. She also says if she stays she’ll have to kill. Yeah, also true. Foreshadow of her taking up her weapons again, as she did in 7x16 and using them to kill and defend those she loves.

4. And of course Maggie talks about how they’ve all become family and will continue to fight together, be loyal to one another, and conquer in the coming war. Pretty obvious foreshadowing.

So what about the rest? 

Here’s where it gets super interesting, guys. Go back and read that post I did about Beth’s voice over and what it foreshadows. This just goes to show that voice overs always point us toward the future of the show.

1. More than any of the others, there’s nothing obvious pointing to the future in Beth’s voice over. It’s all about the past. In fact, I’m sure they used it partially in tragic irony because the scene in Inmates ends by her saying, “We can live here for the rest of our lives,” and that’s right after the prison fell. Super sad. But stuff in that VO was also pointing toward the future, and that only makes sense if Beth survives.

2. A word about the Governor and Tara. Okay, I know no one cares about the governor. Least of all me. Those who have followed me long know I hated the governor, and not just in the way he was meant to be hated. He was fine at first but I thought his arc dragged on for far too long. He was a somewhat boring anti-climactic villain and I was so glad when they finally killed him off and we could move on to other, more interesting villains.

Because of that bias, I tend to give his arcs and episodes short shrift. I’m working on that. But check out this post: X. Once I re-watched his two episodes in S4 with fairness and looking objectively for TD evidence, well, let’s just say his episodes have more Beth foreshadowing than almost any other character on the show.

So now I’m looking at this voice over, which I haven’t studied extensively in the past, and wondering how it may point to the future. My first thought is that, even though he’s talking about Woodbury, this could also be symbolic of one of TF’s communities. Saying there were no monsters there, and good people, suggests somewhere TF builds up. It could symbolic of the prison in many ways. In S4, we saw that Rick was losing it because he was no longer willing to step up and be the leader. So the guy in charge lost it, and then was lucky to escape with his life. There were many similarities between Rick and the Gov as leaders, so this could be an analogy for Rick.

But the other thing I thought of (and this is kind of crazy guys) is what Dawn and others constantly told Beth at Grady. That the man in charge before Dawn lost it, screwed up, and nearly got everyone killed. It’s always seemed significant to me that they focused so much on that when it had no obvious relevance to Beth’s story at Grady. There has to be a reason for that. I did a post about this HERE. Originally I said that maybe it showed that Rick would lose it again, and Beth would help him through it. I don’t think Beth would deal with the situation as Dawn did–by killing the leader–but I think she’ll be instrumental in helping Rick through it.

Honestly, while I maintain that something about that back story is still super important, since Rick got his balls back and has taken on Negan, it seems less like he’ll need help in that way. So I’ve thought maybe my conclusions were wrong. But look at this voice over with the Governor. With all the Beth symbolism around him, we also have something ridiculously similar to what was emphasized at Grady. I have no idea what it means right now, but I have no doubt that it will play into Beth’s arc somehow.

3. Sherry’s voice over definitely has some tantalizing foreshadows, but of course we can’t know yet how they’ll come to pass. I maintain that I think Dwight will die a tragic hero’s death. At the very least, saying she doesn’t know if she’ll “make it out there” suggests that at some point we have to find out whether she did or not. She may only come back for 5 minutes so we can see her die, but we’ll definitely see Sherry again. And Daryl said after this, in the finale, that he’ll kill Dwight when all is said and done. So anyway, we’ll see.

So, bottom line, the voice overs foreshadow stuff to come, and that gives me a lot of hope where TD is concerned. We’ll also have to pay closer attention to VOs in the future, no? ;D

I think this concludes my analysis of the voice overs. Interesting stuff. I learned some things I didn’t realize before. Always a plus. I’d love everyone else’s thoughts, though.