beyondenigma

[captainmaxatx]

Omega! Logan who was born in the 1800s when secondary gender roles were very prevalent but it actually really suited him and he wanted to be a home maker and have a bunch of pups but he was always too big and hairy and and not seen as a good Omega. Alphas would sleep with him but never treat him the way they would a “proper” omega and they didn’t ever want anything serious because it’s like almost shameful to have a big hairy omega.

Then times change and Omegas start breaking out of the cookie cutter roles and they go into the work force and what not (feminism but it’s omegas) and Logan is very happy for them he thinks they all deserve the right to choose, but still no one wants him. And everyone expects him being an omega with the way he looks to be at the forefront of the movement to want the change for himself, but he doesn’t.

And over the years he toughened up and stops looking to start a family and put his dreams on the back burner to become what everyone expected of him.

And then everything happens and all the sudden Logan finds himself in a universe without secondary genders, where he isn’t a too big and hairy omega, he’s just some guy.

And unintentionally he finds his way into the role he’s always craved, where he takes care of the home and the dog while Wade makes the money, and it’s the closest he’s ever been to the life he wanted. He mostly retires from fighting and heroing, but now he’s ready for a new challenge. And being near Laura has only served to dig up that old desire and instinct he tried to bury so long ago

And I mean, even if the mutant hate wasn’t as bad as it is in Logan’s old world there was still a time here not to long ago when mutants were ran out and scattered around the world. And now with the people at Xavier’s working on getting the Mutants back into the city trying to re group with their still dwindling numbers. I mean Logan and Wade should help with the mutant re population efforts, who better to do that then two very eager immortals who can heal from anything and with a whole gang of friends around them for free child care.

[milquetoast-on-acid]

Flight Risk, A Reactionary Post

Someone to look forward to on a dark day

Major Crimes, S3xE1: Episode Review

What this episode is about: The Coyote and the Road Runner Paper Plates The Team's Emotional State Money Bags Taylor Provenza: Coming out Swinging Julio is Emotional AF Sharon's Ethical Dilemma It's the Little Things... Subverting a Trope: Provenza, Mike & Andy Amy's Boots Sharon & Andy: A Unit Sharon/Andy & Provenza The Beginning of Love: Keeping Your Personal Life a Mystery Cynthia Logan & Tim Rusty and his Mystery Personal Event Amy & her Mystery Date Sharon & Andy: A Declaration and a Relationship in influx

The Coyote and Road Runner Love the way the beginning is shot. In which the show allows us to know about a family of victims without showing us any of the family. Seeing a house frozen in time. It's dark, it's depressing and it really sets the tone for the episode. The whole thing is simple, simplistic, it's not flashy and it gives us a ton of information all without a single character opening their mouths. Each season has to start off with a heavier episode and this one goes really dark for MC. 

I love how they use the cartoon Road Runner. A kids show in rather simplistic terms about a bird being chased by a coyote who wants to eat him. It's a rather iconic kids cartoon and having it on in the background really lets us know that what ever happened to these kids they were in the middle of breakfast. The scene ends with this shot...

Which is really kind of creepy and gives a nice visual juxtaposition between this image along side a children's table and a giant pencil. While also telling us that an unknown person (the coyote) is after the children (road runner). It's subtle and kind of brilliant.

Paper Plates

Excuse me but how in the hell can you tell those are paper plates? That image is blurry AF.

The Team’s Emotional State

Money Bags Taylor "Cleaning up Blood from your own house. Not a crime."

Taylor starts off the episode ranting about the resources being expended on this case because they don't have a definite victim yet. All of the signs point to a horrible murder but for Taylor that just isn't enough. The squad of course is irritated with Taylor and his behavior. They show it off in different ways. Mike is rather analytical about it. Giving him evidence - like pointing the amount of blood they found. Provenza is viably irritated the entire time Taylor is talking. He points out the missing father and that he's a pilot. Lastly, we have Andy (rather angerly) who says they should be actively looking for the children. All the while Taylor shoot each one of the down.

Provenza: Coming out swinging "Two dead kids stuffed into suit cases. Sound bad enough to justify some overtime?" When it comes down to it Provenza always uses humor to mask his internal feelings. I also love how this is a dig at Taylor and him not thinking that this case was such a priority. 

"This happened while she was gone for a reason." Once they find out that the blood in the daughters room is the father's. Provenza blurts out that, that doesn't mean that the wife was the killer. And he's right it's not but it is highly suspicious. Interestingly, Taylor has some real insight and backs up Sharon about not not telling her about the murders. Taylor is also right here - there's a reason why it happened without her being there but it's not the reason that any of them originally think.

Julio is emotional AF Julio gets really emotional during this case. It's really the beginning of his quest to become a dad and how much he feels for children victims. If Julio wasn't held back he'd pummel the shit out of the killer at the end of the episode.

Sharon's ethical dilemma Sharon has fantastic instincts on people. Most of the time she's spot on sometimes not so much. As a former IA investigator she can really spot when someone is holding things back. And she was right about the mother hiding something hugely significant. When Sharon confronts her, the mother thinks it's rather insignificant but as it turns out it's what drove the killer in the murders. Sharon also has some emotional breaking here and loses some of her temper that she's so very known for holding in check.

It's the little things...

Sometimes it's actions of the characters that stand out when their subtle and the episode doesn't bring a lot of attention to them. Rather the stuff that's hidden in the background. For instance there's this moment in electronics when someone (probably Provenza) puts their coffee down on some equipment in the room. Buzz gets takes the coffee off the equipment and moves it. Andy sees this and shakes his head in irritation at Buzz being so picky. All the while without saying a damn word or really giving the moment all that much focus. It's a nice moment that's light without breaking the depressing tone of the episode. 

Moments like these are really great because their hidden and we don't really think about them too much. They also give us nice character moments without being too loud and shows us the talent of our ensemble and just how well they work. 

Subverting a Trope: Provenza, Mike & Andy

Typically in film land we see two women gossiping/snooping about their coworkers sex/romance lives. Instead we have three men snooping about their coworkers romance. I love this little subversion. Generally Mike is an active participant. He's usually the character most interested in the other character's romances. Here snooping with Andy and Provenza about Amy's romance and later on him being positively giddy over Sharon & Andy's engagement. This is another little things moment. In which we don't see Provenza, Andy or Mike utter one word about it. It's all through body language and the action of the characters. 

Amy's Boots I also love the whole bit with Amy's boots. Both Sharon and Andy take notice of her odd state of dress. She's got that formal dress along with some very casual combat boots. The boots are not your typical foot wear and I really love that they had her wear those instead of something she'd normally wear to work. It's like that's all she had in her car or locker because her date shoes were killing her feet and she didn't have time to go home and change.

Sharon & Andy: A Unit Sharon & Andy officially become Sharon/Andy From the beginning Sharon and Andy are a unified team. They are in sync and of the same mind on the case and how to treat the mother. Their skeptical and rather careful on what sort of information they give her. While the rest of the squad is out hunting for the children and other evidence. Andy is with Sharon during every aspect of the case.

Sharon/Andy & Provenza "I agree with the Captain." "What a shock." It's really becoming apparent that Sharon & Andy are merging into a unified pair. With Provenza (at times) being the odd man out. Beginning with the second episode of the series and at times continuing until even now. Provenza has a different perspective than Sharon and is never afraid to voice his opinion. We've seen that with the deal making process, with Rusty and his third option and here with telling the mother about finding the children.

Through out the two years they have been working together. Andy has really come to understand Sharon's mind and the way it works. He's really come to trust her instincts on people and brings up valid points when Provenza thinks Andy is just thinking with his penis. To both Sharon and Andy, Mrs Logan is still a person of interest and if she ends up not being the killer then they risking gaining valuable information from her.

The Beginning of Love: Keeping your personal life a mystery

Cynthia Logan & Tim "Didn't see that one coming."

Mrs Logan is a career professional who keeps things very close to the chest. She didn't even confide in her sister about the problems she was having with her husband. Much the same way that Rusty, Amy and Sharon do with their personal issues. And once we find out that Mrs Logan had been having an affair with her cousin who was also the father of her youngest child.That certainly turns the tables. And just like Taylor I never could have guessed that this was the secret that she'd been keeping. Yeah her having an affair, and her marriage not being as rosy as it she made it out to be was more than obvious but who she had an affair with. Yeah. didn't expect that. 

As soon as Tim is interviewed by Provenza and Amy it's more than obvious they are dealing with an unstable personality. He's fixated on Mrs Logan and tells Provenza and Amy that he did the 'right thing' by telling Ben about his affair with his Cynthia. And then he blames the children's murders on Ben because he moved to protect Ellie from Tim's murder spree. Which suggests to me that Ben knew that Tim was the girls father. As he probably thought that Tim wouldn't murder him if he had escaped in Ellies room.

Rusty and his Mystery Personal Event Rusty brings Provenza into his storyline about something that's going on. He words it in a way that makes it sound like he wants to talk to Provenza about his sexuality. Especially with the episode dealing with Romance so heavily. He's kind of thrown for a loop here and not quite sure what to think or say to him. So he feigns being too busy to talk to him over it. 

"I'm a homicide detective. You think I don't already know what this is about." "My mom showed back up." "No buts, You promised and you can not tell Sharon. The End." 

This is the face of a man not shocked.

Rusty thinks he's going to get off here without telling Sharon about Sharon coming back. And I missed that little smart alecky "The End".

"I won't because your going to tell her yourself." But wise Provenza knows all of the kid's tricks and makes Rusty do it himself. Unlike the shitty father figure of Jack Raydor who would have helped Rusty hid Sharon Beck. And interestingly here as much as Provenza fought it he makes Rusty a deal. Also hearing Provenza be so honest with Rusty and tell him he doesn't feel good about Sharon Beck. Rusty has gotten to the point here where he's not going to run away with Sharon B. And he's also matured to the point where when someone is straight with them he's going to listen. 

"That other thing you think you know. I am not ready to talk about that at all." Rusty gives Provenza a dose of honesty here. It's seems that Provenza is not the only one not ready to talk about Rusty's sexuality. Certainly hinting that it will be dealt with later on down the road.

"Love can go back and forth." "And from what I've seen being a mom can be pretty tricky too." From Rusty's comments and Sharon noticing a toothbrush in Rusty's bag. It really sounds like Rusty's got a romance going on but of course we know later on that that's not true. Knowing what's going on in Rusty's personal life right now that line about being a mother really stands out. 

Sharon of course is noisy and whats to know what's going on with him but she won't ask him outright. In the early years here she does her best to try not to pry information out of him. But rather have him come to her about what's going on and her try to piece things together. Or she tries to go about it in an alternative way. That's why she tells him he'll be on his own for dinner. And when she gets nothing out of him with that she tries again asking him if there's anything he needs to talk about. He isn't quite ready to talk to her about it so she lets it sit until he comes to her. 

Gotta love the deer in the headlights look she gives him after she takes a second look at the toothbrush in his bag.

"Love is tricky. You think you know someone and very suddenly you don't." I love this line here. Sharon speaking about her experiences in her marriage.

Amy & her Mystery Date "A little light on a dark day."

I really love how they choose to shoot Rusty holding Amy's flowers right in front of his face. Seriously who holds flowers like that? I mean I get that there meant to show us that their HUGE. And it's kind of funny seeing someone's face being blocked like that. I love that as soon as Rusty announces that their for Amy. Both Mike and Andy start drooling over her card.

Sharon & Andy: A Declaration and a Relationship influx At the end of the episode we get a really wonderfully amazing scene between Sharon and Andy. Seeing how much this case has drained Sharon so emotionally with her holding back on revealing the murders to Cynthia. Andy offers to tell Cynthia for her. 

I've seen this episode many times and I never noticed Andy outright staring at Sharon. At this point in the series, Andy staring at Sharon and quietly assessing her emotional state is not something new. But it's certainly something to take note of here. 

"Why don't I do this notification." One of the best things about the Sharon and Andy relationship is how emotionally supportive they are to one another. This is the very first time that Andy tries to take some emotional burden off her shoulders. But Sharon who is Sharon won't let him. Sharon has felt such guilt for not telling Cynthia but to her because she made the decision she's the one who's going to have to accept responsibility. And Sharon is and will always accept the responsibility of her actions. No matter how painful they may be to her. 

Even though it's very short this feels like the first real intimate conversation between these two. And I really wish we had more of that. 

"I'll wait, case you need me." Provenza thought that this whole time Andy was thinking with his penis but in this case Andy is thinking with his heart. Andy can't talk Sharon out of telling Cynthia herself but he can offer her further emotional support. Which he does. We saw a very similar scene between the two of them in "Poster Boy" when Sharon doesn't end up talking Brandon down from killing himself. In that scene Andy gives Sharon a huge dose of positivity and reassures her that she did the right thing. Which is exactly what he does here. She made the right choice even though that choice had consequences that hurt everyone. And sometimes the right choice isn't the easiest. It wasn't then and it isn't now. But there is a difference here. 

He's moved from someone she can look to in knowing that she did the right thing. To someone who has now become an emotional partner for her. Someone she can rely on to pick herself up after after the dust settles in any given situation. This is something so completely new for her. Sharon has been married for roughly 30 years and in that time she's never been able to lean on her husband for any kind of support. Whether it was financial, parental or emotional. She's always shouldered the responsibilities that life brought her and soly relayed on herself. 

Another thing to note is the actual words he uses. 

"I'll wait..." This is some heavy foreshadowing here in which Andy waits for Sharon to be emotionally ready to enter a romantic relationship with him. And boy does he wait a really long time but it's more than worth it to him. The guy is the least patient person in the world ends up becoming the most patient when it comes to his relationship with Sharon. Really makes me think about Mike's marriage advice to Brenda. That the most important thing in a relationship is patience. It's played a bit for laughs but in Sharon and Andy's case. They wouldn't have a romantic relationship without it. 

"I'll wait, case you need me." Their heartwarming and touching but there's a lot more in those words. Andy is essentially telling Sharon that he loves her without actually saying the words. And really maybe without him being aware of it himself. It's not a coincidence that the two keep repeating this line and variations of it to the other. If you look at Andy's behavior throughout this episode it really suggests to me that he's already fallen for her. Although he may not realize it just yet.

What I don't like: Really not a lot that I don't like about this episode. Maybe seeing the team more in the field with this case. Would have loved to have seen Andy comforting Sharon after she tells Cynthia about her children's murders. 

What I like: I really loved this episode. It's dark and depressing, a hard hitting case. So we see a lot of emotional moments for the majority of the characters. Each of the characters have a hard time dealing with this case and show that in their own way. Mike backs most of his emotions with evidence. Andy back's Sharon's instincts. Julio almost falls apart emotionally over the case. Provenza fights with both Taylor and Sharon on how to proceed with the case. And Sharon wrestles with her decision to not tell Mrs Logan about her murdered children. It's a really well written, directed and acted episode. A definite stand out. 

That has a lot of elements that work really well. Besides the emotionally hard hitting case we've got Sharon & Andy's relationship and their development into a unified team. Just the right amount of lightness surrounding Amy's mystery date for such a dark episode. Small scenes that really showcase the wonderful ensemble and their fantastic chemistry. Two unexpected surprises that really throw you for a loop.

This is the kind of episode that should start off a season.

[obsessivedilettante]

Somehow love has been so idealized as positive and healthy form of bond, that the reality which is that lot of romantic relationships are dysfunctional on one level or another is denied. In the case of Kwon Joo and Tae Gu, the romance is impossible: she will never accept him but the attraction is real on his side (the writer pushed it since ep11) and it humanizes him a little bit. So playing with this fantasy makes sense, is not harmful and wouldn't be a first in fiction...

The issue I have is that people assume because there is attraction, it must mean romantic (or sexual). Tae-gu is definitely fascinated by Kwon-joo, but it’s because he views her as an elusive prey. For someone who seems to have had a fairly easy life when it comes to killing people (I mean, when you come right down to it, his father literally buys “unwanted” people for him hunt and kill, just as though they were toys), here is one that is intelligent and fights back. In fact, I think a large part of his giddy glee when he saw her wall of evidence and red string is the discovery that she has also been hunting him. She is no normal prey.

[More after the jump! My apologies to mobile users, and if you’re coming to this on my tumblr page and not your dash, Anon, you’ll probably need to click the post to get the rest of the answer since this theme doesn’t always put a “more” link when I use it on an ask.]

But she is still just that to him – prey. I can’t agree that his attraction to her “humanizes” him because the show has taken great pains to convince us that he’s not really human. He’s been repeatedly called a monster and the devil (and, to be honest, it’s easy to believe he is just that when he has taken such joy in killing anyone that has possibly hurt him or stood in his way).

To him, Kwon-joo is not a person. She is something to be toyed with, to be teased and tormented until he finally sees fit to give the final blow.

I actually think it’s pretty interesting that the show hasn’t placed him in any romantic or sexual light*. Even though he’s a young and handsome chaebol (at least, to those who don’t know about his murderous tendencies), he’s not been shown partying around with a gaggle of women, or even just one woman. When Jin-hyuk looked into his past, there was no record of a scandal, and I presume that includes scandals with women (or men – hey, I’m not gonna judge, but I know Dramaland and its heteronormative default). I very much doubt he often brings dates home, since he seems more interested in bringing dead bodies home instead. 

That’s not to say Tae-gu has no sexual desire, but it’s notable that his idea of power and dominance is through straight-up brutality and not through sex. He’s killed women before, but from what we’ve seen, hasn’t tried to rape them. Instead, he gets his jollies from the hunt and the sensation of crushing their skulls.

Which, again, is why I give a serious, serious side-eye to those who want to ship him with Kwon-joo. She is an amazing woman who’s worked hard to get where she is, even when no one else believed her. She’s careful and smart as she figures out not only how to save those under the Golden Time (okay, maybe not that careful and smart because c’mon stop going to creepy empty hallways without back-up!), but also in accumulating information that gradually lead her to discover that Tae-gu is the killer she’s been searching for all these years. To her, Tae-gu is the monster that we all know he is. He killed her father, he’s killed so many others – he’s ruthless and shameless. He’s evil and he must be brought to justice.

So for someone to go “eeeee, I ship it!” just because both characters have an obsessive determination to hunt the other feels like it trivializes just how much Tae-gu has hurt and damaged her life. Not just that he killed her father, but thanks to the cover-up by his father and Sang-tae, he made her lose her job and respect within the community. She was treated as a laughingstock and something to be scorned. Yes, she is strong and resilient, but he ruined her life. And he plans to ruin it even more, just for kicks. He knew that his visit to her apartment would scare her, and yet he couldn’t hide his laughter. That is what makes him happy – making her fear for her life.

While I don’t know how the final two episodes will play out, at this point in the show, there’s really no way that Tae-gu can be redeemed. There’s no “oh my mother abandoned me when I was a baby boo-hoo” story that can possibly excuse his murderous behavior. At this point, the only truly “honorable” thing he could do is either confess to his crimes and spend a lifetime in prison, or fall on his sword (kettlebell?) and kill himself.

Perhaps if this writer spent more time developing the characters, there could be some hope. But as it stands right now, he has shown himself to be nothing but pure evil. There is no goodness in him. There is no saving him.

It is true, though, that relationships are inherently messy and so many of them are filled with bad decisions. Maybe I would actually like rom-coms more if they didn’t try to convince me that two diametrically opposed people would suddenly fall in love and live happily ever after, just because the writers said so. Maybe I would suffer less from second-lead syndrome if the male leads weren’t persistently written in such a way that I would instinctively label them as abusive (either emotionally or psychologically, and even sometimes physically), and wish the woman would run the hell away and never look back.

Then again, I think “love conquers all” is utter bullshit, especially with romance. I will, however, happily accept more stories of love that is familial and platonic, because, to me, those are the most endearing and sustaining. That’s why I give only a vague side-eye to those who want to ship Kwon-joo with Jin-hyuk. Part of me understands it – they’re the leads, they’re thrown together, they have to learn to trust and rely on each other. It makes sense, since most dramas would probably go there anyway. But I love that there’s been no hint of romance between them, simply because there aren’t enough platonic male-female friendships represented in media, especially in mutual work environments (where platonic friendship actually makes the most sense, since dating in the workplace is incredibly messy and often ends in disaster, although you wouldn’t know it by most of Dramaland’s offerings).

So I’m not saying “kill it with fire” to a Kwon-joo/Jin-hyuk ship because I can see how these two co-workers, thrown together in a multitude of intense situations as they pursue the same goal, could be appealing to someone. Jin-hyuk has learned to respect Kwon-joo, and is not out to sabotage her. He actually supports her and listens to her.

I am saying “kill it with fire” to a Kwon-joo/Tae-gu ship because it pits her with someone who doesn’t see her as human and only sees her as a thing to amuse him until he decides she’s no longer worth his time. It diminishes who she is as a woman or even simply as a person. He is a monster, and I’m repulsed by the unspoken implication that she could “save” him because of the attraction (or supposed “love”) he has for her. Not that’s what everyone thinks when they consider this so-called ship, but it is the standard representation when we see this kind of dynamic in fiction – the “bad boy” that the woman will save through the power of her sparkly “I’m not like the other girls” vagina. (Again, Tae-gu is not some moody, broody chaebol/cursed vampire/hurt momma’s boy. He is an unrepentant psychopath who gets joy out of tormenting the most challenging prey he’s yet encountered.)

I get it, though. I know that it’s somehow so easy to default to crackling chemistry and want to ship all the things, no matter what, no matter how terrible they are. Some of the best (worst?) ships come from this.** The attraction is there, even if it is only sadistically one-sided. And even though I don’t read fanfiction, I know there are enough of the “oh hell no” ships out there that people are gonna ship what they’re gonna ship, no matter the logistics or actual characterizations. Maybe someone’s cooking up a theory that says Tae-gu will eventually realize the error of his ways and spend the rest of his life in prison pining for the one woman who got away. Or maybe someone’s embracing the insanity and is like “this shit is fucked up but damn the sex is hawt.”

In the end, I guess I’m just too fond of Kwon-joo as a character and a woman, and everything she represents in terms of her intelligence and desire to help people even as she longs for justice in her own life, to see her linked romantically to a murdering psychopath – no matter how gorgeous his cheekbones are.

*of course, as we all well know, Kim Jae Wook is hella sexy and I’m not gonna deny I’d probably do some terrible things for a few minutes in heaven with him, but that’s the actor, not the character.

**for example, even though I know, instinctively, that these two are terrible for each other and will forever end in tears, you can tear the LoVe*** from my cold dead hands. They are Epic and will always be Epic.

***Logan/Veronica from Veronica Mars, who I immediately started shipping**** from the first “Annoy, tiny blonde one, annoy like the wind” and still get a little tingly from that first kiss as the camera cranes outward and “Momentary Thing” plays.

****and I suppose someone could argue that “well you ship [problematic thing] so stop being a cry-baby about other people shipping [problematic thing], and besides, it’s just fiction*****, so who cares what other people do with fictional characters?” To which I say “dude this is tumblr I will overthink whatever the hell I want and also women should not be shipped with brutal psychopaths who only see them as a means for their sadistic pleasure, especially when those psychopaths have totally and unrepentantly ruined those women’s lives and will kill them after they’ve had their fun.”******

*****yeah, it’s just fiction, but stories matter and if I can smash one patriarchal belief that a woman can save a broken and screwed up guy just because he lurves her then I think I will have fulfilled a purpose that I didn’t know I had but I will gladly accept.

******is2fg no one tell me there’s a fanfic out there where Tae-gu is revealed to be a necrophiliac bc there’s not enough brain bleach out there to unsee that image even though it would probably make total sense, dammit.