#has anyone here seen the movie Crash? where it’s a bunch of people with wildly different lives and stories somehow being all connected in

[existentialcrisis-24-7]

Godddddd it’s such a pain to be hyperfixating on your own ocs. It’s a fucking nightmare. I just want these guys to do their thing and tell people their stories but nOOooOoOooo I have to write it first! But that’s not the medium I want to tell it through so I have to learn how to make comics! Or animate! Liek anfucking idirot

[kyosohmastan]

Here’s the first chapter of a fic I started. As I have expressed, I’m a ridiculously mega fan of Taylor Swift. I think this blog is 20% a Taylor fan blog tbh lol. So I came up with this fun idea that Taylor somehow takes over Tohru’s body and life and how the guys would preceive that. So this is going to be chaotic.

I’m putting it on A03 later once I’m a few chapters in just in case I need to touch anything up since I don’t outline. But here’s the rough draft exclusively for here if you would like to check it out~

Title: (I don’t have one yet but I’ll concern myself with it later)

Rating: T

Words (ch 1): 1,811

I’m too tired to open my eyes, even though I’m awake. If I could get in five minutes before I have to get ready, that might be enough to leave me refreshed. Probably not. I haven’t gotten enough sleep since I was sixteen. But I can’t bail on the show tonight for being too tired. That was an unspoken rule.

I turn over, kind of surprised the girls haven’t awaken me. They’re usually begging for breakfast right now. “Meredith?” I murmur, stroking the duvet for any signs of fur. “Olivia?”

 I finally open my eyes, seeing a pillow, sheets, a white nightstand...that isn’t mine. Puzzled, I sit up, getting a full scope of the room. What in the world? There’s so much pink in here, when my L.A bedroom is mostly white. There isn’t a cat in sight. 

“Benjamin?” I try again, wondering if they teleported here with me. All there is is silence. I get up, open the curtains, and gaze upon yards of forest when I should be looking at the bustling view of Beverly Hills. Something’s wrong. Something’s been wrong since way long ago, since the moment I opened my eyes. Did the rosé from last night hit too hard and I crashed at one of my team members' places? That must be it. I’ll just go see them and apologize. 

I head to the door, passing by a full length mirror on the wall on the way. I stop, taking a double take. The girl who looks at me has long brunette hair. I did not dye my hair. She looks young, teenager young. This isn’t me, but when I lift a hand to my face, the reflection follows. This isn’t possible. It’s got to be some type of dream. But as I touch my-...this girl’s face, I can feel it vividly. My mouth drops on an inaudible scream, and I scurry away from the mirror and out the door. 

The breath is knocked out of me as I land on something solid. A body? No. It’s a cat. An orange cat is beneath me, but it isn’t one of my cats. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I say. What an adorable kitty. He stares up at me, a little befuddled. I’ve never seen a cat that expressive.

“Oh my gosh,” I giggle, pick it up, and squeeze him to me. “So cute!!! Where did you come from, little guy?” 

“Nani?” Something said aggressively. The cat? 

No. Not possible. I look around, trying to find the source of the voice. “Who said that?”

“Tohru!” It says. It’s definitely coming from the cat. His voice rumbles against my arms as I hold him. He says something in a foreign language that I can’t understand.

At once, I drop him, letting out a scream that I should have made ever since I found myself in this body. How could things be getting even weirder? 

I drop him, scooting back against the wall. “I-I’m so confused. What’s happening?”

A puff of orange smoke fills the hallway and I cough through it. As I peer within it, a body replaces where the cat just was. A naked body of a boy. Horrified, I turn my head away, left with even more questions.

He maneuvers to the room on the other side of the hallway and comes back a minute later dressed in a uniform.

Now that he’s clothed, I get a look at him. He’s tall with limbs slightly elongated to show he must still be growing, and he has gorgeous orange hair that I haven’t seen on anyone besides Ed. It’s the same color as the cat’s. He’s the cat? I can’t grasp the idea. Lord knows I’m still dreaming.

He crosses his arms, eyes narrowing, saying something that I can’t understand again.

I think that’s japanese. I know a little bit from my travels to Japan on tours but only the basics. “I don’t understand,” I reply

His brows raise. He looks more confused than I am, if that’s possible. “English?” he says.

I nod, reacting as skittish as if I was in front of a ten foot tall monster. He’s anything but. He is...wow, he’s super hot. But he has to be no older than seventeen. No. Can’t think like that. That’s gross.

“When...you speak english?” 

“Um...since forever?” I respond. His english is broken, but he clearly knows a little. Still, I need to find someone fluent and ask them what’s going on, if they even know. Wait. Does this mean I’m in Japan? Or I suppose this could still be L.A. There is a very diverse amount of people here.

He kneels, taking my hand and hauling me up from the ground. I stand on wobbling legs. “Sick?” he asks.

“Huh? No. Or maybe? I don’t know where I am. I don’t know who I am.”

His brows furrow more and more with each word I sputter out. His reply is indecipherable to me again. I’m only making him more frustrated in return. His voice is so aggressive.

I hate that I’m losing patience. I want to cry because I’m so confused, terrified, and worried that I hit my head on something. I must be blacked out right now and in a coma. Or I’m hallucinating all of this. “I don’t understand!” 

He sighs and holds his hands up. “Okay. Get dressed. We...figure it out…” He leaves down the stairs.

I can’t bring myself to move. So much is out of whack that I feel dizzy. Body swapping is impossible. It’s a cliche concept that you only see in sci-fi movies. Not in real life. I go back into the room and stumble to the closet. There’s a plethora of blouses and skirts with a few dresses sprinkled about. Not a pair of pants or shorts in sight. Flipping through the blouses, I can tell  whoever this girl is (Tohru?) and I have a very similar taste in style. It’s kind of refreshing that I can’t find any high-end brands. I can’t remember the last time I wore something just...normal. 

She has three pairs of two types of uniforms. Her school must use uniforms. Is it a school day? I take the navy blue blazer and matchin skirt off the hanger and work on taking off my pajamas, then I put it on. I double check myself in the mirror. She looks adorable. No kidding, I’ve never seen a cuter girl. I comb my fingers through my hair to fix it, then leave down the stairs, completely lost once I hit the landing. I follow the sounds of voices that I still can’t understand. There’s three of them, including the cat boy, at a kotatsu. They’re just as pleasing to look at. The one in the kimono looks to be around my age, and the one with the silver hair has an aura of sadness lingering around him that is somewhat contagious. The orange haired boy looks concerned as he watches me sit with them, before turning to the man and speaking in japanese with the same worry.

The man nods, turning his attention to me. “Good morning, Tohru-kun. How are you doing this morning?” he says in english, and immediately relief settles in me since I can finally understand someone. 

“Good...I think,” I reply. Nothing is going good.

“Is that so?” he inquires. “Kyo-kun thinks you seem a little off.”

Cat boy? I turn my head towards where he’s sitting adjacent to me, slowly sipping from a bowl of soup. I’m sure I must be acting nothing like this Tohru. It’s no wonder they’re concerned.

“Why do you think I’m acting differently?” I ask, knowing full well the reason. It’s a debate whether to tell them I’m someone else. How do you tell someone you’re another person in this body? Especially since they know Tohru. 

“First of all, you took.. so long getting dressed that I...had to make breakfast. You have never skipped out on making meals unless....you are sick,” Kyo says, slowly struggling through his english by taking long pauses.  

I swallow down my guilt as he continues, although I wasn’t aware. “You suddenly don’t remember how to speak japanese. You freaked out like...it was the first time again when...I transformed. You are wearing the fall uniform when it is spring.”

I don’t bother touching my food, even though it looks devine. He must be a good cook. I don’t know what to say to that.

The silver haired boy says something in their language, and I draw my attention to him. 

“He said you are not...wearing your ribbons,” Kyo translates. 

“My ribbons? In my hair?” I ask.

Kyo nods, observing me like I’m a foreign creature. 

This isn’t going to fly. I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not, at least someone I’m not on the inside. But they see right through me, especially Kyo as it seems. I freeze, twiddling my fingers under the kotatsu as I speed through ideas in my head on what to do. 

I could just tell them the truth. They might not believe me. I’m still having trouble believing it myself, but it would explain why Tohru seems off. It’d probably be easier if I told the truth anyway.

But...this could be my chance to live another life. I didn’t think of that until now. When have I ever been given the opportunity to just be normal? I’ve been constantly watched for fourteen years. I can’t even remember what it’s like to live normally. But especially after all that’s happened in the past few years..I want that.

So I lie. And I loathe myself for it. “I must have forgotten them! I’m sorry. I am feeling a bit off today.”

“Are you sick?” The man asks. “Maybe it would be better if you stayed home from school.”

God, school sounds so fun. I haven’t been to school in ages. I never even got a proper graduation. “No, I’m good. I’m just not in a good headspace. I’ll get better.”

Kyo is still leering at me. He seems to be the harder one of the bunch to convince. He feels my forehead, and my cheeks heat. That’s not going to help prove my case. “No fever,” he says. “I guess you’re fine then.”

“Right!” I respond. “Should we get going? Don’t want to be late!”

Yuki stands before I finish and Kyo follows. “Let’s go. Did you...forget your bag too?”

“Oh, I did!” I didn’t. I didn’t know I needed it. I skipped up the stairs. This is still wildly confusing and bizarre...but I’m going to school. I’m going to step into a place so forbidden to me to venture out to on my own. At this point, nothing is impossible anymore.

[aion-rsa]

Die Hard 2: Making the Sequel to the Greatest Christmas Movie of All

https://ift.tt/2Wue6gW

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for Die Hard fans.

While there may be a little less festive cheer to go around this December, one thing remains constant during the holiday season: the debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

And one man who probably knows better than most is screenwriter Doug Richardson. Besides Bruce Willis himself, Richardson has had a hand in more Die Hard films than almost anyone out there, starting with the similarly festive follow-up Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

While Willis is firmly in the “no” camp on the question of whether Die Hard and its sequel are Christmas movies, Richardson disagrees.

“It is a Christmas movie,” he tells Den of Geek.

“At this time of year, the internet starts to erupt over whether it’s a Christmas movie. It’s very amusing. But I think it fits the movie and if people gather to watch it at this time of year it’s a Christmas movie whether it’s Die Hard or Predator. The argument that comes up is ‘What makes a Christmas movie? Does a Christmas movie have to have Santa Claus in it?’ Suddenly you are defining what a Christmas film is. If it involves Christmas and if it is screened as a perennial every year by streaming services and broadcasters it’s a Christmas movie.”  

Richardson points to fans who have specifically told him how the Die Hard films have become part of their holiday celebrations.

“People tell me it has become their Christmas tradition to watch either Die Hard or Die Hard 2 or both of them with a meal in the middle,” he says. “That’s terrific. Maybe I’ll  try that sometime.”

Still, Richardson acknowledges that the first film “wasn’t written as a Christmas movie” but rather “written in mind that it’s Christmas time.”

In the case of Die Hard 2, the snowbound airport-based sequel to the Nakatomi Tower-based original, it wasn’t even written as Die Hard 2 to begin with. 

58 Minutes

Richardson made history in 1990 as the first Hollywood writer to sell a spec script for a million dollars and would go on to work on the script for the wildly successful Bad Boys.

But back in the late 1980s, when Die Hard first hit multiplexes, he was just starting out as a screenwriter.

“I was, what you would call in Hollywood at the time a baby writer, as in unproduced, cheap but getting a lot of attention,” he explains. “Die Hard had been out for about three weeks and I had already seen it twice. I got a call from [Die Hard producer] Lawrence Gordon, and he and another producer Lloyd Levin invited me in for what I thought was just a general meeting. They wanted to know what I thought of Die Hard. So, I said a whole bunch of nice things about it and they said ‘Well, here’s the thing…’” 

Richardson describes what followed as “one of the smartest things I had ever seen anyone do in Hollywood” as Gordon laid out his scheme.

“Leonard Goldberg, who was the President of production at Fox, wasn’t yet ready to put Die Hard 2 into development. He was being cautious,” Richardson says. “But Lawrence was insistent they were going to want Die Hard 2 and he kind of explained to me the process of doing the sequel. It’s a process that can be overwhelming for producers because as soon as you announce there is going to be a sequel every agency in town starts asking you to meet with their writers or hire this guy or hire that guy and … They didn’t want to have to deal with any of that.”

There was another reason why the producers were keen to avoid such fanfare: Joel Silver, the infamous producer who, according to Richardson, someone compared working with to a “heart attack.”

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“Once it was called Die Hard, once they used that in the sequel, that was when Silver’s contract to come in and produce kicked in,” Richardson explains. “To work with Silver on development of this big sequel was not going to be fun.”

The plan was ingenious in its simplicity. The studio had recently acquired the rights to Walter Wager’s 1987 thriller novel 58 Minutes, and they wanted this to form the basis for Die Hard 2, much like how Roderick Thorp’s Nothing Lasts Forever was adapted into the first film.

“The point was that they were not going to call it Die Hard 2. Because if they called it that, everything just described would avalanche over everybody,” Richardson says.

58 Minutes told the story of Frank Malone, a divorced NYPD cop who, while waiting for his daughter at JFK airport, must foil a plot involving a mysterious man calling himself “Number 1.” The menace is threatening to cut the power to the runway lights unless his demands are met.

“I actually only read it once, in a day, and caught the drift of it. It’s Die Hard at an airport,” Richardson says. “It’s going to be John McClane at an airport. That was the deal. So from the moment I read it I was reading it as Die Hard. I was adapting it in my head the entire time. It was very unfaithful. No disrespect to Walter Wager, but the job was Die Hard so you had to keep it to Die Hard.”

While the idea of writing a follow-up to one of the most iconic action movies of all time might be daunting today, the timing and secrecy of Richardson’s work meant the pressure was off.

“Die Hard was just a film that was getting attention,” he says. “It wasn’t a big hit yet. Back in those days, movies played in theaters a lot longer so it took a while with word of mouth to turn it into a hit. My main concern was I had never written an action movie before. They had read a script I had written called Honor Bright that was almost made like four different times. They really liked it. There was some action in it but it wasn’t an action film but they had faith that I could pull it off. I was still this unknown writer and I was lucky to be working and happy to be working. I was getting paid to write another movie. It was awesome.”

Die Hard in an Airport

Though Richardson’s script was adapted from Wager’s book, he still did his homework on the nuts and bolts of a major international airport.

“I sat in the tower at JFK for three days learning about how planes fly,” he says. “I asked about a few different scenarios: one involving terrorism and another involving whether some planes actually fly with relatively little fuel at some point.”

Richardson submitted his script to Gordon and Levin who were impressed. His timing was perfect.

“Pretty much almost to the day, I’m not kidding, Joe Roth takes over from Goldberg at Fox and says ‘I need Die Hard 2. Where’s Die Hard 2?’ and Lawrence says ‘funny you should ask…’ And then of course the rest happened.”

Though he was warned of what to expect once Silver got involved, it was still difficult to accept.

“I was told that the minute it was announced as Die Hard 2 and Joel’s contract would kick in and he would do what he did on Die Hard which was fire Jeb Stuart [the original writer] and hire Steven E. de Souza and that’s also exactly what happened.”

A prolific screenwriter and script doctor brought in to rewrite and inject more action and humor into pre-existing screenplays, De Souza’s other credits included Commando, 48 Hours, and The Running Man.

He was, and still is, as big as they come but that didn’t make it any easier for Richardson.

“It was a difficult thing to accept that you got a movie greenlit and your reward for having done good work is to get fired,” he says. “Joel’s line to me, which was pretty prophetic, was ‘What are you complaining about? You just wrote a hit movie. Don’t complain, let me do what I do.’”

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One of de Souza’s most notable contributions to the script came with Franco Nero’s General Ramon Esperanza, the military dictator of Val Verde, a fictional central or South American country created for the purposes of the film. There was no denying the obvious subtext of General Esperanza’s backstory though with de Souza borrowing heavily from America’s real-life involvement in the controversial Iran-Contra affair.

But while that change served the sequel effectively other tweaks have not aged as well.

In the film, William Sadler’s villainous Colonel Stuart recalibrates the instrument landing system at Dulles, impersonating an air traffic controller to deliberately crash a British jetliner, killing all 235 people onboard. 

According to Richardson there was “a little bit of slap back” over the sequence when the movie came out and he too acknowledges it goes against “the poppy, hyper-action tenor and tone of the movie.”

Richardson’s original script featured a far more palatable alternative.

“I didn’t want to kill a plane load of people so I crashed a FedEx or UPS aircraft where just the pilots and crew died,” he says. “I did not feel comfortable with that level of terrorism. The whole point of it was to prove what they can do as terrorists. It was meant to be like ‘this is what we can do, don’t mess with us or the next one will be full of people.’ I think de Souza and or Silver or whoever made those decisions at that point.”

The crash could have had even more serious consequences for 20th Century Fox too after one major behind-the-scenes blunder.

“Ed Trudeau was the tower manager at JFK when I visited. He was a well-regarded air force veteran who spent a lot of time with me during my research,” Richardson says. “I put his name in the script as a placeholder for the airport traffic control tower manager but somehow they ended up keeping his actual name in the movie. I didn’t find out until three months before it came out. They had locked me out of the process by then which wasn’t fun. I eventually got a copy of the final shooting script and saw they had used Trudeau’s name. I had to call him and tell him that the tower manager in the film had the same name as him and that a plane crashes and over 200 people die. I wasn’t sure if that was something he would want to have been associated with. The studio should have picked that up before but because I had been frozen out of the process they hadn’t checked with me.”

Fortunately, Trudeau was a good sport, and only wanted to know if the movie was “going to be any good.”

On balance, Richardson is happy with the contribution he made to Die Hard 2 even if there are  some elements of the finished film and his experience on it that irk him slightly – like the fact de Souza took the film to arbitration, claiming sole writing credit.

“I would say it was pretty much my film until the snowmobile sequence, which was where it felt like a James Bond movie all of a sudden,” Richardson says. “That was where it turned more into what de Souza was doing with it. There were bits and pieces of my work all the way through though. De Souza decided he wanted sole credit which was ludicrous and I told him it was ludicrous for him to try. I can’t complain though. Joel was right: I got to write a hit movie and I am very grateful to Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin for being so damn smart.”

Die Hard 3 is NOT a Christmas Movie

Richardson would return a few years later to lend a hand in developing Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Though Jonathan Hensleigh’s script titled Simon Sez formed the basis of Die Hard with a Vengeance, Richardson made a few major contributions – including ditching the Christmas setting.

“My version of Die Hard 3, which there is very little of in the film, was definitely not set at Christmas,” he says. “‘Let’s not do Christmas again’ I remember that was my initial pitch and Bruce was like ‘sounds good to me’. This was when we were up in his place in Sun Valley in the snow in winter. I just said ‘let’s change it to the middle of summer and have it be hot’.”

Richardson’s other main contribution came with the plot point that saw Jeremy Irons’ Simon Gruber rob the Federal Reserve.

By then Richardson had struck up a good working relationship with Willis, even if he does dispel the notion that the star ad-libbed his way through Die Hard in the way Eddie Murphy did with Beverly Hills Cop.

“I know he ad-libbed Yippee-ki-yay but the movie wasn’t as improvised as some people like to think,” he says. “A few lines of dialogue. Except for an aside or a tagline or two they really never were. I don’t think Bruce is the greatest ad-libber in the world. Sometimes I have had to go in and say ‘that’s not good, let’s not do that.’”

Die Hard 4.0

Richardson’s good working relationship with Willis proved to be a blessing and a curse when it came to Die Hard 4.0, a film he says he became involved in after making the mistake of reading a script Willis gave him and offering feedback. Suddenly there was a meeting and suddenly he was writing the movie.

“Die Hard 4 was rough,” he says. “There was a lot of pressure working on Die Hard with a Vengeance but Die Hard 4.0 was ridiculous stupidity. You ended up writing the movie you swore you would never write with the actor who swore he would never be in it anyway.”

The sequence in which McClane essentially fires a car at a helicopter is regularly cited as the moment the franchise jumped the shark – but it was nearly much worse.

“I did in one version of the script have him use a motorcycle to jump on a train. I remember when I wrote it I thought ‘okay this is a little nuts.’ I did eventually get rid of it.”

With the studio setting a release date long before work had begun on the film and Willis still far from convinced with any of the scripts being sent his way, Richardson endured a difficult time on the project – but it hasn’t put him off Die Hard movies or Willis, who he remains on good terms with. 

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“I love the franchise,” he says. “How many franchises go that far without jumping the shark a bit? It’s hard not to.”

The post Die Hard 2: Making the Sequel to the Greatest Christmas Movie of All appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[cwdcshows]

Supergirl - S5 E6 - Confidence Woman

So Horrible Boss is Shade? The Shadow?  Misty Swirls?  I'm going to go with Misty Swirls.  Sure, it sounds like a stripper name, but.....'  How Andrea (?) a member of this super duper secret organization, that she's the moment she's in a tight position she goes to blab to just any older insider?  How are the members recruited or vetted? "Ah, you found our decoder ring a box of Froot Loops, here's your gun and code name.  We're going to need you to covertly assassinate a duke, and oh, by the by, try not to tell anyone about us."

"I don't want to kill him, I want to save him."

'You've worked for her before'?  I mean, I know it's splitting hairs, but arguably Lena's worked with Supergirl, rather than for her; unless you're thinking of the summer that Lena lost her money and Kara decided to try her hand as a lawyer and decided to hire Lena to assist her in the office.  Kara, however, seems to be irritated by the slightest mistake Lena makes, until Lena eventually realizes that Kara is actually getting turned on by Lena's obedience; and over the next several weeks they explore a BDSM relationship, until one day Lena wins the lotto and buys back her company and Kara decides to return to CatCo.   And I know what you're thinking, did he just suggest that Lena and Kara enacted the plot of 50 Shade of Gray? And the answer, is no.  In fact, I was suggesting they were enacting the plot of the 2002 movie, Secretary, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as the submissive, titular secretary; and James Spader as the dominant boss, who incidentally was named E. Edward Grey.  So, you know, completely different. Ah, a nostalgic flashback to a college encounter between two beautiful college girls; which was a memory apparently sparked by a bottle of booze.  I think I've seen this movie before; and that one also starred someone going by the name Misty Swirls.... Honestly, in a show where people can fly and shoot lasers our of their fucking eyes, I think perhaps the least believable thing this show is trying to present to us is the idea that Lena fucking Luther was a wallflower in college or really at any point in her life.  I mean, she may not have known she was a real Luther yet, and sure her mom treated her like shit; while Lex seemed to simultaneously be protective of her (I think) and belittle her (I think) - which is to say that seriously muddled whatever past  Lex and Lena had together before he was finally outed as a murderer and all the other stuff.  But what I'm getting at is, it seems unlikely that Lena wouldn't at least have friends in school or any of the other more outgoing traits we've seen her have in the present; and that somehow this random woman she's never mentioned before is ostensibly the person who made Lena the person she is today - but I guess that's where the booze comes in.... Oh, instead they're going to make this some sort of random fucking mystical quest; and this rich girl that's dropped out of the clear blue sky and known Lena for five minute is all in on finding this... whatever this is.  And based on their apparent obsession with Titanic, I assume one of them is going to die after they find this whatchamacallit; and the other will wait 70 years then drop it into the sea. Really, this is the episode they're going to use Jon Cryer in?  Don't get me wrong, I know he's not like, Calista Flockhart or something, that they would only put in certain episodes, but seeing how sporadic they used him last season; and the lengths they went to have Lex involved, but unseen, this either means this episode is going to be wildly more important or a tremendous waste of the use of Lex Luther that will probably result in him being conspicuously absent in a future episode he should definitely be physically present for. What could Andrea's father be "doing again" that involves his life insurance policy?  Surely she doesn't mean killing himself for the insurance money, because he couldn't have done before, presumably.   Wait, are they suggesting Kryptonite crashed to earth "millions of years ago"?  How would be fucking possible?  Kryptonite is supposed to be remnants from when Krypton exploded, which definitely didn't occur millions of years ago; the fact that Kara's mother is still alive is, presumably, at least one clear indication of this.  That or Allura looks really good for her age. "What would Rose Dawnson do?" Hog a floating door, leaving her the supposed love of her life to die of hypothermia in the Atlantic Ocean? #ThereWasRoom #NeverForget That's some impeccable timing, for Lena to read her book at just the right moment in the whole wide jungle, so that she follows the instructions to look down and find exactly what she needed to find to help them on their way.... Those were apparently load bearing flowers. "This is very real, I assure you." I mean, isn't that exactly what a psychedelic hallucination would tell you? Since Lena was looking for...whatever... to stop Lex from finding....whatever,  shouldn't Lena wonder if Lex had gotten there first? So Kord Industries of Earth 38 is our Samsung? Why would you overtly wear a medallion you don't want your friend to know you have; even if it's unlikely you'll run into her?  Not to mention the odds aren't terrible she'd be there, seeing as you run in the same circles.  Keep your mystical talismans in your handbag, like the rest of us. Is this the reason for Lena's beef with Kara not telling her the truth about who she is?  Because these seem like wildly different sorts of lies.  I get that Lex and their mother also lied to Lena, but I get the feeling this is going to be meant as the real motivation for her grudge. And boy, did Lena need that medallion; her life would have been so much better the last couple of years. Instead she's worked hard rehabilitating her family name and business, making more friends than she's apparently ever had before - if only she had a lucky charm.... Hey, it's Not-Ock before he became Not-Ock.  Why are you so nosy about whether this woman you don't is drinking her drink or not?  I know, I know, it's his way of hitting on her, but seriously, mind your own damn business.  For all you know she's a recovering alcoholic at a crossroads in her 10 year sobriety after her husband Jonathan left with their four kids, on account of the fact she's far too obsessed with Top Chef.  You don't know. Okay, I figured I'd wait a bit before comment on this; and now that I'm half way through the episode - didn't last week's preview suggest this was going to be an Alex episode?  They showed Alex at the DEO and everyone but her was inceptioned and she's freaking out trying to figure out to do.... This is the most boring and uneventful villain origin story since Grimace tried to kill a bunch of people....

Holly shit, apparently my Froot Loops recruitment scenario wasn't that far off.  Apparently I'm on the same wavelength as the writers and I'm not okay with that. "Take the medalion, tap it three times.  You'll know what to do." This sounds an awful lot like the message Scott Calvin found inside the Santa Suite in the Santa Clause.

Is Santa an assassin?  What exactly happens to the people on the naughty list?? Are they actually showing us an unseen backstory of Lena and Kara becoming friends?  Has it been some sort of mystery that viewers never quite understood this time; and now people at home are going, "Oh, that's how it happened! It all makes sense now..." Jesus Christ, all of this shit because of a fucking magical medallion, that for all Lena ever knew was just a myth?  Fuck you. The medallion was the only thing that could stop Lex?  What?  I mean, he was stopped without it just fine.  Sure, he probably killed a bunch more people that he may or may not have been able to if Lena had gotten the medallion and used it the way she wanted to.  But are they honestly suggesting that Lena's great plan for "stopping Lex" was fucking magic? (sigh)  They had the means of removing this guy's Borg implants this whole time and they're just fucking mentioning it now??? So what, Alex is in the one place in the entire DEO shielded from psychic attack? They really made it seem like the premise of the DEO being incepted to be the main story of this episode; and it's literally the last 10 minutes of the episode.  Which means that they knew how much of a turd this episode was and had to hunt down what could pass as the most interesting part of the episode; and it seems the preview encompasses the entirety of that footage. Man, I know Alex is supposed to be a bad ass, but damn, Brainiac 5 is a lightweight. So Lena's plan was foiled because she forgot Kara has super hearing? Jesus Christ, Lena has worse mommy issues than Bruce Wayne.