#it is CRIMINAL they just. never use his powers again after s5. do they even use them in s5??

[sammygender]

something sooooo interesting about sam saying ‘i have powers’ present tense in american nightmare. even tho he proceeds to use past tense when talking about what he could do… he still identifies as having them. taking that as confirmation they’re still within him and he’s just too deeply traumatised by s4/5 to use them again <3 if this show was good though sam‘s psychic powers would’ve made a comeback

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: The Yo-yo Crimes of Jounouchi Pt 2

OK, last we left off, we were in a different Youtube video. This one I grabbed off of 2 different videos (you’ll see their watermark in the corner change) and it makes me appreciate the quality that our other episodes have been, honestly. A little bit of compression going on in these, just to give you even more of that nostalgic feel of watching a bootleg anime from the 90′s your brother got from his weird high school friend’s Napster account.

Because this is done with subtitles on, it takes more caps to cover it. Part of why I rewrite the dialogue in these recaps is to help abridge stuff, and so consider yourself warned...there’s a lot of caps in this one. For most of you, that’s probably not much of a problem. But I’m just letting you know because...I sure wasn’t expecting it to be over 40 caps for half an episode, and I’ll probably just type less to make up for that. (Tumblr keeps Erasing All My Words anyway, so this is for the best, but that’s a tech issue I already went into in another post.)

(read more under the cut)

So, to start off, Yugioh and co. walk up to a bar like a really weird version of a bar joke and are like “do you know where we can find the yo-yo gang?” And, much like a video game npc, the bartender was like “I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about, and I heard every part of their intimate conversation. Let me give you all the details, children.”

Hey, PS, there’s an entire Wikipedia entry about the bar joke. And that is wild. Apparently the first bar joke was from Ancient Sumeria, and Wikipedia was like “Here is the Sumerian joke, but we Do Not Get it. Please don’t try to get it.”

The joke being: "A dog walked into a tavern and said, 'I can't see a thing. I'll open this one'."

Damn. I can’t believe the Sumerians were onto meme humor before we ever invented memes. They were in the Galaxy brain over there in the land before time, holy crap. Depositing their memes knowing that 7,000 years later mankind would look at the world’s first joke and be like “I don’t get it!” while all the millennials and zoomers with our MB of nonsense memes on our phones are like “No. I get it.” Good on you Sumerians, that is freakin the best joke ever made. 7000 years to get to the punch line of confusing the hell out of all us. Bless.

They promptly tell Miho that everything was resolved and that she should go to bed and she was like “Cool!” and exited stage left. Bye, I guess. Anzu also went home, but she didn’t have to be tricked into doing it, she just went the hell to bed.

(PS, I just realized that if I want to write less...I should probably not look up Wikipedia articles about the world’s first ever bar joke. But y’all, habits die so freakin hard, and I just feel like it’s very pertinent to this Yugioh recap, although I know it’s really not.)

Yuugi and Honda decide to visit the warehouse and harass Jounouchi. In the context of the show, they’re going out of their way to pull their best friend out of society’s systemic downward pull of a life of crime and most likely turning into exactly like his Father. But, the way that it’s storyboarded makes it look a lot like these kids just show up out of the corner and this gang was like “Damn it, again? OMG small children, please leave us alone!”

Honda hands over the symbolism sash, to which Jounouchi symbolically says “Nyeh.”

And Honda didn’t take it very well.

After tending to his kidneys for a little while, Honda decided to go back at it again at the Krispy Cream and do some sort of insane parkour over this completely ordinary fence.

Ah, the very first instance of real duel law where you duel over a relationship. In later seasons duel law is invoked for things like Mai’s marriage and the right to date Tea (and then just kind of forgetting you ever won the right to date Tea twice). But to think the very first time was Honda dueling for the right of Jounouchi to be part of nerd gang because Jounouchi had fallen to the dark side yo-yo gang across the street run by some 40 year old man with blue hair.

How many times is Honda gonna fight with a broom? Like are they just magnetized to his location? where are they even coming from?

Freakin janitor powers over here, put him in a Final Fantasy style RPG. I want to see what his limit break would be.

Not like it matters, because Hirotani very quickly explains why these yo-yo’s are at all a threat.

Which honestly shouldn’t be...so lethal? Seems like the weight is all you need, not really the spikes. But it’s at least stronger than Honda’s janitor stuff.

Unfortunate for Honda that he just destroyed an antique.

So with lightning reflexes, Yuugi does what he does most:

The death yo-yo ricochets back and does this little itty bitty scrape to this guy’s face and he’s real bothered by it. Although it’s like...well dude, you’re a 50 year old high schooler, I don’t think people will notice the scrape compared to everything else falling apart in your life.

And so then the Yugioh Season Zero team was like “oh shoot is it time to torture Yuugi???” and they got hella excited.

Like I thought it was just Yuugi’s class that were a bunch of disturbing criminal disasters, but I guess it’s the whole city. Like...was Yuugi’s class the good school?

I mean, it can’t be, there’s no way...

but like...is there a good school in this universe? How does anyone survive till graduation? If you so much as disgrace a yo-yo, you will get the torture treatment that I sure did expect in Yakuza games, but not so much in Yugioh, tbh.

Just a reminder: This is the third time we’ve beat up Yuugi this episode. Within the first meeting of Yuugi and Hirotani, he beat the tar out of Yuugi within eye shot of Jounouchi. So like...Jounouchi was reallllllllllllllllly lax on that deal, right? Like...he took his toot sweet time to realize “yeah this just ain’t ever gonna happen.”

And then the yo-yo wars begin.

Just like Solid Snake crawling through the radiation chamber.

Hirotani throws his Fyper-yoyo, Jounouchi intercepts with his Eireboy, and Hirotani’s completely terrible yo-yo just flies off the string again because Hirotani should have just sticked to using his fists. No wonder they wanted to recruit Jounouchi so badly, their yo-yo game is so off.

We never get a door to darkness in this episode, dipping our enemies into mind horrors. Instead, we get home-alone style traps. But, this makes sense. Not only do the show makers have to make Yuugi avoid solving problems with magic in front of Jounouchi, they also have to make it Jounouchi’s choice to leave Hirotani behind. If Yuugi did it for him in like...some sort of duel law situation...then that sort of leaves out Jounouchi’s choice in the equation.

Not like this ever really comes up in later seasons, since who even follows through with duel law and marries Mai? But like, it does feel like Season Zero calls out the later Seasons a bit in this regard. Honda got beat up because he tried to win Jounouchi back by force (or game, I guess.) That was just another form of coercion on the heels of Hirotani’s. What Jounouchi actually needed was to make his own decision to leave.

...most other anime I’d be like “I’m sure that’s just a translation error” but not this one.

So Yuugi runs to the roof where Jounouchi will never see this.

My audible sigh reading this line about fight club roof.

These stupid gang members went into Yuugi’s native territory, not just a fight club roof, but on a warehouse? They were dead before they arrived.

This was like maybe 3 frames of animation in just rapid succession, it was pretty silly and good.

Reminder that like 4 minutes ago, Yuugi was about to get like executed on a meat hook.

Speaking of getting executed on a meathook:

Hope you like the idea of glass in your eyes, because this anime’s got it.

They chase Yuugi around, in a sequence that was done mostly to conserve frames, so you rarely saw the ground until this shot:

Lots of falling down this episode, but unlike Tea, who fell from a warehouse ceiling once and just kind of rubbed her ass after and was like “ah damn it.” these guys won’t come out of it virtually unscathed.

Also, Honda is here now:

Jumping off of his symbolic sash trapeze, he decides to do in Hirotani for good.

Hey so like...walk the dog is a fairly gentle walk that a yo-yo does slowly on the ground right?

Just pointing out how sensitive Hirotani’s fingies are.

And he...didn’t appear to be dead, so I don’t have to add to the bodycount...but it’s gonna be a real long road for recovery.

And now, with the gang back together Jounouchi is back at school knee deep in make up assignments he’ll probably completely ignore since we know that in a years time, these fools are going to be trapped on Pegasus’ island, and at that point school will be just that place you talk about when you try to remember why you’re friends with Bakura.

---hey aren’t those chairs attached to the desks?

Because...holy crap, Anzu.

Honestly this is what you see before you die, but I guess Jounouchi died off screen after the episode ended, so I don’t have to add him to the deathcount (again). RIP.

Alright! That took like...8 tries to get Tumblr to save this one, but it managed! (well...I guess “managed” isn’t the word you’d use for a typing program that takes 8 tries to save)

Next time, we’ll be back to S5, for an arc I’ve heard is kind of boring. We’ll see. If it truly is, I can condense episodes into fewer posts. Or maybe it’s a secret gem? I guess we shall see.

And if you just got here this is a link to read all the Season Zero recaps from the start:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yuugi-muto/chrono

(there’s also a link to read all the Yugioh posts we wrote from the start in chrono order but straight up, this file won’t freakin save, and I just can’t even will myself to look up that link again. It’s on the home page of this blog on the right.)

[melonsmessymusings]

Preventing ‘Dark Willow’

This essay is based off an argument with my brother a long time ago. The question is if Giles staying in Sunnydale in S6 would have prevented Darth Rosenberg. There are many thoughts on this, but I’ve probably put my foot in my mouth as per usual and made a mess. 

No. Giles staying in S6 would not have prevented Willow from being a magic junkie. 

Throughout the show, magic is used as a metaphor for drugs and sex, albeit ham-handedly. In this case, it’s about drugs. With this in mind, let’s focus firstly on Willow. From as early as S1, Willow expressed an interest in learning magic. Her relationship with Jenny Calendar and her Technopagan badassery led to her forming what seemed at first to be a harmless interest in magic and Paganism. Towards the end of S2 in I Only Have Eyes For You, Willow admits to Giles: “I found loads of websites and stuff on paganism and magic... it’s really interesting.” which demonstrates her interest may be a little more than purely ‘educational fun’.

Her first taste of powerful magicks was restoring Angel’s soul at the end of S2. In Becoming Part 1, Giles warns Willow of the consequences of such mystical forces: “Channelling such potent magicks through yourself… it may open a door you won’t be able to close.” The Passion of the Nerd touched upon it briefly and explained the choice of phrasing is especially key here. It’s not as simple as a one-off spell that has no ramifications, the nature of the Soul Restoration uses a kind of magic that will stay with the caster forever. It leaves a mark. As we know, Willow does the spell anyway after waking up from a coma (don’t even go there) and successfully restores Angel’s soul. This is how her addiction started and it is the ONLY explicitly direct warning of the impact caused by using magicks that Giles gives her.

In Faith, Hope and Trick, Willow tries to persuade Giles to let her help him with the ‘spell’ to bind Acathla and lets slip that she knows more about the black arts than she’d originally led him to believe. There’s an interesting bit of dialogue between the two:

WILLOW: Are you mad at me?

GILES: No, of course not, no.

It’s obvious that Giles is anxious about this but because of his well-established role and priorities at this point, he’s not going to dwell on it too much, despite it being a genuine concern. Later in the episode, Willow also says, “Giles, I know you don’t like me messing with mystical forces…” so it has evidently been the topic of discussion previously. In Gingerbread, Willow is messing with magic again trying to make a protection spell for Buffy. The symbol used by Willow, Amy and that other kid is one commonly associated with human sacrifices according to Giles. The Black Arts. Even if that isn’t the spell they were casting, the symbol had other less pleasant implications. And so, it continues. By S4, Willow is doing much more than floating a pencil, progressing alarmingly quickly and becoming highly proficient by the end of the season. Giles reminds her of the dangers of magic subtly, “I don’t think it’s wise for you to be attempting spells, your energy is too unfocused” and Willow is still doing magic that is both powerful and harmful enough to have caught the attention of D’Hoffryn, Lord of the Vengeance Demons despite his apprehensions.

In S5 we get a first look at ‘Dark Willow’, when Tara gets brain sucked by Glory. There’s no way the whole gang didn’t know about that. Not a chance. Yet oddly, it’s never mentioned? Obviously, the writers had other priorities with the main plot and Glory etc. but it was criminally neglected. Willow used extremely dangerous dark magicks to go after Glory for hurting Tara at incredible risk to herself and the others who ended up having to rescue her. Justifiable or not, her actions were a reckless abuse of power that very nearly had fatal consequences. How any of them just let it slide without so much as a comment is infuriating. In The Weight of The World, Giles says to Xander, “It’s extraordinarily advanced” when he learns that Willow is trying to enter Buffy’s mind yet again, concerned. Also, we start to see the black eyes when Willow attempts more advanced spells, like teleporting Glory away in Blood Ties, or casting the protective wards in Spiral so it can be theorised that the magicks Willow evokes are steadily darkening.

Roll on S6. Set after Buffy’s death, a huge trauma for all the characters. Willow raising Buffy is evidently a massive achievement from her perspective. She considers herself to be a God. In Flooded, she gets the gut-punch from Giles that he is not in fact pleased with her at all. She’d expected him to be “impressed or something” which he was, but in the wrong ways.

GILES: The magicks you channelled are more ferocious and primal than anything you can hope to understand, and you are lucky to be alive you rank, arrogant amateur!

He blames himself for not stopping her, and rightfully so... to an extent. He failed to provide her with proper guidance or even show an interest in the types of magic that she was engaging with. If he had done so at an earlier stage, then perhaps Willow would not have taken things as far as she did. One interpretation of the argument in Flooded is that Giles is lashing out at Willow because he’s frightened. Most likely for Willow instead of Willow herself. He makes a point of saying that she was “the one [I] trusted most to respect the forces of nature” and bringing Buffy back defies the laws of nature. She had no respect for these forces, bending them to her will which is a scary concept. The argument that the Scoobies were selfish for bringing Buffy back notwithstanding, Willow was the one that actually performed the spell, hell bent in succeeding. That horrifies Giles and if anything, is a wakeup call for him to pull his head out of the sand and deal with this seriously. Willow meanwhile doesn’t want to hear a word of it, pacifying him instead of actually understanding the implications of her actions and listening to anything beyond his anger. There’s a lot that could be dissected in this scene but that’s unnecessary at this moment.

Magic is also the primary factor that caused Willow and Tara to split up at the end of Tabula Rasa. Tara had brought her concerns to Willow as early as Tough Love, saying that she was ‘scared’ about how powerful Willow was getting. When Tara tried to explain why she felt this way, Willow refused to listen. Every single time that Tara raised a concern about Willow’s use of magic, Willow either ignored it or reassured her that it was fine, and she was totally in control. But Willow has a history of altering people and their actions to suit her. She attempted to do so in Lover’s Walk by casting a spell on Xander to stop them having feelings for each other. Again, in Something Blue, while unaware of the effects of the spell, she still made the conscious choice to use magic to ‘have her will be done’. She ended up hurting her friends, however unintentionally. Then in S6 when Tara and Willow are arguing about magic, instead of having a proper conversation, Willow uses the Lethe’s Bramble to make Tara forget they were even arguing. A direct invasion of her mind. And Willow didn’t show any indication that she thought it was wrong. Barely two episodes later, Willow then used a spell which caused everyone to forget who they are after promising Tara that she would go a week without using magic. It’s no surprise that Tara wanted to break up.

Willow does get ‘clean’ by Entropy. Subsequently Tara comes back, and it all seems to go well until the brutal, vicious, non-sensical murder that causes Willow to launch herself back into the dark magicks stating, “I’m not coming back.” Only then does Giles do something about it. Only then does he take it upon himself to step up and realise that he has failed her, by which point it was far too late and resulted in her very nearly killing him, a price he deemed a suitable penance for his neglect.

But NOT ONCE prior to this did Giles intervene. He had the resources and was capable of it, and not once did he sit her down properly and say, “Willow, I think we need to talk about your use of magic because I’m a tad concerned.” Even after resurrecting Buffy, he only chastises her for her recklessness, he doesn’t actively do anything beyond this except a few powerful glares. He is watching her make all the mistakes he made as a young rapscallion and doing nothing about it. Then in S7, he fulfils the mentor role to her and helps keep on track of her recovery, an older addict helping the younger. It just highlights that he could have helped her sooner before it was out of control.

This comes back to Giles’ basic structure as a character. He’s a Watcher, the mentor to the Slayer. His purpose is to be in Sunnydale for Buffy. His whole life is revolved around Buffy, she is factored into every single one of his decisions. He never signed up to be the ‘father-figure’, despite appearing to adopt that role very quickly. He never signed up to care for Xander and Willow, he isn’t the Watcher of them. He has never given any indication that he wants that responsibility, and it shouldn’t fall to him to care for a group of random teenagers. It’s this fundamental construction of Giles’ character that means that he’s borderline dependant on Buffy, which isn’t her fault at all. He sacrifices everything, even parts of himself for her and most of the time gets nothing in return. The point is that Giles is so busy being a Watcher that he can’t think of anything else. It’s not necessarily his fault, that’s exactly how he was trained, and arguably after the whole Eyghon debacle, it’s unlikely that he ever truly had faith in his judgement again. Remember when Giles put Buffy before Jenny, the woman he loves? Buffy comes first, always because the mission is what matters.

On a more speculative note, Giles was aware of Willow’s obsession with magic and didn’t know what to do, instead choosing to believe that he wanted to help her, but he didn’t trust himself to teach her the control she needed. It does narratively fit for Giles to be reluctant to help Willow learn the magicks given his past. However, he neglected her and is at least partially to blame for Willow becoming a magic junkie. He had every opportunity over YEARS to step in and offer her a proper education. He had the skills and if he were hesitant, certainly had the connections to find someone who would teach Willow properly, e.g., the Coven in Devon. The audience is acutely aware after The Dark Age that Giles has a history of abusing dark magic. Note that throughout the series, he does not actually use that much magic himself. This abuse led to Giles having to murder one of his friends among whatever else he and his ‘friends’ got up to, which means he knows full well the ramifications of messing with that kind of power and doesn’t want to go down that rabbit hole again. Magic is an addiction and he’s a recovering addict.

Equally, Willow never asked Giles for help. It’s all very well blaming him for being negligent and grossly irresponsible, but she didn’t ask him to teach her. She didn’t ask him for guidance or whatever, at least not memorably. Assume that he did help her. That he trained her and gave her a proper education in the magicks. There’s no guarantee that any of that would have prevented Willow from taking it too far. Willow has an addictive personality and therefore it makes logical sense for her to become addicted to magic. Ultimately, Giles could have spent years training her, but he can’t make decisions for her, nor does he wish to. Willow is her own person, a bright, capable young woman who is an adult. He cannot push her to do anything and it’s not in his nature to do so. Dark Willow is an inevitability in a sense.

Essentially while Giles staying in Sunnydale would’ve been preferable on a personal level, it would have made very little difference as to whether Willow would abuse the magicks. She’d already done so on countless occasions with no intervention therefore he likely wouldn’t have interfered until it was too little too late. It’s not that he doesn’t care for Willow, but he had other priorities, right or wrong. Should he have helped her? Absolutely. But it takes two to Tango...

[butterfly-winx]

Seen a lot of talk about relationships in people’s rewrites, and I wanted to share my headcanons for the “butterfly fic” AU! (I’m currently going on an S6+ timeline, so the story starts off with all canon couples and then... crumbles from there)

Bloom x Sky: The two of them got together for real at the end of S2 in this timeline, after the identity shrouding/theft both of them pulled made their start rocky. They both understand why the other did it, but it doesn’t make it any better or easier to bear after months of insecurity, thinking they would be dumped eventually when the truth came out. S3 though S4 they are well off, but then the whammy hits when Sky loses his memories during the oil rig rescue mission. He still knows Bloom and that he loves her, but even after a year he doesn’t feel like he can recover the version of his self that he has been before. Bloom tries to assure him as best as she can, showing him that she can learn how to love the “new” him as well. Their lives end up on hugely different trajectories that lead to their relationship slowly crumbling over the S8 timeline, during which Bloom is going crazy worries about her sanity and reliability (👀). Bloom also slowly finds herself developing feelings for Stella after the other confesses. In the end Bloom and Sky go their separate ways amicably.

Stella x Brandon: So, Stella confesses to Bloom, then how does SxB work out? Well, both Stella and Brandon are home of sexuals in a mutually beneficial fake relationship. They did date of course back in the S1-2 time, fully conforming to what society expected of people of their standing. Stella believed as long as she could find a guy ok enough to settle with, everything would be fine. She could be happy. Brandon on the other hand was a bit more aware of his crush on Sky, but he though if he hid behind a relationship with a conventionally feminine and attractive girl he could squash all rumours and budding feelings. Internalised homophobia is a bitch that did a number on both of them. Though this is not to say there are no real emotions between them. Stella loves Brandon deeply, they consider each other their respective closest friend. In that vein, Stella would do anything to make life as stable and comfortable for Brandon - after his childhood had been less so - including marrying him to make him a prince. Since Solaria supports polyamory, this comes at no additional strain for her. His presence in the meantime wards off other suitors and creeps, for which she is very thankful, as it gives her space to figure out her feelings about Bloom. And oooh does she have many. She eventually confesses during the S8 timeline, but has to wait quite a while for a positive response, after which Stella and Brandon both come clean about the nature of their relationship to the rest of the world. In the end, Stella is lucky enough to celebrate not one, but two fun weddings.

Brandon: He gets his own column, because his story goes on separate from Stella’s. While the engagement to Stella is still on the table in the S6 timeline, Brandon struggles both with his crumbling team of Specialists and his feelings about the new recruit. Alright, he did not recruit Roy to the team because he thought he was cute. Brandon thinking that and low-key flirting with him came after they settled on the addition to their team. But BxR doesn’t have a long future after Roy believes Brandon cheated on Stella by sleeping with him. Plus his tension with Layla eventually lead to Roy leaving the team mid S7. Long after that, Brandon gets over his crush for Sky, just when Sky is in the middle of a life crisis and Brandon tries his best not to get sucked in too deep again, but that hurts Sky and irreparably damages the close friendship they had before.

Flora x Helia: Ah yes, unproblematic faves. Don’t change what isn’t broken. (Their S5 trouble isn’t about Flora being jealous about a literal teenager,  but rather about her shock of him being so willing to close off and leave behind people from different stages of his life.) The two of them would be set for marriage if such a custom existed on Lynphea, but they definitely plan on raising a family on planet once that is an option again.

Timmy x Techna: Equally low drama zone. They felt a bit pushed together when they first got acquainted as their friends started to date each other. Techna was having their gender identity crisis for the majority of S2 so a relationship was furthest away from their mind. They softly flirted in S3 as they grew closer, which as we know ended in Timmy losing his marbles when Techna got sucked into the Omega portal. He confessed right as the rescue mission was still happening and the two of them have been going strong since then. In S5 they even move together, which Musa joins in S6 (they had a two bedroom flat, just in case they needed the extra space from each other, when/if things weren’t working out, but they were using only the one bedroom anyway, so Musa was welcome there) Surprising everyone who knew them, Timmy and Techan were actually the first ones to get married. After Timmy’s family was becoming more and more hostile, denouncing him for his choice of career, Techna thought it was the most logical thing to get married and grant Timmy much better social security. The two of them plus Musa living together were falling into a tooth-rottingly cute domesticity, until life got unexpectedly difficult.

Musa x Riven: The drama central couple that never should have gotten together. In retrospect everything was super clear to Musa: they had gotten together after Riven had rescued her from Shadowhaunt, playing the hero he had always wanted to be - this streak for glory being the thing that ruined their relationship down the road. Riven’s insecurity got the best of him during S5 and he couldn’t stop comparing himself to Sky, feeling helpless even beside Musa herself. She of course was incredibly offended her boyfriend only wanted her as long as she was waifish and he could swoop in for the rescue, so as soon as Domino was restored the two of them broke up, Riven going his own way, away from the Specialist team itself. Reflecting over the mistakes of her relationship cause Musa to realise she was forcing herself to like a lot of things about Riven, and maybe she was actually also interested in women as well. Layla welcomes her to the wlw world and suggests Musa put herself out there. However Musa doesn’t find love anytime soon (not like there weren’t options out there, like Galatea would go on a date with her in a heartbeat if Musa only asked) And then after moving together with Techna and Timmy, the three of them fall asleep on the same couch one too many times for Musa to start thinking there might be something there, a bit more than just friendship.. and then of course she ruins it, cause....

Riven x Darcy: He enters the story again in the S8 timeline, and disappears quickly again after Flora gives him the worst advice of her life (that she thought he looked genuinely happy with Darcy, hoping he wouldn’t force the thing with Musa). So he goes looking for Darcy, unintentionally setting off the whole plot for this arc, because Darcy is not where she should be prison and she is not there on her own accord. Darcy and Riven continue to have a thing on and off (seeing as she is a wanted criminal and shit) and that drives Musa up the wall. She may or may not still have feelings for Riven. Upset, she looks for an outlet with her quarantine mate, and that ladies and gents, is bad decision central

Stormy x Musa: Bad decision central. A drunken one night stand, let’s not talk about it anymore.

Layla x Nex: A sweet one sided crush that goes nowhere. Nex tries, but Layla is nowhere near ready to date again when he steps into her life in S7. He takes the rejection with dignity and the two of them try to remain friends, as best as they can, when Nex suddenly becomes the biggest critic of Layla’s chosen relationship in S8 (he means well of course, and once again, despite the Riven-vibes he gives off, he knows when to shut up).

Layla x Orion: A girl can only handle so much flirting on galactic starsailers before she starts noticing a kind of chemistry she tried to suppress from budding for years after a huge personal loss. Are LxO a match made in heaven? Probably not, but they offer interesting perspectives to each other and are both happy with a casual relationship at that point. Things get tense about a year in when Layla pitches that she does want something more permanent and Orion’s first instinct is to nope out of there. But despite themself, Orion has to realise they really like Layla way too much just to let her go because of their attachment issues. The actual relationship between them is a bit on hold until after everything in the Universe is sorted, but in the meantime Orion becomes the biggest supporter of Layla going her own way and exploring independence away from what people expect of her. Deciding that being a nymph and protecting the whole Universe is way more important to her than following the path the circumstances of her birth set out for her, Layla eventually settles with her partner sailing the winds of the cosmos.

Daphne x ?: Immortal Queen. Needs no one in life except maybe her right-hand woman to lean on 👀 

Some one-sided crushes that went nowhere, but were sweet anyway:

Musa x Layla: not a secret that Musa had a thing for Layla when she transferred to Alfea in S2

Sky x Riven: Due to his amnesia, Sky idiotically forgot he was already out as bi and had a whole crisis, as he developed a tiny crush on Riven of all people

Icy x Tritannus: Gets an honourable mention here because it wasn’t true love, but obsession with power on both sides

Musa x Stella: Not as pronounced as Musa’s other crushes, but on the down low she always softly admired Stella and it turns out what she felt wasn’t envy like internalised societal expectations made her believe 

Diaspro x Sky: Once again, a bit more obsessive than loving. Diaspro saw Sky like a lifeline and she hyperfocused on being able to call a husband her own. After her betrayal and prison time she mellows out, gets pardoned and gets a kind of “stupid, but loving” bf who would kiss the floor she walks on.

[kiss-my-freckle]

8x9 Rewatch: The Cyranoid

“I can see it's not Keen. But what I can't figure out is why it's not Keen.” Couple this episode with The Wellstone Agency. Aram and Ressler have what they need to find Liz. They just need to put their heads together. 

This episode gives you everything you need for the rest of the series. If you want my summation, skip to the bottom because I included every pertinent dialogue. 

A parallel to Pete in 5x7.

Man on the phone: They know. I don't know how, but they know.

Pete: They knew I put in a request with CODIS. I don't know how, but they did.

A parallel to Aram in 7x1. The Seventh Seal, for those who don’t know. 

Red: You all look like you're in a Bergman film playing chess with Death.

Aram: Now we are both eating Polish sausage and playing chess with Death.

If you haven't noticed yet, they've got a coffee cup theme going on. This is like their 4th or 5th time with the coffee cups. To understand this, you have to go to the opening diner scene in 2x21. 

Tom: Alright, dream scenario. We finish our coffee...

Bremmer’s statement pushes back to 8x3 and 5x9, for a reason.

Bremmer: He'll never forgive you for this

Cooper: What you did to her, what you did to Katarina, I don't think Elizabeth will ever forgive you for it. Red: She might. Some day. But before then...

Liz: Can you forgive me? Red: Yes. Will you be able to forgive yourself?

Red: I fear she may do something that she can never recover from. And of all the tragedies that you and I have experienced together, that would be the most tragic. We have to do - do everything in our power to prevent that from happening.

Apparently, Neville is the reason Liz lost 30 years with her mother. 

Red: Make no mistake, Harold. By going after Townsend, Elizabeth is putting her life in grave danger.

I like the pest control van Ressler and Park use for their surveillance. The majority of Ressler's scenes push the idea of him turning to Red for help.

Gina: They say two things will survive a nuclear holocaust - cockroaches and twinkies.

A lot of their dialogues push back to Ressler's storyline with Prescott. Turning to Red now to help Liz ... it’s the kind of favor that wouldn't put Ressler in his debt because it's not for him, it's for Liz. if he ended up saving her by pulling her back in, Red would consider himself in Ressler’s debt just as he did with Aram. 

Aram: A war criminal and an international fugitive. Your parents must be proud.

This line of dialogue leads me to believe Neville is an international fugitive because Mary is the war criminal. Aram talks about her crimes later on in the episode. Everyone is led to believe Townsend got his hands on Liz. 

Cooper: You know Townsend. What hope does she have? Red: He's a very dangerous man. Elizabeth kidnapped his sister, and now he has Elizabeth. If I were her, I'd feel pretty hopeless.

Neville knows what Elizabeth looks like, which means he likely saw her in the news when she was on the run in S3. As you watch how Liz controls her Cyranoid, understand this is how much Tom and the woman from Paris have been controlling Liz. It's an emotional hostage-taking.

Liz: No, I know who I am. I am the puppet of some high-functioning sociopath.

Liz: A marionette with a high-functioning sociopath pulling my strings.

When you have someone who controls what Liz believes, and therefore, what she feels... you have someone who has taken Liz emotionally hostage. Period. That's why no one recognizes her. 

Red: I'm not worried about my hide. I worry about Elizabeth's. I strongly suggest you do the same.

Cooper automatically assumes Red killed Rakitin's patsy, and because of that, basically reveals he's the one who has Red's thumb drive. This gives Red his open to demand he return it.

Liz: You believe my mother was murdered by the Kazanjian Brothers. That never happened. They betrayed you, cut a deal with my mother to fake her death and buy her the time she needed to clear her name. Neville: I don't believe any of this.

William: Well, whoever I am is irrelevant. Katarina Rostova is dead.

Neville: Katarina Rostova is N-13.

William: Assuming, for the sake of discussion, you are who you claim to be, what proof could you possibly have? Woman: I have the identity of N-13. William: You're N-13.

Neville Townsend and William Heidegger shared the same belief. Katarina is N-13 and she's dead. By using “N-13″ as an unidentified codename, it allows them to drag out Red's identity reveal further and evens the war with Townsend. Both Katarina and Red are N-13 because Red is Katarina. Liz thinks she's avenging her mother when she's putting three generations at risk... her mother, herself, and her daughter. Using N-13 also makes it possible for Red to survive this war. If they didn’t do it this way, Red wouldn’t, that’s a guarantee. I told people this when they first brought up the idea of Neville being the big bad. If Red’s real identity got outed to the world, he wouldn’t survive it. He’d have to hide out on his island for the rest of his life. 

Neville: Are you saying Reddington killed her to hide the fact he's N-13? Liz: Yes. And I can prove it. That he's the reason your family's dead.

Ilya Koslov is the only person who can prove the identity of N-13 because Dom is dead. It's likely Sikorsky can prove it, but I don't think Liz will be able to push that far. 

Rakitin: The witch hunt is over and there's one less government knob sticking his nose into our business. You should be thanking me.

Red had his witch trial in S6. He’s a witch because he’s Katarina. Rakitin comes off a lot like Tom Keen, and I do think it’s purposeful. He's one of Red's assets.

Red: You tricked them. For a day. Maybe two. But they'll see past it, and when they do, they'll come looking for you.

Katarina: The news of my death would fool most. It won't fool Velov.

I believe his 30 year project is the Devry map and the blacklist, and it's a shared mission because Red is Katarina and Liz is Masha. A mythic battle that he and Liz are central to because they're mother and daughter Rostova. I think he's trying to remove the threats that separated them for 30 years. They've already cleared out the Cabal. Their affiliates likely went blue, so Red and Liz still have a massive blue player war to fight. 

Liz: I wouldn't have gone to the effort of taking your sister, luring you out, of making this pitch unless I was certain. Raymond Reddington killed my mother because she had uncovered the truth.

Most people don’t see it yet, but this war is on the opposite side of S5. 

Liz: You can trust me.

That’s why Liz is telling Neville he can trust her. For the same reason Tom told Red he can trust him. Because Red couldn’t trust Tom, and Neville can’t trust Liz. 

Tom: You can trust me. Red: No, I can't. I hired you to do a job. The rules were explicit, and you violated them. You're unreliable.

Red KNOWS Neville can’t trust Liz. 

Red: Elizabeth Keen is not to be trusted.

Neville is gonna find out she’s unreliable. She’s STILL Red’s daughter lol. This is where Liz's hopelessness will come in that Red spoke of earlier.

Red: He's a very dangerous man. Elizabeth kidnapped his sister, and now he has Elizabeth. If I were her, I'd feel pretty hopeless.

This Cyranoid changed everything when she surrendered herself. 

Cooper: We don't have to find her because she found us. She surrendered herself out front five minutes ago.

A quick gather of dialogues to show you what I mean.

Ressler: I can see it's not Keen, but what I can't figure out is why it's not Keen.

Cooper: Seven years ago - she was kind, enthusiastic, decent. Under your tutelage - she's become someone I fail to recognize.

Red: I'll tell you what she's not doing - behaving like you would.

Aram: Who are you? Liz: You know who I am and why I have to do this. Aram: You forged my signature to get 16 ounces of Semtex. You nearly killed Mr. Reddington and Ressler. I knew who you were, Liz. But I don't recognize who you've become.

Ressler: I'm just saying, if she did reach out to you, if you actually saw her, you might think differently. Aram: Did she reach out to you? Ressler: No, she didn't. But if she did... I'm just saying it might make a difference.

Aram: He didn't "say," he ordered. Ressler: Yeah, but I told you, if you saw her you'd think differently.

Aram: You were right. It is different.

THIS is exactly what the task force needed. To change Liz's face so they can know what they're seeing - a completely different person. Liz IS an imposter. She’s been an imposter since she stepped off Tom’s boat in 2x22. The task force still believes Red is Ilya, but this is where Liz parallels Rederina and both parallel the Deer Hunter. All that’s left for Liz is a gender change. 

She's becoming Tom Keen, but keeping her face. A Pinocchio wife and daughter because they’re holding her emotionally hostage. Tom, by making her believe he’s the father of Agnes. The woman from Paris, by making her believe she’s her mother. Tom and the woman from Paris are pulling Liz’s strings. She’s a fucking marionette. 

Cyranoid: I told you, it's me. Ressler: No.

Cyranoid: Why don't we start with what happened between you and me the night before I went on the run? Ressler: Who the hell are you?

Just like Reddington. “Who are you?” The entire fucking point. Imagine Liz changing her face to look like her Cyranoid. They'd never see Liz again. THIS is what Katarina did by permanently changing her face to become Raymond. You might as well Consider “Raymond” to be Katarina’s Cyranoid.

Dom: Last time I saw my daughter was in this rearview mirror nearly 30 years ago.

Put this entire Post Office playout in 2x22 context and you can see my memory wipe theory. You just have to consider Mary's death like Connolly's. That gif set is here. Liz is wrong. “Almost everything” has changed because she had her memory wiped. The only thing that hasn’t changed is her face. That’ll be left for Agnes. 

Cyranoid: You should let me go. Ressler: Those days are over. Cyranoid: Why? Nothing's changed. Ressler: No. You ordered your puppet to murder Bremmer. Now you're helping her escape. Cyranoid: I've missed you. Ressler: Well, how about we get together? Have a little chat.

I love how Panbaker says this when they haven’t even told her Red is Ilya. 

Panabaker: Which is why I give you a perilously long leash. But it's not so long that I'll approve granting immunity to someone whose identity I am unaware of. Cooper: Ressler, go over the forensics again. Facial recognition, prints. See what you can find. Panabaker: Be good if that included your dignity.

Ressler doesn't see that he has the power to make Liz surrender. They need to stop their physical search and start an emotional one. They lost her in S2. 

Red: She's the master of her own puppet. An avatar of herself.

Liz is a puppet controlling her own puppet. 

It makes her Grendel’s mother. Little Red Riding Hood. 

Liz: Before we had Agnes... I thought Tom and I were gonna adopt.

Tom: Tonight, you are finally gonna see what this little monster looks like.

A parallel to 3x17.

Neville: You need me on your team. This is my price. Are you willing to pay it?

Red: Do you really want your child to pay the price for that mistake for the rest of his or her life?

A parallel to 7x10.

Cyranoid: Your brother loves you very much.

Woman: But she asked me to give you a big hug and tell you how much she loves you.

I believe this will be the means of Agnes’ hit. Revenge for Mary Bremmer. 

Mary: I've done nothing wrong. Aram: Except use chemical weapons on men, women, and children.

Aram: Have you seen what she's done? Chemical Mary. The way her weapons have been used. Against civilians... children. The Agent Keen I know wouldn't use someone like this to get to Townsend or anyone else. She'd arrest her and make sure she couldn't hurt anyone again.

Aram: Whoever she is, she is not our problem. Now, this... this is our problem. Douma and Khan Shaykhun. Syrian children victimized by chlorine gas. We have a war criminal in custody. I am going to confront her with her war crimes.

For the same reason Victor Skovic took over Dr. Krilov’s business when he got arrested. Neville knows his sister. He’ll tailor his revenge to fit her.  

Separating this section. A parallel to 7x10.

Aram: She'd arrest her and make sure she couldn't hurt anyone again.

Ressler: You scrambled my brain, and I'm here to make sure that you never do that to anyone else.

Separating this section. A parallel to 3x15.

Aram: Whoever she is, she is not our problem. Now, this... this is our problem.

Red: Tom is your Tom problem. 

You basically have to put Agnes in Red’s place. She’s the one in danger.

A parallel to 5x8. 

Cyranoid: I don't expect you to understand, but I am doing what is necessary to end this. To stop Reddington.

Garvey: I like to think I'm the kind of man who'd politely ask you to stop this, to let this end here, but I can tell you're the kind of guy who won't get the message and stop.

These bits sell Liz’s surrender should Ressler turn to Red.

Cyranoid: That's why I have a Cyranoid. To eliminate your control.

Cyranoid: You really think you have power over me, don't you?

Cyranoid: I am not surrendering myself to you.

Red: When you love someone, you have no control. That's what love is. Being powerless.

A parallel to Dr. Fulton. 

Neville: Uh, it turns out that you're due for a reckoning.

Fulton: Closure requires a reckoning.

Because Red is Liz’s mother. So run this opposite. 

Fulton: A widow. A mom. A cop. Liz: And one more thing. Fulton: What's that? Liz: A daughter.

A parallel to Ruin. 

Blake: Try and get some sleep. Neville: I always try. And I never do.

Liz: What matters is that I did it and I was good at it. And I didn't lose any sleep over it. Red: You will. One of these nights you will. It's just a matter of when.

Summation.

They’ve covered most of my predictions for this season. Had I grouped these dialogues, you'd see it even more. With Neville, Liz pushes the danger to Agnes. With the task force, she pushes her second memory wipe and her possible surrender later on. A culmination of things for their first hit on my Tom Domino theory, and I do believe this very arc will lead to that reveal. Agnes’ hit is coming and everyone is falling in parallel with each other. They’ll have more coming, so expect a lot of parallel gif sets from me as they do. 

Liz: I want revenge. Alice: You have my full attention.

Liz is seeking revenge for the death of the woman she believes was her mother. That's it. She's not seeking truths, but feeling quite certain Dom framed her mother and set her up as a patsy. Don't confuse a woman willing to break the rules to seek revenge as a woman who's in control of her life. There's no control to have in seeking revenge, only a poisoned soul. The difference between 3a and 8a shows you where they're heading. The only way Liz can gain control of her life is by getting to the truth rather than seeking revenge for what she believes is the truth. Once those truths come to light, Liz will have the power she needs to take control. Because she’s seeking revenge for what she believes is the truth, Agnes will end up in parallel with Red. Liz and Agnes willl basically fall on the other side of The Djinn's episode. She's harming her own daughter by aligning with Neville, and she was stupid enough to take Agnes on the run with her. 

Consider Liz no different than Bahram because this is where they're heading.

Red: Look at that. Pinned like a swallowtail.

Red: I need an ambulance. A man's dying on a cross.

Ressler: So, you go ahead and you nail yourself to a cross...

You simply need to change Ressler's position from the Deer Hunter episode.

Ressler: Don't. Don't ask me to feel your pain, Liz. I got more than enough of my own.

Liz: But if she isn't who I thought she was, if she's a threat - Ressler: Then we'll deal with it.

Because Agnes is his daughter and he’s gonna feel that pain with her. 

Bahram: I wanted to protect you, Nasim.

Tom: We were trying to protect Agnes. Red: I guess that didn't work out.

I’m predicting Neville runs opposite William with the ducks. 

William: There's a park on the corner of Wabash and Grant. I take my granddaughter there to feed the ducks.

Duck, duck, roasted goose. Fire for Agnes. Burn scars like the makeup on the woman at the costume shop. Fire like Alina’s friend. Burns to the face like Mary Bremmer. I think that’s why they’re on the carousel with the unicorn. Unicorns are good luck. Washer necklaces are bad luck. I think he’s gonna drop a deadly weapon through Liz’s skylight on behalf of his sister. 

[cwdcshows]

Supergirl - S5 E13 - It's a Super Life

I kind of forgot Mixy was already on Supergirl.  I was ambivalent with the actor choice when he showed up at the end of the last episode, but given the alternative, I'm okay with it. All this hand-wringing about altering history, but they're currently living in a radically altered timeline right now as a result of Crisis.  There are facts about their own lives and histories that they still completely surprised to learn; so would this one thing really be that big of a deal?  I mean, it probably will be, because the writers are fucking morons, but it shouldn't be; especially if, presumably, Mixy offers some type of escape clause should things not pan out to Kara's liking, which she should definitely insist upon. It goes to show how little I actually care or pay attention, even as I review these shows - did Lena fess up to Kara that she remembered Pre-Crisis?  Because if not, why is Kara even worried about it, if she's still operating under the assumption that everything is good between them Post-Crisis?

So when they go into Kara's past is she interacting with Pre-Crisis Lena or Post-Crisis Lena?  Because technically the only past that still exists is the Post-Crisis timeline, which should mean it'd be the Post-Crisis Lena, but since Lex made a deal for the Pre-Crisis version of Lena to exist once Crisis was over, where does the one end and the other begin?  A Post-Crisis Lena's experiences and perspective on the world should, arguably, be different from Pre-Crisis; for starters given the fact that in the Post-Crisis world, Lex was never brought down or considered a criminal or a murderer and Lena never had to rebrand the family company.  She obviously still has mommy-issues, and some other things in common, like ostensibly her relationship with Andrea and the way that played out, but there would be other differences.

"So much exposition." Okay, I like this version of Mixy. I know the actor probably didn't write that line and has nothing to do with it other than the delivery, but still, it was a good line taking the piss out of how much exposition there is in any of these shows. I mean, if they've found the sweat spot where Kara can reveal herself to Lena without Lena going over the dark side, even if there are ramifications like Lena, Mon-El or Sam dying; shouldn't that be kind of a minor point to fine tune?  If you're going to fuck with history, you might as well give it the full shaft and do it right.  That's what Oliver did. Well obviously this happy-go lucky timeline is going to get fucked up somehow.   Why would their public relationship change so radically in this altered timeline?  The only thing that's different is that Lena knows her secret; either way she'd have worked alongside Kara just the same as she did before, maybe siding with Kara a little more often, but this is over the top.  Any ideological differences in opinion that they might have had in the past wouldn't have necessarily evaporated just because Lena knew Kara was Supergirl; and why would they go out of their way to make a public brand about this partnership. Also, isn't that exactly what the Post-Crisis DEO & Luthor-Corp dynamic is supposed to be; Lena and Supergirl (and Lex) working together?  How is this not the reality they live in then? Wait, so Lockwood still ended up working with the same people as he did in the original timeline, but why?  That was all orchestrated by Lex.  So what, Lex still brings on Lockwood, only this time he does to kidnap his sister?  For what purpose?  He's not even in jail in the Post-Crisis timeline; and is there even a Reign, much less a Red-Daughter in this other other timeline? I'll admit, the episode wasn't terrible up to this point, but there's some logical inconsistencies with how they're trying to make the best possible outcome a bad one; it's just too forced. Wait, what?  Why is Winn suspicious of Lex in this alternate-alternate reality?  When Winn came back from the future he had no idea that Lex was supposed to be a bad guy, meaning he had all the Post-Crisis memories until J'Onn mind whammied him.  Or in this Lena-Kara team-up timeline did Kara and Lena uncover Lex's crimes and bring him down after all?  This has become a bigger clusterfuck than Crisis.... Also, Winn's appearance in this episode makes sense being the 100th (I think), but it seems a little undermined by the fact that he was just in the last two episodes and they made a big deal about him leaving in the last one. Seriously, it's not the person knowing someone's secret identity that makes them the target; it's telling the fucking world that they know such a powerful secret.  No one knows Winn knows Kara's identity, so how often was he targeted specifically for his association with Supergirl?  Sure, you might say, "well he's Winn, the average person doesn't know who the fuck he is," but that's part of the point.  He's walking around with one of the biggest secrets and they just don't fucking draw attention to it and no one asks, "hey, do you know Supergirl or what secret identity is?"  If they put a picture of Winn of the front page of the Daily Planet that he's Supergirl's best friend and keeper of her secrets, that alone would make him a very public figure with ties to Supergirl that could be exploited. Surely the world was aware of at least some of the things Lena helped Supergirl with in the original timeline, did anyone assume she knew her secret identity?  For that matter, why do they assume she has one? So in this happy, shinny timeline they said that Lena made Supergirl's new suit - so she happened to make a new suit that was identical to the one Brainy made for her in another timeline?? I honestly had already seen spoiler pictures of Kara revealing her secret identity at a press release.  I kind of wondered if they would be so bold as to actually go that route for real, but kind of figured they'd find a way to walk that back or not play it for keeps; and the second I knew what this episode was going to be about it was clear that this was how they were going to incorporate it without actually owning the outcome moving forward. You gotta love the fact that they're doing this big, "It's a Wonderful Life" style retrospective 100th episode celebration, bringing back past actors, but because they clearly couldn't get Calista Flockhart for the episode, for whatever reason, they just throw up her image and declare her dead. Not only that, but with the likes of Supergirl and Superman (not to mention the Flash, Green Arrow, et al, who now reside on this Earth), how does Agent Liberty manage to go after all of Kara's friends and family and there are no survivors?  Fuck you. Why would Mixy suddenly get pulled into this new-new-new-new timeline? Especially since it was just a preview and he wasn't pulled into any of the others? Seriously?  Kara doesn't befriend Lena, so she goes full on Dark Warrior Duck?   And here again, this is all Pre-Crisis shit; there is no L-Corp Post-Crisis and Lena didn't take over the company, she runs it alongside Lex. And would Nia still become Dreamer in this reality?  Hell, would Brainiac even be here?  There's a lot of shit that wouldn't have happened in the aftermath of Lena going to war with Lex.  How does Lena control Reign and what about the other World Killers?   You know, it wasn't until Jimmy's sister pulled out the Guardian shield that I a) remembered that Jimmy passed the mantle on to her (I think) and b) realized that, apart from footage from past episodes he hasn't made any kind of cameo; which you'd think if they were going to bring some of these others back, they'd have brought him back too.  Especially since he was there when it all started. "Where were you when my brother blew my helicopter out of the sky?" Kind of a legitimate question.  I mean, yeah, this is supposed to be the timeline where Kara and Lena never became friends, but just because they're not friends doesn't mean Kara wouldn't save her if she were able. So if Lena is using 5th dimension energy to power her drones, preventing Mixy from using his powers; and she's only doing this in National City, why don't Kara pick-up Mixy and fly them straight out of town and as far as way as necessary so that his powers work again?  Surely there's limits to where Lena's tap on the 5th dimension would affect his powers, right; even if they have to go halfway around the planet? Kara should be dead, right?  After that many direct blasts with Kryptonite energy?

[head-and-heart]

The 100 Highlights - “Damocles: Part 2″ (5x13)

Hey guysssssss. 

I’m back to cover my final highlight recap for Season 5. After this, I’ll be going more in-depth on analysis/criticism of the overall season so enjoy this lighthearted blundering while you can. :)

To read other posts in this series, you can click here. 

Tree is really out here (as always) doing his best work. The score during the opening sequence this episode was *kisses fingers*

I have to say that I did enjoy Bellamy protecting Madi in various ways throughout the finale. He promised Clarke that he would, and it feels like he’s living up to that promise. First by stepping in front of her to protect her from Octavia, and then later when he told her “we’ll be right beside you”, ensuring that he would have her back the entire time. And that he would be there to advise her whenever she needs his help.

“Now we win.” Lousy shot. Ha. Sorry, but that was hot.

“You’ll never know your daughter.” Good. Fucking. Riddance.

“We’ve been here before, Madi. We were the criminals. The 100.” I get weak for any reference to the original hundred what can i say i’m a starving woman

“You can execute them because they’re the enemy, or you can break the cycle. You can be better than them. You can be better than us.”

I do like the theme of Season 5 being about breaking the cycle. Let’s hope that the writers really do mean that when they say it.

I also enjoy the return of motivational speeches Bellamy. Madi may have been the figurehead throughout this episode, but it was really Bellamy leading the way. He may have changed, but he’s still the heart. He still inspires people, and I’m glad that he got to the be the one to have this moment where he changed the tide of the war. It felt like a nice wrap up of his journey over the course of “Book One”.

“We’ll wait as long as we can.” “Deja vu.” MONTY IS THE ONLY REAL ONE HERE. My first thought when Raven said that line was “oh ffs not this again”. 

I did enjoy the parallel of Monty saving Murphy’s life like Murphy did in 4x13. 

“First we save their lives. Then we let them prove they deserve it.” “The commanders told you that?” “No. Bellamy.” aksqinsks first lemme laugh at Clarke’s skepticism about the flame telling Madi to spare them because that bitch KNOWS that they would never be so noble lmao. Second lemme appreciate my crumbs.

I mean ... I guess we finally know how the radio calls were addressed???

Clarke’s hopeful little smile when Bellamy sat down next to her on the ship was really cute. She looks so guilty and nervous. Eliza raised millions for the Blarkes in this episode.

“THAT’S BRILLIANT!” Me, every single time Bellamy Blake speaks. Thank you for the enthusiasm, Clarkey G.

Bellamy and Clarke are so, so, so awkward in this scene between them but it kind of feels like ... the start of something? Like, they both have made huge mistakes and still found it in them to forgive each other despite it. And now they know how much the other cares for them. I have to hope that it means they’re going to move forward. For real, this time. How they’re supposed to.

“You’re not mad at me for leaving you in Polis?” “The commander told me not to be.” Anyway, Bellamy’s jokes still suck and Clarke still laughs at them so ... some things never change?

“I’ll meet you on the bridge.” That was a weighted fucking look, my dudes. I liked that Bellamy thought to include Clarke. It felt like an apology, in a way. 

Also, WAS THAT THE S5 BELLARKE THEME I HEARD IN THAT SCENE. Cause if so, it’s fucking beautiful.

THAT LOOK BETWEEN THE BLAKES. BOB AND MARIE HAVE SO MUCH CHEMISTRY.

“Cheer up. I wasn’t invited either.” I LOVE A WOMAN

“Your mistake was liking it. Power. It’s the kiss of death. It’s okay. I liked it, too.” Ivana and Marie are both such compelling actresses and HEY LOOK THEY GOT CHEMISTRY. I honestly really enjoyed this short scene between the two of them. They were enemies and yet - no hard feelings. Because the war wasn’t personal to them. We didn’t get many scenes between Charmaine and Octavia this season (or obvious reasons) but I’m intrigued to see if we’ll get more in Season 6 because they work really naturally together. And they seem to understand something about each other (or, at least, Charmaine understands something about Octavia). 

Bellamy and Clarke leading the meeting on the ship ... it felt like old times. I really loved that everyone looked to them for guidance in that scene, despite everything that happened throughout the rest of the season. Gives me hope that we might (finally !) get that co-leading dynamic back in Season 6, especially since they were the two that will be informing the others of Monty and Harper’s discovery. 

Bellamy, in particular, gave me serious Chancellor vibes in that episode. He really stepped into his leadership boots this season, especially near the end there. 

Dear god, please get rid of that goddamn flame as a viable form of leadership. If anyone from Eligius starts following it next season I’m calling B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. Let Bellamy and Clarke lead, dammit! 

Also ... Zeke looked to Bellamy for permission to speak. Not the Commander. So jot that down, honey’s.

“And Bob’s your uncle.” “I thought you hated that phrase.” “It’s growing on me.” STOP this was cute (and now i’m cryingggggg cause that was Monty and Raven’s last interaction ever)

Clarke taking the bindi off of Madi. 10/10 great scene, let’s burn it now.

Marie in that tank top ... ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm where’s the nearest bucket of holy water

“Kind of like closing the door in the floor.” “Kind of like that.” I liked this callback. Octavia is soft with Bellamy in this scene in a way we haven’t really seen all season. It’s ... oddly nice? Coming from someone who has never cared for Octavia.

“You’re my sister, and a part of me will always love you.” “Does the other part of you still wish I was dead?” “The other part wishes a part of you was. Yeah.”

OKAY. I really liked this scene for a couple of reasons. The first being that I think it clarifies the line from 5x12 where Bellamy tells O that he wishes she was dead A LOT. It basically confirms that Bellamy was referring to the part of Octavia that is blodreina, which doesn’t feel as out of character (whereas Bellamy wishing for his sister’s death did). 

I also really like that, even though Octavia tells Bellamy that she loves him and he tells her that he loves her, too, he doesn’t forgive her. Bellamy and Octavia feel like they are finally on the road to establishing healthy boundaries and burying their dysfunctional relationship in place of building something new. I’ve always wanted this to be textual on the show and I never anticipated that we might actually get it. What they did with the Blakes this season is probably one of my favourite things to come out of the season.

And, as always, Marie and Bob are stunning together. This is a large part of the reason that I’m actually okay with Octavia surviving this season, because they work so damn well together.

I feel like Tree doesn’t get enough credit for his work so I have to mention, again, how beautiful the score was during that scene. He elevates the show so much with his music. In the scene where Clarke and Bellamy woke up, alone, it had such an eery feel to it. I really liked it.

Ngl, my FAVOURITE moment in this entire episode was Bellamy and Clarke’s soft-ass fucking smiles when Bellamy’s pod opened. Like, Clarke’s face when she was watching Bellamy wake up? A BITCH IS IN LOVE. And Bellamy was so soft too ughhhhhhhh Platonic Excellence

“Hey.” “Hey.” HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

LISTEN. BELLAMY BLAKE DESERVES TO WAKE UP TO CLARKE LIKE THIS EVERY SINGLE MORNING FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE OKAY? OKAY I’M GLAD WE’RE ON THE SAME PAGE

...

I’m a Big Fan. They’re so fucking cute. That was so domestic. How do I move on?

“Why is it just us?” I literally stood up and yelled “BECAUSE IT’S FATE DUMBASS”

“That’s the way mom and dad wanted it.” I stan my new Bellarke warrior 

“Can I just say that - wow - I mean, I can’t tell you how good it is to finally meet you. Weird, but good. Great, actually.” WHY IS THIS LITERALLY ME WHEN I MET BOB AND ELIZA 

ALSO JORDAN IDOLIZING BELLAMY AND CLARKE? RELATABLE. THIS WOULD 100% BE ME IF I GOT TO MEET THEM

“Who are you?” WHY THE FUCK AM I LAUGHING. Bellamy is so intense and he’s got his deep voice and he’s wearing his intimidation face and him and Clarke are both looking at Jordan like “what the actual fuck is going on” and then there’s Shannon Kook with his adorable fucking smile and his adorable fucking voice and he’s literally a bundle of sunshine and these two people are just glaring at him. BELLAMY, CLARKE, SWEETIES, PLAY NICE THAT IS YOUR GODSON YOU ARE TALKING TO

“My name. Right. I didn’t tell you my name. Sorry. I haven’t met anyone before, so clearly I suck at it.” Reason #2 for Jordan being the most relatable character ever. I, too, am the most horridly awkward human in the world. Step aside, Clarkey G, I think I’ve found my TRUE self-insert on this show.

Monty and Harper are just the loveliest couple on this show. I never anticipated how much I would love them when they hooked up in Season 3. Wow. It was really nice to get all of those shots of them in peacetime, just loving each other, on the ship - especially after how little screentime they got throughout the rest of the season. Also, I swear that Shannon has a mixture between Monty and Harper’s smiles. What is this sorcery?

“Smart like his father.” “Kind like his mum.” CAN YOU HEAR ME CRYING ALL THE WAY DOWN HERE ON EARTH 

(Also ... sounds like my new damn favourite character.)

“Hey Bellamy ... hey Clarke.” WTF MY EYES ARE SWEATING

“Wait ... take care of our boy.” Listen, Jordan. Madi failed me. I’m counting on YOU to parent trap them. Okay? Okay.

But seriously, the fact that Monty and Harper trusted Bellamy and Clarke to take care of their kid, that they wanted it to be them ... is A Lot. I’m excited to see how that goes in Season 6. 

When Jordan opened the window and the new planet appeared and the music started swelling I got fucking shivers. Holy hell. It was so beautiful. TREE WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME 

“Can you see it? Is it beautiful? It is in my dreams. I hope we do better there. I hope Jasper was wrong and we aren’t the problem. I hope your lives there will be as happy as mine has been. Be the good guys. May we meet again.”

GUYS THOSE WORDS FROM MONTY ARE FUCKING EVERYTHING

LIKE, THESE ARE THE EMOTIONAL BEATS THAT THE REST OF SEASON 5 HAS BEEN MISSING

This is honestly the first real time where I’ve had hope that they might actually break the cycle. That they might build something new. Its the end of an era, but it feels like the start of something new. I genuinely cannot predict what is going to happen on that planet. Which is a new feeling. And I like it.

And of fucking course it would be Monty and Jasper (and Harper) who are responsible for breaking that cycle. Of course. This is the best thing they could have done with Jasper’s memory, is sending Monty on this mission to do better for the rest of humanity. And this is the best send-off I ever could have asked for for any character. Monty and Harper have been with us since the beginning. It just feels right that they should get this ending, that they should be the ones who usher in the next generation of The 100. Like. Wow. I’m speechless.

Also, that Bellarke side hug was er nice. That’s the most domestic they have ever looked. Idc. Bellamy staring at the Earth alone on the Ark in 4x13 and 5x01 vs him staring at the new planet with Clarke at his side is the ONLY parallel I claim.

The final shot of them through the window with the planet reflected around them was STUNNING. Honest to god the most beautiful shot I think this show has ever done. 

“End Book One” on Bellamy and Clarke, together, staring at the new world and the new hope they will deliver to their people. Maybe that’s what the first five seasons were really about. Bringing them to this place, where they are staring at the future - side by side, as a unit, ready to face whatever comes next.

Fuck. 

I have to say that I enjoyed the second half of that episode way more than the first half. I feel like it had a lot of emotional beats that I really wanted to see throughout the season (that we just weren’t getting) and it also teed up a lot for the next season. I’m so intrigued by what they’re going to find down on that planet, and I’m excited for the writers to really break the cycle and build something new - hopefully something that involves more character moments. 

I still haven’t decided if I’m going to continue with this series in Season 6, but stay tuned! I hope you enjoyed reading all of my recaps throughout this season. It’s been a ride ahaha. See ya on the other side, folks. 

[dylanobrienisbatman]

Rewatch: Episode 1x08, Day Trip

Some of our best commentary from our rewatch 

Why does Clarke mention never having ‘floated in the water’ in her little monologue? it seems weird. Like not, felt the breeze in her hair, or seen plants, or felt the grass on her feet? Bri got us thinking about this. 

Bellarke was a perfect ship and then Clarke went bonkers and ruined it all. 

We got strangely into the minutia this week. 

Bellamy sitting there staring at Lincoln, the GUILT in his face. god, we love our sad son. 

Why does Miller get that job, telling parents their kids died?

Bri just reminded us to mention how pretty s1 Bellamy is. Very important

Miller getting head butted is so fucking funny. 

Where did they get a camera, for that video chat?? 

Bri said probably the art supply store lol

Always all up in the Jonty feels during s1. 

We’re all so pumped for High Jonty

Shumway is the fucking worst. 

Octavia is such a petulant child, we love it. S1 Octavia gets to be a part of Pettykru. 

Her little “why do you even care, if i ruined your life”... man, siblings. 

Bellamy is such a grumpy boy. He needs to find a book and chill out. 

Elyse said he’s grumpy because there are no books. 

We love our Grumpy Boy™

Bellamy Blake, at it again with the iconic lines

Seeing Monty just makes us sad

EW RAVEN FINN SEX IS THIS EPISODE. 

Raven bby leave him you deserve so much better. 

Finn needs to stop being stressed about Clarke when his peRFECT GIRLFRIEND RAVEN REYES IS RIGHT THERE. 

Octavia asks Lincoln “its good right” when she giving him a drink. Babe.. Honey.. its WATER. he has definitely had it before. 

Elyse reminded us that she was never properly socialised. We will give her a pass. 

The line about Bellamy being a dick always makes me laugh, its so true. I love my dickhead son. 

A Necessary™ shot of Ricky Whittles Abs. 

Octavia taking responsibility for something? are we hallucinating? did WE ingest jobi nuts? 

Octavia being Petty again, but Raven is such an adult. 

Why are Raven and O always best friends in fics? like obviously no shade on any fic writer your stuff is always amazing everyone, but the show never really digs into that friendship, far as we can remember. They actually kind of actively dislike each other for a while.

I said i wanted to Vom about finn, and Elyse told me to drown him with it. So thats gross.

RAVEN GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU DESERVE BETTER. 

Clarke talking about the dirty bunker, such a princess

Bellamy is so grumpy about the blankets? like dude. Chill. 

He DOES chill, almost immediately, upon finding guns. the nerd. He’s like a kid on christmas. that smile is blinding. 

High Jonty is the best Jonty tbh. 

Monty is such a calm stoner. Just wants to hug the Earth. 

The camera angles used in this to show us that they’re all high is so cool. 

this is such an awesome episode all around. 

THE ANTI GROUNDER STICK. 

Octavia definitely only knows slang because her entire socialisation is a bunch of teenage criminals. 

Miller definitely doesn’t have siblings because if he did he would have never ever trusted those nuts Octavia gave him. His lack of suspicion is entirely because he doesn’t have a sister. 

INTENSE keysmashing over the bellarke gun shoulder touch. THROWN BY THE INTIMACY OR SOMETHING RIGHT?!?! 

They banter like an old married couple “we NEED to do this” “No we NEED to do that” lol. 

WHy couldn’t bellamy have a nice happy trip like Monty. poor sad boy. 

The difference in everyone’s trip was really awesome as a narrative choice

How is Clarke not MORE messed up after a year in solitary. 

okay we all love the ‘i can’t change the tide’ line, but i never noticed that when he comes into Finn and Raven’s tent, he starts with “Is the moon in here?” lmfao monty is an angel 

Raven making finn come out because everyone is so high is so funny. 

Clarke is so YOUNG. Like sometimes we all forget how young she was in the first season. Shes literally 17, season 1 doesn’t even go a whole month and in episode 1 she says she doesn’t turn 18 for another month. 

She just misses her dad, its so sad. 

They’re all just kids! Even Bellamy is only like 22/23 which is just about our age. 

Clarke being such a Teenger™ to her halucinated!Dad is so funny 

Okay but actually how old is Lincoln supposed to be? 

I have made Bri reevaluate the entirety of Linctavia. 

“The most beautiful broom, in a broom closet, of brooms” and then the kid just sort of hums at her. What a great Raven line. @the-most-beautiful-broom we miss you <3 

On first watch we were definitely all nervous that Lincoln wouldn’t get away. This is one of Finn’s few good moments. 

Elyse pointed out that Finn is like two separate characters, and Bails (no surprise) mentioned how they talk about that a lot in the @metastation podcast, about how they just sort of attribute random traits to Finn to fit his plot line. Go listen to the podcast, especially for s1. 

Jaha’s line “You want the peace of death” is so intense and well delivered. 

Bell saves Clarke, Clarke saves Bell, they save each other, they forgive each other, god s1 Bellarke is so alsdhfinsakldmjsdkjfh

Bullet to the neck Bell? *Jake Peralta Voice* Smort

Augh the forgiveness scene

Forgiveness... can you imagine. Hamilton references are always necesary. 

Bellamy is SO SAD AUGH. 

He just wants to be the man his mom raised him to be (our thoughts on aurora blake are... not so positive but its still super sad.) 

We all just wanted to cry because Bell is so so sad. 

Can they please ACTUALLY parallel the forgiveness moment in s6, and not this half assed shit they did at the end of s5? because thats not forgiveness. 

God these babies need a nap. 

Monty the Pine Cone Eater

“They’ll kill us” “Or Worse!” Okay, random kid... whats Worse? exactly? 

That synchronised Power Couple Strut™ and dropping of the guns, the epic power couple speech. Iconic.

Bellamy definitely made them practice this before they went in. “No clarke, you gotta say it like this”. He’s a Drama Hoe. We love our Drama Hoe. 

For real though, even with all the problems they have later, the way they actually write the Blake Siblings is so good. They feel like real siblings. There are a lot of shows that write siblings that you can just tell the writer doesn’t have siblings and didn’t ask anyone’s advice. But the Blakes have that dynamic of like “I’ll definitely kill you, but if anyone else says a bad word about you, I’ll kill THEM.” They have this petulant back and forth, but its always sort of underlined with this deep love. The writers know how to write a sibling relationship. Even when it becomes abusive and terrible later, that sort of weird dynamic is still there. Problematic, but the dynamic is well done. 

Finn is so high up on his own pedastal. Bellamy tortured Lincoln to SAVE YOU. How are you gonna shit all over him for it. How are you gonna question him like that. 

Clarke saying she trusts Bellamy is so lakdhjflsjhafkd;sa

Finn is such a fucking tool. 

The whole scene where Bellamy and Clarke talk to Jaha is so amazing

The scene where Diana kills shumway is intense. 

Kills: Bellamy: 1 Diana Sydnee: 1  Attempts:  Dax: 1 

“How many times did we talk about hating Finn” Tally: 6

Countdown till Raven meets Zeke: 6 years 6 months and 15 days, 56 episodes.

Times Bailey mentions the @metastation podcast (because she has a problem):  2

Times Octavia takes actual responsibility: 1 

How many times we called Octavia Sneaky: 5

Times Clarke’s Canon love interest is jealous of her relationship with Bellamy: 1

Countdown to Finn’s Death: 26 days, 13 Episodes  

 @granger--danger @raven-reyes-of-sunshine

[catherine-batty-author]

The show made me do it....

Hi @tinkdw , @ibelieveinthelittletreetopper , @elizabethrobertajones I wanted to post this to a couple of meta writers / bloggers I follow here re my thoughts about Destiel. 

Firstly, just so you know where I’m coming from, I’m a writer of fantasy/crime/thriller/romance fiction. World building a subtle development of characters is part of what I do.

I watch crime dramas – I’m horrible to watch them with because I ALWAYS work them out – because I PAY ATTENTION to what is on screen, both textually and sub-textually. I also believe that TV is an expensive media and what screen time there is is short. So if something has made it to screen, no matter how small, it is of significance. Writers, directors, actors, editors all felt this was MEANT to be seen. I also believe that just because two characters have great chemistry doesn’t mean they have to be a canon couple. (Morgan and Garica from Criminal Minds is one of the best one screen platonic friendships on screen, I’m glad the writers were brave enough to keep them that way and not push them into a relationship.)

I’m a whoivan so I am no stranger to fandom and there is no way you can be in ANY fandom and not know of Destiel.

Now, until last year I had not seen Supernatural. It was one on my watch list but never got around to it. So I decided to start with series one DVD and see how I got on. And ok, some of series one was a bit shakey, some of the stories not great… but the premise, the backbone of Sam and Dean, their relationship – THAT was great from the start and kept me watching. It still keeps me watching.

As I got to season 4, I wondered if everything I’d heard about Destiel was real. It wasn’t why I was watching, it was the brother’s journey that kept me going. Shippers are passionate, GIFS can be created to emphasize a point, but when those GIFS are out of context of the episode – did they still stand up as “Destiel”? So I went into season 4 open minded. (PS I’ve also had no issue accepting that Dean is a repressed bisexual – hints have been made all along, character building)

Oh.Dear. Lord. It’s real.

But let me take a step back. When watching S4 most of the time I was watching Cas on screen, his intensity with Dean appears to be him trying to work out the man he saved. His orders were to pull him out of hell, put him back together again. He did that, and in doing so he knew EVERYTHING about Dean until that point. He returned him to Earth the same bright souled, flawed human that he was, along with all his loves, fears, hopes and dreams. Everything he was, and everything he hid. His self loathing. Castiel KNEW everything about Dean.

But knowing someone and understanding them are different things. What I see in most of S4 is Cas trying to understand Dean. Because the man he put back together is not the man he sees and knows is really there. (He sees performing Dean before the other important people in his life do.)

Dean for his part mostly looks like his every hidden fantasy walked into the barn that day. And because it’s not a door he’s even prepared to peek through, it’s all unsubtle looks at Cas, his body language screams attraction when his actions say otherwise. (And “The Rapture” was fantastic as showing that he is drawn to CAS not JIMMY.)

S5 was seemed to build more on above, but if their plan was to end at S5 then you could say that they are brothers-in-arms. Castiel the angel that can’t quite figure out the human he saved and Dean the human who never felt worthy of this new friendship/crush, which also left him bemused.

S6, Dean with Lisa. Well this was where I was wondering if Destiel would be ticked to the curb. But no. Dean needed to experience what he thought he had wanted. What he believed his parents had before that November night.  He tells Lisa in S5 that when he pictured himself happy, if was with her – but the reality wasn’t what he wanted. He cared about them, loved them. But when he walked away from them after Cas took their memories, he wasn’t broken.

Cas in this season is clearly falling for Dean. He goes from intrigue and mild jealousy (Anna) in S4/5 to full on heart eyes by the end (The Man Who Would Be King) is just epic.

S7 – despite the reduced role of Cas, it was great for setting up grieving Dean for later seasons. When Cas is lost to the Leviathans, Dean is equal parts upset and angry for Cas’ actions. But in the end he still carried that trenchcoat around for months, in various cars. But he did the same with Bobby and the flask, and there is no ambiguity as to his feelings towards Bobby. For me he grieved the loss of family in both cases and in similar ways – that was until they both return. Dean’s reactions are different to the return of Bobby and Cas. Subtly different, but different never-the-less. (Then you compare the loss of Cas and Bobby in this series to S13? There is NO comparison. He hasn’t lost a friend/crush or father figure, he’s lost the absolute love of his life).

And Cas/Meg? Well there is a great relationship. Two great actors and chemistry, with an obvious set up for a possible “impossible romance” (which could have been enthralling in its own right if Destiel wasn’t pushed in my face 😉 ) but their chemistry worked so much better in the platonic sense.

I’m only half way through S8, Cas is out of purgatory and this is for me when Destiel the ‘romance’ is going canon. Benny’s reaction alone when Dean and Cas reunite is telling. You can see his brain going ‘friend my ass!’.

For the most part, what I’ve seen is subtle acting by all parties, a slow progression from strangers to comrades, to friends and now friends who are clearly falling for each other - it could have stayed platonic with some odd but explainable behavior between Cas and Dean. It is all there, on screen if you look. Now, I may be a few seasons behind but I know what is happening currently and I’m highly encouraged they are showing a deeply complex, touching and enduring love story where the characters have gone on an epic journey to find that love. The genders of those characters means fuck all.

I know for many of you what I’m saying is old news. But I wanted you to know that someone who has only recently started watching Supernatural and went in with an open mind, I can clearly see what is in front of me.The show made me do it. I ship Destiel. They are one of the greatest OTP’s of all time. It isn’t imagined. It isn’t exaggerated by GIFS.

For those of you who have studied this series into the minutest of details (and not just for Destiel) and those of us who are observant and see these small things as we have watched – we are being rewarded. For those who choose not to see, or have their own petty reasons for not wanting see such a powerful love story, well they are the ones losing out on something spectacular.

Wow, this ended up being longer than expected (a theme in my writing, haha!) and it didn’t go into any real detail!

Keep on meta writing and being awesome in this fandom - your blogs make me smile.

[gch1995]

^Yeah, this was exactly why I decided to finally quit watching after S5. A&E and these writers had almost completely eviscerated any sort of morally gray area between “heroism” and “villainy” to the point of becoming so black versus white that it was never pointed out that the “good guys” now got away with saying and/or using toxic tactics that they condemned in the “bad guys” as being abusive, criminal, controlling, cowardly, emotionally manipulative, needlessly cruel, blindly reckless, and/or selfish for worthy ends, and they had Rumple saying shit like “I like the darkness” and “It’s who I am,” rather than saying anything about how he spiraled downhill in 4A with that stupid hat, and took it back because he didn’t want to be controlled again, because he was afraid to die alone, because he felt unworthy of love, and/or because he felt he needed power to protect himself and his loved ones. It never used to be such an issue to make it clear in the narrative that Rumple had sympathetic and emotionally complex motives for wanting magic back in S1-S3, so this crap of “This is who I am” felt really wildly OOC, cartoonish, dehumanizing, one-dimensional and jarring from S4-S6.

It also felt really annoying just how lacking in self-awareness of their own problematic behaviors and choices Regina, Hook, Zelena, Emma, Belle, Snow, David, and even Henry became of themselves to drive the PLOT, and how the narrative now justified and/or whitewashed them for their problematic behaviors and/or choices for “worthy” ends, especially because these were the “heroic” characters we were supposed to be rooting for, and the people who were supposed to be able to set an example to the “bad guys.”

No wonder the constant undoing of Rumple’s redemption arc became so infuriatingly unfair and hypocritical in the narrative from the end of 3B-S7. The whole point of his redemption arc was that the “ends don’t always justify the means” with abusing, misusing, and/or overusing magic, but on a show where everyone else was now getting away with doing the same thing whenever it suited them, including the “heroes,” it made them look petty, hypocritical, unsympathetic, and blindly self-righteous with no self-awareness when they haughtily condescended, condemned, vilified, and/or forbid Rumple for so much as considering doing the same thing. I just don’t understand why it became so impossible for these writers to admit that there “heroes” and favorite reforming villain creators pets (Regina, Zelena, and Hook) has fucked up and done horrible things, while also making it clear that Rumple should only ever resort to fixing things with magic as a last resort.

Instead, from S4-S6A we “had” to have Rumple framed as a wildly OOC cartoon villain with some contrived and stupid magic macguffin to fix a problem in the wrong ways because he “liked the darkness” and/or felt “unworthy of love” (it alternated, depending on the writer of the episode and how they wanted to frame Rumple), and we “had” to believe that Emma, Belle, Snow, David, Henry, Regina, and Zelena were “blameless” victims of his, “justified,” and/or “excused” for being needlessly cruel and condescending to him about using shitty means for good reasons, even though they all got away with using shitty means and tactics to justify their own ends whenever it suited them now.

My problem with Belle v. Rumple is not that I think Belle is a terrible person. I don’t. And everything she says and does and wants is within reason, and I can appreciate it. HOWEVER, Belle (to me) is an example of what I see as flawed logic on OUAT’s part: they go too far with the whole “being good and heroic is the best thing” deal and don’t acknowledge that being too good and too naive can make you look like an idiot and a fool. If you’re gonna hit me over the head with how right Belle’s outlook is, even when I see it constantly leading her into trouble, at least give equal time to her and Rumple discussing the times when her view might be wrong and and it would behoove her go a little darker cause sometimes you HAVE to in order to not be taken advantage of or killed. They don’t show each point of view evenly and that, to me, is problematic. I know they started discussing the other side of the coin in “Her Handsome Hero”, but I want more of it. I want Rumple’s point of view to be heard and understood because we’ve been hit over the head with Belle’s and frankly, hearing that message over and over is just wearing me out.

[haruka89]

Why the 5x09 Flashbacks were Bullshit

(For convenience I will call the people from the List List-person/List-people. Also, I wrote this before 5x17 aired, in case anyone wants to use arguments from that episode.) When I heard that the villain of season 5 was supposed to be the child of someone the Hood killed in season 1 I thought that would be interesting. Actions having unintended consequences, etc. Not that Oliver doesn't usually think about those, but you can't plan for every possibility, after all. What I expected was the child of one of the men hired by a List-person, since those are the majority of people killed by Oliver. Men who were criminals by choice or because they were down on their luck. Men who might be classified as mercenaries, being payed to do the dirty work, with varying moralities. Men who, ultimately, were small gears in a bigger machine. Unimportant men, who never had a name in the show. That would have made sense. That would have been interesting. That would have been a chance to show that even the criminals are three dimensional people, like they did with Deadshot. It also would have worked without completely ret-conning the Hood's MO. Instead we have the flashbacks we got in 5x09, which I think are utter bullshit created to refit season 1 to season 5, rather than write season 5 to fit in with established canon.

(Because long meta is long the rest is under a cut. Go to the last paragraph for a tl,dr.)

The Hood's MO, to summarize what I wrote in another meta that I can't remember if I posted it already, was to choose a List-person. Chances are that List-person is at that point in time a danger to someone or fucking someone over (Martin Somers; the guy Oliver wanted to target in 1x06 but didn't because Royal Flush Gang). Otherwise it's someone who's been fucking people over without being arrested, taken to court or otherwise face the consequences for their crimes. (Unrelated note, I want to write about getting their just desserts, which brought me to thinking that Oliver and Trickster/Loki/Gabriel from Supernatural might get on like a house on fire. Thank you, brain.) He goes to that List-person and asks them not-so-politely to undo whatever they have done (return stolen money/goods, confess to crime, repair/replace the broken things in apartment buildings, etc). When they don't, which is often but not always, he returns and makes them, or hacks them, or steals from them, or stops them. The Hood is not nice about what he is doing and violence and intimidation are his main tools, but the List-people have been screwing people over, including injury and death, for 5-10 years without consequences. Some of them use violence and intimidation themselves. Asking nicely is not going to do shit. Going to the police likely is not going to do shit either, considering Oliver's version of the List is FIVE FUCKING YEARS OLD. So, yeah, the Hood has hurt and killed people, because that is how you keep yourself alive if you are a vigilante going up against people who hire other people to shoot at you. Especially if you're doing it mostly alone. Still, he mostly resorted to incapacitating his opponents. Incidentally, I'd bet that max 10% of the criminals he encountered as the Hood are dead. I'm guessing it's much lower. (I can count on one hand the number of people Oliver killed in s1 who weren't at that specific time trying to hurt/kill him or someone else. The only ones I can think of right now are the third kidnapper from 1x01 and the not-the-Count psychiatrist in 1x19. Even those were trying to kill him just minutes before and were a potential future danger, considering they didn't flinch from killing. Neither of them was on the List.) You know what the Hood didn't do? Go back the second time, kill all the hired muscle, confront the List-person and kill them while they're defenseless. You know, the thing he supposedly did with Justin Claybourne. To collect some proof I went on the Arrow Wiki, because I do not have the time to re-watch whole seasons for stuff like this, and looked at the article about the List. Of those listed who had an appearance on the show or in the tie-in comics six died during an altercation with the Hood: Guillermo Barrera (1x16, hired to kill Merlyn), Justin Claybourne (wasn't mentioned before s5), Ted Daniels (tie-in comics), Ted Gaynor (1x11, Diggle's army buddy, robbed armored trucks), Leo Müller (1x05, arms dealer), Justin Whicker (tie-in comics). Any other known-to-be-dead List-people (10 if I counted right) died by someone else's hand. Malcolm Merlyn's, for example. So, let's look a bit more closely at those deaths:

We've all recently seen what happened with Justin Claybourne, I'm not going to rehash that.

Leo Müller died off-screen, if he died at all. We only see Oliver aiming at Müller, before it fades to black and we hear Müller scream and the arrow fly. He might kill him, he might only injure him. Until I saw him as deceased in that article I assumed he was still alive in some prison. According to the wiki he isn't mentioned again chronologically after 1x05. Also, the Hood is a pragmatist. An international arms dealer is much more useful alive and in the hands of something like FBI, Interpol, ARGUS, etc. and it's not like Oliver doesn't have the connections.

Guillermo Barrera was an assassin and died in a fight with the Hood. Technically Oliver started that fight, but only after Barrera pulled out his throwing knives. I'm not sure why Oliver wanted to get to him before the police, since I can't remember why Oliver choose to target him. Maybe he only wanted to make sure Barrera wouldn't do his job in Starling City and didn't trust the police to arrest him. (I wouldn't have, personally, with that reputation.) Either way, I doubt that after that fight had started both of them could have come out of it alive.

Ted Gaynor. There's not much to say there. Oliver killed him when he threatened/attempted to kill Diggle and Carly.

Ted Daniels was about to shoot Oliver or the women he was protecting. Not much to say there, either.

Justin Whicker's death was not quite an accident. He attacked Oliver, missed him and fell out of a window with Felicity. There was no real time to save him, if anyone had wanted to do that.

And just for fun I tried to remember anyone killed by Oliver in s1 who wasn't just a nameless hired gun. I couldn't think of many, but here's what I was able to remember:

The 3 kidnappers from 1x01. They were hired by Moira and weren't supposed to hurt Tommy or Oliver, but the boys couldn't know that. What Oliver did know was that they killed that innocent witness, that they had kidnapped him and Tommy and that they had high powered firearms. Also, they tortured Oliver for information. Escape was the only viable option with the available information, which resulted in the deaths of two of the three kidnappers. The last one Oliver followed to protect his secret. But beyond that there was no guarantee that the third kidnapper wouldn't come back to hurt either of them or hurt any innocent bystanders during his escape.

Deadshot. Oliver not-killed him, as it turned out, when Deadshot was trying to kill him and Diggle.

Frank Bertinelli's right hand, whatever his name. He and his men kidnapped Oliver and Helena and tried to kill both of them. Oliver didn't have much choice considering his lack of weapons.

“The Savior”, the guy who kidnapped people, including Roy. He was trying to kill Oliver and/or Roy, when Oliver killed him.

The doctor from the mental hospital, who produced Vertigo. He had just tried to kill Oliver via Vertigo overdose and knew Oliver's secret. Considering that Oliver was literally seeing triple and barely on his feet, shooting the guy was the only safe way to deal with him.

The assassin from 1x20, trying to kill the boy staying at Oliver's. It was very obvious that the assassin was going to eliminate any witnesses. He was also actively trying to kill Oliver, when Oliver managed to kill him.

(If you can think of anyone else, feel free to tell me.)

Now let's play the game 'Which of those things is not like the others?" The answer should be Justin Claybourne. The first flashback sets this between 1x05 and 1x06, since Diggle doesn't seem to know how Oliver does things and he comments on Oliver not ditching him anymore. Oliver has only just started researching Claybourne and Diggle's protest seems to imply that he thinks Oliver is going to kill Claybourne. Which isn't surprising, since the press and the police have created a reputation about the Hood that's not entirely true. But Oliver words seem to imply the same and I can't remember Oliver choosing a target with the intent of killing whoever it is. In the second flashback the Hood explicitly states that the consequences of refusal will be death. That's another thing I can't remember the Hood doing in s1. In the third flashback Diggle and Oliver outright discuss Oliver killing Claybourne, like it's a forgone conclusion. It also more than implies that Oliver regularly kills List-people, which has not actually been the case until then, since at least four of the six people Oliver targeted are still alive. The others are Leo Müller, discussed above, and Warren Patel, killed by Deadshot. (I also resent this most recent implication that Oliver doesn't think about the consequences of his actions. But that's another topic.) The fourth is Oliver going after Claybourne and potentially killing anyone he finds there. (It's not clear in certain parts, but the staged bodies seem to imply that.) That is not how the Hood went about crossing names off his List. It also doesn't make sense from a practical point of view and Oliver is very practical about his plans. After Claybourne's death his company died, too. But that wasn't something Oliver could have predicted. Companies like that do survive their CEOs. That company could have continued their shady practices, which wouldn't help the victims of the epidemic. Killing Claybourne wouldn't have necessarily changed anything. Instead s1 Oliver could have made Claybourne confess to creating the epidemic, like with Martin Somers and Jason Brodeur. He could have hacked Claybourne's bank accounts, stolen the money (see Adam Hunt) and donated it to organizations to buy the TB medication. Or bought the medication himself and donated it. Or he could have stolen the medication and given it to hospitals and clinics. Or he could have hacked the company and leaked that information to the press or police. Or any number of things he's already done or will do. The tl;dr version: s1 Oliver didn't kill any List-people when it wasn't in self defense or defense of others. Most of the people Oliver killed in s1 were actively trying to kill him or others. The MO of the Hood in s1 doesn't fit with what we see in the 5x09 flashbacks. There were a number of more useful things than killing Claybourne s1 Oliver could and would have done. Which means the 5x09 flashback don't make sense for s1 and make Prometheus a far less interesting character. And I want to Gibbs-slap the writers for going the lazy route of ret-conning s1 instead of creating a story that fits into established canon.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

7x11: General Analysis

***Ridiculously massive spoilers for episode 7x11!!! Don't read if you haven't watched! You've been warned!***

Good morning All! What did you all think of last night's episode? I really loved it. So if you haven't yet, let me encourage you one more time to go read @thegloriouscollectorlady's analysis of how Dwight and Sherry are anti-parallels to Bethyl. I'll reiterate some of it here, but at times I'll reference what she said and it may not be clear if you haven't read it. Read it here: Part 1 and Part 2.

Okay, so all week I've been telling you guys that when my FB group read the spoilers for this episode, we basically started freaking out and jumping up and down, right? Mostly that was because, due to Sherry's note, we could see the Bethyl parallels. Just as with last week's episode, we're seeing the narrative be shaped here, and things we haven't had definitive answers to in the past are starting to fall into place.

(Most of the stuff I'll talk about are anti-parallels: how these situations are opposite of Daryl's and/or Beth's. Keep that in mind.)

So, the first thing we see is the remnants of Fat Joey's sandwich. It only stuck out to me because we see a somewhat crushed tomato front and center, and today I had a Nonny ask me about the symbol of tomatoes. Here it is again. I'm not sure what it means in this case, honestly. I'm sorry to be morbid, but I couldn't help but think that the smashed sandwich might have been a metaphor for Joey's smashed head. (Ew.)

So then we see Dwight realize Daryl has escaped and Eugene being taken to his new rooms. The red door is here again! I mentioned it in 7x03, The Cell, but I didn't fully understand it's function then. I think I do now. 

As I always say, I think red = death. That's why I didn't know what to make of it in 7x03. Daryl obviously didn't die and he's not going to anytime soon. So why the red door? Well, Eugene went through that same door. But notice the difference between him and Daryl. Daryl refused Negan's hospitality and wouldn't kneel (at least so far as to say he was Negan). Eugene did. So I'm thinking the red door stands for spiritual death or perhaps the death of independence/individuality. So it's a metaphorical death. Daryl was taken into that room and "tempted" as it were by Negan, the devil. But accepting Negan would have been metaphorical death. Daryl refused. It makes me worry about Eugene a bit, but I'll get to that later.

In his rooms, we clearly see a dart board. In the fridge, beer (moonshine reference perhaps) and lots of green bottles. While talking with the blond Savior, he asks if he can have lobster. That's super interesting to me. The biggest symbol with a lobster is the fact that it has a tough outer shell to protect itself. It's not so different than the ladybug symbol for Beth. But here, Eugene is denied the lobster and instead requests pasta (a soft, sometimes mushy food).

Then he mentions that the book he has is Vonda N. MacIntyre. I looked her up. She's a real scifi author who would be well known among scifi geeks like Eugene. I may do a separate post on her later in the week, as there are several things about using her as a reference that's interesting. The thing that jumped out at me most though was that one attribute in her most famous book series has to do with humans who have been genetically modified to live underwater. They gain the traits of water animals, including crustaceans. So it kind of goes hand in hand with the lobster reference, but I also can't help but think of all the ocean references we've had lately. Perhaps a reference to Oceanside, as well as adapting to one's environment in order to survive.

The chip issue was confusing to me. Eugene asked for chips and she said Number 42 (the person) made them. I'm sure 42 is significant, but nothing's coming to me to explain how. Also, once Eugene learned the chips were homemade, he didn't want them. Not sure why that is, but I may have a theory. Stay tuned.

Also notice how Eugene had the opposite reaction to Easy Street that Daryl did. It was torturous for Daryl, where Eugene seemed to think it was catchy. Anti-parallel.

Dwight is beaten for Daryl's escape, which really backs up the point @thegloriouscollectorlady made in her meta about how Dwight thinks he's the "Boss" but he's really not. One thing goes wrong--Daryl escaping--which was not at all Dwight's fault, and suddenly he's being beaten and imprisoned.

So we learn that Sherry took off and that the note was from her. It's actually super interesting to me that she's the one that left the matches for Daryl. (Remember that the note included a key and a match--key theory around Beth as well as the obvious match reference--and then there was a match box in the door when Daryl left the building. In light of all the Sherry/Dwight anti-Bethyl parallels, that not only ties Sherry to Beth, but it's an anti-parallel because Beth burnt the place down. Sherry didn't. She simply threw some matches at it.

But of course it goes deeper than just the surface, plot stuff as well. As @thegloriouscollectorlady said, Beth helped free Daryl of his past. She burnt the moonshine shack down with him. Sherry, on the other hand, threw matches at him and then ran away. Anti-parallel.

Negan told Dwight, "Daryl's not like you. He's emotional." Later in the episode, after burning Dr. Carson, he told Dwight he was sorry. When Dwight claimed he wasn't, Negan was said he was cold as ice.

Now, we've said since 7x03 that Dwight is the anti-Daryl, and this is more evidence of that. Daryl is emotional. Dwight is not. This has just become a VERY deep theme. But I'll talk about it more when I get to Sherry's note.

When Eugene goes into the common area, I notice the blond Savior (don't know her name) says, "cut your head." She was talking about a barber and Eugene's mullet, but that was pretty ominous. Sounds like a foreshadow to me, but whether aimed at Eugene or the Savior, I couldn't say.

Then there was the random occurrence of Eugene witnessing someone steal something. That long-haired guy who put something under his jacket. Not sure what that was about, but they never followed up on it, so chances are it will come back into play later.

Pickles! I doubt I'll get to my pickles theory in this post (it's already long) but maybe tomorrow I'll share a few different pickles theories I have after this episode. For now, check out THIS POST for a reference of how pickles = a resurrection symbol.

When Eugene goes outside to talk to Negan, notice how Negan mentions sending Simon to Alexandria to play "good cop" looking for Daryl. So just notice that this episode has taken us back in time a bit. I believe I remember reading that episodes 10 and 11 were supposed to be in opposite places in the lineup, but tptb switched them for unknown reasons. Originally this should have been ep 10 and last week's should have been ep 11. So that may account for the back-in-time-ness of the narrative.

So when questioned by Negan, Eugene goes back to the lie he originally told TF in S4. This is not good, guys. Remember what @thegloriouscollectorlady said in her meta about how going backward, into the past, will kill the characters? It killed Tina. It's killing Sherry and Dwight. Beth told Daryl as much. "Places like this…(meaning his past) you gotta put it away. Or it kills you." 

Eugene is regressing to his earlier lie, and that does not bode well for his safety. More on that in a minute.

He also mentions having an eidetic memory. I'm sorry to keep saying this, but more on that in a minute. I'm just mentioning these and then I'll bring them all together. I promise! But there were a TON of memory references in this episode. An eidetic memory, for the record, is the scientific term for a photographic memory. For all you Criminal Minds fans out there, think Doctor Spencer Reid. ;D

Oh, you know the metal idea Eugene has? He tells Negan to poor metal over the walkers on the fences? 

I instantly thought back to episode 6x14 when he took Abraham to bullet factory for the first time. Remember he tried to kill the walker himself, but Abraham did and Eugene got mad at him? The reason he struggled was that the walker had metal on its head and rebar sticking out of its body. His knife hit the metal and bounced off. Guys, no WAY that wasn't a foreshadowing of this. He gave Negan a way to smelt walkers to his fence and even told him to cover their heads with metal so they couldn't be easily killed. I only mention it to show that this kind of foreshadowing exists. If the foreshadowing with that walker has come to pass for Eugene, then how the hell can all the blond, Beth walkers not mean anything. Oh, right, they must!

In terms of the title, Eugene says it when talking about putting metal on the walkers' heads to keep them from being taken out. So the people he refers to as "hostiles and calamities" are specifically those who would shoot the walkers in the head. Just thought that was interesting.

Umm… When talking to Negan's wives about making a bomb, Eugene mentions that he needs balloons. They end up using latex gloves instead, but the balloon reference caught my ear.

Okay, let's get to Sherry's note, and I promise I'll pull some of this together. This was a tremendously sad scene. As @thegloriouscollectorlady so deftly pointed out, the anti-parallels here were very strong. To reiterate: Beth's love made Daryl strong, more independent. Sherry's love killed Dwight, destroyed who he was. There's the obvious dialogue parallel. (Beth: “You have to stay who you are, not who you were.” Sherry: “I loved who you were. I’m sorry I made you who you are.”) This is SO powerful for TD, guys! Sherry and Dwight are the anti-Bethyl.

Let me throw stuff about the cabin itself in. It looked SO much like the moonshine cabin, especially on the inside. And obviously that backs up the Bethyl parallels. 

But it's more than that. We know for a fact that Emily filmed in that little white cabin during S5, and we still haven't seen those scenes yet. While there are lots of theories, it's  really been anyone's guess how those cabin scenes would fit into the narrative. Most people think they will come in flashback form, and they still could. But to me, THIS scene with Dwight is the reason we haven't seen those scenes yet. They had to set up these anti-parallels for us first. Whatever and whenever those scenes end up being, they'll be related to this one. Equal, but opposite. Anti-parallel. My first thought upon reading these spoilers was, "well no wonder we haven't seen the damn cabin scenes yet! They had to show us this first!" Well, now they have.

I gotta say: I have no idea how those scenes will play out, but based on all the other anti-Bethyl parallels to this scene and these characters, it really does seem like Beth might be waiting for Daryl in a cabin somewhere. Because Sherry wasn’t there when Dwight arrived.

(Notice the key by the front door in the above picture. Key Theory.)

So here's the thing about what Sherry says. This is the crux of the memory theme. She says Dwight has a shitty memory. Here are the exact words:

"You remember that? I know. You probably don't. You always said that, when we started dating, you forgot to tell me that you had a shitty memory. You used to get so frustrated by it, knowing you wouldn't remember those good days, those special days. I felt bad for you. I remember you said there was so much you wanted to hold on to, and then it'd be gone. But you're lucky you don’t remember things, D…

I let Daryl go because he reminded you of who you used to be, and I wanted to let you forget…

I hope you get away. I hope you remember the good days, even just one of them, but I don't think you will…"

Okay. Guys, this is so tremendously tragic. Such a beautifully crafted story. First let me say that Dwight has been revealed in this episode as a tragic hero. Does everyone know what a tragic hero is? For those who don't, I'll quickly explain.

The tragic hero is a trope used in classical literature (especially Greek lit and Shakespeare) where the hero is a genuinely good person, but has one major flaw that they simply cannot overcome. That flaw seals their doom and usually leads to their death, along with tons of other tragedy along the way. See Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, to name a few. The flaw can usually be summed up with something very general like arrogance, blindness, etc.

(Negan even uses a Shakespeare line when he tells Eugene that if he has sex with his wives, it's a "grave no-no." Using 'grave' to mean both serious and like a grave in a cemetery is something Shakespeare did often. The most famous example is probably Romeo and Juliet. A tale of doomed lovers. Kinda like Dwight and Sherry.)

And what is Dwight's tragic flaw? He has a shitty memory.

But understand how deep this goes, guy. We're not talking about Dwight forgetting to take out the trash here. Memory is a deeply emotional thing. We ALWAYS associate memories with emotions. Dwight can't remember the "good" days because he can't hold onto the emotions of them long enough to hold onto the memories. Daryl is exactly the opposite of that. The emotions he felt about Beth are all he has left to hold onto. That's why he couldn't kneel. He remembers everything. He holds onto everything. Beth told him to let go of his past and his negative baggage, and he did. He was happier than we'd ever seen him when he did that. But what did he replace it with? Happy memories of Beth. That's why he can't kneel. That's why he'll never be Dwight. He doesn't share Dwight's tragic flaw.

Dwight became very emotional when Daryl wouldn't kneel, because Daryl was reminding him of the "good" days and bringing some of those emotions back. Sherry says it's merciful that Dwight can't remember. Obviously that's because the pain is just too much for her. Then in the next sentence she contradicts herself, saying that she hopes he'll remember just one of the good days. Then she says, "but I don't think you will." Sherry knows Dwight better than anyone. She knows what he'll do. And I think this theme has everything to do with his actions toward Dr. Carson in the show.

In terms of symbols at the cabin, we have lots of broken glass, and even the picture in the frame is reminiscent of 5x09, which showed a picture of a cabin. The cabin theme has become very potent in this how. Cabins seem to be a place where people work out their issues. Obviously we have Bethyl in the moonshine shack. Tyreese was in one when he died, and he had to forgive himself and give himself permission to let go and move on. Carol is in one now, and as I've said before, I think it represents her penance while she works through her issues about Karen/David and Lizzie/Mica. Now Dwight in this cabin. I believe the time in the cabins transforms the characters into who they're going to be from now on. We saw that with Bethyl. We haven't seen it with Carol yet, but I think we will. We definitely see it here with Dwight, and it's awful.

Just the fact that Sherry is writing notes is a parallel to Beth's journal. We've also seen notes associated with the wolves.

Wedding Ring Theme: I haven't mentioned it since S6 (X) as it hasn't really come up in S7, but it was back with a vengeance here. In the past, the wedding rings we've seen belonged to devoted couples in healthy relationships. We saw them around Deanna and Reggie, Sasha and Abraham. Even Rick's which he removed when he and Michonne hooked up, still represented first his devotion to Lori and then removing it signaled a new devotion to Michonne. In this case, Dwight had obviously taken off his ring but kept it in the cigarette box some time before. The fact that he kept it at all shows that he was still holding onto his marriage. Sherry leaving her rings behind shows an end to their marriage. Again, so sad.

As @thegloriouscollectorlady noted, the "I'm don't think I’m gonna make it" parallels Sherry with Noah. Noah helped Beth escape Grady (even though it didn't go as planned) and then said this. And then died. Sherry helped Daryl escape, then said this. So I seriously doubt she'll last much longer, if we even see her again at all.

Then the beer and pretzels. It's the obvious parallel to the moonshine. But @thegloriouscollectorlady and I also talked about the difference between beer and moonshine. Moonshine is obviously much stronger, more potent. And Beth took to it right away. We're thinking that the message here is simply that the Bethyl love was much deeper and stronger than that between Dwight and Sherry. Another anti-parallel.

Some other random symbols and then we'll get to Dwight's actions with the doctor. With Amber, we apparently have a blond who wants to commit suicide. Granted, it was a lie, but still. The line "she just drinks and cries" stood out to me as well. 

Especially given Beth's line, "Today I just wanted to lay down and cry, but we don't get to do that." And Amber was drunk pretty much this entire episode.

When Eugene wanted drugs from the lady handing them out, he said her number was 16. The obvious reference there is the finale, but no idea how (or if) that will pan out. Then he took a green stuffed anial that looked a bit like a frog to me. (We've seen frog references before, specifically in Them (X) They’re a resurrection symbol). He called it a grembly-gunk. Especially given the green color, it reminded me of the green Gremlin car at Hilltop in 7x04.

I thought it was interesting that Eugene told Negan's wives that the only reason Negan believed Dwight over the doctor was because the doctor was expendable. Eugene is definitely still thinking on his feet and that's an interesting insight into Negan. Obviously it has nothing to do with what Negan actually believes. Just who he believes he can live without.

Also, as he already talked about having a spare Dr. Carson (the one at Hilltop) you can see how they're setting up some drama in coming episodes. If they go to Hilltop to get that doctor, well, Maggie is there for one thing. And Negan thinks she's dead. It's also where Daryl is heading. I feel calamities comes to a head, don't you?

The other thing we talked about a lot in our FB group was Eugene saying he was Negan. Now, it seems many people believe he's lying. Just telling Negan what he wants to hear so Negan doesn't kill him, but I'm not so sure. I hope that's what he's doing, because I like Eugene and would be sad to see him betray TF. But let me show you all something:

This was written on Morgan's wall in Clear. 

I've always assumed it meant Eugene would die eventually. I mean, Morgan wrote this about many people who are on the walls, including Zack (Beth's boyfriend who was bitten; granted, he was really eaten rather than turning, but it really amounts to the same thing) and Duane (Morgan's son who we know was bitten by his own mother). So it seems Eugene might undergo the same thing eventually. But what if that writing didn't refer specifically to turning into a walker. Or at least not JUST to that. Eugene saying "I am Negan" might have been a fulfillment of this writing. We may have been seeing him "turn" to the dark side, you know? (And can I just be a TD geek and say that there's tons of other things written on those walls that we think has to do with Beth. If the Eugene thing has been fulfilled this season, others might as well. ;D)

I felt like Eugene's line about molten metal at the end was a foreshadow of someone being burned by molten metal. (This was after the doctor, so I don't think it was pointing to that.) It had a very Game of Thrones feel to it.

Negan called Daryl a puppy (dog reference; and remember dogs often = imprisonment theme). (X) Dwight grabbed a handful of lollipops at the beginning. We saw them again at the end. He didn't actually eat them, but that's a parallel to Beth's green lollipop at Grady, and as Dwight has embraced his evilness now, it might even parallel him directly with Gorman (though admittedly Dwight is not a rapist). As with Gorman, he participates in keeping people hostage in the Grady-like situation, and uses his power to hurt others (Dr. Carson).

I also have to say that this killing-a-doctor-for-your-own-gain thing is STRONGLY reminiscent of Edwards purposely killing Trevitt, who was also a doctor. Yet another parallel to Beth's imprisonment.

Dr. Carson's words about how people like Sherry don't survive is a whole lot like Lennie's dialogue to Daryl in S4 about the "little ones" not surviving long out there. Yet another Daryl parallel. But anti-parallel too because Daryl lunged at Lennie while Dwight sat still and listened. Later Lennie was killed, but not by Daryl. Here, Dwight was specifically responsible for Dr. Carson's death.

Okay, back to Dwight and the doctor. I didn't know why Dwight did what he did at first. It did seem to me that both times he talked with the doctor, Dwight was not at all pleased by what the doctor was saying. He seemed very threatened by it. Listening to the first convo, the doctor did say he thought Sherry had let Daryl go, so I Thought killing him might have been Dwight's way of protecting Sherry. He told Negan she was dead and maybe he saw the doctor as a threat. But the thing is, with Sherry "dead" he didn't really need to throw Dr. Carson under the bus. It simply wasn't necessary.

But I go back to what Sherry said. She said she didn't think Dwight would "remember." That he wanted to forget. Forget the emotions. It's too painful. That's exactly what Dwight did. The doctor was talking to him about how good-hearted Sherry was, how she sacrificed herself to save her husband, how she had a big heart, but they aren't allowed to have those anymore. I think it pissed Dwight off because it was dredging up too many emotions, and Dwight wanted to forget, so he got rid of the Doctor.

As much sympathy as I feel for Dwight, he's gone full-Shane now, guys. He's embracing his evil/Negan side and more than ever, I'm sure he's toast before long. Maybe not by the end of the season, but I don't think he's going to be around long term.

Many people have wondered if they'll follow his comic arc, where he turns on Negan and becomes an ally of Rick to help defeat Negan. I've always been skeptical because I just don't see Daryl ever being able to trust Dwight. At all. In fact, next time they see each other Daryl will just try to kill him, so how would an alliance ever work? But here we've seen that not only has Dwight not overcome his fatal flaw, he's actually embraced it, going out of his way to remove obstacles to his "forgetting." 

He's embraced Negan completely and "isn't sorry" to have lost Sherry. Sherry and Dwight are gonners, my friends. I can see them both dying just prior to Beth’s return to drive home the lesson that Dwight and Sherry’s actions lead to their deaths while Beth and Daryl’s will lead to them living. It fits well with the theme because it shows that those who have done what Beth and Daryl have done will live. Those whose love isn't strong enough to overcome obstacles like Negan will die. (I gotta say, cheesy as it sounds, it has a very true-love-conquers-all feel, which may explain all the fairy tale templates. I'm loving this in the geekiest way possible. :D) 

Finally, notice how tragic Negan's dialogue is here when taken symbolically. This is about Sherry's supposed death, but if you think of it as the death of their relationship and Sherry as a person, it takes on a whole new meaning:

"A super hot girl, horrifically killed because of your greedy, delusional, tiny, little prick." 

In other words, Sherry was destroyed as a person, and their relationship was destroyed because they chose comfort over freedom. Because Dwight didn't have the balls to stand up to Negan.

The other thing I wanted to say about Eugene and why I'm worried for his safety (you know, other than the "Eugene turned" on Morgan's wall) is that he, too, is being set up as an anti-parallel to Daryl. He liked Easy Street. Daryl didn't. He knelt. Daryl didn't. He said he was Negan. Daryl didn't. He couldn’t have the lobster with the tough outer shell. So if Daryl escaped with his life, Eugene may not. I have a theory about this, but I'll post it later in the week.

That's actually what I meant about having a theory about the chips, too. I wondered if the "homemade chips" could be equated with the moonshine, which by definition is homemade. Beth and Daryl drank the homemade stuff. Eugene refused it. Anti-parallel.

I genuinely hope Eugene doesn’t die, but none of this bodes especially well for him. 

So this week I'll probably do a Pickle Theories post, a music post, a TTD post (maybe) and at least one more I want to touch on. Stay tuned for those. What did everyone else think of this episode? If you didn't like it, be patient. Looks like we'll get some Richonne lovin' next episode. ;D

[bellarkespread-blog]

The 100 Prediction Game: Hiatus Week

We’re almost halfway through, guys! What are your predictions for the rest of the season?

Tagged by @parapluiepliant and @eskimo-whispers. Thanks for the tag, guys! This seems like a fun thing to do :) so let’s begin!

Date: 11/03/2017

Romance:

1. Bellarke kiss (How it happens is irrelevant): I’m less sure than I was at the beginning of the season, but I’m going to stay hopeful and say yes!

2. Octavia love interest (Y/N and Name): Yes. It’s very obvious that they’re setting up Ilian as her new love interest.

3. Raven love interest (Y/N and Name): Not sure about this one. Lindsey teased that there would be someone, but the only one I can think of is Jackson (maybe they’ll bond while working on the island). She had a nice moment with Murphy in 4x04, but *see #7*

4. Kabby get married/proposal in some form: I don’t see a marriage or proposal happening, but I do see them promising to each other that they’ll get through this to have a life they’ve always wanted together after this is all over.

5. Monty/Harper will stay together for the season: Yes

6. Miller/Bryan will stay together for the season: No. As much as I hate it, I have to say that the end of 4x02 hinted their breakup, and I’m pretty sure something will be going on between Bryan and Riley. Since the actor playing Bryan can only be in so many episodes this season, this is how they’ll make his character exit the show, and I’m glad that it’s not by killing him off, at least.

7. John/Emori will stay together for the season: Yes, they really seem to love each other, even though I’m pretty sure Emori isn’t being 100% honest with John (but we might find out more about it later).

8. Other: Write down other romance related plots you predict will happen.

Deaths:

1. Kane dies: No

2. Abby dies: No (even though 4x05 scared me a bit, I think they will find a solution to what’s happening with her)

3. Echo dies: Sadly, I don’t think so.

4. Jasper dies: Everything is pointing to him dying. I hate this, but, yes 😭😭😭

5. Jaha dies: I was 90% sure he’s dying this season (sacrificing himself for his people, something he wanted to do back in S1, but never got to), but now I’m like at 70%. He’s already redeeming himself and he might just stay around for longer

6. Luna dies: I’ve been thinking about this and I have to say yes. It will probably be a tragic consequence of Abbykru trying to use nightblood as the solution to save everyone. Plus the fact that she’s the last nightblood puts her in more danger plot-wise, imho

7. Indra dies: No

8. Bryan dies: No. Like I said before, I think they’ll write him off by breaking him up with Miller

9. Other: Write down names who haven’t been mentioned in 1-8.

Octavia: I have worries about her surviving this season, just because she’s already ‘died’ once and everyone was relieved when it was revealed that she’s alive. TV writers like to play with viewers like that (*cough* TWD *cough*) and make you think that the character is safe now when they actually aren’t. So, leaving this here as a possibility.

Plot:

1. Roan keeps his power over the grounders: No

2. Luna becomes the new commander: No

3. The Nightblood solution will work: Yes, but maybe not in the way they expect (does it always go as expected, anyway?)

3. They will either: End up in space or stay on the ground (bonus points if you predict a possible solution)

I have to admit I’ve seen some spoilers about the finale, but since we can’t be sure that whatever the spoilers say is really what’s going to happen (I think there might be a different ending), I’m still going to take a shot at trying to predict what their solution will be.

Even though I think that space is an absurd option, after 4x05, it really looks like they might consider it at some point (even though that rocket is a two-seater; will there be more?), so I guess we’ll just have to deal with that. It was mentioned that there were criminals who were sent on a mining mission to an asteroid, and that they were the first who were injected with nightblood. Hypersleep was also mentioned. So I think that whoever is going to space might land on that asteroid and encounter their descendants (otherwise why bring it up?), which might be part of the S5 storyline. Everyone else will probably be put into hypersleep on one of the levels in Becca’s lab, but there will be a limited amount of 'life boats’, so, just like with Alpha Station, they will have to decide who gets a spot and who doesn’t.

Otherwise it will be just a select few who make it out alive, and I refuse to think about it.

4. Are we going to see any historical landmarks? (bonus for guessing which ones): Probably the collapsed Statue of Liberty that we’ve been seeing in the opening credits!

5. Gaia will find another Nightblood for the Flame: No, but she might learn about Luna and try to pressure her into taking the flame

6. Who will participate in the 4x09 battle (who’s fighting who): wait, so we know that the fight is happening in 4x09? Octavia and Roan are the only ones I can recognise from the trailer. Echo will probably be there too. I don’t really have any predictions on this, sorry.

7. Will Octavia stay an assassin (for how long?): No, I think almost dying will make her reassess her life choices

8. The Sky People and Azgeda stay allies: No, I don’t think Azgeda as a nation will ever fully accept Skaikru as their allies. But Roan will definitely work with them and stay on their side (maybe even causing many of his people to turn against him)

9. The Blake siblings will make up: Yes

10. Raven and Abby will get worse/better: I think they will get worse before they get better. I don’t see either of them dying

11. Other: Write down a plot scenario not mentioned which you think will happen.

Plot - Bellarke:

1. Will Bellarke share another hug? Yes (it will be unrealistic if they don’t! Come on, they’re constantly in life-and-death situations)

2. Will Bellamy say “I need you” in some form to Clarke? I feel like he already said it in 4x03 (“If I’m on that list, you’re on that list (because I refuse to live without you and I need you in my life)”)

3. Roan will use Bellamy against Clarke again: No

4. Someone will make a comment about their relationship/how much they mean to the other: Yes (please let it be Sassy Roan!)

5. Will either/both admit their feelings to the other: Bellamy will admit his feelings to Clarke, but only if she does first. And I feel like Clarke will be scared to do that, because everyone she’s ever loved died (but since they all might die anyway, I can see her taking this chance). We’ll see. Not 100% sure on this.

6. Bellarke sex: No, haha. That would be too rushed, imho 😉

7. Other: Write down a Bellarke scenario not mentioned which you think will happen.

Hope you enjoyed reading my answers! 😊 tagging everyone who’s reading this and who wants to do this!

[happyendingsong]

main thoughts on islands!!

i fucking. love that finn’s mom is irish holy shit :’) when adventure time first started i really liked that finn was called finn cause that’s the anglicization of the irish name fionn, and the most famous fionn is fionn mac cumhaill who’s this classic irish hero in mythology. he led the group of warriors the fianna and he had blonde hair (’fionn’ means fair or blonde). and i’ve just! always really liked! finn being named after this really archetypal hero embedded in history and mythology, and now that we know minerva is irish, that just solidifies it even more?? that he’s descended from this hero shit. i love it. love my boy.

also i just love minerva’s voice in general, those soft t’s.......love ittshthshtth.............

i wasn’t crazy about martin’s portrayal in this? idk his total apathy to finn later doesn’t really match up with how he did seem to genuinely care about him as a baby. like i LOVE how they’ve handled all the martin shit so far, like i’m so sick of last minute father figures busting in for father/son angst before ultimately uniting with their son and inspiring them to be better than ever. after s5 i was so worried this is how adventure time was gonna play it, especially considering finn already has so many male role models from jake to joshua to billy.

yeah so i’m glad that adventure time portrayed the deadbeat dad AS a deadbeat dad and didn’t try to redeem him at all. so idk, i don’t really get how we get from martin genuinely seeming to care about baby finn to just not giving a shit when he meets him again 15 years later. like i can buy him caring about minerva cause he got pretty defensive when finn tried asking about her, but i always figured he either left before finn was born or he got stuck with sailing with finn on that raft even though he never wanted to look after him, idk.

but i do fucking love how he goes from this really lowly and shitty-person con artist to fucking. committing some AS YET STILL UNDISCLOSED cosmic crime and later convincing all the other cosmic criminals to have him as their leader, that’s so funny :’) i still wish we got at least SOME insight into what he did that was actually cosmic crime-worthy? and where the fuck did those other criminals go?? i feel like the ship has sailed on ever learning about all that but like. it seems important. lmao. and yeah i guess martin was lying about having some spirit quest to go on or whatever. but that bit about wanting to come back for finn but he never did was true so. neat.

i wish we got to see more of the human civilisations! i fucking loooooooved alva’s episode, she was so sweet :’0000 and i really liked that film she showed finn, i love that kind of storytelling adventure time does where they give you certain snapshots or relics of the past without expositioning the whole thing at you, like the running time for each ep is used for what the characters are dealing with right now and to get the Bigger Picture of what happened or what’s going on then you can infer that from all the background details. it’s nice!!

and we got a looot of that with alva and the virtual reality shit, but i wish we got to see more of it with the last island. like,, this is the first time for finn to meet a whole human civilisation and they don’t really spend any time on it. unfortunately things felt kind of rushed towards the end, but i was really hoping for some big human soul moment for finn? especially since they were hyping it so much from the start. and i wish we got to meet more humans, but freida is VERY cool and i love her and i’m glad she and susan are gfs forever, bless them.

and with minerva, i really wish the final confrontation and conclusion were a bit more dramatic? like this is something they’ve been building for 8 seasons and devoted a whole miniseries to, and it feels pretty rushed :T i was waiting for them to do something like, the only way to shut off the guardian is to turn off all the power on the island which will shut off minerva’s cloud brain or smth. like it didn’t have to be that ridiculous but idk, give me something :’)

i did really really love it, i just wish they left more time for the last two episodes to really lay on that emotional plot shit. like it’s Time, we’re Ready. but i rly loved finn’s final conversation with minerva through the vr goggles, that was so sweet and sad,,, but also like. if we’ve established minerva can upload her cloud brain shit to different machines like the guardian, why can’t she hook herself up to a portable device for finn to bring back to ooo or something? portable mom. they did say they lost the signal when finn went too far out of range, but idk. feels really weird to just leave her and the rest of the humans behind forever. idk! we’ll see what happens later i guess.

yyyyyyyyyeyeye that’s all i’ve got off the top of my head! good good stuff. i think stakes was more solid overall tbh and i was hoping that was a good sign for islands having a totally solid cohesive story as well, but yeah the end was a lil shaky which is a shame. BUT it was still rly good and made me real emotional so thenks adventure time for my life.

[kiss-my-freckle]

The Girl - Masha Rostova - Elizabeth Keen

Up until the point Scottie confirmed it was Alexander Kirk who hired her, all I see when I look through S3, is the Townsend Directive. One should question HOW exactly Masha was outed in the news. When you follow the dialogue, you can see it. 

“Elizabeth Keen was well hidden from the demons of her past until you went after her, until you told the world she was Masha Rostova."

"The world" makes a huge bit of difference. I’ll show you why. 

“That’s why she allegedly walked into the ocean. She wanted the world to believe she drowned.”

This includes Dembe’s scene with the woman from Paris. 

"Let’s record this for the world to see, shall we?"

This doesn’t speak to Kirk, he was coming for his daughter. 

Liz: But I don’t know anything. Red: They don’t know that. You can’t walk away, Lizzy. They won’t let you.

Even while questioning Scottie, Red had to be sure. 

Red: Who hired you? Scottie: You know exactly who hired me. Red: I’d like to be sure. Scottie: Alexander Kirk.

Not so simple if Red has to be sure. Neville Townsend is involved. The very difference between “he” and “they” that I’ve been pointing out since the start. I don’t care if 100 characters spoke of Liz being outed as Masha Rostova during the course of S3. We can agree that she was outed, but not a single character spoke to HOW she was outed. Back in S2, she was simply referred to as “the girl” at the fire. 

"I know all the stories, Red. I know where it was and I know when it disappeared. I know about the house, the fire, the girl.”

Even Walter Martin referred her that way. 

“The girl - Agent Keen - was she worth all this? Getting captured?”

No one knew her by name. Red didn’t give it to the Cabal. Constantin sure as hell wouldn’t because his life depended on her stem cells. Braxton didn’t. 

Director: Where is it? Braxton: I’ll have it to you by 9:00. Director: I thought you said you had it already. Braxton: And I do. I wanted that Fulcrum in my hands before I negotiated with you. Director: Need I remind you that the price had already been set? Braxton: That was before you volleyed missiles at me and my men. Now the price has gone up. Director: Mr. Braxton, I don’t think you fully appreciate the power of the people who have engaged your services. Braxton: Well, if they’re that powerful, then I’m sure they can afford an extra 10%. Go find the money, chief. You do that, and I’ll have what you want by 9:00. Hey, I want you to call me just as soon as you get confirmation of funds.  

An interesting parallel when compared to Red’s scene in S5. Long after Rostov came and went and they dug into the suitcase Kate unearthed.

"We know the truth, Masha. That’s your real name, isn’t it?"

The news: Elizabeth Keen vs Masha Rostova. 

Director: They are based upon information provided by Raymond Reddington, a traitor to our country and a fugitive who is helping ex-FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Keen avoid arrest. The daughter of a notorious KGB spy, Keen is a wanted terrorist. My accusers are criminals, the subject of one of the largest manhunts ever conducted. Who are you going to believe is telling the truth?

Television: And we are just now getting reports that former FBI Agent Elizabeth Keen has been shot and killed. No comment yet from the FBI, but moments ago, this photo appeared on the Washington Chronicle website. The paper, quoting anonymous sources, is saying Keen was one of several victims shot at an undisclosed location outside of New York City. Keen stands accused of committing the worst acts of terrorism on American soil in over a decade. She’s been a fugitive for the past five weeks, the subject of one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. The details are still coming in, and we are working to confirm them for you, but it appears, on day 37 …

Hitchin: But on a personal note - please. I just wanna say, when I think of the horrifying nightmare that Elizabeth Keen has endured - branded a traitor, hunted as a fugitive by the very law enforcement agency she swore an oath to serve - Well, there are no words. There is no apology I can give on behalf of the government that could ever be sufficient. I only hope that she can take some solace in the knowledge that in the end, the system worked. Thank you. 

Matias Solomon -

"Elizabeth K– Is that the one from the news?”

Grocery store man -

"Are you that woman? Elizabeth Keen?”

Liz’s double -

“I guess I’m you. Elizabeth Keen, right?”

Landlord -

"Um, soon as possible, Miss Keen. Elizabeth Keen?"

“Elizabeth, this is Barbara Menninger. Look, I wanted to apologize. When I realized who you are, I just - I overreacted. Frankly, I thought you were a pretty terrible person, and that was wrong. You’ve been exonerated. You deserve a second chance, and so I want you to know, the apartment’s yours, if you still want it.”

Cash -

“It’s that Russian bitch.”

Adoption Agency Lady -

"They hadn’t put it together that you were that Elizabeth Keen."

Benjamin Stalder -

Ressler: Mr. Stalder, do you have any connection with Elizabeth Keen? Stalder: The fugitive. Right? Uh, no, only what I hear in the news. Whatever happened to her, anyway?

Everyone saw Elizabeth in the news. Constantin saw Masha. 

“I never thought I’d ever see you again… until there you were in the news, you… and Reddington, the most wanted fugitives in the world.”

The newspaper: Elizabeth Keen vs Masha Rostova. 

Kaplan: Are you sure this is a good idea? Red: Yes. Get the photos to Sandquist at the Chronicle. I want everyone to know what happened here today.

To be clear, this newspaper is keeping up with the date and timeline of Liz’s pregnancy. Krilov still hits the mark in Tom Connolly’s episode. The woman’s dialogue also handed us an estimate of Agnes’ age.

Woman: That man is one of our agents. He’s staking out Keen’s building. Four years go, Reddington and Keen went on the run together. She was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Denora: It says here her name is Masha Rostova. It also says she’s the daughter of a KGB agent. Woman: A notorious KGB agent named Katarina Rostova. The agent out front He’s not looking for Reddington. He’s looking for her. As bad as he is, Rostova’s worse. Berdy: The child you’re being asked to care for is their granddaughter. They’re in Keen’s life, and if you take this job, they’ll be in yours, as well.

How interesting it'd be if S8 brought Agnes' birthday like S6 brought Red's.

“I’m worried they’ll find Masha, try and leverage her.” - Dom S7

"As soon as the name Masha Rostova hit the 24-hour news cycle, they came for her.” - Red S3

“They” being the Townsend Directive.

“Do you know what the Sikorsky Archive is? It’s a blackmail file. It has compromising information on very powerful people. I’ve been accused of stealing it.” - The woman, S7

"The secrets she took with her could compromise any number of players on that map. They’ll be coming. They’ll be coming for you." - Red, S3

The Sikorsky Archive contains secrets. 

“You put a target on her back and invited someone to take a shot. Do not try my patience, Laurel.”

Similar to the Fulcrum. 

"All this, Luther, and you don’t even know what the hell you’re looking for. It’s not what you think. It’s not a golden ticket. It’s a target on your back." - Red, S2

This is why I think Constantin Rostov will be what outs this woman an imposter. Red thought the Townsend Directive was coming. It was Kirk. Now that the Townsend Directive is here, Dom is suddenly referred to as a Rostov. 

“The Cabal is in green. Their affiliates are in red. Their competition is in blue. Since I’ve been a fugitive, the pestilence on this map has only grown. This is what we’re up against - a multi-headed hydra. You cut off one head, it grows two others. You have to cut off every head and burn the rest of it. It’s a mythic battle, and it’s not anywhere close to being over.”

The Devry map. What Liz will be facing if she screws shit up. 

"As soon as the name Masha Rostova hit the 24-hour news cycle...” - Red S3

Red: Where’s Rostova? Allond: Who? I don’t know who– Red: Nine days ago, a painting was commissioned. It was sent to this address, shipped to you - Mr. Paul Allond.

Allond: Yes. I - I’m a dealer. A private art broker. I received a call. No name was given. She said a piece had been acquired and was nearly finished. She asked that it be sent to me. Red: For pickup. Allond: Yes. But not by her. By you. I assume you’re the one she spoke of. Reddington. She said you would come.

Red: I may not have told you what you want, but I told you all you need. You’ll never find Rostova.

Woman: But when the time is right, when I have the answers, I will find you. Might be a week or a month, but I will find you. We will end this. 

“Does he know about you as a child?” (Masha Rostova)

“Does he know about the fire?” (The Girl)

Red: Her husband wasn’t who he appeared to be. She was in jeopardy. I had to intervene.

How Tom and Katarina connect back to the pilot. The Cabal, the Townsend Directive, Constantin Rostov, the Fulcrum, and the Sikorsky Archive.