#not a fear soup statement ep (wellllll sorta in that mikaele has had dealings with so many fears but not like... a one-time soupy experience

[equalseleventhirds]

real quick rundown of Thoughts:

things which were Very Good:

mikaele asking to be called mikaele instead of mr salesa, be still my HEART and yes i will be calling him mikaele and not just salesa for the rest of my liFE

camera thing hell ye

mikaele continues to be morally gray, which i can vibe with (and i maintain that after All The Shit he put up with he has earned the right to take care of himself alone. like he watched a bunch of his crew die i think... he can chill. his goal also is to eventually die? like can he just have a normal time.)

recorders? allowed in a space where the eye cannot be?? s... sasha...? (no i KNOW they’re not gonna be sasha’s ghost but........... i can hope................)

annabelle as A Weird Roommate who just wandered in one day that’s the good shit

that phone call rly WAS just about getting martin to stick with jon i KNEW it annabelle looked at martin ‘well now i am doing the thing’ blackwood and said oh i can press those buttons easy

annabelle and mikaele both have got JOAKS

martin and mikaele teasing jon for not having eye powers.. the laughing... it’s a lil mean but it’s SWEET (from martin) and i think jon got that... boyfriends.......

martin got tea :)

things which were meh:

annabelle still being in the sorta housekeeper role... i know (and i’m glad) mikaele said she’s mostly been a vaguely absent roommate for him, but APPARENTLY she’s been bringing jmart food and clothes and stuff... ehhh. i mean ok it’s nice to be helpful but mmmmm. bad trope for a black woman in a fancy house to be taking care of two (race not given, but also played by white men) men.

god i’m tired of ‘old guy In The Know has realized the Consequences (usually the Personal Consequences) of an apocalypse, starts prepping for it’ like that can be cool to a certain extent but we had it through ALL of s4 (adelard (the only cool one), peter, simon to an extent, smirke even, jonah... pls a bitch is Tired and having mikaele join the doomsday preppers? i wanted him to be! idk! different! like he could’ve just picked up that camera so he could retire in peace without any of his old clients/enemies finding him! pls!)

i hate to say jonny is wrong (this is a flat-out lie i love 2 say jonny is wrong) but mikaele’s like... grandstanding? showing off? abt how he did not care for anyone but himself? hm. incorrect. i’ll grant he probably came to enjoy the challenge of dealing in Artifacts, altho i feel like he should have felt at least a little apprehensive about it due to what he says about his past with leitner and how he resisted getting involved in that. but he has been shown, both in his own statement and his old crewmember’s statement, to CARE for his crew and to CARE when they died and to GRIEVE when that happens, and maybe he didn’t give a shit what happened to the rest of the world but i have to believe at least that wore on him, and that he’s still worried about his crew in the apocalypse. maybe not looking for them, but WORRIED for them. previous characterization from multiple sources painted him as self-serving but not entirely self-absorbed, while this episode painted him as... entirely self-absorbed. felt bad babes.

actually to this point: given that what he said in his archives statement was under the influence of the eye, and what he said this episode was NOT... i am choosing to believe he was taking full advantage of the fact that He Can Lie now. not to like, deceive them about the facts. just about his own feelings. bcos pride is a thing. (this also is totally in line with his apocalypse plan to... drink himself to death, or kill himself if he runs out of alcohol. like that’s not what u do when ur Happy. i think he is havin a FIB about how pleased he really is.) that’s it that’s the only way this episode can make sense to me thank u and good night

...ok OR the camera that shields him from the eye also has. an Effect on him. (because everything magic always has a price, doesn’t it?) and it’s fucking with his own memory/sense of self/feelings. that would ALSO be real fucked up and i could accept THAT.

still no fear soup... mikaele made it very clear he adheres to the 14 fear model............. i am SAD jonny. i am hungry for soup. feed me.

things that made me UPSET but not in a writing way just in a ‘this is emotionally upsetting’ way:

JON. FORGETTING. WHAT HAPPENED. WHAT THE FUCK, JONNY.

i’m also just... so sad abt how jon was SO excited about this house and the mystery of it and it hurt him? it let him rest but it hurt him??? like, ow! ow!!