#st 2x07

[will80sbyers]

a bitchin' makeover

[spockeveryday]

[arcane-ish]

I took a quick look at who got the main writing credits (I was too lazy to check the details, because sometimes there's like "dialogue by" or "written by"). Simply because of my hard time believing that their "actually the scripts were finished before s1 aired" really fits.

2x09 Alex and Christian 2x08 Alex, Christian, Amanda 2x07 Alex, Christian, Amanda 2x06 Alex and Christian 2x05 Alex, Christian and Kristina Felske 2x04 Alex, Christian and Graham McNeill 2x03 Alex, Christian and Henry G.M. Jones 2x02 Alex, Christian and Nick Luddington 2x01 Alex, Christian, Amanda

1x09 Alex, Christian and Conor Sheehy 1x08 Ben St. John, Mollie Bickley & Christian Linke 1x07 Alex, Christian and Nick Luddington 1x06 Alex, Christian and Conor Sheehy 1x05 Alex, Christian and Amanda 1x04 Alex, Christian and David Dunne 1x03 Alex, Christian and Ash Brannon 1x02 Alex, Christian and Nick Luddington 1x01 Alex, Christian and Conor Sheehy

It's interesting that there's actually more consistently in writers compared to season 1 (ie 7 cooks in the kitchen instead of 9). And it's interesting that in season 1 Christian and Alex probably weren't brave enough to write an episode without outside help, but here they take solo writing credit twice.

I looked up Conor Sheehy to see how come they didn't write for season 2 anymore. Turns out their only other credit is for video game writing (for Legends of Runeterra, which is a card game). So maybe the episodes where Conor is the third writer can be seen as "solo" Alex and Christian episodes as well because Conor wasn't an experienced tv writer either?

[heartbreakslow]

da$h watch 2x07-2x08

"Are you sniffing glue? What are you doing with this lot?....no offense..."

2x07. For the sake of misdirection we see Darren leaving St. Bruno's, thanking a shirtless Dusty for something "unexpected."

Darren hasn't been at home for two days, and Cash is talking to Harper, who doesn't have any patience for him but says that yelling at him would only make him feel better. Cash explains that he only did it so none of them would have to see Chook again. He swears on his nan that it's over (please don't be foreshadowing), and Harper finally says, "Okay."

Meanwhile, Darren appears in the doorway saying they were at their mom's house. Cash, extremely relieved, starts to breathlessly explain: "I should've been straight with you, I'm sorry I wasn't, but I didn't want to drag you into it and Chook said--"

Darren interrupts, saying they already read his text and he doesn't have to go over it. Cash tries to start talking again but they cut him off again, saying they just want to forget about it and they need to take a shower.

Darren is at the library, perusing the novel Too Much Lip. Cash comes up and tells them they can look through his whole phone to confirm he's not hiding anything else.

Darren can't lie any longer; they tell him they weren't at their mom's, they were at St. Bruno's. Cash immediately thinks of Jacob. Darren explains they did go there to see Jacob, but ended up staying with Dusty. Cash: "Please tell me you didn't hook up." Darren says they just smoked weed, talked, and played video games. Cash asks if they would have slept with Jacob if he was there. Darren says, "I’m sorry. I guess we both did a shitty thing and now we can move on."

At the assembly, Sasha says “we all know trust is key in a relationship” as Cash side eyes Darren (who isn’t sitting with him).

Dusty comes back to his room at St. Bruno’s; the door is open and Cash is sitting on his bed.

Cash looks very hostile during the whole conversation. Dusty asks why he’d hook up with Darren and Cash says “I don’t know, maybe ‘cause you have a track record of fucking people when they’re vulnerable?” Dusty says the two of them were best friends in primary school and if they were going to hook up they already would have. Cash asks what the two of them talked about. Dusty says “you. Darren says you’re ace.” Cash angrily says “fuck you, that’s…” but Dusty gives him a look and Cash finishes, “I don’t know, maybe.”

Dusty says “Darren’s way into sex” and Cash says the two of them have found ways to make it work, but Dusty says it’s only working for Cash, not for Darren. He says Darren has to jerk off before breakfast and after Cash falls asleep, and that information seems to affect Cash—“they told you that?”

Dusty concludes, “don’t you think you’re being a bit selfish asking them to give it up?” Cash says “fuck this” and sneers that he broke Dusty’s lock, but as soon as he's alone, he looks like he’s going to cry.

Darren is washing up in the bathroom after the food fight when Cash appears and says, “I know you didn’t hook up with Dusty.” Darren starts to apologize for “being a bitch yesterday” but Cash says in a strained voice, “I obviously can’t give you what you need.”

Darren protests that that’s not true, but Cash says, “then why’d you go looking for sex?” Darren says, “I was drunk and horny—you made me feel bad and I wanted to feel good.”

Cash says “you should feel good” and starts saying that Darren’s sexuality is who they are, and he loves them for who they are, and they’ll never be “free to be that person” while they’re with him. He’s borderline crying the whole time and Darren also starts crying since Cash is obviously breaking up with them. Darren starts saying that they’re really trying to shut it off and “if sex is killing our relationship, I will kill sex.” They ask how they can prove to Cash that they only want him, and he says, “you can’t.”

Darren approaches Zoe and tells her that they want to join the Puriteens, to her delight. Darren is a big get!

2x08. Darren has joined the Puriteens, but isn't fitting in too well since they jerked off 53 minutes ago (everyone else has gone weeks or months). Amerie is shocked but Darren explains that "I lost Cash because I can't control my urges" and maybe if they can stop wanting sex, “we’ll get back together and everything will be okay.”

At prom, Darren and the Puriteens are going around telling people not to have sex and giving them handmade valentines about it. Darren takes a break to have a conversation with Ant about how he should tell Harper he likes her. Then Darren looks wistfully at their valentines.

The valentines transition into Cash giving himself a stick and poke tattoo of a broken heart while saying “Ow! Ow! Ow!” but Nan suddenly bursts into the bedroom yelling at him to go to prom because “you’ve been going to that school for fifty bloody years” and she just wanted one picture of him at prom.

He mopes about his breakup, saying, “I would do anything--why does it have to be the one thing I can’t change about myself?” and she replies, “Everyone’s walking around with a poo in their pants…I’m serious! Everyone has something.”

She starts talking about how he and Darren have been “living in their own romantic novel” and now they’re getting to the tough part of the relationship. Cash says, “I just feel like someone’s always going to be making a sacrifice if they’d be with me,” and Nan says, “There’s more than one way to love someone, to be with someone. You don’t have to play by other people’s rules. And, to be honest, that was never your style anyway.” We get a wide shot of Cash resting his head on her shoulder, which looks a little weird because he’s in his underwear, but go off I guess.

Anyway, Cash shows up at prom, the first time we see him in a non-eshay fit, and he looks great! He’s wearing a purple flowered suit with a white corsage (ace colors kind of) and instead of his chain he’s wearing pearls, which was a really cute choice. He comes into the prom to “I Feel Love” by Blondie, nervously adjusting his hair and clothes, but forgets to be nervous when he sees Darren with the Puriteens and marches over to them.

Cash: Are you sniffing glue? What are you doing with this lot? Darren: Being accountable.

Cash is such a people-pleaser that he says “no offense” to the Puriteens before continuing “but this isn’t you” to Darren. Darren says, “But it can be! It’s not just about sex with me, Cash!”

Cash looks taken aback and like he's about to say something, but then Spider grabs the mike and that’s IT. Yep, that’s the end of this story arc! It just ends mid-conversation! (At least Darren and Cash start heckling Spider, which is how I feel. Let Cash finish!)

If you pay really close attention, you'll see the following things:

Darren and Cash go together when everyone goes outside to see the Ned Kellys.

Then when the school catches on fire and the students are escaping, there's some really romantic background acting! Cash is grabbing Darren's face and saying something to them intensely and then he's running outside with them and he has his arm around them and is holding their hand.

Later Darren tries to run into the burning building after Quinni, but Cash grabs them and holds them back and says “I won’t let you go.”

As Amerie and Rowan get out, we see the mains all together interacting as a group, ending with all the kids walking away from the burning building, but Darren is just kind of standing there in shock, so Cash pulls them along with the group.

Later (after Darren and Quinni have made up) Darren walks over to Cash, who's sitting on the ground, and clears their throat. He looks up at them tenderly and lets them pull him up. They slow dance, Cash looks at Darren and kisses them, and the two of them hug.

Thoughts: I was really disappointed when I got to 2x07. This is my third watch, but it's been my closest watch, and now I see just how badly the ace/allo storyline was Frankensteined on top of the Chook storyline. In s1, and in parts of s2, this show is meticulous about showing an arc very consistently across lots of big and small moments, some of which you wouldn't even notice if you're not watching closely. It's a pleasure to rewatch because of that.

But even for the closest viewer, there is almost no arc of Darren being sexually frustrated/repressed.

For most of the season I can pick out a very consistent storyline about Cash's past, his secrecy, and Darren's feelings about this.

In 2x07, this is dropped for the reveal that Darren is sexually frustrated. And it's done in a way where I'm confused what the truth even is. Darren is saying they don't need sex, but they're also saying that they will "kill" and "shut off" their sexuality to keep from losing Cash, so they're an unreliable narrator--they just want to not need sex because they think he'll dump them. Meanwhile, Dusty tells Cash that Darren's really struggling, but Dusty has been set up as a really slimy dishonest character, and some of what he says is obviously shitty, so…what exactly is Darren actually feeling?

I'm going to go off the little bits I have, and guess that they're kind of swinging to the opposite extreme from how they were in S1 (which makes sense IMO--Darren's an extreme personality and they know they acted badly). They're pent up, they're hiding that from Cash, they feel guilty for being sexual, and they're worried about imposing on him.

Possibly they've become ashamed of it--it's just become another way of being "too much." They don't want to unpack that they wanted to cheat or why, because they're afraid that if Cash knows they're having a hard time, he either will break up with them, or he'll do things he doesn't want. That's why "we both did a shitty thing and now we can move on"--they're afraid of talking about it. But then he breaks up with them for being too much anyway, and they just escalate the track they were already on by joining the Puriteens.

As for Cash, he really likes positioning himself as a caretaker, and he doesn't like to impose on people. The idea that Darren is making a sacrifice for him is intolerable, so instead of talking to them, he just cuts it right off. It's a really (unintentionally) cruel scene to me. Clearly Darren isn't going about things the right way but Cash comes in with his decision made and just doesn't respond to them at all.

Now that we know Cash has a history of self-harm, there is a little implication with him giving himself a tattoo (esp how much he seems to be hurting himself while doing it--the tattoo he gave Darren hurt, but they weren't yelling in pain the whole time).

I can't with Cash and Nan talking like the relationship was perfect until Cash found out Darren was sexually frustrated. The boat scene was two episodes ago! Moving on.

I see her advice as being basically good, though, and covering a bunch of things that I'd like to see these guy*s explore:

-Just because things aren't simple doesn't mean a relationship isn't worth having

-There are a lot of different ways to have a relationship (psst, please talk about nonmonogamy or at LEAST sit down and have a real conversation about Darren's needs vs. what Cash is comfortable doing)

-Everyone makes sacrifices in relationships and has sacrifices made for them

And I don’t care, I’m going to read the final Cash and Nan scene as meaningful in the overall arc of Cash being Like That. He confided in her and accepted support from her, instead of always trying to take care of her (as she pointed out he does in 1x08).

Given how this arc just kinda trailed off, I saw some reviewers/reactors think that Cash and Darren were broken up at the end of the season. They're clearly not, but…yeah, my da$h watch has definitely ended with a whimper.

[prqltothesql]

Mandalorian

1x01 - Mando established as bounty hunter, fights a bunch of bounty hunters with IG-11, Baby Yoda cliffhanger - BANGER 1x02 - Mando meets Jawas, fights giant creature, Baby Yoda uses the force - OKAY 1x03 - Mando delivers Baby Yoda, has change of heart, kills stormtroopers, fights his way out of Nevarro - BANGER 1x04 - Mando lands on backwater planet, fights group of bandits with an AT-ST, meets hot mom - BANGER 1x05 - Mando lands on Tatooine for repairs, takes a bounty chasing Fennec Shand, gets double-crossed by another bounty hunter - BANGER 1x06 - Mando meets group of old friends, breaks a guy out of a prison ship, gets double-crossed by his friends, murders all his friends - BANGER 1x07 - Mando goes back to Nevarro, meets up with Greef again, gets ambushed by Moff Gideon, Kuill dies - GOOD 1x08 - Mando faces off with Moff Gideon’s troops, nearly dies, IG-11 sacrifices himself, Mando and his jetpack duel Moff Gideon and take him down - BANGER 2x01 - Mando goes back to Tatooine, meets Cobb Vanth, fights Krayt Dragon, Boba Fett is alive - BANGER 2x02 - Mando takes Frog Lady on a trip, crash lands on an ice spider planet, escapes but his ship is destroyed - OKAY 2x03 - Mando meets Bo-Katan and her friends, they take down an Imperial cargo ship - BANGER 2x04 - Mando returns to Nevarro to check on Greef and Cara, they raid an Imperial holdout, blow up a bunch of stuff - GOOD 2x05 - Mando goes and meets Ahsoka, takes down an evil overlord over a small feudal town, Ahsoka gives Baby Yoda backstory + his name - BANGER 2x06 - Mando takes Grogu to a Jedi temple, runs into Boba Fett and Fennec, they get ambushed by the Empire, they smash stormtroopers, Grogu is stolen by Dark Troopers, Mando’s ship destroyed - BANGER 2x07 - Mando reunites with friend from 1x06, they break into an Imperial refinery, Mando takes off his helmet, they break out and destroy the place - BANGER 2x08 - Mando and all his friends bust into Moff Gideon’s cruiser, save Grogu, capture Moff Gideon, Dark Troopers have them cornered, Luke Skywalker appears, destroys them all, takes Grogu to train him - BANGER 3x01 - Mando returns to Nevarro to get droid fixed, fights off a bunch of pirates, blows up pirate ship, goes and visits Bo-Katan - GOOD 3x02 - Mando goes to Mandalore, gets captured by some creature, Grogu goes and gets Bo-Katan, they save Mando, he bathes in the Living Waters, falls in, Bo-Katan saves him and sees a Mythosaur - BANGER 3x03 - Mando returns to the Mandalorian convert, he and Bo-Katan rejoin the clan, Doctor from season 1 is on Coruscant, gets tricked by Imperial spy, gets mind-wiped, Imperial spy acquires cloning tech - BANGER 3x04 - Mando and the clan go and rescue a kid that was captured by a creature, Grogu gets custom armor and has a flashback to getting rescued from Order 66 - GOOD 3x05 - Mando and the clan are called into service by Greef on Nevarro when pirates siege the city, the Mandalorians siege the town and kill the pirates, Din and Bo-Katan blow up the pirate ship, Moff Gideon escapes - BANGER 3x06 - Mando and Bo-Katan go to a planet to get Bo’s buddies back, solve a droid mystery, Bo-Katan claims ownership of the darksaber, is welcomed back as leader of her clan and savior of the Mandalorians - GOOD

[shinelikethunder]

writing credits, seasons 1-6 only because this post is long enough:

kripke: 1x01 pilot, 1x02 wendigo, 1x09 home, 1x16 shadow, 1x22 devil's trap, 2x01 in my time of dying, 2x22 all hell breaks loose part two, 3x01 the magnificent seven, 3x16 no rest for the wicked, 4x01 lazarus rising, 4x10 heaven and hell (story), 4x22 lucifer rising, 5x01 sympathy for the devil, 5x09 the real ghostbusters, 5x22 swan song, 6x22 the man who knew too much; show creator; seasons 1-5 showrunner

kripke & siege: 4x07 it's the great pumpkin, sam winchester

siege: 4x12 criss angel is a douchebag, 4x18 the monster at the end of this book, 5x05 fallen idols, 5x12 swap meat, 5x17 99 problems

tucker: 2x04 children shouldn't play with dead things, 2x10 hunted, 2x16 roadkill, 2x20 what is and what should never be

gamble & tucker: 1x03 dead in the water, 1x12 faith, 1x14 nightmare, 1x21 salvation

gamble: 2x03 bloodlust, 2x08 crossroad blues, 2x13 houses of the holy, 2x17 heart, 2x21 all hell breaks loose part one, 3x02 the kids are alright, 3x07 fresh blood, 3x12 jus in bello, 3x15 time is on my side, 4x02 are you there god? it's me, dean winchester, 4x09 i know what you did last summer, 4x17 it's a terrible life, 4x21 when the levee breaks, 5x02 good god, y'all, 5x07 the curious case of dean winchester, 5x13 the song remains the same, 5x21 two minutes to midnight, 6x01 exile on main st, 6x11 appointment in samarra, 6x21 let it bleed; 4 episodes in season 7; seasons 6-7 showrunner

gamble & humphris: 3x10 dream a little dream of me

humphris: 2x07 the usual suspects, 2x14 born under a bad sign, 3x05 bedtime stories, 4x04 metamorphosis, 4x14 sex and violence

humphris & shiban: 1x20 dead man's blood

shiban: 1x06 skin, 1x07 hook man, 1x11 scarecrow, 1x15 the benders, 2x02 everybody loves a clown, 2x09 croatoan, 2x15 tall tales, 2x19 folsom prison blues

edlund: 2x05 simon said, 2x12 nightshifter, 2x18 hollywood babylon, 3x03 bad day at black rock, 3x09 malleus maleficarum, 3x13 ghostfacers, 4x05 monster movie, 4x08 wishful thinking, 4x16 on the head of a pin, 5x04 the end, 5x10 abandon all hope, 5x14 my bloody valentine, 5x20 the devil you know, 6x03 the third man, 6x09 clap your hands if you believe, 6x15 the french mistake, 6x20 the man who would be king; 7 episodes in seasons 7-8

carver: 3x04 sin city, 3x08 a very supernatural christmas, 3x11 mystery spot, 3x14 long-distance call, 4x03 in the beginning, 4x11 family remains, 4x15 death takes a holiday, 4x20 the rapture, 5x03 free to be you and me, 5x08 changing channels, 5x15 dead men don't wear plaid, 5x18 point of no return; 7 episodes in seasons 8-11; seasons 8-11 showrunner

dabb & loflin: 4x06 yellow fever, 4x13 after school special, 4x19 jump the shark, 5x06 i believe the children are our future, 5x11 sam interrupted, 5x16 dark side of the moon, 5x19 hammer of the gods, 6x04 weekend at bobby's, 6x07 family matters, 6x13 unforgiven, 6x18 frontierland; 5 episodes in seasons 7-8; 2 solo episodes in season 8 (loflin); 29 solo episodes in seasons 8-15 (dabb); seasons 12-15 showrunner (dabb)

glass: 6x02 two and a half men, 6x08 all dogs go to heaven, 6x12 like a virgin, 6x19 mommy dearest; 11 episodes in seasons 7-10

charmelo & snyder: 6x06 you can't handle the truth, 6x14 mannequin 3: the reckoning, 6x17 my heart will go on; 6 episodes in seasons 9-11

matthews: 6x05 live free or twi-hard, 6x10 caged heat, 6x16 and then there were none

[maximoffdanvers]

100 days of stranger things

day 4: favorite quote overall

[felicitykings]

[xbcaptain]

SEVEN/RAFFI   +   season two journey

[dangerpronebuddie]

I've actually spent a LOT of time on the colors thing and as I was reading this, some things popped up to add to my mangled thoughts on it.

Buck's love color is red. Chris wears red glasses. That could be his mother, but it could be Buck as well considering the glasses are consistently red. (I haven't watched 3x15 again, so I don't remember what all she wore.) (I just think the reds are another parallel between Shannon and Buck, which is a whole other mess entirely.)

I have to watch more of Shannon's scenes to be able to tell more about her and Chris, especially 2x10, so I'm gonna do that later and see.

I DID NOT THINK ABOUT THAT! I forgot what color he's wearing during the skateboard incident, but damn! So I wonder if Shannon wears yellow to like symbolize she thinks Eddie's wrong (not that he's absolutely right, there is no right or wrong in their situation.)

I love that they have set palettes for characters. And red and tan seem to be Buck and Eddie's color palette when they're together. 3x12, 4x12, and even 4x08 (though Buck's in more of an orangish red). Even Bobby and Athena wear the ensemble sometimes. And the shades match! Now I don't know why, but it just is.

I did notice that, despite yellow being next to green, their shades never matched. Much like Buck and every one of his girlfriends. When Buck or Eddie are in light shades, their respective love interests are in darker ones. The only time we see Eddie match Ana is when they break up.

I think Eddie's love color is navy, despite the uniform color, for several reasons. The first being there's a band of navy around his St. Christopher medallion. Whenever he's worried about Chris or is thinking of him (3x12, 4x14, 5x10, just off the top of my head), he's in navy. And I thought it was just his color for Chris, because he never wears navy around Ana. But it's not! He wears blue (a brighter version but still) in 5x17 when he goes to El Paso, and blue denim in 2x04, 2x07, and 3x03. The blue applies to family, but also to a certain other person. 4x14 is his love confession to Buck, regardless if Buck understood that. So, Eddie's wearing navy. And in the poker date???!!!!! Both Buck and Eddie are wearing their love colors!!!!! And, in 6x18, when we're supposed to believe Eddie gets his new beginning/ happy ending with Marisol, he's in navy!

I'm no good at the whole color thing, but some things cannot be ignored. So many things on this show have a purpose, right down to rainbow lighting, so I know color comes into it somehow.

Hi Anna!!! I'm so sorry to bother you but I keep noticing things I want your opinion on! Shannon wears a LOT of yellow. Both when she comes back, and when she dies. Chris wears yellow both during the tsunami and during Eddie's breakdown. I just want to know why! I know Eddie's army green is his armor and navy is his love color, and Chris wears green and blue whenever Buddie's in danger, but what's the point of the yellow?

Muah! 💚

Okay, so, I absolutely SUCK at clothing metas aside from the very well established blue and green thing with couples, but I have opinions because their clothing department is very on the nose lol

Something about 911 is that they tend to assign colors or color groups to characters, Eddie wears a lot of earth tones in greens and blues and greys and browns, Buck wears a lot of red and pinks and oranges, Athena also wears a lot of red, Bobby wears a lot of darker colors, Hen wears a lot of fun prints, and I'm sure that has something to do with the way they built the characters in ways I can't fully explain.

But I actually went to look at all of the Shannon scenes, and she's always wearing yellow or orange, expect for the beach scene where she's wearing pink and all the flashbacks where she's wearing red, and something else about the beach scene is that she's also always wearing a lot of accessories, she has a lot of rings and multiple necklaces most of the times we see her, except for the beach where she's wearing one ring and one necklace and there's probably a point to be made here that I can't fully articulate (there's probably something about color theory to be said with the way they assigned her yellow, the color next to green, which is a color we see Eddie a lot in, so they look nice next to each other since they are analogous colors but considering the way green is one of the assigned colors for couples but the other color there is blue, that’s the other side of the green analogous colors of the wheel, putting her in yellow could be making a bigger point here and the way she’s in brigher shades than earthy tones associated with Eddie, could also be making a point since they clash shades to show conflict sometimes), but since she's wearing a lot of yellows, I went looking for when Chris is wearing yellow and that's tsunami, after he gets hurt in school after the skateboard incident and during Eddie's breakdown, which is interesting when you consider the way that these are situations where Eddie gets emotionally distressed, to draw that parallel to watching Shannon die and the way Chris also has his own color palette, in season 2 and 3 he wears red a lot and after that he evolves to blues and greens kinda mirroring Eddie which I think is adorable, but his glasses are still red and so are his crutches, so to put him in the color they assigned to his dead mother in the situations where he's not exactly in danger (he is in danger on the tsunami but he's not in danger during Eddie's breakdown, I think the word I want here is that when he's scared), definitely means something, because like, she's wearing yellow in moments Eddie needs to be emotionally vulnerable, when they kiss after she did the interview with the school, when she shows up at the firehouse, when she dies, so it's definitely a choice being made there.

WAIT WAIT WAIT CHRIS IS WEARING YELLOW IN SCENES EDDIE IS WRONG. HE ASSUMES CHRIS IS SAFE FROM THE TSUNAMI, HE ASSUMES CHRIS WAS FORCED TO GET ON THE SKATEBOARD AND WHEN EDDIE THINKS THERE'S NO HOPE FOR HIMSELF. (this is an edit lol)

And Eddie definitely wears more blues than green around Chris and when you add the army green jacket and the situations we get that particular shade of green with him in, it definitely affects the way we view the scene even if it's not fully conscious (the navy blue it's complicated to say, i think, since its the color of their uniforms). And the yellow thing is interesting because they kinda push that in a way where you can make the assumption that yellow is Shannon's favorite color (even her jewelry is mostly gold, and from what i can tell there's almost always a ring with a yellow stone, so like, it's there) so it would make sense if Chris had more yellow stuff considering his stuff was picked out by her for half his life, because even if assuming based on his glasses and crutches that his favorite color is red, it would make sense for him to have a bit of his mother around him anyway (i mean, there's the way they put Shannon in red throughout all of Eddie Begins so maybe they added that there so that the red already is that bit and the evolution to his clothing matching Eddie's color palette is bringing a bit of both but that would be a retcon in my opinion) because I feel like even as a 7 yo if he got to pick stuff, he could very easily gravitate towards something that reminded him of his mom.

[robinsteve]

30 DAYS TO STRANGER THINGS 4: DAY TWENTY-SEVEN

most underrated episode: 2.07 - the lost sister

[will80sbyers]

• STRANGER THINGS 2 | Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister

[spockeveryday]

[wheelfield]

kali and el deserve some of the praise that people seem to reserve for hopper and el. yes, hopper and el have a great relationship which is complex and has some really heartwarming scenes. but kali and el also have this, and managed to portray a beautifully strong emotional connection between two sisters pushed together and pulled apart by the tragedy of their lives, all in one episode. kali is a part of el’s life and it’s time the fandom and the writers started treating her like one.

[readinginthereadyroom]

one if my absolute favorite fandom things is when a show references another show that a guest actor was on.

think the children of the gods (stargate sg-1 1x01) when carter says they macgyver’d a supercomputer to make the gate system. it’s an in-joke only for fans of richard dean anderson, whose previous role was the eponymous macgyver.

so seeing wil wheaton get a star trek shoutout on leverage has thrown me into a nerd frenzy.

he’s playing colin mason. aka chaos. aka the kobayashi maru. a hacker and hardison’s mirror.

and yeah, wheaton’s pretty well known for his stint as wesley crusher (in this household we stan our ensign king). so it’s not quite an easter egg.

but it also is. that is, if you are trekkie. because then you know it’s a hint that colin mason is the exact opposite of wesley crusher.

see most people, not in fandom (like the cia who give colin the alias) know that the kobayashi maru is a star trek reference. maybe they even know it’s a tos reference and not tng. but that’s fine! it’s an easter egg. they laugh and move on.

but a trekkie connects the dots. knows the original kobayashi maru was in st II the wrath of khan. where a young james t kirk hacked the character-defining no-win training scenario. training meant to teach loss. to prepare future starfleet officers for the burdens of command.

a trekkie knows that wesley had his own kobayashi maru. in the first duty (st tng 5x19) when he’s pressured into a cover-up of a flight training accident that claimed the life of another ensign. an accident where he and his friends are at fault.

but unless you’ve actually seen tos and tng and the movies. if you’re not a trekkie and not in the fandom then you’re not going to understand that the kobayashi maru isn’t about cheating to win. it’s about never giving up—no matter the odds.

kirk’s point in cheating on the kobayashi maru was not to win for winnings sake. he’s making a point. he’s making it into the definition of a character-defining moment. a first duty. he’s saying that he will never accept a no-win situation when it comes to the lives of his crew. he’ll protect them anyway he can. he turns the kobayashi maru into a synonym for truth and hope and persistence.

wesley though, has already lied. he’s particpated in the cover-up. and it’s not a test. it’s real life with real stakes. and one of wesley’s friends is already dead. there’s no winning. no outcome that could possibly make the situation better.

that’s why it’s his is his kobayashi maru. his character-defining moment. his first duty. he has to choose to tell the truth, hope he can be forgiven, and persist on his moral course. because it’s the right thing to do.

wesley is kirk’s mirror, but not a dark one. but only a trekkie is going to understand how similar kirk and wesley’s choices are. the nuance of how they do and not mirror each other.

and all of our leverage characters (except sophie because she’s “dead”) have a mirror on the other con team. a counterpart. nate has starke. parker has apollo. eliot has mikel. and, of course, hardison has colin.

but because of a reference to tng that itself references wrath of khan we get a preview of the outcome. we get a nod that colin is the bad guy. he’s kirk—if kirk had cheated only to win. he’s wesley—if wesley had lied to save his reputation. he’s the kobayashi maru—when you don’t understand the kobayashi maru.

he’s the dark mirror.

and that, my fellow nerds. my fellow trekkies. that is the secret language of fandom.

and yeah, this ep aired in 2009. a good dozen years ago. but I’d like to think that wil wheaton got the reference. that he understood the implications of that easter egg line. because he’s always spoken fluent fandom and he’s a trekkie, just like us.

[asexual-juliet]

no thoughts head empty only jonathan saying “el? this is gonna hurt like hell, ok?” in the softest voice i have ever heard before he cuts her leg open in 2x07