#unhinged about bill cage now and forever

[nade2308]

I am not the ghost you are to me

@thethistlegirl @malewifebillcage

Part 1 || Part 2

[agentnico]

Top 10 Best Movies of 2020

2020 - what a year, eh? What a jolly, cheerful and happy year it has been, with hardly any problems and a general peaceful and prosperous time for the ever progressive people of Earth! I’m kidding, let’s get real, what the hell was 2020 all about?! What a way to begin the decade! At least we got some movies, emphasis on ‘some’ as most of them got delayed due to cinema closures. In any case, there were still some little gems that gave us some form of limited escapism in these hardship times, and here they are, my favourite films of 2020...

Honourable mentions: An American Pickle, Emma, Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe

10) COLOR OUT OF SPACE - “Milk the Alpacas!” With call-backs to 80′s John Carpenter horror films, with an added flair of Nicolas Cage and alpacas (you heard me), we are slowly plunged into a hellish landscapes of madness, deformity and desolation. So, ya know, a typical Saturday night watch with the kids!

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/611042880586481664/colour-out-of-space-2020-review

9) UNHINGED - “I don’t think you really know what a bad day is. But you’re going to find out.” In any other year, this thing wouldn’t make the list. In 2020, a B-movie action film with a road-raging Russell Crowe is exactly the kind of entertainment I’m after! This by no means a great film, but with all the cheesy one liners and obvious foreshadowing, with Russell chewing up the scenery like it’s nobody’s business, you’re guaranteed to not be bored.

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/625701541861523456/unhinged-2020-review

8) MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM - “I’ve got my time coming to me.” When it comes to the year’s best performance, hands down its Chadwick Boseman as the trumpet player in this film, providing us with with a role with such heart and soul (appropriately for the jazz subject), who at first comes off as this self-obsessed selfish arrogant snob who only cares about achieving his own stardom, but then as his layers are unpacked, we discover that underneath this façade is a man filled with such sadness and rage, having endured much profound trauma in his past, and it’s all brought to life so powerfully by Boseman’s dedicated performance. This role alone proves what a truly talented actor we’ve lost this year. Wakanda forever!

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/637939894686285824/ma-raineys-black-bottom-2020-review

7) THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME - "I ain’t gonna take the blame for no bastard child!” Robert Pattinson plays a high pitched voiced priest that is a pervert. Somehow I’m sold!

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/629773151704858624/the-devil-all-the-time-2020-review

6) BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC - “Be excellent to one another, and party on dudes!!” Any other year, this film would have passed the public’s eye without much of an impression and would have vanished into oblivion. In 2020 though, where so much negativity has been imposed upon us all, the simplistic absurdist debauchery of Bill and Ted is exactly what was needed to lighten everyone’s mood. Excellent!!

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/627980138875912192/bill-ted-face-the-music-2020-review

5) DA 5 BLOODS - “We won't let nobody use our rage against us. We control our rage.” Director Spike Lee is in the house, this time lighting up another joint and taking us on an adventure to find some treasure, whilst also providing commentary on the hardships of the Vietnam war and the PTSD that it caused to its survivors. Great cast, powerful message and a Black Panther to seal the deal!

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/620819114989076480/da-5-bloods-2020-review

4) THE GENTLEMEN - “There’s only one rule in this jungle! When the lion is hungry, he eats.” This is such a cool film! Like, that’s the best way to put it: so cool!! Simply a bunch of cool geezers acting all cool and mighty spilling Guy Ritchie’s cool dialogue whilst appearing super cool. Did I mention this film is cool?! So cool!!

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/190289146259/the-gentlemen-2020-review

3) SOUL - “Your life is so sad and pathetic and you’re working hard to get back to it. I mean, why? This I gotta see!” Dang it, Pixar, you’ve done it again!! In this case, it’s the movie’s earnest and profound message of learning to enjoy the little things that makes it so touching to the, ahem, soul. It may not seem like it right now, but we shall all be okay. Everything will be okay. Stay safe everyone.

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/638668902755336192/soul-2020-review

2) THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 - “We're not going to jail because of what we did. We're going to jail because of who we are!” This courtroom drama is an eye-opener of the reality of American dream and politics, and is a must-watch, even though it’s a bit late now to fix such a broken system. I’m sure many Americans may see this film as unpatriotic, but reality is actually not far from what this film is saying. It speaks the truth. The Aaron Sorkin truth! Then again, as heard many times before: “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!”

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/632238115847913473/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-2020-review

1) EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA - “Play Ja Ja Ding Dong!!” Look, I’m not even ashamed to say it, I absolutely loved this movie! It may not be the pinnacle of modern day filmmaking, but it brought so much zany fun and cheesiness that was a breath of fresh air this year. With a scene stealing performance from Dan Stevens as a campy Russian pop singer, and filled with cheesy original pop songs such as “Lion of Love”, “Double Trouble” and “Husavik”, this is THE feel-good movie of the year. I also have a special sentimental place in my heart for this flick since I told my girlfriend for the first time that I loved her after watching this movie. What can I say, I’m a hopeless romantic! I follow up a Will Ferrell with an “I love you”. This one’s for you, my lovely! 

Full review: https://agentnico.tumblr.com/post/622342894264664064/eurovision-song-contest-the-story-of-fire-saga

With that we close the book of 2020, and open up the cover of 2021. Oh boy, here we go again!...

[dewmie-in]

Episodes I Watch Way Too Closely: 144 - Letters to Lars

Going from Jamie’s big episode in Love Letters, there’s a curious connection between that and the title of a big Dewey-focused episode, Letters to Lars, a few seasons later. A few SEASONS, I say as I collapse. More about this big episode and PLEASE OH PLEASE IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE READ ABOUT THE WRESTLING SCENE under my read more. And if tumblr is gross to you, read this on A03.

Lars is becoming quite the device for Bill’s character development of all things - the last episode was about Bill not even realizing Lars was missing and ultimately losing his job as mayor. Lars is even pink now - not quite Bill's shade but still - weird parallels between them! Toward the end of the episode, LARS HIMSELF makes a joke about being a storytelling device. Poor Lars! Lars outright asks why Steven sent him a *letter* – a symbol for Jamie. Even Lars is telling us this episode really isn't about him! Love Lars. Gotta get some more Lars in my life. Make a note of that.

Let me recap the episode briefly! Lars is still in space with the Off Colors doing his whole Star Trekky captain's log thing. Suddenly, a letter pops through Lars' head from Steven! Steven talks about the events going on in Beach City through his letter; we see Bill showing up as a common, depressing thread in most of Steven's anecdotes. We finally see a bit of resolution when Steven suggests that Bill start working at the Big Donut. We also see some atonement for Bill's mistake when he doesn't realize who Lars is in Dewey Wins  - naming a donut after Lars and then visiting Lars' parents.

Onto the episode rip-apart! Okay, I already mentioned the little Jamie reference with Lars having a letter pop out of his head. Then, we have an establishing shot of the ocean. Two Jamie symbols! Even before Bill shows up, Jamie is there in some way. Initially, I thought the events happened during the course of a day, but Jamie's improv class is at night – it's the only scene that we see in the episode at night, in fact! More toward that day/night or light/dark theory I have going.

More character symbols! The HAM Sign on the window of the Big Donut looks like a sun - and then Bill, similar in appearance to a walking ham, shows up a minute later.

A lot of this episode deals with how even when his self-absorption has gotten in the way, Bill genuinely wants to help people, be part of things, and ultimately make people happy. Not having that anymore has left him rudderless. Bill has never really been an uplifting kind of guy out of all the characters in the show – he's a mess, really – but this episode was easily one of his saddest. We see him becoming more and more desperate to participate throughout the episode – and becoming more and more unhinged as each attempt fails.

Uh, what is going on with sad men at their wit’s end in this show and half-untucked shirt tails? That’s twice I’ve seen it now – one for Bill and one for Jamie back when he was being a weirdo in Love Letters...

What a couple of dorks.

Interestingly, Bill and Pearl have no interaction this episode – not one line is exchanged between them in the pizza shop scene. If anything, Garnet interacts with Bill more… or at least reacts to him – with a sympathetic little ‘aw’ (I so hope Garnet helps get Bill and Jamie together please oh please) and then whacking him in the head with a tennis ball. Head injuries are always good for character development - well done, Garnet.

Bill could have had another chance to talk to Pearl during the improv scene too, but nothing happens. What is Bill doing trying to participate in the improv class in the first place, anyway? You can tell he's obviously jumped into it last minute out of desperation - no Laugh Guard sweater or anything. You’d think he’d be trying some last-ditch effort to get with Pearl, his big!crush, but no. We see one more token effort to talk to Pearl in one of the background scenes in Reunited and that's it.

Mr. Smiley and Barb are taking an improv class so... that's interesting. Jamie had been doing lots of one-man shows at this point, and he has had trouble getting other people to show up to audition for stuff in the past, so I'm hoping he didn't have to beg people to take this class. It's also the first class we hear of him teaching (but not the first session of the class) so I'm wondering if the community theater might need to start making money. I promised my friends and family I would not write a volume of speculation on the Beach City Arts and Culture operational budget, so I'm going to move on.

To touch on the lack of Bill/Pearl interaction this episode one more time - Pearl actually interacts more with Jamie as a heckler, even prompting a 'Pearl, be nice!’ from Steven. I don’t think she was doing anything maliciously, but the fact that she initially made Jamie look incompetent stuck in my mind a bit. Between Pearl and Peridot? He gets ripped apart in this scene, and ends up pretty annoyed by the time Bill enters. The whole thing is just cringey and wonderful.

Jamie also seems kind of… weirdly full of himself here! He tries to teach improv but honestly he's not doing all that well. I’m wondering if this is going to be a running theme. I so want the next Jamie episode to be a 'crisis of confidence' thing – either a bout of impostor syndrome or people questioning his competence in some way or UGH. There is kind of a disparity so far between Bill's and Jamie's development as characters, so I hope he gets an episode soon.

That last bit with Peedee and his price-gouging tater tots is when everything is thrown out into the open about much being mayor meant to Bill. Notice none of it is actually feeling like he accomplished anything as a leader – it was the routine of it all, really:

 “You know what I miss the most about being the mayor? The little things – getting dressed and ready for work, walking down the boardwalk seeing everyone’s smiling faces – yes! Knowing I had a place in this town. I used to look forward to it every day – just like the people of this town used to look forward to their morning donut.”

And today in More Lines With Subtext That Probably Isn’t There:

“I guess these days no one gets what they want.”

And then yay! Found some meaning NEW DONUT BOY!

Bill and Barb’s flirting is admittedly super cute to me. If I’m wrong about LITERALLY EVERYTHING I have been theorizing and predicting and hyperfixating on these past few months; if they just decide to make the dance in Reunited a joke like most of the fandom thinks it is; if they just make Bill straight and keep Jamie alone forever? I hope they end up doing something with Bill and Barb. Perhaps Bill would be able to get her to relax her parenting style a bit more - and in turn, Barb could make Bill more attentive as a parent! It also makes you wonder where Sadie would fit in to all that because she does not seem to like Bill at all. BUT ENOUGH, steering readily back into bisexual-disasters-bill-and-jamie territory…

I think this bit actually speaks to two things - one thing about how Bill has now changed as a character and something that started as a tiny prediction but is now a HUGE one:

Okay first, it shows us that Bill is available now! I ramble a bit in my post about Dewey Wins where Bill thought it would be inappropriate to do a ton of flirting as mayor - maybe Bill feels he can play the field a bit now? Even in his interactions with Pearl, he never actually went so far as to ask her out on a date or make a 'move’ so to speak. Okay, so he referred to her as 'the hot one', but he never said that to her face. He whenever he tried talking to her, he tended to cycle between ridiculousness and disappointment, really. So yeah, Bill can be 'in the game' again.

Now for the prediction I have, based on the speech scene at the end of Dewey Wins and the scene in the donut shop towards the end of this episode:

Jamie’s standing off by himself, staring at the soda machine in thought. Smiley is the first to get donuts and then walks off screen in Jamie's direction. Then, Barb and Bill flirt.

Jamie and Smiley are also standing together during the debate in Dewey Wins - there are a couple weird things where Smiley disappears from the background during this - I can't tell if it's just an inconsistency in the animation, or they did it to make the figures in the foreground more easily visible. When Smiley *is* there, it looks like him and Jamie might even be talking to each other a bit during the speeches. I swear the angle of Jamie's arm in one part makes it look like Jamie has grabbed Smiley's hand for support as Bill's speech starts. Hey, this is me talking, though - I grew up on '90s science fiction where it was all 256-color screen captures and I read way too much romantic subtext into shots framed to deal with tiny aspect ratios on old TVs – ANYWAY!

I'm predicting that there might be one, final red herring!romance for Bill and Jamie each. For Bill, it’s going to be Barb - for Jamie, it’s going to be Mr. Smiley. Mr. Smiley has been in enough background scenes lately with Jamie for me to wonder if Jamie might start dating Mr. Smiley first - and Bill is going to learn of it and date Barb as a reaction.

My biggest piece of evidence for this is that seemingly RANDOM BREAK into wrestling stuff in the middle of the episode! Some of these may overlap with other ships or plot points in the show of course, but I'm for now I'm reading this as foreshadowing in my Bill/Barb/Jamie/Smiley love quadrangle theory:

"The Marmalade Boys fought each other in – you guessed it – marmalade!"

This will either be a messy relationship (Jamie and Smiley?) or... fighting in mar... hmm.. mal... mail? MAIL? DUELING POSTAL WORKERS? Are Barb and Jamie going to fight over Bill?

"Concrete Heat faced off against the Wolf of Wall Street inside a steel cage!"

Steven says this in voice over, but this isn't a “face-off” really - we see Concrete Heat (Heat? Firey warmth stuff? Bill is that you?) climbing up the steel cage to get away from a dude in a wolf suit. This might be Bill and Mr. Smiley fighting over Jamie, but I think it's more likely that Barb will either pursue Bill, or Bill will feel trapped by her.

"And the Good Looking Gang finally lost the tag-team title to The Sea Wasp and Shark-o-Mania!"

That has only one interpretation to me. Two guys with their arms around each other, one in blue and the other in red. Is my ship just sailing in foreshadowy form or what?! Does objective reality really exist? Oh, also - one of Jamie's character symbols is mentioned here – the sea!

You might be thinking, “What about Bill and Jamie's dance in Reunited! Jamie could have been dancing with Smiley if are a thing” - but I don't think they're a thing yet – and that scene was to plant a more obvious seed with the viewer that there's some sort of thing between Bill and Jamie - something buried deep they will only let out between the Red Solo Cups of Dubious Contents and being mutually upset about things. Their running away from the wedding screams (and I’m so happy I don’t have to keep this to a G rating because it’s tumblr and not A03) them having a one-night stand! Or at least intending to before the attack happened. I'm guessing giant aliens landing on the beach would kill the mood... unless you're Greg. I have no idea if Bill and Jamie's evening together will be referenced later on as something that causes tension or awkwardness between them. I could see Bill maybe even ghosting Jamie for a bit as a result. Maybe this awkwardness is what pushes them into the other relationships?

At the moment in the storyline, I suspect Mr. Smiley just fills the gay friend trope for Jamie – helps Jamie through a rough time after all the trauma of the Aquamarine episodes. In this case, Bill might misinterpret their friendship as something else and I'm just losing a hemisphere of my brain at that.

So to summarize: there's gonna be a big thing with Bill, Jamie, Barb and Mr. Smiley, and Bill/Jamie will ultimately be the result. I'd say I'm taking bets but that's illegal, so I'm just going to look really smug if it's true.

To wrap up, most of Bill's story arc feels like it’s tilting toward stuff to get him out of being so self-absorbed. Which is going to be a process! The bit at the end where Steven has him name a donut after Lars and then bring some over to his parents is a good start. I hope the whole abduction thing is brought up specifically with Jamie and Bill together as part of that growth, but I feel that's kind of optimistic. I get the feeling something new is going to happen that might make Bill a bit more selfless.

SO! Sweet jelly baby jesus this is so much fun! This gets me caught up of all the episodes that have currently aired. I'm going to start watching the series from the beginning now and writing a post on episodes where Bill/Jamie might be hinted at, where they have minor roles where something might speak to their character development, OR just random theories. Either way, there will probably be at least one more chapter to this meta in the coming days or weeks, so expect another update soon!