#well enough that she's tormented me through several egg seasons now

[fabdante]

It's funny to me how everyone who has hermit crabs when asked will admit to a favorite, and it's always the biggest crab in the tank. doubly so if the crab is a jumbo.

the jumbos are always the favorites

[orionsangel86]

14x02 - Episode Review - Without the Bells and Whistles

Bucklemming colour me impressed. This episode was a rich character driven story that left me full and satisfied and that is something I NEVER say about Bucklemming. I am amazed at how character focused these first two episodes are and truly hope that Dabb keeps up the momentum among writers. It is a change of pace with the show, and a change of focus, but it is WORKING so far.

As always with BL episodes there were some pacing issues and clunky dialogue in parts, but damn Dick Speight Jr is doing a fabulous job making the show look beautiful. As with 14x01 there is a lot to discuss, though I will try to be brief as I have a desperate need to write a separate post about Cas because my angel had me in tears in this episode and he needs an essay written about him in it.

Without further adieu, a long review is under the cut.

Michael and the Bait

Firstly Jensen did spectacularly in this episode. Such a drastic difference from 14x01 and I’m not sure if that’s because of Dick being a more hands on director or Jensen finally making a choice but he has settled into the role and plays Michael as a sinister psychopath on a mission. Michael has far more personality in this episode. He is more interesting to watch and managed to hold my attention unlike in 14x01. This makes me happy.

So what’s the deal guys? Michael spends this episode focusing on his monster experiments, brags about owning Dean, and then just leaves? Obviously that’s not what happened. The clue is in the key moments:

“Why be the hunted, when you can be the Hunter?”

“Rule no.1 you can’t have a trap without bait. Rule no.2 Once the trap has been sprung, you don’t need the bait anymore.”

Michael’s plan has been set in motion. The scene with the vamp girl being foreshadowing for the bigger picture, the bigger goal. Is Michael going after the hunters? If his plan is to make a world where Monsters are in charge, then the hunters need to be eradicated. It makes sense. It also therefore makes sense that you would set your sights on hunter central – the bunker. So Dean was let free so Michael could keep a watch on the bunker and it’s residents through him. As far as the rules go, if Dean is the bait, then releasing Dean is Michael not needing him anymore directly. The trap itself is the mystery, but I suspect we will find out more about exactly what Michael has done in 14x03, and it will most likely all have to do with this mysterious scar. I don’t think Michael is hiding “in” Dean so much as has an “open connection” to him where he could jump back in at any time without Dean’s consent. But we shall find out soon enough I’m sure.

Mary x Bobby

Obviously I support this ship, but I support it even more seeing as they have now paralleled Mobby to Destiel in two episodes in a row.

“My FBI is a little rusty”

This week, Bobby is our Cas mirror and Mary is our Dean. The fond pat on the back was the only hint we got that this was romantic, but like with 14x01, I ask you to try to find a single viewer who doesn’t see “something there” between this generic heterosexual couple? They are continuing to show their relationship through nothing BUT destiel parallels and it continues to delight me that this is now the shows go-to way to portray romance.

On a slight side note, Bobby being from an apocalypse AU world, he is the classic hunter right now who only sees in black and white, and the way he went for the vamp girl even after she tried to explain how she had never harmed a human. Bobby’s take on things this season will be an interesting one as it’s a continuous theme in this show to explore what makes a monster, something that dates back to John Winchester days (the ultimate black and white hunter). Also his understandable suspicions about angels making the dynamic with Cas a potentially interesting one. I wonder if this Bobby will ever utter the phrase “family don’t end with blood”?

Nick – It’s a chicken and egg situation

*sigh* I’m still not won over, and I probably won’t be. I expected this episode to be Nick heavy, and the flashbacks irked me because I simply don’t care. But I get that they would be necessary for a general audience. My lack of care is my own issue. It doesn’t matter how much Mark P acted his arse off trying to give us a decent performance (his first in years), I’m still not gonna be a fan. I’m still gonna skip those scenes in subsequent re-watches but that’s just me. I just don’t find it interesting even if he is being embedded into the story in a way that is paramount to the plot and the characters own struggles and development. I will acknowledge that importance and move on. I suppose the take away from Nick’s role in this episode when not specifically tied to Castiel (which I will yell about later) is whether or not he murdered his wife and child before he was possessed by Lucifer. The set up in the episode, the scripting and the direction implies that yes, he did. Though that could be a misdirection.

At the beginning of the episode, when he was asking Castiel what would possibly make him say yes to Lucifer to begin with, he had seemingly forgotten all about the brutal murder of his family, until Cas reminded him. Perhaps he had just repressed the trauma to the point that he had removed it from his mind to save himself further torment – but then murderers do that as much as grieving widows. Interestingly of all the things we learn about the murder case, we never actually learn Nick’s whereabouts, only from Castiel saying “you weren’t there” which is entirely unreliable because how would he have known other than from reading about the case himself? We know Nick’s neighbour is jumpy around him, so what did the neighbour actually see? We know his wife and child were killed with a hammer – an extremely intimate murder weapon and one that has been meta’d before in relation to Demon!Dean. Strangers don’t murder people with a hammer. It’s the weapon of crimes of passion, of extreme emotional connection to the victims. There is nothing cold and detached about a hammer. People who pick hammer’s to kill seek out the mess and extreme violence that they cause. It’s horrific and so much more gruesome than a knife or a gun. To kill an infant with a hammer? Even worse. To then see Nick murder the neighbour in the same violent attack, it is very easy to assume that he was the original killer as well.

If we assume Nick was the killer what does this mean for the canon of the show? Is this how Lucifer picks his vessels? What does this say about Sam? Who had to consume gallons of demon blood before he could contain Lucifer, Sam who had to be “corrupted” from a young age to prepare him? Was Nick already corrupted enough thanks to his apparent violent streak?

OR was this new kill with the hammer a result of what Cas called Lucifer’s “influence”, the “damage on his psyche”? Did Lucifer create the monster? Or was the monster already a part of Nick? If the season is going to continue the themes of previous seasons in exploring the shades of grey between men and monsters, then Nick is a key component. Is he the innocent victim of the devil? Or is he a tormented killer, who just so happened to get what he deserved? How would this affect the boys? If they are already struggling to find compassion towards a man wearing the face of their abuser, how does this potential new bit of information fit into that story? Perhaps, if Nick really is the killer, once this is found out it gives the writers an easy way to ultimately have him killed off without any guilt of tormenting and villainising an innocent. My money is actually on this theory. Plus it gives me a reason to continue hating him for the hell of it. But hey, that’s just me.

Castiel – The Angel with Too Much Heart

Oh Cas. What DON’T I have to say about you in this episode? I was amazed by Bucklemming’s dedication to Cas as a character and devotion to getting him right for once… I feel like I have slipped into an alternate universe because of this.

In 14x01 Cas was physically beaten, and in 14x02 he is emotionally beaten. I can’t help but wonder if this spells gloomy foreshadowing for Cas in the coming episodes. I want to write about this in depth as this episode is a fascinating insight into Cas’s psyche and his character arc going forward BUT I am leaving that for a separate post so in this review I will just sum it up:

Consider what happens to Cas in several points:

He overhears Bobby saying “angels ain’t known for their veracity” about Jo – that he doubts she was telling the truth. Cas shrugs it off and “tends to agree with him” but the awkwardness is obvious. This isn’t the Bobby who saw Cas as a son after all.

He is told he cannot go along on the mission to save Dean because his “angelic presence would be sensed by Michael” therefore his grace has rendered him useless.

He is made to relive his own possession by Lucifer “you were in a lot of pain, and Lucifer saw a vulnerability and he exploited it” though not talking about himself, the implication is obvious to anyone with a good memory of previous seasons.

He is made to relive another dark chapter of his history when his grace was stolen and he was human. Cas gives Jack a heartfelt positive speech that does show he is in a better place now “I had Sam and Dean, but I had something else that was extremely helpful. I had myself. Just the basic me, as Dean would say without all the bells and whistles” (which btw is so so good for human!cas meta) but the truth is actually far more depressing than Cas lets on, and the pain of what happened at that time, how Dean kicking him out of the bunker only encouraged the view that without his grace he was useless and unwanted by Dean – hence jilted lover.

He is surprised by Nick trying to “snap” him to oblivion which could easily be a trigger for Cas bearing in mind Lucifer has blown him up before via that very gesture.

He had to relive his “greatest regret” and what he did to Jimmy and his family. “You’re just a stone cold body snatcher, you’re no different from Lucifer” and you can SEE how much that pained him. How much Nick twisted the knife at those words.

He was told by Jack that he wanted to meet “The only real family that I have left” which is a slap in the face to poor Cas who sees Jack as part of his own family (and his reaction to that line is heart breaking).

Then the worst thing, he is made to face the possible conclusion that Dean may have to die to save the world. “Dean doesn’t matter” oh boy. No hate to Jack who doesn’t really have any real reason to put Dean ahead of the world, but to Cas, who is in love with him? Yeah that’s the killing blow right there.

Right at the end Jack says “Do you think he’d want it any other way?” and Cas KNOWS Dean wouldn’t, because they have been in that situation before as well, and when that happened Dean asked Cas to take him out. So he had to relive that painful moment as well. One that he refused, and because he refused to fight Dean, got beaten to a pulp after proclaiming that he would “be the one to watch you murder the world”. I have no doubt that Cas would still take that view over the alternative.

So Cas was emotionally beaten all episode. Forced to live through his worst moments and biggest regrets, and then have to face the fact that putting Dean above saving the world just isn’t right and he needs to prepare himself for that eventuality. If this episode and the last have told us anything, it’s that Cas is once again in a pretty low place. That much beating, both physical and emotional, are going to have an impact, and I am now really concerned about where Cas disappears to in episodes 4 to 6.

There is so much more to discuss, specifically in relation to what his view of his grace as “bells and whistles” could mean for human!Cas meta writers, not to mention the basic fact that any argument now about Cas hating being human just isn’t true. He still had himself, and he still believed in himself even when human, and even if he didn’t back then, he does now. He doesn’t see that period of his life as a total negative. That is HUGE.

Summary

A+ episode for Cas development. Amazing as that is being a bucklemming. It has also left us with lots to speculate and theorise which is always a great thing - keeping people tuning in. The Michael!Dean mystery as well as the Nick mystery probably won’t get revealed any time soon, but are enough to have people talking about them for a while. 

Sam was still very much in Leader mode, though didn’t really get to do much this episode, but the way I see it, 14x01 was for Sam, 14x02 was for Cas, and I fully expect 14x03 to be a Dean heavy episode (which is fair since I am sure we are all missing him by now). Jack is also one to watch. His inner turmoil is textually acknowledged several times over and seeing as he is basically a mini Cas, the possibility that Jack could decide to do something drastic is probably very likely. I wonder if we will see Kelly’s parents again any time soon - I kinda hope not as I reckon that would spell certain doom for them. 

It was a strong episode, and I enjoyed watching it (other than the Nick stuff). Probably my second favourite Bucklemming episode if I was to rank them all now which is very impressive (11x18 will always be top imo).

That’s all for now, as I am in the mood to write some Cas stuff. As always if you read this far kudos and please reblog and comment and send me asks as I love all that stuff. :D

[eenefangirlanalysis]

Eddy furiously packs a suitcase with several items such as clothes, his records, and anything of value to him.

The impact of this scam is so serious that the Ed’s need to run instead of hide. Remember how Edd stores food, water and other emergency products of need under his bed. This situation is more serious then the time Ed dressed as a monster and stuck the kids to his bedroom wall.

Eddy is scared. It’s rare whenever we see Eddy scared. He is fearless. Or so we think. He does a great job masking his inner fears.

Eddy jumps up and down on his crammed suitcase until it finally locks.

Eddy is famous for taking advantage of cartoon physics. He would have made all these belongings fit inside as if it were no problem.

Since Big Picture Show is suggested to take place a year later Eddy is presumed to be 13 years old. He’s scared of growing up. He doesn’t want to face challenges. He thinks too hard making him forget who he once was. 

The only chance audience witness at seeing the real Eddy is at the very end of the movie where he admits that he’s worn a Bro mask for a long time. 

Eddy has always been a confused and shy boy. Eddy has his own unique personality which disappeared after season 2. He became scared to face reality, ditch his true self to portray someone who could never love him.

Eddy tries to drag the suitcase off the bed and run for his life.

I love the stretchy bendy arms throughout this scene.

Were the Ed’s planning to meet up in a specific spot so they could make their escape? Ed runs into Eddy’s house. Eddy’s room is a safe place for Ed. His friend makes him feel welcome and secure. Ed relies on Eddy to be his protector because his parents won’t.

To Eddy’s luck, the suitcase explodes. A pinata of Eddy’s valuables pop out of the suitcase and fly around in viewers faces. There are a bunch of cool Easter eggs. 

I love Eddy’s valuables.

His room is very different from all the other characters. He’s more of an old fashioned person who likes records. the eighties, magazines. It’s a chance to see who the real Eddy is.

Bro and Eddy DON’t have the same taste in music. Believe me you will understand my point at the end of the movie.

Maybe this is why Eddy thought nobody would like him. He has much different interests. He also has a more unique lifestyle. Eddy has never thought too highly of himself. Every character, even Ed and Edd, have made a snide remark towards Eddy’s character. To the best of his ability Eddy ignores it. So we think.

Remember how Eddy used to juggle, play piano, and improvise nun chucks out of dice? Eddy had a much different personality in season 1. He was easy to get along with and always looked out for his friends. It’s hard to understand why the kids wouldn’t accept him. Of course the main reason is that he has been scamming them for ages, but not every day. Sometimes his scams are creative and well thought out. 

Why didn’t the kids want to befriend Eddy?

Is this the guidebook from May I Have This Ed?

Look very closely in this screenshot and you will notice a page from a calendar.

Does this film take place in May?

I always had the summer vibe because there is no mention of school. There is also a no worries feel. Ironic seeing how the Ed’s are on the run, nearly chase one another way, and witness a horrible beating. 

It may just be a random calendar page, but I hope the movie is set in either late June or early July.

Eddy hears pounding on the door.

I like that shirt hanging off from Eddy’s bed in the background. I sort of wish the Ed’s could have worn other clothing. I guess fans got their wish in season 5 when the Ed’s were dressing in different clothing every now and then. It should have been more often because their clothing reflected their personality.

Eddy’s trademark shirt is a big reflection of Bro. In the flashback of Every Which Way But Ed, Ed and Edd are wearing semi different clothing while Eddy is wearing this over sized yellow shirt. 

Hand me down from Bro? I’d say it’s possible because Eddy wants to be the perfect mirror image of his brother. He’s also trying to remain close with him as he has been gone for so long. Eddy never realized how long his brother has been gone for until the events of Ed in a Half Shell.

My head canon is that Eddy has not seen Bro for eight years. And Eddy was pretty young when Bro was around. He was not old enough to understand what was really going on. Now that he is older the events from when he was a child affect him. 

Season 5 was Eddy’s downfall. He was on edge, had a bigger temper, and looked more anxious. He mellowed out more in season 6 because he was trying to be himself. Bro was still there because he remains a big question on Eddy’s mind.

The door is about to break off its hinges.

Doors play an important role throughout this movie.

Doors are "ways in" or "ways out" of (or to) something. We usually don't think about the door when we get to it - unless it is a particularly eye catching one! When opening a door we’re brought out into the world where anything can happen. Only each character has seen a little part of the world. We need to explore what is on the outside more then what is on the inside.

Side Note: Is that a purple dress? Also, I didn’t take a screenshot of this, but there are a pair of women’s heels in Eddy’s closet. There are times when Eddy cross dresses mainly for the sake of a scam, but Eddy’s sexuality has come into question multiple times.

Eddy tries to impersonate his mother while working with a silent vacuum.

Eddy’s mother was off screen cleaning Eddy’s room in one episode. She must do this a lot.

I love Eddy’s mom. We’ll get into that more as the analysis go, but she is always a sweet woman. She and Eddy’s dad are strict, but for very good reason.

The door is thrown off its hinges!

Oh no, the kids?!

Eddy begs for the kids not to hurt him.

Eddy is terrified about getting hurt. He is also a magnet when it comes to slapstick comedy. As the series went it felt like Eddy was given all this bad luck on purpose. He always got hurt and his character was made dumber. He had no idea how to eat spaghetti! How could the writers do that to their protagonist?

No character is perfect. They won’t always have a happy ending. Eddy has been through it all and yet he’s only twelve years old. There are so many kids Eddy’s age these days who have a powerful story to share. Characters like Eddy have inspired the world. Don’t be afraid to share your past. Don’t let the past change who you are.

Ed gallops into the room.

Eddy hiding behind the vacuum cleaner reminds me of the security guard who hid behind a car in Jurassic World. This is a great opportunity for the characters to get away and yet they hide.

Ed’s massive sock-bag gets stuck in the doorway causing him to fall on Eddy.

See I thought this sock-bag was going to have a bigger part in the movie’s plot. It gets in the way.

Believing that it is the kids Eddy begs for them not to hurt him.

Poor Eddy.

Any type of pain or when he is running away is a trigger from his days with Bro. Bro tormented him. This expression and pose Eddy is in looks like Bro is playing uncle with him. Is Eddy defending himself or grabbing hold of his leg?

Finally realizing that it’s Ed Eddy calms down a bit.

Ed asks Eddy what they’re going to do. Ed and Edd rely on Eddy for everything. Eddy never minded that. He loved being the leader and leading his friends around because in season 1 Ed and Edd were so helpless. The theory about Ed and Edd being better off without Eddy was switched around. It almost felt as if Ed and Edd were the ones holding Eddy back from being friends with the cul-de-sac kids.

Maybe that’s another reason why the kids didn’t like Eddy.

Eddy never thought to abandon his friends. Ed and Edd have grown over time because of Eddy. Their social skills have grown. Still, they have never thought to leave Eddy even when his behavior was beginning to grow on the lines as abusive towards them.

The stress of being the leader starts to wear down on Eddy by season 4. The best example is in Stuck in Ed when Eddy has scam block. His friends help him out, but they never take charge. Even in season 5. No matter how Edd stands his ground he will always turn to Eddy to make sure his ideas are okay. Anxiety builds up within Eddy such as this moment here where he is running around in circles.

Eddy asks what happened to Edd in this very panicked voice.

I think separating to pack belongings must have been Eddy’s idea. He’s going to beat himself up for the rest of his life is something happened to Edd.

Here’s Edd! Phew, I thought Edd was traveling behind Ed, but then got caught by the kids when I first watched this scene.

He was inside Ed’s filthy bag.

Edd is covered in muck. Surprisingly, Edd never complains about being filthy. There is no time to.

I have a head canon that Edd gets over his germophobia in the movie. I will analyze more on that once time comes.

Edd is so dazed for a moment that it takes him a few minutes to notice Eddy put a suitcase in his arms.

Every single shot of this movie is pure perfection. Expressions, actions... all of it is amazing! Another applause to the crew of Ed, Edd n Eddy.

“We’re fugitives, Eddy!” Edd warns Eddy. “Are you aware of the consequences we're about to endure? All because of our misguided chicanery!"

Chicanery -  The use of trickery to achieve a political, financial, or legal purpose.

Lots of talk will go on about the unknown scam throughout the movie. This scam was nothing like the other failed attempts.

Ed senses something wrong.

A shadow passes along the window. This is turning into a horror movie.

This is my favorite set of animation and blocking. Something is not right. The Ed’s are in deep trouble. They have to run, not hide. 

[oohhshiny]

ok hi guys

for those asking for it, this is a post about 7x10

but please keep in mind these are my own opinions and feelings and I don't mean to influence anyone with them whatsoever

I do also have a theory which I'll be including at the bottom because reasons

click the cut if you feel like listening to me ramble

(and also beware of possible spoilers)

So.

Okay.

Where the fuck do I start.

I'm not gonna lie. I didn't love this episode as much as some. I liked it. But I would not call it my second Consumed. 

As amazing as their chemistry is and as muchhhhhh as I have fucking missed them, there are a couple of things I can’t ignore about the writing. If you did enjoy it all, that's awesome, and I am so happy that you did and it's definitely not my intention to make anyone feel badly or try to change how they feel either. It's just my own thoughts (to which, again, I am just extremely fucking frustrated with the stalling) but I was asked to post my opinion so here I am.

It's not that I didn't like what we did get but it's more of what still has yet to happen that is causing me to rip every fucking hair out of my head.

Right so I’ll discuss the episode first then post a theory… if you want to skip my episode opinions, you can go to the bottom for the theory. (Or just abort the whole post when you realize what you got yourself into by clicking this)

So, first of all let me just say that of course it's fucking amazing and adorable and everything else under the sun anyyyyy time Caryl share a scene. That's a given because it always is. They just light up the screen in any scene they are in together. And it will forever baffle me as to how tptb can possibly deny these characters and actors screen time when they are the freaking highlight of the entire series but I digress.

Things I did love about this episode:

> All the acting was incredible. I don't know how any of them aren't receiving nominations and all the awards. It's wrong. They deserve it like fuck.

> Daryl's speech to Richard, I fucking adored to pieces. Don't mess with Carol in any way, or Daryl will kill you, got it? And I lovedddd the build up with "Say her damn name!" That was fucking cute okay. It was my favourite part of the episode, in fact.

> Daryl lied to Carol for Carol. He lied because he absolutely loves her like hell and he cannot stand to see her suffer any more heartbreak than she already has had to deal with. He recognizes that she's in a fragile place right now, and as much pain as he's in himself (for all that he blames himself for over Glenn) he holds it in. To spare CAROL. He did it before with the child walkers in Consumed and now he's done it again in another attempt to make things easier for her if he can, any way he can. Because he knows she would/could blame herself too if she knew Negan had killed after she left and that she might start thinking that she could have done something to prevent those deaths. Even though we all know that's not true and that's not how this world works, (that it doesn't matter how much you try to prevent the bad, it happens anyway), the sheer fact that Daryl tried to make sure she didn't have to feel that torment at this moment, says it all and more. He fucking loves her more than anything on the planet and will do anything to protect her.

> The hugs and all the nuzzling…… yes. I've had requests for gifs so I'll gif some parts I found especially cute. I mean, all touching and hugs are good touching and hugs. When would I ever complain about touching and hugging? Um never so don't get me wrong I loved them on their own and for different reasons but here’s the thing the thing the thing, for me, when it comes to hugs to end all hugs, there is just no topping this……

Nothing will beat the Terminus hug in my eyes (unless it includes….OH LET'S SAY…. THE FREAKING KISS ITSELF) so I must admit, as cute as all the hugging was in 7x10, it didn’t top No Sanctuary. Not for me anyway. 

Right.

Moving on to things I did not like:

First and foremost, I guess I sound greedy with this but idec anymore:           IT. WAS. TOO. FUCKING. SHORT. We wait months upon months upon months upon months……….for approximately 4 minutes of screen time. Just……… :x (I’m sorry but it’s something I just can’t deal with for much longer)

Other than that, I have two main gripes with this episode:

1) The fact that Daryl leaves Carol at all. I assume it was because he thinks she's in a delicate place emotionally, so he doesn't want her to get involved in the fight with the Saviours and potentially get caught in a dangerous situation so he leaves knowing he'd have to tell her things if he stayed. If we read into it, I suppose we can come to this conclusion. However, I have two problems with that, and one is that we are always forced to assume and infer these things rather than hearing words or a conversation in the script about where he is going, when he'll be back, or Carol inquiring for that matter etc. because she would ask him ffs!  The second problem is the fact that while no, he doesn���t want to involve her in order to protect her, he also would not leave her side if there was anyyyy potential threat around her (which there is!) let alone the Saviours whom he knows are in the very area and whom he had just seen earlier in the day! It’s not Daryl, imo! Especially when they jussssssssst made it so evident that he loves the fuck out of her to threaten Richard if anything happened to her in the very same episode!  So, we're supposed to believe that he leaves her after trying to protect her, even making a speech about it just 6-8 hours before? No. Nope. No. Yes, she's strong enough to protect herself but that still wouldn't matter to Daryl. He protects her regardless. Now, I know the Saviours are after HIM but I still do not believe Daryl would leave her alone knowing that danger is around the corner (almost literally!)

So here is where this is a continued issue for me and the writing. Because I feel like this was an obvious tactic by tptb when they decided they needed Daryl elsewhere for the next installment of their story. It was like they need him to be at Hilltop now, so poof. Hilltop it is. Nothing else matters because of that one stipulation in their plot. Sorry for being so picky but it just gets seriously frustrating sometimes to watch the characters moved around according to a chess board instead of thinking of how that action will affect the character themselves and our beautiful relationship that kinda has to take the immediate backseat to those decisions. The writers seem to rely quite a bit on gimmickry now that it seems the first thing they are concerned with is how things appear to the audience rather than staying true to how the character would actually think or act. Just my opinion, but I can’t help it, it bothers me.

2) The second gripe I have; Yeah, I also can't help this but I'm upset that one more time we watched an opportunity float by where Daryl could have voiced his feelings but didn’t. Okay. Yes. I know why they are still holding that back. But after every fucking thing he just witnessed with Negan/Abe/Glenn and the shit he went through in Sanctuary (not to mention that the only reason he escaped was because of the inside help from Dwight/Sherry) and how other people have died before his eyes, like Denise who just gave him advice about telling the woman he loves that he loves her before it's too late,…. and he still doesn't take the advice? Come on. It's stretching the limits of realistic now. If he didn’t know if he or the woman he’s in love with would be alive the next day, he would be holding onto her as tightly as possible and telling her something about his feelings. I absolutely agree that Carol was not in the right state of mind as of 7x10 to have been making out with him on the couch (YET) but I still see no reason why Daryl couldn’t or wouldn’t have told her sommmmethingggggg in words about how he feels. And yes, I do know that his lie about Negan was a form of admission, and in fact, I felt there were a TON of words left unspoken to be conveyed through other actions (like the way he went back to hug her was basically his way of saying “I love you”) but ummm, imoooooooo, he also should have the fracking words by now too. Yeah, I know, I know, I know why it didn't happen here. But it's the carrot dangling that is getting ridiculous for me now and I find myself rolling my eyes every time they stall past another scene.

Le sigh.

Alright. There it is.

I loved the Caryl we did get but I’m still frustrated with the Caryl that is still being held over our heads. 

Despite my disappointment with those things, however, I want to remind people, for those feeling down about where Caryl are heading, 

please don't feel down about where Caryl are heading! 

Because even though they are still playing with the ambiguity for now, this episode is most definitely setting up for the future! Not only Daryl's feelings that are now coming out one (slow) piece at a time (as with Richard), but Carol's inevitable return to herself. And what that will mean for Caryl.

That brings me to

                                                                Theory time.

Good news: it's about the finale and you're gonna like it.

Bad news: it's the last fucking one I'm doing for this show if it turns out not to come true as of 7x16. (I'm sorry to say this but they have me until the screen fades to black the night of the finale because I'm too tired.)

SO. OKAY. This involves several easter eggs that were placed throughout season 7 (or before) and yes, it’s onlyyyy a theory (which very well could be wrong) but I'd say there is the slight possibility it could happen, based on things they purposely placed in the show for us to see.

In a nutshell, it goes like this: I think Caryl could finally kiss in the finale.

And here is why:

Easter Egg 1)  Who's The Boss 

It was in The Cell (not-so-coincidentally DARYL'S episode) and it’s shown on the TV Dwight is watching at Sanctuary. It was on the screen long enough to make note of and it makes you wonder why they left it there for as long as they did. For those that don't know, Who's The Boss is an American sitcom that aired in the 80s. It was actually pretty funny but more importantly it had a very prominent couple-to-be/turned couple who just happened to go canon in the finale of season 7/premiere of season 8. Yes, it absolutely could be a coincidence but hmmm maybe it’s not…

I would like to give all credit for this nugget to the lovely @ikkleosu, though, because while I had noticed the flash of Who's The Boss, I hadn’t thought to check out episodes until she noted exactly what went on in each ...

If anyone is interested, in the season finale, Angela (the lead female character) kisses Tony (the lead male character) to “show him how she feels”…..

link here (skip to the very end): 

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em3ZZp_jsl8 

And then in the premiere of season 8, Tony reciprocates and tells her he loves her and it marks the moment they become a full-fledged couple….

link here (very beginning of this vid): 

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SorDhv764LY

Tony and Angela have a few shades of Daryl and Carol to them as well, so yeah, like @ikkleosu said, it's just really interesting that we are in that sammmmmme freaking set up now on twd where two characters are in almost the exact same place, pre-canon at the exact same time and it just happened to be an Easter Egg placed in Daryl’s episode. 

Obviously could mean nothing but……….

Easter Egg 2)  Carl and Enid's forehead kiss turned kiss

Sound familiar?

They did that for our benefit, you guys. It was a fucking tease and I want to punch them for it but it was like they were hinting that a forehead kiss can (and will) be romantic, knowing full-well that we are awaiting the kiss for Caryl.

Easter Egg 3) “Denim Dreams” (a romance novel)

This was pretty obvious but I hope everyone caught the romance novel Carol was reading? Interesting how they focused on it in 7x10. Hummmm, "It's like a damn romance novel" anyone?

But wait, there’s more.

The lovely and brilliant @pixiegrunger pointed out to me that the cover of this romance novel actually sort of looks like it could be a man and a woman riding a horse..

Why is that important you ask? Well see, we heard reports of Carol and horses at ASZ in the finale and it happens to also be when a particular war mayyy begin to go down…

As @pixiegrunger says it could kind of be like Carol is the knight on a white horse coming to save the man she loves now?

She also noticed this….

on the wall/overturned train car/truck/whateveritis where Daryl just happened to threaten Richard over Carol, which could also have to do with the finale…….

Nope, there is no proof of anything yet, but it’s interesting right?

Easter Egg 4) Romance novels every freaking where.

See Carol kneeling on the ground here?

And do you see the stack of books to the left? The romance novel she was reading earlier (titled “Denim Dreams”) is in that pile. Well right below that one is another romance novel that was sitting on her coffee table during 7x08 by Randi Smith that appeared to have a couple kissing on the cover…

And I suspect there are more in that pile that are too blurry to make out as well. 

The point? There are romance novels out the wazoo in this episode (when DARYL shows up), which Carol is apparently reading. 

Just sayin’

Easter Egg 5) The canteen sharing from season 5

I swear this was fucking tease too and I swear it still has to do with kissing. And remember also that Carol was the one who first offers Daryl the water. Then Daryl to Carol. Angela > Tony. …?

Okay so putting it together, here's my potential theory:

I think post-7x10 Carol is going to come to the realization that she absolutely cannot lose Daryl. She loves him so fucking much and she has to protect him for that reason now. You could see that she almost went after him in the end of 7x10. HE was what she needed to allow her to see that her decision to isolate herself is not an escape at all, because she can't truly run away from the pain or the feelings she has. They are always there and I think she will decide now that she wants to hold on to the good. To Daryl. Knowing as she now does that she can't live apart from him anymore and pretend everything is fine. Because he is a very big reason she can go on. She loves him. She needs him. And she knows he loves and needs her. So I think she will decide to fight for him (and yes, Team Family when she finds out about Glenn and Abe), then she will ride in on her horse (just like the romance novel?) and she will "kill for love" in the finale.

But here's the part that I think could also come at the very end; they can't simply end the arc with no tangible indication of the choice she is finally making and why and that's where I think a kiss could happen, to let Daryl know how she feels about him (since she had left, and he was obviously quite hurt by it) and to set up the arc that is to come in season 8. (Just as Angela did in the finale of Who's The Boss) I don't think it would be any more than a single kiss at the very end because I don't think there would be time for much else but it would be enough.

Nope, nothing is conclusive and everything here is conjecture but at the same time, these items were placed in each episode for a reason so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they do with them. 

You’re a fucking trooper if you got through all that. lol. And remember they are my opinions/thoughts only y/y

[jillmckenzie1]

Faces of Denver: Mark Acito

Marc Acito is a playwright and librettist best known for his novel How I Paid for College and his collaboration with George Takei on the Broadway musical Allegiance, which addresses the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. His latest work, “Secrets of the Universe and Other Songs,” will have its world premiere at the Aurora Fox Arts Center, under the direction of Helen R. Murray. The play portrays the friendship of African American vocalist Marian Anderson (Mary Louise Lee) and Jewish physicist Albert Einstein (Jordan Leigh). While Acito currently resides in New York City, he has deep roots in Colorado. He earned a B.A. from Colorado College, which also awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2009, and sang several seasons with Opera Colorado. He collaborated with music director Andrew Fischer, who also serves as Vocal Music and Music Theory teacher for Littleton Public Schools to create this “musical play” that runs from February 21 to March 15.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Jessie Hanson: This is a new iteration of this production, right? It’s been produced previously, but you’ve added new elements.

Marc Acito: Yes, this is a reimagining of the play that Helen Murray both directed and produced at The Hub Theater in Fairfax, Virginia. But we’re still calling this a world premiere because it’s so significantly reimaged that it’s a different beast. There’s a significant amount of music that has been added because after watching the version in Virginia, I was able to see how I wanted to use music to better tell the story.

JH: The music is from Marian Anderson’s songbook?

MA: The music is all associated with Marian Anderson. It’s music from Franz Schubert and African American spirituals. Very little of the music is performative. It all takes place in her “inside voice,” what I like to think of as the mindscape. Everybody sings in this production, including Einstein. I’m almost exclusively a librettist of musicals, so it doesn’t surprise me that my plays would operate the same way. Because naturalism, to me, doesn’t capture the full spectrum of the human experience, this an experiment to try to find ways to better communicate what it’s like to be inside these people, subjectively [and] expressionistically.

JH: I think it would be difficult to convey to the audience that the music is happening inside the character’s head, and that the other people in the play either can or cannot see or hear this…that’s a lot of moving parts.

MA: Yes, but Leonard Bernstein said, “Don’t fall off the first rung of the ladder.” Go big or go home!

JH: This is a story that I know nothing about. I’m a fairly literate person in American society and I’ve never heard of it. How did you come across this story to adapt and develop?

MA: I was and still am a journalist and I have a nose for a story. In the course of doing some Googling, I found this nugget of information that Marian Anderson had stayed at the home of Albert Einstein and I was like, ‘What?! How come I don’t know about this?’ I started digging and discovered that in 1937, she was invited to stay with him because she couldn’t get a hotel room in Princeton. When I read her memoir, there’s a reference about visiting him shortly before he died.  Elsewhere there are references that she stayed there multiple times whenever she was in Princeton, so they very clearly had a real friendship.

JH: What part was the most fun about developing this piece?

MA: Oh, that’s an interesting question. Nobody’s ever asked me that. This going to sound nerdy, but the most fun has been searching for the right metaphor to describe the science. I’ve never been adept in the sciences and maybe that’s why I’m interested. It’s an attempt to try to understand. I really had to hunt for the right analogy. I can’t say that I’ve succeeded, but it’s been so much fun trying. I’m reminded of the scene in the Jodie Foster movie Contact. She goes through a wormhole and when she arrives on the other side, she says, “They should have sent a poet” [to describe the other world]. I get that.

JH: Marian Anderson was a musician and music a big part of this work. Did you have any inspiration to include Einstein’s medium, any part of his work as a physicist?

 There’s a lot of physics in the show. If I’ve done my job right, you’ll be able to leave the theater and go to a cocktail party and explain [the theory of] relativity in its simplest understanding. And the play also hints at string theory, as well. There’s definitely some physics there. The average person will also walk away with an increased awareness of what it means to be a classical musician. The reason I felt comfortable taking on not just a titanic figure, but a black woman in America, as a character was because I had trained and worked as an opera singer. I know what it is to be a singer and that was a way I could find a way into Marian that resonated with me..

JH: A lot of the characters that you write and the work that you do has to do with people who are marginalized or oppressed in some way. You are a white man in America, which comes with a lot of privilege. How does being in that position of privilege let you talk about people who are othered and how do you do that in a way that is respectful of their stories. How are you the person that gets to speak for those groups?

That’s something that I wrestle with every day. Part of it is the collaborative nature of theater. I wouldn’t ever presume to write a solely African American story, but because this is the story of a black woman and a white man, I felt like I had at least 50% of a way-in. [Also,] the understanding of Marian professionally [as a musician] gave me some insight. It’s partly collaborating with the right people to work on the material and getting sensitivity reads from [those] people. That’s all part of the process, [getting] black directors and dramaturgs along the way to read the material and say, “You’re off here. You’re missing the point. Your privilege is showing.” [Working on Allegiance], I had an Asian-Canadian director, an Asian-American composer, and a room full of people who could keep me honest. I felt like I had enough people to hold my feet to the fire and ensure that [the work] spoke accurately to their experience.

Part of it, too, is that I personally never felt safe in American until gay marriage became the law of the land. I feel like I have at least the compassion and personal experience of what it means to be oppressed. I’m very aware of the fact that walking through the world, I have advantages by virtue of the way that I can present myself, but I don’t pass the “Hitler test.” If the Nazis came to power tomorrow, I’m getting rounded up. I’m on the list. Right now, I’m safe. For now. But Matthew Shepard was not too long ago.

The beautiful thing about Allegiance was that I was often the only white guy in the room. I found that so stimulating. At this point in my life, most white Americans remind me of someone I’ve already met. I’m very eager to interact with people whose perspective is different than my own. It’s not only the right thing to do: it’s the far more interesting thing to do. This material, by crossing these divides, has allowed me to not presume to tell someone else’s story, but at least allows me an entry point into another person’s experience, into their world and try to find that shared humanity.

Helen [Murray] is a white woman directing this play, but it’s been developed with input from black theater professionals along the way. It was very important to me that our music director was a person of color because I felt very comfortable with the classical music side of the equation, but to start to explore the African-American spirituals, I want[ed] someone for whom [that music] was part of their life experience. We found this remarkable music director, Andrew Fischer, who works in musical theater, is African American, who has the classical [music] chops, and is somebody who can play seven different roles. He’s been an enormous find, with [developing] this material and as someone who can keep me honest.

JH: Your work deals with marginalized people. Was this piece different because, while the main characters are marginalized, they’re also both in positions of power. Einstein was a professor; Anderson was a celebrity. Does that influence how they deal with their realities?

MA: Absolutely. What they both wrestle with in the second act is their responsibility to both their communities and humanity at large. They were people who were thrust into political roles that neither of them sought. [Anderson] did not think of herself as an activist. She wanted to simply be judged as an artist. But she felt the responsibility [of activism] and she felt it as a burden her entire life.  She took a lot of criticism from the NAACP for not doing more. Same with Einstein. He famously wrote a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt about the possibility of the Germans getting the atom bomb and was a major influence in accelerating that process, which resulted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a pacifist, that was a responsibility that really tormented him the rest of his life. I do write about marginalized people, but I also tend to write about extraordinary people. They’re people who are often sidelined, but they’re people who are extraordinary. There was an irrepressible brilliance about them that allowed them to prevail.

JH: Are there any Easter Eggs in this production that the audience might be able to find?

 MA: Albert Einstein didn’t wear socks. You’ll see that he’s not [wearing them in the play]. Now that I say that, I gotta check that [Jordan Leigh] isn’t wearing socks. I’ll have to look [at rehearsal] tonight to make sure that they’re not putting socks on him.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/faces-of-denver-mark-acito/