#who violently murdered Simon S. Salty part 2

[citruscloudd]

Smiling friends but they have to solve another murder

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2022, Part 2: 10 to 1

Happy new year all you happy people and welcome back to my best of the year list. If your just joining us ..

YOU CAN FIND PART 1 HERE

To breifly recap for those who didn't go click that link

Now your all caught up, let's get to the list itself.

10. Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty? (Smiling Friends)

"And none of you are leaving until we solve this!" "You didn't need to raise your voice man"

Look i'm a sucker for restraunt based shows, humor and what not. I just love food, and love stuff set around it. I'm an easy orangutan resembling a person to please. So a fast food based mystery with a bunch of weird mascots ranging from the more understandable (A ketchup packet, a mustard packet and a drink cup), to the slightly abstract (Said drink cup being a man horrifyingly poured into it, a pile of salt and a pile of pepper) to the smilng friends of it (A pile of grease who cheerfuly wants to be included, two manic eyeballs and a century egg), and having all have various quirk (Mustard being a femme fetale who ends up taking too long with the build up, salt and pepper liking to kiss in the closet ("that that's beauitful), said cup talking WAY too loong about his doodies or whatever the fun twins were up to), it wasn't a hard sell. But the episodes still a nice break from form as the police have outsourced to our heroes so when Charlie and Pym find the head of Charlie's faviorite restraunt murdered after undergoing a menu change, it's up to them to solve it. It's just a densely packed, wondreful little joke fest, cumilating in EVERYONE having tried to kill him while no one actually didi t and our various supsepcts being free to run riot in the streets.. somehow. Pure comic magic.

9. The Circus (Helluva Boss)

"Son Cease this bitch crying"

Helluva boss had a BIT of a rough time getting to season 2: it took half the year, the intended season finale , a one off special that wasn't plot relevant was held up in some sort of legal trouble Vivinzie likely can't talk about legally, and in general it was just a headache inducing wait for the fans.

Said wait was well worth it though as we go tthe Circus an episode that gave a suprising backstory for both Blitzo and Stolas, and their relatoinship. It also gave us Jonathan Freeman, aka Goddamn Jafar as Stolas dad and got him to say Jafar's signature catch phrase"cease this bitch crying". Good times.

Said bitch crying is because as many fanas guessed, Stolas really had no choice in his relationship with Stella, and given Paimon's never had to actually.. you know get his sons to agree with more than that, he bribes him with the circus… the same one Blitzo grew up in.

I honestly didn't see the two being something resembling childhood friends coming.. well friends is pushing it, to Blitzo he's just a kid who was kinda neat and who he robbed a bit because his dad is the worst and sold him for an ultra slim condom and 5 bucks. Honestly it's hard to tell which father is worse, but it's clear his time with Blitzo is one of the only times Stolas was ever happy. Which is just sad. It also explains a lot… part of how stunted he is emotoinally.. is that he was kept in these palace wals never really allowed to grow or taught how and stuck in a loveless marriage.

Said marriage is somehow WORSE than it appeared.

Yeah really. Stella holds a still not divorced party and talks shit while he's right there. I'm mixed on this.. not on her being awful, given she's willing to scream in front of her daughter on a DAILY basis, treats Octavia more as a prop to get back at Stolas than an actual daughter, and called out a HIT on stolas, we knew she was bad. We just didn't know how abusive, selfish, or cruel she was. It shows why Stolas clings to blitzo so much: Sure they have actual chemistry.. but around him he can actually be himself and any demaning stuff.. is simply Stolas not realizing how much it hurt Blitzo to be treated like a toy. He can be himself for the first time instead of having to drink all the abysnth just to function.

We also see that Blitzo.. forgot any of that happened and in typical Blitzo fashion his plan for the grimiore was just to.. steal it and no one would eve rknow.. and gets caught almost instanlty. The only reason he's not dead is Stolas is horny for him, though we do see Blitzo's barb wired, land mined, and set on fire walls go down a sec as he plans to just abandon stolas in bondage.. only to realize Stolas really needs this and a few or so hours later

It shows the story of two deeply traumatized people who badly need each other.. but don't really know HOW to communicate that. Blitzo probably needed it as much as stolas did, he's just been hurt enough and it took seeing him vunerable to see past the rich asshole to the vunerable manchild underneath.

We also get ONE HELLLLL of a cathartic ending as after singing out his misery Stella barges in, berates stolas.. who finallys tands up to her. While his adultry isn't great and I do like that the series dosen't hide the effect the divorce has on octavia even if it's LONGGGGG needed, we get the sense that like so many failed marragies he tried. He tried to love her, he tried to make it work but it's clear any attempts at that are long past.. and given Stella tries to hit him when he declares their divorcing, damn the consequence,s he catches it. He's finally free, for whatever that costs him. And god it feels glorious. HIm breaking her things next episode helped even if the timing was fucking awful. I cannot wait ot see where this goes.

8. Whispers At the Zigguarat (The Legend of Vox Machina)

"I broke the world for us"

You heard me gush about Vox Machina plenty in part one

This was one of the two best shows of the year, and it knew how to close things out. We'll get to the second part of this finale later, as it's enough of it's own thing to warrant two slots, but after a season of well done storytelling as Percy shot his way through the list of people who wronged him, found out his sister was alive only to seemingly loose her again, and the party as a whole fought it's way through jail cells, half assed solo fancy mansions, crotch lightning duels, silver tounged Stephen Roots, and naked acid baths… it finally comes down to this. Vox Machina versus the Briarwoods and a brainwashed Cassandra and Vax, all to stop the power couple from destroying the world.

The episode is almost entirley one long fight scene, with the party nicely divided up: Pike and a silenced Scalan take on Necromancer supreme Deliliah, Percy tries to fight both his possed gun and his sister to snap her out of her possesion, Vex tries to hold off vax, Keleth tries to reawake the suntree and Grog gets his rematch with the vampiric brute with the cool sword that's TOALLY not going to be a problem in of itself next season, Silas.

The resulting fights are gorgeous and well built up: We've seen how much Vex relies on vax and thus her forced to fight to the death with him destroys her, we see Percy fight his need for vengance and growing possesion to save the only family he has left, and pike and grog's fights nicely give both payback for the party's first fight with the briarwoods: After getting utterly curbstombed in his first fight, Grog uses all his wits

Which amounted to fighting blind and using the fact Silas coudlnt enchant him to empale and suplex the fucker, then pull a raditz when Keyleth used sunburst.

While after Deliliah breaking her phalicry (and Ashley filming a tv show in the original stream), left PIke mia and nearly killed her future husband, pike got to strike back and show her just why Delilah was wise to take her out. The resutling fight is just one long brutal climax as the Brirarwoods get what they deserved and deliliah is left without her husband, her attempts to summon her god seemingly futile, with her sheer brokenness DESPITE being such a huge monster, amazingly conveyed by Grey Deleise in one of her finest voice acting roles. She was the crews first and top choice and their faith was ENTIRELY justified. She's left at the mercy of percy.. whose looking a little shadowy there buddy.. percy.. percy.. ohs hit. We'll get back to this later just.. hold on pal alright?

7. Thanks to Them (The Owl House)

"Dear diary: All I ever wanted was to be good at something, to be around people who also liked that something. And when I found the Demon Realm, I thought, 'Wow, I found it. I can learn magic. I can be a witch! I-I won't have to be the dummy in the principal's office anymore!' But I messed up too much, and put everyone in danger. Mama said I have to learn from my mistakes, so… I know what I have to do now. On Halloween, after the Hayride, I'm telling everyone I'm staying in the Human Realm. Permanently." So after a 6 or so month hiatus, the Owl House returned for the first of it's three finale movies, which hopefully won't be the last as said movie…is on the cusp of breaking FIVE MILLION views on youtube.

Yeah i'm proud and this episode easily shows why. Like the other owl house episodes I did a whole review on this but in shor tit finishes the rehabilitation of Camilla's character, both giving an in character reason for her hating conversion camp.. and ocne she has context fully accepting the isles as a part of her child;s life: she accepts her coming out with pride (As we all expected), basically adopts the kids temporarily (Except Hunter, he has a foreve rhome now), and most importantly outright walks Luz back from trying to abandon her friends and the isles. It's a story about forgiving yourself, something I struggle all too freaking often to do, and thus related to heavily. But quality wise it's just objectively good cramming at least a four or five episode arc into two episodes of special.

We also get great hunter moments, Veesha, and Belos back, which helped my only gripe about the collector: Given the entire series was set up with Belos as it's true antagonist and even the collector being free was his fault, i was worried about him being a quick boss just for this special.. and while his possesion of hunter was horrifying if smelling of

It still gave us a tense fight scenes that leaves our heroes going into the next fight with TWO villians to worry about, the fate of two worlds at stake and a dead bird corpse freshly baked into a teenager. It's… it's going to be a lot and I can't wait to see it in two weeks. As for it leaking.. yeah i'm stayin away from that so if you need me

6. The Feast of Realms (The Legend of Vox Machina)

"YOUR SOUL IS FORFEIT"

Yeah i've never seen a show go from excellent to HOLY FUCKING SHIT so fast, so soon but after a two episode pilot that set a lot up, had david tennat playing another money hoarding creature of legend, and was generally good, the next episode is where the series really stepped up it's game now everything was in place and set the arc of the season in place.

In this case our ragtag bunch of heroes have just found respectablility as the protectors of emon, a new house, and a rousing round of ball tag. Seriously the joke shoudln't work this well, much like the literal pissing contest from final space, but the combination of Vax wincing "I didn't even agree to this stupid game" despite already having a point meaning even with that he's still participating, to his later revenge sucker elbowing Grod in his balls of many sperm for a three pointer and of course scalan knowing all the ins and outs apparnetly having become referee for hsits and giggles.. it's beautiful.

The real meat though is on our heroes having to mingle with high society…. which while not going how percy planned (Scalan accuses a noble of hitting on him for shits and giggles while Pike and Grog pound wine flutes like shots, as is custom), they get infintely worse when the Briarwoods, our big bads and the ones who murdered Percy's entire family show up and send him into ptsd. He opens up and our team heads on the offensive, with Vax sneaking out to go investigate while the rest of the heroe sput their apperance in at dinner.

Naturally.. none of this goes well. Percy has an outburst after Dellilah, clearly recognizing him, gleefully blames Percy's family for their own downfall while Silas enchants the kings mind, and Vax quickly gets caputred after. While he barely survives, it leads to a massive brawl, which not only puts the already awesome dragon fight to shame.. but shows our heroes arne't quite ready yet in a way that dosen't diminish their badassery: they had no ieda what they were expecting.. and thus while they fight the briarwoods well enough, they still mostly get laid out and Deliliah taking pike out early means an easy loss with the team minus a healer and the team dropping like flies, with Delilah cheerfully telling percy to stop by any time. Grey's performance as Delilah, as I said, is one of her best and this clinches it, the way she gives the necromancer plenty of personality and charm.. while still conveying she's pure evil to be stopped.

The scene tha tclincehs this episodes spot though is a draastic turn that, due to not having done any research on the campagin at that point, something I was NOT prepared for: Percy's response is to snarl "You let them get away'". While the entire main cast and our two main villians (Including Critical Roll dm and master voice actor himself Matthew Mercer as Silas), are fucking amazing, Talisen Jaffe does the legwork as percy and I was impressed to learn later that a LOT of Percy's most cutting lines and moments in this season were entirely just Talisen improvising. His various backstory monlogues are taken from the game, as is this moment as Percy SNARLS as he confronts what's clearly an innocent coach driver the briarwood left, leaves the poor man crawling.. THEN SHOOTS OFF HIS HAND as he puts on a creepy bird mask radiating shadows, while his teamate sna the audience look on in object horror. While Percy was no nonsense before he had a noblity about him, and not just because he rich.. and seeing his tightly put together mask of civlity peel off as a combination of possesion and his own need for vengance consumes him. The chillingly calm "Your soul is forfeit!' never ceases to amaze me and it' sonly our heroes getting arrested that stops him. It's one hell of a moment that sets the stage for 9 great more episodes of television and leaves the first batch of three on one hell of a cliffhanger, all thanks to good ol No Mercy Percy.

5. Fire and Ice (Craig of the Creek) Kelsey pondered her literary predicament. Was Kelsey… truly like Fire? Was Stacks truly like Ice? Were Kelsey and Stacks like… Fire and Ice? W-would that… be okay?

Another episode I reviewed, as part of a decent sized middle finger ot the don't say gay bill, and another classic. It also cements that had I gotten my act together Craig of the Creek would've had a place high on this list for some time, but even with a show this high quality that essentially serves as the spirtiual sequel to Recess, updating it for modern times with way more diversity and having it after school instead of during to allow for more creative freedom, this show is an absolute delight and this is easily one of it's best episodes.

See the show had long hitned at Kelsey being gay with her subtext with a blatant crush on wildernessa nad plenty of muttual ship tease with Stacks. The show didn't really make a bit deal out of it it was just clear she was likely into girls. The creators even just casuallyr evealed she and stacks were both gay via word of mouth. But the clever trick here is that just because the audeince could tell to the points the creator sdidn't bother waiting to confirm it.. dosen't mean the CHARACTER knows their gay.

As such this episode is one long coming out story for Kelsey and even then only the first, most important, and most nervewracking party ESPECIALLY for a young child: admitting it to yourself. Like Kelsey I ha dcrushes on men before realizing I was bisexual, but just.. never relaized it was more than appricating a man looks good. And I was about twice her age when the wave of terror of realizing hit me. So all these feelings of realizing this is real, not knowing what to do.. are hard.

It's doubly hard on Kelsey who has this relization in front of a target and is crushing on someone who not only may like her back, but is one of her closest friends. Kelsey's friendship with Stacks steadily grew over the series, the extroverted kelsey suprisingly meshing well with the introvert who prefers to stay in the library. The two even shared their love of reading with a secret society/book club that's progressed into writing their own books, all set up by previous episodes.. for the payoff here. Kelsey writes an adventure story reminicent of she ra with obvious avatars for her and stacks.. that are into each other. The problem is Kelsey and Stacks, being childrens, didn't realize their avatars were each other nor what that meant till Craig blurted it out for everyone. In his defense he both ENTIRELY doesn't realize what this means for both of them or the pain it would cause and as we see later in the same season wit his own love life it took him MONTHS to realize Wildernessa liked him after flat out confessing during capture the flag, and the obvious tension during breaking the ice. Craigy Boy is many things, most of them good.. but oblvious is very much one of them.

So this leads Kelsey into a panic as she realizes what this means and avoids stacks worrying about both destroying her friendship and how to progress the story… knowing it could mean progressing her relationship. We also get a nice moment as Craig misses the point.. but in a nice subtle bit JP POSSIBLY dosen't. It's left nicely vauge: my surrogate son is entirely dense… but there are little cues int eh animation that tell me him taking Kelsey to Kat, his sister Laura's girlfriend who turns out ot be a writer, wasn't just for writing advice.. but to help his friend sort out her feelings with people who not only likely had been there but who can ease her into it.

What follows is a truly great scene as Kat helps guide Kelsey, not only praising her writing.. but helping her realize that these feelings, while panick endusing are a bad thing.. and she should embrace htem. That having your feelings come through in your work isn't bad.. and said feelings are a good thing. ONe generation helps the next.. and through that Kelsey's able to not only finish the story.. but tell Stacks how she feel, leading to adorable handholding. Granted the story.. is far from over and hopefully we have enough time in season 5 or later this season to continue this before the series ends because damn you zaslav, as there's still a few steps in her journey to go but I can't wait to see the

4. Screech Leeches (Tuca and Bertie)

"Bertie you weren't a creep, you were a high school girl with too many hot wet sloppy high school feelings to know what to do with. Be kind to that creepy baby bertie, she wormed her way into my heart. " "Awww i'm your heart worm"

Another show bows out of this list though unlike Close Enough, where it comes off as JG Quintel has moved on… eeriley well at that, it's clear Lisa Hanawalt hasn't given up yet and the show might find yet another home. And given Season 3 was as good as ever and left with a lot of places to go, i'm hoping for. For now though the show left with a stellar season and one episode in paticular sucker punched me in the emotoinal gut. And while it sadly lacks Matthew Rhys using his belos voice as a sexy tree, speckle for more than one cameo or Tuca giving literal birth to bertie

It was easily the best of the season. Screech Leeches is really a stand alone, focusiong on Bertie as she spirals over her high school friend Muriel making a jordan peele style horror film that she feels is about her. What follows is a very long very painful flashback that shows just how lost Bertie was after her molestation: Her parents, as already establisehd didn't want to talk about it, her counciler was useless and her friends were worse than useless, none of them realizing what they did wrong or that it wasn't scoring… though one did go professional at being a bitch so… good for her..

Bertie does find a friend in Muriel who for the moment is what she needed: someone willing to lash out, who also had been sexually asaulted and gotten no help, and who helped her be angry. It's the kind of friendship we've all had: where you find someeone cooler than you and latch onto them.

And as we see while Bertie does start copying Muriel not only did muriel encourage it.. but then lead her on by kissing her. While Bertie then became a bit.. too obessive, it's as Tuca says at the end: She was a little creepy.. but also awash in 80 pounds of hormones, at a loss of any directoin. It makes Muriel rejecting her and tearing the poor girl apart so painful and there's no real cathariss: the film wasn't about her, and there's no real indication things would ever get solved. And that's how life is sometimes. Sometimes one of the worst moments of it. .is just an object lesson more than something you'll ever get real closure on. Hopefully the same won't be said for this series

3. The Beginning of the End/All-In/The Hardest Thing (Amphibia)

"Change can be difficult, but it's how we grow. It can be the hardest thing to realize you can't hold on to something forever, sometimes you have to let it go. But of all the things you let go, you'd be surprised what makes its way back to you."

Amphibia came to a close and while as I mentioned last part, the last batch of episodes was more.. okay.. the finale.. was true magic. While it's first part, The Beggining of the End was part of WHY that batch was okay, having the assembled army just go

When Anne was captured, which made little sense and felt like we just wasted a good chunk of build up building these armies when it amounted to fuck all. It's why this one didn't score higher, despite making it all the way to #3: it felt like an insulting waste in a series that really wastes little.

Thankfully what followed is easily one of the best tv finales i've seen, a masterful hour and a half (While the hardest thing was seperated it's basically one big movie) of payoff. And one of the first things it does once our heroes escape the floating castle, is make something I disagreed with, Anne's Parents staying behind, into something badass as they've become trained badasses in super suits and Mr. X, having done his face turn we all knew was coming now he realized that not all aliens are bad, just the one with floating final boss castles.

We get the epic battle we were promised.. as well as three excellent payoffs to each of the calamity trio's arcs: Anne shows how far she's come whil epunching a dictator in the face, Sasha fights her own self doubt and Darcy, and Marcy herself rejects what she's always wanted after realizing what other people wants matter and she can't just avoid reality. We also get abuses of goverment property, the Plantars conquering the very beings that took the kids parents so long ago, and k-pop, which is better than I ever thought it'd be. Yes i'm old. I know.

The final part dosen't let up with one final battle with the Core (Who I felt ended up underdeveloped , another small crtique), with an utterly epic version of no big deal.. and a truly tearjerking goodbye as our heroes have to accept amphibia is gone.. and instead of feeling like a copout.. it worked. I didn't like all the seperation.. but it worked for the theme matt was going for: Sometimes you have to say goodbye, nothing lasts forever.. but what the people you met taught you does.. and maybe just maybe they'll come back to you. And all live in a house together and be gay with each other. one can only hope. it was a truly fitting end to a truly amazing cartoon that became so much grander than I ever imagined and will stick me with me for some time. It's hard to let it go.. but this ep made it so much easier.

2. The Darkness Within (The Legend of Vox Machina)

"I know your in there. Darling, take off the mask…

See I hadn't forgot Percy getting ready to murder his tormenter. I did however didnt' mention things were even worse as Keyleth tearjerkingly took the bullet for Vex, who had been absolutely terrible to her all season worrying she'd loose her brother if he shot his shot with the ashari. Oh and Pike is gone, her astral projection she'd been using having run out

So it's not the best time for Orthax, the shadowy demon Percy unknowingly made a pact with and who increased his bloodlust for those who wronged him, to fully posses percy as Delilah taunts him, wanting him to finish the job.. so he can take full root in the man's soul and full control of the metaphorical demon he's unleashed, the creation of the gun. It's Percy's long dark knight of the soul and while it's clear Orthax nearly has him at this point and he knows he's being controleld by something.. he's not resiting at first. After all Deliliah destroyed his life, killed almost everyone he's ever loved, tourtured everyone in his home town, done countless other attrocities.. why not put one between the eyes? And the answer is simple: he does.. and that's it. Percy is gone.

So it becomes a tense battle between a possed no mercy percy and vox machina, who both don't want to hurt him and have to play keep away with depowered deliliah. While the fights in whispers were gorgeous, ther'es a reason it's on the list it's this fight that honestly compells me more. The fight there had plenty of character but this is the real climax: Percy versus his need to fill the void left by the briarwoods genocide of his family, versus the literal and metaphorical demon inside him, a living representation of vengance and how even if done for the noblest of reasons.. it only keeps going. As The List adds vox machina to each barrel it's clear this will never end if Percy isn't stopped.

It's also telling that what stops Percy isn't the fighting.. but a plea from Vex, love of his life and the only person able to get through to him so far. It's risking her life to stand up to him that finally get shim to relent if only for a second, taking the mask off.. and the animatoin is stunning as it is horrifying here as we see percy SOBBING with fear as he tells her when she asks him to put down the gun "I .. .can't it wont' let me".. and his solution is equally heartbreaking.. to put the gun to his chin and as Vex and Cassandra both beg him not to his response "I don't know what else to do"

Thankfully the shadowy demon puppeting him intervends then suggests him to psychological torment to try and get him to continue doing his bidding.

What we get is a truly gruelingly long nightmare as Orthax reveals himself, that he was there all along.. and uses hallucinations of Percy's family to torment him as he attacks unknowingly attacking his firends. Once again wha tfinally wins the day.. is love. This time the love of family as Cassandra takes her own turn, at vax's urging, begging him, getting him to let go… and let a round into his hand, freeing him from orthax.

The rest of the episode is largely wrap up, but well done: Percy apologizes for his actions, Scanlan wisely decides to just throw his gun in acid instead of dealing with it expense sbe dammed (Which Percy is righ tpissed about.. until a shadowy bird demon made of acid pops up as it screams it's hopefully last scream.. then he's a bit cooler about it), and Delilah gets hers… courtsey of cass. While Percy forgave her for his own soul.. she didn't have to.

Our heroes survive, whitestone has a chance to rebuild, Cassandra a chance to lead them, and our heroes are free to prance off to clear their name, taking a few days off.. which was good because the next shit show is literally around the corner. That dragon they killed.. was one of FIVE. and the others are bigger, meaner, smarter.. and heading right for Emon. See in you in a few weeks boys and girl! For now though it was an excellent way to end the season as Percy finally gets to breathe.. can he forgive himself? Can he move on? Will it take as long as it did in stream fo rhe and vex to see their menat for each other? All good questions.. but he's now free to answer them on his terms.

Hollow Mind (Owl House)

"Do me a kindness would you and call me by my real name?

After only making it to second place last year, Owl House wins top honors this year. It also FINALLY gives me a defending champion, as the last two years the winner was either on it's last season (BoJack Horseman ) or took a year off (Invincible), so while Owl house only has one more year to it, it has a very good chance of giving us our first two time winner!

For now though, it's gladly won top honors. It wasn't easy, I went back and forth between the top two a lot.. but in the end while both have some waking nightmare in there, the tight plotting, horrifying reveals, and sheer nightmare of Hollow MInd won out. In 22 brillaint mintues, we're taken inside Belos head… and neither Luz , Hunter nor the audience come out of there okay.

The setup is simple: Hunter barged in on the future CATS trying to get into Belos head, and not having fully been deprogrammed yet, tried tos top them. Luz trie dtos top him.. and so both ended up in his brain. It's a nice tense build up as the various flashbacks and a ghost child show us how Belos got here: We know he's phillip at this point, Elswhere and Elsewhen made that very clear, but we see that indeed his connection to the titan is bullshit

And in actually shocking news.. the sigils, while always figured to be something bad.. are designed to MURDER the participants. There was a lot of speculation as to what belos was planning, what his end goal was. And finding out he was phillip

So the reveal.. is painfully terrifying, and shockingly realistic… while he's using magic to do so and it's fantastical enough to slide by disney censors. .his end goal is still plainly, clearly, nakedly.. genocide. He wants witch kind dead.. nothing left and feels as a witch hunter that' shis job. That's all he's eve rwanted, why he made a pact with an elder god all of this.. was just pure bigotry in it's most gastly form. It's a simple motive.. but one that makes Phillip that much more horrifying as an antagonist. We all thought there was more to it.. but that's really all he wants and what all this was for and it suddenly changes the game: we needed to stop him.. but now if he's not EVERYONE who has a sigil dies. Every adult character we know except Eda is marked for death.

The reveal itself is chilling coming shortly after we find out Hunter.. isn't the first of his kind. Every one of the guards has died because Belos simply coudln't accept his brother was a bigot.. including the original Caleb as seen in some background flashback paintings. Belos has killed dozens of beings just for the crime of not being what he fooled himself into thinking his brother was. It's utterly chilling and Matthew Rhys gives the performance of his career as he gladly reveals everything, coldly tries to kill hutner, then gleefully tells Luz her paret in aall this.. I feel her not getting he was phillip soone rwas denial.. and finding out hits her hard. She helped cause this.. everything she loves is going to die.. and the guy responsible has the gall to ask for her help. She says no, he "can't reason with crazy" and luz BARELY surivives… it's a truly horrifying, long walk that ends with our heroes now having a short time to save the world, hunter runing and both our main heroes for the season utterly broken. It's a majestic half hour of television, the finest episode in oen of the finest shows i've ever seen.. and it firmly deserves this honor. A true masterpiece if there ever was one.

Thank for reading all of this. if you want more of my nosense you can find me HERE on twitter, and here's to another great year of reviews. Thank you all so much for your support. I love you all.