#yeah I see hannibal references everywhere

[eldrichfuck666]

I WANT THESE RELATIONSHIP PLEASE- THE LYRICS ARE SO ROMANTIC IN THE WEIRDEST AND THE MOST HORRIFYING WAY POSSIBLE I'M SO HAPPY I'VE FOUND THIS GROUP AHHHHH

THIS- IT HAS SO MUCH HANNIBAL VIBES???? IT'S SO OBSESSIVE CARNIVOROUS MURDEROUS AND FLESH HUNGRY IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

[mlobsters]

supernatural s7e2 hello, cruel world (w. ben edlund)

HALLUCIFER Right. You think this fruit-bat fever dream is reality? You come back, I'm sorry, with no soul like some peppy American Psycho, till Saint Dean glues you back together again by buying you some magic amnesia. You’re real. I’m very real. Everything between is what we call set dressing.

heart is breaking for sam already

HALLUCIFER You’re still in my cell. You’re my bunkmate, buddy. You’re my little bitch, in every sense of the term.

in general i am overly literal and what i see is what i get when it comes to show canon but i'm trying so hard to hold tight to the illusion in my mind that hell-torture for sam and dean didn't involve rape but they're making it really fucking hard. there's been other references, i think one in the last ep no less. just keep thinking to myself "gloss over it, they're just being edgy, they don't actually mean it". i start to get real upset if i think about it so yeah.

i know i'm wearing the wincest goggles but again i feel like i am capable of picking up what a show is putting down regardless of a ship i might be invested in, but i feel like i'm losing it with cas and dean's relationship level. i feel like we have seen so little of cas in general, that they keep TALKING about how they're all close but we've seen so little of it?? i'd think with 22 episodes a season they'd have room to establish this onscreen 🥴 but here's dean crying over presumed-dead cas. i guess i'm just gonna have to go with it and stop complaining about sHoW doN't TeLL

god what is this weird music transition into the doobie brothers black water - just because the lyrics work does not mean the music does :P hard left turn after mushy dead cas scene. i fear i have slipped into overly critical mode

short and gruff version of hannibal tending will graham's wounded hands post-tier

i get that dean's freaked out and scared but he's being such an asshole to sam

what an exceptionally cruel hallucination they're giving sam. i might need to look up how long he deals with this before it gets fixed because.....

DEAN Yeah, well. I’m not Sam, okay? I keep my marbles in a lead friggin' box. I’m fine. Really.

big fat fuck you, dean. you can't out tough psychosis.

BOBBY Of course. Yeah. You just lost one of the best friends you ever had, your brother’s in the bell jar, and Purgatory’s most wanted are surfing the sewer lines, but yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re – you're fine.

one of the best friends you ever had. ok. O K. (nevermind how depressingly in-the-basement-low the bar is being the number of people he could call friends he's had)

looks like bobby's computer got an upgrade! seems untitled 1 and 2 desktop has made it to the actual desktop 😂

s6e4 weekend at bobby's his 3.1 desktop LOL

okay so hell politics, heaven politics, the clear next step is purgatory politics. who is the boss of the leviathans *pulls out the org chart* (god i just don't care)

sam's hallucinating dean now, great. do not like

DEAN This is real. Not a year ago, not in Hell, now. I was with you when you cut it, I sewed it up! Look!

little gift to wincest kink writers everywhere, dean helping sam by inflicting pain

DEAN Hey. I am your flesh-and-blood brother, okay? I’m the only one who can legitimately kick your ass in real time. You got away. We got you out, Sammy. DEAN Believe in that! Believe me, okay? You gotta believe me. You gotta make it stone number one and build on it. You understand? SAM Yeah. Yeah, okay.

dean looks like he might fall over he's so relieved.

DEAN (on phone) You cannot be in that crater back there. I can’t… If you’re gone, I swear, I am going to strap my Beautiful Mind brother into the car and I’m gonna drive us off the pier. You asked me how I was doing? Well, not good! Now you said you’d be here. Where are you?

well this is awful. first hallucifer encouraging sam to kill himself repeatedly and now dean saying this. also do not like.

(also very serious things happening and then that cheesy ass special effects on the leviathan's face -_-)

the winchesters getting an ambulance and going to the hospital for an injury, wonders never cease.

[young-dumb-and-vaccinated]

The Cult Girl (Hannibal x Female!Reader) pt. 3

So I picked option 2 cause I just had more ideas around it. I could probably still do 1 and 3 sometime but this is the direction we're going now. Y/n gets a call from her horrible grandmother who is expecting a visit.

Trigger warning: discussions of emotional and mental abuse, gaslighting

That night at his dining table was the start of something wonderful. You made a point to apply a bit of perfume to your neck before you left your apartment. Your three slightly judgmental but overall supportive roommates even donated a few drops of their own fragrances from time to time. 

You didn’t like the sound of the sentence “Hannibal is my boyfriend”. It just didn’t hit your ear right. ‘Boyfriend’ was too childish of a title for him. By extension, he found something very diminutive about referring to you as his girlfriend. You were, of course, a grown woman. He remedied this right away, resigning to call you his ‘darling’. You, however, had to use ‘partner’ as a placeholder until a more suitable pet name presented itself. Although the titles were never stated outright, after a while, you knew it was more than just a passionate affair. Hannibal (and you were calling him Hannibal, now) saw potential in you. He nurtured you and had been since day one. 

Finally, things were starting to go your way. You were in classes you loved, had wonderful, supportive friends and a fulfilling relationship. It took over twenty years, but better late than never. 

But, if there was one thing you learned from your short stint as a student of physics, it was that what goes up must come down. Your long-awaited bliss was about to be tested by an equal and opposite force bearing the name “Beatrice [L/N]” on the caller ID. 

Not only did she call, but she called three times in the middle of your meal. And that was followed by multiple texts, several of which containing words like “emergency” in all caps. You were just trying to enjoy another one of Hannibal’s culinary works of art, but the old bitch was persistent. 

You apologetically excused yourself from the table and retreated to the office with your phone. 

Grandma, you had better be on your fucking deathbed. You thought to yourself before sliding the green answer icon across the screen.

“[F/N]!” Came her shrill voice. “You finally answered. I was beginning to worry.” 

“What do you want, grandma?” You groan. 

“I wanted to ask you what you were wearing to Anna’s wedding next weekend.” She explained, calmly as ever. “The color scheme is seafoam and coral and she wants to make sure everyone adheres to it for pictures.” 

You covered the speaker with your hand and pulled your phone away from your ear so she couldn’t hear you bite back a scream. It physically pained you to return the phone to your ear. “Yeah, I RSVPed no to Anna’s wedding.”

“[F/N],” Your grandmother said in that scolding tone you knew all too well. “Your cousin expects you to be there. I expect you to be there. I invested so much money into this wedding, I will take it as a personal affront if you don’t attend.” 

You take everything as a personal affront. You thought.  

“It doesn’t matter, I already said no. She’s not going to have a chair or food for me.” You explained, hoping that you found some way out of this conversation. 

“No, she will.” Your grandma corrected. “I won’t have any child of mine absent from another’s wedding. I put in all the work to pull this event together.” 

For a moment, you almost felt bad for Anna. Having to endure your grandmother’s micromanaging was a circle of hell even Dante refused to tread.

"Of course, heaven forbid someone in your life show an ounce of autonomy." You finally snapped.

"I don't know why you're acting so rude, but it stops now." Grandma ordered. "I raised you as my own daughter. You should be more grateful for the luxuries I can extend to you. I didn't have to take you in, you know..."

It pained you to stay quiet when all you wanted to say was "I wish you hadn't".

"Your emotional manipulation isn't going to work on me anymore." You informed her.

“So, naturally, I’ve seen to it that you are expected." She continued her own conversation without even acknowledging yours. "You and a plus one, of course.”

You hadn’t even considered the possibility of attending the wedding with Hannibal. The two points never once intersected. And they never would. You vowed that Hannibal would never meet your grandmother or cousins. At that moment, that was the hill you were willing to die on. 

“If I come at all, I’m coming alone.” You snap. “You can punish me all you want but I am not letting you get him involved.” 

“Him?” Your grandma repeated. “So there is someone?” 

“Someone you are keeping me from.” You said, thoroughly frustrated and now panicked at the idea that your grandmother knew Hannibal existed. “Goodbye.” 

You didn't want to rejoin Hannibal in such a sour mood, but you didn't want to keep him waiting either. You returned even more apologetically than you left and took your seat.

"Everything alright, love?" He asked. You could tell he was raring to psychoanalyze you.

You shook your head. "It was my grandma."

"I could tell that much." He admitted, beginning to cut into his steak. "What with all the frustration you're trying so desperately to hide. What did she want?"

"She called to tell me she expects me at my cousin's wedding next Saturday." You rolled your eyes. "I'd already declined the invitation, but she didn't like that, apparently."

"Which cousin is this?" He probed. "The one that works as an engineer for Halliburton?

"No, that's Theresa." You shook your head. "And she works for Halliburton, but she's not an engineer. She's a PR executive."

"Right." Hannibal nodded, taking a bite of steak between his teeth. "She took after your grandmother and turned gaslighting into a career."

You smiled a bit. "Right."

"So, it's Anna, then?" He concluded. "You haven't told me much about her. Perhaps she is the benign tumor of the family?"

"More or less." You shrugged. "She works at a publishing agency. Only got the job because her boyfriend's uncle's the CFO. She didn't even make it to the interview. It was pure nepotism."

"And now she's marrying the boyfriend, I presume?"

"Yeah." You felt a grin cross your face thinking about what you were going to say next. "She wasn't even dating him at the time. She was dating someone else and cheating on him with the guy she's marrying now."

Hannibal grinned. "You like knowing this? Having information that could potentially ruin her life?"

You knew there was no use in lying. The look on your face said it all. "Absolutely I do. When you're the black sheep of the family, you've gotta take power where you can get it. Mine just so happens to be potential blackmail."

"I'm quite delighted to be privy to this side of you, love." He smiled. "We're a bit vindictive, now are we?"

"Are you kidding?" You snicker. "These are the girls that psychologically tormented me growing up. Of course I'm vindictive."

"So about this wedding." He didn't look up from his plate. "Do they expect you to bring a date?"

"They do." You nod, your eyes wandering off. "But I can't let them meet you. They're just so unspeakably rude all the time."

For some reason, you felt that this didn't deter him. Perhaps it even compelled him a little. "Oh?"

"They take this really strange pride in making scenes everywhere they go." You explained. "They've already ruined so much of my life. I can't even give them the opportunity to ruin this too."

"Darling," Hannibal leaned in. "Is there a part of you that wants to attend this event?"

You held your tongue before you said anything you both know to be untrue. "...maybe a small part."

"That small part of you that wants power. That wants justice." He nodded. "Indulge it for a moment. What does this wedding look like to you?"

Trying to keep up the illusion that you hadn't thought of this before, you paused for a moment. "...we would show up--you and I--and I'd be wearing a stunning gown that doesn't fit the stupid color scheme at all. And there's just an unspoken knowledge that I could absolutely ruin Anna's entire day. Anna and Theresa and Grandma are all being nice to me because if I so much as mention the name of that boyfriend she cheated on, I'd ruin her life and possibly her career. So finally I hold all the cards."

Hannibal looked proud. He took a sip of his wine. "You want to be powerful, but with just enough restraint so they know you're the bigger person."

"Exactly." You agreed.

"Perhaps my fondness for you is clouding my professional judgment, darling." He put his wine glass down. "The thought of you in an evening gown, commanding attention and reverence... that's just something I have to see."

"...something you have to see?" You met eyes with him, realizing you were on the same page.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket again. This time, you didn't feel the need to step out.

"Hey [F/N], care to explain why my sister is crying?" Theresa snapped through the receiver.

"Is someone cutting onions nearby?" You offered. "That usually makes me tear up."

"Fucking hell, for once in your meaningless life can you care about someone other than yourself?!" Theresa yelled. "Grandma told us you're not coming to the wedding."

You looked back at Hannibal, who gave you a nod. "Actually, I am. We are."

[shirtlesssammy]

5x11: Sam, Interrupted

Then:

Chuck wrote some Grade A bullshit back in the day

Now:

At Glenwood Springs Psychiatric Hospital, a doctor meets with a patient, Susan, who’s reluctant to take her medicine. They make her sleepy and if she sleeps, the monster comes. It already killed her roommate. The doctor dismisses her concerns with a definitive, “There’s no such thing as monsters.” Later that night, she’s alone in the dark in her locked room. She hears noises in the ceiling, something starts unscrewing the grate, and the hospital staff ignore her cries for help. The next morning, a nurse finds her dead on the floor, wrists slashed.

Later, the Van Halen brothers are at the same psychiatric hospital. It seems Edward Alex is a bit

(Uh, the paperwork said Edward was the patient but the doctor just called Sam Alex…) Anyway, Alex IS FINE. He’s just a little depressed because he started the apocalypse. So what, so he killed a demon named Lilith and now Lucifer is free. So now him, his brother, and an angel are going to stop it. Edward insists that it’s not his brother’s fault and then he jumps into how another demon, Ruby, got him addicted to demon blood. He’s not evil. Eddie would really like the doc to fix up his brother so they can “get back to traveling around the country and hunting monsters.” (Sidenote: I have to admit, this whole scene is me trying to explain to any friend the show I dedicate 98% of my life to.)

Thanks to Dean’s compelling plea for Dr. Fuller to fix his brother, they both get to spend a couple of days at the hospital. Dean’s smug little grin at that is so cute. His grin is not so smug after a thorough checking in process.

It seems that they’re there not just because of the case, but because, Martin, an old hunter friend of John’s is there. Before finding him, the brothers take a quick moment to touch on just losing Jo and Ellen. Sam wants to keep working (WHOA, Sam likes to power through heavy stuff?? No way!) Dean doesn’t want to talk about it (WHOA, Dean likes to bury his emotions?) They find Martin, who tells them there have been 5 deaths in the past four months --the doctors are labeling them all as suicides, but he knows they’re wrong. He just doesn’t know what they’re up against.

Dr. Fuller finds the three of them talking and invites Alex and Martin to group.

He tells Eddie that he can go to afternoon group because he finds the brother’s relationship “dangerously codependent.” LOL. (I sense Andrew Dabb was itching to be showrunner way back in season 5 just to break this spiral.)

Once in group, another patient, Ted, wants to talk about the monster in the hospital. Dr. Fuller thinks this isn’t a good idea. Ted saw the monster though. Dr. Fuller threatens Ted and so Ted quiets down, but not before Sam is aware of the situation.

Dean, meanwhile, is playing a game of checkers all alone (and seems to be having a great time!) Dr. Erica Cartwright introduces herself as Eddie’s new shrink. They sit down and Dean does his best Hannibal impression (I do so love a boy and his pop culture references.) Then they get down to asking each other questions. Dr. Cartwright learns that Dean doesn’t sleep much, he hunts demons, he drinks A LOT, and he’s never been in a relationship longer than two months. Dean learns there hasn’t been anything strange associated with the deaths and demons or ghosts don’t seem to be the issue. (Boy she learned a lot more about him than he learned about the murders! Hmmm.) And then we cut away before we learn about Dean’s feelings on his father.

Sam finds Dean later and they agree to talk to Ted about the deaths. Dean wants out ASAP. Then another patient surprises him with a kiss (and he’s not pushing away from it….Uh, Dean, Please Stop.)

That night, they head to Ted’s room while the nurses are on rounds. Before they can jimmy the door open, Ted starts screaming, and it’s clear something is attacking him in his room. They bust open the door, but it’s too late. Ted is hanging from a bedsheet on his ceiling.

Later, they’re at the hospital morgue inspecting the body. Sam finds a puncture mark on the neck that goes all the way to his brain.

Sam decides they need to do an autopsy. While Dean keeps watch, Sam saws off the man’s skull to find a dried husk of a brain inside. Dean hears a noise and rushes in to warn his brother. They reassemble the body, but have no time to do anything else before the nurse finds them.

Dean drops trou and exclaims, “Pudding!” The nurse tells them to come with her. Crazy works.

They reconvene with Martin to discuss what their intel might reveal. Martin says they’re dealing with a wraith. So how do they handle it? Silver. They can pass as humans though. They can only see a wraith in a mirror.

Dean takes up guard near a hall security mirror. Dr. Cartwright comes to visit him again.

Dean tells her that he’s hunting a wraith.

Important Dialog Alert:

DR. CARTWRIGHT: Why you?

DEAN: Why me, what?

DR. CARTWRIGHT: Why do you have to hunt monsters? Why not let someone else do it?

DEAN: Can't find anybody else that dumb. It's my job. Somebody's gotta save people's asses, yours included.

DR. CARTWRIGHT: So, is there a quota? How many people do you have to save?

DEAN: All of them.

DR. CARTWRIGHT: All of them? You think you have to save everyone?

DEAN: Yep. Whole wide world of sports.

DR. CARTWRIGHT: How? Believe me, whatever you've got, I've heard weirder.

DEAN: It's the end of the world, okay? I mean, it's a damn Biblical apocalypse, and if I don't stop it and save everyone, then no one will, and we all die.

DR. CARTWRIGHT: That's horrible.

DEAN: Yeah, tell me about it.

DR. CARTWRIGHT: I mean, apocalypse or no apocalypse...monsters or no monsters, that's a crushing weight to have on your shoulders. To feel like six billion lives depend on you...God...how do you get up in the morning?

DEAN: That's a good question.

(Spoiler: This is Dean talking to himself here!!!)

Just then Dr. Fuller walks by and Dean sees that he’s the wraith!

Under the cover of night, Dean and Sam get ready to hunt Dr. Fuller. They’ve got silver-plated spikes raided from nurses’s stations. Time to head to battle! They’re interrupted by Wendy, who kisses Sam this time and moves on just as fast. Ooookay. Nothing like an assault with weird consent issues everywhere to start your night off…uncomfortably. (God, that’s such an understatement, really.)

Martin panics to hear that he’s expected to take part in the hunt and takes off. Sam and Dean split up. Sam inches down a dark hallway and finds Dr. Fuller walking down the hall. (Side note: do these doctors live here? Take an evening off, my dudes.) Sam slashes at him with the silver tool and struggles against the orderlies who jump on him, breaking free and making a run for the doctor. Martin stops Sam from stabbing Dr. Fuller at the last minute because the cut on the doctor’s arm isn’t burning. He’s human!

Oops.

A little while later, Dean finds Sam in his room. Sam is EXTREMELY drugged. “You always were a happy drunk,” Dean says, resigned. They talk about how the doctor isn’t a wraith, but Dean saw his wraithy face as clear as day. Sam proposes that they’ve both gone a little crazy. In fact, supportive little brother moose tells his brother that Dean has been “half crazy for a long time.” Accurate, but also words hurt, Sam. No!filter Sam thinks his brother has finally lost it. Dean is…unamused.

“I made a mistake,” Dean admits through a clenched jaw. But he’s gonna find the wraith and fix everything. Hey! Who wants to imagine this line repeated with his Dad over and over and over again?

“It’s okay,” Sam says, “because you’re my brother and I still love you.” Then he boops him on the nose. Awwww Sam, you’re too precious for this world.

Dr. Cartwright finds Dean in the hallway, and grills him about his “monster hunt.” She tells him he’s crushing himself under his self-assigned burden of guilt. “You can’t save everybody. You can’t.” Somebody…really needs to tattoo this on Dean’s hand or something. Maybe print it on a bumper sticker?

The hallway therapy session quickly turns from insightful to accusatory. “These days you can’t save anybody,” she accuses him. She brings up Ellen, Jo, Lucifer, Lilith, his slide into torture in Hell. YIKES. The doctor quickly eviscerates Dean’s very fragile self-worth. An orderly interrupts to tell Dean to calm down as he starts to shout. Dr. Cartwright grows even more insidious, pleased with Dean’s reaction to all her terrible insider knowledge. Dean asks the orderly who the doctor is but, uh, the orderly can’t see her at all. Dean’s the only one who has ever been able to see Dr. Erica Cartwright. Ooooh dear. Dean Bean.

While Dean walks through the hallway, he sees wraiths in every reflection. We end a scene which began with him striding purposefully down the hall hunting monsters with him cowered in a corner, absolutely surrounded by visions of them.

Meanwhile, Sam and Dr. Fuller talk. Sam apologizes for attacking the doctor and orderlies. The doctor’s merciful, letting him stay in the lower security ward. In return, Sam tells him that he realized there’s no such thing as monsters. The doctor, rather unhelpfully in my opinion, tells Sam that he’s got incredibly massive anger issues and the rage transforms him into something barely recognizable as human. That’s…a lot to unpack, Dr. Fuller. Also, pretty sure telling a patient he wasn’t acting like a human isn’t in the standard manual.

In the common room, Dean confronts Sam, telling him that Sam is the root of all the bad things that happened with their family and the apocalypse. Sam starts to punch invisible people, then visible people when orderlies try to restrain him. Meanwhile, Dean sits alone, hunched and small in a corner of the common room. “What’s happening?” he says in a small voice. “What’s happening?”

Later that night, Dean breaks into Martin’s room. “Crazy is the clue,” a severely distressed Dean tells him. Because both he and Sam started seeing things at the same time, he thinks they’ve been infected or controlled by something. He begs Martin for some clarity and while they’re clearly both struggling with grasping reality, they both agree that a monster that feeds on brains could also probably make somebody go insane. “Maybe it’s the ghost of my dad,” Dean digresses in a small voice, breaking my goddamn heart.

“Focus!” Martin commands. ERRHEM yeah, I’m fine. Dean thinks that kissy-face Wendy might be the wraith since she exchanged fluids with both Winchesters. Dean tippy toes with Martin to Wendy’s room (he can’t step on the cracks, guys!).

There’s a scream!

In Wendy’s room, she’s lying on her bed with slit wrists while the nurse smiles over her. The nurse’s reflection is a wraith. “Is this real?” Dean asks, pleadingly. Yes bby. The nurse pulls out her little brain-sucking blade and licks it. Uuuuh gross.

The nurse sics two orderlies on Dean and Martin. Dean has some seriously big problems focusing on the world around him but he manages to evade the orderlies and stumble down the hallway. He follows a trail of blood.

Sam’s tied up in a padded room, totally strapped to a thin hospital bed. UGH, this is a terrible hospital. Get out while you still can, Martin! The nurse bursts in and tells Sam that she figured out they were hunters immediately - on account of the whole “We’re monster hunters” cover story they used. I mean, fair, right?

She tells Sam that she loves overly hormonal brains - like those mid-breakdown - because of the flavor. It’s like a heavily-seasoned crock pot meal, I guess. She doesn’t plant any thoughts or motivations - just amps up whatever’s there already. So Dean unraveling at the seams, the weight of the world crushing him flat is all cooked from his own mind. And Sam is angry at everything because he’s...angry at everything. She unsheathes her sucker spike to feed on Sam when Dean bursts in. Unfortunately for her, Dean’s been fighting in mental breakdown mode for months or years now so he fights through his confusion and vision problems and wins the fight, killing the wraith.

The effects of the wraith’s poison wear off instantly and Dean and Sam make a run for freedom. At the Impala, Dean asks Sam if he’s okay. That’s…a loaded question. Dean wants to head out so he can get a drink…or twelve. (Dean bby.) Sam confesses that the anger he felt in the hospital IS completely real and he’s felt that way his entire life. Oh, Sam bby. “You’re gonna take all that crap,” Dean counsels in his best angry counselor voice, “and you’re gonna bury it.” That’s…not the best advice. Oh, these two. They drive off, a little more scarred, a little more broken.

Nurse Quoted, I Presume?

No, no, his name’s Castiel. He wears a trench coat.

Alright, look, Nurse Ratched, let's get one thing straight. I've seen Cuckoo's Nest, so don't try any of that soul-crushing, authoritarian crap on me.

The relationship that you have with your brother seems dangerously codependent. I think a little time apart will do you both good.

You think you have to save everyone?

It's spectacu-lacular.

Is this real?

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[dukereviewstv]

Duke Reviews Tv: Smallville 1x14 Zero

Hi Everyone, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews TV, Where We Continue Our Look At Smallville By Talking About Episode 14 Of Season 1, Zero...

This Episode Sees Lex's Past Coming Back To Haunt Him, When Jude Royce, A Man Presumed Dead, Resurfaces After 3 Years To Ruin Everything Lex Has Worked For As Of Late Before Capturing Lex, So He Can Get The Truth About What Really Happened At Club Zero. Will Clark Save Lex Before Royce Kills Him?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Zero...

The Episode Starts With Lex Inside Of The Upside Down...

Oh, I'm Sorry I Read My Script Wrong, I Meant Lex Is Inside Of A Building Where He's Hanging Upside Down In A Straitjacket, My Mistake...

Kidnapped By Some Guy, To Which Lex To Ask...

Only For The Guy To Tell Lex That He Wants The Truth Which Leads Us To Flashback To 3 Years Ago In Metropolis...

(Start At 0:37, End At 3:26)

Calling Lex A Liar, The Man Knows That Despite What The Papers Said That That's Not Really Happened And He Knows That Lex Covered It Up And He's Going To Going To Make Him Pay As It's Revealed That The Man Is Jude Royce, The Man That Kasich Apparently Shot...

Rewinding To One Week Earlier, We Cut To Smallville High As Clark, Chloe And Pete Have An English Assignment To Write A Six Page Biography On One Of The Students Of The Class, With Pete Being Assigned To Stan Gibson, The Manager Of The Student Store, Clark Being Assigned To Lana And Chloe Being Assigned To Clark...

Yeah, Settling In, Folks We're In For One Of Those Chloe Being Too Nosy For Her Own Damn Good Episodes...

On His Way To Meet Lana At The Talon, Chloe Asks Clark When They Can Sit Down And Talk Which Leads Clark To Tell Her That They Will, Eventually...

And By Eventually, Clark Means When Pigs Fly, Yeah, Sorry There Chloe But, You're Going To Fail The Assignment...

Meanwhile At The Talon, Lana Gets Into An Argument With The Contractor At The Talon Over Plumbing When...Oh, Hey Jude...

Oh, Come On, I Had To Make A Hey Jude Reference, It Was Just Too Easy...

Anyway, Jude Drops By The Talon, To Get An Application For The Assistant Manager Position Where He Warns Lana To Stay Away From Lex Because Everything Lex Touches Always Ends Badly...

Arriving At The Talon, Lex Is Met By Kasich, Who Lex Is Not Happy To See As After That Night At Club Zero They Decided To Never Talk With Each Other Again, So, Instead Of Wasting Time Kasich Gets Down To The Point By Telling Lex That He Saw Jude...

Knowing That To Be Impossible, Kasich Tells Lex That That He's Not Crazy And Whoever This Person He's Been Following Him Everywhere. Asking What This Man Wanted Kasich Tells That This Man Is Seeking The Truth...

With Clark Walking Towards Them, Lex Gives Kasich The Key To A Secure Apartment In Metropolis And Tells Kasich To Stay There Until He Can Call Him, Nodding His Head, Kasich Leaves As Lex Enters The Talon With Clark...

(Start At 2:36, End At 3:23)

Following Lex Outside, Clark Asks Lex Who Jude Royce Is? But Lex Doesn't Seem Worried Saying Whomever Lana Met It Wasn't Jude Royce But Turning On His Car Loud Music, With The Words Murderer Being Heard Over And Over Again Play In Lex's Car...

Clark Is Like...

Using His X-Ray Vision, Clark That Lex's Radio Has Been Hotwired To Play A CD On A CD Player That's Underneath The Dashboard...

Ripping The CD Player Out, Clark Questions Lex Again Only For Him To Tell Clark That It's None Of His Business...

Returning Home After What Just Happened, Clark Finds Chloe Interviewing His Parents Who Find Chloe's Questions To Be (Sounding Like Arte Johnson) Very Interesting But Stupid...

Running Out Of Tape, Chloe Leaves So Jonathan And Martha Can Talk To Clark About The Assignment, Saying That They Don't Mind Answering Questions About Clark But Questions About Clark's Adoption Are Going To Be A Little Difficult To Answer...

With Chloe Returning, She Has Enough Tape To Question Clark Too But He's On Way To Work On His Paper With Lana Which Gives Chloe The Idea That Clark Is Avoiding Her But Telling Her That Tomorrow They Will Work On It Together, Chloe Drops The Subject...

Going To The Talon To Work On Their Paper, Clark And Lana See Lex Pull Up In His Car, Saying That The Contractor Called Him And Said That He Wanted To Meet Him At The Talon To Give Him An Estimate...

But When The Three Of Them Go Inside, They Find The Contractor On The Ground As He Tells Them That Some Guy Jumped Him When He Entered The Back Door And Forced Him To Let Him In

(Start At 1:03, End At 1:56)

Looking At The Hand, Lex Knows That Kasich Is Dead..

With Lana Having Second Thoughts About Being Involved With Lex, Clark Asks Lex About Max Kasich, To Which Lex Tells Clark The Truth That He Was Someone He Knew Years Ago In Metropolis And He Has No Clue How This Happened. Bringing Up Jude Royce Again, Lex Tells Clark That It's Impossible As Jude Royce Died 3 Years Ago...

The Next Day At School At The Torch While Clark Is Trying To Get Information About The Death Of Jude Royce, Chloe Tells Clark That While He Was Ducking Her, She Discovered That Clark's Adoption Was Handled Through Metropolis United Charities, And That Clark's Adoption Was The Only One They Handled Since They Were Only In Buisiness For Six Months...

Furious That Chloe Is Prying Into His Private Life, Clark Exits..

Talking With The Head Of Security At The Mansion, Mr. Raines At The Mansion Gym, He Tells Lex That Kasich Never Made It To The Apartment In Metropolis And That He Has Not Yet Tracked Down Amanda Rothman...

This Leads To A Flashback To What Happened After Jude Was Killed As We See Someone Who We Never That We Would See Again, Sam Phelan (The Dirty Metropolis Detective That Discovered Clark's Secret And Decided To Blackmail Him With It So He Could Get Phelan Some Papers From Internal Affairs)...

(Start At 1:08, End At 2:23)

Returning To The Present, Lex Gets A Gun In His Head Which Forces Him To Turn Around To See Jude Who Tells Lex That He Wants To Know What Happened That Night At Club Zero And Not Just The Cock And Bull Cover Story...

But As Jude Talks With Lex, Clark Arrives And Hears Jude Talking With Lex Which Forces Clark To Bust In Which Scares Jude Off...

Telling Lex About What He Discovered About Max Kasich, Lex Tells Clark For The Good Of Their Friendship To Not Look Into This Any Further. Returning To The Kent Farm To Do His Chores, Clark Talks With Jonathan About Lana Still Opening The Talon Despite The Body Part Incident, Lex, And Metropolis United Charities...

(Start At 1:01, End At 2:00)

Discovering That Their Livestock Were Poisoned By Luthorcorp Barrels That Somehow Got There, Lex Apologizes For What Happened And Offers To Pay For The Livestock But Jonathan Is Not In A Good Mood And Refuses Lex's Offer...

Telling Clark He Has No Idea How This Happened He Asks Lex If This Has To Do With Club Zero? And With Lex Believing That It Might, Clark Tells Lex To Come Forward And Tell Everything That Happened Before It's Too Late...

With The CEP Rep, Wanting To Talk To Lex He Goes Over To Talk With Him Only To Discover That It's Jude Who Tazers Lex Into A Car And Drives Off With Him...

Calling Everywhere, Clark Cannot Find Lex Anywhere, Which Leads Clark To Tell Martha What He Discovered, With Clark Defending His Friend, Martha Defends Lex Too But With Shady Things In Lex's Past Popping Up, Martha Thinks That Clark Should Take A Break From Lex As She Doesn't Clark To End Up In Trouble Like Him...

Going In The Barn, Chloe Apologizes For Diving Into The Adoption Agency Thing And Has Drop The Whole Thing In The Name Of Their Friendship, Handing Clark Pictures She Took For Insurance Purposes Chloe Leaves But Before She Does Clark Notices A Picture Of The CEP Guy Who Looks Like Jude Royce...

(Start At 0:51, End At 0:53)

Back Where We Started With Lex Hanging Upside Down In A Straitjacket, He Attempts To Get Out Of It While Calling For Help...

Hacking Into The DMV, Chloe Gets The Address Of Our CEP Guy Named John Smith...

What? Is His Middle Name Hannibal?

Clark Tells Her To Call The Police And Have Them Go To That Address...

Arriving There, Clark Discovers That Metropolis PD Is Already On The Scene As They Discovered Max Kasich's Body, Asking A Policeman Where Club Zero Is Despite Being Six Years Too Late, The Policeman Tells Clark That It's A Wherehouse On 78th And Main...

Now REALLY Back Where We Started With Jude About To Shoot Lex, We Hear A Gunshot Only To Discover That Someone Has Killed Jude For The Second Time And It Turns Out That It Was The Contractor Of The Talon Who Is Actually The Real Mastermind Behind Everything...

Shooting Lex Down, The Contractor Tells Lex Who He Really Is...

(Start At 0:18, End At 3:35)

With The Talon Opening On Schedule, It Seems To Be A Hit As Lana Goes Over To Talk With Clark Who Has A Present For Her, A Picture Of The Talon That His Grandfather Took Years Ago...

Talking With Lex, He Has A Feeling That Clark Is Avoiding Him, Denying This, He Just Tells Lex That There's Just A lot that He Doesn't Know About Him Which Leads Lex To Tell Clark Why He Did What He Did At Club Zero...

(Start At 1:34, End At 1:54)

Meanwhile At The Torch, Chloe Is About To Delete The Information She Discovered About Clark Only To Change Her Mind At The Last Second, Ending Our Episode...

And That's Zero And It's Okay....

While Not One Of My Favorite Episodes, It Did Give Us Insight On What "The Greatest Criminal Mind The World Has Ever Known" Did To Land Himself In Smallville And It Was A Good Episode While The Story Was Okay The Characters Were Well Written So, For This One I See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[argumate]

Rogue One

Didn’t get around to posting this at the time so it’s been sitting there looking at me reproachfully ever since. (Unless I’m horrendously confused and already posted this in which case hey, more repetition that you love!)

 - Okay everyone let’s buckle up and watch a Star Wars movie! I just love that classic Star Wars intro sequence with the logo and the music and the- oh, we’re not doing that this time, okay well that’s cool too.

 - Hannibal is a mud farmer yeah, you can tell because he’s covered in mud, which much like sand is coarse and irritating and gets everywhere.

 - It’s very polite of the stormtroopers to march slowly across the boobytrapped field; the mud farmer was expecting them so he must have prepared some- no okay that was a little impulsive, more of a Bambi’s mum situation. I’m guessing that the mother will never be mentioned again in this movie.

 - Jyn the jailbird doing hard time with a cephalopod cellmate in Imperial prison. Guess the empire doesn’t have the concept of juvie, or maybe she’s just that dangerous.

 - Cassian the badass making Han Solo look like a school boy, damn son.

 - Not a fan of Fake Tarkin. Peter Cushing was a legend and this mannequin is no Peter Cushing, I think they could have found a better way.

 - Prequels need to work harder to resist the temptation to throw in shout-outs to what comes next! Yes yes, it’s a prequel, we know, don’t slow down the story with indulgent references that fail to advance the plot and leave uninformed audience members bemused.

 - In Star Wars movies we make regular stops at exotic desert trading hubs, and by exotic I mean Oriental, so think Asia, think Africa, think Arabs, think aliens wearing hijab and eating lizards they cooked on a wok for god’s sake.

 - It’s all a bit Indiana Jones, to be honest.

 - When this movie came out there was a lot of discourse about whether the Stormtroopers (the bad guys!) represented the US military (oh no!) and as they march through a resentful Middle Eastern town with what appears to be the equivalent of an M1 Abrams tank only to be attacked by mysterious locals throwing grenades the parallels are inescapable, this is Fallujah in Space.

 - Donnie Yen man, Donnie Fuckin’ Yen.

 - Yondu. (Checks notes in puzzlement) Oh, the smuggler dude who was kind of like Yondu in Guardian of the Galaxy but then they clearly gutted his screentime so his character doesn’t really make sense any more.

 - Love that droid.

 - Now the characters are starting to settle into the familiar roles that we’ve seen so many times before in classic war movies -- immortal archetypes, really -- like the Pilot, the Spy, the Sassy Monk, and the Sassy Monk’s Jaded Boyfriend.

 - My gosh, who could possibly be living in a dark tower atop a lavafall, could it possibly be- Darth Vader, only you could be so extra.

 - Sure is handy that this beloved old character wears a distinctive face-covering helmet, isn’t it.

 - *checks notes* “WWII guns of navarone french resistance saboteurs” yes yes we get it.

 - Hope they let that guy on Yavin 4 piss over the side of his tower occasionally.

 - Nice to see the khyber crystals get a look in, and the temple.

 - One biome per planet rule still firmly in effect

 - A little incoherent if you don’t know any Star Wars backstory, even more incoherent if you do.

 - Scarif look pretty, too pretty, I'm almost expecting a sales pitch for a timeshare by the beach, close to the Imperial golf course

 - Stormtroopers seem even more fragile than usual in this instalment and can be taken out with a punch; their armour is basically just a hi-vis jacket.

 - Just once I’d like to see the Death Star go into hyperspace like a big ol’ golf ball, just once fuckin’ whooomp it’s way out of there.

 - Once again an action adventure movie finale hinges on IT: finding discs, making network connections, cables that don’t reach, a literal firewall blocking transmissions, poor upload speeds, waiting on hold with your ISP,

 - On the one hand I loved playing X-Wing and TIE Fighter and I’m geeking out over the space battles, on the other hand you can have too much space battles tbh

 - Donnie Yen’s ending is as affecting as it is predictable.

 - Cassian and Jyn don’t have much to say

 - Krennic: Tarkin you son of a bitch!

 - Final desperate scramble to patch Rogue One into the regular Star Wars continuity feels unnecessary and slightly undermines the mood of the ending

 - cartoon Leia

[miikkasakari]

16

I think what I love most about Spider-Man: Homecoming is how small scale it is.

Phase 1 was about building these heroes up. Phase 2 was about... I’m not sure what, actually. Progressing in this new universe? But Phase 3 has overall been about tearing them down, and that’s what Homecoming does.

The universe returns to its political roots right from the beginning: no matter what, the little guy will get screwed over. As one of the workers puts it, the Avengers create that mess and then Tony gets to profit off of it. “It’s all rigged,” one of them says. And yeah, it is. And yeah, it’s easy to see why Toomes would go that route. He’s not blameless, but he is empathetic. The perspective has shifted from these larger than life heroes to the little guy who, yeah, maybe they’re helping save the world, but they’re destroying a lot of civilians’ lives in the process.

This is the perfect character to do that kind of movie with because Peter is all about the little guy, too. Only he chooses to do the right thing on that side: he’ll fight for them, he won’t fight to benefit himself at anyone else’s expense. They’re from similar backgrounds - there’s this theme that a hero’s main villain is basically his inverse - but the difference is Peter cares enough to help whoever it is who needs it, even if he’ll stumble along the way.

This is the first time we really look at secret identities in this universe; that hasn’t happened since the first Iron Man, until he promptly blew it at the end. (Another parallel: Aunt May finding out at the end is like a behind-the-scenes kind of staging. Tony was in the forefront for his reveal. Peter’s reveal focuses on what’s behind him.) And finally, we get an actual high school-aged Peter (or close enough I know Tom Holland is not actually in high school), and it’s pretty clear he’s in New York. The background extras are so diverse across the board, in school (I saw an orthodox Jewish kid in the hallways! I hadn’t noticed him before! Granted I only saw the movie once but I spotted him this time!!) and on the streets. I mean, the two main characters are still white, but everyone else - it stands out as a bit of a contrast because I’ve been watching all of these movies in the past week and they’ve been mostly white people everywhere and suddenly at some point Marvel got the memo. I just, kudos to the casting people, they did a really, really good job, beyond Holland being another one of those freakishly too-perfect-to-not-actually-be-this-character guys.

Spidey is funny! And Peter is awkward! We got the best of both worlds that we hadn’t in any of the 50 earlier Spidey movies and they just got the tone so right. And the threat had to be lower key because he’s in high school. He isn’t saving the world. He’s saving a small corner of it. Like Tony references: friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

The villain is still threatening, though. Again: real world connection. And I remember the air going out of my theatre when Toomes was revealed to be Liz’s dad. You knew something was coming because things were going too well for Peter in that moment, he was too happy and comfortable with where his life was even though he’d just been chewed out by Tony, and then - whoosh. The tension in the house and in the car was very, very real. It’s because everything is so much more localized that it works so well. Like, your crush’s dad probably isn’t going to be a weapons dealer, but that’s a much scarier threat than like, a dark being or whatever nonsense. And it’s because it’s so real to 15-year-old Peter that it struck the necessary chords.

You’d think it’d be difficult for the MCU to really impress by this point but hearing the Spider-Man theme over the Marvel intro sequence is really just something.

The thing I love most about this is Tony’s line, that he wants Peter to be better. Because Tony, by this point, is very self-aware of how fucked up he is and how badly he has fucked up (he just chased away everyone not named Rhodey so I mean...) and he found this kid that, when he met him, sounded like Steve.

There are two things grounding Spider-Man in the MCU: Tony and Steve. (With a side Morita descendant.) (And the Cap PSAs are all hilarious, and really adds to the universe: of course they’d get him to do that nonsense. And of course Hannibal Buress’ character wouldn’t take it seriously, it’s ridiculous and high schoolers wouldn’t care either. “Pretty sure he’s a war criminal now” and we’re keeping up with current in-universe events! [Also, Martin Starr!! Comedians as prominent teachers yes please.]) 

And Peter embodies both of Tony and Steve’s best qualities: his smarts and his sense of what’s right. (With a side of quippiness.) Tony wants Peter to be better because Peter can because he has that side of Steve intrinsically in him. And the further this universe progresses, the more likely they’ll get there. There’s a reason Spider-Man resonates so deeply and this is exactly why and the MCU is heading towards the best cinematic iteration of exactly this. He’s already been in two movies with both of his dads and it’s there.

I noticed a Mets hat in Peter’s room which, 1. duh, and 2. it kills me but Steve would definitely be a modern day Mets fan. There’s no way he’d go back to the Dodgers and there’s no way he’d ever cheer for the Yankees. So we should skip this Thanos business and Steve should take Peter to a Mets game, I am just saying. And I fucking hate the Mets. That’s how badly I want this. I am willing to accept this.

Peter accepting that he is more than Tony’s suit and saving his own ass after the most dramatic moment of doubt we get - Peter going after Toomes even after having his life threatened because he knows it’s the right thing to do - Peter not being able to juggle a double life but trying so hard to because he cares so deeply. This is the Peter Parker we deserve, in movies with Cap and Iron Man, and we finally got him and it’s going to be really exciting where they take him next, now that the training wheels are off.