The Catch SN1 EP2 – ‘ The Real Killer ‘

Hi All!  Here’s a  refresher before tonight’s episode.

In last weeks’ episode, we were treated to more of Alice‘s memories of her relationship with Christopher. Alice dreams about their first date, in which her subconscious kicks up clues that  she probably feels that she should have picked up on.  They are discussing how people are generally so into themselves that they aren’t interested in finding out about the other person, and when they do seem interested it’s because they want something.  After a pregnant pause and a smile, Christopher says he’s interested. Cut to  steamy naughty dream sequence.  On the first date, Alice?  Really? Did I mention that your kids should probably not be watching this show?  Their date conversation continues with what each do for a living.  Her job is 24/7 but she makes time for the important things.  He is a Venture Capitalist, which, he flippantly explains, means he takes people’s money for a living.  Any good lie has a kernel of truth, right?

At this point Alice wakes up, and eyes the painting.  She makes the decision to bring in the firm’s newest recruit, lawyer and resident romantic Sophie Novak played by Elvy Yost.  Sophie believes that Christopher is not messing with Alice’s head, but is actually saying that it was real.  Alice thinks she should go to the museum and tell them everything, but Sophie advises against that plan for now.  Sophie reminds Alice that they have a new client coming to the office, a very high profile one who has recently been acquitted of the murder of his very rich wife.  Alice, from her perspective, is certain that he did it.

On the way to the office, she stops by the museum and discovers that the painting is there. Which one is the fake?

We find Christopher at a high end jewelry shop where he is telling the sales person that he needs a gift that says “I did something really bad, and I’m sorry”.  The sales person goes off to the vault to find something appropriate,  leaving Christopher free to look around at the other clientele.  He circulates, very slickly lifting credit cards, watches and bracelets from the other shoppers.

Margot and Reggie meanwhile are planning a sting on a grieving Princess who is coming in to LA.  They tell Christopher he cannot take part because he is burned; he is being sent to Shanghai where they will join him in a month.

While Alice is waiting at the office,  she tasks Sophie with finding out if there is any way of telling which painting is fake.  Partner Val is becoming progressively more pissed at her own ex, as he failed to show at their mediation session.   The team gathers around a computer to watch clips of their soon to be client Jeffery Bloom (Adan Canto), being acquitted.  Alice tells them that her gut is saying he did it,  he had means and motive, and his alibi was a 4 hour opera during which he could have left, killed his wife, had dinner and still have been back in time to catch Act 3.  Sophie thinks that it was a love story, Alice asks between  whom; Jeff and his dead wife Edith Rockwell or Jeff and the $40 million dollar estate that he can now claim.  Sophie says between Jeff and his new wife, award winning journalist Rebecca Bloom, played by Christine Woods, who believes he is innocent.

Jeff and Rebecca ask the firm to find out who really killed Edith.  Rebecca tells them that the more she looked into Jeff’s case the more the evidence against him didn’t add up.  She was so convinced that she not only fell in love with Jeff, she married him while he was still in prison waiting trial.

Jeff was a model (presumably penniless) and Edith a fashion designer which was how they met. They eventually married in spite of the 40 year age difference, which did not sit well with Edith’s son,  Payton Rockwell (broody Greg Audino).  Payton’s alibi is that he was in the bar, chatting up the bartender Tracy Lassin (Annabelle Borke).

The team takes a tour of the crime scene, Edith’s house.  In Payton’s room, Danny finds his tablet.  Rebecca points out that a very high Payton and his mother had an argument that night, presumably because of Jeff being the sole inheritor.  Jeff says he and Edith were supposed to go to the opera with friends, but Edith was so upset by the fight that she stayed home, and he went alone.  Ummmm, what happened to the friends? is the question I am asking myself.  Tickets for the opera really aren’t cheap, so from my point of view, the friends would have gone anyway.  Did anyone bother to question them during the original investigation?  Anyway, I digress.  The scene that Jeff found on his return looked like a robbery gone wrong.  Jewels were missing and Edith had been strangled with her own scarf.  Rebecca’s theory is that Payton did it, stealing the jewels to finance himself and his habit.

Meanwhile, Christopher has been sent packing to the airport, with a stern admonition to make no stops along the way.

Former Interpol and current FBI Agent Jules Dao  is in a parked car outside of Alice’s office.  Alice spots him and goes to confront him.  Across the intersection, Christopher steps out of his ride, and stares longingly at Alice.  Reggie has been following Christopher and tells him to get in the car.  They see Agent Dao and realize that Christopher cannot leave, as all exits from the city will be covered.  Agent Dao tells Alice that he has figured out that Mr X is Christopher Hall, her ex- fiance.  She threatens to call his superior at the FBI.

Back in the office, she remembers some pillow talk.  She had told him about her family, he tells her his are all dead.  Convenient!  Christopher tells Reggie that he is in love with Alice, and Reggie spells out what will happen to Alice if Margot finds out.

Meanwhile Danny and Sophie have found pictures of a beach house party complete with intimate pictures of Payton with bartender Tracy, on Payton’s tablet.  Danny is tasked with finding out whose beach house it is, and Alice tracks Payton down to question him. Moody, broody Payton not only refuses to answer her questions, he backs into and pushes her car out of the way, and roars off, nearly clipping Alice in the process.  What a JERK!  Kind of points to him as the killer.

Christopher is told that the Middle-Eastern Princess (Medalion Rahimi)  is not the mark.  The real mark is her guardian and de facto controller of the kingdom Kassim Halabi ( Navid Negahban) The con is to get him to invest in some fictional, very expensive property development, but it has been discovered that the Princess does not plan to stay in LA long enough for them to work it.  Christopher sees the opportunity to insert himself into the con.  He shows up at the airport with a Hunter Green Austin Healey, the exact same car that was her father’s favorite.  He whisks her away by letting her drive, leaving Kassim at the airport with Margot and Reggie.  Christopher and the Princess have a conversation that fascinates the Princess enough that she decides she wants to stay in LA.

Danny has discovered that the beach house belonged to Payton’s grandparents.  Sophie has found out the the artist of the painting always painted to the edge of the canvas which means that since a forger would only be able to paint what is inside the frame, this would be a way to determine which is the fake.   Alice opens the back of her painting, to discover that the edges are painted.  The painting in the museum is the fake.  Sophie and Alice decide that they will not tell Val yet, but will instead find the forger, and use him or her to find Christopher.

Danny and Alice go to the beach house to try to find the missing jewels.  Danny searches the house, Alice the property.  She searches some kayaks stored under the pier, stepping in some oily gook.  She finds the jewels, making it look bad for Payton.  Payton is in the wind now which really makes him look guilty.  Alice decides that since she was so wrong about this case, she should take time off.  Val won’t let her.

Sophie has found the forger and has coerced the name of her client, one Julian Mersch.  She has cross referenced this name with Christopher Hall and has found two obituaries, both with tragic back stories and no family, and both published in the NY Tribune.  Alice and Sophie realize that this is how they can trap Christopher.

Alice revisits Jeff and Edith’s house to see if she can find any other clues about where Payton might be.  She takes her shoes off when she realizes that they still have oily gook on them.  While she is searching Payton’s room, she hears someone enter the house, so she grabs the nearest bat and waits.  It is Jeff.  She tells him that she hasn’t found anything yet, and notices that he has oily gook on his shoes.  AhHA! She tries to leave, accusing him of feeding her the information she needed to frame Payton for him.  He says that he can’t be tried again for the same crime.  Rebecca is behind him, and has overheard his confession.  Jeff lets Alice leave (??), she calls Danny and orders a security team while she can hear a very loud domestic going on inside the house, followed by a thump and the sound of a body falling down the stairs.  She re-enters the house to find Jeff at the bottom of the stairs dead, and a blood spattered Rebecca in shock at the top.  Alice can sympathize with how Rebecca is feeling.

Sophie has found a death that fits Christophers’ pattern.  She and Alice realize that if they place an obituary, they can use it to track Christopher when he uses the dead guys’ social security number to build a new identity.

Later that night, Agent Dao shows up at Alice’s house to apologize, she is no longer a suspect in the investigation but what kind of detective would he be if he didn’t follow up on every lead?  She closes the door in his face.  She then places the obituary for Micheal Thorne in the NY Tribune, while Agent Dao is in his car listening in.  He has placed a miniscule bug on her door.

Cut to Christopher reading the paper in the lobby of the hotel where the Princess is staying.  She confesses that she really is the Princess Zara Al-Salim, and asks him if that bothers him.  He introduces himself as Micheal Thorne, and tells her it does not.

I confess that I do not have any favorite moments for this episode.  In fact, I am beginning to think that the whole premise for the show may be fatally flawed, in spite of starring Mireille Enos.  But hey, I initially found The Killing boring as hell, so I will be watching tonight to see if The Catch can change my mind.

 

 

 

 

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow SN1 EP9 – ‘ Left Behind ‘

Welcome back!  Today I am reviewing Legends of Tomorrow SN1 EP9 – ‘Left Behind’.  In this episode, there is a surprise return of a cast member, and an appearance by  Ra’s al Ghul, reprised by Matt Nable.

It is the year 1958, and Sara, Ray and Kendra have been left standing in a field outside of Harmony, Oregon, unaware that Chronos has broken into the Waverider.  They are not sure of what to do. Ray’s Eagle Scout training dictates that they should stay put, but Sara’s League training says they need to keep moving.  Time passes.  Sara wins, because they don’t know where Vandal Savage currently is. They don’t know why the Waverider left, but can only assume that something bad has happened.

They appropriate a car (ah, the joys of a misspent youth, Sara) and go to Hub City where they rent an apartment.  So what do you do when you are stranded in 1958?  Linear time dictates that you move forward, of course.  Ray busies himself building a time beacon, and becomes a college physics professor, Kendra becomes a librarian,  because there really isn’t much in the way of employment opportunites for women in the late 50’s and angst ridden Sara leaves to find someplace where she can belong.

Plus there is the whole awkward third wheel dynamic going on, since Ray and Kendra are developing their relationship.  And time passes.  It is now the year 1960, and Ray is teaching Bill Gates’ father, who sees the potential for miniaturization in Ray’s theories.  After class, Ray and Kendra are picnicking in the park.  It is the anniversary of the Waverider’s disappearance.  Ray has finally given up on ever being rescued, and is about to ask Kendra to marry him with a terrific proposal speech, when the time beacon activates, and the Waverider appears.

Rip opens the door and says sorry they are late.  Understatement of the year!  Kendra gets on the ship, seemingly without a regret or a care for life over the past two years.  Ray is bewildered and hurt, sensitive guy that he is.  Oh, that adorable whipped puppy face!  I would just love to SQUEEZE it!

So where and when was the Waverider? And what exactly were Rip, Leonard, Martin and Jax doing?  For them time has not passed, since they have been outside of time struggling to wrest control of the Waverider from Chronos.  Chronos has fought them off the bridge.  Rip sends Martin and Jax to the jumpship, while he and Len go back to the bridge to stop Chronos.  Martin and Jax hear the resulting carnage, and so Martin decides that danger to the Waverider be damned, they have to merge to save their friends.

Firestorm burns through the bridge door to find Rip lying on the floor unconscious.  There is no sign of Chronos or Len.  Gideon informs them that Chronos has taken both Len and the jumpship.   Excuse me?  And here we thought Rip was the intended target.  Rip realizes that Gideon can’t get control of the Waverider, and must be rebooted.  Rough ride!  Gideon is then able to lock onto Ray’s time beacon signal and voila!  Ray and Kendra are recovered.  Ray has to go back to the apartment to pick up the Atom suit, and is devastated when Kendra tells him that she doesn’t want any of their ‘old junk’ from the apartment where they lived just that morning.

Now to recover Sara.  During a conversation between Ray and Kendra, where Ray persistently misunderstands Kendra’s feelings, Kendra realizes that Sara has probably gone to the one place she always felt she belonged, Nanda Parbat.  It turns out very conveniently that Rip’s graduate thesis for the Academy was on the League, which gives him a fairly in depth knowledge.

Gideon pulls up the Shadow Log, and they discover that Sara has joined (rejoined??) the League in 1958.  The team travels to Nanda Parbat, 1960.  Leaving the rest of the team to guard the entrance, Rip enters Nanda Parbat to find Sara.  She raises the alarm, which results in all of them being captured and imprisoned, to await execution for trespassing.  And of course, Sara has relieved Ray of his suit, and has instructed the guards to keep Martin and Jax separated.  Rip thinks that Sara is suffering from time drift, which essentially means that she has spent so much time in this alien time line that she has lost touch with her former life.

Kendra realizes that this is probably why her powers have gone dormant.  Ray wonders why she hadn’t told him that.  Rip demands an audience with Ra’s al Ghul, intending to avoid execution by demanding trial by combat.  Ra’s chooses Sara to be his champion, since she is important to Rip and the team.  Ray volunteers, but Rip chooses Kendra, over Ray’s objections. Kendra knows why, and tells Ray she’s got this.  Sara and Kendra battle with swords,  Kendra recovers her wings and reaches Sara by reminding her that she is White Canary.  Chronos blasts his way into Nanda Parbat.

So why did Chronos take Len instead of Rip?  On the jumpship, a handcuffed-to-the-railing Len wants the answer to that very question.  Chronos tells him that he should have figured it out already, since Chronos is supposed to be the dumb one.  He takes his helmet off to reveal Mick Rory.

Mick tells him he should have killed him.  Len says that he was always coming back for him.  Mick notes that he took too long.  When the Time Masters found him, he was nearly out of his mind and becoming more animalistic, surviving by eating rats.  YUCKKK!!  The Time Masters had taken him to the Vanishing Point, restored him to mental and physical health, trained him and given him the chance to become Chronos, which he had jumped at.    Len wonders why he hasn’t killed him yet, so Mick tells him vengeance is a much better fit for him than arson.

He plans to get his vengeance by going back in time to kill Len’s sister Lisa in front of Len , over and over again.  Thankfully the jumpship interrupts, telling Mick that Waverider has landed at Nanda Parbat in 1960, which puts him back on task as Chronos.   Once Chronos has left the jumpship, Len manages to free himself in a particularly gruesome method.  He works his way to his cold gun, freezes his hand and smashes it on the floor (OWWW), thereby getting out of the handcuffs.

Inside Nanda Parbat, Chronos is wreaking  havoc on the Assassins.  Rip, with Sara’s help, convinces Ra’s that the only way to defeat Chronos is to release them. A firefight ensues.  Firestorm and Atom are instrumental in taking Chronos down.  Atom is about to end Chronos when Snart staggers in and stops him.  The team are understandably shocked to learn that Chronos is Mick.

They put him in the Waverider’s brig for safe keeping.  Ra’s now understands why Sara had done so well in her training over the past two years.  He tells Sara that there is no place within the league for someone who is conflicted between her ability to kill and her desire to show compassion, and releases her to reclaim her past life and name.  Sara asks him to make certain to send his daughter to the coast of the island of Lian Yu in October of 2008. He is curious as to why he would send Talia, so Sara tells him that it will be his as yet unborn daughter, whom she is pretty sure he will name Nyssa.  

The team demands an explanation from Leonard. Len points out that he never actually said that he had killed Mick, but that he didn’t have to try too hard to let them think he had.  Rip sees this as a unique opportunity to reform Rory.  Kendra objects because he killed her son.  Martin points out that Chronos killed her son, but Rory was fighting on their side that day.

Sara points out that she knows about being trained by an organization to kill, and that she needs to know for her own sake that Rory can be reached.  Martin says that the Time Masters took one of their own and turned him against them.  He wants to undo their handiwork.  Ray remembers that Mick saved his life in the gulag, and feels that he is more than a criminal and arsonist.  Jax agrees that Mick is a member of the team, but Len thinks he is a lost cause. Rip says that miracles abound on the timeship.

In the medlab, we see one of these miracles occur. Rip has Gideon regenerate Len’s hand using genetic samples that he took from each team member at the beginning of the journey for exactly this purpose.  Meanwhile, in Ray’s quarters, he is looking at the ring he bought for Kendra, which he then hides as Kendra enters.  Ray is still misunderstanding Kendra’s point of view, but she finally clears up his confusion by telling him that it was just being stuck in the 1950’s that she wasn’t happy with.  For the first time in centuries, she is able to choose who she is with, and she chooses him.

Rip tells the team that they now need to go to 2147, mere decades before Savage conquers the world.  The team is confused, because they were told that Savage had disappeared from history.  Rip says that he has always known that Savage could be found in 2147. They have not gone there yet because that time is fraught with more peril than he was willing to risk, but now they have no choice.  They must stop Savage in 2147 or die trying.

My Favorite Moments:

Call me sentimental, but I just KNEW that Len could not possibly have killed his long time partner, protector and friend, Mick.

Ray is just so darn cute with that disappointed, bewildered look on his face.  For a smart man though, he really isn’t very bright when it comes to figuring out women, lol.

Jax’s unexpected but totally cool KO of the sentry at Nanda Parbat.

Ra’s has a heart!  Who knew?

 

 

 

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow SN1 EP8 – ‘ Night Of The Hawk ‘

In Episode 8 – Night of the Hawk – we are back to hunting Vandal Savage who is trying to build an army of Hawk-like creatures, and we experience the small mindedness and prejudices of the 1950’s.

The Waverider lands in Harmony Falls, Oregon in 1958, where a hot rod race is taking place on a deserted road.  One of the rods blows a tire and crashes, leaving the driver’s girlfriend semi conscious.  The driver of the crashed rod and the pair from the other car see a mysteriously glowing rock a few yards a way from the crash and examine it, wondering if it is some kind of comet.   Vandal Savage appears from the undergrowth, and tells them it is actually a meteorite that he too was drawn to.  He says that he was not expecting to find them, but that he considers finding them to be destiny.

On the Waverider, everyone is shaking off the effects of time travel, which apparently increase with the length of each jaunt.  Gideon produces the information that Harmony Falls has been the scene of some grisly murders while other people have gone missing.

They quickly set plans to find Savage.  Kendra and Ray are to pose as married, Martin will be a Doctor filling a vacancy at the Asylum created by the untimely death of Dr. Miller, Sara will be a nurse and assistant to Martin.  Leonard and Rip will be federal agents, and Jax will be the new kid in town.

Problem is Kendra and Ray are an interracial couple,  Jax is black, and Sara is gay, none of which, is ideal for Small Town, let alone anywhere in the 1950’s. This becomes apparent when Kendra and Ray are talking to the real estate agent about a house, and she offers to find them a place in a more forward thinking town.  While Martin and Sara are being welcomed to their new positions, the Head of the Asylum, Dr. Hannah (Ben Wilkinson) leers at Sara.  Snart and Rip  introduce themselves to Sheriff Ellison ( Darryl Shuttleworth) to examine police files relating to the case.  Sheriff Ellison insists that there is no serial killer, just some unexplained accidents. Snart tough talks him into giving them the files.

Sara, Martin and Jax meet at the local soda shop where Martin waxes nostalgic about the idyllic scene they find themselves in.  Jax points out that it is only idyllic if you are white, and Sara adds “and straight, and a man”.  Martin gets the point.  They notice that the girl from the crash, Betty Seaver (Melissa Roxborough), is sitting by herself in a melancholy state at the counter.  Jax introduces himself, causing shock from other girls sitting at the counter.  Betty apologizes for them, saying that they had never seen…., and Jax interrupts with “a guy dipping his french fries in his milkshake?”.  Betty laughs and they chat until some jocks try to intimidate Jax by telling Betty that she doesn’t hang around with losers.  Jax offers to fight, and they back down, telling Jax that it isn’t over as the soda shop owner shakes his head at them.  Betty invites Jax to hang out.

Back at the Asylum, while Sara is tracking down files of violent patients for Martin, she sees Dr Hannah sexually harassing Nurse Carlisle (Ali Liebert).  She bumps into him causing his coffee to spill on him.  Sara asks Nurse Carlisle for a tour, during which Sara sees a wing that Nurse Carlisle is not taking her to and asks about it.  This mysterious wing is Hall H, and is where Dr. Knox works with the most violent of the inmates.

At Kendra and Ray’s house, a neighbor has come by with a tuna casserole and an invite to their house party.  The neighbour introduces herself as Mrs. Knox, and her husband as Dr. Knox.  As Dr. Knox comes into view, Kendra is shocked to see that he is Vandal Savage, but manages to cover up.  Ray comes to the door to see who Kendra is talking to, and is also shocked, but covers up in a stumbling tongue-tied way.  They accept the invite.

The team meets at the Waverider to analyze the police files.  Snart observes that Savage is very good at making people disappear.  Jax snarks “something you have in common”.  Jax is forced to admit his concern that if Leonard had no problem making his best friend disappear what would he do to the rest of them?  They decide that since Savage will be busy with the party, it will be a good opportunity for Sara to search his office.  Kendra and Ray are tasked with finding out whatever they can at the house party.

Nurse Carlisle catches Sara searching Knox’s office, and wrongly assumes that she is looking for booze.  They go to the cafeteria together, where Sara lets her know that she is gay too.  Alarm bells start going off in the Asylum in Hall H.

Kendra and Ray enter the house party, where Kendra is mistaken for a waitress by one of the guests.  Ray and Kendra split up, with Kendra keeping Savage busy, while Ray checks the rest of the house.  He finds a locked room.  Savage puts moves on Kendra until he is called back to the Asylum, but promises her that they will talk more.

It seems that Tommy Fuller (Levi Meaden) has been a very bad transformed monster.  He has killed an orderly.  Savage is not pleased.

The next day, Carlisle works up the nerve to kiss Sara, but Sara pulls away and rushes out.  She later confesses to Martin that it terrified her, because it opened up previously dead feelings.

Kendra stands guard while Ray breaks into Savage’s locked room.  The search produces Kendra’s dagger.

Jax and Betty hang out on Lover’s Lane, in her Dad’s car.  Jax wants to talk about the disappearances and what happened to Tommy the night of the crash, but Betty wants to make out with him. The jocks from the soda shop show up, wanting to fight. Suddenly Tommy appears and knocks the stuffing out of the jocks, destroys the roof of the car and slashes Betty’s neck with a talon.

Jax jumps back into the drivers seat and tries to get Betty to medical attention at the ship, leaving the wounded jocks behind.   He is pulled over by Sheriff Ellison for speeding, who pays no attention to the wounded Betty, or to Jax’s story about the attack and other victims needing help, focusing instead on Jax being on Lovers Lane with a white girl.  He knocks Jax out and drags him to the cruiser, leaving Betty to bleed out in the car.  Luckily, Snart and Rip have been tracking Jax through his bio signature and find Betty in time get her to the medical bay on the ship.

Betty tells them what happened the night of the crash. Gideon finds silicate materials in her bloodstream which brings them to the conclusion that the meteorite Savage found is the same type of meteorite that transformed Kendra and Carter, and that Savage is trying to create an army of mutated versions of Hawkgirl.  Gideon and Martin build a serum that will hopefully cure anyone transformed by this particular meteorite.

Kendra meets with Savage at the asylum, in hope of getting close enough to him to use the dagger.  However, Savage turns the tables on her, and reclaims the dagger.  Savage doesn’t buy that she is there alone, and pushes a button to release his army. Kendra and Savage battle for the dagger. Meanwhile, the rest of the team have infiltrated the Asylum.  Rip and Ray are caught snooping by Sheriff Ellison who works with Savage, and Martin and Snart are checking out Hall H when the test subjects are released.

Sara has been making amends to Carlisle when they are interrupted by one of the nasties.  Sara gets medieval on its ass, Ray and Rip get away from the Sheriff, and Ray rescues Kendra from Savage, who disappears.  A transformed Jax appears in Hall H, where Snart is busily stopping the other nasties with his cold gun.  He fires at an overhanging pipe to disorient Jax, and Sara arrives in time to knock Jax out.

Back at the ship, the serum is administered to Jax, curing him. The team returns the others to normal. Sara goes back to the Asylum to say goodbye to Carlisle, Jax gives Betty  a new car, and Kendra and Ray pack up the house. Back at the Waverider Jax apologizes to Leonard.   Chronos attacks and gains entry to the Waverider, and episode ends as the ship pulls away, leaving Sara, Kendra and Ray standing in the field.

My Favorite Moments:

Martin’s realization that back in the day really wasn’t the ideal that he remembered

Sara spilling coffee on Dr. Hannah, stopping the harassment of Nurse Carlisle

Jax dunking his french fries as a way out of a potentially awkward line of conversation

Jax’s apology to Leonard, and his acceptance of Leonard as a team member

Martin praising Leonard for his restraint and quick thinking

 

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow SN1 EP7 – ‘ Marooned ‘

In Episode 7 – Marooned – Dr Stein fulfills his childhood dream of being an heroic space ranger, and we meet another Time-Master.

Gideon needs an upgrade, because his database is out of date.  He has run out of clues as to where Savage might be found next.  In the normal course of events, this upgrade would happen automatically whenever the Waverider returned to home base.  Gideon receives a distress call from another Time-Ship in the vicinity, the Acheron.  The team points out to Rip that it is too coincidental to be anything other than a trap, but our fearless leader insists that this is the only way that Gideon can get his upgrade, and so they rush to the rescue.

Upon boarding the Acheron, Rip, Jax and Mick are captured by ‘Captain’ Valor (Callum Keith Rennie) and his crew, who Rip realizes are space pirates.  Acheron’s time drive has been destroyed per Time-Master protocol, and Valor wants the Waverider.  Rip tries to defuse the situation, claiming they are all on the same side for once because of the danger posed by Savage.

Valor doesn’t give two rips for the danger, and sends a message to Ray at the Waverider’s helm demanding that he allow the pirates to board and take the Waverider over.  Rip slips a codeword in which executes one of Gideon’s emergency protocols, causing the Waverider to fire a shot and take evasive action.  Valor orders pursuit and fires a shot in return, blowing a hole in the Waverider’s hull. Valor then warns Ray that he has 10 seconds to comply or he starts shooting prisoners.

Rip manages to slip another codeword in to deactivate the holographic Waverider that Acheron has been chasing, but now Valor catches on and throws the three into the brig.  Sara and Len try to fix the breach,  but Captain Cold’s gun runs out of steam before it can be completely sealed, causing the bulkhead doors to close which traps them inside the engine room.

Atom dons his suit and goes outside to finish sealing the breach.  While Sara and Len are slowly freezing to death in the engine room, Sara tells Len that there is no way that Rory will ever return from the dark, but Len reminisces about meeting Rory in juvie, where Rory first saved him and says that Rory has had his back ever since.

Len gets existential and wants Sara to tell him from her unique perspective what it is like to die. Meanwhile, Professor Stein has realized that something is up and leaves the jumpship to find and disarm the Acheron’s targeting system and weapons array . Sneaking through the Acheron, and managing to avoid all but one of the pirates,  he does just that, and then goes on to release Rip, Jax and the oh so judgmental Time-Master Captain Eve Baxter (Stephanie Cleough) .

Rory has already been released from the brig because he wants to make a deal with the pirates.  Rip has told him that he was never part of the plan, and that he was only along because he and Snart were a package deal.  Awwww, Rip hurt his widdle feewings. Rory’s deal with the pirates includes being taken back to the moment of meeting Rip, so that he can tell him to shove the mission, thereby getting his partner Leonard back.

Rory and some of the pirates take the jumpship back to the Waverider, where Atom has succeeded in sealing the breach, nearly killing himself in the process, but releasing Snart and Sara from the engine room.  As the pirates follow Rory onto the Waverider, Snart realizes that it is time to choose a side, and fires at Rory, while Atom, Sara and Kendra take on the rest of the pirates.

Back on the Acheron, Rip has come up with a plan to rid themselves of Valor and the remaining pirates.  His plan is based on his memory of a training simulation where his illicit girlfriend uses explosive decompression to great effect.  After a rip-snorting fight with Valor and just in the nick of time, Rip shoots Valor and opens the hull doors, sucking the remaining pirates out into space.  Captain Baxter is grateful, (and now considerably less judgmental) and gives Rip the update that Gideon needs before returning to the Vanishing Point.

Back on the Waverider, the team has a discussion about Rory’s fate.  His betrayal was not part of any larger plan, which means they are not able to trust him again.  The brig is not built for long term incarceration. They can’t release him in 2016 because the team has too much family there, so what to do?  Leonard makes the clearly difficult decision that he needs to take care of it.

The Waverider lands somewhere, somewhen; Leonard takes Mick outside.  Mick realizes that this is the end for their partnership, and quite probably for him.  He wants to know what happened to Snart, the punk kid he saved in Juvie, and the partner he has had since.  He says that only one of them can leave this spot alive.  Leonard agrees and shoots him with the cold gun.

My Favorite Moments:

Rip’s facility to baffle ’em with BS. “You don’t know my crew, iron-willed and battle-hardened.  The most formidable warriors to navigate time and space.”

How Rip’s girlfriend became his wife, when the Time-Masters expressly forbid relationships.

Rip telling Captain Baxter that he doesn’t regret betraying his oath to the Time Council, because he is following a higher calling.

Stein on being a space ranger:  “I’ll teach you to mess with a nuclear physicist”

The kiss – Kendra and Ray FINALLY !

The entire conversation between Sara and Len while they are trapped in the engine room, where Sara admits that at least if they die they won’t die alone, followed by Len knocking Mick out to save Sara, all of which points towards the potential for a romantic relationship between the two.

Stay tuned for my reviews of Episode 8 & 9, and remember to follow skatronixxx.com!

A Recap Of DC’s ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ First Six Episodes

Hi All!  I’m the new reviewer for Legends of Tomorrow, the newest addition to DC’s universe.  As the show has not yet been reviewed at Skatronnixx.com since @mitch_rated wrote about it coming to Sky1 in Britain, I thought I would start with a catch-up of the story from pilot to episode 6.  But first, the credits.

Legends debuted on The CW on January 21, 2016, in Canada also on CTV and airs on Thursdays.  It was renewed for a second season on March 11.

The Characters:

Rip Hunter – Arthur Darvill

Atom – Brandon Routh

Firestorm (the brains)/Professor Martin Stein – Victor Garber

Firestorm (the brawn)/Jefferson Jackson – Franz Drameh

White Canary/Sara Lance – Caity Lotz

Hawkman/Khufu/Carter Hall – Falk Henschel

Hawkgirl/Chay-Ara/Kendra Saunders – Ciara Renée

Captain Cold/ Leonard Snart – Wentworth Miller

Heatwave/Mick Rory/Chronos- Dominic Purcell

Gideon – WaveRider’s AI voiced by Amy Pemberton

Vandal Savage/Hath-Set – Casper Crump

The Story So Far:

In the first episode, we meet Rip Hunter, Time-Master and Captain of the timeship Waverider, in the year 2166.  The world has been basically laid waste to by the immortal baddie, Vandal Savage.  Rip,  a flawed Time-Master, wants to go back in time to stop Savage before he gets started: in effect to re-write the future.

Having had a personal run-in with Savage, he knows that he can’t go it alone.  He presents his plan to the Time-Council, and it goes pretty much as expected, a big fat NO. He and Gideon get the hay out of Dodge and go back in time anyway to collect a team to help him.

The Waverider lands in Star City, in the Arrowverse, where all of his potential crew are currently in the middle of their own battles.  Now Rip doesn’t much believe in explaining himself more than once, so he collects each member by zapping them with his space ray gun just as each of them triumph in their missions.

When they wake up he tells them who he is,  what his mission is, and indulges in some ego stroking to get them to agree to join him.  Some of the members don’t want to go, notably Rory, Jax and HawkGirl.  Professor Stein hijacks Jax by means of drugging and kidnapping, because after all, heroes – nay, Legends – are required and Stein alone cannot be a hero, Snart convinces Rory by pointing out that they can steal the most valuable treasures in history, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl settle it like warriors.

The team assembles, and leaves 2016 to track down their first lead, Professor Boardman in 1975.  Meanwhile, the bounty hunter Chronos arrives in Star City and informs his employers that he is closing in on Rip.  Professor Boardman turns out to be not only an expert on Vandal Savage, but is also Kendra and Carter’s son from their just previous lives.  Although he dies because of a stray bullet in a firefight between our heroes and Chronos, he provides them with their next clue contained within his journal.  And now the truth begins to emerge.

Rip tells them that he has quit the Time-Masters because they did nothing about Savage killing his wife and child, but that he has not lied about the rest of it.  He has allowed them to think that they are heroes in their futures, but that he took them because they are actually insignificant to the time-line.

They want to make their own fates, so they all agree to continue with the mission.  In succeeding episodes, they romp through the time-line in hot pursuit of Vandal Savage, while being chased themselves by Chronos.  Along the way, they lose and recover a piece of the Atom’s suit, stop Savage from selling a nuke – cameo by Damien Darhk (Neil McDonogh), discover the one weapon that can end Savage forever, get Hawkman killed, nearly lose Kendra and are captured by the Russians who are trying to build their own Firestorm.

And we get a little of Snart’s history, when he tries to change his father’s fate.  In  episode 6 they travel to a ravaged Star City in 2046 where they talk Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) out of retirement to join Diggle’s son Connor Hawke (Joseph David-Jones) who has taken up the Green Arrow mantle.  DeathStroke (Jamie Andrew Cutler) makes a cameo appearance.  Captain Cold and Heatwave have a “difference of opinion” when Heatwave realizes that he is losing Captain Cold to the team and wants to stay in 2046.

My Favorite Moments:

Pretty much anytime Snart opens his mouth.  What comes out is always humorously dry, witty and sarcastic, and I am really enjoying this character’s development.

Jax tells Professor Stein that he thinks Stein still has plenty of adventure left in him, and that he wants to be part of the team because in his high school football days, when he felt safest was when his teammates were looking out for him.

Rip’s memories.  They make him who he is – a “flawed” but very human time master- and are the driving force behind his self imposed mission to end Savage.

My reviews of Episodes 7, 8 and 9 will be coming at you in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned and don’t forget to follow skatronixxx.com!

 

 

 

 

 

The Catch SN1 EP1 – ‘ Pilot ‘

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Mireille Enos of ‘The Killing’ fame is back on the little screen in  a shiny new series that premiered in Canada on CTV on March 28.  The Catch is produced by Shonda Rimes, producer of How to Get Away With Murder, Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal.

Mireille plays Alice Vaughan, the field half of Los Angeles’ premier PI and Security agency. She’s smart, sexy, confident, gorgeous, totally kickass and about to get married to her fiance, Christopher Hall played by Peter Krause.

The opening scene is very Thomas Crown, set at a gala being held at the Singer Museum for Contemporary Art.  The con man enters and zeroes in on Alice because not only is she gorgeous and admiring a painting whose artist is the focus of this particular sting, her museum access card is dangling enticingly from her pocket.  Some actually fairly heavy handed vamping gains him access to the back with Alice, where the target painting is hanging, supposedly having arrived on loan too late for display in this collection opening.  The conversation in front of the painting is telling, and does a credible job of setting up the show’s basic premise:

Alice: She seems so sad to me

Con Man: She’s in love

Alice: Why is that sad?

Con Man: because it doesn’t last

Alice: He doesn’t seem to have any doubts

Con Man: He’s not showing you his eyes

A bit of sexy byplay later, he has slipped her access card away, and very carefully steals the painting, only to be busted at the entrance by Alice’s team, led by Jay Hayden who plays Danny Yoon.  Enter Alice the kickass, who takes him down with a knee to the *ahem*, and handcuffs him, whispering in a sultry voice  “for me, this is the fun part”.

Cut to the next morning at the agency where the team is tasting wedding cake when the receptionist, Robin (Nicole Pettis), comes in bearing bad news in the form of an email asking “Are you ready to play?”, neatly setting up the first story arc.  It turns out that Mr X has been frustrating their efforts to protect their high end clients by ripping off technological data worth $5 mil over the past 9 months, always sending the same email just prior to the rip off.  It seems that Mr X is targeting the Agency because they have the best client list in town; but for some unknown reason he is always one step ahead of them, almost as if he has inside information.  The team races into action, figuring out which client and which malcontented employee of said client is the most likely candidate for this con, and  setting up security to catch Mr X at the very predictable employees’ lunch spot. Here is where the “premier” part of the ” LA’s premier PI and Security agency” starts to come unravelled.  Mr X shows up to the drop site in an electric blue Lamborghini Aventador, and no one on the very obvious security detail notices what the driver looks like.  When you see an eye-catching car like that, don’t you always check out the driver?  I do.

Mr X trades the cash for the confidential client information, but gets away, leaving the hapless malcontent  to take the fall.  Damage control takes place, the stolen information becomes useless, and the day wraps up.

Later that night, Alice goes home to her fiance, the rich and handsome Christopher Hall, and we discover that unknown to her, he is Mr X.

Because the sting didn’t go as planned and the information stolen has become useless, Christopher’s handler and real girlfriend Margo (Sonya Walger) decides that Alice has outlived her usefulness, and instructs Christopher to break it off.  But Christopher has immersed himself in the con so completely that he has fallen for Alice for real.  After a night of romance, and Alice’s refusal to just run away with him the next morning, he disappears – DNA, fingerprints and all.

As the show continues, we discover through a series of flashbacks that Christopher Hall has insinuated himself into Alice’s life by posing as a prospective client referred by another client Seth Hamilton; but because he is “interested” in one partner of the Agency, declines to become a client and therefore is not vetted at all by her Agency. So no one realizes until he disappears totally with Alice’s $1.5 million personal cheque that he and his company are just a front.  They have been conned.  Hmm.  That “premier” adjective is getting just a tad tattered.  Alice wants revenge, personal and up close, and will (unethically) not allow her partner to inform the rest of their clients of this breach of their own agency.

Enter the feds, in the person of Agent Jules Dao (Jacky Ido).  He has been chasing Christopher across Europe for the past two years for the crimes of theft of intellectual property, fraud and burglary, and he has discovered that the Agency is chasing the same man, for much the same reason.  He would like to combine efforts in the hopes of bringing Mr. X down. Alice claims client confidentiality and turns him down.  But really, it is because she is “not going to sit down with his superiors, telling a room full of smug FBI agents what happened to her, what she let happen to her.”  Pride goeth before the fall.  He is not at all suspicious of the staring through glass walls at him while a hurried conversation between Alice and her partner Valerie Anderson (Rose Rollins) takes place, lol.  Yeah,  right. Agent Dao follows her to the parkade where Christopher’s Land Rover is still parked, and watches her trash it in her search for something that will help her track Christopher down.  He asks her who is Mr X to her, and wants to know what he took from her.  He tells her that he can help her if she will only talk to him.  Again, she refuses him, leaving Agent Dao standing in the parkade.

Back at the office, the team realizes that the supposedly referring client, Seth Hamilton, is Mr X’s main intended victim. Seth Hamilton has come up with a pocket sized way to transform sea water into drinking water, technology worth billions. And he is announcing it to the world at a party being held that very night.  The Agency has pre-vetted the guest list, but realize that Christopher intends to infiltrate the party disguised as one of the guests, in order to steal the technology.  They enter the party dressed to the nines, but are unable to stop the theft thanks to some quick thinking by one of Christopher’s teammates.  What remained of the “premier” adjective is now completely shredded.  But wait! It turns out there was a plan B all along.  Alice’s newest team member is not only a lawyer, but was a lawyer for Anonymous, and has some awesome black hat skills.  She hacks into the drive that Alice gave Seth to put his presentation on which was then stolen by Christopher and retrieves all the client information and money that was previously stolen leaving Christopher’s team flat broke and  in danger from some mysterious “benefactor”.  Umm the script writers should probably have found a better word to describe this shadowy figure – benefactor is defined as someone who confers a benefit, a kindly helper.  Given the ominous tone of the conversation between Margo and Christopher regarding the person they report to, this person is most definitely NOT a benefactor.

The episode ends with Alice dragging her tired, emotionally wrought, jilted butt home, only to find that Christopher has been there and has left her the painting that she so admired at the beginning of the episode.  “All right, Christopher, you wanna play?  Let’s play.”

This pilot has  flaws.  How does the premier PI and Security agency, supposedly protecting high powered clients against fraud, burglary and intellectual property theft allow these crimes to happen to their clients AND become victim of these crimes themselves?  In what universe is staring at someone through glass walls whilst conducting hurried conversations  not considered suspicious, and why would a high end security team NOT notice what the driver of a high end automobile looks like?  Why would someone as smart as Alice just hand over $1.5 million without checking up on who she is handing it to? And why would she share supposedly confidential information with someone not in a need to know position?  Flaws notwithstanding, this series does have potential to go places.  You want to sympathize with the bad guy, because he really did fall in love with his mark.  You want Alice to succeed in tracking him down. And in making him pay.  You want the Spy vs Spy development. And most of all, you want the Romeo and Juliet type romance.

While I personally do not enjoy Shonda Rimes other series, I am looking forward to the remaining 12 episodes of The Catch.  Hook, line and sinker.

Criminal Minds SN11 EP 18 -‘ A Beautiful Disaster ‘ makes for a Beautiful Exit

Shemar Moore, aka Derek Morgan, has left the Criminal Minds building.

After 11 seasons, Baby Girl Nation is heartbroken.  His final scene with Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), wrenched at the, okay my, heartstrings “You will always be my original baby girl”.  Not gonna lie, I welled up.

How did Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) – handle the change?  Surprisingly very well. “I don’t want you to stay because I know why you’re leaving and I couldn’t be happier for you.”  And that moment when Derek shared the birth announcement with Spencer…  Hank Spencer Morgan.  I think I maybe did drop a tear or two.

Quick recap of episode #251 ‘A Beautiful Disaster’.  It is six months after Derek has been kidnapped, beaten and tortured.  Savannah is very pregnant.  While the two are standing outside the hospital, an unknown sniper shoots Savannah.  Can she and the baby be saved?  The BAU gang is alerted by the hospital, or is it?  And so the beginning of the end begins.  As they set up at the hospital, Hotch makes the call to take Derek off the case, because Derek is just too close to it.  They have checked the security tapes and realized that the hospital is not who alerted them, but was in fact Chaz Montolo (Lance Henriksen), the father of Dirty Dozen hitman Giuseppe Montolo.

 He details Spencer to try to jog Morgan’s memory but Spencer inadvertently? slips up, giving Derek a hint as to the identity of the unsub.  JJ then shows Derek a slip of paper left in the payphone, which gives him all he needs to realize where Chaz is hiding out.  Predictably, Derek goes off the rails (who wouldn’t?) and goes after Chaz,  chucking his cell phone after telling Hodge he can’t come back.  But big clue for Hotch here, Derek calls him Aaron, alerting Hotch that the hideout has a personal connection for him.  Garcia works her magic, and sends the BAU to one of Morgan’s properties.  Meanwhile, Montolo, who mistakenly believes that Derek killed his son Giuseppe, is playing a sadistic game of Roulette with him. Derek gets the upper hand and the gun, minutes before the BAU team burst through the door.  Case solved, with Derek’s humanity left intact.  He gets back to the hospital in time to be with Savannah for the birth of their baby boy. Derek has realized that his life and priorities have changed and so his story arc with the BAU comes to an end.

This episode was written by Erica Messer and Kirsten Vangsness, and directed by Matthew Gray Gubler.  It was an amazing episode, and one that ended so well.  Killing off long term characters in a TV series has become passe (are you listening Mr Martin?), and I for one am grateful that this was not only an “all’s well that ends well” ending, but also leaves sufficient room for Derek to pop in and out on a guest appearance basis.