The Vampire Diaries SN7 EP17 – ‘ I Went To The Woods ‘ Does Some Body Swapping

SN7 EP17:  I Went To The Woods

Written By (Story By):  Julie Plec & Neil Reynolds

Directed By:  Julie Plec

When the Phoenix Stone was destroyed in E16, we were all thinking that Stefan was going to be stuck in Hell.  Right?  Well, at least until we saw the scenes for the upcoming episode…this episode.

The episode started with someone laying in the middle of the road.  And for once, it wasn’t Damon!  I mean, really, I know I wasn’t the only one that said “Why is Damon laying in the middle of the road THIS time?”  I was?  Well, hell.

Okay…on with the review.

In this episode we got to see a Damon that really did care more about his brother than himself.  After Valerie and Damon went their separate ways because they both thought they could save Stefan better than the other one could, Damon found Stefan walking down the side of the road.  Or did he?  It took a little longer than it should have, but Damon eventually realized that it wasn’t Stefan’s soul occupying Stefan’s body.  The best line of the show came when Stefan’s body snatcher realized that Damon knew he wasn’t Stefan.  Body Snatcher tells Damon that he’s not going to give up Stefan’s body, and Damon responds, “Well, I can tell you that hair requires a LOT of maintenance.”  I loved that line a lot… and I especially liked that Body Snatcher agreed with him!

So, if Stefan wasn’t in his body…where was he?  He landed in the body of an alcoholic who caused an accident while driving drunk causing several deaths, including his own.  So, Stefan wakes up in the middle of the road… yeah, that was him I was talking about earlier.  He jumps up and starts saving people from the bus that the previous occupant of the body had been driving.  Understandably, Stefan thought he was in Hell, and aside from convincing the paramedics and the police that he was completely bonkers, kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in Hell.  But, turned out he wasn’t in Hell, and he had to escape custody and then survive a freezing cold night in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. (Yay, for a shout out to my home state!)

As much as I loved the episode, the whole time I was watching, I had the feeling of being rushed.  It felt like they just wanted to wrap up all the loose ends of the “Three Years From Now” story line so they could move on to the next thing and set up a killer cliff hanger for the season finale.

But, they did give us a touching brotherly moment between my other favorite set of CW brothers.  Stefan and Damon talking on the phone about playing hide and seek when they were children, and Stefan explaining that he didn’t believe Damon was going to find him.  I wasn’t crying, you were crying!

If you haven’t seen the episode yet, keep the tissues handy.  You’re going to need them.  But, it’s certainly worth the ride in Damon’s ’69 Chevy Camaro.

Supernatural SN11 EP18 – ‘ Hell’s Angel ‘

 

SN11 EP18: Hell’s Angel

Written By: Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming

Directed By: Phillip Sgriccia

I’ll be honest with you, dear readers, I don’t even know where to start with this one.  I mean, I know it’s my job to break all this down for you, but this one was… well, how does the word “OhmyChuckthey’retryingtokillus” sound to you?  Yeah, you’re right, it’s probably too hard for non-fans to pronounce.

Okay, let me try again.

I have to admit, that at first I was like “Where are they going with this?”  I mean, I love Crowley as much as you can actually love The King of Hell… but I was shaking my head wondering what he was up to. BUT, please take note that is a very big ‘but’, once he had The Horn of Joshua, The Show was off and running.

Last night we saw the return of a few famdom favorites… Mark Pellegrino (as Lucifer), Ruthie Connell (as Rowena, who was presumed dead after Lucifer broke her neck. But as we’ve learned over and over again…nobody stays dead on Supernatural), and more importantly we saw the return of Sam’s ‘bitch face’.  I was so very glad to see Ruthie…uh… I mean, Rowena back.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a bit of a fangasm right there on my couch.  Yep, sure did.  So anyway, Rowena was helping Amara (Emily Swallow) heal after that “dreadful smiting” from the Angels.  Then, once Amara aka The Darkness showed off the depth of her power, Rowena was more than a little  … hmm…. frightened beyond belief doesn’t seem to cover it.  Anyway, she changed her mind and decided to try Team Winchester again.  That’s right, she went running to The Boys and their temporary team mate Crowley.

The best line of the night was in fact a line and then a reaction.  Sam is telling Dean that Cas wanted to say “yes” to Lucifer.  And, Dean responds, “Yeah, well there’s times I want to be slapped during sex by a girl wearing a Zorro mask, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.”  Then there’s Crowley’s reaction.  I actually had to rewind and watch that one a few times.  Okay, so many times that Lucy (my BFF that watches The Show with me every week) got a little peeved with me.  It was priceless.  Go watch it; I’ll wait.

Waiting…

See!  Told ya!

There were a lot of tense moments that kept me on the edge of my seat during this episode.  The fight inside Cas’ head was … well… things got broken.  Mark Pellegrino is just the best Lucifer EVER!  But, that ending?  Man, I can’t believe I willingly let them do this to me every damn week.  Seriously.

Source Unknown

Anyway, next week is the first of two weeks off then when The Show comes back on the 27th it’s another MotW episode.  See ya’ll in two weeks!

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.

 

 

 

 

The Inspiration Behind Norman Bates **GRAPHIC CONTENT**

Since there was not Bates Motel episode this week i thought i would have a look into what or who inspired Hitchcock’s Psycho and the birth of Norman Bates and what I found was totally disturbing but very intriguing nonetheless. Norman Bates was a fictional character created by Robert Bloch for his novel Psycho and was portrayed by Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock’s 1960 film of the same name, but did you know that Norman wasn’t just purely fictional, he was actually based on a convicted murderer by the name Ed Gein.

*WARNING DISTURBING CONTENT TO FOLLOW*

Who is Ed Gein you ask? Well Ed was born on the 27th August 1906 in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. Ed also goes by The Mad Butcher, he was killer and a body snatcher and his crimes were all committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin where he exhumed corpses from local cemeteries and fashioned keepsakes and trophies from their bones and skin. Ed Gein confessed to killing Mary Hogan a tavern owner on December 8th, 1954 and Bernice Worden the Plainfield hardware store owner on November 16th, 1957. Gein had been in the hardware store the evening before Bernice Worden disappearance, the Police suspected Gein and searched his property and what they found was disturbing. Investigators found Worden’s decapitated body in a shed, hung upside down by ropes at her wrists, with a crossbar at her ankles. Her torso was dressed out like a deer and she had been shot with a .22-caliber rifle, the mutilations to her body occurred after her death. Upon searching the house the investigators were even more shocked, sickened and disturbed by what they had found.

The following is what was found in Gein’s house:

● Whole human bones and fragments
● A wastebasket made of human skin
● Several chairs covered in human skin
● Skulls on his bedposts
● Female skulls and some with the tops sawn off
● Bowls made out of human skulls
● A corset made from a female torso skinned from shoulders to waist
● Leggings made from human leg skin
● Masks made from the skin of female heads
● Mary Hogan’s face mask in a paper bag
● Mary Hogan’s skull in a box
● Bernice Worden’s entire head in a burlap sack
● Bernice Worden’s heart in a plastic bag in front of Gein’s potbellied stove
● Nine (9) vulvae in a shoe box
● A young girls dress and the vulvas of two (2) females judged to have been about fifteen years old
● A belt made from female human nipples
● four (4) noses
● A pair of lips in a window shade drawstring
● A lampshade made from the skin of a human face
● Fingernails from female fingers

All the items found at Gein’s house were photographed and then destroyed, he told investigating officers that between 1947 and 1952 he made as many as 40 night visits to three different cemeteries to exhume recently buried bodies while he was in a “daze-like” state (similar to what we see with Norman’s blackouts) On 30 of those visits he would come out of the daze while still in the cemetery and left the grave in good order and return home emptyhanded. On other occasions he would dig up recently buried middle-aged women he thought resembled his mother and took them home, where he tanned their skin to make paraphernalia. Soon after the death of Gein’s mother, he began to create a “woman suit” so that he could become his mother to literally crawl into her skin. His practice of donning the tanned skins of women was described as an “insane transvestite ritual”

Sheriff Art Schley from Waushara County, reportedly assaulted Gein during questioning by banging Gein’s head and face into a brick wall and as a result Gein’s initial confession was ruled inadmissible. In 1968 Art Schley died of heart failure at the age of 43, before Gein’s trial, its said by many who knew Schley that he was traumatized by the horror of Gein’s crimes and his fear of having to testify about assaulting Gein, caused his death. November 21st 1957 Gein was arraigned on one count of first degree murder and pled not guilty by reason of insanity, he was found mentally incompetent and unfit for trial and sent to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and later sent to Mendota State Hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. On November 14th 1968 Gein was found guilty of first-degree murder by Judge Robert H. Gollmar and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital. Gein’s house and property were scheduled to be auctioned March 30, 1958 , amid rumors the house was to become a tourist attraction but on March 27th the house was destroyed by fire and arson was suspected but was never officially solved. The car he used to haul the bodies of his victims was sold at public auction for $760 to a carnival sideshow operator Bunny Gibbons, later Gibbons charged carnival goers 25 cents admission to see it. Gein died on July 26, 1984 of respiratory failure due to lung cancer at the age of 77 in Stovall Hall at the Mendota Mental Health Institute.

Ed Gein’s story has had lasting effects on American pop culture by its numerous appearances in film, music and literature. His story first came to widespread public attention in the fictional version by Robert Bloch in his 1959 suspense novel Psycho, then in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film of Bloch’s novel. Gein’s story has been loosely adapted into a number of movies, including Deranged (1974), In the Light of the Moon (2000), Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007), Hitchcock (2012), and the Rob Zombie movies House of 1000 Corpses and its sequel, The Devil’s Rejects. Gein has also served as a model for several book and film characters, most notably such fictional serial killers as Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs) and Bloody Face from American Horror Story.

It goes without saying that Gein was a deranged human, but he will forever be a source of inspiration for all things dark and twisted.

References:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein

The Walking Dead SN6 EP16 – ‘ Last Day On Earth ‘

This post contains spoilers.

Welp.  That was disappointing.  After a mostly good season, The Walking Dead reverted back its old ways and pulled a fast one by killing “a character” but not showing us who it was and largely ruining an otherwise excellent introduction to the new big bad, Negan.  I’ll get into that more later, but let’s start with a quick recap of the episode.

This season, particularly the second half, has been building to this episode and they did a good job creating tension early on.  We heard the ominous whistling and saw strange lights in the dark.  For the second episode in a row, we’re presented with images that we won’t understand until later.  It was creepy and grabbed my attention immediately.

Morgan’s best Rick impersonation

We then cut to Morgan finding the horse we heard about from the guy in the body armor last week.  This was a cool scene and it sort of underscored Morgan’s constant message that all life is precious.  Though, the sign that literally said “You Are Alive” felt a bit on the nose.  Perhaps this is foreshadowing something from the comics but, as someone who hasn’t read that far, it didn’t really do anything for me.  This also kicked off the Morgan/Carol “B” plot of the episode which seemed tacked on and unnecessary.

That’s not to say I hated the idea of Morgan going after Carol or even the scenes themselves.  On the contrary, the show has done a good job of setting up this Morgan and Carol story-line as a sort of personification of the larger debate over killing humans on the show.  It seems like they wrapped up the debate with Morgan killing the Savior that was torturing Carol.  He showed her that there is a time when its ok to kill a human to save someone you love, but only when there are literally no other options.  It was also interesting to see the guys in the body armor, who are presumably from the next group we’re going to meet.  Guys in body armor with horses and stabbing weapons….are we going to see some knights next year??  That is an exciting prospect.

Friend or foe?

Though, to be frank, I didn’t think we needed to have that plot resolved, or even updated, this week.  I would have been content to have not seen Morgan or Carol at all until next season.  It would have added some mystery to the search for Carol.  The real problem was that it just distracted from the main event: the first appearance of Negan.  We all knew Negan was coming this week and its all anyone cared about.  I feel this plot line got lost and was used as more of a break from the action in the RV than to actually tell a story.  I fear most people will forget about what we saw with Morgan and Carol and it just have to be rehashed next season, particularly the bit about the new group.  There’s no way anyone is going to remember that when it gets revisited in October.

I really liked the interlude with the random survivor from the library running from the Saviors.  It confirmed the the creepy whistling was their way of intimidating people and it worked.  That was creepy as hell.  It also showed us how ruthless they are when someone breaks “the rules.”

The main action this week was the journey to Hilltop to save Maggie and the confrontation with Negan.  I liked how they used the complication with Maggie’s pregnancy as the reason to get people in the RV and head to Hilltop.  It was done slightly differently in the comic but this way fit the show more and nothing was lost in translation.

So we have Rick and Co. taking Maggie to Hilltop to see the doctor and, hopefully, save the baby.  I understand Rick and Carl and even a few other people wanting to go and help protect Maggie on the way to Hilltop.  But why bring so many?  Aren’t they worried about an attack from the Saviors on Alexandria?  Yet, they bring Rick, Carl, Abraham, Sasha, Aaron, AND Eugene on the trip to Hilltop and leave Gabriel in charge of the defenses.  I mean, who is left to defend the walls at this point?  Spencer?  It just feels like a stupid thing that the people of Alexandria, especially Rick, wouldn’t do.  Especially after Rick was talking about how important it is to protect  what they have in last week’s episode.

Basically every competent person in the group

Regardless, the RV group gets out on the road and it quickly becomes apparent that the  Saviors are gunning for them.  We see the random survivor from earlier used as an example of what they’re capable of doing.  I liked the confrontation at the first roadblock, Rick tries to make a deal and act like a bad ass before his confidence is slowly eroded throughout the episode.  He obviously has no idea what they’re dealing with.  However, the speech from the lead Savior felt like a little too much foreshadowing.  He tells Rick to treat this like it’s their “last day on Earth,” heavily implying that someone is going to die.  But, we all knew that someone was going to die.  They’ve been leading up to it and teasing it for weeks.  We didn’t need that much more foreshadowing.  Side note, Abraham continues to drop some of the best lines this season.  “What the bitch?” might be my new favorite combination of words.

At times, all the different and escalating roadblocks felt excessive.  As if they were just trying to pad the running time of the episode.  But, I liked all of them.  It showed the power that the Saviors have and how outmatched the group is at this point.  Plus, they were legitimately intimidating and bad ass.  I mean, who didn’t love that chain of walkers?  It also allowed a lot of tension and fear to build up, especially in Rick.  The problem with the pacing wasn’t the roadblocks, it was the constant interruptions by the “B” plot.  I can’t help but think that the episode would have been better if the Morgan and Carol plot was dropped and the episode was a standard hour, as opposed to the 90 minutes we got.

Eugene has had some pretty good development over the last few episodes, he’s gone from meek and useless to being an actual survivor.  Plus, he’s putting his smarts to good use with his bullet making scheme and his plan to draw off the Saviors by taking the RV himself.  They really went out of their way to make it seem like he was about to die with that goodbye scene, I mean, he even gave the bullet making instructions to Rick.  I doubt he’s going to die, but I liked the growth and courage we’ve seen in him lately.

Hi…

The end of this episode started so great.  We have the group running through the woods, in the dark, and we hear that super creepy whistling again.  You can just feel the fear in all of them.  They know they’re over matched and there’s nothing they can do about it.  The Saviors get them on their knees and we find out what those creepy lights were.  It was the view of Darryl, Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita from that van.  Now they’re all together, on their knees, and waiting to meet Negan.

I have to say, the Negan introduction was perfect, not to mention Lucille, who was indeed awesome.  Jeffery Dean Morgan’s performance was was amazing.  He was equally scary and charismatic, hilarious and menacing.  He looked the part and played it like he was born to be Negan.  His lines were lifted right out of the comic (minus a few hundred “fucks”) and it worked so well.  The reactions of the group really sold it as well, especially from Rick.  You could see on his face how scared he was, he dramatically underestimated these people and now someone he cares about has paid the price for his arrogance.  It was indeed “pee pee pants city.”

The face of fear

That brings us to the biggest problem with this episode.  We don’t know who paid the price!  AMC nailed the most iconic villain in the series and his introduction but they still screwed it up.  Some will say that this is a classic TV cliffhanger and it simply adds tension and a reason to come back next season.  But, that’s the thing, there’s already a reason to come back next season.  To see the fallout from the person’s death and find out how the group will deal with Negan and the Saviors.  It seems like we’ve been building to this moment all season.  Everyone knew a major death was coming, the show has been dragging it out and teasing us for weeks.  But we didn’t get any release or catharsis from the end.  We KNEW Negan was going to kill someone important, the question was who it would be.  I mean, it can only be one of about 3 of the people that were there, they aren’t going through all this for Sasha or Aaron’s death.

You are so gonna regret crossing him…in about 6 months

The way this played out didn’t release any of the viewer’s tension, it was simply another cock-tease by AMC.  A way to drag the reveal out until next season.  To take such an iconic moment from the source material and cut out the end only serves to cheapen the moment and took away from an otherwise great ending.  Seeing the character who died and seeing their death would have brought closure to this season and made all the waiting we’ve done worthwhile.

Make sure you come right back here for all your Walking Dead news this summer and follow me @drnerdlaw for all things nerdy and awesome.

The Flash SN2 EP15 – ‘ King Shark ‘

So it’s time once again for my review of The Flash and in this weeks episode we see Barry struggle with what happened on Earth-2, the return of King Shark, guest appearances from Diggle and Lyla and we the identity of Zoom is finally revealed.

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So after Jay Garrick was killed at the end of the last episode we see the team looking visibly shaken by what was just at the beginning of the episode, Barry decides to concentrate on running around the city looking for other meta human threats while Caitlin struggles to come to terms with losing yet another love interest. Barry wants to go back to Earth-2 as he feels that he has left the whole planet at the mercy of Zoom now they have  closed all the portals. Dr Wells explains to Barry that it is impossible to go back as all the portals have now been closed and there is no way of reopening them.

We then go off to a secret Argus facility where is appears they have been holding King Shark prisoner in a large tank with a laser grid over the top of to stop him from escaping. He appears to have gone belly up so the guards decide to shut down the laser grid, cue the scene cutting to Lyla and Diggle arriving at the facility and we find out that Lyla has been promoted to the new head of Argus and has been tasked with cleaning up Wallers mess. The alarm sounds and the pair arrive to see all the guards dead and King Shark having a snack on them as he sees the Lyla and Diggle appear he makes a break for it and escapes.

Diggle and Lyla pay Barry and team a visit to advise them that King Shark has escaped from the Argus facility as it appears that Amanda Waller had captured him and were experimenting on him to see if they could use his genetic make up to make weapons. Barry is frustrated by this and is not going to wait around for King Shark to find him and that he is going to take the fight to him instead. Barry, Diggle, Lyla and the Argus team take off to track him down by searching the nearest bodies of water next to Central City. The group eventually find him but are unable to capture him and he makes a meal out of another two Argus agents.

During the episode we see Dr Wells warn Barry and Cisco that they must not tell the others about there Earth-2 counter parts, the pair agree to not tell them anything but we see Caitlin’s attitude change towards people. Cisco begins to worry that she is becoming exactly like Killer Frost after she the pair pay King Sharks Earth-1 wife and Caitlin becomes inpatient after they ask for a look at her research. She also snaps at Cisco later on for trying to help her go through the research and find a way to track King Sharks movements.

We also see some issues arise between Barry and Wally during a family game night at the West household, Wally beats Barry’s cup stacking record and makes the claim that no-one is faster than him. Barry is offered the chance to regain his title but he doesn’t seem interesting in having fun with the rest of the West family, Wally seems to be a bit put out by this and decides to head off as he has plans. Joe and Iris pick up on something not being right but there unable to get it out of Barry at this point in time. Joe later arranges for Barry and Wally to meet up at the house to help Wally with his project to get into a engineering college programme, Barry reluctantly agrees to come along and help him out as he knows he needs to take his mind off King Shark.

The pair meet up and at first it takes them sometime to warm up to each other as Barry goes straight into nerd mode and starts telling Wally where he needs to improve his engine designs and Wally states that he asked for his help and not for him to do the work for him. The pair then get down to work and seem to be working well together until Barry gets ahead of his self again and states to Wally that he is trying to help and doesn’t want the college to have a reason to say no to him. Wally takes offence to this and goes to storm out Barry goes after him to ask what his problem is only for Wally to tell him that he has had enough of hearing how amazing and perfect Barry is from Joe and Iris. Just as the pair are arguing King Shark arrives by tearing the roof of the house looking for The Flash as he can smell that he is there. Barry makes sure that Wally is not looking and rushes outside to confront Killer Shark, the fight is short lived with Barry being thrown against a car but before King Shark can finish the job Argus arrive on the scene and scare him off.

Barry arrives back in the house as the West’s are tidying up the mess and Wally turns to Barry and asks if he has been hiding under his bed he had heard he was meant to be this amazing person and he didn’t take him for a coward this causes Joe to snap at Wally before he leaves the house looking annoyed that his father has taken Barry’s side. Barry tries to defend Wally but Iris and Joe know there is something else wrong with him, Barry comes clean and tells him all about there Earth-2 counter parts and what happened to Joe and that even though it was not his Joe that died it was still just as painful. Barry also admits that he feels like it is his fault that Jay was killed due to him being the one who opened the breaches, Joe and Iris advise him that it is not his fault and that he needs to move past this if he is ever going to be happy.

We go back to Star labs and Cisco confronts Caitlin about her behaviour and accidentally lets slip that she is acting like she was over there. Caitlin manages to get out of Cisco about meeting her Earth-2 counter park and what she was like and is a little shocked to think Cisco would think she could turn into that sort of person and that she just needs time to get over losing Jay. Eventually Caitlin manages to find out that King Shark uses Barry’s electric charge in order to track him giving the group the idea to reverse this process to track him instead. Barry, Caitlin, Diggle, Lyla and the Argus team head off to the river to try and lure King Shark out with a decoy of Barry giving out an electric pulse.

King Shark takes the bait but the tranquillisers that Cisco has planted in the decoy have had not effect and he ends up on land and it appears that bullets don’t do any good against him so Barry takes off over the water and King Shark gives chase. Barry uses his electric charge to send shocks through the water harming King Shark before sprinting around in a whirlwind and eventually hitting him with his now trademark lightening bolt rendering him unconscious. Argus reel him in and place in him an impenetrable holding cell so that he can be transferred back to the facility, Lyla promises Barry that they won’t be experimenting on him like Waller was. We also see Diggle give Barry some advice as he has noticed that Barry has been struggling and it’s around how to losing people that are close to you and using his experience of when he was in Afghanistan and lost his friends.

We see Caitlin catch Cisco out by touching her with her cold hands and when he calls he Caitlin she asks why she is calling her that and she hates that name before laughing at him, Cisco obviously doesn’t find it very funny but is glad to see her a bit happier.

At the end of the episode we see Barry call everyone together and advise them that he is not ready to give up on Jay and that they will find a way to get back to Earth-2 and also that he plans on stopping Zoom once and for all when he gets there revealing Jay’s helmet in a case to honour his memory. We see a cut scene to Earth-2 and Zoom holding the body of Jay he drops him on the floor and the prisoner with the metal mask looks distraught, we then finally see Zoom remove his mask only to reveal the face of Jay Garrick and says “Well this is a complication”.

As always for all your Scarlett speedster needs stick with Deadpool_1984 only on skatronixxx.com you can also follow me on Twitter @deadpool_1984

 

 

Damien SN1 EP5 – ‘ Seven Curses ‘

Wow! What an episode, it was dark with little twists that are slowly starting to unravel bit by bit. By far the darkest episode yet, and I believe its only going to get darker as it unravels more. Before we get in to the ‘Seven Curses’ let’s do a quick recap of ‘The Number of a Man’.

‘Number of a Man’ SN1-EP4

Detective Shay asks Damien to come in for further questioning, in regards to the recent deaths that are centered around Damien. They each threaten each other, before Damien mentions Ann’s interested in him. Shay visits Ann, she shows him the vault which is now a wine cellar and suggests Damien’s time spent as a war photographer has effected his mind. Simone’s mother brings in a witch doctor to put Kelly’s spirit to rest. The witch doctor burns her belongings which emits an orange flame before turning blue. In the ashes, they find her journal with the number 666 burned into the page. Shay’s son Jacob nearly drowns in the backyard pool.

Ok lets jump into ‘Seven Curses’ SN1-EP5

Like i said before, this episode was a cracker and Glen Mazzara, his team and the cast are killing it! Just to be clear they are killing it an awesome way, every episode just gets better and it hooks me in just that little bit more. This episode we see Damien looking for help which makes us believe he’s not just the beast in the making but also a man, will he be able to balance both sides of himself or will the beast take over? Damien seeks help from a Doctor which leads him to a veteran hospital where he runs into the woman who’s son he had saved from the on coming train, she was visiting her husband who was in the hospital and asks Damien if he would meet him.

We see an immediate connection between Damien and veteran, it pulls at the heartstrings and he photographs the veterans daily struggles in the hops of getting their story out. Simone believe Damien is the sole cause of he sisters death but Amani believes he is suffering mentally . We see Ann asking if she has been a good mother and keeping him safe, hinting she is actually his biological mother. Simone gets more than she bargained for while looking for photos at Damien’s apartment, two men in dark clothing and masks break in and ransacked Damien’s apartment looking for him. While at the hospital the veteran asks Damien to assist him in committing suicide, but he wants no part in it, he has had seen too much death. Damien searches the hospital when he finds the Veterans bed empty and he stumbles across a group of injured individuals that start chanting about the serpent with the number 666 when he enters the room. Damien’s connection with the vet leads him down a dark path as he photographs his suicide, its raw, dark and heartbreaking.

In this episode we are also starting to see a relationship form between Amani and Veronica and we have also learned that Veronica is Ann’s daughter and Damien’s sister. The Vatican also comes into play in this episode and you see the crypt where the daggers are held. This by far is the best episode to date, we are learning more about this life and the people surrounding him but there are still many questions to be answered.

Episode Rating This Week: 🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬

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?

 

 

 

The Originals SN3 EP16 – ‘ Alone With Everybody ‘ Is Full of Sibling Rivalry

SN3 EP16 – Alone With Everybody

Written By:  Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Carina Adly MacKenzie, Declan De Barra, Michael Russo & Julie Plec

Directed By:  Hanelle Culpepper

This episode was all about sibling rivalry and a rousing game of “Bullet, Bullet, who’s got the Bullet?”.  The Strix are guarding Elijah and by default the other Mikaelsons.  Well, except Klaus who’s on the run with Hope and Hayley.  The whole Klaus and Hayley scenario gives us our best line of the whole episode.  Klaus asks, “On a scale from 1 to 10, how much am I going to despise this little plan of yours?” To which Hayley quips, “I’d say a solid … 85.”  All Klaus can say to that is, “Oh good.”

There a new vamp on the scene named Sofya (played by Taylor Cole) who is after the last white oak bullet for an unseen employer, and she manages to take it from Vincent.  Later we find out because Josh is so good at computer-techie-hacking type stuff, that there’s an online auction for the bullet.  Through some impersonation shenanigans (and after Josh gets his young vamp butt kicked) Marcel gets the bullet.

Meanwhile, back at the Mikaelson’s home, Kol has a go at Finn.  You see, Kol over hears Finn telling Elijah that he wants to shed his vamp body and take over a witch’s body.  Once Davina learns this, she takes a page out of his mother’s spell book (literally) and locks him in his vamp body.  To say he was pissed is an understatement.  Kol walks in just in time to save Davina and take a few shots at his older brother.  But then, the two of them had been walking around each other with hackles raised the whole episode.  Elijah walks in while all Hell is breaking lose.  The exasperation is plain on his face.  I mean, he’s got 99 problems…

Once the white oak bullet finally ends up in Elijah’s hands, he has Freya start a fire and he throws the bullet in.  However, Finn reaches in to pull it out.  He wants them to use the bullet to end his “suffering”.  After much deliberation and some “I can hide it and keep it safe” promises from Freya, Elijah decides to keep the bullet just in case one of them wants “release” some where in the future… you know, a million years from now or whatever.

Vincent gets a message from The Ancestors and realizes he’s supposed to help Sofya.  So, instead of getting her employer’s name out of her, Vincent helps her escape and grabs Freya as she’s leaving the Mikaelson compound with the bullet.

And, when all the dust clears, we find out that Lucien is the mysterious employer that wants the bullet.  What is he up to?  According to the scenes for next week, he wants to become an Original!

We’ll have to wait until next week to find out if he succeeds.

The Vampire Diaries SN7 EP16 – ‘Days Of Future Past’ Somerhalder Directs

SN7 EP16  – Days of Future Past

Written By:  Melinda Hsu Taylor, Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, Holly Brix & Neil Reynolds

Directed By:  Ian Somerhalder

With the hashtag #DirectorSmolderhalder, TVD fans hit twitter for a live tweeting/watching with star Ian Somerhalder.  This was the second episode directed by Somerhalder, and once again he hit it out of the park!

Ian had been hinting at some deaths and heartbreak coming up in this episode, and he didn’t disappoint.

Things started with “Today”… that’s right it’s no longer “Three Years From Now”.  That television station studio hostage situation is happening “Today” and everything else is going on “Three years ago”.

In that television studio, Damon was still insisting that he’d take on Stefan’s scar and give his brother a break from running.  That’s when Damon hands out the best line of the episode, “Hashtag you’re welcome.  Are hashtags still a thing?  I don’t know it’s been three years.”

Once he helped Stefan escape, Damon took on Rayna all by himself telling her “Don’t worry about Stefan, I’m just giving him a head start.”  Then once they both regain consciousness, Rayna explains the where to and how fores of wearing Stefan’s scar.  She points out that even if Damon can out run her for the next 60 or 70 years, when she dies (and since she’s human, she WILL die) everyone marked by her sword will die too.  That means that just about the time Elena is waking up, Damon would die.  So, he’d be trading his forever with Elena to save Stefan.  Damon starts to rethink his sacrifice.

Over the course of the episode, we learn that The Armory has poisoned Mary Louise with pills laced with Rayna’s blood (which is poisonous to witches), it was Matt (not Enzo) that let Rayna escape from The Armory, and that Enzo is just as concerned about finding an antidote for those pills as Mary Louise and Nora are.  They never said why.  But, I’d bet dollars to donuts that it’s because BonBon has taken those same pills.

Ian’s promised heartbreak came in the form of Stefan realizing that Damon wasn’t going to take the scar from him, and just giving up and letting Rayna but him back into the Phoenix Stone.  While Damon and Valerie are racing to save him, Damon growls, “I’m Damon Salvatore; I can figure this out.”  Damon decides to take on the scar and has Valerie start the spell…. but she doesn’t finish before Rayna stabs Stefan with the sword.

Nora and Mary Louise manage to hijack the sword and haul ass, but in the process Nora gets marked by the sword.  Mary Louise decides to fix it all.  Nora and Mary Louise go all Thelma and Louise and take the sword and the stone with them, leaving Stefan high and dry laying on the asphalt for Damon and Valerie to show up and find him that way.

But, the big twist is we find out why Matt’s been helping Rayna.  He’s pissed at Stefan and it’s got something to do with a very dead Penny.  Matt says Stefan has finally paid for what he did.

So, my only question is … What the hell did he do?

I suppose we’ll have to wait until next week to find out.