Legacies - What's Cupid's Problem?

Discussing Ep. 2.11

This episode really, really felt like a filler episode. There wasn't anything about it that really moved the more interesting storyline regarding Lizzie, Josie and Alaric and them being trapped in the prison world. For that reason, I really felt jipped with this episode and was disappointed on multiple levels.

Aside from the way he looked and the way he would eat the hearts of his victims, which I liked because it had a very creepy factor to it, this whole Cupid/Pothos storyline was just dumb. First of all.....he's a god! Like, a god from Greek/Roman mythology! He admitted as much. And yet, Hope was able to clip his wings with a pair of scissors? He was able to be bested by Landon through an herb he ate? Landon was able to tackle the guy in the woods?

HE'S A GOD!!!!

Maybe I'm too used to other franchises portraying gods as the powerful beings that they are thought to be, but here, he was barely more difficult to defeat than a vampire. That's sucks! I mean, I still remember when Buffy met Glory, and when she later found out that she wasn't a demon but rather a god.....that was just an epic moment! And true to form, it took so much to take Glory down because of the fact that she wasn't a mere demon but a hell god. It fucking meant something!

Here, regardless of the fact that Pothos was the brother of Cupid, he is still a god and should have been a lot more difficult to take down! He could have qualified as a season long villain given his nature (more on the villain problems later).

I think what my problem with both this episode and the last episode is that the show is becoming TOO lighthearted. I can accept that tone every now and then, but having Wade become a fairy and Landon trying to fly and having Pothos make a dog and a mail man fall in love and all of that....add to it the storyline regarding The Necromancer/Ted and his corny resurgence and also when they had Santa Claus beat down Krampus and so on that I feel like the show is getting too silly. I recognize that Legacies wasn't what TO was going to be or even what TVD was going to be, but I expected some degree of seriousness, some degree of having that darker tone to it, similar to what TVD used to have in the first 3 seasons and what TO was in its early seasons as well. I feel like they're trying to play it up too much for laughs and it's annoying.

Also, they're adding too much in terms of the mythical creatures and their powers. So now they have Wade, the Fairy, who sneezes pixie dust. And now Landon can fly. Unless they have him go like Super Saiyan with his powers or something along those lines....

....then I'm not interested. I have a feeling they're going to play up his ability to fly more for laughs than anything else and that's just going to be a waste of a cool power.

Also, I have get this out of the way: Landon and his insecurities. I was a huge fan of having Landon be this physically weak, insecure and normal guy who wasn't like Klaus or Damon or even Stefan because it was refreshing. He wasn't the stud who got the girl because he flashed his abs and played up the bad boy role. He was a normal guy who got the girl by being himself. But in this episode, they're now swinging too far in the wrong direction. While I can understand and even appreciate Landon's insecurity feeding his disbelief that he's with a girl like Hope at this point, him CONSTANTLY wondering out loud why it was that Hope chose him or what she sees in him or why she chooses to be with him....fuck man, ENOUGH!!!! If there is one thing that I've learned about women, it's that they get turned off really fast when a guy shows that kind of lack of self-confidence. While it's fine that Landon is being honest about things and isn't so full of himself, he's putting Hope too high on a pedestal and is believing too much that he's not worthy of her. That kind of attitude just doesn't fly....it just doesn't!

Especially with a girl like Hope, who has expressed, in the past, an interest for guys who exhibit attitudes that are very much the opposite of Landon's current attitude. Roman (from TO) and that football guy (Sheriff RIP's son) are guys who had that self confidence, that swagger. They didn't look at Hope as some goddess who was beyond them and felt unworthy to even talk to her as a result. And while Hope is beautiful and in the world of Legacies, she's this one-of-a-kind tri-brid that truly is unique in the world, she's not perfect. Especially in this episode, she came off as very impatient, very demoralizing, very bitchy. I guess that was the point but Landon just rolled over like a dog and took it. He didn't argue back or stand up for himself in any way. Hope not being put off by that is inconsistent with what we know of her so far. So I'm not impressed with that.

Also, we don't need TWO separate scenes of them being all lovey-dovey. That's annoying.

The MG/Alyssa/Kaleb/Kaleb's sister Kym storyline was pointless too. Kaleb being opposed to MG asking his sister out to the point of giving disinformation regarding Kym's personal preferences in an attempt to sabotage the date, only to be upset at seeing MG and Alyssa together later was just stupid. He didn't want Kym and MG together.....and he got his wish. So why was he upset?

And I said this before regarding Alyssa's history on the show....she has none! She just showed up but the way she went on, talking about how MG never noticed her and was pre-occupied with Lizzie and all of that. Yeah, wanna know why he didn't notice you? BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T ON THE SHOW!!! And Alyssa's character wasn't really developed other than we know she does have a softer side and has a crush on MG. But this whole storyline did nothing to make me care about these peripheral characters. Kym's involvement was moot because she barely showed up, barely helped the main characters and then bowed out at the end. So I don't get what the point was.

Nor do I get the point of this storyline. This was stupid as well. Who cares about Emma and Dorian? Certainly not me. And to add to the stupidity, they had Jared suddenly be in love with Emma. What the fuck? And they also really pissed me off with this line at the beginning, when Emma is in a rush to leave because she has to go and join Caroline to find a way to bring back Alaric and the Wonder Twins. Dorian replies that Caroline can get Bonnie to help her, that she doesn't need Emma. This is the problem with name-dropping all these TVD characters that have no intention of showing up. You're teasing the audience and also creating scenarios that are completely unbelievable for those said characters.

Remember when Caroline left the Twins, left Alaric and left everything in Mystic Falls and went to NOLA to help Klaus because he was going off the deep end? She didn't have to do that. She had better things to do in Mystic Falls. But she apparently cared that much and made the trip in order to help Klaus.

And yet, you're telling me that the minute Caroline heard that her daughters were trapped in a prison world, that not only did she NOT call Bonnie right away and ask for her help but also, she did NOT take the first flight out of Europe to go to Mystic Falls, did NOT interrogate Alyssa personally for answers and did NOT try everything in her powers to find a way to bring them back?

Bullshit!

They can write it off as Caroline staying in Europe to enlist the top witches there to help her find a way to bring them back....they can write it off that Caroline is trying to find Bonnie but is having a hard time doing so and therefore that's why she's not in Mystic Falls....they can write it off that she did indeed find Bonnie and together they're going to try and do what they can from wherever they are in Europe to create a new Ascendant and bring them back. They can do all of that, but it's still just bullshit at the end of the day. There is no world where Caroline doesn't hop on the first flight back to Mystic Falls, after getting in touch with Bonnie, to help in the effort to bring her daughters back.

Neither Kat nor Candice are ever going to appear on the show. And even if they did get Candice, no matter how much make up they put on her, she will not look like a 17 year old vampire. For that reason, either kill off both characters or just don't bother mentioning them again. I get that in the case of Caroline, it's hard not to mention her but it's just getting really tiresome now, always making up some excuse as to why she's not there in the thick of things. What kind of mother is she? What kind of friend is she? What kind of school administrator is she? She helped to open the Salvatore School. She ran it for a bit. But she's never there, for anything!

As for Ted (The Necromancer) being behind this eye thing and manipulating events....I like Ted but I fear they're falling into the trap that befell S5 of TVD, where there was no over-arching bad guy and they kept switching the Big Bad throughout the season. On the one hand, that's refreshing since you don't need it to be Malivore all the time. But Ted seems like a step down from Malivore, and yet they're still keeping Malivore around to provide little baddies to insert in individual episodes. And where is Kai going to fit in with all of this?

This episode really pissed me off and I'm hoping they can make it up with the next one with Kai. 

Manifest - Black Box

Discussing Ep. 2.4

Whatever advantage and goodwill that Saanvi and Vance built up in the last episode, they COMPLETELY lost in this episode!

Seriously, Vance more than anyone was made to look like a complete fool and The Major was made to look like an evil mastermind. I mean....why would Vance let Saanvi go in front of The Major with that story about a Swedish scientist with nothing more than "eat an apple or something" to hide her obvious attempted duping of The Major? I give them credit for having Saanvi practice with Vance in the first place, and he obviously knew not to underestimate The Major's skills in reading body language and detecting a lie. But his solution of Saanvi eating an apple to hide her fidgeting while telling The Major this tall tale in an attempt to trap her was just asinine!

I give props to The Major. Her leaving that apple in the room, that clear message that she knew what Saanvi was trying to do was just brilliant! But now, not only does The Major have Saanvi's legitimate research and a potential way to 'create' 828ers in a lab, but she potentially knows that Vance is still alive. At the very least, she knows that Saanvi is working with some kind of gov't organization that is rivalling hers. So, Vance has lost some serious ground here. I don't know necessarily what he could have done but I have a feeling that he was too impressed with Saanvi's abilities from last episode that he put too much trust in her. She's not a trained agent and so she wasn't ready.

Speaking of being impressed, I was impressed and happy that at least someone in the Stone family recognizes Olive's abilities and contributions. It annoyed me to no end when Cal and Grace both brushed off Olive's offers of help simply because she wasn't receiving the callings. At least Ben remembered what she could do and she didn't let him down here.

She immediately recognized what these symbols meant and you really have to sit there and wonder what would have happened had she not walked in at that precise moment that Ben and TJ were looking at this. This is sort of what gets me about these callings.....a lot of times they work on coincidence and even accidents. They were sort of on a time crunch here because had they not figured what this picture meant on that specific day when Logan Strickland was robbing that bank, what would have happened? Without Olive walking in at that very moment, they might have spent days, maybe even weeks trying to figure out what those symbols meant. It was only because of Olive that they got the running start that they needed and all of it just in time.

I'm also curious to know what this is about. The coincidence that Olive spoke to and was enamoured with TJ before he boarded flight 828 and now she's seeing him again.....is there going to be a higher purpose to this? Are they giving Olive this love interest for a reason or just for the sake of giving her a love interest? I can't imagine it's to give her more incentive to find a way to stop the Death Date because she already has enough incentive with her father, brother and aunt potentially losing their lives in 5 years. So I'm really wondering why they started this relationship now.

The bank robbing scene was interesting if not confusing. Again, I don't understand how the callings work and who is giving them. Maybe that's part of the mystery, but it's kind of dumb. "Bring him back." Both Zeke and Mick received this message. Thing is, they didn't really bring anybody back! Mick interpreted everything that happened as them bringing Logan's brother, Frank, back to him. But that's not how it happened at all. It was TJ and Ben that brought Frank back. And they didn't 'bring him back' as much as they brought them together. And Ben didn't even get a calling....it was TJ! And why did Zeke get the calling? He didn't do shit! Had he not been there, it wouldn't have made a difference. Yeah, he got that injured bank manager out to get proper medical treatment, but that's it. More than anything, he almost made things worse as he usually does. He tried to take down Logan and got bashed in the head for it. Beyond that, he was pretty much useless. Mick did the negotiating with the police. Mick talked to Logan and reasoned with him. Mick was the one who was more in charge of everything.

I know I'm rather hard on Zeke but the fact of the matter is, he's contributed nothing but problems in this particular season and I don't know what his role is. Therefore, why did he get the calling? What was it that he was supposed to do? The funny thing about these callings that I doubt they will answer because they can't is....how do they work? In this episode, the calling was time sensitive. Maybe Logan would have been able to hide out in the bank with hostages for a couple of days that would have allowed Mick and TJ and Ben to decipher what those symbols meant that would have lead to Frank Strickland and led them to that key and bringing Logan and Frank together again.

Maybe.

Beyond that though, what did Zeke contribute to all of it? He had no role to play so why did he get the calling? Just to get him and Mick to the point where they'd have sex? Fuck man....try flowers and a kind word if you want to get into Mick's pants, for crying out loud! Why does God or the Universe or whoever is directing these callings going to such lengths to get Zeke involved with Mick? Is it just so he can get laid by Mick? Really?

I will say that I was somewhat impressed with Jared. He did have Mick's back in this episode and didn't brush everything off when he heard it involved another calling. He didn't have to call Ben (which is, again, another bit of contrivance. Had he not called Ben, they never would have connected the dots between TJ's vision and Logan and the safety deposit box key). And if he gets to relieve all this stress and anxiety and what not over Mick with this bartender....power to him! Maybe it will draw him back from that edge of being an intolerable asshole. And yet, this bartender has a brother who is a hardcore anti-828er and Jared bought him a drink last episode. So I'm wondering if he's still going to go down this path and become an obstacle for Mick and Ben or remain an ally.

As far as the calling and Logan's watch having the peacock on it....I was glad that they revisited this symbol from last season because we never got an answer on it. But again, how did it all work out like this? Logan got a Death Date vision, seeing his own grave with June 2, 2024 on it, the same as Cal saw. But in this case, it corresponded with 6224 which was the locker number that held his father's watch. So is this the Universe/God telling them that there is a way to escape the Death Date? Why get the vision now? And why wouldn't Cal get part of the vision? Why didn't Ben? Why TJ? Logan's grandfather and father both held this watch and it saved them under incredible odds from dying, so I could understand why he would see it as his salvation too. But how in the world is that going to help all the 191 passengers from dying in 5 years? And now that Ben has it, what does that mean for Logan? He's going to jail for a while so now he's leaving his fate in the hands of Ben and Co. What if they can't figure it out? I really hope they tie everything together somehow because there are so many elements that I can't see them explaining it all.

Finally, I just want to say that I was seriously wrong about Troy.

He came off a bit strong with Saanvi, bordering on creepy especially with what was going on with The Major. But he was merely interested in dating Saanvi, not wanting to ensnare her for The Major. Now he unwittingly got caught up in all of this and is, most likely, dead. That kind of sucks, man.

I wonder how many more casualties will come because of The Major. We'll see.

Manifest - False Horizons

Discussing Ep. 2.3

This really was the Saanvi show, both in a good and bad sense. I'll get the bad out of the way first.

This was probably the only time we actually saw Saanvi smile in happiness at all this episode, because the rest of the time, she was upset. sad, anxious, fearful or pissed off! We got a small glimpse of her background story last season and it felt like I was more distracted by Ben and Grace and The Major and all of that so her backstory kind of fell to the wayside. But considering that the idea of Saanvi and Ben getting together was a major potential last season, I look at that coupling now and realize that that could have set up a very dangerous pattern for Saanvi in the arena of love. Reason being, because of this:

This was a bombshell! Was Saanvi the 'other woman?' Was she a homewrecker? I'm hoping we get some kind of clarification for this because this puts everything under a whole new light and puts her character, to a small degree, in a somewhat bad light. Also, I feel less sympathy for her at the beginning of the episode when she's waiting for her guy on the plane, realizing now that he was a married man going on a vacation with Saanvi. Not a good look at all!

Having said that though, she went through a lot of pain in this episode. First, she had to sort of re-live that experience with her ex after the Major tells her to finally come to terms with her past. Then Ben goes and tries to dupe her, telling her about this made up 828er who was getting massive callings. I never understood why they didn't go and ask Saanvi about who she was talking to in the first place. I didn't understand how it was that Vance was monitoring her movements and yet he didn't know that she was going and seeing a therapist. He had vans and monitoring equipment watching her every move and yet he didn't realize that she had been seeing a therapist?

I honestly thought that Ben had screwed everything up though when he did reveal everything to Saanvi. Not that him telling her was necessarily bad, but the way he told her. He told her everything in her fucking office! He told her how Vance was still alive and that they were aware that there was a mole that was stealing information about her research. For fuck's sakes, Saanvi's office could have been bugged for all Ben knew! I didn't have a problem telling Saanvi the truth because at least they could have figured out all the people she talked to and narrowed down the list of suspects. But to tell her everything while in her office? Stupid!

 
At the end of the day though, Saanvi redeemed herself big time. I kind of figured she'd test The Major by revealing that bit about her research findings being locked up in her fridge. Just the way that she said it gave that hint that she was at least suspicious of her therapist. And sure enough, The Major fell for it. So now it's a Spy vs. Spy kind of game going on between The Major and her players and Vance and his players.

Speaking of the players, seems I was wrong about Troy. Looks like he may not be involved with The Major after all.....for now. However, I knew that we would be introduced to another covert agent. One I did guess while the other took me by surprise.

Like I said before, I'm suspicious of everyone at this point, and Simon White seemed a tad bit too eager to work with Ben. Though I do have to wonder....he got into contact with Ben through Ben's friend and fellow student (and seemingly former love interest) that we were introduced to in the last episode. And that was just by chance, or was it? So was this part of the plan all along? How could Simon or The Major coordinate everything to have Ben apply for a professor's job at the school in order to get involved with Simon himself?

The other mole that I didn't see and totally took me by surprise was Grace's new friend, Erica. And we get Grace's calling that involves a gargoyle.

I really hope that we get some kind of explanation as to how these callings work and who are the ones giving them the callings. I have a feeling that we won't, that it's just going to be brushed aside because none of it makes sense. Why does Grace get the callings in her own voice? Why are the calling and visions so abstract and so vague that the receiver has no idea how to proceed and how to follow the callings? I don't blame Grace for snapping at Erica when Erica took verbal shots at Cal and wished that Grace's baby dies. How could Grace interpret "open her eyes" as meaning that she had to warn Erica as to what she's getting into by getting involved with Simon and The Major. How is she supposed to connect Erica with the gargoyle at the school?

I have to believe that we're going to see Erica more often at the school, possibly picking up Simon and that Grace is going to put two and two together but it seemed like a real long stretch to make the connection.

As for Zeke, I was impressed that they found the loophole that was able to get him out of jail. I'm glad that Zeke acknowledged that he fucked things up and made things worse. I kind of get the impression that they went through this whole sequence of events to accomplish two things....to build up the relationship between Zeke and Mick and to solidify that relationship, and to make an enemy of Jared. On the relationship between Zeke and Mick, I still don't feel it. Maybe it's because they're pushing so hard through Cal and visions and what not to make it seem like destiny or fate that Zeke and Mick end up together. Perhaps I don't buy the relationship because at this point, that's the only thing that connects them. We haven't really seen them connect with each other beyond that.

As for Jared....damn! He has fallen so far from grace that it's incredible. I gave him a ton of credit last season for putting everything on the line for Mick and he went through a lot, despite having no understanding as to what was going on or what the callings were all about. And now, he's buying drinks for anti-828ers and adopting this overall asshole mentality. I suppose I could understand the hurt and pain that he's going through because what he said was right.....he essentially gave up his life for Mick and she rebuffs him....again....for a guy she just met. This would be the second time that Mick has hurt Jared, the first being when she never replied to his proposal before she disappeared. So I can understand why Jared is hurting and is adopting this mentality. Still, it's disappointing.

And finally, I'm interested to see where they go with the Olive storyline. Again, she's being pushed aside, not being involved in the callings and as a result, she feels left out. While I write this particular group off as a bunch of overly zealous and delusional fanatics that don't understand what the 828 flight was all about.....the fact is nobody does. The callings, as I said before, are vague and really more unhelpful than helpful in terms of getting the receiver to accomplish a specific task. And while I question whether the 828er running the church (I forget his name) is sincere or is merely trying to play on the fears and desperation of people, including other 828ers, I suppose I can't blame Olive for going there and trying to find a place to belong. She doesn't feel like a part of her own family, while she is still connected with Flight 828 and it's all around her. At least here, she feels special where at home, she doesn't feel special at all because the others are all getting callings and she's not. However, I do wonder now if The Major is going to exploit this church in some way, if she hasn't already, and somehow get to Ben and his new baby through Olive. I could totally see that.

So now The Major has been exposed. She appeared to Saanvi as Erica.....but now we know who she really is. Kathryn Fitz. And her history in Black Ops. is rather extensive, so much so that I wonder if Vance is sweating a bit in regards as to what he's dealing with. She's the real deal! But is she working for the gov't or is this her own personal project. She has gov't resources at her disposal so I suppose she has gov't approval, so how is Vance going to combat that?

It's a chess game with high stakes now!

Legacies - This Is Why....

Discussing Ep. 2.10

This was a weird episode, but ended on a very intriguing note.

So let's talk about the new character, Alyssa Chang, who we got introduced to in the last episode.

I didn't like this character, and no, it wasn't because she was bitchy or inconsiderate or self absorbed or anything like that. It's because she came out of nowhere. She became this integral part of the setup for getting Kai back but we've only been introduced to her in the last episode. We're given this elaborate backstory, via flashbacks, about how she seemingly killed her parents (did she magically destroy her own house?) and has been a problem child/student ever since. She's gotten into fights with other students and is known to be an all around selfish prick, forcing Alaric and Emma to erase her memories completely in order to keep her in check and avoid expelling her. And we're only learning about her now? Why wouldn't we have run into her in previous episodes? I get that perhaps the writers weren't thinking this far ahead last season so I'm not blaming them for that. But I would have preferred she was a student that was brought into the school at the beginning of this season and peppered throughout the episodes to sort of give that hint that she had a larger role to play. Sort of like what they did with Wade. Because she's obviously been a thorn in people's sides for a while so why would we not have seen her before?

So the big mystery is, what is she? I know she's a witch but what is her problem? Why did they erase her memories of her parents? Why is she such a bitch? And what was she getting back at Alaric and Emma for? She talked about them sending "kids" away. What did she mean by that? I would be very intrigued if perhaps she was a legitimate psychopath, much like Kai. That would explain why she can't be "cured" of her behaviour and why Alaric and Emma felt it necessary to erase her memories, sort of like trying to inhibit her psychopathic tendencies as best they can. It would be intriguing because you'd figure that...yes....there are witches and werewolves and vampires that are born psychopaths, like Kai. And what do you do with them? How do you contain such power in an individual who does not care about anyone else? I did like how Hope, at the end of the episode, did keep Alyssa in check. Seems like Hope has finally got something to do other than trying to fit in again.

As for the Qareen (I had to look up how to spell that), it was a tad disappointing, especially when you research what a Qareen actually is in Islamic folklore. In folklore, they are more like guiding spirits, if you will, that stay with a specific person throughout his or her life and who attempts to influence that person to do good or evil. They aren't evil in nature but make a choice to be good or evil. If they influence a person to do evil, they are regarded as devils. If they influence to do good, they are merely jinn, not necessarily angels but a spiritual being that is neither human nor angel.

Here, they didn't exactly go that way. They made the Qareen to be more like a roaming demon, whispering negative thoughts into various people's ears to get them to create strife, making him strong enough to move around in the real world. When I look back at the episode, I don't really get what the point was, other than to bring about Wade and his unique nature.

So Wade is a fairy.

Okay.

What can I say about this? It was corny and ALMOST endearing and while they kind of had me feeling some sympathy for Wade since he didn't seem to fit in, wouldn't him being a fairy mean that he came from Malivore? I mean, I don't get why they did this other than Wade also has a bigger role to play. A fairy, like the unicorn, like the cyclops, like the dragon, like everything else that came from Malivore is a being from popular fairy tale (pun intended) fiction. So he must have come from Malivore too, right? Otherwise, why did they not figure it out before that he wasn't a witch/werewolf/vampire? If all he was there to do was to root out the Qareen and defeat it, then that's garbage! Beyond that, what the hell are they going to do with a fucking fairy? What powers does he have? He can do the equivalent of the Care Bear Stare but that's seemingly about it.

I hope there's more to it than that. They can't drop Wade as a fairy onto the show and then have him disappear into the background like it doesn't matter. That would be just stupid.

It was funny because when I saw this flasback, I was like "wait....aren't those two girls the ORIGINAL actresses that played Lizzie and Josie?" And sure enough, they are! So good on them for that bit of continuity. Also, I was sitting here wondering if Matt Davis actually shaved his beard for those flashbacks or did they use CGI a la Superman in Justice League. When I saw Alaric in the here and now, his beard looked ridiculously puffy and then I realized that they had Matt Davis shave and then the props department tried to give Alaric a new beard.

What is it with the CW props department? Why can't they get hair right? They couldn't get Elena's hair right in the final episode of TVD and they can't get Alaric's beard right here. It looks so tacked on!

Sigh!

Anyway, since we're talking about the Wonder Twins, I have to say, I LOVE Josie's dark look.

She has that Wednesday Addams look to her and it's awesome. I do wonder, though, that considering they are trapped in that prison world with the cracking Hourglass, did she see herself burning down the Salvatore MANSION, not the Salvatore SCHOOL in her visions? It 'd be a bit of a cheat but I'd accept it if it meant that we do get Josie Addams!

Speaking of the prison world, I swear that instead of constantly dropping Aunt Bonnie's name everywhere but having no intention of having her appear, they should have had a character who was a also a Bennett witch, possibly Kaleb or even MG, and then they would have access to Bennett blood anytime they wanted instead of conveniently having a vial of Bonnie's blood around. Because they really wrote themselves into a corner with how they acknowledge that they can't open a prison world without Bennett blood, but Bonnie just happened to leave a vial of her blood behind for....what.....emergency purposes? She isn't Klaus. I could understand Klaus leaving vials of his blood behind since his blood heals a vampire from a werewolf bite, but they don't need that when they have Hope. So why would Bonnie leave a vial of her blood behind? I can't remember what happens to the prison world when she dies....does it die too or does it carry on? Since she created it with her mind (which still makes me shake my head), does that prison world dissolve with her death? If so, then I could understand leaving vials of her blood behind to maintain the prison world forever if her blood is the key. Otherwise, it makes little to no sense why she would leave any kind of key behind that would allow someone to open the prison world and let Kai out.

Still, I'll give them credit for being consistent and for understanding that creating a prison world isn't something you just wave your hands in the air and do. They need a bunch of student witches to do this spell, along with a meteor shower, and I appreciated that attention to detail.

Of course, this begs the question.....how did they get Drowned Pirate into the prison world?

This will be an interesting explanation, considering that Emma just reappeared in this episode and a celestial event wasn't exactly going on when Alaric got rid of Sebastian. So how did he get him in that prison world? And are there more people in it, as Alyssa suggested? If so, how did they get them into it?

What I will also give them credit for is how they got to this point. Having Josie put all her dark energy into that Hourglass Thingy, and then having that become a threat to the point where it would break and re-infect Josie and make her evil....I liked how they brought all that together. Also, it was great how Alaric consulted with Sheriff RIP and her telling him that it was like diffusing a bomb, that it had to be done in a remote area. So, they had all the reasons in the world to discuss the prison world and the possibility of making a new one. At the same time, it's ridiculous that they can open a prison world at will and stick whatever they want into it. It's a strange and convenient plot device that they have created with prison worlds now because it's just so ridiculous how they can make one whenever they want.

So I suppose the question is now....how do they get out? And how many prison worlds are there now, I've lost count? Also, what is happening with Ted, the Necromancer and Malivore? It seemed odd to me that Ted would send the Qareen to retrieve the Hourglass Thingy when he could have sent anyone to get it. It wasn't exactly covert in the way the Qareen was going about trying to retrieve the Hourglass. He goes and creates strife so that he could materialize and grab the Hourglass? Why didn't Ted send Chad? Or why doesn't he raise a dead ninja or something that could grab it more stealthily? And whatever happened to this thing?

We never got an answer to this thing as well.

Questions to be answered at another time, perhaps?

Evil - Justice X2

Discussing Ep. 1.12

Damn! Was this ever a graphic, turn-on-a-dime type of episode! So much to unpack here.

First, I'll tackle Sonya and her issues with that comedian guy, Lando.

First of all, let this be a lesson: if you're some down-on-your-luck, average Joe just trying to make it in the world, and some classy, dolled up, beautiful woman takes a liking to you.....RUN!!! It's too good to be true! In this case, Sonya was out for revenge for the Rwandan Genocide. Why they decided to insert this whole aspect of her hearing voices and confusing them with God seemed a bit tacked on. Nevertheless, aside from different twists and turns in this episode, there was one aspect that was consistent: turning the Word of God on it's head!

I have to say, I liked how she was able to parry with David in regards to Scripture. First, she says that she's been hearing a voice and surmises that God is commanding her to kill. David argues that God does not do that, that He does not command people to kill. She argues back that He did indeed command Saul to kill ALL the Amaleks, right down to the women, children and infants. David's only response was that that was Old Testament and that no longer applied. That wasn't a sufficient enough argument for Sonya and I think it kind of left the viewer in limbo in terms of the argument itself.

Her second argument comes after she's already knocked out David and has him tied up, along with Lando. First off, David has been having a really bad run of luck here. First, he gets stabbed and sent to the hospital. Then in the hospital, he gets doped up on drugs and is almost killed by the nurse. And here, he gets pushed down a flight of stairs and tied up! I should hope that the next episode, the show goes easy on him.

I wasn't sure what to make of Lando. Obviously, he was guilty of something or he wouldn't have freaked out when she did that cockroach joke at the beginning. But his accent changed from Rwandan to American and then back to Rwandan again. So I didn't know what was what in regards to his country of origin. As Sonya is accusing him of being the voice on the radio that encouraged Hutu soldiers to slaughter Tutsi people without remorse during the Genocide, he keeps saying that it wasn't him. I figured he was lying but I wasn't sure in what way. Then, Sonya decides to take things up a notch to encourage Lando to confess.

This was fucking brutal! She lopped his ear off! Though I will say, that's pretty good accuracy with a machete. I'd have to imagine it isn't easy to take a swing at someone with a machete and only chop their ear off. As she's tending to his wound, David brings up Jesus healing the man who got his own ear chopped off by one of Jesus' disciples, claiming that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Sonya counters, correctly, that Jesus also claimed that He did not come to the world to bring peace, but a sword. And David had no retort. I think it really served to show how confusing the Scriptures can actually be, and how people can pretty much justify any behaviour by grabbing any verse from the Bible to support it.

As it turns out, Lando was the voice on the radio and confessed his sins. I knew that he was a dead man after that. She wasn't going to let him walk away with one ear to show for it. And her labelling it as justice rather than revenge also brings up the rhetorical question: what is the difference in this case? Even though Lando wasn't one of the soldiers who committed those atrocities, he made jokes about it. The other thing that I found intriguing was when Sonya was recounting her experience during the Genocide, how she saw her sister die and how she saw the Hutu soldiers killing people with machetes and even cracking babies heads on the pavement. For me, it brought to mind Psalm 137: 8 & 9:

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.

Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

What was the difference between what Sonya did here and the Israelites did to the Babylonians? How was what Sonya did merely revenge and what God commanded the Israelites to do as justice? Whatever judgement is thrown at Sonya, I think she has a defence for it. Because it's true...God has asked specific things of the people of the Bible that He seemingly commands other people to forsake and abhor! So many times, it seems like a double standard if not sheer hypocrisy. Thou shalt not kill...but go ahead and kill these people? I can see how and why Sonya would get confused and why others do as well. I think, however, that she was on her way to going overboard with the various visitors that came to her place, including Ben!

When that woman with the dog, Joker, came a calling, I questioned why Sonya took her machete with her. Then, when the woman was seemingly not going to leave well enough alone, Sonya was reaching for the machete. What the hell was she going to do....kill the woman and her dog? Thankfully, she came up with a rather funny, if not awkward explanation, about her and her husband doing some roleplaying and sex games. That seemed to calm the woman's fears. Then Ben shows up and again, Sonya had her trusty machete in hand. Again, thankfully Ben was called away and he lived to see another day, but Sonya came very close to killing innocent bystanders which is something I don't think her conscience could stand. I get the sense that she's at peace with what she has done. She calmly killed Lando and then called the police to let them know what she had done. As strange as it sounds, I think she's at peace both before her own conscience and God.

The hospital scene and the surgery for Laura was interesting. First, I liked how Kristen kind of turned it on Andy when he was meditating and him kind of mocking her association with the Catholic faith, even though she's an admitted atheist. Once again though, this felt tacked on. He never said or hinted before at being Buddhist or engaging in Buddhist practices. I guess that's why Kristen was so surprised, no? Still, it was odd when he started doing his mantra and the eldest daughter, Lynn, sees him doing this and then at the hospital, with no instruction or guidance from him, all three of the girls are doing the same mantra in the same pose! I'm wondering what the significance of that is, if it's going to be painted as either good or bad. It was eerie, to say the least, because how could Lynn replicate what Andy was saying so perfectly? How could the other girls? And why would she even try given that she likely had no idea what Andy was saying?

I was questioning why Laura was getting the surgery because Grace had told Kristen that the valve would heal on its own. They held up Grace's prophecy when the doctor came back and told Andy and Kristen that the valve did indeed heal on its own and the surgery was not necessary. But now, there's a catch. Andy's mantra requested that his life be given for Laura's. Given that all three of the other sisters recited the same mantra.....are they all going to give their lives for Laura too? It ties in a bit with what Townsend said later on.

As for the trial, I was surprised they brought Orson Leroux back or even connected his murders with the recent murders of those three boys. I kind of feel like the trial itself was a means to an end, to bring on that epic confrontation between Kristen and Townsend, and to also sabotage this particular relationship between Kristen and her detective friend, Mira. I will say that Kristen really ruined her relationship with Mira for no reason at all. In Mira's defence, she was just doing her job. She was being honest and objective and Kristen couldn't ask her to be anything else. While Kristen brought up a decent point, that Mira was writing a book about serial killers and thus her objectivity was in question, in the end that did nothing to sway the judge's decision. Orson still got to go free. And now, Kristen has no ally in the police force. I don't know if she necessarily needs one but Mira has been somewhat helpful in these episodes she's appeared in. Beyond that, she was Kristen's friend and now that friendship is likely over. So Kristen ruined that friendship for nothing.

But if Kristen took a misstep with Mira, she corrected herself and took a MASSIVE stomp on Townsend! She EVISCERATED this guy! She castrated him, held up his manhood and bopped him on the nose with it all the while making fun of him! Not literally, of course, but I've never seen Townsend look so beaten down with words. He came off so weak, so insecure, so defeated. He came off like Sebastian! It was amazing. 

He started off strong, mocking Kristen and essentially threatening her family. This is where the third instance of the Bible was turned on it's head, sort of. Townsend said that he was going to do to Kristen what God did to Job, implying that it was almost divine what he was going to do. He said he was going to take her daughters and husband away from her. I immediately thought of this line when Andy said that he traded his life for Laura's, and the sisters did as well, albeit inadvertently. I thought Townsend had Kristen on the ropes here. But then, she cut him off. Again, and again, and again, and again, and again. She brushed off his threats and countered with some truths. Leland Townsend, formerly known as Jake Perry, an insurance adjuster twice divorced, played the tuba in the marching band and carried the nickname Jake The Flake. Townsend was so stunned by this, she left him literally speechless. It was brilliant! So, kudos to Kristen for finally getting one over on Townsend.

Though I had to admit, I was a bit worried, if not confused. Because Kristen's phone was not working when Townsend came by, implying that there was something supernatural about him.

In much the same way that her recorder didn't work when she tried to record Townsend confessing to corrupting that young kid in prison earlier in the season, her phone wasn't working here either while in his presence. I thought that with Kristen's smackdown, exposing Townsend as an insecure fraud who was using Satanism and the Devil as a mechanism and symbol to induce fear but had no real power beyond that of a normal human being, they did what they always did....reduce the supernatural into nothing more than a natural occurrence with a natural explanation. They almost did that here....until this.

This was excellent! I mean....what the hell is this? Is that the Devil? Is this a figment of Townsend's imagination? At first, I was so curious as to who Townsend was talking to because they never had Townsend talk to a therapist before. Who was his therapist? I thought we were going to see some priest or someone we had seen in the past working as Townsend's therapist, sort of to introduce a new twist. But we got this instead.

This was funny, bizarre, cool and intriguing all at the same time. I liked how Townsend was revealing all his insecurities, all his feelings in regards to Kristen and how he was obsessed with her. And he expressed a desire to kill her but that wasn't "according to the plan." The Demon asked him if he would like it to be according to the plan, suggesting that "the plan" is rather fluid and slightly changeable. The Demon allowed that they would kill Kristen and they would cut out her heart, and "you and I will eat it together." I loved how calm, how soothing the voice was and how nonchalant he said this line. It was such a great contrast to the visual of this giant goat man saying these words.

So where does this leave us? Is Townsend possessed? I have to think he somewhat is because of the way Kristen's electronic devices seem to malfunction in his presence. At the same time, his relationship with Sheryl, his insecurities and his past seem to suggest that he's just some ordinary guy. And is that demon real or is it part of Townsend's imagination? 

I'm also still keeping track of the numbers in the titles of the episodes. 

177, 3, 390, 31, 9, 3, 2, 2, 7, 320, 2

Are these lottery numbers? Why does every episode, aside from the pilot, have a number?

I'm still thinking it has some significance.