Legacies - Salvatore: The Musical

Discussing Ep. 3.3 - This was somewhat entertaining and oddly enough, addressed a lot of my complaints about the previous episode and especially in regard to Hope and her background. At the same time, it was as though they addressed the elephant-in-the-room and laughed at it and are going to go on their merry way.

This is the Hope and her struggles that I wanted to see. You could tell that DRR actually had something to work with here, as she got passionate (for once) about something (i.e. her family and history being used for a musical). At the beginning, when the students are reading about the history of Klaus and realizing that he's Hope's father and it got her upset...THAT'S the Hope Mikaelson I wanted to see. That's the kind of struggle that I wanted her to encounter and finally overcome. Her wondering if Klaus was ever really proud of her and what she's done with her life since his passing...I liked that. I feel like she's not at a point yet where asking that question has more meaning (because she really hasn't done anything these last two seasons) but this is the kind of character development that I've always wanted to see from her.

And fuck me! Go figure that I should complain that they never show her engaging in a hobby and she's here, in this episode, painting like her father once did! I liked seeing this aspect about her because it is a nod to her family history and to Klaus. And it also shows that she has certain coping mechanisms that are healthy and are not destructive. Will we ever see this side of her again? I'm doubtful but at least we got to see it in this episode.

What I thought was weird, though perhaps in line with what they're trying to make her character to be...she had to save the whole production at the end. Once again, Hope saves the day by taking on the role of Elena after Josie got her arm broken. I thought this was just utterly stupid and it didn't make a lick of sense. I thought Landon wrote the score for that scene as a backdrop for a scene with Klaus and Hope (in line with showing that Klaus was not a complete monster) and not for Elena. So having "Elena" sing it didn't make sense at all. I suppose it was a set up for Hope to sing it and have that scene at the end with Landon, which I utterly despised, but it is what it is.

Speaking of Josie, I thought they did a really good job of making her look like Elena! I fucking legit howled with laughter when Josie was reading the script and says "I don't get Elena at all! She doesn't know what she wants and when she does decide, she makes a super selfish choice!" I'm really curious if Plague simply took all the criticisms of the show and put them in here as a tongue-in-cheek kind of thing. It was even funnier when Josie concluded that Elena wasn't really selfish at all, she was "just being honest about how she changed," which was complete bullshit! Other lines that I found hilarious and self-deprecating were how "Bonnie disappears for long periods of time" (and adding a final and ironic insult along with that...she wasn't even featured in the musical at all! At least they're consistent). I liked how "Elena" sang about all the different balls and festivals that occur on a daily basis in Mystic Falls and that nothing ever changes. Overall, it was entertaining how they made fun of the franchise.

I thought it was funny, if not odd, how Lizzie assumed that Caroline was "perfect." I mean, considering all the details that they got regarding all the other characters, would they not have found out that Caroline cheated on Tyler with the guy who killed Tyler's mom at Christmas? Would they not have found out how Caroline essentially strung Alaric along for months, being 'engaged' to him but never becoming physically intimate with him, having it go so far to have Alaric sleep in the guest bedroom of their house, all the while she still pined for Stefan and would eventually dump Alaric for Stefan? I mean, who are we talking about here? 

Speaking of Caroline, I suppose we got her long awaited cameo...sort of. Candice King obviously narrated the letter sent to Lizzie, which I thought was kind of cool. And I have to admit that I did like the message as it's a message that can apply to anybody...that you don't wake up one day a changed person but that it happens over time, applying yourself daily to changing for the better. I liked that and I liked the way they incorporated Lizzie's character as the main reason for the advice. 

I will say that I also liked that they haven't completely turned Alyssa's character around as though she turned off her humanity. Her deciding to warn MG about Puck and sort of playing NecroTed for a fool is at least is consistent seeing as how she had a huge crush on MG and it would make sense that she would be looking out for him. Still, I wish they would have given her a greater motivation for playing the double agent. And perhaps they will...perhaps she'll betray NT because she wants to make up for her previous misdeeds or wants to prove she's not the evil person they all believe her to be. I'm hoping they will add something to her character.

Overall, it was an amusing episode. Although it was rather annoying in that they were able to reveal such details from Elena and her friend's lives as though they had seen it on TV. Where would they have gotten all that info? From Elena's diary? That didn't make sense. Nor did it makes sense how Landon was able to piece it all together all by himself and create the score and choreography. Give me a break! I also think that this kind of episode should have taken place at the end of Legacies' run and not in the middle of it. I think it would have been really cool if Nina and Ian and Paul and Candace and Kat made a cameo at the end as members of the audience. Maybe Stefan couldn't because he's dead but Damon and Elena could, seeing as how Elena does have a medical practice in town. Caroline should return since her daughters are there and Bonnie is still alive so I don't see why she couldn't make an appearance as well. Hell, they could have a vision of Klaus and Elijah and have Freya show up, representing The Originals faction. Maybe a vision of Hayley as well. This would have been a great send off for this show as it descends from both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals and would have been a nice homage, as it were, to the two shows that helped make it what it was. 

But that idea is gone and so I have no idea where they're going with this now. 

Legacies - Goodbyes Sure Do Suck

 

Discussing Ep. 3.2 - I don't know if this episode was supposed to occur during last season or not because it felt so arbitrary and anti-climactic. I can even begin to explain how annoyed I was with this episode.

So this was supposed to be Raf's swan song, his final goodbye, so to speak. I felt nothing. I think it's because they slotted this in as the second episode of this season and not as the final episode of last season. You get the feeling that that's how it was supposed to go considering the ending with NecroTed and Alyssa and the Sphinx. Raf has been such an infrequently used character on the show that dedicating a whole episode to his goodbye felt pointless. If this were a character like Lizzie or Josie or even Alaric, I might have felt something. I didn't feel anything. And considering how non-permanent death is in this universe, why would anyone feel any kind of grief over this character saying goodbye?

I will say that the one moment that I did feel something was when Raf's mom met him for the first time. When he called her mom and she felt she didn't deserve to be called that, I liked that part. The rest was all bullshit. The idea that this woman, who apparently abandoned Raf and his dad when he was born, would suddenly feel the need to do the right thing and stay in a prison world indefinitely with the two men she could not have cared less about when she left them? Utter bullshit! As was the idea that Sheriff Mac KNEW that she would come back. "She's a mother." So what? Believe me, there are tons of mothers out there who have selfishly fought against that maternal instinct and abandoned their children in favour of themselves. Why would this woman, after 17 years of being on her own, go back because of maternal instincts? It's a bit too convenient for me. I mean, she said it herself! The biggest selling point of her joining Raf and his dad was that there was no full moon! So I can't foresee that trio living in peace in that prison world for very long. 

And speaking of that prison world....what the fuck was this nonsense about using a supernova to create it? Why a supernova? Why use an astronomical occurrence that the writers clearly know nothing about? A super nova takes YEARS to occur:

"So, how long does a supernova take to explode? A few million years for the star to die, less than a quarter of a second for its core to collapse, a few hours for the shockwave to reach the surface of the star, a few months to brighten, and then just few years to fade away."

This is not like seeing a solar eclipse. It doesn't happen in a day! And plus, if they could even see one with the naked eye, rest assured two things occurred. One, that the core collapse of the supernova occurred HOURS if not DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS or even YEARS before they actually saw it! It's called light speed folks! Consider that if the sun were to explode right now, we couldn't "see" it for another 8 minutes! That's how far away the sun is. Imagine how far another star is from us? We can't see it 'exploding' in real time. It would take time for the sight to reach us! Secondly, it wouldn't have been as clear and as bright as they made it out to be. It'd look like a regular star that got brighter and then dimmed. You wouldn't even notice it unless you were looking for it! And most certainly not it the daytime. So them treating the supernova exploding like it's an event equal to a bunch of firecrackers in the sky is completely asinine!

As is their use of Hope at this point. I've said this before and I'll say it again and keep saying it until something changes: I don't know the directions that they're giving DRR, if they're telling her to act like she's only there for the paycheque and nothing more because that's how it comes off. Even with the absence of Josie, Hope still feels sidelined like she's a recurring guest character like a Sheriff Liz or an Alaric on TVD rather than the lead character. And her demeanour, yet again, feels so off! With Landon constantly saying that Hope will come and save the day because that's what she does, it feels like lip service and that Hope's character does it ONLY because it's like a job to her rather than something she WANTS to do. Even her relationship with Landon, that is now the hallmark of her character, feels so forced at this point. In that talk they had by the pier, she seemed genuinely amused at Landon's gripes rather than concerned. Her face said it all. It says it all the time. She looks bored! She looks dispassionate! She looks like she's forced to sit there and talk with people when in reality she'd just like to get the hell out of dodge and do something else!

And if that's the case, who can blame her? She has ZERO purpose at this point, other than loving and caring for Landon and being his girlfriend and always coming to the rescue to save her friends. When I sit here and think about it, what's her character like beyond that? They don't focus at all on her tri-brid status. They don't focus at all on her family history. They don't focus at all on who she is as a person. No hobbies, no ambitions for life, not even a career goal that would conflict with her supernatural nature. I mean, they have SO MUCH to work with and to give DRR as a way to create a struggle for her character: her trying to control her powers and her rage that is both inherited by her father and is a by-product of being part werewolf; her trying to repair or recreate the Mikaelson family name in the world (since all the world knows of that name is pain and suffering) and the pressures and burden of trying to do that all by herself; her trying to navigate the depression of most of her family dying in the tragic way that they did; her grappling with enemies of Klaus or the Mikaelsons who still hold a grudge and would love nothing more than to take it out on her. When this series started, I thought those were elements they were going to address. If anything, it seems like the writers forgot where Hope came from (i.e. The Originals). They forgot that this was a spin-off show of The Originals and that Hope was supposed to be the star of it!

My other gripe, yet again, are the villains and what their over-arching goal is. Oddly enough, I agreed with Alyssa in that NecroTed's ambition was rather weak. But, so is hers. She seeks to team up with NT and subdue Malivore and bring back all these monsters so that she can get her revenge on the Salvatore School? And then what? At least hers is a basic revenge story. But I think that's what makes the threat so weak overall. It's simple pettiness that has no basis for making a bunch of people suffer. Alyssa's character is just so undefined. Yes, she's a potential psychopath but it was never established whether she is one or not. Last season, it was all about her crush on MG and being rebuffed by him and her taking it out on the Wonder Twins. And yet, when she had the chance to kill them, she didn't. Now, she seems to have no problem with someone dying at SS and causing pain and suffering. She's a character that really came out of nowhere as a villain and her motivations, though justified to a certain extent, seem very immature and I think that only adds to the overall sense of triviality of the show. And NecroTed is more of a jester than a real threat. You can't take that guy seriously at all. I'll admit I liked him at his debut last season but they really made him out to be little more than comedy relief. And I can accept a comedic villain but you have to have that element of danger and deadliness, that behind that clown facade is a killer who will not hesitate to kill you. I don't get that from NT at all now. He comes off as more like a guy who will go on and on about how he will kill me rather than actually killing me!

I'm hoping that since they've established NT and Alyssa's goals as the villains, that perhaps things will pick up in regards to giving Hope and the other something to work towards. I don't like this day-in-the-life writing that they have going on. Each episode feels is more isolated in their storyline rather than being part of a season-long story arc.

I can hope that it changes but I don't think it will.

Legacies - We're Not Worthy

 

Discussing Ep. 3.1 

Ya know, I thought that with this pandemic and all the time off that folks had, that perhaps the creative juices of the team would have had time to ferment and they could have come up with some really good stuff.

I was wrong.

As I have said before, I get it that with all the stress and what not of the pandemic and especially all the political nonsense that might have taken it's toll on people, especially in the US this past year, that perhaps that's why people are not churning out their best in terms of quality. But how long will that excuse last?

This was a very weak episode to come back on. It did little to get me excited and onboard to see more of what's going to happen, that's for sure. If anything else, it really seemed like the same old, same old and they have to change the formula somehow.

Let's start with the so-called "main" character, shall we? I mean, it must have been the easiest shooting day of Danielle's career at this point, spending most of it sleeping on a bed and having all of 2 minutes of dialogue, if even that. Her revival was so fucking stupid, as though she were Sleeping Beauty or something like that. No one knew how to wake her up. The way they built up her coma-like state last season, you'd have thought she went somewhere ethereal or something and that perhaps Landon and  Raf would have to go there to get her. But nope! It was the kiss of true love that woke her up! Fuck off! 

The question is, does anything change with her character now? I've said this before, how the characters will pay lip service and say they need Hope as though she's the main character....but she's clearly not! I mean, Raf came to save the day, not her (more on Raf later). She was sleeping the entire episode, so how important is she really?!? Last season, other than the initial four episodes or so, she felt completely irrelevant. It felt like whatever scenes she was in, they did it because they HAD TO, not because they wanted to. They clearly were putting the Wonder Twins (and I like how the show adopted my nickname for them) front and centre and kept Hope as an afterthought. Will it change this season? 

I mean, does any character change this season? I don't get what was up with returning Alyssa into her bitch self again. I get that's her character but given the fact that she turned on a dime last season and she actually died, I would have thought that she'd be a bit more introspective about things. And also, I don't get how they dropped her whole childhood issue. Lizzie brings it up (and rightfully puts hypocritical Alyssa in her place....seriously, that was just too easy) asking about her parents, but the issue was never clarified. We never found out what she did and what her problem was. Not that it matters at this point considering she's probably going to be an acolyte to NecroTed, but it would have been nice had her background been more fleshed out and figure out why she's even there at all.

Then we have the Wonder Twins. I sort of agree with the direction they went with Josie at least. I thought it was rather ironic when Lizzie said that the focus has to be on Josie now considering the focus last season was all on Josie! I do wonder how long her absence will be and if that will create room for Hope to be the focus of the show for a change. Since Josie had a nice little arc and thought it came to a rather disappointing end last season, I'm hoping they can at least build off of it. I also wonder what they're going to do with Lizzie. She's sort of in a rut right now too, spinning her wheels in trying to change. Which, to be fair, is a realistic development. Like someone trying to break a bad habit, you don't accomplish it in one day. You fall of the wagon constantly so I'm not upset that Lizzie goes back and forth between being who she was and who she is trying to be. But I don't know where she goes from here without Josie there as a motivation. I'm not confident about her direction either.

Nor am I confident about Landon's direction. I don't like how his motivation revolves around Hope and vice versa. That's pretty damn weak. He was fully willing to stay dead as a way to protect his friends. But Raf shows him a sleeping Hope and he just abandons his principles and says "fuck it" and goes and does what he said he wouldn't do. While I suppose there is some additional motivation for him to be there since Malivore is still around, again it feels like there's very little to work with in terms of character progression. I'm more confident in Raf, who apparently descends from King Arthur (I'm curious how that even works considering King Arthur was a fictional character and of Anglo-Saxon descent, and Raf clearly is not!). But I think Raf has a better future on the show and I hope they focus on him a bit more.

Which brings me to the subplot of this episode, with the Lady of the Lake and Excalibur and the Green Knight. Anyone who has ever read Sir Gawain and The Green Knight in high school or university knows that this portrayal of the Green Knight and the Arthurian legend was just bullshit. Now, I'll give them some leeway since we are dealing with fairy tales and so they can manipulate things in whatever way they want. But this subplot just felt really lazy to me, as though it was something they came up with as a means to get characters to reach a certain point by the end of the episode. And I worry that every episode will be like that. Need to get Landon to show his courageous side? We'll get him to save the Three Little Pigs from the Big Bad Wolf! Need to show MG his leadership skills? We'll get him to lead the Three Billy Goats Gruff across the bridge and fight against the Troll. Need to show Lizzie her compassionate side? We'll get her to help Goldilocks appease the Three Bears. While I appreciate the show's take on the various fairy tales, I don't like that they're bringing in each one in merely as a plot device and there is no unifying reason for it all. It's more like a story-of-the-week and it doesn't really tie into what the TVD/TO universe was all about.

I suppose the only consistent baddie is NecroTed, and even he feels like more of a caricature than anything else. I think that's what been missing in Legacies that was around more in TVD and in TO.....an element of seriousness and danger. The early seasons of TVD, you felt that element of danger, whether it was from Damon or Katherine or Klaus. Same thing in TO, with Mikael or Lucien or Dahlia providing that menacing touch. Here, it's all a joke. NecroTed is played more for laughs. There's no real sense of danger or that anything is at stake. And though I don't know how many episodes they have this season due to the virus, I'm not convinced they can pull of anything meaningful. Seeing as how they have a musical episode coming up, it's clear they're playing all of this up like Riverdale and not in the tradition of TVD/TO. The tone is completely different and I'm not a fan of it at all!

Riverdale sucks, and that is not the kind of show any producer should want to emulate! 

The 100 - Anaconda

Discussing Ep. 7.8

So after having to put some stuff on hold to tend to other stuff, I was finally able to catch up on the episode that I missed (I am glad that there is a break in new episodes right now). This was the backdoor pilot to The 100 prequel show and I have to say, I don't know how I feel about it.

Right off the bat, it was somewhat of a relief to know that the "key" wasn't necessarily Clarke herself but rather what she was carrying, which Bill thought was the Flame or the Key, as he called it. So it doesn't seem like it's necessarily anything to do with Clarke herself but rather with what she carries, which is presumably the personality and memories of Calliope, his daughter, and the knowledge of what Becca saw when she went into that special wormhole. I will say this about Clarke though. Even though she can be hypocritical and intolerable at times, I give the character credit for being complex and severely flawed. She's not the anti-hero, per say, but she's definitely not a character that you can look to as a Mary Sue or one dimensional to the point of being unrealistic.

Which could not be said of the prequel character of Calliope. Not that she was a Mary Sue but rather her character was a bit too noble, too righteous, too good considering her family environment and dynamics. I fail to see how she could possibly turn out the way she did and not be influenced at all by the personality of her parents, especially Bill. Bill is a legitimate narcissistic sociopath! That was the diagnosis her mother, Grace (a clinical psychologist), gave to him. Whether she said that as a joke or was serious, Bill's behaviour throughout the episode more than confirmed that diagnosis. Now, maybe I've watched too many videos on narcissism and such and therefore I'm a bit too sensitive on the matter, but it just seems so unlikely that the Cadogen family could exist at all the way it was portrayed in this episode.

Like I said, Grace is a clinical psychologist. It's her job to discover and treat mental illness, disorders and such. The fact that she diagnosed Bill as a narcissistic sociopath AND was married to him AND had two children by him makes absolutely no sense. I'm not saying it doesn't happen in real life, but it seems highly unlikely. Why would she marry him? Why would she stay with him? Why would she have a family with him? That's like a counsellor for sexual abuse and rape survivors knowingly and willingly getting into a relationship with a serial rapist! What possible motivation, other than perhaps money or a sense of survival, could Grace have for getting involved with Bill? She, more than anyone, would know that Bill would be completely devoid of empathy and remorse to the point that he would be both a bad father and a bad husband. Why knowingly create a family with someone like that? Now, if Grace herself were a narcissist, I could probably buy into that more. But that's not the impression I got of Grace at all. The fact that she was willing to die with Callie if Callie didn't agree to board the helicopter was proof that Grace wasn't narcissistic or a sociopath herself. So why be with Bill? How could she be with Bill?

Maybe she fell in love with him and felt like she couldn't turn away from him. That's possible but highly unlikely. She came off as a strong willed person in her own right. Maybe she fell in love and felt like, as a psychologist, she could "cure" him of his narcissism and sociopathy. A better assumption, but it doesn't speak well of Grace and portrays her as either arrogant or naive. In the end, I find it highly unbelievable that Grace could or would marry Bill and stay with him the way she did. I'm sure there's a bigger backstory to it all but making her a clinical psychologist was dumb. They should have given her some other profession and THEN I would have bought it that she fell under his snare and unknowingly enabled him and raised a family with him that produced a second narcissistic sociopath in Reese. And I have to say this....I don't know if the writers were watching Endgame when they wrote this, but having Grace say that Bill "is a lot of things, but he is not a liar!" was stupid. Part of being a narcissistic sociopath involves being a liar! It just does. Gaslighting, manipulation, and attempting to get away with any kind of crime or sin, by default, has to involve lying and deception. To remove that from Bill's character makes absolutely no sense at all! That was a fucking stupid thing to say.

Which brings me to Callie...the girl who should not be. She has a narcissistic sociopath for a father. She has, at best, an enabler for her father's sociopathic behaviour in her mother. She has a narcissistic sociopath in her brother. But Callie somehow, someway, managed to turn out as this righteous and virtuous do-gooder who takes part in protests and activism and seeks to help mankind? Bullshit! The best way I can describe how completely awkward and unrealistic this is is to compare it to the Trump family. You have Donald, the narcissistic sociopath. You have Melania, who at best enables everything Donald does (but to be fair, she seems rather narcissistic in her own right). You have the two sons Eric and Don Jr., who emulate their father's narcissism and insecurities. But instead of Ivanka as the daughter (who bears all the signs of narcissism that her father and brothers do), rather imagine that it was Greta Thunberg who was the daughter in the family! Someone like Greta, with her personality and sense of empathy and wanting to make the world a better place rather than have the world serve her needs, arising out of the Trump family would not, could not and does not make any sense at all! Someone like Ivanka coming out of that family makes total sense. But if she were like Greta, it would make no sense. So how is it that Callie arose out of the Cadogen family as the activist and morally sound character that she is? She can't!

Her brother, Reese, made sense. I could totally see someone like him arising out of that family. I totally wanted to punch him in his smirking fucking face! But that was the point. And credit where credit is due, Reese did show some degree of remorse. He later brushed it off, but you could see in his face when he burned Becca at the stake, when he betrayed Callie, when he saw his mother locked out...there was conflict within him. I like that. I can accept that. Callie on the other hand was far, far too good. Far too noble. And add to all of that, she was the one who created the Trigedasleng language? Considering that JRR Tolkien created his first constructed language when he was a teenager, I suppose it isn't that much of a stretch, so I won't harp on it too much. I'm assuming the prequel series would explain exactly why she created it because it felt like such a random thing to do.

But speaking of unbelievable characters, here we have Becca. The famous Becca, creator of nightblood, creator of ALIE, creator of the Flame. As if those accolades weren't enough, she had to be portrayed as such a genius, such a prodigy, such an amazing and intelligent character that she went to Harvard University....at the tender age of 10! Fuck off! Fuck the hell off! Why did they have to make her into a super fucking genius? It would have been just fine if they had said that at 15 or 16 years old, she went to Harvard and cut through all the programs like butter. Not 10 years old! I swear, whoever wrote this episode feels like they were writing some really bad fanfiction. It just felt like they really stretched the abilities of these characters to a point that they went into the realm of the absurd.

So I'll get to some of the more interesting and positive elements of the episode. I don't know when this episode was filmed or written, but I found this particular shot rather apropos, with the Russian Ankovirus spreading and everyone on the TV screen wearing masks. I thought that was rather funny and I'm assuming that the writers are playing both on the coronavirus and the news of Russian interference in American affairs, so they had no problems attributing a virus to the Russians.

This shot was rather interesting, if only because I had seen something similar before.

In Terminator 3, at the end when Skynet launches all the nuclear missiles to various parts of the Earth, they basically used the exact same shot. I'm assuming it was homage to T3 because if they're going to claim otherwise and say it was a coincidence....I'm not buying it. The shots appear far too similar to be coincidental.

I am very intrigued by what Becca saw when she stepped into the wormhole. What exactly did she see and does it have anything to do with what Murphy saw? She saw it as Judgement Day (another Terminator reference) and felt that humanity, especially Bill, was not ready to encounter that just yet. So what does Judgement Day look like? Was it Heaven? Was it a place that they could all actually go to using the Stone? I think that'd be kind of eerie, almost like Event Horizon where the were able to open an actual wormhole to Hell! Also, why is it that none of the Commanders or those who had the Flame ever knew about this? I'm assuming that the Flame contained records of Becca's experience so why hadn't any of them ever sought to find the Stone on Earth? Why are we only hearing about this now?

On the whole, I don't know if I'm sold on seeing The 100 prequel. They'd really have to work on Callie to make me invested in her as a realistic and relatable character. Though it was nice to see how some of the things that we've come to know on the show came to be, like "from the ashes, we will rise" slogan and Trikru and the language and all of that. Maybe with it's own series, the writers could flesh out everything better so that it all makes sense.

Definitely needs some work though. Onto catching up with the next episode!

The Vampire Diaries - Re-imagined

My alternate version of Season 6 of The Vampire Diaries is further completed with the remaining chapters of Part 2. Onto writing Part 3!

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13060315/1/TVD-Season-6-Rewritten-Part-2

The 100 - The Queen's Gambit

Discussing Ep. 7.7

It was a rather mixed bag of an episode, with a welcome focus on Emori and a rather unnecessary further degradation of Echo, with a battle of wits between Russell/DC and Murphy.

The Emori storyline, though a welcome focus on the beauty that is Emori, felt a bit weird. Suddenly, Emori is enjoying the attention and worship from the various Faithful, to the point that Jackson, Murphy and even Sheidheda feel like it's going to her head. I don't know if they're going anywhere with this and it felt like a rather contrived element to introduce into her character. If there is no pay off or any kind of development from this, then I don't get why they're introducing it at all.

Because speaking of elements introduced that seemingly went nowhere, Emori mentions that "the way out of Hell is paved with good deeds," which raises an eyebrow from Murphy that prompts Emori to tell him that there is no Hell. I found it odd that they're bringing this up again when it went absolutely nowhere last season. They mentioned it a couple of times but then it was never mentioned again. Will it go somewhere this season? I'm hoping it does and that both elements of Murphy's fear of Hell and Emori's ever growing sense of narcissism does contribute to something bigger. At the very least, that they both contribute in some way to the final arc of the season.

The Unification storyline really felt like filler and was used to accomplish two things. First, to get both Emori and Murphy into place so that they could be betrayed. And two, to get Nikki and Nelson on the same side, which is ultimately Russell/DC's side. So I guess it actually accomplished three things. But I will admit that I did like the psychological development that accompanied the various players. We got a better insight into the motivations behind Nikki (which we always knew was that of a criminal and someone who was out for revenge) and behind Nelson (who seemed to want to find his parents). I do wonder had his father not been a complete and proper prick if Nelson would have betrayed Emori the way he did. But I also wonder if Nelson could perhaps be the wild card in the scenario, given that he did seem to make a connection with his mom and was genuinely hurt by the actions of his father. It means, at least to me, that he has some motivations to do good if he perhaps sees a point to it.

Speaking of psychology, my favourite parts continue to revolve around Russell/DC. The chess match between him and Murphy was fucking glorious, if only to prove the point that I made before: only Indra could possibly match wits with Sheidheda. Murphy, for all his sarcasm and cocky attitude, was out of his element. What was cool was that their scenes together truly did feel like a chess match, with Murphy getting in some good moves that led the audience to believe that he had a chance at coming out of their encounter unscathed. The way he was able to get DC off his game by reminding him how Lexa united the tribes and not him was rather good. But in the end, DC was always in control, pointing out how Indra knew instantly what Murphy had to learn with time: that DC was always looking to seek control again.

What I will say that I didn't like about these scenes was both the timeline and how Sheidheda seemed to know too much. It was sloppy writing, in my opinion, to have Emori reveal how her people regarded her as a freak of nature, Freakdraina (or whatever they called her), and discarded her as such. Then here's Sheidheda, referring to her with the exact same nickname to throw Murphy off his game. How did he even know her nickname? And why bring it up now? Then there's his place in Trikru history. I was always under the impression that DC was a commander from long ago, that he was a legend from history. But it's revealed that Lexa usurped him and the Keepers of the Flame united to take him down. So how old is Sheidheda? From what time period does he come from? Indra made it sound like he was a Commander from her parent's era, not necessarily her own (she must have been a child when Sheidheda was around). So now I'm all confused. Maybe Baby can map it all out because I'm lost!

From there we go to Echo and her memories of Bellamy (before the beard...he looked weird to me now without it) and her on their time on The Ring. This was the time when she had beautiful hair and she wasn't a complete nutter! But it served to show the hypocrisy of these characters, which I'm assuming is the point. I had said before that I felt that Bellamy would not approve of Echo's tactics in trying to save him by killing all those innocent people. His line of "loyalty is a weakness when it causes you to do something you know shouldn't" went and proved my point. Echo going all nuts and killing people out of love and loyalty to Bellamy is wrong.

The other point of hypocrisy was the discussion between Hope and Diyoza. First off, I hated the fight scene between them. That was just all kinds of bullshit. Hope could best Echo with ease. She trained with both Dev and Orlando for a number of years in specific hand-to-hand combat techniques. And yet, she couldn't best Diyoza? Bullshit! Not knocking the Navy SEALS in the slightest, but I do know that hand-to-hand combat is actually quite low on their list of priorities in terms of training. So Diyoza shouldn't be that good! And it further highlights how shitty a fighter Echo is when everyone seems to be better than her! Secondly, Diyoza saying how "doing the right thing the wrong way isn't doing the right thing" flies in the face of what she continues to do. Maybe that hypocrisy is on purpose but it's more funny than anything else.

Speaking of funny shit, that scene between Echo and Octavia where Octavia hugs her.....what the fuck was that?!? I will say that in a sense it was touching, but fuck me! That was just all kinds of pathetic acting by Tasya and I felt NOTHING but annoyance by the whole scene. I guess I liked how Echo pointed out how she was made to be the villain in Octavia's bed time stories to Hope, but the way that Octavia forced reconciliation upon her was just....it just didn't do it for me. I know what they were going for and if other viewers got the feels from it all...great! I just didn't feel anything!

Further adding to my annoyance was Echo carving her face up like a fucking Jack-O-Lantern! I suppose I get the idea that Azgeda warriors would cut themselves up at some point as some warrior tradition. My question is....why didn't she do this before? She was loyal to Roan pretty much all her life. Wouldn't she have taken this step prior to this point? What I will give credit for is that they gave Echo the honour being the one to figure out why they were being kept together and were being treated well. It was as a means to recruit them into service, to fight in this war that would apparently lead to humanity's highest evolution.

So we get the big reveal at the end that it is indeed Bill Cadogan who is the Shepherd. It'll be interesting to see how it is that he survived for so long and why he needs Clarke. I still assert that Becca will play a role in this somehow but I'm probably wrong about that. I cannot possibly fathom why Clarke is considered "the key." Unless it means that they're going to kill her....then maybe I'm alright with it. But what has she done or her family have done to warrant her being the key?

Also, will this drawing have anything to do with it? They're getting into Manifest territory here with Madi drawing all these images that don't necessarily mean anything to her but will no doubt be prophetic in some way. Is this image an image of the future or is it merely folks stepping into the wormhole? And how the hell does Madi even know to draw this?

More questions than answers.