Streamin' (Madverse) Meemies: WandaVision Ep 7, "Breaking the Fourth Wall"

 

Two episodes left, and the revelations in this show are starting to come thick and fast. (Also, apparently people broke Disney's servers for a bit when the episode dropped.) So, as I have done for the past few episodes, I shall include spoiler space for the few of y'all who haven't seen or heard what went on.

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The two main drivers of this episode were Wanda's depression and the identity of...the person I will get to. The episode begins with Wanda trying to hide under the covers and the twins not letting her ignore them. Her control is slipping even more, as evidenced by the fact that all sorts of objects around the house, and later on the furniture and wallpaper, are fuzzing out of existence and reforming as something entirely different. This shows as Tommy and Billy's video game controllers turn into Uno cards, and--when Wanda finally gets up--her almond milk transforms into a carton of whole milk. She can't even answer the twins' questions, mainly why all this is happening, but also why Pietro isn't really their uncle. Nobody has any idea where Vision is, and Wanda does not want to deal with any of it. 

This episode takes its cue from the "mockumentary" sitcom style, with several of the characters speaking directly to the camera and the audience (hence the title). Wanda's dialogues to the camera reveal quite a bit about her mindset: "I don't understand what's happening and why I can't fix it." In a pointed break with the tradition of the invisible interviewer, at that point a voice asks: "Do you think maybe this is what you deserve?" This brings Wanda up short: "You're not supposed to talk!" Exactly who is talking will be answered later.

It's also emphasized that Wanda is depressed, primarily because of the Nexus anti-depression commercial that airs (and apparently this does double duty, as fans of the show have pointed out the Nexus also refers to the Nexus of All Realities, a multidimensional gateway). The voiceover for this commercial, it seems to me, is very pointed.

Feeling depressed? Like the world goes on without you? Do you just want to be left alone? Ask your Doctor about Nexus, a unique antidepressant that works to anchor you back to your reality, or the reality of your choice. Side effects include: feeling your feelings, confronting your truth, seizing your destiny, and possibly more depression. You should not take Nexus until your Doctor has cleared you to move on with your life. Nexus: because the world doesn’t revolve around you. Or does it?

"Your Doctor?" Capitalized? It's no wonder many viewers are assuming Doctor Strange will show up in the finale. 

At just the right, totally non-coincidental moment--and not the first in this episode--Agnes shows up to take the twins off Wanda's hands. They go to Agnes' house, where we see a series of increasingly creepy asides--playing with Agnes' rabbit, Senor Scratchy; Tommy noting that he likes Agnes because she's "quiet on the inside"--and the twins finally go downstairs to play in the basement. Only, as we see at the end of the episode, it's rather more than a basement.....

Meanwhile, in what's left of the S.W.O.R.D. camp after Wanda's red wall has rampaged through it, S.W.O.R.D. director says, "We launch today." What they're going to launch, and what he thinks will actually make it through the barrier, is presumably an exercise left for the finale. Jimmy Woo and Monica Rambeau, having escaped being sucked inside Westview, discover what Darcy found behind Hayward's last firewall--he was tracking Vision inside the Hex. As Monica puts it, "Hayward wanted his sentient weapon back," which raises the unpleasant possibility of Hayward trying to reconstruct Vision and bring him back online minus his free will. Jimmy and Monica meet up with the person Monica was talking to in the last episode, a Major Goodner who knew her mother. Goodner has brought with her an enormous six-wheeled space vehicle to storm the Hex and bludgeon its way inside. Monica suits up and tries to breach the wall, only for the vehicle to flounder at the energy border. In fact, the red coruscating energy breaches the vehicle's interior, and Monica climbs out and flings herself away just in time, as the vehicle is spat out "rewritten"--its front half is now a 90's pickup truck. But Monica realizes that she can, by herself, enter the Hex--and so despite Jimmy's yelling at her to stop, she plunges through the barrier.

This is a rather neat sequence, as we see refracted copies of Monica, dressed in different costumes, bloom around her as she fights her way through the energy barrier, and hear snippets of dialogue (and make sure to turn on the closed captioning for this, as that reveals who is talking--it's her mother and Carol Danvers, in fragments from Captain Marvel). Finally, Monica makes it through, seemingly intact--but her eyes are now a bright glowy blue, and in a point-of-view shot, she can now see the energy that animates the Hex. This is the birth of Monica Rambeau, superhero, but there's no time to dwell on it, as she takes off running to Wanda's house. 

There, she tries to talk to Wanda, convince her to take the energy walls down, but Wanda is having none of it. In fact, she summons her own red energy and throws Monica outside. Monica tells her she understands what Wanda is going through, because she lost her mother, but she has accepted that because it's "her truth." Wanda pauses, and we can see that Monica is beginning to get through to her--but at that moment, in another uncoincidental coincidence, Agnes interrupts and takes Wanda away. 

While all this is going on, Vision and Darcy find one another at the circus, or what was the S.W.O.R.D. camp and personnel. Vision awakens Darcy from Wanda's thrall, and they take off in a food truck. On the way back to Westview, Darcy gives Vision a capsule version of what happened in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Infinity/Endgame, which Vision can hardly believe, as he still doesn't remember any of it. But as Darcy says, she's been watching WandaVision for the past week, and "the love you two have is real. You belong together." Unfortunately, Wanda (or somebody) is trying to thwart Vision's attempt to get to her, as they are stopped by first a red light in the middle of nowhere and then a series of obstacles--a repair crew fixing the light, and a parade of Westview kiddies marching down the road in front of them. Vision even has his own brief fourth-wall-breaking, as he talks to the unseen interviewer about what Wanda went through. At least until it dawns on him, why am I talking to this person when I need to get to my wife? He takes off the microphone and storms off, flying away. Darcy watches him go and says, "I'll meet up with you later." 

After pulling Wanda away from Monica, Agnes takes Wanda to her house. Sitting in the living room, Wanda sees two plates on the table with half-eaten sandwiches, and asks, "Where are the twins?" Agnes notes they're playing in the basement, and Wanda goes down the stairs in search of them. But Agnes' basement is a great deal longer, twistier and weirder than any basement has a right to be, and Wanda wanders through a series of extended hallways, calling for Tommy and Billy. She finally comes to a large, extremely creepy room, decorated with purple and black, with a mystical-looking book (also festooned with purple) on a desk. Wanda stops to take this in, eyes widening, and the door slams. She turns to see Agnes coming into the room, saying (paraphrasing): "Oh, Wanda. Did you think you were the only witchy girl in Westview? It's Agatha Harkness. So nice to finally meet you." 

Thus confirming a fan theory that's been floated and talked about for weeks.

At this point, a new catchy theme song plays: "Agatha All Along," including shots of Agnes/Agatha shedding her purple witch's dress as she floats into the show's very first episode. It ends with Agatha holding the hapless deceased dog, crowing, "And I killed Sparky too!" and throwing her head back and laughing manically. Cue end credits.

(Then, in a first for the show, there's a mid-credits scene. Monica, following after Wanda and Agnes, come up to Agnes' house. She looks around for a way in and sees the outside entrance to the cellar. She throws the doors open, and we see a shot of another long spooky-looking staircase and hallway, festooned with the purple energy ribbons seen earlier. But Monica doesn't have a chance to look around, as Pietro suddenly approaches her from behind: "Snoopers gonna snoop.")

So. It was Agatha all along...or was it? I'm not convinced, because Wanda knows she's in a simulation and is strenuously resisting leaving it (with some reason, as we've seen that Vision will die if he does). And she previously stated she doesn't remember how she got her or knows how she's doing this. Still, there remains the fact that she's taken over the minds of all the townspeople, forcing them to play along, as she scripts her desperately wanted happy ending. 

Two episodes left.  

"I give the first watch of the night to the red planet Mars"

 This is just incredible. You might have seen it before--it's been posted everywhere, it seems--but I still wanted to embed it here, as another example of what we hairless apes can do if we set our minds to it. 

The post title comes from "The Light of Stars," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The night is come, but not too soon;

  And sinking silently,

All silently, the little moon

  Drops down behind the sky.

There is no light in earth or heaven

  But the cold light of stars;

And the first watch of night is given

  To the red planet Mars. 

Is it the tender star of love?

  The star of love and dreams?

O no! from that blue tent above,

  A hero's armor gleams. 

And earnest thoughts within me rise,

  When I behold afar,

Suspended in the evening skies,

  The shield of that red star. 

O star of strength! I see thee stand

  And smile upon my pain;

Thou beckonest with thy mailèd hand,

  And I am strong again. 

Within my breast there is no light

  But the cold light of stars;

I give the first watch of the night

  To the red planet Mars. 

The star of the unconquered will,

  He rises in my breast,

Serene, and resolute, and still,

  And calm, and self-possessed. 

And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art,

  That readest this brief psalm,

As one by one thy hopes depart,

  Be resolute and calm. 

O fear not in a world like this,

  And thou shalt know erelong,

Know how sublime a thing it is

  To suffer and be strong.

Review: Black Sun

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse is the author of the Sixth World urban fantasy series, a post-apocalyptic saga starring a Navajo monster hunter. I am a fan of that, so I thought I'd pick up this book as well, even though I'm usually not into fat epic fantasies. (I would run screaming from the Wheel of Time and most anything by Brandon Sanderson, for example.) But it sounded intriguing, with its setting of a "fictional secondary world inspired by the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas," according to the acknowledgments. 

So I did like it, though it didn't knock my socks off. I was most impressed with the setting and worldbuilding--it's a detailed, well-thought-out world that makes sense and feels lived in, with a timeline that's easy to keep track of. (The little epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter tell the reader exactly when they are, and the sayings and quotations starting off the chapter add to the background and characterization as well.) There are four point of view characters (not a cast of thousands, thank the gods), with my favorite being Xiala, the drunken, grumpy Teek captain who is roped into sailing a stranger across the Crescent Sea in time for the Convergence and gets in way over her head. The Convergence is the central MacGuffin of the novel, a full solar eclipse where gods are reborn and priests are crowned (or slain).  There are several opposing factions, from the Sky Made in the cliffside city of Tova, to the Dry Earth (Clanless) in Tova's lower levels, to the seadwelling Teek, who turn out to be a combination of a Siren and a mermaid.  Another viewpoint character is Serapio, the Crow God reborn, who has to journey to Tova in time for the Convergence and wreak vengeance on the priesthood who slaughtered so many of his Carrion Crow clan on the Night of Knives years ago, for the sin of worshiping the old gods.

All well and good. There is four hundred pages of buildup to the Day of Convergence, and for the most part it was quite interesting. The four POV characters--Xiala, Serapio, Naranpa the Sun Priest, and Okoa, the son of the Carrion Crow Matron--are well drawn and have their own character arcs. What knocked my rating down a star is the fact that the climax of the book was too rushed and sketchy to live up to the excellent setup, and ended on a cliffhanger to boot, with the characters' fates dangling in the wind. Of course, with this being the first volume of (I believe) a trilogy, there is a lot more story to be told. But I still think each book deserves to stick the landing, whether it's part of a series or not, and this book simply didn't do that. 

I'll certainly read the next books in the series. But I wish this one had a more satisfying ending, and I hope the author does better next time. 

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Review: Once & Future, Vol. 1: The King is Undead

Once & Future, Vol. 1: The King is Undead by Kieron Gillen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, this is a heckuva lot better than the last graphic novel I read.

This takes the King Arthur mythos and turns it on its head: what if Arthur is actually an undead zombie tyrant, resurrected in the modern day by a murderous cult? Arthur wants to drag the entire island of Britain into the "otherworld," an alternate dimension where witches and monsters rule. The only people standing in his way are Duncan McGuire, a shy, clumsy dork dragged willy-nilly into the monster-hunting and Grail-questing business by his grandmother, Bridgette. Bridgette raised Duncan by herself, in isolation, preparing him for the day he will have to go up against the undead King.

This world takes the broad strokes of Arthurian legend and turns them just a bit off, a shade sideways, resulting in a fresh take on a hoary old story. It has a good deal to say about the concept of stories as well, since the people who know the truth behind the legends are the conduits the monsters can use to gain access to this world. Which is why Duncan has been kept in ignorance of the fact that he has been raised by his grandmother to be the Round Table's Percival, destined to quest for the Holy Grail in the Otherworld and keep Zombie Arthur's minions from getting their hands on it. Duncan's grandmother, Bridgette, is a complex character, a badass old woman who nonetheless has lied to and manipulated Duncan his entire life. This family drama is just as important to the story as the monster-slaying and zombie-resurrecting, and there's a nice balance to be found between the two.

The art is surprisingly bright for the general darkness of the story, I suppose to serve as a contrast. The "coda" at the end, the equivalent of an after-credits scene in a Marvel movie, introduces the one major character not mentioned...and promises the birth of a new story with, by the looks of it, further mayhem and bloodshed. I think I'm intrigued enough to pick it up.

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Streamin' (Madverse) Meemies: WandaVision Episode 6, "All New Halloween Spooktacular"

 

With each episode, WandaVision is becoming darker and more intense. We're a long way from the black-and-white, curly-haired, housewife-in-a-dress 50's. (Although looking back, that episode had a foreboding scene of the participants breaking with what they were "scripted" to do as well, when Vision's boss choked on his food and his wife just stared at him, repeating "Stop it" over and over, until Wanda looked at Vision and said, in the commanding tone of a showrunner, "Vision, help him.") The jaw-dropping introduction of Wanda's supposedly dead brother Pietro is the core of this episode, I think (along with what Vision ends up doing, which I will get to). 

Once again, I will take pity on the maybe two or three people who haven't watched this episode or seen discussions about it on social media. 

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Now. When I went back and watched this the second time and wrote up my notes, the first thing I think is important is this episode's theme song. I kept pausing the stream until I had transcribed all the lyrics. (This is the 90's-early Oughts episode, taking from "Malcolm in the Middle," which I have never watched.)

Don't try to fight the chaos 

Don't let it stop the fun

Some days it's all confusion    

Easy come and easy go    

But if it's all illusion

Sit back, enjoy the show

Let's keep it going

Let's keep it going

Through each distorted day     

Let's keep it going

Let's keep it going

Though there may be no way of knowing

Who's coming by to play

(This last line played over a shot of Pietro, with a credit of "Pietro Maximoff as Himself.")                    

This plays into, I think, one of the two major revelations in this episode: Whoever and/or whatever Pietro is, he knows a helluva lot more than anyone else, and much more than he should. This was evident in almost every line of dialogue he uttered, from his mentioning Wanda's creating "Shangri-La" in their first extended conversation, to acknowledging he looks different (as a matter of fact, the two snippets of Quicksilver's death scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron both showed the other actor who played the role), to him referencing said death scene by saying he was "shot in the street for no reason at all and then heard you [Wanda] calling me", to him remembering an incident from their childhood differently than Wanda, to him praising Wanda for the "scenario" she's constructed (and when she asks him if it's wrong, he says no), and finally, at the episode's climax, when Vision is in trouble, he snarkily tells Wanda, "It's not like your dead husband can die twice."

(This remark causes Wanda to throw out one hand, the angry red of her power swirling in her palm, and hurl Pietro clear across the street. I don't know if Wanda, Pietro or someone else will turn out to be the villain behind this whole thing, but by crackey, at that moment he deserved it.) 

Of course, it's been theorized the Marvel is using Pietro, and the actor from the X-Men series who is playing this version of him, to introduce mutants into the Marvelverse. That may be true, but obviously there's more going on here than Wanda just yanking over an alternate version of her brother into this world. 

The second major revelation of this episode is that Vision cannot go through the energy barrier around Westview without starting to come apart, in a manner eerily similar to the original Snap. We find this out when Vision treks to the edge of town, discovering some disquieting details along the way: the further from the center of town, the slower people are moving, until they go from repeating their movements over and over to standing frozen in their tracks, like winding down dolls. (In a particularly disquieting shot, one woman is standing at a clothesline raising and lowering her arm again and again, with a single tear trickling down her cheek.) Vision tries to talk to them, but no one answers. He finally finds Agnes stuck in her car at a stop sign, and "unfreezes" her from Wanda's control. Agnes recognizes him as one of the Avengers, even though Vision doesn't remember what an "Avenger" is--and Agnes asks if she's dead, because, as she tells Vision, "YOU'RE dead." Over and over. Repeating the phrase as her voice rises in hysteria, until Vision, to stop her, finally returns her to Wanda's control. He tells Agnes he will get help, and she starts her car and moves off. She's at the border of Ellis Avenue, where Wanda had previously told the twins never to venture past. But Vision walks to the energy barrier, and starts to push his way through it. This takes a herculean effort, and sets off alarms at the S.W.O.R.D. compound on the other side. Hayward and his people jump in their vehicles to meet Vision, and watch as the synthezoid forces himself through the barrier, telling them the people inside need help--and then Vision starts to crumble, with pieces breaking off him and being dragged back inside. 

(Which is another mystery: if Wanda's power is both a) generating the barrier; and b) keeping Vision's corpse operating, why didn't she sense when he stepped through it? Instead, it's left to their son Tommy, who like his brother Billy has abruptly developed powers--Billy is zipping around in a supersonic blur like Pietro--and who can see "inside his head" what is happening to his father. He runs to Wanda and tells her, "Dad's in trouble. I think he's dying." Which Wanda apparently didn't know until she is told.)

Vision collapses outside the barrier, and Wanda flings up her hands, stopping time, movement and everything else in Westview. This leads to the best action scene of the episode, as she expands the energy barrier. The entire huge red wall moves out in every direction, rippling across the landscape like a gargantuan lava flow, overwhelming everything in its path. Hayward jumps in his SUV and flees, and the officers/FBI agents who are left behind are transformed into clowns, with the S.W.O.R.D. encampment becoming circus tents. Darcy Lewis, who was trying to help Vision and got handcuffed to a vehicle for her trouble, is sucked inside. Jimmy Woo and Monica Rambeau, who left the compound earlier to meet Monica's mysterious "guy" (who had texted her saying he was coming, supposedly bringing another way into the "Hex"--Darcy's nickname for the area) similarly see the barrier coming and put the pedal to the metal trying to outrun it. We're not shown where this expansion stops, but the last shot of the episode is Wanda opening her eyes, which are now blood-red orbs. 

So what's going to happen now? Because Vision clearly knows Wanda is causing this, even if she can't remember why it started or knows how she's doing it. In fact, it seems after their little argument in the last episode that was interrupted by Pietro's arrival (and Wanda insisted, "I didn't do this," so who did?), Vision is avoiding confronting Wanda--except for some snarky remarks as he leaves to go on his Halloween patrol. (And in one of this episode's many Easter eggs, both Wanda and Vision are wearing their classic Marvel costumes.) But after Vision comes back to himself and realizes that, to save him, Wanda both expanded the boundaries of Westview and dragged a great many more people into its maw--what then? 

Three episodes left. 

     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Review: Undiscovered Country, Vol. 1: Destiny

Undiscovered Country, Vol. 1: Destiny by Scott Snyder
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is one weird little comic. I finished it, but I think there's some major problems with it. There's a two-page explanation in the back of how the two writers got together and came up with the concept. As far as I can tell, they got carried away with their *BIG IDEA* and forgot to work out the details of that Big Idea....and as we all know, the devil is in the details.

The original concept is fairly promising though. Thirty years ago, the US abruptly shut their borders and withdrew from international affairs, going completely isolationist. (And when I start thinking about that, the problems began popping up right away....like, how are they going to get the energy and oil supplies to do that? Not to mention that just about everything nowadays--clothes, computers, phones, a helluva lot of pharmaceuticals, cars, and on and on and on--is being manufactured in China and Mexico?) There's even a total communications/internet blackout (huh??? like that's ever going to happen. I can immediately think of two companies that would never allow such a thing: Disney!! and Amazon!!), so for the past three decades, the country has fallen into a sort of "black hole." (Aaaaand, pray tell, what happened to Alaska and Hawaii, and the US protectorates: Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, among others?) Outside the borders (so, y'know, what'd they do, build the Great Mexican-Canadian Wall? Yeah, apparently so...there's a timeline for what's known as the Sealing at the end of the book. One hopes this wall is a little sturdier than the one Trump tried to build), the world is being plagued by the Sky Virus, which has greater than an 80 percent kill rate and is spreading rapidly. Then, out of nowhere, the US reaches out...and offers the rest of the world a cure. (And if they were truly as cut off and isolationist as advertised, with no air or other travel in or out, how would they even get samples of the virus?)

(I think I'm talking myself out of that second star.)

A team is invited in to meet with US leaders and negotiate for the cure, and of course everything goes south. Because inside the country is a crazy bananapants sort-of society that doesn't make a lick of sense, which involves (apparently) genetic engineering--the bad guys ride huge fishes across the desert instead of horses, and their leader, the Destiny Man's, mount is a talking carnivorous bison!--"gravitational lensing" that makes plants grow really really fast, some sort of post-apocalyptic dystopia, an (old, retired) space shuttle held aloft by two blimps, and an antagonist that spouts the worst of conservative/libertarian cliches (in black and white inks to boot). 

Now I realize this is a comic book universe, and in those, sometimes logical worldbuilding is in short supply. But this seems to be a worse example than usual. The basic storyline of trying to get the cure for the Sky Virus is not bad, and neither are the characters. The art, for the most part, is interesting. But the more I thought about it after I finished reading, the worse the worldbuilding became. There's also the little matter of the characters, at the end, waxing rhapsodic about rediscovering the American dream, and not acknowledging that this was pretty much for white people only. (There is only one offhand reference to slavery in the entire volume, and the Native American genocide is seemingly forgotten.) I can't imagine the two writers spent so much time on it, per their own admission, to turn out...this.

(Yeah, that second star is too high. But screw it, I've already downgraded it once, I'm not going to do it again.)

I'm glad the writers became such fast friends, and all that. But damn, they need some worldbuilding lessons. 

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Review: Come Tumbling Down

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This fifth entry in the Wayward Children series returns to the saga of twins Jack and Jill Wolcott, and their Lovecraftian-tinged alternate fantasy world the Moors, where Jill is the adopted daughter of a vampire lord and Jack is studying that world's version of "science" under a very Victor Frankenstein-like mentor.

But Jack, together with her girlfriend Alexis, has suddenly returned, through a door to our world. She has come to ask for help from her friends at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, because her twin sister, Jill, has forced her to switch bodies and has stolen Jack's body. Jill wants to use her sister's body for her vampire lord to turn her at the next full moon, and Jack is asking for help to stop her.

I've always liked the Wolcott sisters best of the characters introduced so far in the series, so I really enjoyed this continuation of their story. It's a tragic, brutal continuation, of course; the Moors is that sort of world, and the sisters, having been molded by it, are that sort of characters. Jack has OCD and is obsessed with cleanliness and sterile environments, and cannot stand the thought of living in her sister's germ- and blood-riddled body. Jill is envious and spiteful, jealous of her sister and wishing to pay her back for everything that has happened to them since they landed in their alternate world. They are both monsters--but as this story points out, Jack is the better one.

Jill shrieked and dropped the molten remains of Jack's glasses, cradling her wounded hand to her chest. The metal had burned through the leather of Jack's glove. "It isn't fair," she whimpered. "You get everything and it isn't fair and I'll beat you, I swear I'll beat you, I swear I'll win next time, I swear--"

"You'll never give up," said Jack softly. She pulled her hand out of the loop formed by her own cravat and started pushing her sister inexorably toward the wall, using her own superior strength--the strength born from a lifetime of hard labor--to overcome Jill's vague attempts to struggle. "You'll keep coming, and coming, and coming, and hurting the people I love."

"Yes," spat Jill. "Until I win."

"The Moors turned us both into monsters," said Jack. The resignation in her tone was a roll of thunder, heavy and unforgiving. "But it did a better job with me."

The Wayward Children series is a portal fantasy that can get pretty dark. There are lighter, fluffier worlds, such as Confection, the home of one of the featured characters, that has cotton-candy clouds and a strawberry jam sea. But the world of the Moors is dark and bloody, and altogether fascinating. I'm glad the author returned to it for this story. The only quibble I have about this book is the omniscient narrator, as I've never been a fan of head-hopping, and unfortunately that's what happens here. But McGuire handles that POV about as well as it can be handled, I think. I also appreciated her handling of Jack's OCD and the themes of knowing one's place and identity and making a stand for both, even if other people disapprove. This is a very good entry in the series, and (so far, anyway) brings Jack and Jill's story to an end.

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Streamin' Meemies: The Expanse Season 5 Overview and Episode Ratings

 

The fifth and penultimate season of The Expanse just finished up on Amazon Prime, and while I didn't remark on individual episodes as they were airing, I wanted to say something about the season as a whole. Prior to this, I thought season 3 (the last season aired on SyFy) was the show's best season. That season covered roughly the final half of book 2, Caliban's War, and the entirety of book 3, Abaddon's Gate, with the latter book being crammed into the season's final 7 episodes. (I say "crammed," but the writers did an admirable job of boiling that ten-pound doorstopper of a book down into seven episodes.) Then, after its cancellation by SyFy, the show was picked up by Amazon (thank all the gods). Seasons 4 and 5, with ten episodes each, have covered book 4, Cibola Burn, and book 5, Nemesis Games (although some characters/plot points from Nemesis also showed up in season 4). Now, I will preface this with the caveat that I have read neither Nemesis Games or book 6, Babylon's Ashes, so I'm not comparing streaming-Expanse to book-Expanse. But just taking Season 5 on its own, it was the show's best season to date. 

To me, this was due to this season's focus on the characters. The protomolecule storyline that has driven the series from the beginning was taken a step back (except for the finale, where it roared back to threatening life), and each one of our four main protagonists--Holden, Amos, Alex, and Naomi, along with new regular Cara Gee, as Camina Drummer, Shohreh Agdashloo's Chrisjen Avasarala and Frankie Adams' Bobbie Draper--had their own story. This isn't to say the season didn't have its own overarching plot. It did, and it focused on the Belter terrorist Marco Inaros (the largest face in the background of the above picture). Among other things, Marco assembled his own Belter Free Navy, stole, hijacked and traded for Martian ships and tech, blasted his way through the Ring in the season finale...and slammed three stealth-coated asteroids into Earth. All of our main characters' storylines tied into this event. But I for one appreciated Steven Strait's Holden being featured less prominently this season, as it allowed the other characters to shine. Cara Gee, as Drummer, Wes Chatham as Amos, and Dominique Tipper as Naomi delivered powerful performances, and Tipper in particular owned episodes 7 and 8, "Oyedeng" and "Hard Vacuum." Wes Chatham's spotlight episodes were episode 2, "Churn" (which incorporated his Expanse novella of the same name that I haven't read), episode 5, "Down and Out," episode 6, "Tribes," and episode 9, "Winnepesaukee." This last episode also features a nail-biting, nearly one-shot running gun battle that I don't think I've ever seen on The Expanse before. 

Now, I've seen people on Imbd complaining this season--or at least the middle--was slow, draggy, etc. To which I'm tempted to say, oh for fuck's sake, you have no idea the depth of what you're watching here. The entire season, to my mind, was very well structured, with definite peaks and valleys. There were riveting episodes like ep 4, "Gaugamela," (this is the ep where the asteroids actually slam into Earth, and it'll have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish) followed by more reflective eps that allow our characters to absorb what has happened and try to figure a way out of their predicament. These more reflective episodes, while not exactly lacking in action their own selves, delve into the characters in a most satisfying manner. For instance, in episode 6, "Tribes," Amos realizes just what his post-asteroid-impact struggle on Earth is doing to him and knows he has to get back to his family aboard the Rocinante as quickly as possible. No, Season 5 is not as full of action as Season 3 was. But the action that exists is well balanced with character moments and development, and to my mind delivers the superior viewing experience. 

So: the two best episodes of the season were Episode 4, "Gaugamela," and episode 10, the finale, "Nemesis Games." For anyone wishing to nominate these episodes for awards, be aware that "Gaugamela" was released in 2020 (as an example, it's damn well going on my 2020 Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form Hugo ballot) and "Nemesis Games," airing this year, will qualify for 2021 awards. Next comes the two Naomi-centric episodes (there are others, such as episode 3, "Mother," directed by Thomas Jane, but these two are the standouts) "Oyedeng" and "Hard Vacuum." Amos has a triptych of episodes that I think are in the next tier: "Down and Out," "Tribes," and "Winnepesaukee." The remaining episodes, "Churn," "Exodus," (episode 1) and "Mother," I am placing at the bottom of my list, but this is not to say that they were bad. Far from it. I'm a bit ticked that Amazon released most of the episodes weekly instead of dropping them all at once, although I understand why they did it. But if not for that, I would have nominated the entire season for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. 

There is only one season left of this outstanding show. And to think, if it had not been for the Expanse fans petitioning Amazon after the series was canceled by SyFy, we would have missed the excellence of what we're seeing. For anyone who has not watched any of The Expanse, all five seasons are now available on Amazon Prime. Please give it a chance. You won't regret it. 

Streamin' (Madverse) Meemies: WandaVision Season 1 Ep 5, "On a Very Special Episode"

 

 

I guess I'll have to start including Spoiler Warnings for these reviews, something I don't normally do. But with the shift to including the outside world in the last episode, and the parallel tracks in this one juxtaposing what's happening in Wanda's Westview bubble and what's happening outside, there's a lot of bombs being dropped. (Sometimes literally.) This series is being reviewed pretty extensively, I think, so I'm sure most of you already know what I'm talking about. Nevertheless, for anyone who hasn't had a chance to watch this yet....

SPOILER

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Okay. Here we go. 

As I said, there are two parallel storylines in this episode: the outside looking in (the S.W.O.R.D. camp, with Monica Rambeau, Darcy Lewis, Jimmy Woo, and the head of S.W.O.R.D., who in this episode was revealed to be a real asshole), and the inside looking in, with Wanda, Vision and the twins. The latter is the sadder story of the two, as despite Wanda's increasingly desperate attempts to keep control, it's obvious that Vision is catching on to what she's doing. It's also apparent that he doesn't like it one bit. In the very first scene, when the now Jazzercise-clad neighbor shows up to rock the screaming twins, there's an odd bit where Vision doesn't say the dialogue Agnes thinks he's supposed to say, and Agnes asks Wanda if they should start the scene over. The two of them laugh hugely and try to hustle past this break, but of course Vision has noticed this and questions Wanda about it. Then he is (conveniently) distracted by Tommy and Billy's sudden aging up to five, which Agnes witness and doesn't blink an eye over. (There's two other instances in the episode of Agnes witnessing Wanda and/or the twins doing impossible, magically powered things, and not only does this not freak Agnes out, she makes snarky remarks about it. The mystery of Who Exactly Is Agnes is going to be very important, I think.)

Later on, back at "Computational Services" where Vision works, we've progressed to the early Apple-II computers (at least that's what they looked like) and Vision's coworker Norm making a big deal out of "electronic mail." But Vision downloads an e-mail which actually comes from Darcy Lewis and the S.W.O.R.D. crew outside, mentioning the "Maximoff anomaly." He is so upset by this that he presses his hands to the monitor to wipe it from his sight, and then uses the same gesture on Norm's head when Norm won't shut up. This has the unintended side effect of momentarily loosening Wanda's hold on Norm, and Norm begs Vision to make Wanda stay out of his head. He's also frantic to contact his family, which disturbs Vision mightily. All this comes to a head in the last scene in the episode, where Vision confronts Wanda at home. He demands to know what she's doing and why.

There are quite a few things revealed in this scene, among them that Vision can't remember anything from before Westview, which would make sense since he was, y'know, dead before Westview. Wanda is either partially or wholly in control of the Westview bubble (and there's a rather sinister moment where Vision states, "You can't control me like you do them," meaning the townspeople, and Wanda says, "Can't I?"), but she also admits that she doesn't know how she got here or why it started. The fight starts with Wanda making the end credits roll as Vision questions her, and then both she and Vision rise in the air and hover as they continue to argue. Then Vision asks why there aren't any other children in Westview and why the playgrounds are empty. After that, right at the end of the episode, the doorbell rings--and Wanda protests, "I didn't do that," only to realize that Vision doesn't believe her--and I will get to who was at the door in a minute. 

The twins, Tommy and Billy, figure prominently in this also, both in that typical sitcom way of children learning a sad lesson and the WandaVision sitcom way of children aging themselves up from zero to five and then five to ten when they want to adopt a puppy they found. (This is another thing that is done right in front of Agnes, along with Wanda's manufacturing a collar out of thin air for said puppy.) In the second half of the show, following another Marvel universe-pertinent commercial break ("Lagos" brand paper towels), Sparky (the dog) wanders off, and Wanda and the twins roam the streets in search of him. Turns out he got into Agnes' azalea bush and was poisoned by eating the leaves. (Agnes has the dog supposedly bundled up in her arms, but we don't actually see the dog's body.) There follows another typical sitcom moment when the twins cry over Sparky, set against a WandaVision sitcom moment where they beg their mother to resurrect Sparky and bring him back. (And in a supremely ironic bit of dialogue, Wanda refuses to do so, saying that there are rules that have to be followed and death can't be reversed, even though that's precisely what she's done with Vision.)

In the outside Westview S.W.O.R.D. storyline, Captain Monica Rambeau, who Wanda kicked out of what Darcy Lewis calls "the Hex"--the hexagonal-shaped bubble of Wanda's power--is debriefed (and her xray scans are eerily blank, which no doubt will come into play later on). She admits that Wanda controlled her, that Wanda's voice was in her head and "it was grief." Hayward, the head of S.W.O.R.D., hold a meeting and brings everyone up to speed, giving them Wanda's history with Hydra and the Avengers and all but proclaiming her a sentient weapon/terrorist. Monica objects, and Hayward shows the gathered crowd the footage where, nine days ago, Wanda stormed a S.W.O.R.D. research facility and took away Vision's dismembered corpse. In the back of the room, after Darcy Lewis calls Hayward a "dick" (in a quick cutaway bit of editing, we don't actually hear the word, but we know that's what she said), Darcy raises a pertinent and prescient question: since Wanda has "the world's only vibranium synthezoid in Suburbia playing Dad, what happens when Vision learns the truth?" 

After this meeting, Monica is trying to figure out a way to get back into Westview and surmises that period-appropriate technology could penetrate the surrounding force field. They find an 80's drone and send it in, and Monica tries to talk to Wanda. Hayward, however, tries to use the drone to shoot Wanda (told you he was an asshole). This does not work and leads to the most dramatic scene in the episode: Wanda brings down the drone, picks it up and carries it outside the Westview bubble, emerging in her modern Infinity War-style superhero costume. She knows what S.W.O.R.D. is there for and what they're doing, and she warns them off. Once again Monica tries to talk to her, finally asking: "What do you want?" 

"I have what I want," Wanda says, "and no one will ever take it from me again." 

She then forces all the soldiers standing around who have drawn beads on her to shift their aim to Hayward instead, and turns around and walks off. As she disappears inside the force bubble, it turns a whole lot redder and arches a whole lot higher, which makes me doubt any kind of tech, 80's or otherwise, will ever make it through from here on out. 

(This also makes me suspect that at the end of the show, it's not Monica who will talk Wanda down--it will be Vision. Vision, who cannot live with what Wanda has done to bring him back to life.)

Finally...back to the doorbell. Wanda opens the door and gasps. We see the back of a man's head, silver hair on top and dark underneath. This proves to be Wanda's formerly dead brother, Pietro. (In a meta bit of casting that nearly exploded the internet, the actor playing Pietro isn't the one from Avengers: Age of Ultron, but rather the X-Men movies. And in a really meta snippet of dialogue as she watches this episode on her TV, Darcy Lewis remarks on it: "She recast Pietro!") This was foreshadowed by a bit of dialogue: y'all remember from episode 3 when Wanda said she "had" a brother? In this episode, when questioned by one of the twins, she says she has a brother. Present tense. And she's separated from him, which makes her sad. Of course, with the real-world announcement from Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige that Marvel's Phase 4 movies, particularly the upcoming Dr. Strange sequel, will feature the multiverse, and since this very show is being used to set up Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness...did Wanda reach into the multiverse and port an undead version of her brother over to this universe? 

Questions, questions. One thing for sure, though: Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany are absolutely killing their roles. The 80's trappings and theme song for this episode--drawing from, according to what I've read, Family Ties, Growing Pains and Full House--are spot on. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Wanda and Vision's story is going to end in tragedy. I don't know how it could be otherwise.

 

Review: This Vicious Cure

This Vicious Cure by Emily Suvada
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the Mortal Coil trilogy. I've rated the previous two books highly, but this one felt like a bit of a letdown. Primarily because it seemed to me that the inconsistencies and implausibilities in the worldbuilding, which to be fair were present in the previous two books but weren't emphasized as much, really started to show in this one. Also, these books have always been fast-paced and full of twists and turns, but here the pace seems to be not so much fast for its own sake but a means of covering up the strains at the seams. 

Just as an example, this is a world of nanotechnology and genetic engineering beyond anything currently available: CRISPR on steroids, in other words. Anybody can buy an off-the-shelf genehacking kit and do all sorts of things with it, and most of the characters in all three novels are expert genhackers. People also have "panels" that are basically implanted smartphones, that both connect to the internet and control the millions of nanites in each individual's body through apps. One of the characters, Mato, is described at a moment of crisis like this:

I remember Mato telling Catarina that he'd used the implant to take over some of his brain's functions--movement, breathing, digestion. When he walks, it isn't his brain that sends those commands to his muscles--it's the implant. He used it to free up more space in his brain for coding and thinking, but that means that when his tech shuts off, he's almost helpless. It's dangerous enough to switch off anyone's tech suddenly--it can cause a shock to their body, or even lead to their cells trying to reject the gentech that's inside them. When you're relying on code to breathe, it's even more dangerous. 

When I read that, I thought, huh? I'm sorry, but the brain, as an organ, is not comparable to a computer's hard drive. You can't "run out" of freaking RAM space in your brain! Also, the brain is way too complex and interconnected for an artificial implant to take over its basic functions. 

Also, in a chapter describing this meeting between our two viewpoint characters, Jun Bei and Catarina, Catarina's existence is described thusly:

"In a complicated way, you're really my sister. But that's not all. If the Viper marked your file as vector, then that makes sense--you have a gift, just like the rest of us. Your DNA spreads through cells. That's why the patches on my body are as big as they are now. And that must be why, after a few months in the desert, I tried to wipe half my brain and almost killed myself. I haven't been able to figure out what would frighten me enough to make me do that."

I sway, heat racing across my skin. "What do you mean?"

Her gaze locks on mine. "I think your DNA spread through my brain just like it spread through my body. And I think that after a while you woke up."

And I'm thinking, uncontrolled replicating DNA/cells, spreading through a person's body and brain? Does that sound like a character, or does that sound like cancer?  (Anybody remember the old X-Files episode, "Leonard Betts"? About the guy who was simultaneously cancer-riddled and had to consume cancer to survive, and who could regenerate his entire head from the cancer cells in his body? That's what this reminded me of. Somehow I don't think the author intended such a comparison. But having said all this, the solution to these two characters sharing the same body and occupying each half of the body's brain made more sense than the usual nonsense of digitizing one of the consciousnesses and uploading it--Catarina's half of the brain was transplanted into an unawake and unaware clone body.) 

Look, I can handle one, or even two, instances of breaking my suspension of disbelief. The first two books were more consistent in the worldbuilding and not so in-your-face with the breaks, and that, together with the strong pacing, made me able to overlook the things that didn't make sense. That delicate balance was simply not achieved in this book. Which is not to say I hated it--I pre-ordered the hardback, and I will keep it. But the final book was disappointing, and definitely not as good as the first two. 

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Review: The Burning God

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the Poppy War trilogy, and here Fang Runin's long, bloody, brutal journey finally comes to its end. She has undergone quite the character arc, from a naive teenager trying to enter a military academy to escape an unwanted marriage in her home village, to a General who lays waste to her entire country, with her titular Burning God (an elemental, chaotic spirit) in tow.

But if I could sum this book up in one sentence, it would be this: What happens after you win? Because in much of this book, Rin does win. Her Southern Army boots out the remains of the Republic (from the second book, The Dragon Republic) and even causes the invading, technologically superior Hesperians to flee. But a marauding General does not a ruling Empress make. You can see Rin's hubris and inability to turn her focus from conquering to rebuilding, and it is this that ultimately brings her down. Because of her, a widespread famine grips her country, Nikara, and the people she has professed to fight for undergo terrible deaths from cold and starvation. The economy and infrastructure of Nikara has broken down, and Rin is simply unable to fix it.

Anybody who has read these books knows there can't be a happy ending. There isn't. But given this story and these characters, it is the only ending possible, and it is wholly earned. The epilogue, told from the point of view of Rin's fellow shaman, gives the reader a small tinge of hope that Nikara might someday be able to survive and recover. Don't start any of these books if you can't handle blood, gore and relentless bleakness. This is not an upbeat book by any stretch of the imagination, and the characters, especially Rin, are brutal, ruthless monsters. But this is definitely the sort of book where the phrase "everybody is the hero of their own story" applies. Rin is not likable, but she is fascinating. As is her story.

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Magazine Roundup: Apex Magazine, January 2021

"Root Rot," Fargo Tbakhi

This seems to be replaying the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Mars. I don't know enough about that to comment on it, and as a result I couldn't really get into this story or character. The prose style is jittery, with long run on sentences, which is admittedly appropriate for a main character who's given up and is drinking himself to death. Still, I didn't like this very much.

Grade: D

"Your Own Undoing," P H Lee

This is good. It's a fantasy of a master sorcerer overcome, twisted and enslaved by her own student. But it's also a story about stories, the power a good story has over us, and how to both use the story and escape from its trap--by writing your own ending. 

Grade: A

"Love, That Hungry Thing," Cassandra Khaw

I'm not sure if this is SF, horror, or both, and either way I didn't care for it. It seems to be a fragment that is so caught up in its sense of creepy atmosphere that it forgot it also needs to be a story. The end dribbles away into nothing and the worldbuilding makes no sense. It's well written and the prose is sharp and lovely, but it ends up being an empty shell, for me. 

Grade: D-

"Mr. Death," Alix E. Harrow

Alix E. Harrow is one of my favorite authors, and she knocks it out of the park here, with this beautiful story of a soul reaper who meets the one soul he can't bear to ferry across the river. This story alone is worth the price of the magazine. 

Grade: A+

"The Niddah," Elana Gomal

This is a post-pandemic horror story that could have only been written in the wake of Covid-19, and in fact references it. It's a reminder that pandemics are jump-starters for mass societal change....or in this case, regression. But the ending makes up for it--a sharp stinger that promises revenge.

Grade: B

"Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts," Merc Finn Wolfmoor

I don't often say that short stories need to be longer, but this one does. The worldbuilding is adequate for its 5300 words, but there's a universe here I would love to revisit. This tale of a former City guard who goes hunting for a girl's lost soul seems like it's just crying out to be expanded into a book.

Grade: B+

Streamin' (Madverse) Meemies: WandaVision Season 1 Ep 4, "We Interrupt This Program"

 

In this episode, WandaVision gets serious.

Whoever is running this series has an excellent grasp of pace. The first three episodes set up the wacky premise, with its decade-reflective sitcom jumps and slow expanding thread of horror, in three brisk half-hour increments. (I wonder if it's a coincidence that Disney Plus's first two original series, The Mandalorian and this program, are both knocking out their episodes in 30- to 40-minute time frames.) Last time out I was speculating which 80's classic sitcom would be referenced next. Instead, we get a full stop and a pullback that's more than a bit meta in that it involves the characters doing the very same thing we in the audience are doing--watching the episodes and trying to figure out what in the hell is going on. It's a clever little breather that answers quite a few questions while posing still others.

This episode, in its opening sequence, also focuses on something the Avengers movies never had the time or seemingly the inclination to do--the aftereffects of the Snap, Thanos' dusting half the universe in Infinity War, and the Blip, the restoration of said half in Endgame. In this case, the Blippee (sorry, couldn't resist) is Monica Rambeau, the daughter of Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers' best friend in Captain Marvel. She is reverse-dusted back to life in her mother's hospital room five years later, not knowing that her mother has died in the interim. This is a very effective sequence of Monica dashing down the hospital corridor surrounded by chaos: people popping back into existence, filling the rooms and hallways, and overwhelming the hospital. Finally, a doctor who worked there previously spots Monica and explains what happened. I do wish this scene had gone on longer, as society coping with the aftermath of the Marvel superheroes knocking heads has been sorely lacking till now. 

It's established that WandaVision is taking place three weeks after Endgame, when Monica returns to work at S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division), the agency founded by her mother, presumably after the events of Captain Marvel. The agency's director says she's one of the first to return, even though it's obviously too soon, and he farms her out to the FBI on a missing persons case...taking place in the town of Westview, New Jersey. The FBI agent on the case turns out to be Jimmy Woo, from Ant-Man. He's looking for someone in the witness protection program (and we never find out who this is) who was in Westview, and who has vanished--along with the entire population of the town and everyone's memory of it. This is driven home when Monica and Jimmy have a conversation with two police officers while they are standing right in front of a billboard advertising Westview and the officers deny it exists. Monica sends a drone towards the town and it vanishes into an energy field. She approaches the field, touches it, and is sucked in herself.

24 hours later, there is a "multi-agency response team" set up around the town. This is where astrophysicist Darcy Lewis, from the first two Thor movies, comes in--she is part of a team summoned by the FBI to try to explain various readings captured by the team's equipment. The focus on the rest of the episode, except for the very end, is on Darcy and Jimmy Woo as the former solves some of the mysteries about Westview--it's Darcy who figures out that the high readings of cosmic background radiation emanating from the town are also hiding "longer wavelengths." She realizes this is some sort of broadcast, and sends the FBI underlings looking for an old "non-flat" television. She plugs this in, and voila, the team ends up being able to watch the exact same episodes we in the audience have been watching. This causes Jimmy Woo to utter one of the episode's best lines: "The universe created a sitcom starring two Avengers?" This is funny, but it's also sobering: Darcy confirms that Vision is "not Blipped, dead," and she is the one who sees Monica playing a character trapped inside the show. 

The anomalies from the first two episodes are also explained: the first drone Monica sent in was transformed into the red toy helicopter with the SWORD logo, and an agent in a hazmat suit was sent crawling through the town's sewers to bypass the hexagonal-shaped energy field, only to discover it extends underground and changes him into a beekeeper, complete with surrounding buzzing bees, as he passes through it. (He climbs out of the sewer and Wanda sees him and rewinds reality just as she did in episode 2, and we never see what happens to him.) Jimmy Woo's is the voice we hear over the radio, also in episode 2, trying to reach out to Wanda.

Then we reach episode 3, where after the (accelerated) pregnancy and birth of Wanda's twins, Geraldine/Monica makes the mistake of mentioning Ultron to Wanda. At first the scene cuts out just as it did before. Darcy rewinds it, trying to see what is missing. Then an alarm goes off (signaling that the energy field has been breached, by Monica being tossed outside) and Darcy and Jimmy rush out to see what is happening. Alone in the tent, Darcy's laptop now shows the rest of the scene: Wanda realizes that Monica/Geraldine doesn't belong in her little bubble, and brings up her powers--those red glowing energy fields emanating from her hands--and slams Monica through several walls and out of Westview. This is ominous and sinister, but afterwards Wanda seems shocked and dismayed by what she has done (and Elizabeth Olson plays this beautifully) and quickly knits both the walls and her little reality back together. Then Vision, who has been outside talking to the neighbors, comes in and asks about Geraldine--only it's the Vision from Endgame, after his death, his synthetic flesh grayed out, his eyes whited over, and a gaping hole in his head where the Mind Stone has been ripped away. 

Wanda turns around and sees him, and in that minute we know she realizes Vision is dead. But she quickly changes him back to his normal red-and-silver self. This zombie Vision seems to have at least some semblance of consciousness of his own, separate from Wanda, as he suggests that "we don't have to stay here. We can go anywhere." Wanda denies this: "This is our home. I have everything under control." She sinks back into the illusion and picks up one of the babies, asking what they're going to watch tonight. For the moment, Vision acquiesces, but in another nice moment from Paul Bettany, we can see the uneasiness rippling over his face. He knows something is wrong. Outside, Monica, lying on the ground after being thrown out, gasps up at the people surrounding her: "It's Wanda. It's all Wanda." In the very last shot, the camera fixes on Wanda and Vision holding the babies and sitting in front of the television, and the credits fade into Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child."

Well boy howdy, talk about raising the stakes. This episode was very well written and paced, with the comic relief (and drama-free competence) of Darcy Lewis to balance the creeping horror of the end scene. The odd, fourth-wall-breaking moments of the first three episodes are brought into context, and the stage is set going forward. And all of this is only packed into (since the show's end credits are really long) twenty-six minutes. This was outstanding, and I can't wait to see where the show goes from here.