Supernatural: Reichenbach S10E2

**NOTE** Apologies for the belated posting, life was a bit busy this week!

When I first learned of the name of this episode last week, it screamed of foreshadowing to me. Being a fan of BBC's Sherlock, and knowing that Sherlock staged his death during the Reichenbach Fall episode, which is a throwback to the original story, where Sherlock and Moriarty fall to their deaths at Reichenbach Falls, I have waited with an undercurrent of fear for what is to come of the current storyline. I did have a few geek moments, when references were made to not only The Princess Bride, but to Lord of the Rings.

Crowley: A pleasure doing business
Sam: what are you gonna do with it?
Crowley: toss it into a volcano, leave it on the moon. I’ll get creative. Believe me. I don’t want Dean getting his hands on the precious any more than you do. You brother knows I ratted. He tends to hold a grudge. I don’t want to get. Boned

Dean, even more off the rails than he was in the season premiere, is doing all that he can to prove that he cannot be controlled. I don't know if he's trying to prove it to everyone else, or himself, or he simply has a "give a damn" button that's in the OFF position. Castiel's condition continues to decline, and he has now learned that Dean is a demon, so he will do what he has to do to save Dean if he can, regardless of the cost to himself. Hannah has made the choice to stay with Castiel, to help him if she can. That includes attempting to make a deal with Metatron to recover what's left of Castiel's grace, which thankfully Castiel intervenes and puts a stop to it. Sam learns the truth of who Cole is, his father was killed by Dean years ago, when Cole was only 13 years old. Sam does manage to escape, or so we think, only to have Cole turn up later for his confrontation with Dean.

I'm not going to get too far into the blow-by-blow details of this episode, I'd prefer to focus on what this episode means in terms of where the guys have been, and where things could head after this. Character development is a big point with me, and I figure if you're reading this, you've probably already seen the episode.

I saw a post earlier today on tumblr, which referred to Sam choosing the name Wedge Antilles, and that Dean would know which name to give when he requested the GPS on Sam's phone to be turned on. Wedge Antilles is a Star Wars character, who was pushed into joining the Rebel Alliance, but his heart wasn't in it. He didn't want to be a soldier. His girlfriend was killed by Imperials while he was away on a job, and he joined the Rebellion so he could get revenge. Sound familiar? Let's take it a step further, and in the process, reinforce your faith in Dean. Where Sam is Wedge, Dean is Luke. How?

• He has a destiny to fulfill
• He follows in his father's footsteps
• He has a sibling he doesn't know about until he's an adult
• His sibling is captured/imprisoned
• He is tempted by the dark side repeatedly, until he finally gives in.
• Even though he gives in, he is able to turn away from it before it consumes him.

I have no doubt that Dean will recover from whatever this is. And let's be honest.. we're getting conflicting information here. The first episode Crowley says "The mark must be sated." and Dean completes the thought saying "Or else the demon takes over". But in tonight's episode, Sam tells Cas "Dean is a demon". So, either he is or he isn't. The demon is obviously in there somewhere, but as Crowley said in the premiere, "This is all Dean. His actions are his own". The mark obviously holds sway, and corrupts. So, is it Dean? Or is it the demon's influence? Regardless of Dean's mark requiring that he kill to sate the mark, there is still traces of his humanity left in tact, and I really don't believe that he will completely abandon it. Sam and Cas would not allow that to happen. The argument could be made that he killed Crowley's client in this episode because he felt the guy deserved it more than the client's cheating wife. I personally think the client had it coming, and not because of the misogynistic comments he made about how "it's different when a man cheats. We're not built for monogamy" and blahblahblahmisogyny. I think that Dean killed this guy simply because HE COULD, not necessarily to promote any kind of agenda by the show itself. He did, and he did it to show Crowley that he could not be ruled. He did it to show that he was the master of himself, and that he was beholden to none, except the mark. 

Castiel is fading, and he knows it. Tonight, his failing health endangered not only himself, but Hannah, as well as whoever was driving the 18-wheeler that almost hit them head on. Hannah went to speak to Metatron to strike a deal to recover Castiel's grace, but he wanted to be released, swearing that he would leave the Earth forever if she agreed to it. Castiel showed up in time to stop it from happening, and warned her that deals made in desperation always lead to epic failure. She gets angry and storms off, leaving Castiel to talk to Metatron, who tells Cas that everyone would die if he ever gets out of HeavenJail. This leads me to believe that there must be a way to recover the grace, without releasing Metatron. And where exactly IS Cas's grace? Metatron extracted it for the angel-expelling spell, but according to what he told Hannah, some of it must remain somewhere, he didn't use all of it. The Men of Letters believed that grace could be used to locate the angel the grace belonged to, so perhaps they could try that same thing but in reverse. 

Crowley... in a post-Dean universe, sits looking through pictures on his cellphone of himself with Dean, while "Hey There Lonely Girl" plays in the background, which gets all kinds of chuckles. He's lost his murder buddy, his bff, and now all his dreams of The Misadventures of Growley and Squirrel are going down the drain. I almost feel sorry for the guy, honestly. I mean it takes alot to form relationships, especially for a guy like Crowley. Not everyone is BFF To The King of Hell material. Being the King of Hell is a rather serious job, and it's good to cut loose and have a good time once in awhile. It clearly, from the picture, wasn't all about murdering and taking souls. There were good times too. *sniff*

Probably the most heart-wrenching moment of tonight's episode came after Sam has Dean in the Impala, and Sam comments that the car is filthy. That car is Dean's pride and joy... but Dean says "It's just a car Sam", which I'm sorry, but my heart lept into my throat. Almost as much as it did back when Dean beat the Impala after their father died. That wasn't "just a car" then, it was the only way Dean could deal with all the emotions he had pent up. It was the physical representation of the hurt and loss he felt, and how he felt let down by his father.

But most importantly... the Impala is not just a car. It is the most important object in pretty much the whole universe. And here's why:

A Message to the Readers

I've had this blog going for some time now, and if the stats are correct, and it's not just random pings from bot sites or something, I know I have actual living breathing people who read this thing. Soooo that being said, don't be shy, I'd love to hear your thoughts on my posts now and then! I'd prefer no flaming, nothing hateful (comments are moderated, so you'll have to put in the bot check stuff), and if any of you choose to interact with other readers, please be respectful of them as well. Can't wait to hear from you!

The Walking Dead - Season 5 Premiere - SPOILERS

The start of tonight's episode was quite possibly some of the most shocking things I've seen throughout the whole time I've watched this show. Readers of the graphic novels might not have been quite so surprised, I don't know, I haven't read them, and have no intention of reading them for awhile at least. Anyways, we pick up with the group going all Macgyver, constructing makeshift weapons with which to fend off their captors when next the captors chose to enter the train car. The top opens, in come the smoke bombs, because dragging out a few people from a train car full of people is easier when they're subdued. Several of the group (including Rick) are chosen from the train car and are taken to a room with a trough. Bound at the hands and feet, kneeling by this trough, you kinda know what's going to happen, but the brutality of it is another story altogether. 

The first one to take the smash and slice, is Sam, from the episode "Indifference" (the one where Rick makes Carol leave the group). Sam is played by Robin Lord Taylor, and may be better known to some as Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin, from Gotham--*Note* He has other credits to his name, but this is the one that is most recent, and I, so far, have thoroughly enjoyed him as the Penguin, far better than any other actor who has played the role. This scene is especially interesting, because as viewers of The Talking Dead would learn if you watched it, it was done in the same manner as the chest-burster scene in Alien, when the xenomorphling busted out of John Hurt's chest: The cast didn't know that's what was going to happen. Those freaked out reactions? That's not just acting, that's straight up, honest reaction. I'm going to be honest, I had my legs drawn up onto the couch and my hand over my mouth, just completely in shock and horror at what had just happened. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that people who eat people would do such a thing, but... well it happened and I'm not proud of myself, but lets move on. 

An unexplained explosion happens just in time to stop the butchers from whacking any of the main characters, and I swear I thought it was artillery rounds. We later learn that Badass Carol is behind it, and it was in fact, a propane tank exploding, taking with it several walkers and pretty much any chance in hell of Terminus remaining a safe haven... or well, as safe as one can be with cannibals. It's pretty obvious from the beginning that Rick's switch has been flipped, and he's begun channeling Shane when he needs to. He's been through so much, some of it deservedly and some not, and he's emerged as the leader he's needed to be all along. I could of course be wrong, but I think that coming out of the gate the way they have with this episode, we're going to be seeing just what sort of man Rick will be as a result of all that has happened, and that will have an affect on those around him. 

 Tyreese seems to be starting off this season with a little less aggression than we've seen out of him in the past. Understandable, after the carnage at Woodbury, then the prison, then that wonderful little psychopath Lizzie. 

Carol leaves him with Judith in a little cabin where one of the Terminus people was setting up some kind of explosive charge (it looked more like a bottlerocket thing to me), and the guy begins talking to Tyreese, telling him that Ty's too nice of a guy to survive, and that he probably won't live out the day. Tyreese proves him wrong, after taking out a herd of walkers BARE. HANDED. The scene afterwards cuts to the outside showing what Tyreese was capable of. He may not be a coldblooded murderer, but he would do anything within his physical power to protect a child.

Speaking of Carol, she has long been a favorite character of mine, and this episode did not fail me in that respect. After leaving Tyreese at the cabin, she goes full-on Rambo, coating herself in the goo of a spent walker, so she can walk amongst them in relative safety. I have to applaud her for even doing it, because even from the real life perspective, just the mere thought of it would have made me gag. I'm sure if push came to shove, I could do the same, but it would seriously have to be the worst case, life or death scenario to push me to do what she did. In the non-real world, the one that exists on-screen, imagining what that stuff would smell like, let alone feel like, I'd probably spend more time getting sick than I would putting that stuff on my skin. It amazes me that someone who started out meek and scared to death of her abusive husband, would turn into this amazing woman we see now.

Carol successfully gets past walkers to get into Terminus to help her friends, and comes to what I call "The Cannibal Memorial".. where she meets up with Terminus Mary (Denise Crosby, aka Tasha Yar from ST:TNG). I actually almost expected them to have known one another, or been related, given the way they reacted to each other when they first saw each other. That, thankfully, was not the case (I really so very much wanted Mary to get what was coming to her. Denise Crosby plays crazy bitch just a little too well). 

Finally, the group is all together now, with the exception of Beth, who has been kidnapped by person(s) unknown, in a car with a cross on the back window. I don't think it's any coincidence that there's a priest under attack in the previews for next week's episode. I'm honestly not sure which reunion scene I'm most happy with: Rick and Judith, or Carol and Daryl. 

Really hard call. But maybe now that everyone's together, things will get better. I'm most interested to see where the group decides to go next. And how long it will take Morgan to catch up. His appearance at the end of the episode brought a round of happy sounds from the kids, apparently he's made a bit of an impression with them. Welcome back, Morgan...

Doctor Who: The Mummy on the Orient Express

One more adventure, a last hurrah, if you will. That was the premise of the latest episode of Doctor Who. I'd like to take just a moment to go googly over how CA-FREAKIN-UTE Clara's hair was for this particular episode!! Just... too adorable. And I kinda hate it. Yeah, it's confusing being me, but I only say that I hate it because I'm totally jealous I can't pull off that hairstyle. Totally wrong face shape for it. Ah well.. we can't all be perfect.


Anyways... I admit it, I was looking forward to this episode, primarily for the fact that it gives a chance for Clara and the Doctor to play dress-up (I do love the ones where they go "in costume" so they'll fit in), but I could not have anticipated some of the particularly awesome parts: YAY MUMMIES! And jelly babies! And "Are you my Mummy?" throwbacks.

I do have ONE complaint: This steaming hot mess of "What the hell were you people thinking?!?!" Now now, before you get your hackles up... I'm not bashing the performer. I'm bashing the director of this performance. Foxes has a great voice, she has the range to carry a Queen song, easily. Hit play on this video here just for a basis of comparison.

Whatever they were thinking, having this singer come in and not use her talents in the appropriate manner, I don't know. I mean yeah I get that it was intended to be jazzy, and she's got a smoky voice enough for it, but that was just the wrong song to jazzify.

Further into the episode we learn that the dying on the train is not accidental, and that people have only 66 seconds to live once they are targeted by the "mummy", which is actually called the Foretold. There are myths and legends surrounding who and what they are, of course. It is learned that those on board the train were not there by accident or chance, they were selected. The Doctor himself had been invited some time back. He begins to do his "I'm a heartless unfeeling man" thing, and has Clara lie to Maisie to get her to agree to come to where the Doctor is. Maisie is the next target, which the Doctor has learned that the mummy targets those who are "weak" in some fashion. He hopes to use Maisie to save the others, as he had already done to two others before her. Somehow he absorbs Maisie's grief and pain and turns it on himself, so the mummy will target him instead. He figured out that the mummy was not a mummy at all, but a leftover of a bygone war, with malfunctioning technology inside it. At the last second, he stops the mummy, but the computer controlling everything shuts off the air inside the train. Somehow (it isn't explained), the Doctor "saves" everyone (or so he tells Clara), and he delivers them to the nearest planet. Clara herself awakens on a rocky beach. Clara questioned the Doctor and his motives, and he told her that "Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones, but you still have to make a choice", perhaps a reference back to the last episode. Sometimes doing nothing is worse than making a bad choice, and sometimes one has to shut off their emotions and do what needs doing in order to make that happen. Even if it means making the one person who believes in you, think you're a cold-hearted bastard with no remorse. The end of the episode, Clara and the Doctor return to the TARDIS, and Clara gets a phone call from Danny, who by this point is concerned as to what's going on, but supportive of course. Clara chooses at that moment, at the end of the phonecall, to keep going with the Doctor, rather than let it all just go.

Overall I'm pleased with the episode, but I'm getting a bit exhausted by the on again/off again nature of their relationship. I think that there's been alot of hype made over Danny Pink for him to just be a tertiary, peripheral character, so something needs to happen to bring him into the main parts of the story arcs. I think he has alot of potential to be a great character, if he's given the opportunity to grow.

Supernatural: Black S10E1

For months, we have waited... for months we have pondered potential story arcs, we have debated, we have rewatched old episodes just to get ourselves through the hiatus. And finally... on October 7, 2014, the moment came. Let's just take a moment to appreciate this...

I mean just look at it... BAM! Right up in your eyeholes.. and the upside-down pentacle? Loving it! No no no, I'm not saying Hail Satan, or Yay Baphomet or any of that. I'm just glad we're on the other side of the spectrum, rather than having angel wings and angel tablets shoved down our throats for a change. I'm also not going to get into a whole big summarization of the episode, just highlighting some of the best parts of the episode.

Dean's gone, playing pattycake with Crowley, leaving Sam to go hunting for him. Dean basically just Dear John'd his way out of Sam's life.

Meanwhile, Dean's off trying to assassinate his liver. Because livers are mean horrible evil things and deserve to die.

Well okay, so it's more a matter of self-loathing. And karaoke. Maybe it's really just numbing to kill the self-loathing because of the karaoke. It's hard to say.

Either way, this spells bad news. And by bad news, I mean running about without pants, bad. 

 I mean...laying in bed naked or mostly naked, thinking....stuff, bad.

Now now, before you start thinking "oh great, here we go, another Destiel blog", just wait. It's not like that at all. I'm just drawing correlations here. Plus, that was amusing as hell. And speaking of hell...

There was also that whole thing between Crowley and Dean, after kicking out the Roadhouse Ann Marie... The Bitch/Jerk exchange... I'm still not too happy about that. Amused, but not happy.

And of course, this wonderful gem:

I think it goes without saying that I am thoroughly enjoying a Crowley/Mark Sheppard-rich environment. Yes, Cas is sick, and I'm sad about that. But I think some miracle will happen that will allow him to regain his grace. I'm worried about who this person is that has kidnapped Sam. I'm even more worried that with Dean being a knight of hell, that he'll turn even more to the dark side. I keep seeing posts where others are concerned that Dean will force-feed Sam his blood, and Sam will relapse into his demon blood addiction, but what isn't being taken into account is the exchange between Crowley and Dean after Sam's phonecall: "The mark must be sated. If not..." and Dean breaks in and says "The demon will take over". Meaning, he has the demon within him, but HE, Dean Winchester, is in control of his actions. So the only way Sam would be forcefed the blood, is if Dean makes the conscious choice to do so, OR the demon takes hold. Dean is still the vessel of Michael, Sam is still the vessel of Lucifer. I don't think that should be overlooked, especially since it seems the boys have flip-flopped (Sam with Cas and Dean with Crowley). I also don't think it should be overlooked that the whole thing began with Cain and Abel either. However this plays out though, I know without a doubt that this is going to be the best story arc of the entire series!

Doctor Who: Kill the Moon S8E7

So it's officially official, I suppose... Ozzie Loves the Squaddie!

Or at least, that's what it appears to be. Clara and Danny are dating now. But what happened to "no hanky panky in the TARDIS"? So far none of that's going on in the TARDIS, so at least there's that. Which works, because the last two episodes show a clear division between Clara and the Doctor. It's almost heartbreaking to witness, simply because she made a promise to help him. Clara's purpose, literally her life's purpose, was to help the Doctor. 

In the most recent episode, Kill The Moon, Clara and the Doctor, along with the ever-abnoxious Courtney, end up going to the moon, because the Doctor told Courtney that she was "no one special", and Clara tells the Doctor that Courtney is becoming self-destructive because of him. So, the Doctor decides to make Courtney the "first woman on the Moon". But there's a problem (of course there is, haven't you been paying attention?): The moon has increased mass, causing increased gravity, and it's throwing things into chaos on Earth. The Doctor and his companions are met by astronauts sent to the moon with nukes to blow it up; a previous mission to the moon resulted in the deaths of the previous astronauts, who were found as corpses preserved in what seems to be spider webs. And did I mention the moon is breaking apart? The astronauts are armed, and the Doctor seems to antagonize them a bit (or make them feel silly for pointing weapons at him, which alot of times is the same thing), and eludes to the possibility of having unlimited regenerations.

It doesn't take long before one of the astronauts is killed by a spider, and Courtney has a close call but saves herself using some kind of disinfectant, causing the Doctor to realize that they aren't spiders at all, but germs. Understandably, Courtney's ready to leave. Not in 5 minutes, not 5 minutes ago, NOW. So Clara takes her back to the TARDIS where she should be safe. When she returns, she tells the Doctor that she knows the moon isn't destroyed, because it's there in the future, where she's already been. He imparts that it could be a hologram, and admits that he has no idea what is going to happen: The events taking place are a fluxed point, as opposed to the fixed points we have seen many times throughout the show. Anything could happen.

An investigation of a nearby crevice turns up the body of the astronaut that was killed earlier in the episode, and the Doctor himself is attacked. When the sunlight touches the spider-germ, it retreats back into the crevice (sunlight kills germs, it makes sense). So what does the Doctor do? OF COURSE he just jumps right in, to go take a sample. There's no catchphrase, no GERONIMO... he just jumps right in (we were a bit disappointed in that, but whatever). When he returns, he says that he has found amniotic fluid, and that the moon is an egg trying to hatch. The astronaut, Lundvik, wants to proceed with the plan to blow up the moon. The Doctor, not being from the Earth or the moon, chooses to remain impartial. Understandably so, because it's really not his choice to make, it's not "his" people, and it's really a horrible decision to have to make.. kill a living creature to save an entire planet, or potentially kill an entire planet to save one creature that has taken millions of years to grow large enough to hatch. Courtney wants to return, to have a say in what happens, and the Doctor instructs her how to bring the TARDIS back to him, which she does, and he leaves the three of them, Clara, Courtney and Lundvik, to make the choice. Clara argues in favor of letting the creature live, but Lundvik's interest is humanity only. Courtney also argues in favor of the creature, saying it's just a baby. Earth finally makes contact with them, and Clara tells them, all the people of the Earth should have a say: turn your lights off if you want to kill the creature, or leave them on to let it live. After the timer has elapsed, the people of Earth cast their vote: kill. Lundvik primes the detonator, and Clara hits the override control. The Doctor returns, and takes them into the future to see what would happen: They end up on a beach to watch as the creature hatches (it looks rather like a space version of a manta ray). In its place it leaves a replacement moon and flies away. The Doctor tells Lundvik that because of their actions that day, humanity spreads to the corners of the galaxy, that the day marked the point where humanity stopped looking down and began looking up again, to the stars. 

Lundvik remains behind in her own time, and the Doctor and his two companions return to Coal Hill School, where Clara confronts him. I don't believe I have ever seen her so livid.. she threatens to smack him so hard he'll regenerate. Her anger seems to stem from the fact that there was a huge choice to make, and they (she, Courtney, and Lundvik, along with everyone on the planet) could have died and he'd abandoned them. His responses make her feel like he's patronizing her, that her feelings aren't valid. She tells him to go away, that she never wants to see him again. When the TARDIS leaves, she's alone in her classroom doing her best to cover up the fact that she's been crying when Danny comes in and she's forced to tell him what happened. Danny, being the wisened one, tells her that she's not done with the Doctor, because she's still angry with him. Clara, at the end of the day, goes home to a glass of wine and stares out her window at the moon. 

The future of the show at this point, or rather Clara's future on the TARDIS, looks uncertain. To think that she could cut ties and leave the Doctor, rather than help him and be the friend and the guidance that he still so obviously needs, is unthinkable. This Doctor isn't like 9, 10, or 11, he's something different. He doesn't have the emotional compass of the last 3, in fact, he just has a switch, and it's either off or it's on, and most times it seems to be off. That doesn't mean he's a bad Doctor, it just means he's different. Should he have abandoned them on the moon? No, but it was obvious he couldn't be impartial.. his point was that no life is more important than another. He's killed enough, or so he thinks, which leads me to believe that the episode where the robo-guy ended up impaled after falling out of the steampunk balloon ship, the guy jumped, the Doctor didn't push him out. Should Clara be pissed that he made them make the decision themselves? No, I don't believe so... but I think she was well within her rights to be upset that he abandoned them. He could have easily just separated himself from the situation, gone into the TARDIS til a choice had been made. Is this the beginning of the end of Clara and the Doctor? Maybe. I think Danny was right. Anger is an emotion you feel when you want to fight for something, when there's still something there worth fighting for. There are still many adventures left for the two of them. I think the thing I liked most about this episode is Courtney.. I'm not a huge fan of her whatsoever, she's obnoxious. But having her join in on the adventure this episode was a nice change, the writers letting her have some character development rather than just being a peripheral character with no depth, and letting the character impact who the Doctor can be. That's the sort of thing he needs right now, and I really hope that Danny will get to join in on a few in the near future. 

Next week: The Orient Express meets Boris Karloff's The Mummy. Or something like it. I'm really loving this horror-esque feel the show seems to have this season. 

Sidenote: Could people seriously just stop casting their social justice/gender equality arguments into the mix and enjoy the show already? I swear if I hear the term "Bechdel test" one more time, I'm going to really lose my shit.