Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Summer DVR Dump: Doctor Who 6.03: "The Curse of the Black Spot"
“If this is just because I’m a Captain, too, you know, you shouldn’t feel threatened. Your ship is much bigger than mine, and I don’t have the cool boots or a hat, even.”
-The Doctor
We continue our journey through the first half of Doctor Who series 6 with a fairly entertaining pirate-themed one-off. This episode has a title (and music) that are rather blatant “Pirates of the Caribbean” rip-offs, but I’m a big fan of Captain Jack Sparrow and company, so I’m good with that. Even though everyone was complaining that the preview for this looked cheesy, I figured I’d like it anyway because it was about pirates. I was half-right. I didn’t love this episode when it first aired. I thought it was rather unimaginative after the opening two-parter blew me away with its production values. I must say that I enjoyed it significantly more on rewatch, though. I appreciated that it wasn’t a two-part episode, and I appreciated that it was a fairly simple story. Yes, I like television-as-art and shows I really have to think about, but sometimes, what’s great about Doctor Who is the simplicity and the ability to get lost in fantastical stories. Those types of episodes have been rather few and far between in the Moffat era.
The episode opens on the pirate ship before the TARDIS even arrives. The crew are doing their pirate thing, when all of a sudden, they start to hear singing. It’s a siren, and they all start to freak out. It turns out the pirates have good reason to be afraid. One of the pirates, who was unfortunate enough to be marked with a black spot on his hand, up and disappears. Not long after the pirate disappears, the TARDIS materializes, bringing the Doctor, Amy and Rory to the ship. Needless to say, they don’t exactly get a warm reception by the pirates. Amy is taken below decks, and the Doctor and Rory are positioned to walk the plank. The Doctor tries to talk his way out of trouble, but the pirates aren’t taking kindly to his trademark wordplay.
Surprisingly, it’s Amy who comes to the rescue. While below decks, she found a bunch of pirate garb and swords, and she decides to use it to save the boys. She manages to hold her own swordfighting against the pirates, which kind of surprised me at first. The Doctor covers his eyes at one point, when Amy has decided to swing across the deck on a rope, which I found pretty adorable. Amy crashes into one pirate and scratches him. The pirate says that Amy has killed him, which probably starts to explain why Amy was having so much success with her swordfighting. The pirates are petrified of sustaining any injury at all, because that’s what causes them to be marked with the black spot and draw the Siren. The pirates aren’t fighting aggressively because they think any minor scratch equals death.
In the middle of the chaos, Rory gets scratched and gets a black spot. The siren song starts, and Rory starts acting really strange. Giddy, almost. It’s a very entertaining performance by Arthur Davrill. The only way I can think to describe it is to say that it reminded me of the series 2 episode “New Earth” where Cassandra is inhabiting the Tenth Doctor’s body and checking him/herself out in the mirror. Rory is held back by Amy from getting to close to the Siren, but the Siren does take the pirate Amy scratched. The Siren doesn’t like Amy at all for keeping Rory from crossing over, and she turns red and sort of hisses at her before vanishing.
Everyone moves down to the ship’s hold, but it doesn’t provide any additional safety. The Siren appears again and takes yet another pirate. The Doctor figures she must be using water as a portal (there were puddles in the hold), so the safest place is probably the ship’s armory. Gun powder needs to be kept dry to work, after all. The group hears a noise in the armory, and it turns out that a young boy had stowed away in a barrel. The boy is the Captain’s son, named Toby. He’s coughing like crazy, so he’s clearly very sick. The Doctor thinks everyone should get in the TARDIS and leave to escape the Siren, but the Captain disagrees. The Captain thinks there’s a curse on the ship and leaving won’t do any good. The Doctor states several times throughout the episode that he doesn’t believe in curses, because curses mean you’re helpless. I found that philosophy pretty interesting. The Doctor in all three of the incarnations I’ve seen definitely does have control freak tendencies.
The Doctor takes the Captain to the TARDIS, and it’s fun to watch the Doctor show off. He does the whole “bigger on the inside” routine, of course. The Captain is somewhat impressed, but probably not as much as the Doctor would like. The Captain says that a ship is a ship, and he would probably be able to figure out how to fly the TARDIS easily. The TARDIS starts going wonky, so the Doctor and the Captain abandon it and return to the pirate ship. To make things even worse, the Siren takes the TARDIS. While the Doctor is showing off, mutiny is brewing back aboard the pirate ship. The crew breaks the news to the Captain’s son that his dad is a pirate, but he doesn’t want to believe it. His mother, who passed away recently, always told him that his father was a respectable Naval officer. The crewman who is being the most troublesome to the Captain’s son ends up with a back spot after a scuffle.
The Doctor and the Captain find the mutiny in progress, but before it has a chance to go very far, the Siren comes for the chief mutineer. The Doctor then figures out that it isn’t just water the Siren uses as a portal, it’s any kind of reflection. Of course, just as the Doctor is realizing that, the Captains son is polishing a piece of metal nice and shiny. The Doctor and the Captain get into the armory just in time and take the metal away. The Doctor starts trying to get rid of anything potentially reflective, forcing the Captain to start throwing his treasure overboard and breaking out the glass in the windows. The Captain really is not at all happy about the throwing treasure overboard part of the deal, especially when the Doctor wants to throw away a fancy crown. While this is going on, Amy sees a quick flash of the creepy lady from the window in the orphanage door in “Day of the Moon.” At the time, it was rather confusing and bizarre.
The Doctor and the Captain have a chat about whether the Captain can possibly change his pirate ways to take care of his son. The Captain doesn’t seem to think he can. He loves treasure too much. There isn’t much time to dwell on this, though, because a big storm brews up and the crew has a hard time sailing. The ship lurches, and the crown the Captain didn’t want to give up goes rolling across the deck. That provides enough of a refection for the Siren to arrive and take the Captain’s son (he got the spot because of the sickness that is making him cough). In all the chaos, Rory falls overboard. The Doctor releases the Siren by letting the reflection of the crown shine, and she goes after Rory. The Doctor figured that was the only way to possibly save Rory from drowning. The Doctor wants to follow the Siren, so he has everyone prick their fingers. Sure enough, the Siren appears.
The group has now traveled to wherever the Siren wanted to take them. The Doctor hypothesizes that they are now in a parallel universe, with a space ship occupying the same space as the pirate ship was in our universe. He goes on this lecture about how gateways can sometimes form between parallel universes, and I was a little peeved that there wasn’t a mention of Rose here. Considering the Doctor loved her and locked her away in a parallel universe and all. Seems like it would be relevant. Anyway, they find the space ship’s sickbay, and everyone runs to their loved ones, who are all on life support. Amy runs to Rory, the Captain runs to his son, and the Doctor runs to the TARDIS. It’s hilarious. He hugs the TARDIS and everything. It turns out that the “black spot” was actually the space ship taking a tissue sample.
Rory regains consciousness, and the Siren appears to put him back to sleep. The Captain tries to shoot at the Siren, but that just makes her red and hissy again. The Doctor sneezes, which provides a distraction for the Siren. She starts shooting out fire as a sterilization measure. That makes the Doctor realize that the Siren is actually an automated doctor for the space ship. Amy wants to help Rory, but the Siren won’t let her anywhere near him. The Doctor tells Amy to show the Siren her wedding ring, and when she does, the Siren presents Amy with a consent form. Now the gang is on their own to try to save Rory. If he is taken off life support, he’s going to retroactively drown. Rory decides that the best course of action is to teach Amy CPR, then be taken off life support with the hope Amy can revive him. The Captain and his son choose a different solution. The Captain and the crew are going to stay on the space ship so the Captain can stay with his son. Amy does the CPR, but it doesn’t seem to go well at first (Rory is seriously to this show what Kenny is to “South Park”). Because it’s television, though, Rory does eventually come back after an appropriate amount of suspense. Making up for that melodrama is the fact that we get to see a quick scene of the new crew of space pirates before the episode ends.
True Blood 4.07: "Cold Grey Light of Dawn"
“Since when has any fanatic been held back by the improbability of their righteous mission?”
-Bill
I don’t think I would say that “Cold Grey Light of Dawn” is one of my favorite episodes of “True Blood,” but I wouldn’t say it was bad either. The plot moved long very, very slowly, but there was some good character work. Pretty much the entire episode was everybody waiting for Antonia!Marnie to make a serious move against the Vampires. As people waited, they talked, which is what allowed for the character work. I’m ready for the plot to get moving again, which, judging from the end of this episode, looks to happen for sure next week. Several characters definitely ended this episode in serious jeopardy. I do like when “True Blood” tries to have a bit of depth, but I think this episode might have gone a touch too far in that direction. I like “True Blood” for the campiness, too. There really wasn’t a whole lot of campiness in this episode. Just a whole lot of dread. And character-revealing, but sedate conversations among several pairs of characters.
The episode opens in the prison cells at Bill’s house (which sounds vaguely dirty, but it’s not). One of the guards is trying to keep a Sheriff from hurting Antonia!Marnie. The Sheriff glamours the guard, and it appears that he is under Antonia!Marnie’s control. Antonia!Marnie makes the Sheriff kill the guard, but he has to do so without spilling any blood. I guess she wants to deny him a feed from this mess. The upshot of this is that Antonia!Marnie escapes, and she’s free to terrorize the vampires of Bon Temps. I know, we probably shouldn’t have too much sympathy for the vampires, but I’ve spent a lot more times watch their antics, so I’m pretty much on their side in this mess.
We then pick up Tara’s story, where she and her girlfriend are about to be attacked by Pam. Pam moves in for the kill, but suddenly there’s a huge commotion. People are playing paparazzi and taking video and photos of the attack with their cell phones. To put on YouTube, presumably. Pam leaves the scene without finishing what she started. Probably because the penalty for attacking humans is so steep, and she knows Bill will enforce it. Tara is freaked out about this, and as she and her girlfriend are driving down a road, Tara makes her girlfriend stop and leave her by the side of the road. Tara doesn’t want to have to worry about her girlfriend’s safety in the middle of all this vampire attack craziness. She starts calling out for Pam, wanting her to finish the job, but she meets Antonia!Marnie instead, who promises a way to be safe from vampires. But she needs Tara’s help.
Debbie and Alcide are out in the woods, participating in a ceremony to join the Shrieveport pack. Alcide doesn’t seem too thrilled about it. He’s worried about Sookie being out in the woods on a full moon, and that pisses Debbie off big time. They go searching for Sookie after the ceremony, and they find her still having sex with Eric in the woods. Awkward! Later, Alcide and Debbie are having sex, but Debbie isn’t very into it. She apologizes, and she wants to know if Alcide is still thinking about Sookie and Eric. She also wants to know if Alcide is in love with Sookie. And she turns on the waterworks. It’s really annoying, because Debbie is such a pathetic character. Although I could just be biased by how horrible Debbie is in the books. Alcide tries to reassure Debbie, and he says that he wants to be with Debbie forever. That can’t end well.
At Jesus’s grandfather’s house in Mexico, a major argument is going down between Lafayette and Jesus on one side and Jesus’s grandfather on the other. Jesus’s grandfather reveals that the whole deal with letting the snake bite Jesus was to prove that Lafayette is a medium to Lafayette himself. I guess he can’t argue he’s a medium after becoming his boyfriend’s uncle! Later, at a restaurant, Lafayette and Jesus have a very nice conversation about Jesus’s uncle and what exactly it means to be a medium. Lafayette still doesn’t seem especially thrilled with the idea of being a medium, but he does seem grateful that Jesus’s uncle decided to help them out. Back in Bon Temps, as Lafayette is cooking and Arlene is doing something nearby with Mikey strapped to her, he sees the ghost that has been haunting Arlene and her family all season. The ghost speaks French and sings to the baby. Lafayette is really freaked out. I guess he can see her because he’s a medium. While this is going on, Andy is having the most awkward date with Holly ever during Holly’s break. He’s going through serious withdrawal from V, and he ends up walking out on the date after about 30 seconds.
Hoyt goes over to Jason’s house, ostensibly to check on him, but he really wants to whine about how Jessica is being distant. Jessica, meanwhile, is with Bill, who is explaining about Antonia!Marnie and how she wants to make all vampires meet the sun and experience the true death. Bill calls a meeting with his Sheriffs and tells them to evacuate all their vampires from the state. Any vampire who stays behind needs to bind themselves with silver so they will stay in their coffins and not be compelled to go outside in the daylight. The Sheriffs, understandably, don’t love this idea. They don’t want to hide from Antonia!Marnie, they want to take the fight to her. On the one hand, I see their point. Hiding isn’t going to work forever. On the other hand, I see Bill’s point too. Antonia’s a necromancer, so it’s going to be really difficult to figure out how to defeat her when she has the power to control the vampires.
While the other vampires are preparing to go to ground all silvered up, Sookie and Eric are having massive amounts of sex. As you do. Then they have some pillow talk, which kind of rehashes their dilemma for the umpteenth time (and it won’t be the last time in this episode, either). Eric wants to know if Sookie wants him to ever get his memories back. Sookie is conflicted. She says she wants his memories back, but she also doesn’t know if she’ll want that Eric. She knows that even the Eric who has done horrible things for 1000 years is good at his core, and she hopes she’ll still want him, but she can’t be sure. Later (when both Sookie and Eric are decent, thankfully), Bill shows up at their house. He tells Sookie and Eric about Antoinia!Marnie and leaves silver chain that Sookie is supposed to use to bind Eric.
In the only substantial plot that’s really separate from the vampire/witch war drama this week, Sam has to take Tommy to the hospital after finding him passed out following his skinwalking adventure. The doctor says Tommy probably had food poisoning, and he wants to keep him for observation because he seems to be running a fever. Tommy wants to leave, so he tells the doctor that everyone in his family has a temperature that runs a little hot, and Sam backs him up on that. I think Sam’s going to regret that. Sam calls Luna to chat and flirt, but she’s pissed because she thinks Sam (who was actually Tommy impersonating Sam) kicked her out of bed. Poor Sam has no clue why he’s in the doghouse, so to speak. Sam gets a bit stalkerish and goes to see Luna at her workplace. The eventually work out that Tommy must have been skinwalking, and Luna confirms that Tommy’s earlier symptoms jive with her experience post-skinwalking. They both just kind of look at each other awkwardly, which was kind of amusing. Sam’s not so kind to Tommy, though. He chokes (but doesn’t kill) him, and he kicks him out of the trailer.
We then see all the vampires silvering themselves in for the day. Jessica is not taking well to the silver at all. It’s extremely painful for her, I guess because she’s a baby vampire. Once she and Bill are all tied in, they do have a rather nice chat. Bill is upset that he’s caused Jessica so much pain in both her lives, but Jessica is grateful. She much prefers being vampire to being human. They also talk about Jessica’s problems with Hoyt. She thinks she doesn’t love him as much as he loves her Bill tries to convince Jessica that just because things aren’t working out with Hoyt doesn’t mean that she doesn’t still have a heart. Bill is down about how bad things have gotten under his reign as King of Louisiana, and Jessica tries to convince him he’s doing a good job.
Pam undergoing treatment to try to look how she used to.
Eric’s not taking well to the silver, either, and it’s Sookie who has to tie him down with the chain. Eric wants Sookie to stay with him after the job is done, and she obliges. When there’s still half a day of sunlight left, Eric wants out of the silver chains. Sookie refuses, because she doesn’t want to risk losing him. She’s reminded of a time (in season 2) when pre-Amnesia Eric offered to die to save her. It was the last time he was bound in silver. This makes Sookie realize that Eric wasn’t all bad, but Eric is still not so sure. He tells Sookie that he really does not want his memories back.
It turns out to be a good thing Sookie kept Eric in the silver, because Tara’s been trying to recruit others to help Antonia!Marnie. She’s successful in recruiting Holly, and they have a plan to get a large group together. They all congregate, and Antonia!Marnie has to make a big entrance by having some candles spontaneously light before she enters the room. I thought that was pretty hokey. Antonia!Marnie gives a big speech asking for help and tells the other witches they can leave if they want. A few do leave, but not many. Those who are left start chanting, and Antonia!Marnie stands in the center of the circle, hovering. Literally. That was also quite hokey.
Jason goes to Sookie’s house to give her the good news that he’s not a werepanther. Sookie tells him she already knew that, but before the conversation can go any farther, the wind picks up. Sookie knows this must be the big spell, so she runs off to help Eric. Jason decides to run off as well to help Jessica. The spell makes all the vampires go completely nuts. They all desperately want to get out of their chains and into the sunlight. The people watching over them mostly manage to keep them from doing just that. Although there’s one vampire next door to Maxine Fortenberry who walks outside and promptly bursts into flames. Maxine’s reaction made me chuckle. Things are not so jovial at Bill’s house thought. Jessica manages to get out of her chains, then she kills the guard and takes the key to the prison cell. Meanwhile, Jason is running towards the house full steam, but he’s stopped by a guard. Before anyone can stop her, Jessica starts to open the doors to Bill’s house and steps out into the sun.
-Bill
I don’t think I would say that “Cold Grey Light of Dawn” is one of my favorite episodes of “True Blood,” but I wouldn’t say it was bad either. The plot moved long very, very slowly, but there was some good character work. Pretty much the entire episode was everybody waiting for Antonia!Marnie to make a serious move against the Vampires. As people waited, they talked, which is what allowed for the character work. I’m ready for the plot to get moving again, which, judging from the end of this episode, looks to happen for sure next week. Several characters definitely ended this episode in serious jeopardy. I do like when “True Blood” tries to have a bit of depth, but I think this episode might have gone a touch too far in that direction. I like “True Blood” for the campiness, too. There really wasn’t a whole lot of campiness in this episode. Just a whole lot of dread. And character-revealing, but sedate conversations among several pairs of characters.
The episode opens in the prison cells at Bill’s house (which sounds vaguely dirty, but it’s not). One of the guards is trying to keep a Sheriff from hurting Antonia!Marnie. The Sheriff glamours the guard, and it appears that he is under Antonia!Marnie’s control. Antonia!Marnie makes the Sheriff kill the guard, but he has to do so without spilling any blood. I guess she wants to deny him a feed from this mess. The upshot of this is that Antonia!Marnie escapes, and she’s free to terrorize the vampires of Bon Temps. I know, we probably shouldn’t have too much sympathy for the vampires, but I’ve spent a lot more times watch their antics, so I’m pretty much on their side in this mess.
We then pick up Tara’s story, where she and her girlfriend are about to be attacked by Pam. Pam moves in for the kill, but suddenly there’s a huge commotion. People are playing paparazzi and taking video and photos of the attack with their cell phones. To put on YouTube, presumably. Pam leaves the scene without finishing what she started. Probably because the penalty for attacking humans is so steep, and she knows Bill will enforce it. Tara is freaked out about this, and as she and her girlfriend are driving down a road, Tara makes her girlfriend stop and leave her by the side of the road. Tara doesn’t want to have to worry about her girlfriend’s safety in the middle of all this vampire attack craziness. She starts calling out for Pam, wanting her to finish the job, but she meets Antonia!Marnie instead, who promises a way to be safe from vampires. But she needs Tara’s help.
Debbie and Alcide are out in the woods, participating in a ceremony to join the Shrieveport pack. Alcide doesn’t seem too thrilled about it. He’s worried about Sookie being out in the woods on a full moon, and that pisses Debbie off big time. They go searching for Sookie after the ceremony, and they find her still having sex with Eric in the woods. Awkward! Later, Alcide and Debbie are having sex, but Debbie isn’t very into it. She apologizes, and she wants to know if Alcide is still thinking about Sookie and Eric. She also wants to know if Alcide is in love with Sookie. And she turns on the waterworks. It’s really annoying, because Debbie is such a pathetic character. Although I could just be biased by how horrible Debbie is in the books. Alcide tries to reassure Debbie, and he says that he wants to be with Debbie forever. That can’t end well.
At Jesus’s grandfather’s house in Mexico, a major argument is going down between Lafayette and Jesus on one side and Jesus’s grandfather on the other. Jesus’s grandfather reveals that the whole deal with letting the snake bite Jesus was to prove that Lafayette is a medium to Lafayette himself. I guess he can’t argue he’s a medium after becoming his boyfriend’s uncle! Later, at a restaurant, Lafayette and Jesus have a very nice conversation about Jesus’s uncle and what exactly it means to be a medium. Lafayette still doesn’t seem especially thrilled with the idea of being a medium, but he does seem grateful that Jesus’s uncle decided to help them out. Back in Bon Temps, as Lafayette is cooking and Arlene is doing something nearby with Mikey strapped to her, he sees the ghost that has been haunting Arlene and her family all season. The ghost speaks French and sings to the baby. Lafayette is really freaked out. I guess he can see her because he’s a medium. While this is going on, Andy is having the most awkward date with Holly ever during Holly’s break. He’s going through serious withdrawal from V, and he ends up walking out on the date after about 30 seconds.
Hoyt goes over to Jason’s house, ostensibly to check on him, but he really wants to whine about how Jessica is being distant. Jessica, meanwhile, is with Bill, who is explaining about Antonia!Marnie and how she wants to make all vampires meet the sun and experience the true death. Bill calls a meeting with his Sheriffs and tells them to evacuate all their vampires from the state. Any vampire who stays behind needs to bind themselves with silver so they will stay in their coffins and not be compelled to go outside in the daylight. The Sheriffs, understandably, don’t love this idea. They don’t want to hide from Antonia!Marnie, they want to take the fight to her. On the one hand, I see their point. Hiding isn’t going to work forever. On the other hand, I see Bill’s point too. Antonia’s a necromancer, so it’s going to be really difficult to figure out how to defeat her when she has the power to control the vampires.
While the other vampires are preparing to go to ground all silvered up, Sookie and Eric are having massive amounts of sex. As you do. Then they have some pillow talk, which kind of rehashes their dilemma for the umpteenth time (and it won’t be the last time in this episode, either). Eric wants to know if Sookie wants him to ever get his memories back. Sookie is conflicted. She says she wants his memories back, but she also doesn’t know if she’ll want that Eric. She knows that even the Eric who has done horrible things for 1000 years is good at his core, and she hopes she’ll still want him, but she can’t be sure. Later (when both Sookie and Eric are decent, thankfully), Bill shows up at their house. He tells Sookie and Eric about Antoinia!Marnie and leaves silver chain that Sookie is supposed to use to bind Eric.
In the only substantial plot that’s really separate from the vampire/witch war drama this week, Sam has to take Tommy to the hospital after finding him passed out following his skinwalking adventure. The doctor says Tommy probably had food poisoning, and he wants to keep him for observation because he seems to be running a fever. Tommy wants to leave, so he tells the doctor that everyone in his family has a temperature that runs a little hot, and Sam backs him up on that. I think Sam’s going to regret that. Sam calls Luna to chat and flirt, but she’s pissed because she thinks Sam (who was actually Tommy impersonating Sam) kicked her out of bed. Poor Sam has no clue why he’s in the doghouse, so to speak. Sam gets a bit stalkerish and goes to see Luna at her workplace. The eventually work out that Tommy must have been skinwalking, and Luna confirms that Tommy’s earlier symptoms jive with her experience post-skinwalking. They both just kind of look at each other awkwardly, which was kind of amusing. Sam’s not so kind to Tommy, though. He chokes (but doesn’t kill) him, and he kicks him out of the trailer.
We then see all the vampires silvering themselves in for the day. Jessica is not taking well to the silver at all. It’s extremely painful for her, I guess because she’s a baby vampire. Once she and Bill are all tied in, they do have a rather nice chat. Bill is upset that he’s caused Jessica so much pain in both her lives, but Jessica is grateful. She much prefers being vampire to being human. They also talk about Jessica’s problems with Hoyt. She thinks she doesn’t love him as much as he loves her Bill tries to convince Jessica that just because things aren’t working out with Hoyt doesn’t mean that she doesn’t still have a heart. Bill is down about how bad things have gotten under his reign as King of Louisiana, and Jessica tries to convince him he’s doing a good job.
Pam undergoing treatment to try to look how she used to.
Eric’s not taking well to the silver, either, and it’s Sookie who has to tie him down with the chain. Eric wants Sookie to stay with him after the job is done, and she obliges. When there’s still half a day of sunlight left, Eric wants out of the silver chains. Sookie refuses, because she doesn’t want to risk losing him. She’s reminded of a time (in season 2) when pre-Amnesia Eric offered to die to save her. It was the last time he was bound in silver. This makes Sookie realize that Eric wasn’t all bad, but Eric is still not so sure. He tells Sookie that he really does not want his memories back.
It turns out to be a good thing Sookie kept Eric in the silver, because Tara’s been trying to recruit others to help Antonia!Marnie. She’s successful in recruiting Holly, and they have a plan to get a large group together. They all congregate, and Antonia!Marnie has to make a big entrance by having some candles spontaneously light before she enters the room. I thought that was pretty hokey. Antonia!Marnie gives a big speech asking for help and tells the other witches they can leave if they want. A few do leave, but not many. Those who are left start chanting, and Antonia!Marnie stands in the center of the circle, hovering. Literally. That was also quite hokey.
Jason goes to Sookie’s house to give her the good news that he’s not a werepanther. Sookie tells him she already knew that, but before the conversation can go any farther, the wind picks up. Sookie knows this must be the big spell, so she runs off to help Eric. Jason decides to run off as well to help Jessica. The spell makes all the vampires go completely nuts. They all desperately want to get out of their chains and into the sunlight. The people watching over them mostly manage to keep them from doing just that. Although there’s one vampire next door to Maxine Fortenberry who walks outside and promptly bursts into flames. Maxine’s reaction made me chuckle. Things are not so jovial at Bill’s house thought. Jessica manages to get out of her chains, then she kills the guard and takes the key to the prison cell. Meanwhile, Jason is running towards the house full steam, but he’s stopped by a guard. Before anyone can stop her, Jessica starts to open the doors to Bill’s house and steps out into the sun.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Torchwood 4.05: "Miracle Day: The Categories of Life"
“Well that’s the point. People don’t fit categories.”
-Vera
Russell T. Davies’ “Doctor Who” had some very high highs and some very low lows, and I assume that holds true for his other work as well, including “Torchwood.” This episode, and indeed “Miracle Day” overall, appears to be one of the lows, unfortunately. There were some redeeming characteristics to the episode, such as the fact that it’s getting dark and twisty, and the stakes are being appropriately raised. There was quite a lot of bad that isn’t quite outweighed by the good, though. The worst offender was the character of Colin Maloney, the head of an overflow camp in San Pedro, California. Not only is he a “soulless bureaucrat” (I’d argue that bureaucracy actually has quite a lot of talent, even if it isn’t always used to its full potential), but he’s racist, sexist, and a Southern “good old boy,” too. It felt like a blatant pile-on to make it necessary for viewers to hate him, and it was overkill (pun not intended).
The episode opens with Juarez walking into City Hall for another day of medical panels. She’s surprised to find the place mostly abandoned. Juarez questions a staffer about what happened to the medical panels, and the staffer says the panels are over. A report has already been sent to Congress, and legislation in response to the report is pending. Juarez, of course, wants to see this report ASAP. It turns out that the report contains the new three category system for classifying human life. Juarez is rather appalled by this, and she calls Rex to tell him that she’s in on whatever Torchwood is planning to do about PhiCorp.
Meanwhile, Gwen arrives in the Cardiff airport. She uses her Yvonne Pallister fake identity, and she meets Rhys in baggage claim. He’s dressed as a chauffeur, which is kind of adorable. The family has a pow wow at Gwen’s mother’s house. It’s obvious that the relationship between Gwen and her mother is a bit strained to begin with, and the situation with Gwen’s dad has only made it worse. Gwen’s mother is every demanding about rescuing her husband. She has a sort of conspiracy wall set up at her house and everything. Andy drives Gwen to the Cowbridge Overflow Camp, where Gwen’s father is being held, and they are met by a massive crowd of people demanding news about their loved ones. Gwen manages to cut ahead of them and gets into the tent where people are filling out forms to try and contest their relatives’ placement in the camp. Andy tries to pull rank by telling the military guards that Gwen’s father is to be moved on police business, but the military folks won’t care. Gwen pitches a fit and almost manages to get arrested, but Rhys diffuses the situation. As they all leave the camp, Gwen decides a break-in is their only option.
In LA, Jack and Esther are walking along the beach, and Esther starts prying about Jack’s past. Lucky for Jack, he’s saved by his and Esther’s phones ringing. Both received texts from Rex because Dr. Juarez (Vera) has arrived. Rex introduces Juarez to Jack and Esther, and Jack manages to make an ass of himself by asking about Vera’s sleeping arrangements. It looks like the whole thing was for Esther’s benefit, but it still didn’t work for me. It was extremely awkward and not like Jack at all. Once Vera is settled, the team holds a mini briefing with Gwen participating through video phone. It turns out that the overflow camps are spreading beyond the US and UK to other European countries. Vera is brought up to speed, but it turns out that she already knew a lot, including about morphic fields. I guess Jack is suitably impressed, because he officially welcomes Vera to Torchwood.
In the next part of the briefing talks about how they need to know who is above PhiCorps and why they might need overflow camps. My guess is aliens. With “Torchwood,” it’s always aliens. There’s also a presentation about the new “categories.” Category 1 is pretty much brain dead, Category 2 is persistent illness/injury, and Category 3 is everyone else. Esther reveals that there is a section of each camp called “the Module” that is on the blueprints but can’t be seen on the aerial photos. It turns out the photos were doctored to hide them. Category 1 folks are supposed to go to the module, and the team wonders what PhiCorp might be doing with them there. The team’s first instinct is that it must be some sort of experiment. Gwen and Rhys are going to infiltrate the Cowbridge camp as a nurse and a truck driver, and Esther, Vera, and Rex are going to infiltrate the San Pedro, California camp as a clerk, medical panel observer, and patient. Jack calls an ambulance to take Rex to the camp, and I love the sendoff Jack gives him. He makes the paramedics think Rex is his boyfriend, and it’s hilarious. What’s not so hilarious is that Esther and Vera leave for the camp, too, leaving Jack behind. I thought that was just plain wrong, because Jack should be at the center of anything Torchwood.
The Torchwood “team” (minus Jack and Gwen who are actually, you know, Torchwood), enter the San Pedro camp with gusto. Rex learns about the concept of “pegging” from the nurse checking him in. There are red, white, and blue pegs, and blue are for category 2 and red for category 1. Rex is given a blue peg. Esther meets a fellow clerk, who seems rather listless and doesn’t really care about anything going on at the camp. Vera is greeted by Colin Maloney, the camp’s director. He manages to be both racist (remarking that Vera must not be bothered by the hot weather) and sexist (not realizing that she was actually Dr. Juarez) all in the space of a few sentences. As I said in the introduction, he’s a seriously obnoxious cliché. And he has a customized golf cart where the horn plays “Dixie.” Seriously. It’s.That.Bad. Ralph, Colin’s “personal escort” seems a little more interesting, but he doesn’t really do much as Colin and Vera tour the camp and repeatedly argue about whether efficiency or care for patients is most important.
Meanwhile, Esther changes Rex’s category and gets him taken away to the Module. Esther and Rex have a little scene right before he’s taken away that might have been touching if I actually cared about either of them. When Rex is locked in one of the Module buildings, he turns on a flashlight and starts taping what he’s seeing. There are people stacked up on bunks, all unconscious. Rex can’t tell if they’ve been experimented on or not. Lucky for him, he manages to get out of the Module building, and he starts filming the outside as well.
Juarez is having much worse luck. She demands to be allowed to see a “storage” building, and she is appalled at what she sees inside. People are lying all over the place. Colin claims that they are “pending” status at the camp because they don’t have insurance. The final straw for Vera is when she sees someone who is clearly conscious tagged with a Category 1 red peg. That essentially means he was declared dead when he shouldn’t have been, so it’s a big deal. She is really, really pissed, and when she goes into a laundry room and is overcome by the stench, she goes completely off the rails. Colin tries to brag about how he’s under budget, but Juarez threatens to have him prosecuted for mistreating the patients, using more of this show’s patented pseudo-but-not-really legal mumbo jumbo. Ralph tries to diffuse the situation, but it’s gone too far. Colin shoots Vera, and he has Ralph get a car to take her to the Module. Then Colin leaves her on the floor of one of the buildings. He tries to rationalize it by saying there can be no more murder in a world without death.
In Wales, Gwen and Rhys are able to infiltrate Cowbridge pretty easily thanks to Rhys working for a trucking company. It also doesn’t seem to take Gwen very long to find her dad among the many, many Category 2 patients. She tells her dad that the camp isn’t safe, and she and Rhys bundle him up and head for Rhys’ lorry. As they try to hoist Gwen’s dad up into the cab of the lorry, he has yet another heart attack, and this one is even worse than the first two. Gwen has to admit defeat, and she screams for a doctor. One rushes over pretty quickly. We later see Gwen and Rhys sitting around the camp, waiting for news. Rhys has to go to work, and soon after he leaves, Gwen is told by a nurse that her father is now Category 1. Gwen doesn’t believe he fits the definition, but the nurse says that Gwen has until the morning to get it changed. At dawn, all the new Category 1 folks have to be transported to the Module.
Oswald and Jilly have arrived in Los Angeles for the big Miracle Rally. I’m not really sure what the purpose of the rally was supposed to be. Later, we see a bunch of people in “Dead is Dead” t-shirts, so maybe it is to show support for the overflow camps? Anyway, Jilly gives Oswald a pre-prepared speech, and she tells him that the key word in the speech is “revelation.” When he says it, the PhiCorp logo will pop up on a screen behind him. Oswald is not happy about this- he wants to use his own words. When they arrive at the stadium, Security has to hold back people who are jeering at Oswald, which makes him even surlier. He starts bitching about not having a dressing room, and Jilly walks away from him to take a phone call. Jack appears down the hallway, trying to look iconic, which cracked me up. Oswald tries to follow him, but he doesn’t catch up.
Jilly gives Oswald a new, even shorter speech, and quickly rushes off, probably to avoid more of Oswald’s temper. She is stopped by a man who says she is doing a good job and is being noticed by the right people. I assume he’s part of the “higher than PhiCorp” folks. Just before he’s supposed to go on stage, Oswald finally talks to Jack. Jack has an alternate speech for Oswald to deliver. He wants Oswald to expose PhiCorp. Jack thinks that what Oswald really wants is to die, so he expects Oswald to go along with the plan. Oswald defies everyone’s expectations, though. He doesn’t deliver either of the speeches he’s been given- he gives his own. He says that man has evolved into angels, and the crowd loves it. I’m not really sure why. What he’s saying isn’t all that profound. I also want to know why nobody’s hauled his ass off to an overflow camp yet. Anyway, despite going off-book, Oswald still uses the word “revelation,” and the PhiCorp logo shines brightly behind him.
Rex is outside, still filming, when he sees a light turn on outside one of the module buildings. We see that Colin is behind the building, flipping a switch. Rex rushes up to the building and sees that Vera is inside, begging for help. Esther has also noticed Vera’s absence, and she’s desperately trying to call her to no avail. Then the flames start, and Rex sadly films the proceedings (heartless jerk) as Vera burns to…sort-of-death, I guess. In Wales, Rhys calls Gwen to say he’s been told that the workers at the camp call the modules “burn units.” He figures this means they must be for burn victims. Gwen somehow miraculously, spontaneously puts the pieces of the puzzle together. The Module buildings are all ovens, burning people alive.
-Vera
Russell T. Davies’ “Doctor Who” had some very high highs and some very low lows, and I assume that holds true for his other work as well, including “Torchwood.” This episode, and indeed “Miracle Day” overall, appears to be one of the lows, unfortunately. There were some redeeming characteristics to the episode, such as the fact that it’s getting dark and twisty, and the stakes are being appropriately raised. There was quite a lot of bad that isn’t quite outweighed by the good, though. The worst offender was the character of Colin Maloney, the head of an overflow camp in San Pedro, California. Not only is he a “soulless bureaucrat” (I’d argue that bureaucracy actually has quite a lot of talent, even if it isn’t always used to its full potential), but he’s racist, sexist, and a Southern “good old boy,” too. It felt like a blatant pile-on to make it necessary for viewers to hate him, and it was overkill (pun not intended).
The episode opens with Juarez walking into City Hall for another day of medical panels. She’s surprised to find the place mostly abandoned. Juarez questions a staffer about what happened to the medical panels, and the staffer says the panels are over. A report has already been sent to Congress, and legislation in response to the report is pending. Juarez, of course, wants to see this report ASAP. It turns out that the report contains the new three category system for classifying human life. Juarez is rather appalled by this, and she calls Rex to tell him that she’s in on whatever Torchwood is planning to do about PhiCorp.
Meanwhile, Gwen arrives in the Cardiff airport. She uses her Yvonne Pallister fake identity, and she meets Rhys in baggage claim. He’s dressed as a chauffeur, which is kind of adorable. The family has a pow wow at Gwen’s mother’s house. It’s obvious that the relationship between Gwen and her mother is a bit strained to begin with, and the situation with Gwen’s dad has only made it worse. Gwen’s mother is every demanding about rescuing her husband. She has a sort of conspiracy wall set up at her house and everything. Andy drives Gwen to the Cowbridge Overflow Camp, where Gwen’s father is being held, and they are met by a massive crowd of people demanding news about their loved ones. Gwen manages to cut ahead of them and gets into the tent where people are filling out forms to try and contest their relatives’ placement in the camp. Andy tries to pull rank by telling the military guards that Gwen’s father is to be moved on police business, but the military folks won’t care. Gwen pitches a fit and almost manages to get arrested, but Rhys diffuses the situation. As they all leave the camp, Gwen decides a break-in is their only option.
In LA, Jack and Esther are walking along the beach, and Esther starts prying about Jack’s past. Lucky for Jack, he’s saved by his and Esther’s phones ringing. Both received texts from Rex because Dr. Juarez (Vera) has arrived. Rex introduces Juarez to Jack and Esther, and Jack manages to make an ass of himself by asking about Vera’s sleeping arrangements. It looks like the whole thing was for Esther’s benefit, but it still didn’t work for me. It was extremely awkward and not like Jack at all. Once Vera is settled, the team holds a mini briefing with Gwen participating through video phone. It turns out that the overflow camps are spreading beyond the US and UK to other European countries. Vera is brought up to speed, but it turns out that she already knew a lot, including about morphic fields. I guess Jack is suitably impressed, because he officially welcomes Vera to Torchwood.
In the next part of the briefing talks about how they need to know who is above PhiCorps and why they might need overflow camps. My guess is aliens. With “Torchwood,” it’s always aliens. There’s also a presentation about the new “categories.” Category 1 is pretty much brain dead, Category 2 is persistent illness/injury, and Category 3 is everyone else. Esther reveals that there is a section of each camp called “the Module” that is on the blueprints but can’t be seen on the aerial photos. It turns out the photos were doctored to hide them. Category 1 folks are supposed to go to the module, and the team wonders what PhiCorp might be doing with them there. The team’s first instinct is that it must be some sort of experiment. Gwen and Rhys are going to infiltrate the Cowbridge camp as a nurse and a truck driver, and Esther, Vera, and Rex are going to infiltrate the San Pedro, California camp as a clerk, medical panel observer, and patient. Jack calls an ambulance to take Rex to the camp, and I love the sendoff Jack gives him. He makes the paramedics think Rex is his boyfriend, and it’s hilarious. What’s not so hilarious is that Esther and Vera leave for the camp, too, leaving Jack behind. I thought that was just plain wrong, because Jack should be at the center of anything Torchwood.
The Torchwood “team” (minus Jack and Gwen who are actually, you know, Torchwood), enter the San Pedro camp with gusto. Rex learns about the concept of “pegging” from the nurse checking him in. There are red, white, and blue pegs, and blue are for category 2 and red for category 1. Rex is given a blue peg. Esther meets a fellow clerk, who seems rather listless and doesn’t really care about anything going on at the camp. Vera is greeted by Colin Maloney, the camp’s director. He manages to be both racist (remarking that Vera must not be bothered by the hot weather) and sexist (not realizing that she was actually Dr. Juarez) all in the space of a few sentences. As I said in the introduction, he’s a seriously obnoxious cliché. And he has a customized golf cart where the horn plays “Dixie.” Seriously. It’s.That.Bad. Ralph, Colin’s “personal escort” seems a little more interesting, but he doesn’t really do much as Colin and Vera tour the camp and repeatedly argue about whether efficiency or care for patients is most important.
Meanwhile, Esther changes Rex’s category and gets him taken away to the Module. Esther and Rex have a little scene right before he’s taken away that might have been touching if I actually cared about either of them. When Rex is locked in one of the Module buildings, he turns on a flashlight and starts taping what he’s seeing. There are people stacked up on bunks, all unconscious. Rex can’t tell if they’ve been experimented on or not. Lucky for him, he manages to get out of the Module building, and he starts filming the outside as well.
Juarez is having much worse luck. She demands to be allowed to see a “storage” building, and she is appalled at what she sees inside. People are lying all over the place. Colin claims that they are “pending” status at the camp because they don’t have insurance. The final straw for Vera is when she sees someone who is clearly conscious tagged with a Category 1 red peg. That essentially means he was declared dead when he shouldn’t have been, so it’s a big deal. She is really, really pissed, and when she goes into a laundry room and is overcome by the stench, she goes completely off the rails. Colin tries to brag about how he’s under budget, but Juarez threatens to have him prosecuted for mistreating the patients, using more of this show’s patented pseudo-but-not-really legal mumbo jumbo. Ralph tries to diffuse the situation, but it’s gone too far. Colin shoots Vera, and he has Ralph get a car to take her to the Module. Then Colin leaves her on the floor of one of the buildings. He tries to rationalize it by saying there can be no more murder in a world without death.
In Wales, Gwen and Rhys are able to infiltrate Cowbridge pretty easily thanks to Rhys working for a trucking company. It also doesn’t seem to take Gwen very long to find her dad among the many, many Category 2 patients. She tells her dad that the camp isn’t safe, and she and Rhys bundle him up and head for Rhys’ lorry. As they try to hoist Gwen’s dad up into the cab of the lorry, he has yet another heart attack, and this one is even worse than the first two. Gwen has to admit defeat, and she screams for a doctor. One rushes over pretty quickly. We later see Gwen and Rhys sitting around the camp, waiting for news. Rhys has to go to work, and soon after he leaves, Gwen is told by a nurse that her father is now Category 1. Gwen doesn’t believe he fits the definition, but the nurse says that Gwen has until the morning to get it changed. At dawn, all the new Category 1 folks have to be transported to the Module.
Oswald and Jilly have arrived in Los Angeles for the big Miracle Rally. I’m not really sure what the purpose of the rally was supposed to be. Later, we see a bunch of people in “Dead is Dead” t-shirts, so maybe it is to show support for the overflow camps? Anyway, Jilly gives Oswald a pre-prepared speech, and she tells him that the key word in the speech is “revelation.” When he says it, the PhiCorp logo will pop up on a screen behind him. Oswald is not happy about this- he wants to use his own words. When they arrive at the stadium, Security has to hold back people who are jeering at Oswald, which makes him even surlier. He starts bitching about not having a dressing room, and Jilly walks away from him to take a phone call. Jack appears down the hallway, trying to look iconic, which cracked me up. Oswald tries to follow him, but he doesn’t catch up.
Jilly gives Oswald a new, even shorter speech, and quickly rushes off, probably to avoid more of Oswald’s temper. She is stopped by a man who says she is doing a good job and is being noticed by the right people. I assume he’s part of the “higher than PhiCorp” folks. Just before he’s supposed to go on stage, Oswald finally talks to Jack. Jack has an alternate speech for Oswald to deliver. He wants Oswald to expose PhiCorp. Jack thinks that what Oswald really wants is to die, so he expects Oswald to go along with the plan. Oswald defies everyone’s expectations, though. He doesn’t deliver either of the speeches he’s been given- he gives his own. He says that man has evolved into angels, and the crowd loves it. I’m not really sure why. What he’s saying isn’t all that profound. I also want to know why nobody’s hauled his ass off to an overflow camp yet. Anyway, despite going off-book, Oswald still uses the word “revelation,” and the PhiCorp logo shines brightly behind him.
Rex is outside, still filming, when he sees a light turn on outside one of the module buildings. We see that Colin is behind the building, flipping a switch. Rex rushes up to the building and sees that Vera is inside, begging for help. Esther has also noticed Vera’s absence, and she’s desperately trying to call her to no avail. Then the flames start, and Rex sadly films the proceedings (heartless jerk) as Vera burns to…sort-of-death, I guess. In Wales, Rhys calls Gwen to say he’s been told that the workers at the camp call the modules “burn units.” He figures this means they must be for burn victims. Gwen somehow miraculously, spontaneously puts the pieces of the puzzle together. The Module buildings are all ovens, burning people alive.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Summer DVR Dump: Doctor Who 6.02: "Day of the Moon"
“Oh, Dicky. Tricky Dicky. They’re never going to forget you. Say ‘hi’ to David Frost for me.”
-The Doctor
“Day of the Moon” was a continuation of the story that began in “The Impossible Astronaut,” with the Doctor and crew in the United States in 1969. This episode doesn’t hold together quite as well as “The Impossible Astronaut,” probably because I was expecting questions from the first episode to be answered in the second, and that didn’t entirely happen. There were still some good moments and characterization, however. I found President Nixon to be entertaining, even if he was a rather Disney-fied version of the real thing. There was a good sense of camaraderie between the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River. I think the Doctor works well as a character when he has a lot of friends around. It kind of reminded me of the end of series 4’s “Journey’s End” where the Doctor reveals to his group of friends at the time that the TARDIS was really meant to be piloted by multiple Time Lords at once, and he kind of revels in having enough friends around to actually use it properly. While I think building a good relationship between the Doctor and his primary companion is important, the group dynamic in these sorts of situations can also be a lot of fun.
This episode, although the second part of a two-parter, picks up three months after the end of the first part. And it opens with a massive, rather frustrating fake-out. Amy is running through the desert until she can’t run any more. When she stops, Canton and a bunch of FBI agents catch up to her, and Canton appears to shoot her. The Doctor is at Area 51, and the folks there are building a beyond state-of-the-art prison sell to contain him. River is in New York City, and when Canton catches up to her, she jumps off a high floor of a sky scraper. Rory is the last to be found. He’s at Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, and for obvious reasons, he can’t run any farther. Canton appears to shoot him, too. The bodies (in body bags) of Rory and Amy are brought into the Doctor’s Area 51 prison. As soon as Canton shuts the door (with himself inside the cell, too), it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. The show of building the prison and appearing to kill the Doctor’s companions was all an elaborate ruse to give the gang a place to talk out of range of the Silents. Everyone gets in the TARDIS, and the first order of business is rescuing River by positioning the TARDIS swimming pool to break her fall. Then the gang is off on a return trip to Kennedy Space Center.
Before everyone begins their specific missions, the Doctor injects nanorecorders into everyone’s hands. They’re supposed to use them if they have an encounter with a Silent so they can remember it. The recorders will blink if there’s a message. The Doctor tests is by having Canton look at a hologram of a Silent. We don’t know that’s what’s happening at the time, though. All we know is that Canton’s recorder suddenly starts blinking. The whole concept is really creepy, because it’s easy to imagine living in dread of seeing the recorder suddenly blinking and wondering what horror you experienced that you now can’t remember. We also learn at this point that not only can the Silents make you forget you saw them, but they can plant post-hypnotic suggestions, too.
Amy and Canton, in their search for the little girl who was in the space suit, find themselves at a really, really, Southern Gothic-style orphanage. The caretaker at the orphanage has a really warped sense of time, convinced that it’s not even 1967 yet. This should have been a big honing clue that Silents were about making him forget things. Beyond that, creepy messages are written all over the walls in what looks like possibly blood. Because this episode is pretty true to horror tropes, Amy decides to go upstairs to investigate on her own while Canton tries to question the caretaker. She gets locked in a room, and the recorder in her hand starts blinking. She looks up to see a whole mess of Silents hanging from the ceiling like bats. It’s really, really gross.
The Doctor is found by some NASA bigwigs inside the Apollo 11 command module, and not surprisingly, he gets in a bit of trouble for it. Nixon shows u to rescue the Doctor just in time, and he even gets a little “Hail to the Chief” music cue as he strolls into the scene. I have to admit that was pretty funny. With this episode as with the last, it’s always amusing to see what the Brits really think of us. Rory arrives with Nixon and almost breaks a model of the Lunar Excursion Module, looking pretty darn cute dressed up in 60s nerd attire, complete with slicked back hair and thick glasses. I actually didn’t recognize him right away the first time I saw this episode because he looked so different.
Meanwhile, all sorts of creepiness is still going down at the orphanage. Canton is talking to the caretaker about the little girl, and the caretaker tells him that “the child must be cared for.” Locked in the upstairs room, Amy sees a small slot window suddenly appear in a door, and she sees a woman looking through that window. When Amy gets close to the window and tries to touch it, it disappears. Amy opens the door and finds a small child’s room. The room belonged to the little girl they’re searching for. Amy looks at all the pictures on the bureau, and she sees one of herself holding the baby. There’s all sorts of hubbub going downstairs at the orphanage by this point, and Canton ends up shooting a silent. After taking Canton’s distress call, the Doctor tells Nixon to record everything. I love the little jokes they include in this episode to appeal to us American history nerds.
Since Canton has raised the alarm, the whole crew has a mission to rescue Amy. All they can find in the upstairs of the orphanage is her nanorecorder (that has somehow been taken out of her hand). Rory holds on to it for the rest of the episode because while he can’t communicate to Amy through it, he can somehow hear everything she’s saying. Most of the time she’s babbling about loving a guy, and of course Rory’s worried she’s talking about the Doctor and not him.Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if she doesn’t have the recorder in her hand anymore. Is it magically tuned to her brainwaves across the miles or something? Another thing I don’t love about this scenario is that Amy is a total damsel in distress. I prefer companions who can take care of themselves somewhat. Rose was scrappy and Donna was mouthy. Both occasionally needed to be rescued, but not with the frequency that Amy has, and they also both were sometimes able to rescue themselves. The only thing that makes the Amy as damsel in distress bit at all palatable in this episode is the presence of River, because she can more than take care of herself
River and the Doctor spend some time looking at the space suit and speculating about the little girl who was once inside it. The Doctor reviews the fact that the Silents have shaped almost all of human history and hypothesizes that the Silents only let humans go to the Moon because they needed a space suit to keep the little girl alive. I guess that begs the question of why the little girl is so important, other than the fact that she may have killed the Doctor farther down the line in the Doctor’s personal timeline. Meanwhile, Canton’s paying a visit to the Silent that was shot. He uses Amy’s videophone (and amusingly says he doesn’t know what a video phone is) to tape the Silent saying menacing things. Canton asks the Silent how humans should react to the Silents, and the Silent helpfully says that humans should kill Silents on sight.
Amy wakes up restrained in an unfamiliar room full of Silents. She doesn’t have much time to freak out, though, even though the Silents are trying to play mind games with her about how long she’s been imprisoned, because the Doctor and River show up. There’s some fun banter where the Doctor threatens the Silents by proudly stating how many of them River could easily kill. Then he reveals his big plan to defeat the Silents. We see a TV screen that is broadcasting the lunar landing. In the pause in the middle of Neil Armstrong’s famous line, “That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind,” the video Canton shot of the Silent saying humans should shoot Silents on sight is broadcast. Since Silents can do post-hypnotic suggestion, the broadcast is a call for all humans to actually start killing the Silents. The Silents are understandably unhappy about this, and a battle breaks out. River gets to be kickass and kills them all in this spinning motion. The scene is a little silly with its use of Matrix-style filming.
With everybody properly rescued and safe on the TARDIS, Amy confirms that when she was talking about the person she loves over the nanorecorder, it was Rory. It’s good to have that 100% out of the way, considering Amy and Rory are married and all. There’s also some wrap-up where Nixon talks to Canton about how Canton was kicked out of the FBI for getting married. Nixon wants to know if Canton was kicked out because he wanted to marry and African American, and Canton responds that yes, he is. Nixon seems to be cool with letting Canton back into the FBI despite this, but he’s not cool with the marriage taking place. Baby steps, I suppose. It is the 1960’s and Richard Nixon, after all. The Doctor then has to drop River off at Stormcage. They say their goodbyes, and River moves in to kiss him. The Doctor is surprised, but he goes with it, albeit rather awkwardly. River is devastated to learn that in the Doctor’s timeline, this is the first time they’ve kissed. Since their timelines are roughly opposite, she’s convinced this is the last time she will ever kiss the Doctor.
Back on the TARDIS, Amy and the Doctor talk about Amy saying earlier that she was pregnant. She says she’s really not, and she made a mistake earlier. The Doctor wants to know why Amy told him and not Rory, and of course Rory is using the nanorecorder to listen in on this because he’s still insecure. He rushes in and assures Amy that because he’s a nurse, he’ll be just fine with a pregnancy. The Doctor doesn’t buy Amy’s “I made a mistake” story, so he runs a scan on her. The results vacillate between saying she’s pregnant and not pregnant, which is most definitely odd. Speaking of children in general, we end the episode with another look at the mysterious little girl. She’s slumming it in New York City, and someone asks her if she’s okay. She says she’s dying, but that’s okay because she knows what to do. All of a sudden, she starts shooting out regeneration energy like a Time Lord.
-The Doctor
“Day of the Moon” was a continuation of the story that began in “The Impossible Astronaut,” with the Doctor and crew in the United States in 1969. This episode doesn’t hold together quite as well as “The Impossible Astronaut,” probably because I was expecting questions from the first episode to be answered in the second, and that didn’t entirely happen. There were still some good moments and characterization, however. I found President Nixon to be entertaining, even if he was a rather Disney-fied version of the real thing. There was a good sense of camaraderie between the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River. I think the Doctor works well as a character when he has a lot of friends around. It kind of reminded me of the end of series 4’s “Journey’s End” where the Doctor reveals to his group of friends at the time that the TARDIS was really meant to be piloted by multiple Time Lords at once, and he kind of revels in having enough friends around to actually use it properly. While I think building a good relationship between the Doctor and his primary companion is important, the group dynamic in these sorts of situations can also be a lot of fun.
This episode, although the second part of a two-parter, picks up three months after the end of the first part. And it opens with a massive, rather frustrating fake-out. Amy is running through the desert until she can’t run any more. When she stops, Canton and a bunch of FBI agents catch up to her, and Canton appears to shoot her. The Doctor is at Area 51, and the folks there are building a beyond state-of-the-art prison sell to contain him. River is in New York City, and when Canton catches up to her, she jumps off a high floor of a sky scraper. Rory is the last to be found. He’s at Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, and for obvious reasons, he can’t run any farther. Canton appears to shoot him, too. The bodies (in body bags) of Rory and Amy are brought into the Doctor’s Area 51 prison. As soon as Canton shuts the door (with himself inside the cell, too), it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. The show of building the prison and appearing to kill the Doctor’s companions was all an elaborate ruse to give the gang a place to talk out of range of the Silents. Everyone gets in the TARDIS, and the first order of business is rescuing River by positioning the TARDIS swimming pool to break her fall. Then the gang is off on a return trip to Kennedy Space Center.
Before everyone begins their specific missions, the Doctor injects nanorecorders into everyone’s hands. They’re supposed to use them if they have an encounter with a Silent so they can remember it. The recorders will blink if there’s a message. The Doctor tests is by having Canton look at a hologram of a Silent. We don’t know that’s what’s happening at the time, though. All we know is that Canton’s recorder suddenly starts blinking. The whole concept is really creepy, because it’s easy to imagine living in dread of seeing the recorder suddenly blinking and wondering what horror you experienced that you now can’t remember. We also learn at this point that not only can the Silents make you forget you saw them, but they can plant post-hypnotic suggestions, too.
Amy and Canton, in their search for the little girl who was in the space suit, find themselves at a really, really, Southern Gothic-style orphanage. The caretaker at the orphanage has a really warped sense of time, convinced that it’s not even 1967 yet. This should have been a big honing clue that Silents were about making him forget things. Beyond that, creepy messages are written all over the walls in what looks like possibly blood. Because this episode is pretty true to horror tropes, Amy decides to go upstairs to investigate on her own while Canton tries to question the caretaker. She gets locked in a room, and the recorder in her hand starts blinking. She looks up to see a whole mess of Silents hanging from the ceiling like bats. It’s really, really gross.
The Doctor is found by some NASA bigwigs inside the Apollo 11 command module, and not surprisingly, he gets in a bit of trouble for it. Nixon shows u to rescue the Doctor just in time, and he even gets a little “Hail to the Chief” music cue as he strolls into the scene. I have to admit that was pretty funny. With this episode as with the last, it’s always amusing to see what the Brits really think of us. Rory arrives with Nixon and almost breaks a model of the Lunar Excursion Module, looking pretty darn cute dressed up in 60s nerd attire, complete with slicked back hair and thick glasses. I actually didn’t recognize him right away the first time I saw this episode because he looked so different.
Meanwhile, all sorts of creepiness is still going down at the orphanage. Canton is talking to the caretaker about the little girl, and the caretaker tells him that “the child must be cared for.” Locked in the upstairs room, Amy sees a small slot window suddenly appear in a door, and she sees a woman looking through that window. When Amy gets close to the window and tries to touch it, it disappears. Amy opens the door and finds a small child’s room. The room belonged to the little girl they’re searching for. Amy looks at all the pictures on the bureau, and she sees one of herself holding the baby. There’s all sorts of hubbub going downstairs at the orphanage by this point, and Canton ends up shooting a silent. After taking Canton’s distress call, the Doctor tells Nixon to record everything. I love the little jokes they include in this episode to appeal to us American history nerds.
Since Canton has raised the alarm, the whole crew has a mission to rescue Amy. All they can find in the upstairs of the orphanage is her nanorecorder (that has somehow been taken out of her hand). Rory holds on to it for the rest of the episode because while he can’t communicate to Amy through it, he can somehow hear everything she’s saying. Most of the time she’s babbling about loving a guy, and of course Rory’s worried she’s talking about the Doctor and not him.Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if she doesn’t have the recorder in her hand anymore. Is it magically tuned to her brainwaves across the miles or something? Another thing I don’t love about this scenario is that Amy is a total damsel in distress. I prefer companions who can take care of themselves somewhat. Rose was scrappy and Donna was mouthy. Both occasionally needed to be rescued, but not with the frequency that Amy has, and they also both were sometimes able to rescue themselves. The only thing that makes the Amy as damsel in distress bit at all palatable in this episode is the presence of River, because she can more than take care of herself
River and the Doctor spend some time looking at the space suit and speculating about the little girl who was once inside it. The Doctor reviews the fact that the Silents have shaped almost all of human history and hypothesizes that the Silents only let humans go to the Moon because they needed a space suit to keep the little girl alive. I guess that begs the question of why the little girl is so important, other than the fact that she may have killed the Doctor farther down the line in the Doctor’s personal timeline. Meanwhile, Canton’s paying a visit to the Silent that was shot. He uses Amy’s videophone (and amusingly says he doesn’t know what a video phone is) to tape the Silent saying menacing things. Canton asks the Silent how humans should react to the Silents, and the Silent helpfully says that humans should kill Silents on sight.
Amy wakes up restrained in an unfamiliar room full of Silents. She doesn’t have much time to freak out, though, even though the Silents are trying to play mind games with her about how long she’s been imprisoned, because the Doctor and River show up. There’s some fun banter where the Doctor threatens the Silents by proudly stating how many of them River could easily kill. Then he reveals his big plan to defeat the Silents. We see a TV screen that is broadcasting the lunar landing. In the pause in the middle of Neil Armstrong’s famous line, “That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind,” the video Canton shot of the Silent saying humans should shoot Silents on sight is broadcast. Since Silents can do post-hypnotic suggestion, the broadcast is a call for all humans to actually start killing the Silents. The Silents are understandably unhappy about this, and a battle breaks out. River gets to be kickass and kills them all in this spinning motion. The scene is a little silly with its use of Matrix-style filming.
With everybody properly rescued and safe on the TARDIS, Amy confirms that when she was talking about the person she loves over the nanorecorder, it was Rory. It’s good to have that 100% out of the way, considering Amy and Rory are married and all. There’s also some wrap-up where Nixon talks to Canton about how Canton was kicked out of the FBI for getting married. Nixon wants to know if Canton was kicked out because he wanted to marry and African American, and Canton responds that yes, he is. Nixon seems to be cool with letting Canton back into the FBI despite this, but he’s not cool with the marriage taking place. Baby steps, I suppose. It is the 1960’s and Richard Nixon, after all. The Doctor then has to drop River off at Stormcage. They say their goodbyes, and River moves in to kiss him. The Doctor is surprised, but he goes with it, albeit rather awkwardly. River is devastated to learn that in the Doctor’s timeline, this is the first time they’ve kissed. Since their timelines are roughly opposite, she’s convinced this is the last time she will ever kiss the Doctor.
Back on the TARDIS, Amy and the Doctor talk about Amy saying earlier that she was pregnant. She says she’s really not, and she made a mistake earlier. The Doctor wants to know why Amy told him and not Rory, and of course Rory is using the nanorecorder to listen in on this because he’s still insecure. He rushes in and assures Amy that because he’s a nurse, he’ll be just fine with a pregnancy. The Doctor doesn’t buy Amy’s “I made a mistake” story, so he runs a scan on her. The results vacillate between saying she’s pregnant and not pregnant, which is most definitely odd. Speaking of children in general, we end the episode with another look at the mysterious little girl. She’s slumming it in New York City, and someone asks her if she’s okay. She says she’s dying, but that’s okay because she knows what to do. All of a sudden, she starts shooting out regeneration energy like a Time Lord.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Summer TV Rewind: Robin Hood 1.08: "Tattoo? What tattoo?
Actually on time this week (past delays are my fault- these posts have been written for a while), enjoy Sarah's latest Summer TV Rewind write-up of the BBC's "Robin Hood."
“You are my master! Everything concerns me. I have followed you into battle. I have followed you into the forest. But I will not follow you into torture.”
- Much
We begin in the King Camp in Acre in the Holy Land in 1191. There’s obviously fighting going on, and when sword clashes get too near Robin’s tent, he wakes and rushes off. The King is under attack. He manages to get several arrows off before a hooded Saracen sneaks up behind him and stabs him. Robin lies there, bleeding, when Much shows up. But Robin doesn’t give him time to worry about Robin’s wound. They must defend the King. Robin makes it to King Richard’s tent just in time to stop the assassin from doing his job. They fight a bit (with awesome music in the background), and Robin ends up cutting the assassin’s arm, discovering a tattoo. The assassin takes off, and Robin awakens in Sherwood Forest with Much watching him. Much can tell what Robin was dreaming about, and he gives Robin a sympathetic look. He also shares the news that it is the King’s birthday and Gisborne will be celebrating in Locksley. Much goes on a bit of rant, but Robin finally cuts in with a little devious look on his face (complete with waggling eyebrows). They’re going to celebrate the King’s birthday, too. And that can only mean the gang will be up to no good.
We find Gisborne and a bunch of nobles (including Marian and her father) gathered in Locksley Manor, and they raise a toast to the King. He also announces his betrothal to Marian and gives her a ring (even though she’s hesitant to accept it). And right on time, Robin and company crash the festivities. But they’re quite polite about it. They relieve the nobles of their valuables and usher them into another room to wait until the outlaws have left. Gisborne tries to convince Robin not to take Marian’s ring, but it doesn’t work and the pair end up in yet another sword fight. Robin’s got Gisborne pinned to a wall by his sleeve (they need to leave because the Sheriff is arriving), and Gisborne ends up ripping his sleeve to get his arm free. We see the tattoo with the cut in it from the Holy Land, and Robin is none too pleased to find out that it was Gisborne who attempted to kill the King.
Robin’s kind of paralyzed with shock, and Djaq starts to drag him out of the house when Gisborne knocks her out. The gang (minus Djaq) rides off into the forest with Gisborne on their trail. Robin lets Gisborne find him and demands to know why Gisborne tried to kill King Richard and who else was involved. Gisborne says that King Richard would make peace with a Turk and that there would never be peace. This incenses Robin like we’ve never seen him before. He knocks Gisborne to the ground, and it's only after the gang reminds Robin that they don’t do violence unless necessary, that Robin simply knocks him out.
Back in Nottingham, the jailer has summoned the Sheriff because Djaq is just sitting in her cell staring straight ahead. The Sheriff isn’t impressed and leaves. Djaq has some sort of solution in a pouch around her neck and manages to get the door off its hinge. She is about to escape when the jailer catches her. Nice try. Back in the forest, Robin is still out of his mind with anger. None of the others seem to get what Gisborne did. Will says that he (Gisborne) should be given a public trial, that way everyone would know of his treason. In the end, the gang decides to go to Nottingham to rescue Djaq, and Little John knocks Robin out. Robin comes to, tied to a tree a short distance from Gisborne. He seems to be talking more sense now, telling Much he’ll explain everything to the gang, but he needs to speak with Gisborne first. Unfortunately, Much buys it and lets Robin down. And then all hell breaks loose…again. Robin demands to know who else helped Gisborne and says he’s dead whether he talks or not. Much tries to calm Robin, but it doesn’t work. Robin insults the gang and Much (calling them simple) and storms away.
In the castle, the Sheriff has been alerted to Djaq’s escape effort. She’s got liquid silver (which can burn through other metals), and so he demands she make him a batch in two hours. No pressure. Meanwhile, Little John and Allan have managed to get into the castle and are trying to set their plan in motion to rescue Djaq. Robin is moping by the fire, heating the tip of his sword. He takes another go at Gisborne, and Much ends up leaving (he and Robin have a fight). And yet again, we get a rather impressive Gisborne/Robin fight. This time with just their fists. They fight for quite a while until they both sort of collapse. Robin says that he went to the Holy Land to recover Jerusalem and discovered it was the Muslim and Jewish Holy Land too. I have to say, I like that Robin can respect the religions of other people.
Back at the castle, the rest of the gang is trying to find a way to get Djaq out, and we see her trying to make liquid silver. They get to the dungeon and are ambushed, and Djaq manages to find them. Unfortunately, she gets captured again in the process. Much has gone to fetch Marian, and she tries to talk some sense into Robin. The gang (well mainly the gang) decides it is best to trade Gisborne for Djaq. Robin ends up knocked out again by Little John. Marian goes to Nottingham and begs the Sheriff to consent to the exchange (she can manipulate men when she wants to). Things end up working out mostly to plan. They get Djaq back, but the Sheriff ends up burning Gisborne’s tattoo so that he won’t be identifiable by anyone from the Holy Land. The gang mange to escape, and both Will and Allan look very pleased (they both admitted earlier to having feelings for Djaq). Back at camp, Djaq asks Robin if it’s true that there would have been peace save Gisborne’s attack. He nods and she seems quite surprised he would trade Gisborne for her. We end with the gang all gathering round and enjoying a meal together.
***
“You are my master! Everything concerns me. I have followed you into battle. I have followed you into the forest. But I will not follow you into torture.”
- Much
We begin in the King Camp in Acre in the Holy Land in 1191. There’s obviously fighting going on, and when sword clashes get too near Robin’s tent, he wakes and rushes off. The King is under attack. He manages to get several arrows off before a hooded Saracen sneaks up behind him and stabs him. Robin lies there, bleeding, when Much shows up. But Robin doesn’t give him time to worry about Robin’s wound. They must defend the King. Robin makes it to King Richard’s tent just in time to stop the assassin from doing his job. They fight a bit (with awesome music in the background), and Robin ends up cutting the assassin’s arm, discovering a tattoo. The assassin takes off, and Robin awakens in Sherwood Forest with Much watching him. Much can tell what Robin was dreaming about, and he gives Robin a sympathetic look. He also shares the news that it is the King’s birthday and Gisborne will be celebrating in Locksley. Much goes on a bit of rant, but Robin finally cuts in with a little devious look on his face (complete with waggling eyebrows). They’re going to celebrate the King’s birthday, too. And that can only mean the gang will be up to no good.
We find Gisborne and a bunch of nobles (including Marian and her father) gathered in Locksley Manor, and they raise a toast to the King. He also announces his betrothal to Marian and gives her a ring (even though she’s hesitant to accept it). And right on time, Robin and company crash the festivities. But they’re quite polite about it. They relieve the nobles of their valuables and usher them into another room to wait until the outlaws have left. Gisborne tries to convince Robin not to take Marian’s ring, but it doesn’t work and the pair end up in yet another sword fight. Robin’s got Gisborne pinned to a wall by his sleeve (they need to leave because the Sheriff is arriving), and Gisborne ends up ripping his sleeve to get his arm free. We see the tattoo with the cut in it from the Holy Land, and Robin is none too pleased to find out that it was Gisborne who attempted to kill the King.
Robin’s kind of paralyzed with shock, and Djaq starts to drag him out of the house when Gisborne knocks her out. The gang (minus Djaq) rides off into the forest with Gisborne on their trail. Robin lets Gisborne find him and demands to know why Gisborne tried to kill King Richard and who else was involved. Gisborne says that King Richard would make peace with a Turk and that there would never be peace. This incenses Robin like we’ve never seen him before. He knocks Gisborne to the ground, and it's only after the gang reminds Robin that they don’t do violence unless necessary, that Robin simply knocks him out.
Back in Nottingham, the jailer has summoned the Sheriff because Djaq is just sitting in her cell staring straight ahead. The Sheriff isn’t impressed and leaves. Djaq has some sort of solution in a pouch around her neck and manages to get the door off its hinge. She is about to escape when the jailer catches her. Nice try. Back in the forest, Robin is still out of his mind with anger. None of the others seem to get what Gisborne did. Will says that he (Gisborne) should be given a public trial, that way everyone would know of his treason. In the end, the gang decides to go to Nottingham to rescue Djaq, and Little John knocks Robin out. Robin comes to, tied to a tree a short distance from Gisborne. He seems to be talking more sense now, telling Much he’ll explain everything to the gang, but he needs to speak with Gisborne first. Unfortunately, Much buys it and lets Robin down. And then all hell breaks loose…again. Robin demands to know who else helped Gisborne and says he’s dead whether he talks or not. Much tries to calm Robin, but it doesn’t work. Robin insults the gang and Much (calling them simple) and storms away.
In the castle, the Sheriff has been alerted to Djaq’s escape effort. She’s got liquid silver (which can burn through other metals), and so he demands she make him a batch in two hours. No pressure. Meanwhile, Little John and Allan have managed to get into the castle and are trying to set their plan in motion to rescue Djaq. Robin is moping by the fire, heating the tip of his sword. He takes another go at Gisborne, and Much ends up leaving (he and Robin have a fight). And yet again, we get a rather impressive Gisborne/Robin fight. This time with just their fists. They fight for quite a while until they both sort of collapse. Robin says that he went to the Holy Land to recover Jerusalem and discovered it was the Muslim and Jewish Holy Land too. I have to say, I like that Robin can respect the religions of other people.
Back at the castle, the rest of the gang is trying to find a way to get Djaq out, and we see her trying to make liquid silver. They get to the dungeon and are ambushed, and Djaq manages to find them. Unfortunately, she gets captured again in the process. Much has gone to fetch Marian, and she tries to talk some sense into Robin. The gang (well mainly the gang) decides it is best to trade Gisborne for Djaq. Robin ends up knocked out again by Little John. Marian goes to Nottingham and begs the Sheriff to consent to the exchange (she can manipulate men when she wants to). Things end up working out mostly to plan. They get Djaq back, but the Sheriff ends up burning Gisborne’s tattoo so that he won’t be identifiable by anyone from the Holy Land. The gang mange to escape, and both Will and Allan look very pleased (they both admitted earlier to having feelings for Djaq). Back at camp, Djaq asks Robin if it’s true that there would have been peace save Gisborne’s attack. He nods and she seems quite surprised he would trade Gisborne for her. We end with the gang all gathering round and enjoying a meal together.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Summer DVR Dump: Doctor Who 6.01: "The Impossible Astronaut"
“Human beings. I thought I’d never get done saving you.”
-The Doctor
Since I’ve decided to cover the second half of Doctor Who series 6 here on MTVP when it premieres in September, I thought I’d devote the second half of this summer’s “Summer DVR Dump” series to catching you up on the first half that started being broadcast Easter weekend. The series began with quite a bang. The show was filmed in the United States for the first time in its history. Although I was wary of this, because one of the things I love about Doctor Who is its inherent Britishness, I think the decision gave the opening two-parter a grander scope. The grander scope was not because the story was dealing with American history, but because of the absolutely beautiful production values that could be achieved by filming in Monument Valley, Utah. It was also an attempt to tell a uniquely American story, tying the incident the Doctor and crew need to deal with to the 1969 Moon landing. I appreciated the change of pace, even if some of the details were a little wrong. I think the change of pace elicited some really wonderful performances from all three regular cast members plus Alex Kingston as time traveling archaeologist River Song. The whole thing was truly epic.
The episode opens with the Doctor doing silly outrageous things throughout time, like getting caught being painted nude and thrown in the Tower of London. And escaping in a ball of light. Rory and Amy, who have been left by the Doctor temporarily to set up their home together, are reading all about the Doctor’s exploits in a book and wondering if the Doctor is specifically trying to get their attention with his antics. Just as they’re really wondering what the Doctor’s been up to, they receive an invitation with a date and map coordinates on it. There is no return address, but the envelope is TARDIS blue, so Amy suspects it’s from the Doctor. At Stormcage, River gets a similar invitation with the number 2 on it (as opposed to the 3 on Amy and Rory’s invite). Soon enough, we find out that River has escaped from prison yet again. That’s mighty strong lipstick she’s got. And mighty stupid guards Stormcage has got if the same trick works every time River tries it!
We then move to the United States, where Rory and Amy disembark from a big yellow school bus…in the middle of Utah. I really don’t understand the random school bus. Is that how Brits think we all get around on this side of the pond? I thought that bit was kind of ridiculous- a Greyhound bus or something like it would have made much more sense. Anyway, they are greeted by the Doctor, who is perched on a classic convertible, wearing a Stetson. The Stetson is the new hat he has decided is cool. The reunion between the three friends is rather joyous, and I love that the Doctor called them “the Ponds” instead of “the Williamses.” I thought that was pretty funny. River also makes quite an entrance, shooting the Stetson right off the Doctor’s head. I guess destroying his headgear is going to be her thing now.
The group catches up at a diner, and when Amy asks the Doctor what he’s been up to, he suddenly gets very somber. He says he’s been running faster than he’s ever run before, which certainly seems ominous. He wants all his friends to have a picnic with him that night, because he needs to stop running. The picnic takes place by a gorgeous Monument Valley lake, and amongst the happy chit chat, the Doctor lets slip that he’s over 1100 years old- about two hundred years older than everybody thought he was. He also mentions “Space, 1969” and says that a lot more happened that year besides the moon landing. All of a sudden, someone in what appears to be an Apollo astronaut suit appears out of the lake and breaks up the party in a big way. The Doctor approaches the astronaut and acts like he recognizes the person inside the suit. The astronaut then shoots the doctor several times, and he doesn’t have a chance to complete his regeneration cycle. The astronaut disappears back into the lake before River has a chance to shoot it. Everyone is devastated, especially Amy, who is hunched over the Doctor’s body sobbing. At that moment, another stranger appears. It’s an older man carrying a gas can who has invitation number 4. His name is Canton Everett Delaware, III.
River tells the rest of the group that they need to use the gasoline Canton brought to burn the Doctor’s body. Even though it will be a painful experience, there are hundreds of creatures out there who would give anything for one molecule of Time Lord. Rory steps up for once and notices a boat moored out in the lake. He thinks that if they have to do this, they should do it right. The result is a nighttime Viking-style funeral for the Doctor. I like that Rory suggested that because he is usually rather passive. The next day, the group piles back into the diner, arguing about what to do next. River thinks they need to continue working on the problem the Doctor started to tell them about, and Amy thinks they shouldn’t bother considering he’s dead. Then they realize that there should be an invitation number 1, and that invitation probably went to the person the Doctor trusted most in the world. Conveniently, Rory spots that envelope sitting on a table at the diner. Not long after that, the Doctor emerges from the diner’s rest room.
To say the Doctor got a chilly reception would be an understatement. Of everyone’s reaction to seeing him alive again, I found River’s to be the most interesting. At first, she slaps him, presumably because she thinks the earlier death was a really cruel trick. When the Doctor has no clue what everyone’s so upset about, though, she turns on a dime and becomes dutiful, signing and giving a resigned trademark “Spoilers.” Back in the TARDIS, the atmosphere is rather frosty. The Doctor doesn’t want to go to “Space, 1969” because nobody will tell him why he’s supposed to go. Telling him about his death would be a spoiler, of course. The Doctor refuses to trust River when she tells him he needs to do what they say. I thought that was a little bit of a continuity break from River’s introduction in series 4, when the Tenth Doctor ends up trusting her based on something she tells him, presumably his real name. He finally agrees to go to 1969 when Amy swears on “fish fingers and custard” that he needs to do this.
We then flashback to 1969, where a younger version of Canton Everett Delaware, III, played by genre TV legend Mark Sheppard, is having a drink at a bar. He’s just been kicked out of the FBI, so he’s very surprised to hear that President Nixon wants to speak with him personally. In the Oval Office, Nixon plays a recording very mysterious phone call for Canton. It’s the voice of a little girl who is afraid that a space man is going to get her. Moffat certainly does like to use certain devices over and over again, in this case the disembodied child’s voice. I was surprised the little girl didn’t bust out with an “Are you my mummy?” Meanwhile, the Doctor and crew are trying to land the TARDIS in the Oval Office. River goes around correcting things the Doctor is doing to try to make the TARDIS fly in silent and invisible. I didn’t especially like that. It was kind of funny the first few times River acted like the harried wife who has to fix everything her oafish husband does wrong, but it’s not so funny anymore. The Doctor is supposed to be the smartest man in the room, and River often undermines that. That never would have happened with the Ninth or Tenth Doctors.
The Doctor doesn’t get an especially warm reception when he’s spotted taking notes while the mysterious phone call recording plays. The Secret Service makes a big fuss over it, as they do, and the doctor pleads for River to make the TARDIS “blue” again. The rest of the gang appears in the Oval Office, and the Doctor starts pretending he and the rest of the crew are from Scotland Yard. He even has code names for all of them, which I loved. They’re “The Nose, The Legs, and Mrs. Robinson.” The Doctor essentially saves the day with bravado, which I think is one of the important hallmarks of a good episode of Doctor Who. Amy sees a freaky looking alien creature that looks like a cross between the stereotypical Gray aliens often seen in fiction and the Gentlemen from the classic “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode “Hush.” She had seen one of these guys earlier during the Utah picnic, but both then and now, she forgets it as soon as she’s not looking at it anymore.
After seeing this alien, which we would later learn is a Silent (as in “Silence will fall,” last season’s creepy catch phrase), Amy feels a bit sick. Of course, in TV world, when a woman feels sick to her stomach, it’s automatically OMG she’s pregnant! Before we get that far, though, a Secret Service guy kindly offers to escort her to the rest room. In the rest room, Amy encounters another Silent. Another woman using the facilities sees it too. There’s a whole rather creepy routine where the woman sees the Silent, laughs it off, then freaks out when she realizes it’s real. She does this about three times, reciting identical lines of dialogue each time, because she keeps forgetting she saw the Silent. The Silent has had enough of this and zaps the woman out of existence. It doesn’t zap Amy, though. It only acts vaguely threatening towards her. Amy wanders back to the Oval Office, forgetting what she saw. She’s just in time to hear Nixon get another phone call from the creepy little girl. The Doctor figures out that she’s located at Kennedy Space Center, so the regular gang plus Canton all hop in the TARDIS for a trip to Florida.
The TARDIS materializes in a warehouse at Kennedy Space Center, and what follows is a series of “What not to do in horror movies” moments. River opens a hatch and climbs down to see a massive network of tunnels. There are several Silents in the tunnels, which understandably, freaks her out. Unfortunately for River, and the rest of the group, really, she promptly forgets what she saw, tells the rest of the gang the tunnels are all clear, and takes Rory down into the tunnels with her. While she’s trying to pick the lock on a closed door, she explains her tragedy to Rory. Her personal timeline and the Doctor’s personal timeline are roughly opposite. Their relationship, whatever it is, has been back to front. He appeared to her when she was young, and the fact that he knew all about her was quite intriguing. She knows that there will come a day when the Doctor won’t know who she is, and she thinks it will kill her. Very perceptive, that River, since we already know how her story ends. Behind the locked door is a makeshift TARDIS that looks almost identical to what the Doctor and Amy found in “The Lodger” last series. And of course there are loads more Silents, and they’re not happy.
Above ground, the little girl can be heard crying, and Canton, the Doctor, and Amy follow the sound. The Doctor and Amy find Canton unconscious, and Amy finds a really inopportune time to tell the Doctor something she’s been trying to tell him all episode but keeps forgetting. She’s pregnant. This isn’t entirely unexpected, and it will probably provide a segue into a new companion for the Doctor sooner rather than later. Anyway, after that big reveal, the Doctor and Amy see the menacing space suit start to walk towards them. Thinking maybe she can save the Doctor from his future Utah fate, Amy starts shooting at the space suit like there’s no tomorrow, screaming as she does. Then we see through the mask that inside the space suit is the little girl. Holy confusing and twisty ending, Batman!
-The Doctor
Since I’ve decided to cover the second half of Doctor Who series 6 here on MTVP when it premieres in September, I thought I’d devote the second half of this summer’s “Summer DVR Dump” series to catching you up on the first half that started being broadcast Easter weekend. The series began with quite a bang. The show was filmed in the United States for the first time in its history. Although I was wary of this, because one of the things I love about Doctor Who is its inherent Britishness, I think the decision gave the opening two-parter a grander scope. The grander scope was not because the story was dealing with American history, but because of the absolutely beautiful production values that could be achieved by filming in Monument Valley, Utah. It was also an attempt to tell a uniquely American story, tying the incident the Doctor and crew need to deal with to the 1969 Moon landing. I appreciated the change of pace, even if some of the details were a little wrong. I think the change of pace elicited some really wonderful performances from all three regular cast members plus Alex Kingston as time traveling archaeologist River Song. The whole thing was truly epic.
The episode opens with the Doctor doing silly outrageous things throughout time, like getting caught being painted nude and thrown in the Tower of London. And escaping in a ball of light. Rory and Amy, who have been left by the Doctor temporarily to set up their home together, are reading all about the Doctor’s exploits in a book and wondering if the Doctor is specifically trying to get their attention with his antics. Just as they’re really wondering what the Doctor’s been up to, they receive an invitation with a date and map coordinates on it. There is no return address, but the envelope is TARDIS blue, so Amy suspects it’s from the Doctor. At Stormcage, River gets a similar invitation with the number 2 on it (as opposed to the 3 on Amy and Rory’s invite). Soon enough, we find out that River has escaped from prison yet again. That’s mighty strong lipstick she’s got. And mighty stupid guards Stormcage has got if the same trick works every time River tries it!
We then move to the United States, where Rory and Amy disembark from a big yellow school bus…in the middle of Utah. I really don’t understand the random school bus. Is that how Brits think we all get around on this side of the pond? I thought that bit was kind of ridiculous- a Greyhound bus or something like it would have made much more sense. Anyway, they are greeted by the Doctor, who is perched on a classic convertible, wearing a Stetson. The Stetson is the new hat he has decided is cool. The reunion between the three friends is rather joyous, and I love that the Doctor called them “the Ponds” instead of “the Williamses.” I thought that was pretty funny. River also makes quite an entrance, shooting the Stetson right off the Doctor’s head. I guess destroying his headgear is going to be her thing now.
The group catches up at a diner, and when Amy asks the Doctor what he’s been up to, he suddenly gets very somber. He says he’s been running faster than he’s ever run before, which certainly seems ominous. He wants all his friends to have a picnic with him that night, because he needs to stop running. The picnic takes place by a gorgeous Monument Valley lake, and amongst the happy chit chat, the Doctor lets slip that he’s over 1100 years old- about two hundred years older than everybody thought he was. He also mentions “Space, 1969” and says that a lot more happened that year besides the moon landing. All of a sudden, someone in what appears to be an Apollo astronaut suit appears out of the lake and breaks up the party in a big way. The Doctor approaches the astronaut and acts like he recognizes the person inside the suit. The astronaut then shoots the doctor several times, and he doesn’t have a chance to complete his regeneration cycle. The astronaut disappears back into the lake before River has a chance to shoot it. Everyone is devastated, especially Amy, who is hunched over the Doctor’s body sobbing. At that moment, another stranger appears. It’s an older man carrying a gas can who has invitation number 4. His name is Canton Everett Delaware, III.
River tells the rest of the group that they need to use the gasoline Canton brought to burn the Doctor’s body. Even though it will be a painful experience, there are hundreds of creatures out there who would give anything for one molecule of Time Lord. Rory steps up for once and notices a boat moored out in the lake. He thinks that if they have to do this, they should do it right. The result is a nighttime Viking-style funeral for the Doctor. I like that Rory suggested that because he is usually rather passive. The next day, the group piles back into the diner, arguing about what to do next. River thinks they need to continue working on the problem the Doctor started to tell them about, and Amy thinks they shouldn’t bother considering he’s dead. Then they realize that there should be an invitation number 1, and that invitation probably went to the person the Doctor trusted most in the world. Conveniently, Rory spots that envelope sitting on a table at the diner. Not long after that, the Doctor emerges from the diner’s rest room.
To say the Doctor got a chilly reception would be an understatement. Of everyone’s reaction to seeing him alive again, I found River’s to be the most interesting. At first, she slaps him, presumably because she thinks the earlier death was a really cruel trick. When the Doctor has no clue what everyone’s so upset about, though, she turns on a dime and becomes dutiful, signing and giving a resigned trademark “Spoilers.” Back in the TARDIS, the atmosphere is rather frosty. The Doctor doesn’t want to go to “Space, 1969” because nobody will tell him why he’s supposed to go. Telling him about his death would be a spoiler, of course. The Doctor refuses to trust River when she tells him he needs to do what they say. I thought that was a little bit of a continuity break from River’s introduction in series 4, when the Tenth Doctor ends up trusting her based on something she tells him, presumably his real name. He finally agrees to go to 1969 when Amy swears on “fish fingers and custard” that he needs to do this.
We then flashback to 1969, where a younger version of Canton Everett Delaware, III, played by genre TV legend Mark Sheppard, is having a drink at a bar. He’s just been kicked out of the FBI, so he’s very surprised to hear that President Nixon wants to speak with him personally. In the Oval Office, Nixon plays a recording very mysterious phone call for Canton. It’s the voice of a little girl who is afraid that a space man is going to get her. Moffat certainly does like to use certain devices over and over again, in this case the disembodied child’s voice. I was surprised the little girl didn’t bust out with an “Are you my mummy?” Meanwhile, the Doctor and crew are trying to land the TARDIS in the Oval Office. River goes around correcting things the Doctor is doing to try to make the TARDIS fly in silent and invisible. I didn’t especially like that. It was kind of funny the first few times River acted like the harried wife who has to fix everything her oafish husband does wrong, but it’s not so funny anymore. The Doctor is supposed to be the smartest man in the room, and River often undermines that. That never would have happened with the Ninth or Tenth Doctors.
The Doctor doesn’t get an especially warm reception when he’s spotted taking notes while the mysterious phone call recording plays. The Secret Service makes a big fuss over it, as they do, and the doctor pleads for River to make the TARDIS “blue” again. The rest of the gang appears in the Oval Office, and the Doctor starts pretending he and the rest of the crew are from Scotland Yard. He even has code names for all of them, which I loved. They’re “The Nose, The Legs, and Mrs. Robinson.” The Doctor essentially saves the day with bravado, which I think is one of the important hallmarks of a good episode of Doctor Who. Amy sees a freaky looking alien creature that looks like a cross between the stereotypical Gray aliens often seen in fiction and the Gentlemen from the classic “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode “Hush.” She had seen one of these guys earlier during the Utah picnic, but both then and now, she forgets it as soon as she’s not looking at it anymore.
After seeing this alien, which we would later learn is a Silent (as in “Silence will fall,” last season’s creepy catch phrase), Amy feels a bit sick. Of course, in TV world, when a woman feels sick to her stomach, it’s automatically OMG she’s pregnant! Before we get that far, though, a Secret Service guy kindly offers to escort her to the rest room. In the rest room, Amy encounters another Silent. Another woman using the facilities sees it too. There’s a whole rather creepy routine where the woman sees the Silent, laughs it off, then freaks out when she realizes it’s real. She does this about three times, reciting identical lines of dialogue each time, because she keeps forgetting she saw the Silent. The Silent has had enough of this and zaps the woman out of existence. It doesn’t zap Amy, though. It only acts vaguely threatening towards her. Amy wanders back to the Oval Office, forgetting what she saw. She’s just in time to hear Nixon get another phone call from the creepy little girl. The Doctor figures out that she’s located at Kennedy Space Center, so the regular gang plus Canton all hop in the TARDIS for a trip to Florida.
The TARDIS materializes in a warehouse at Kennedy Space Center, and what follows is a series of “What not to do in horror movies” moments. River opens a hatch and climbs down to see a massive network of tunnels. There are several Silents in the tunnels, which understandably, freaks her out. Unfortunately for River, and the rest of the group, really, she promptly forgets what she saw, tells the rest of the gang the tunnels are all clear, and takes Rory down into the tunnels with her. While she’s trying to pick the lock on a closed door, she explains her tragedy to Rory. Her personal timeline and the Doctor’s personal timeline are roughly opposite. Their relationship, whatever it is, has been back to front. He appeared to her when she was young, and the fact that he knew all about her was quite intriguing. She knows that there will come a day when the Doctor won’t know who she is, and she thinks it will kill her. Very perceptive, that River, since we already know how her story ends. Behind the locked door is a makeshift TARDIS that looks almost identical to what the Doctor and Amy found in “The Lodger” last series. And of course there are loads more Silents, and they’re not happy.
Above ground, the little girl can be heard crying, and Canton, the Doctor, and Amy follow the sound. The Doctor and Amy find Canton unconscious, and Amy finds a really inopportune time to tell the Doctor something she’s been trying to tell him all episode but keeps forgetting. She’s pregnant. This isn’t entirely unexpected, and it will probably provide a segue into a new companion for the Doctor sooner rather than later. Anyway, after that big reveal, the Doctor and Amy see the menacing space suit start to walk towards them. Thinking maybe she can save the Doctor from his future Utah fate, Amy starts shooting at the space suit like there’s no tomorrow, screaming as she does. Then we see through the mask that inside the space suit is the little girl. Holy confusing and twisty ending, Batman!
True Blood 4.06: "I Wish I Was the Moon"
“I’ll be here to help you, any way I can. Except shooting you in the head.”
-Sookie
Overall, I thought “I Wish I was the Moon” was a good quality episode of “True Blood.” There was good movement on many of the plots, including Sookie’s relationship with Eric and the complication Bill poses to that relationship. I was very happy that Sookie and Eric finally got their act together in spite of Bill, and even though it didn’t play out like it did in the book, I thought the way it played out in the show worked just fine. Except for the fact that their sex scene was intercut with Bill gazing out from the porch of his house looking pained and emo. But that’s a rant for later in this post. I also like the turn Marnie took in this episode, but more about that later as well. Most helpful to the episode was that the Hotshot plot seems to have wrapped up for the time being, and we also don’t have to deal with the annoying Mickens parents anymore. These two plots were the most problematic of the season thus far, so the lack of any Hotshoters or elder Mickenses was most welcome.
The episode opens with Sookie and Eric making out in Sookie’s living room, but because we saw Bill rush to Sookie’s house at the end of last week’s episode, we know this happiness can’t last for long. Bill arrives soon enough, and he is extremely pissed to see Eric kissing Sookie. Eric isn’t especially happy to see Bill, either. They start to fight each other, and Eric throws Bill clear across the room. Sookie eventually stops the foolishness by telling Eric that Bill is his king. Eric backs off immediately and apologizes. Bill has Eric arrested on suspicion of being under the control of a necromancer (Marnie). Sookie tries to plead Eric’s case to Bill, telling Bill how he has amnesia and is really harmless, but Bill won’t listen. Eric is hauled off to one of the prison cells at Bill’s house. Pam is in the prison cell, too, and she tries to convince Eric not to be loyal to Bill. Eric doesn’t take Pam’s advice though. He says that he doesn’t want his old life back, and he doesn’t want to remember the horrible things he’s been told that he has done. Upstairs, Bill is videoconferencing with Nan. He tells Nan that Eric is dangerous, and he recommends that Eric meet the true death. Just when I thought Bill couldn’t be more of an asshole.
Across town, Arlene and Terry find themselves in the unfortunate situation of waking up in the middle of the night to find that their house is on fire. Arlene is terrified because she can’t find Mikey. She doesn’t want to leave the burning house without her son, but Terry drags her outside. It turns out that Mikey was already outside, playing with his creepy doll on the front lawn. I’m thinking that doll must be behind all the freakiness happening to Arlene and Terry. The next morning, Andy Bellefleur accuse Sam (who owns Arlene and Terry’s house) of being a slumlord. Sam manages to temporarily talk Andy down, and Holly cheers Andy up by asking him for a date. Sam calls Tommy and asks him to open the bar while he deals with the fire. There’s just one problem. Because Tommy killed his parents, he’s now a skinwalker. And he’s shifted into Sam’s likeness. When he sees himself in the mirror, he lets out quite a scream.
Tommy essentially spends his day as Sam screwing up Sam’s life royally. First, he fires Sookie from Merlotte’s. Then he hears Mrs. Fortenberry badmouthing him for leaving her. The worst is when Sam’s new girlfriend, Luna, shows up at Sam’s trailer, and it’s Tommy-as-Sam who greets her. Even though he doesn’t know Luna, Tommy’s not one to turn away a beautiful woman. Tommy has sex with Luna, then kicks her out of the trailer. Luna is not happy about being kicked out, obviously, so I imagine Sam won’t be hearing from her for a while. With Luna gone, Tommy shifts back to himself and starts vomiting profusely into the kitchen sink. I guess the shifting was too much for him. When Sam gets home from dealing with the fire, he finds Tommy passed out in his own vomit.
Since she doesn’t have to work her shift at Merlotte’s, Sookie goes to check up on Jason, because he hasn’t been answering his phone. Sookie finds Jason handcuffed to his bed, and after a little prodding, he finally tells Sookie that he thinks he has been turned into a werepanther. It’s a full moon, and Jason is worried that he’s going to shift into a panther and hurt someone. The werepanthers aren’t the only ones getting ready to shift. Alcide arrives home to see the Shreveport packmaster talking to Debbie. Alcide is not happy about this because he turned the packmaster away just a few days ago. It turns out that Debbie has joined the pack, and she wants Alcide to shift with her and the rest of the pack that night.
Before getting back to the were happenings, there’s a brief sequence with Lafayette and Jesus at Jesus’ grandfather’s house. They’re out in a field looking for an animal to sacrifice. Lafayette thinks this is ridiculous, especially because they’re supposed to wait for an animal to come to them. Just as Lafayette is about to completely give up, Jesus catches a rattlesnake. Jesus’ grandfather says that Lafayette and Jesus need protection from the spirits, not the vampires. Using the same magic Marnie used, he becomes possessed by a spirit and makes the rattlesnake bite Jesus. Then he leaves the house. Lafayette becomes possessed by a spirit himself, and he says some sort of spell that magically saves Jesus.
From her prison cell, Marnie is back to mutilating herself to try and bring back the spirit of the witch who has let her be so powerful as to steal Eric’s memory and turn Pam into a rotting corpse. After cutting herself several times, she finally sees another flashback of the witch who has been possessing her. She sees the witch being bitten and raped by a vampire. As he violates her, she spits out some sort of curse. We then see her burning at the stake, and she lets out yet another curse. When we next seem Marnie, she now seems fully possessed. Later in the episode, we see the vampire who raped the witch watching Marnie on CCTV. He turns off the monitor and goes down to her cell. He knows that Marnie is now Antonia, the witch he raped, and he tries to attack her again. Marnie manages to fend him off with some powerful spells. While possessed by Antonia, it appears she’s a full-blown necromancer.
Tara’s hanging around Lafayette house when her girlfriend shows up, presumably looking for the “other woman” named Tara with whom “Toni” might be cheating. She is very surprised to see that Toni is actually Tara. It looks like Tara’s girlfriend is going to attack her out of anger (they are both MMA fighters, remember), but because it’s “True Blood,” it turns into sex. Later, Tara takes her girlfriend of Merlottes to give her more of the story of her life in Bon Temps. Jessica is their server, partly because neither Arlene nor Holly are there, and partly probably because Tommy, acting as Sam, thinks he’ll be able to get in her pants. While Tara isn’t thrilled with the idea of interacting with a vampire, she starts to try to give her order, but Jessica has run off.
Sookie sits with Jason out in the woods, waiting for him to turn into a werepanther, because she wants to take care of him when he shifts. She gives him a nice peptalk about how she’s learned over the years that no one is truly “normal,” and that has helped her deal with her own peculiarities. Sookie goes back in the house to get Jason another drink, but when she returns back outside, Jason is gone. Sookie decides to take matters into her own hands, and she goes after Jason with a shotgun. Jessica finds Jason first, though. She had run out of Merlotte’s because she could feel Jason was in trouble thanks to their blood bond. She does a good job calming her down (using tactics she used to use with her mother), and she offers to stick with Jason through his shift. Sookie, meanwhile, runs into Alcide and Debbie in the woods. Alcide says there’s no way to turn a human into a were-anything. Even a bite won’t do it. So I’m guessing this will be a significant departure from the books. Jason realizes on his own eventually that he’s not going to shift, and in a way, he’s a little disappointed about it because he thinks it means he’s not special. He and Jessica have a nice heart to heart about how he is special anyway, which leads to some awkwardness, considering Jessica is Hoyt’s girlfriend and Jason is Hoyt’s best friend and all.
Bill is standing outside his house, and guards bring Eric to him. Bill says that Eric is to meet the true death, and Eric accepts his sentence. He pretty much loathes the person he’s been told he used to be, and he thinks the punishment is fitting. He just has a couple requests. The first is that Bill releases Pam from prison. The second is that Bill makes Sookie happy. Eric says Sookie taught him what it means to feel love, which made me smile. Bill is clearly affected by Eric’s words, but he raises the stake to kill him anyway. Later, presumably in the aftermath of this interaction between Bill and Eric, Pam, now released from prison, finds Tara and her girlfriend. And she attacks, even though Tara didn’t actually do anything to her. Sookie, meanwhile, is still out in the woods looking for Jason. But she finds Eric instead. I guess Bill had an attack of conscience and set him free. They embrace, but of course the mood has to be ruined by cutting to a shot of Bill looking super moody. Alan Ball’s Bill love just does not jive with me. I’ve never liked Bill, and I’ve always been an Eric fan. Maybe that means I should just stick to the books- I’m not sure. When we next see Eric and Sookie, they’re having sex in the woods under the moonlight, and all is as it should be.
-Sookie
Overall, I thought “I Wish I was the Moon” was a good quality episode of “True Blood.” There was good movement on many of the plots, including Sookie’s relationship with Eric and the complication Bill poses to that relationship. I was very happy that Sookie and Eric finally got their act together in spite of Bill, and even though it didn’t play out like it did in the book, I thought the way it played out in the show worked just fine. Except for the fact that their sex scene was intercut with Bill gazing out from the porch of his house looking pained and emo. But that’s a rant for later in this post. I also like the turn Marnie took in this episode, but more about that later as well. Most helpful to the episode was that the Hotshot plot seems to have wrapped up for the time being, and we also don’t have to deal with the annoying Mickens parents anymore. These two plots were the most problematic of the season thus far, so the lack of any Hotshoters or elder Mickenses was most welcome.
The episode opens with Sookie and Eric making out in Sookie’s living room, but because we saw Bill rush to Sookie’s house at the end of last week’s episode, we know this happiness can’t last for long. Bill arrives soon enough, and he is extremely pissed to see Eric kissing Sookie. Eric isn’t especially happy to see Bill, either. They start to fight each other, and Eric throws Bill clear across the room. Sookie eventually stops the foolishness by telling Eric that Bill is his king. Eric backs off immediately and apologizes. Bill has Eric arrested on suspicion of being under the control of a necromancer (Marnie). Sookie tries to plead Eric’s case to Bill, telling Bill how he has amnesia and is really harmless, but Bill won’t listen. Eric is hauled off to one of the prison cells at Bill’s house. Pam is in the prison cell, too, and she tries to convince Eric not to be loyal to Bill. Eric doesn’t take Pam’s advice though. He says that he doesn’t want his old life back, and he doesn’t want to remember the horrible things he’s been told that he has done. Upstairs, Bill is videoconferencing with Nan. He tells Nan that Eric is dangerous, and he recommends that Eric meet the true death. Just when I thought Bill couldn’t be more of an asshole.
Across town, Arlene and Terry find themselves in the unfortunate situation of waking up in the middle of the night to find that their house is on fire. Arlene is terrified because she can’t find Mikey. She doesn’t want to leave the burning house without her son, but Terry drags her outside. It turns out that Mikey was already outside, playing with his creepy doll on the front lawn. I’m thinking that doll must be behind all the freakiness happening to Arlene and Terry. The next morning, Andy Bellefleur accuse Sam (who owns Arlene and Terry’s house) of being a slumlord. Sam manages to temporarily talk Andy down, and Holly cheers Andy up by asking him for a date. Sam calls Tommy and asks him to open the bar while he deals with the fire. There’s just one problem. Because Tommy killed his parents, he’s now a skinwalker. And he’s shifted into Sam’s likeness. When he sees himself in the mirror, he lets out quite a scream.
Tommy essentially spends his day as Sam screwing up Sam’s life royally. First, he fires Sookie from Merlotte’s. Then he hears Mrs. Fortenberry badmouthing him for leaving her. The worst is when Sam’s new girlfriend, Luna, shows up at Sam’s trailer, and it’s Tommy-as-Sam who greets her. Even though he doesn’t know Luna, Tommy’s not one to turn away a beautiful woman. Tommy has sex with Luna, then kicks her out of the trailer. Luna is not happy about being kicked out, obviously, so I imagine Sam won’t be hearing from her for a while. With Luna gone, Tommy shifts back to himself and starts vomiting profusely into the kitchen sink. I guess the shifting was too much for him. When Sam gets home from dealing with the fire, he finds Tommy passed out in his own vomit.
Since she doesn’t have to work her shift at Merlotte’s, Sookie goes to check up on Jason, because he hasn’t been answering his phone. Sookie finds Jason handcuffed to his bed, and after a little prodding, he finally tells Sookie that he thinks he has been turned into a werepanther. It’s a full moon, and Jason is worried that he’s going to shift into a panther and hurt someone. The werepanthers aren’t the only ones getting ready to shift. Alcide arrives home to see the Shreveport packmaster talking to Debbie. Alcide is not happy about this because he turned the packmaster away just a few days ago. It turns out that Debbie has joined the pack, and she wants Alcide to shift with her and the rest of the pack that night.
Before getting back to the were happenings, there’s a brief sequence with Lafayette and Jesus at Jesus’ grandfather’s house. They’re out in a field looking for an animal to sacrifice. Lafayette thinks this is ridiculous, especially because they’re supposed to wait for an animal to come to them. Just as Lafayette is about to completely give up, Jesus catches a rattlesnake. Jesus’ grandfather says that Lafayette and Jesus need protection from the spirits, not the vampires. Using the same magic Marnie used, he becomes possessed by a spirit and makes the rattlesnake bite Jesus. Then he leaves the house. Lafayette becomes possessed by a spirit himself, and he says some sort of spell that magically saves Jesus.
From her prison cell, Marnie is back to mutilating herself to try and bring back the spirit of the witch who has let her be so powerful as to steal Eric’s memory and turn Pam into a rotting corpse. After cutting herself several times, she finally sees another flashback of the witch who has been possessing her. She sees the witch being bitten and raped by a vampire. As he violates her, she spits out some sort of curse. We then see her burning at the stake, and she lets out yet another curse. When we next seem Marnie, she now seems fully possessed. Later in the episode, we see the vampire who raped the witch watching Marnie on CCTV. He turns off the monitor and goes down to her cell. He knows that Marnie is now Antonia, the witch he raped, and he tries to attack her again. Marnie manages to fend him off with some powerful spells. While possessed by Antonia, it appears she’s a full-blown necromancer.
Tara’s hanging around Lafayette house when her girlfriend shows up, presumably looking for the “other woman” named Tara with whom “Toni” might be cheating. She is very surprised to see that Toni is actually Tara. It looks like Tara’s girlfriend is going to attack her out of anger (they are both MMA fighters, remember), but because it’s “True Blood,” it turns into sex. Later, Tara takes her girlfriend of Merlottes to give her more of the story of her life in Bon Temps. Jessica is their server, partly because neither Arlene nor Holly are there, and partly probably because Tommy, acting as Sam, thinks he’ll be able to get in her pants. While Tara isn’t thrilled with the idea of interacting with a vampire, she starts to try to give her order, but Jessica has run off.
Sookie sits with Jason out in the woods, waiting for him to turn into a werepanther, because she wants to take care of him when he shifts. She gives him a nice peptalk about how she’s learned over the years that no one is truly “normal,” and that has helped her deal with her own peculiarities. Sookie goes back in the house to get Jason another drink, but when she returns back outside, Jason is gone. Sookie decides to take matters into her own hands, and she goes after Jason with a shotgun. Jessica finds Jason first, though. She had run out of Merlotte’s because she could feel Jason was in trouble thanks to their blood bond. She does a good job calming her down (using tactics she used to use with her mother), and she offers to stick with Jason through his shift. Sookie, meanwhile, runs into Alcide and Debbie in the woods. Alcide says there’s no way to turn a human into a were-anything. Even a bite won’t do it. So I’m guessing this will be a significant departure from the books. Jason realizes on his own eventually that he’s not going to shift, and in a way, he’s a little disappointed about it because he thinks it means he’s not special. He and Jessica have a nice heart to heart about how he is special anyway, which leads to some awkwardness, considering Jessica is Hoyt’s girlfriend and Jason is Hoyt’s best friend and all.
Bill is standing outside his house, and guards bring Eric to him. Bill says that Eric is to meet the true death, and Eric accepts his sentence. He pretty much loathes the person he’s been told he used to be, and he thinks the punishment is fitting. He just has a couple requests. The first is that Bill releases Pam from prison. The second is that Bill makes Sookie happy. Eric says Sookie taught him what it means to feel love, which made me smile. Bill is clearly affected by Eric’s words, but he raises the stake to kill him anyway. Later, presumably in the aftermath of this interaction between Bill and Eric, Pam, now released from prison, finds Tara and her girlfriend. And she attacks, even though Tara didn’t actually do anything to her. Sookie, meanwhile, is still out in the woods looking for Jason. But she finds Eric instead. I guess Bill had an attack of conscience and set him free. They embrace, but of course the mood has to be ruined by cutting to a shot of Bill looking super moody. Alan Ball’s Bill love just does not jive with me. I’ve never liked Bill, and I’ve always been an Eric fan. Maybe that means I should just stick to the books- I’m not sure. When we next see Eric and Sookie, they’re having sex in the woods under the moonlight, and all is as it should be.
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