Summer TV Rewind: The Americans 1.02: "The Clock"

“They shouldn’t ask us to do impossible things.”
-Elizabeth

The first episode of “The Americans” was a broad introduction to the world of Soviet Directorate S agents Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings, and it set up some longer-term story arcs. “The Clock” told a more discrete story, showing us one specific mission Phillip and Elizabeth need to complete. This specific mission does help to serve the ongoing idea that the stakes have recently been raised for Directorate S, and the missions are becoming more dangerous. Elizabeth especially spends a lot of time in this episode wondering what would happen to Paige and Henry if the worst happened to her and/or Phillip. Also in this episode, Agent Beeman first meets Soviet embassy employee Nina, who will figure quite heavily in the plot for some time to come. This episode is more stand-alone than most episodes of “The Americans,” but I think that works well for being the second episode in the series.

The pilot opened with Elizabeth having sex with a mark. This episode opened with Phillip having sex with a mark. The mark is a woman named Analise who is the wife of a high ranking man in the Department of Defense. Analise thinks Phililp is a Swedish diplomat named Scott. Phillip convinces Analise to snoop around the Secretary of Defense’s home office during a cocktail party. She’s got a camera attached to her bra that she uses to snap pictures. She almost gets caught, but she manages to get out and get the film to Phillip and Elizabeth. Phillip finds what they are looking for in one of the photos. There is a small clock in the office that would be the perfect home for a bug. There is a high level meeting taking place at the Secretary of Defenses house soon (it includes Margaret Thatcher), and the Soviets what to know what is said. What I found interesting here is that the spy life is equal opportunity when it comes to using sex to get the job done. It’s not just women.

At the Rezidentura, the decision is made that because this important meeting is happening really soon, Directorate S needs to place the bug in the Secretary of Defense’s office. Regular KGB agents would be too slow. So the job falls to Phillip and Elizabeth. They decide to use the Secretary’s maid, Viola to get the job done. Elizabeth runs into Viola’s son in the street, and what Viola and her son don’t realize is that he has been poisoned. Phillip and Elizabeth go to Viola’s apartment and tell her that her son has been given a very specific poison for which Phillip has the only antidote. If she does as they ask, her son will be saved. If she makes one wrong move, he will die.

Meanwhile, Stan and his partner, Chris Amador, have their eyes on an electronics shop. A woman from the Soviet embassy (Nina) walks out of the shop with a very large package, so Stan and Amador are suspicious. They go inside the shop, and they ask the shopkeeper to tell them what he knows about the Russian woman. The shopkeeper refuses to tell them anything, so Stan and Amador take some expensive Russian caviar he has stashed behind the counter. Later, Stan would share the caviar with Phillip in what can only be described as a very cat-and-mouse scene. Later, Stan finds Nina at a produce stand, and he confronts her. He knows that she has been sending expensive items back to her family in Russia for them to sell on the black market, which is highly illegal. Stan promises to not tell the Soviets what he discovered (which would earn her a one-way ticket back to Moscow) if Nina starts giving him intel from the Rezidentura.

Viola completes the first half of her mission without too much trouble. She brings her purse into the Secretary’s office while she’s dusting, and she slips the target clock into the purse. Phillip and Elizabeth were a bit skeptical that it was so easy. Viola has a good explanation though. Nobody in the Secretary’s family would be suspicious of her bringing her purse into that room because they’ve never had reason to be suspicious of her in the first place. Actually getting the clock from Viola proves to e a bit more difficult, though. When Phillip tries to pick it up from Viola’s apartment, Viola’s brother shows up, and there’s a big fight. Viola is upset with her brother, but Philip is more upset that Viola told somebody what was going on. Phillip wins the fight, of course, and he puts enough fear into Viola and her brother that they aren’t going to be going to the cops any time soon.

Viola is still going to be trouble, though. Phillip and Elizabeth successfully install the bug in the clock and give the clock back to Viola. Through all of it, Elizabeth keeps fretting about everything that can go horribly wrong. Things do go somewhat wrong when Viola hesitates on returning the bugged clock to the Secretary’s office. Phillip can tell that Viola bailed because he can’t pick up the signal from the bug. Phillip and Elizabeth start arguing about how bad things might get, but they’re cut short when Phillip gets an “emergency signal” from Analise. Analise is thinking about going to the police because she’s tired of the secretive spy life. She just wants to run away with Scott. Or at least pretend she’s going to run away. When Phillip seems to agree to the pretend part, Analise runs off. She’s one odd duck.

Phillip and Elizabeth increase the pressure on Viola to deliver the clock already. Elizabeth spends a long time trying to convince her through conversation, but ti’s Phillip who gets the job done by suffocating Viola’s son with a pillow until Viola swears she’ll do what they want. Viola returns the clock the next day without much fuss, although when the Secretary’s wife says nice things about her right afterward, she clearly feels very guilty. I wouldn’t be surprised if she eventually spills what happened to somebody who can do something about it. Like Phillip and Elizabeth said earlier in the episode, religious people like Viola make bad marks because their morality is so rigid.

At the end of the episode, both sides are celebrating victory. The Russians were thrilled that the bug was planted in the Secretary’s office in time for the big meeting they wanted to listen to. Even Nina picks up on the jubilant atmosphere. Meanwhile, the FBI is thrilled that Stan just got them a new informant in the Rezidentura (that would be Nina). He even gets a call from the President’s Chief of Staff congratulating him on the achievement. Stan makes sure to give plenty of credit to his team, too. Phillip and Elizabeth are really the only ones who don’t celebrate. They’re worried about what they might be asked to do next.

Game of Thrones 4.09: "The Watchers on the Wall"

“And what did I get for it? An arrow six inches from my heart.”
-Jon Snow

While “The Watchers on the Wall” was clearly the showpiece of the fourth season of “Game of Thrones,” I’m finding it somewhat difficult to find 1,000 words to say about it. It was a gorgeous, brutal episode, but most of what was happening was action, not character work. I definitely like my action sequences in fantasy/sci-fi, but there isn’t as much to say about the hacking and slashing, you know? I could see an effort by the creative team to try and ground the action in the characters, but it was still, in the end, almost all action. By the end of the episode, the Night’s Watch have prevailed for now, but there’s definitely a sense that without some big changes taking place soon, the victory won’t last. While I can see many potential endings for the overall “Song of Ice and Fire” saga, but Mance Rayder and the Wildlings winning isn’t one of them. So I’ll be very interested to see how this plays out.

It’s natural to compare “The Watchers on the Wall” to season 2’s “Blackwater.” “Blackwater” was the last time that the “Game of Thrones” creative team attempted to tell one story in one episode centered on a big battle. “Blackwater” felt more epic to me, perhaps because it was a naval battle. I think I was more invested in those characters, as well. I feel like I know the Lannisters and other King’s Landing important denizens more than I know Jon’s buddies up on the Wall. I know Sam and Alliser Thorne and Maester Aemon, but I couldn’t tell you the name of anyone else in the Night’s Watch. That could be why I enjoyed “Blackwater” more. I feel like on paper, the stakes were higher in this one, but I just didn’t feel it.

The attempt to ground the action in character is evident right from the beginning of the episode. We open with Jon and Sam talking about their lady problems, which is kind of funny considering they’re both of the Night’s Watch. Sam tells Jon his theory that technically, the Night’s Watch vows don’t require celibacy. They make take no wife and father no children, but that’s not a blanket ban on sex. I think he’s mostly trying to make Jon feel better about the Ygritte incident, since Sam hasn’t really made any moves on Gilly. Speaking of Ygritte, pre-battle, she makes it clear that she wants to kill Jon. The rest of the Wildlings can do whatever damage they want, but Ygritte wants her final revenge.

Back at Castle Black, Sam is still hung up on Gilly. He and Maester Aemon have an interesting conversation about love. We learn a lot more about Maester Aemon through the conversation. Remember that before he was a Maester, he was Aemon Targaryen, potential heir to the Iron Throne. Because of his royal status, Aemon had many suitors, and he tells Sam about the only woman who ever made an impression on him. Just as this conversation is wrapping up, Gilly happens to show up at the gate. Sam is overjoyed to see her, and he makes it clear that if any of the Brothers have a problem with Gilly’s presence at Castle Black, they’ll have to answer to him.

Soon after Gilly is inside the Castle grounds, the situation begins to get tense. The Wildlings are closing in. They blow their horns, and a horde of Wildlings carrying flaming torches is visible. The Wildlings approach the wall quickly, and as they start trying to break down the walls, Alliser Thorne (as acting Lord Commander) gives what should be a very rousing speech to rally the troops. I would have found it inspirational if it wasn’t Alliser Thorne saying the words. Alliser is just such a jerk that I can’t be inspired. I think that part of the meaning behind that moment was that Alliser was finally coming into his own and being a decent leader for the Night’s Watch, but he was just so horrible in the past that I can’t get on board. News flash: he dies by the end of the episode. So there’s that.

Like I mentioned, there is a lot of action in this episode. I don’t retain action in my memory as well as I do dialogue, so I feel like it would be kind of pointless to talk about all the ins and outs of the Battle for the Wall here. I will say that there was one scene that stood out to me as being really cool. The Wildlings have a mammoth charging the gates of Castle Black, and the Night’s Watch brothers throw down some flaming barrels to scare it off. There’s also a kind of memorable scene where somebody got an axe to the head. It wasn’t quite the gore of the exploding head of last week’s episode, but it certainly wasn’t pretty, either.

Eventually, Jon goes outside Castle Black to join the fight, and he and Ygritte end up squaring off. Jon’s already killed quite a few Wildlings by this point, including the super creepy shaved head and scars leader dude. Ygritte proves to be a more difficult opponent, though. The fight becomes intense, and Ygritte finally gets an arrow trained on Jon Snow. Before she can actually kill him, though, she is shot by Olly, the boy who was orphaned in the recent Wildling attack (who was sent to warn the Night’s Watch that the Wildlings were coming). As she dies, Ygritte wishes she and Jon could have just stayed in the cave where they had sex, and she tells him he knows nothing. It’s one final insult to Jon.

One of the brothers who Jon left in charge gives an order, and a giant anchor comes loose and starts swinging against the Wall. At first, I thought the Wall was breaking (which would have been very, very bad), but it was actually a plan to basically sweep all of the invading Wildlings off of the Wall. The plan works, for now at least. The battle is won for that night, but Jon doesn’t think the Wildlings are going to give up. The Night’s Watch can only hold out for a few days more at most. Jon thinks that the only long-term solution is to kill Mance Rayder. Mance has managed to bring a bunch of usually fighting Wildling tribes together, so Jon’s theory is that without Mance, they’ll all start fighting each other again. We end the episode of a shot of Jon leaving the safety of Castle Black in search of Mance.

Summer DVR Dump: Atlantis 1.02: “A Girl by Any Other Name”

“It’s not a question of what I want. Your destiny is already unfolding before you.”
- The Oracle

We begin in a dark wooded area as a young woman is chased by a giant monster. She falls a couple times but manages to get up before the monster catches her and she screams. I don’t know why she’s not up and running again personally. We cut to Jason looking very tired and bored surrounded by crates. He hears a noise and ends up tackling Hercules (whose been drinking at the tavern). They have apparently been getting gigs a rent-a-cop types to look after rich merchant’s wares. Jason’s just bored out of his skull and takes off to visit the Oracle. He wants answers as to why he’s in Atlantis and what’s so special about him but she won’t give him the information he seeks. She says she’s trying to protect him and that with time, everything will make sense. I feel like she’s his mother and just isn’t telling him. I suppose we’ll find out eventually if that theory is correct.

The next morning, Hercules awakes from his drunken stupor (thanks to a goat) to find the cargo they were guarding is gone. No big surprise there. After a brief argument, someone starts pounding on the door. They think it’s the merchant come to see about his cargo so Py and Hercules hide while Jason answers it. It turns out to be an old man, hoping to employ their services to locate his missing daughter (aka the screaming chick from the start of the episode). Jason promises they’ll do all they can to find her.

Jason has somehow gotten a servant girl to sneak him into the kitchens. They get caught by Ariadne but she lets them go and wishes Jason luck on his quest to find the missing girl. He enlists one of the other kitchen staff to show him where the missing girl would have gone to gather herbs. He realizes something’s sketchy when she keeps taking him further from the city. She tries to kill him but he defends himself and she ultimately takes the Greek version of a cyanide pill. Py and Hercules have their own issues as the merchant has come to collect. They manage to lose him and get home in time to give Jason a rundown of who the dead kitchen lady really was. She’s a follower of Dionysus and they probably took the missing girl to initiate her into their cult. Oh and they’ve got man eating satyrs too. Groovy!

We get a glimpse of what the followers of Dionysus are like (aka creepy savage chicks who act kind of feral). A poor guy who got lost is sacrificed as the missing girl (now an initiate) watches. Jason provides the news that she’s likely been initiated to her father and he is understandably distraught at the news. Jason makes the decision to rescue the girl, even though no man has ever returned alive from a trek to the temple. Reluctantly, Hercules agrees to join Jason and Pythagoras on their trip ad he takes first watch that night and gets kind of spooked by the woods. And in what is not a surprise to anyone, he sees a woman through the threes and goes after her. The followers of Dionysus nearly catch him but the missing girl saves him and risks her own life to let him get away. She stabs herself and sucks some of her own blood to make it look like she drank his blood (because that’s not gross at all). The next morning Py and Jason wake up minus their big boned buddy only to have him fall from a tree. He tells the tale with only slight embellishment and it seems he’s really fallen for his savior. So they head off to the temple and Hercules is first to head off to try and break in. Kind of a surprise really. Of course they get caught and the girl he thinks is the one who saved him is not her. They get caught and the high priestess summons the girl who did save his life. She gets thrown into the pit and Jason dives in after her.

It turns out the satyrs are afraid of Jason for some reason. And the girl isn’t the one who he came to find but someone else named Medusa (yes probably that Medusa). They escape the pit and reconnect with Py and Hercules but they don’t have a very good escape plan. They do find the missing girl but she’s been initiated and refuses to leave with them. So Hercules knocks her out and they take off while the high priestess swears to kill them in the name of Dionysus. Things aren’t looking so good when the missing girl wakes up and takes off. Jason goes after her and he knocks out a bunch of the priestesses but it is the girl who finally stops her. It’s unclear if she dies or just refuses to return and see her father. Either way, she doesn’t make the trip back to Atlantis with them. Medusa goes in her place and consoles her father. It seems they both needed a little comfort and that maybe uniting them was really Jason’s purpose. He pays yet another visit to the Oracle (I have a feeling this is going to be the Merlin/Great Dragon relationship on the show) and she says that his and Medusa’s fates are linked and that he’s more than just a regular man. She’s very cryptic. I know that’s to be expected from an oracle but still. You would expect her to be a little more helpful than that.

Overall, I think this episode starts to show us how the series is going to unfold. It’s a bit more “baddie of the week” than I was expecting but I suppose that’s partly how Merlin started out. They’re still populating the world with various mythical creatures and people and that will take time. Honestly though, the satyrs were more monkey-like than goats. We will see how the show progresses, though it’s already been confirmed that season 2 is a go on both sides of the pond.

Summer DVR Dump: Warehouse 13 5.02: “Secret Services”

“I know Artie said he tried everything and that he means well, but you’re my sister and there’s no way I’m leaving you like this.”
- Claudia

So I guess with only six episodes to work with the wrap up their storylines, the writers are really cramming stuff in. We got two pretty big items if not completely checked off, at least explored more. The first is Pete and Myka’s relationship. While Steve, Artie and Claudia hang around the Warehouse to deal with the other major arc of the episode, our dynamic duo go off to DC for a bizarre case. This of course is after Mrs. Frederick brings up the notion of Myka having children since she’s cancer free. Pete offers to be a sperm donor and that pretty much throws Myka for a loop. Like her, I’ve always seen them as having a brother/sister type relationship and I’ve enjoyed that because not every show with opposite-sex leads needs to have them end up together.

The case that draws Pete and Myka back to their old stomping grounds is a case of a man appearing drown on dry land. Another pair of Secret Service agents are on scene and they seem to know Pete and Myka. I suppose that makes sense since it’s not just two agents protecting people. They were there with their protectee at a hotel. The guy was involved with fracking rights and also a politician. So the quartet go to visit his office and talk to his aid. She doesn’t seem to know anything and before long, there’s another drowning victim. It seems he was involved with a bill about fracking, too. I have to give it to the writers that they really did make me think it was going in a different direction than it really is. After the second victim, Pete and Myka start to get suspicious of the other pair of agents. They have their phones off during a case and they suspect they might be hiding an artifact. It turns out the pair secretly got hitched at the court house. Again, not what I was expecting.

After they learn that a bartender turned political fundraiser is victim number three, they head off to the hotel where he used to work and things really start to pick up. Pete and the male half of the other couple find an article about a girl who went missing at the hotel and supposedly it was with a senator whose successor was the first victim. I smell conspiracy! Myka and the other female agent are talking about how the marriage happened and it really starts her thinking about her and Pete. They do have a lot in common and obviously care a lot about each other. But there isn’t time to figure that out now because they think they know who the next victim is; the writer of the article that they found. And wouldn’t you know it, she starts coughing up water. Luckily, Artie has sent some artifact supplies for them and they use one to at least halt the drowning while they figure out what’s really going on. They head back to talk to the senator’s aid and the male agent gets whammied and starts drowning. The aid is going after the girl who supposedly went missing and whammies her too. Pete and Myka figure out that it was the sword hilt of Alfred Dreyfus (it only activates when someone lies) and his only escape from his prison is to swim. So that explains the water. Pete and Myka manage to stop her and neutralize the artifact. They get back to the Warehouse and Pete in all seriousness says that if Myka ever wants to talk about having babies with him, he’s willing to be a grown up about it. So they didn’t really give us an answer to the whole will they/won’t they (not that we’ve really had that much in the past) but I thought it was an interesting way to look at the issue.

The other major arc of this episode involved Claudia finding out the truth about her sister, Claire. She is about ready to hack the Warehouse system to find out anything she can since the photos of her parents crushed car screams Warehouse to her. But Arties stops her form doing that. He’s going to show her his memories of the interacting with her sister and the day her parents died. They use an artifact which I’d totally forgotten Pete and his mom used a few seasons back to go back into Artie’s memory. We first see Claire at school. She’s usually some really scary telekinesis to throw people around. We then see Claudia’s parents in the principal’s office and ultimately trying to take Claire to see a doctor. Artie wants to pull out of the memory but Claudia insists on seeing what really happened. She watches in horror as her sister throws the car repeatedly into a pole, killing her parents. Claire then collapses unconscious on the ground. We jump inside the house where we see a young Claudia who remarks that it was a music box that made her sister go crazy. Artie confirms it is an artifact but it’s been burned in a fire (not properly neutralized). This means that the artifact’s power still remains in Claire. And we also learn that from a very young age, Claudia could identify artifacts. I have to believe that ties in directly with her being the next caretaker of the Warehouse. I thought that was a really creative way to tie that back in since we never really knew why Claudia was going to be Mrs. Frederick’s successor.

Claudia is worried that she threw the music box in the fire, thus harming her sister. After some squabbling, Steve offers to go in with Claudia as an outside observer to make sure memories aren’t being blocked. And we actually see Claire. She’s in a room and they are using various artifacts to keep her in a coma. It’s dangerous but she and Steve go into Claire’s memories and we see Claire picking out the music box at a yard sale despite Claudia’s warning that it is bad. We see Claire’s reactions to what’s going on and we see that it was her not Claudia that threw the music box into the fire. So at least Claudia doesn’t have to bear any guilt about her sister’s predicament. She does swear to find a way to bring Claire out of her coma and get the remaining power out of her. I have to say I really liked this part of the episode and had wished it could have been more of the episode than it was. Now if only we can hope for one final appearance by Joshua I’d be really happy.

Summer TV Rewind: Leverage 1.02: “The Homecoming Job”

“You guys came to me, remember? You begged me to run the crew. Agreed to play by my rules. If you have a problem with that, walk away. Walk away any day if you have a problem. It’s simple.”
- Nate

The second episode kicks off in a hail of bullets. Literally. Corporal Robert Perry is sending a video home to his fiancée and he tapes some private contractors. Before he can finish his message, someone opens fire on the soldiers. We cut to today in LA where corporal Perry is in a hospital trying to get rehab. He found Nate online and Nate wants to help nail the contractor because it seems like they were the ones who opened fire on the soldiers. Even though one of the facility doctors tries to discourage Nate from helping, he gets Hardison to recall the team from their various locations (Sophie auditioning for a commercial in Hollywood, Eliot beating up guys in Berlin and Parker stealing a painting in Monaco). They all get back to LA to find that Nate has bought them a giant office suit for Leverage Consulting and Associates. Hardison has worked his magic to make the company legit. And before we know it, the team is off to blackmail the contractor’s CEO. Oh and we learn that Eliot is very good at identifying sounds.

Sophie, Eliot and Nate head to a big gala event while Parker and Hardison head to the CEO’s office to do some digging. Things get a little complicated once Parker and Hardison get into the office (though watching Hardison get pushed off a roof and end up at the bottom of his tether upside down is pretty hilarious). The safe in the office is locked with a voice code and the computer system as an RFID reader needed to log in. So we get to witness some fairly impressive pickpocketing on Sophie’s part as she nabs the CEO’s wallet and Eliot get the RFID card info to Hardison. Getting the voice key for the safe is a little more complicated since they need all the sounds. Eliot manages to get them all in another hilarious moment. You would not think given his prior run on “Angel” that Christian Kane has many comedy chops but the man is funny. Handsome, funny and badass. What a combo!

The team ditches the party as soon as the pair at the office find all of Corporal Perry’s medical and other records in the safe and on the computer. Nate makes the connection that it was the fact that Perry caught stuff on camera that has the company worried, not the shooting. So they hightail it back to the hospital to make sure Perry doesn’t get tied up as a loose end. Nate, Sophie and Eliot barely make to rescue Perry. But of course, they do. Eliot gets to beat the crap out of some guns for hire from the contractor. It really wouldn’t be an episode of Leverage without an Eliot fight. Anyway, the team is pretty disheartened by the fact that the guns for hire were planning on killing Perry and making it look like a suicide. Nate reminds them in a bit of a drunken rant that they came to him and let him pick the clients. So they agree to do this one job. Parker and Sophie head to DC to start planting seeds of doubt between the CEO and his pet Congressman. And Eliot and Hardison mess with the Congressman on the West Coast by messing up his home renovations. This leads to finding out that the Congressman got a shipping container through customs for the CEO shortly after the shooting. So now it’s time to find the container and screw these guys over big time.

The gang heads to the port and discovers that the container holds millions and millions in legitimate US currency (small bills). Back at HQ, Nate explains that his former employer provided an insurance policy on funds for reconstruction. And the CEO and the Congressman have turned the US government into a money laundering scheme. That is honestly terrifying and a part of me isn’t surprised that it could actually happen. The crazy thing about Leverage plots is that the writers do their research ahead of time. The things that the crew tackles are real. They actually happen. My faith in humanity dies a little bit inside each time. Anyway, they go back to try and steal the cash to give back to the country (aka all the recovering soldiers at the hospital like Corporal Perry). Both the CEO and the Congressman end up at the port by a container that’s been blown open with C4 courtesy of Parker. They start accusing each other of things and threatening one another about the whole smuggling operation. And then the news crews show up and one woman points out that the container they’re standing in front of isn’t the one the Congressman called about. That still contains most of the money and thanks to a webcam, it recorded their argument/confession. Not so good for these guys. And the crew kept the other contractor employees busy by having Hardison drive off in a van, making them think they took all the money. When one of the guns for hire from the hospital forces Hardison to open the back of the truck, it appears empty. But as we see a short while later, it was just an illusion and they’ve got several million dollars for the hospital. The team agrees to do a few more jobs.

I really enjoyed this episode because not only does it support our military personnel who return from overseas but it really just had feel-good ending. The team saw what their efforts did and that they could make positive change, just as Nate knew it would. So no one is walking away any time soon. And Nate gets to drive off in a cute little electric convertible. Mid-life crisis or just trying to find another outlet besides drinking to deal with the death of his son? I guess we just have to keep watching to find out.

Game of Thrones 4.08: "The Mountain and the Viper"

“She was always prone to melancholy. My lady wasn’t meant for a world as brutal as ours.”
-Petyr

“The Mountain and the Viper” was yet another episode of “Game of Thrones” that gained a lot of media attention when it aired because of its shocking ending. We’ve seen a lot of violence on “Game of Thrones.” Westeros is a brutal world, no doubt. This episode was a topic of conversation around the lunch table at work this week, and one of my coworkers asked those of us who watched the show “How can you watch all that violence?” In this case, I think it may have been a convenient glare on my television screen from the gorgeous sunny weather outside today that spared me the worst of it. I don’t think this episode will enter my pantheon of best/most memorable “Game of Thrones” episodes, but it was an interesting and entertaining enough way to spend an hour.

As per usual, before we get to the continuation of Tyrion’s trial, we check in with many of the other stories going on around Westeros and across the Narrow Sea. We start this episode in the North, with Molestown (the town closest to Castle Black) being sacked by Wildlings. Before the actual sacking, we see that Molestown is really not at all a pleasant place. It’s pretty raunchy, and poor Gilly is just keeping her head down and trying to do her job. Ygritte of all people finds Gilly and the baby in the middle of the battle, and it a rare moment of compassion, decides to spare them. Up at Castle Black, Sam is devastated when he hears about the attack. He thinks Gilly is probably dead, and he (rightfully) thinks that it’s his fault. His brothers try to give him hope, pointing out that Gilly is nothing if not a survivor.

Next, we head across the Narrow Sea, where we get a chapter in what I think is a kind of odd love story. Grey Worm (the leader of the Unsullied) creeps on some ladies taking a bath, one of which happens to be Dany’s interpreter, Missandei. Grey Worm watches Missandei for a little too long, and she notices. Grey Worm slinks off, kind of embarrassed. Missandei talks the situation over with Dany, who expresses surprise that an Unsullied could be interested in a woman. They both start wondering how much is actually taken when an Unsullied is castrated. Grey Worm apologizes to Missandei, but they both agree that they don’t regret the incident. And it looks like we have the beginnings of a rather odd love story.

Also in Meereen, a kid delivers a fancy document to Ser Barristan. It’s a pardon for Jorah, signed by the late King Robert. Barristan confronts Jorah about this, and Jorah admits that he sent information about Dany back to King’s Landing at several key times. Ser Barristan tells Jorah that Jorah will never be alone with Dany again. Jorah appears before Dany to admit what he has done, and Dany shows no mercy. What really upsets Dany is that Jorah’s information led to the poisoning attempt in season 1 that would have killed her unborn son. Jorah points out that he stopped Dany from drinking the poison, but she doesn’t care. It was too close a call. She banishes Jorah from Meereen (and her presence) permanently.

In the North, Ramsay is sending Theon on a mission. The plan is to take Moat Cailin, a Northern stronghold. Theon is to pretend to be Theon to gain entrance to the Moat, but Ramsay makes Theon assure him that he will always be “Reek” on the inside. Announcing that he is Theon does indeed gain him entrance, but the people of Moat Cailin figure out something is off very quickly. Theon convinces the people of the Moat to surrender to Ramsay, but Ramsay kills them all anyway. Roose Bolton rewards Ramsay for this by letting Ramsay finally take the Bolton name and making him heir. If the Boltons remain Wardens of the North, the North is in for some serious trouble. They’re plain evil. Even worse than the Lannisters, really.

There is also plenty of intrigue in the Vale this week. At the Eyrie there is an inquiry into Lysa’s death, and it appears to be presided over by the region’s small lords. Littlefinger is trying to convince the panel that Lysa committed suicide. The panel forces Sansa to testify, which could have gone very wrong. She admits her true identity, but she doesn’t tell the complete truth about what happened to her Aunt Lysa. She mentions Lysa going crazy after seeing Littlefinger kiss Sansa (although she minimizes the kiss), but then she says the Lysa was so enraged that she threw herself through the Moon Door. After the inquiry, Littlefinger wants to know why Sansa lied and saved him. Sansa’s answer basically amounts to “the devil you know is better than the one you don’t.” She didn’t trust the other nobles of the Vale, in other words. It is at this moment when Littlefinger realizes that he may have taught Sansa too well. She’s not the silly girl he thought she was, and she has found his weakness (her resemblance to her mother).

The Hound and Arya also arrive in the Vale. While wrapping up their journey, they talk about Joffrey’s death. Arya wishes she had been the one to do the killing, or she at least wishes she could have seen the look on Joffrey’s face. The Hound doesn’t see why it’s so important. He thinks a real good death is through steel, not poison. At the gates to the Eyrie, the Hound and Arya are informed of Lysa’s death, and all Arya can do is laugh. Inside the Eyrie, we see Petyr trying to convince Robin to come into his role as Lord of the Vale. He wants to send Robin on a big Vale-wide publicity tour, basically. That can’t possibly end well.

In King’s Landing, it’s almost time for the Trial by Combat between Prince Oberyn and the Mountain. Before the trial begins, there’s an interesting conversation between Jaime and Tyrion that does a lot to illuminate both characters. Jaime and Tyrion had a cousin Orson who had developmental disabilities and liked to spend his time killing beetles. Tyrion, being the analytical person he is, really wanted to know why his cousin killed beetles, but he could never figure it out before his cousin’s death. Being of an analytical bent myself (it’s how I make my living), I appreciated learning this about Tyrion’s childhood. The trial itself is quite a spectacle. Oberyn seems more flash than substance, compared to the Mountain’s hulking mass. Oberyn does manage to best the Mountain, though, inflicting what should be a fatal wound. Oberyn cares more about getting the Mountain to confess to what he did to the Martell family than he does about winning, though, and that leads to carelessness. While he’s demanding the confession, the Mountain gets back up and kills Oberyn by squeezing Oberyn’s head. It’s a gruesome scene to say the least, and it makes things very difficult for Tyrion from here on out.

Summer TV Rewind: Orange is the New Black 1.01: "I Wasn't Ready"

“Try to look at your experience here as a mandala, Chapman. Work hard to make something as meaningful and beautiful as you can. And when you’re done, pack it in and know it was all temporary.”
-Yoga Jones

This summer, as season 2 has just been released, we’re going to be taking a look at the first season of Netflix’s hit original drama “Orange is the New Black.” I’ve been pretty heavily involved in corrections policy (although primarily on the juvenile side)for the past two years, so I find the show an interesting watch from both a drama perspective and a look at the state of our correctional system. What is especially unique about “Orange is the New Black” is the large cast of diverse female characters. Each inmate the show follows at the Litchfield, Connecticut federal correctional facility is a fully-formed character with her own backstory and motivations. We go on a journey with Piper Chapman, who at first seems like a typical Brooklyn hipster, as she begins her fifteen-month sentence. At first, it feels like Piper doesn’t belong at Litchfield and many of the other inmates do, but as the season progresses, many of the inmates become more sympathetic than Piper herself. Piper is really not the innocent person she first appears to be (even to herself), and she has to come to terms with that.

The opening of the pilot episode is a prison shower scene designed to shock, but thankfully this episode is the first and only time that the show really goes to this place. It’s as if the creative team was saying, “Now that we’ve shown you some naked women so we can be taken seriously, can we get down to the real business of the show?” The idea that a drama needs to include nudity to be taken seriously is a whole other can of worms, really. I think it comes from the HBO-ificiation of drama. But again, that’s a subject for another time. For the record, I dislike violence in media even more than nudity/sex, and obviously the nudity in “Orange is the New Black” didn’t keep me from devouring each episode and enjoying the show enough to want to write about it here. I just think it’s an interesting trend. Anyway, the shower scene takes place on Piper’s first morning in prison, and we see just how little she’s fitting in at this point. Girl’s got shower shoes made out of pads, and she’s freaked out by everyone who tries to talk to her.

Throughout the episode, we get some flashbacks to give us the basics of how Piper ended up in prison. This story will become more layered as the season progresses, but it’s interesting to see Piper’s perspective on her personal responsibility for her situation in the early days. Right after college, Piper was a free spirit who had a relationship with a woman who just happened to run an international drug smuggling ring. That woman’s name was Alex Voss, and she’s played by Laura Prepon, best known for “That 70’s Show.” Alex is going overseas for a while, and she convinces Piper to join her, promising that Piper won’t have to participate in any actual criminal activity. Soon enough, though, Piper is agreeing to pick up some cash from an airport in Belgium. There’s a bit of tension when the money bag doesn’t show up right away, but soon enough, Piper is picking up the bag and blowing right through customs.

About ten years after Piper and Alex’s adventures, Alex has been arrested, and in the course of the prosecution of the case against her, she gives the feds Piper’s name as a fellow member of the drug ring. The now stereotypical WASP hipster has her world completely turned upside down. First she has to let her boyfriend, Larry (Jason Biggs) know what’s going on, which means revealing her super-sketchy past. Even more fun is Piper and Larry having to tell Larry’s family. Larry’s dad is a lawyer, and they hope he can help get Piper out of this (obviously he’s not completely successful). What’s funny is that Larry’s grandmother doesn’t have nearly as much of a problem with it as they thought she would. Larry goes into full “stand by your woman” mode, and during a day at the beach, he proposes to Piper. She accepts, of course, because she’s totally committed to this image she has created for herself of the good girl who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The present-day parts of the episode focus mainly on the absurdity of federal prison bureaucracy and Piper’s ill-fated attempts to adjust to prison life. Piper does a self-surrender, and right from the outset, there are bureaucratic snags. First there’s the fact that she’s surrendering on a weekend. That means that support staff needed to find and process all her information are minimal. Then Larry has to walk Piper’s phone out to the car (she’s not technically allowed to have it in the facility) and almost misses seeing her off. Finally, her commissary check has to be mailed off to an office in the Midwest for processing. That last one is why she eventually ends up with the MacGyvered shower shoes. Her commissary money hadn’t gone through yet. She also has to cry to one of the really skeevy counselors to get use of his phone to call Larry.

Piper has read extensively about how to get through prison, but there are some things she is most definitely not prepared for. First, there’s the segregation. Caucasians, African Americans, and Latinas generally stick to their own kind. Keeping with this, the first fellow inmates that Piper really converses with are all white. There’s Morello, the blue collar chick who likes to wear pin up makeup and hair while she talks about her upcoming wedding. There’s Nikki, a tough, readhead lesbian. There’s Yoga Jones, who runs the facility yoga class. And there’s Red (Kate Mulgrew), a Russian immigrant who runs the kitchen. Piper has a very unfortunate run-in with Red. Red does culinary favors for her favorite fellow inmates, and on this particular morning, she gives people at the table where Piper is sitting yogurts. Red feels sorry for Piper, Piper being a newbie and all, so she gives Piper a yogurt, too. Piper thanks Red for the yogurt because the food is disgusting. She obviously didn’t realize Red cooked the food. Nikki and Yoga Jones warn Piper that insulting Red’s food was a seriously dumb move. Piper realizes just how bad it’s going to be when her next meal is an English muffin…with a used tampon inside.