REVIEW: Midnight, Texas, Episode 103
Midnight, Texas is back for another episode, the third of its first season entitled “Lemuel, Unchained”, where we learn more about this incredible town’s vampire.
After diving into werewolf mythology (or weretiger to make things clearer), the time has come to learn more about vampires. Visiting Lemuel’s past, we find out how vampire are turned: they need to drink blood from another vampire. I find a bit weird that this is all there is. Vampires are supposed to be dead creatures (that is something they say a few times in this episode), so how come that there is nothing in this process that kills them? But it was still nice to see these flashbacks and find out about Lemuel’s beginnings as a slave. It is always great finding out about people’s past in order to understand why and how they are the way that they are. And it seems that this show won’t pull back explanations.
We also find out that not all vampires are like Lemuel, he is actually more of a one of a kind creature. He is the only vampire (at least that we’ve seen so far), who doesn’t need to drink blood to survive. But more importantly (at least for the Midnighters) we learn what is a myth (garlic, holy water and the need for invitations to get into a house) and what isn’t (sun and wooden stake to the heart kill them, and silver weakens them). I am glad that at least garlic is a myth. TV vampires have evolved and I don’t think there is a recent show that actually uses it to pull vampires away. That would be a bit weird.
We didn’t get to see much of Joe (I am hoping he will get a centric episode eventually), but we saw a little bit of him. It seems that very few people know he is an angel, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone find out about him. He said in this episode he is going to leave, but I think (and hope) that he doesn’t. It seems like trouble is coming and it will definitely be nice having an angel around.
I am also starting to love Olivia. She is a total badass and it was awesome when she killed that vampire with her heels. She is also very loyal and she will definitely go to distant to protect her friends. She doesn’t seem to have many (so far), since she is very suspicious, but I bet that once she makes more, she will totally die for them.
It was really nice seeing all of the main characters join forces to take down the vampires and save Lemuel. Supernatural team-ups are great because every creature has different abilities, and when they join those abilities, they can accomplish anything, as impossible as it may seem. The only thing that seems to not belong is Creek. In a supernatural show, humans are usually a liability, a burden and not often very contributive. In this show that is different when it comes to Olivia, but definitely true when we refer to Creek’s family. It seemed like they were ready to help when they were sharpening wooden stakes, but in the end they just stalled a bit and endangered Manfred’s life.
I said on my last review that I was relieved the writers didn’t turn the obvious connection between Manfred and Creek into a real big drama in which it would take them a long time to finally embrace what they feel, but it seems they will do that after all, not with these two, but with Bobo and Fiji. It was to suspect from the beginning that Fiji liked Bobo, and it became more and more obvious throughout the scenes with them. Now it is also clear as water that Bobo likes her too, but it doesn’t seem like they will start a relationship soon. I understand Bobo just lost his fiancé, but just kiss already!
This episode seemed a bit like a filler one, since nothing major happened, but it was nice, as I said, learning more about vampires and seeing the Midnighters working together to bring them down. It was a good episode but not as good as the last one (at least in my opinion), so I am giving it a 7.8/10.
Midnight, Texas will be back next week with episode 104 “Sexy Beast”, and so will I, so don’t go anywhere.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 106
The story of Alice’s struggle for love in this new world continues with episode 106 of Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, “Who’s Alice”.
Flashbacks in this episode showed us where Alice went after she lost Cyrus and before she joined Bethlem Royal Hospital (fun fact: this is based on a real asylum in London, the oldest in the world). Alice went home where she found her father’s new family: his new wife, Sarah, and his new daughter, Millie. Of course that her father continues not believing Alice but, let’s be fair, who would? He could obviously try a lot harder to understand what his daughter went through, but his new wife definitely doesn’t help by forcing Alice to meet someone else. It was never to expect that Sarah would try to understand Alice’s situation, that is more Edwin’s job, but it would have definitely been nice to see him stand up to her. I think he wasn’t really a fan of the idea of forcing Alice to marry, and that he was hoping he didn’t have to pick a side between his daughter and his wife, but when it comes to family you can’t not take sides. Realizing that ultimately her father took Sarah’s side, Alice preferred to go to the asylum than marry some dude. I wonder if these parents (specially Sarah) would make the same choices and demands if this whole thing was about Millie instead of Alice. Maybe. But maybe not.
Present day begins after Alice found the location of Jafar’s tower, and now she is headed that way. Right in the first few scenes we see her kick the ass of 2 men, and it was really funny when they found Will and said that Alice attacked them while they were sleeping. We are all like “yeah, right”, including Will. Jafar definitely made an amazing prison: very hard to escape, since we learn that the tower is in a floating island, and also hard to get rescued, since you have to cross the Black Forest to do so. This forest definitely stood up to its name, because everything was literally black. Most people in Wonderland didn’t know this, but the reason why no one returned wasn’t because of this first part, but because of the second: Borogrove. Here we meet the creepiest man ever who apparently goes by the name Carpenter. The reason why very few people leave is because this place makes you want to stay there forever. But not all is lost because Will comes to Alice’s rescue. But even after that, things decline because Alice doesn’t remember anything, so Will makes her remember by using Cyrus’ neckless, proving once again that love is the most powerful magic of all.
Sometimes things are left unexplained, and that sucks real badly, but it is great that they explained why Borogrove didn’t affect Will: because he doesn’t have his heart. I think this makes sense because it makes you want to stay by giving you happiness (not real happiness, but happiness nevertheless), and since he doesn’t have his heart he can’t feel anything, neither real nor fake. It was also nice seeing Alice happy, even if it wasn’t real happiness and it was only for a short while. She is on a quest for love and that will probably only lead to one of the two: heartbreak, or a happy ending (or happy beginning if you prefer). Since happy endings are hard to come by, at least we managed to see her smile, just in case she doesn’t succeed.
At the same time, we see Cyrus also meaning to find Alice, while on the run from Jafar’s guards and the Red Queen. It was nice seeing the Queen here. She has the bottle and if she finds Cyrus, then Jafar can’t continue underestimating her. The writers are definitely well developing her character, and I like her more and more every episode. But her efforts are worthless, because when Cyrus is caught between Anastasia and a cliff, he literally takes a leap of faith.
This episode was nice, but I feel like it was more of a filler episode, because nothing much happened that affected the major storyline. This was a little bit of a step back in the season, so I will give it a 7.6.
I will be back soon with my next review of episode 107, “Bad Blood”, in which blood ties will become a burden.
REVIEW: Big Little Lies, Episode 102
In episode 102, “Serious Mothering”, of Big Little Lies we continue to see the struggle of these 3 mothers to live their lives and raise their children the best way they can.
Reese Witherspoon has done a lot of movies and her acting is always on point, but here in Big Little Lies it feels like she is not just perfect for this role, but beyond perfect. In fact, there may not even be a word that describes how well this role suits her. Her Madeline is funny, loyal to her friends, mean to her enemies, a great wife and an amazing mother. All the characters are different in their own way, but Madeline is my favorite character in this show. But no one is flawless and it was a little unfair of her to use Chloe to ruin Amabella’s party. I understand she is trying to protect her friend, Jane, and she should definitely continue to go for it, but she shouldn’t use her daughter like that, since she hadn’t even talked to her about it (not even after saying that).
All shows nowadays try to touch on a sensible subject, and Big Little Lies “chose” domestic violence. But what we see in this show isn’t really what we usually see: man and woman argue, man beats woman, woman cries and stays defenseless and then man leaves coming back later to apologize. Here we see that Celeste and Perry start arguing and he slaps her, like what usually happens on TV’s domestic violence. The unexpected about this is that Celeste fights back. Right after she gets slapped, she slaps Perry back. Then he pushes her, apologizes almost immediately and they have make-up sex (which kind of felt like rape). This is to say that, unlike what TV makes us believe in, there is more than one kind of domestic violence, and just because one of them fights back doesn’t mean that it is any less a crime. Celeste later mentions this to Madeline and, probably against what she thinks, she should see on Madeline’s face that this isn’t normal. The problem is that she probably thinks that it is. She is in a good relationship with a younger and a good looking man, she hears people say that their relationship is the best, and so maybe she thinks that there has to be a price to pay, because not everything in life can be good. That last part is obviously true, not everything in life can be good. But shouldn’t we be able to feel safe in our own home, with our own family? Yes, of course we should.
In this episode we are pretty much introduced to Ed (Madeline’s new husband). I know that he was in the pilot, but he also wasn’t at the same time. Sure we saw him in some scenes, and heard him speak a few lines, but I think all we learned about him in last episode is that he is Madeline’s husband. I don’t think we even knew that he was Chloe’s father (I actually thought Nathan was). But I understand that some characters have to be sidelined in some episodes for others to shine, because there isn’t enough time for everyone to be in the spotlight in the same episode. Happily, he wasn’t sidelined this time and we learned more about him. We even saw him being a little bit badass in the scene he spoke with Nathan. It appears that in this show the roles are reverse, because man are usually more direct than women. However, in the scene with Nathan, Ed definitely left his intentions clear, but in a more indirect way. It was an amazing scene though.
I thought that Madeline didn’t like Bonnie because she was her ex-husband’s new wife, and it seemed like she was overreacting a bit to what concerns her, but my perspective definitely changed in this episode. Bonnie took Abigail to the “Planned Parenthood” and that was completely not her job. Even though it was Abigail who asked for it, she should have called Madeline. But this is not the reason why I think she is a little bit of a bitch, at least not on its own. After Ziggy kissed Amabella (the poor kid was just trying to make amends) and after the school director said that Skye incited the kiss, Bonnie said that she didn’t believe Skye would do that, since she is very peaceful. This is definitely a big piece of sh*t. She doesn’t mind lecturing other girls about whatever she wants, but when it comes to her own daughter things obviously change. I guess she is not as OK about the subject as she seemed.
This was a great episode and it seems that the flash-forwards are getting more and more close, because Renata already started talking about a fundraiser dinner, which is probably THE fundraiser dinner (you know, the one where someone will get killed). I am giving this episode an 8.0/10.
Stay tuned for my next review of episode 103, because it seems that things are starting to heat up because “war” was already announced and our new favorite TV mothers will be “Living the Dream”.
REVIEW: American Gods, Episode 105
American Gods continued with episode 105, “Lemon Scented You”, and what an amazing episode this was. For the people who didn’t read the book (like me) and so were a little bit in the dark for the past four episodes, with no idea of what was happening, this was a very enlightening hour.
It started with another chapter of the “Coming to America” story and this time it showed the trip of one of the first tribes that ever travelled there. They suffered a lot of sacrifices along the way, and when they finally set foot in the new land they got very disappointed because there was practically no food. The leader goes to their God for help and later another tribe arrives, willing to take them in. Having faith in their God, the tribe refuses and so they get all killed except the children, who join the new tribe. After a few years they completely forget their old God and so he disappears. “It is in people’s hearts that Gods are born” but when the hearts stop believing (or start believing in something else) the Gods die. This is why Wednesday is so afraid of being forgotten. He will die and completely disappear and no one will care about it.
This first scene, unlike other scenes of the “Coming to America”, was animated and that contributed to change things a bit, giving the audience something new, but at the same time stay focused on the story they are trying to tell. This show definitely has the most incredible screen shots, no wonder it is nominated for Best Picture Editing and Best Special Visual Effects.
After two episodes of waiting, we finally see the scene in which Shadow and Laura talk. Of course Shadow is very shocked at first (who wouldn’t be) but in the end he gets over himself and they have a conversation about Rob and their affair. They even eventually kiss and that is the first time Laura feels something ever since she came back from the dead. Whatever Laura is doing here, whatever her unfinished business is, it definitely involves Shadow. Somehow Wednesday finds out about the fact Laura is alive (a crow told him) and he invites Shadow for some drinks, but the police shows up and they go to jail, because of the bank they robbed.
Meanwhile, we see an amazing scene between Technical boy and Media, who is dressed as David Bowie. I really love Media, first because Gillian Anderson is amazing in everything she does, but especially this role. Second, because every time we see her she is dressed as someone different and totally taking over that person’s character. They talk about a third New God, Mr. World, who is the leader of the New Gods and the personification of globalization. They want technical boy to apologize to Shadow and Wednesday. Another amazing thing in this show is these new Gods. The old Gods are of course physically old. The new Gods however is a different story. Mr. World is the oldest (but not that old), then Media and lastly the technical boy, because first came globalization and information, then the media and ultimately technology. It is hilarious how they treat technical boy as a child. Poor kid!
Media also mentions something really interesting: she says that the Martians invaded in 1938. I didn’t really know what she meant (yes, I am a millennial) but after a little digging I found out it was a radio series that aired on Halloween of that year. It was based on the novel “The War of the Worlds” by H. G. Wells. It became famous because it caused mass panic, since it presented an alien invasion and everyone thought that was true. “They wanted to be real, so it was”. This was maybe the first time that Media started getting power and believers.
Back in the motel, Laura finds the Leprechaun and he desperately wants his coin back, but the coin is what is keeping Laura alive. Since he can’t take the coin (it has to be given), he is out of luck because Laura will never give it to him. In this scene he confirms what I had been thinking about: that Wednesday was manipulating Shadow. Wednesday hired Mad Sweeney to fight with Shadow back in the pilot of the show. The Leprechaun chocks Laura in the bathtub so that her body would rot quicker, and gets caught by the police.
I was saving the best for last, because the most amazing scene in this episode is the one in the police station. As I said before, we finally started to understand what was going on when Wednesday told the police officer the absolute truth (of course he didn’t believe him, but that isn’t Wednesday’s fault). After putting Shadow and Wednesday together, the new Gods start showing up. First Media, this time dressed as Marilyn Monroe, she even says that it was the FBI that killed her. Throughout the years, the media turned Marilyn Monroe into a hero, into a Goddess, and that totally reflects here. After her, Mr. World makes his first appearance in this show, and they are both followed by Technical Boy. After apologizing, they offer Wednesday a chance to “find his own audience” which to him sounds like exile. Wednesday is definitely not wrong about this, it may sound a piece offer, but they simply want him out of the way. It appears that Mr. World genuinely wanted him to take this peace offer, since he is obsessed with information and Wednesday as a lot, since he is very very old.
We know that Old Gods are many and they definitely seem more powerful, but that may not be true. We saw some of Media’s power in the scene at the police station: she sent Technical boy a kiss and that was enough to break some of his teeth. This to say that we definitely didn’t see much of the New Gods and that needs to change, because I love the interactions between them.
With all this said, this was definitely an incredible episode, maybe even the best of the season (except maybe the season finale, but I am not yet sure I will consider it better than this one). I am giving it a totally deserved 9.6.
I will be back soon with my next review of episode 106, “A Murder of Gods”, where we will meet a new (actually old) God.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 105
The fifth episode of “Once Upon A Time in Wonderland”, “Heart of Stone”, begins in the exact moment episode 103 left off, with Will and Anastasia ready to jump off to Wonderland. It is in that moment that Anastasia’s mother shows up and tries to talk her out of it. As cruel as she might have been, she was right because Will and Ana didn’t think things through. When this episode aired there was a lot of rumors (none officially confirmed) that Anastasia’s mother was Lady Tremaine, making Anastasia one of the wicked stepsisters, which sounds right since this has the name of one of the two (the other being named Drizella). But in season 6 of “Once Upon A Time”, we met Lady Tremaine and also both stepsisters, which would normally cut off the rumors, but knowing what we know now about season 7, maybe she was actually a Lady Tremaine and maybe Anastasia is indeed one of the wicked stepsisters. This would take thing into a whole new level of confusing, but it is possible.
After ignoring Anastasia’s mother, this couple makes the jump and enters Wonderland where they realize that things are far from being what they imagined they would be. With just a wagon to call home and the food they manage to steal or gather, they realize that they can’t live only on love. Despaired as they are, Will and Ana sneak into the palace to steal food, but it becomes obvious that Anastasia wants something more. This is most easily seen after they get caught and kicked out. We see that Will stole some bread and is very happy about that, but Anastasia doesn’t even care about it. Realizing that going to Wonderland was a mistake and that her mother was right, Anastasia wants to go back home, but not empty handed. After she sneaks back into the castle, she meets the king once again. That is the moment the king realized he found his Queen, because Anastasia has ambition or, as he put it, “the desire to be more” than what she is. But this story is not yet finished. There will be someone that will push these two characters, making them the people we see in present day.
Instead of continuing the villain team-up, this episode showed something even more interesting: the team-up between a villain and a hero. In a team-up like this, the villain usually thinks he/she has the upper-hand, and this time it is no different. The Red Queen is aware that Jafar is simply using her to get what he wants. While he still doesn’t have it, she is sure she doesn’t have to worry much about him, but the problem lies on the fact that Jafar won’t need the Queen forever, and he will turn on her once he has what he needs. To protect herself from him, she needs a powerful magic dust, and to obtain that she needs Alice’s help. As a reward for her help, the Queen says she will tell Alice where Cyrus is. They go to a ravine, and while on the road, there was something the Red Queen said that I thought was really interesting “We both want something we don’t have, Alice. It’s just a matter of what we’re willing to do to get it”. This is definitely one of the things that distinguish a villain from a hero. Obviously everyone wants (at least one) something, and we all try to get it the best way we can. But that is of course subjective. It is exactly what we are willing to do to get what we want that makes us who we are. And in this episode we find out what Alice is willing to do to get what she wants. She will go to great length to find Cyrus, but she won’t kill someone to do it. This is one of the things that makes her a hero.
But heroes and villains aren’t so black and white, and I think, in her own way, Anastasia is a hero too. She hides behind an evil she created, but deep down, she is good, and we start to see that in this episode. She didn’t want the magic dust for herself, she wanted it to reverse the spell Jafar put on Will. “We are all heroes in our own tales”, but Anastasia is a hero in some other people’s tales too (at least she is one on mine).
Meanwhile, Jafar is planning other ways to force Alice to make a wish, and he kidnaps the Rabbit for help. In the end of the episode we see that they are now going to find someone Alice cares about.
After reversing the spell Jafar placed on his tower with the magic dust she was able to obtain, Alice is now coming for Cyrus, but Cyrus is also coming for Alice too, since he broke out of his cage. I am sure they will find each other soon.
This was, as usual, a nice episode, but not as nice as the last, so I will give a 7.9/10.
I will be back soon with my next review that will answer a question we have been wondering since the beginning of the show: “Who’s Alice”.
REVIEW: Big Little Lies, Episode 101
Big Little Lies begins with an episode that totally fits its name: “Someone’s Dead”. We found out there is a body but we still have no idea who is dead and if it was or wasn’t a murder (it probably was).
Before I actually start reviewing the episode, let’s take a moment to appreciate the killer cast this show brought together: Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern… And these are just some of the big names. This is definitely one of the reasons this show was successful. Of course the story contributes, but a new show must always catch people’s eye so that they watch it. And a cast like this is totally a big eye catcher. And because of this, of course this show couldn’t possibly be left out of the Emmys. It is nominated for 16 Emmys including both Outstanding lead and supporting actress, Outstanding limited series, Outstanding supporting actor, amongst others.
The episode followed both present and future (or present and past, depending on your point of view) and that is nice to watch because gives it a faster pace. In the flash-forwards we see the police questioning some suspects that knew the people involved in that found raiser and possibly the victim. I was assuming we would find out who died by the end of the pilot, but I guess I was wrong. But at least it is a miniseries, or it would end up like “Pretty Little Liars”. It was a good show, but it was a very long one for the story they had to show and so they repeated the same idea over and over. As a 7 part show, this will probably not happen here. I do love a good mystery and that is what “Big Little Lies” seems to offer.
We see the struggle of 3 moms about to “lose” their children to first grade. Things are definitely changing in their lives and some of them feel uneasy about that. That first day the daughter of Renata Klein, who is Madeline’s “enemy”, had bruises in her neck and she blameed Ziggy for them. It may not seem like much of a dig deal, but according to what we hear in flash-forwards, that was when it all began (or maybe a bit before when Madeline tripped and twisted her ankle, according to another person). The point is that there wasn’t really a big event, a big explosion of anger. Something smaller happened and the butterfly effect managed to do the rest.
There was also something that caught my eye (and my ear) in the episode. We saw Celeste and Perry in the beginning of the episode, and then through the course of it, and they seemed really sweet (maybe too sweet according to a lady in a flash-forward). But of course that things aren’t always butterflies and there is something going on underneath. Celeste told Perry the incident at the school and how Amabella blamed Ziggy for what happened to her and Perry said he didn’t want their kids near him, just to be safe. After Celeste replayed that she was sure she girl was lying or mistaken, Perry got violent and grabbed her. This is to say, if you think that someone’s life is perfect while yours sucks, then stop, because there is no such thing as a perfect life, and when someone makes their life look perfect, that is usually because their life sucks more than yours.
It was also really great to see Madeline’s side of things. Usually in movies or shows someone like her is the bitch mom no one likes, but I am glad this isn’t the case. It was nice seeing her struggle with her daughters and especially that last part when she and Abigail talked. I think Madeline is a bit like Renata and I thought it was weird they didn’t like each other, but maybe the reason for that is because they are so alike.
This was a nice first episode. As I said, I was hoping to find out more in the flash-forwards, but this way is good too because I get to make my theories on who is dead and who killed who. I will give this episode a 7.8/10.
Hope you guys check my next review of episode 102, because there is some “Serious Mothering” coming our way.
REVIEW: Midnight, Texas, Episode 102
“Midnight, Texas” is back with episode 102, “Bad Moon Rising”, and I have to say that this episode was much better than the first one, and not just because we didn’t see Mr. Snuggly. In some ways I think this episode set the story for the season/show in a more detailed way than the pilot did.
Tensions continue to raise in the beginning of the episode alongside the moon. Not only Bobo was charged with a murder a lot of people say he didn’t commit, but also the full moon was coming and with it we learned what Reverend Emilio is, not a werewolf, but a weretiger. This fact makes this show a little bit like “Teen Wolf” in which people aren’t only turned into wolves, but also other animals like coyote, jaguar… In this show they say that your personality reflects on the animal you become. But things are still different here, of course, since in this show one is born a child of moon, and so cannot be turned or turn others. Anyway, in this episode the Reverend caused a great amount of trouble and even lost control and killed a woman (Tina Gomez, a police officer). I think it was really beautiful, well-made and different seeing the Rev. turn from tiger to human, especially the final part of the transformations, when the wind sort of blows away the hair of the tiger like it was nothing but leaves.
It was also nice to see that everyone in Midnight (or at least most people) know about the supernatural or highly suspect somethings is wrong. Some of them don’t know exactly which person is what, but they know some are magical. This is definitely a good thing because a lot of shows spend too many time thinking whether or not to tell someone about their supernatural abilities and, sometimes, it eventually gets boring and repetitive all this struggle to keep someone in the dark. This is also a good thing because, like Manfred’s grandmother said, people like her grandson don’t have to pretend to be normal and so they can fully embrace who they are.
I was also glad that the police found out more about Aubrey’s death and let Bobo out. I was afraid they would try to extend it for a long time and we would see for a few episodes the supernatural team come together to break him out of jail. It would have been nice to watch that, but not if we had to wait several episodes for that to happen, when we can watch much more enjoyable things. In other shows sometimes the biggest enemy isn’t the most powerful one, but the weakest and by this I mean us humans, especially police officers. Sometimes they don’t want people to know about the supernatural and so “waste” some episodes doing something that could have easily been done in a faster away, just so that they don’t reveal themselves. I am glad that this show will be different (or at least it seems like it will).
As I said before, this episode really set up on what appears will be the story of the season. It started when Fiji performed the exorcism, but apparently it wasn’t quite complete because something is still in this side of the veil. And it doesn’t seem to be some regular demon, but a powerful one, which has a special interest on Fiji. Aside from this, we heard Joe tell a prophecy. I love prophecies, especially the ones that end up being self-fulfilling because it makes my head hurt if I think about it for a long time. Joe says the vail is breaking, but it is prophesized that an army will battle the evil and seal the vail forever. This army will be led by a man with the gift of vision. The first person that comes to mind about this “man of vision” is probably Manfred. I guess we will see if the guesses are correct.
Lastly, it was also great to see Creek and Manfred kiss in the end of the episode because that means the writers won’t probably focus on making a really big drama out of that love story, pulling them both to and away from each other at the same time.
It was definitely a great improvement from last episode to this one. Hope it only gets better, and things seem to be definitely pointing in that direction. I will give this episode a 8.0/10.
I will be back next week with my review of episode 103 “Lemuel, Unchained”. Hope you guys stick around.
REVIEW: American Gods, Episode 104
Unlike all the previous episodes, “Git Gone” follows only one storyline: Laura’s. We see her journey since maybe a few days before she met Shadow, until the moment that ended the last episode (Laura showing up in the motel room where Shadow was staying).
First, we see that the casino where Laura works has a very peculiar theme: Egypt, or even better, old Egypt, when pharaohs were still in charge. In a show about gods where we also got to meet Anubis, in a scene like this there is irony everywhere. And it is in this same place where Laura meets Shadow, in what was a funny scene: Shadow was cheating and Laura warned him to stop or he would suffer the consequences. And this is how a new love was born.
We also saw a glimpse of Laura’s life before Shadow: it was just from work, to home where she did pretty much the same things every day. She was sad all the time, and we even saw a scene in which she tried to kill herself (I am not sure that was her exact goal, but it seemed so). After she met Shadow she started to be happier with him, but eventually she went back to her very strict daily routine, and nothing seemed to please her. She wanted to feel some excitement again and so she asked Shadow for his help to rob the casino (like Shadow had asked before). Apparently it was a perfect plan and could definitely not have failed, but it did, and that is why Shadow was in prison in the beginning of the show. Laura does say a lot of times that the plan was perfect and there was no way he could have been caught, even when he was already in jail, which makes me wonder if there was some God interference. I have been saying, in past reviews, that I think there is something special about Shadow and, if there is, then Wednesday probably had to make sure that Shadow was exactly where he wanted him. He had to make sure that Shadow had nothing to go back to when he got out, otherwise he wouldn’t take the job. So, how long was Wednesday manipulating Shadow’s life (there is if he actually was)?
We also got to see how the relationship between Laura and Rob began and ended, but this time around, Laura didn’t even feel happy again like she did when she stared seeing Shadow. It was also really great to see the parallels between Laura’s scene in “heaven” and Mrs. Fadil’s. In fact, the reason why they showed the Mrs. Fadil scene was probably so that we could “compare” it to Laura’s. Like I said before, both Mrs. Fadil and Anubis were extremely calm during the entire passage, but when it comes to Laura it is a completely different story, and not only because she didn’t pass the heart test. Laura was, as it is to expect, extremely upset and not welcome to any idea of the afterlife (like she had said before in the episode). But Laura’s journey didn’t end with her death. She was pulled back to Earth and she is now on a quest for love. Anubis warned her that this doesn’t mean she is back for good, and when she finishes her task, Anubis will take her back and put her into the darkness.
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There is also something else I enjoyed in this episode. Throughout this hour we saw that there were a lot of flies going around and Laura was obsessed with killing them with her bug spray (she used one called “Git Gone”, like the name of the episode). This is of course just a detail, but it is this kind of details that are able to take a show from “good” to “great”. In my view, this is a metaphor that represents Gods and us humans. We are the flies that are constantly bugging the Gods. When the Gods are sick of us, they use their “bug spray” on us, meaning that they do whatever they want to us, and that definitely does not keep them awake at night, after all, they simply killed a fly.
This was a good episode, but I think maybe it should have been split to other episodes, I mean, show these flashbacks throughout the previous episodes. I understand they wanted to make us wonder if Laura was truly alive and also who had saved Shadow in the pilot, but they could have still shown these scenes in this episode and just divide the ones that happened before Laura’s death, instead of “waste” an entire episode with this. It wasn’t really a waste, but I just feel like it would have been more interesting if they had done things differently.
This was, in my opinion, the worst episode so far. It was good as I said, but compared to the others it felt lacking. We didn’t see Wednesday nor any other Gods (except Anubis but he is not very important). I am giving it a 7.7/10.
Hope you guys stay tuned, because next episode, “Lemon Scented You” is really awesome.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 104
Things are starting to make more and more sense and Jafar is one step closer to getting what he wants on episode 104 “The Serpent”.
This episode starts with a flashback, and in it we see young Jafar finding a woman everyone was afraid of, to be his teacher. It is because of flashbacks like this that they are so important in the Once Upon A Time universe. There are some things that could always, of course, be explained in the present, but it would probably feel more rushed and it wouldn’t be as easy to understand, and this is one of those cases. In this episode we finally know more of Jafar’s plans, and what he needs to do it. To change the laws of magic, Jafar needs 3 genies and to perform that spell it takes 2 sorcerers. Jafar already has 2 genies, which he and Amara were able to catch, so now he only needs Cyrus. Maybe it would be to imagine that something had happened to Amara along the way, and the two sorcerers now are Jafar and the Red Queen but, as I said before, Jafar is only using the Queen to get what he wants. She thinks they are going to change the laws of magic together, but she has no idea what is to come.
We also see some symbology of the serpent. “When they need to, they change their skin, and are reborn”. And that is exactly what Jafar does. But turned out he had done that already, before we all thought he did. Jafar was playing Amara just so that he could learn everything she knew. We also learned, with a little twist in the end of the episode, that the staff Jafar carries with him all the time is actually Amara’s magical essence. She was the one who made him aware of the genie spell. And as everyone has an endgame, we will find out, in episodes to come, not only exactly what Jafar wants to do when he is able to change the laws of magic, but also why Amara also wanted to perform this spell.
In present day, we continue to see conflicts of interest inside the villain team. Now that Jafar knows Alice has help, he wants Will eliminated and wants Anastasia to do it. The Red Queen is hoping to set the matter aside by simply putting Will behind bars, but Jafar wants him completely gone and wants everyone to see it, so that they don’t follow his example of helping Alice. A public execution is prepared and Anastasia is probably hoping very badly that Alice shows up to save him. I have to say that the people of Wonderland are definitely having too much of a good time in a public execution, which can totally relate to the original story in which the Red Queen is obsessed with cutting people’s heads off.
Meanwhile, after Alice and the Knave split up to run from collectors, who are working for the Caterpillar, Alice makes a new friend who is actually an old friend of Will’s: Elisabeth, also known as Lizard. This could possibly be another connection to the original animated movie Alice in Wonderland. There we see Bill who was literally a lizard, unlike Elisabeth who is a person. This character isn’t that much important in the movie, but then again she isn’t also here in the show, although we will see her once again. They find out the Knave of Hearts is to be executed and they manage to save him.
Trying to escape from the royal maze, Alice and Will stumble upon Jafar and the Red Queen. Jafar threatens to kill Will and even starts chocking him, which forces Alice to make her first wish: “I wish that if the Knave of Hearts dies, then I die”. This was totally a smart wish. Jafar can hurt Alice, but he can’t kill her since he needs her alive to make the rest of the wishes, otherwise he can’t use the genie. So, Alice doesn’t have to wish to save her own life. But Jafar would gladly kill Will, and now he can’t. It was also smart since she didn’t wish that only Jafar couldn’t kill Will (like a guy did in a flashback), no one can, or else she dies too. Jafar tried to force Alice to make a second wish by saying he would rip her arms and legs off, but she didn’t, which makes Jafar aware that she cares more for others than herself, and so going after the people she loves is exactly what Jafar is going to do. But wishes comes with a price and Alice paid it when Jafar turned Will to stone, saying if she wants her friend back, she will have to wish it.
Confrontations between good and evil started to take place, Jafar is starting to get what he wants and Cyrus is closer to being free. This was definitely a great episode and so I am giving it an 8.2/10.
I will be back soon with my next review of episode 105, “Heart of Stone” where we will find out how Will and Anastasia were separated and how she became Queen.
REVIEW: American Gods, Episode 103
American Gods‘ episode 103, “Head Full of Snow”, begins, as usual, with a little sideline scene that reflects mostly the banality and unpredictability of death. Just when one is trying to get something from a high shelf, Anubis comes knocking at your door. Literally. When the woman, Mrs. Fadil, finds out she is dead, a lot of questions go through her mind, but none of them truly matter, because ultimately the little things are important too. “They will find me like this” and “they won’t even taste my meal” are two thoughts that go through her mind. It is also nice to notice how calm both people in this scene are. No bad words, no tempers lost, the conversation just flows naturally (there may not be anything more natural than death). After climbing an almost infinite staircase, Anubis and Mrs. Fadil arrive to what we may refer as heaven, and the cinematography in this scene is beyond incredible. There he weights her heart against a feather. In this moment we see the concern on Mrs. Fadil’s face because she knows that if her heart is heavier, things will probably go wrong. She starts saying all the bad things she did over the years and, because they weren’t so bad, she passed the test and was probably able to find peace.
Before I get into the major storyline, I will talk about another scene also more to the sideline, but that will be more relevant a few episodes from now. Later in the episode, we meet Salim, a guy that waits an entire day for a reunion that didn’t happen. Even though that day sucked and that most people would start a murder spree because of the way they were treated, Salim never once loses his temper. In the end of the day he gets a taxi to go back to the hotel and, because his eyes are in flames, Salim finds out the taxi driver is a Jinn. Even though the Jinn says repeatedly that he does not grant wishes, Salim invites him over to his room, where we see an intense sex scene, and on the next day the Jinn is gone. Turns out the Jinn was wrong, because he granted Salim’s wish to be free of all the things he had to do, to be free of his life. Now has a Jinn, Salim gets the other guy’s clothes, like he was completely taking his identity, and goes to the taxi to start his new job. When he is checking the wallet the other Jinn had left, we see a taxi driver license that doesn’t even belong to the previous Jinn. This could mean that in New York no one will care that Salim isn’t the guy on the picture, just as they didn’t care the other guy wasn’t either. Apparently, New York doesn’t care about anyone.
Back to our main story now, we find out more about the Zorya sisters. Zorya Polunochnyaya tells Shadow that the 3 sisters watch the stars (the constellations Ursa Minor and Odin’s Wain to be specific), day and night to prevent “not a god, but like a god” to escape. This, like the Czernobog, comes from Slavic mythology and the creature they watch is a doomsday hound called Simargl, who is chained in the star Polaris, in the constellation Ursa Minor (Little Bear). If the chain breaks, the hound will devour the constellation and the universe will end. In the original myth, there are only two sisters, who are called the Morning Star and the Evening Star, but Neil Gaiman (author of the book that inspired this show) declared he made up a third sister. This third sister is the Zorya to whom Shadow talks to in this episode, and she is called the Midnight Star. Still in this scene, Zorya Polunochnyaya reads Shadow’s hand and says he believes in nothing but he is now on a path from nothing to everything. She gives him a coin, and Shadow wakes up.
At the same time, in a hilarious scene in which Wednesday flirts with Zorya Vechernyaya, she reads his future through his coffee. She says he will lose the battle, but Wednesday refuses to believe that.
After another game of checkers that ensures Shadow stays alive and Czernobog will join the fight against the new Gods, Wednesday and Shadow go off to rob a bank. This is another hilarious scene in this episode. Now we know how an old God makes money. This is the scene in which Wednesday asks Shadow to think of snow and later on, it does snow, against everything weathermen everywhere had said. This makes, not only Shadow but also us, think if any other person could have done that (we have been seeing what belief can do in this show, so could anyone make that happen by believing hard enough?) or if Shadow is somehow special. I don’t really know the answer to this, but my bet is on the second. I think Wednesday didn’t choose Shadow just because he was the first guy he stumbled into. There is also the fact that in the last episode, Media said Shadow was special. Looks like we will have to wait and see how special he is, and what exactly he can do.
There is also something that has been bugging me since the beginning: in every episode there seems to be a buffalo looming over. We saw or heard about it in every episode so far. In the first one, we saw a buffalo with flames in its eyes (I wonder now if that could be related to the Jinn) in Shadow’s dream when he was still in prison. In the second episode, after getting beaten up, Shadow takes a shirt from the motel he and Wednesday were staying at. The logo of that motel was a buffalo and so there was a big one in Shadow’s T-shirt. In this episode, one of the first things we hear Zorya Polunochnyaya say is: “The buffalo is waning tonight”. I don’t really understand what she meant, but she was probably refereeing to the moon. Aside from this, we can see that there is a buffalo in one of the official posters of the show. And this isn’t just a detail that only fanatic fans see by analyzing every inch of the poster, it is right there, big enough for everyone to notice, hiding in plain sight. I read there is also a buffalo in the book and it is important, so we will find out more about it when the time is right.
Overall this was a great episode, as usual, and it won’t take long now for one of my favorite episodes of the season. I am giving it an 8.5/10.
As I said, there is an amazing episode coming soon, so stay tuned for my next review of episode 104, “Git Gone”.