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”.
Once Upon A Time Showrunners Explain New Curse
The times they are a-changin’ on ABC’s Once Upon A Time. The series will feature a massive time jump and a brand new location for its upcoming seventh season. But not only will our favorite characters survive the time jump and new location… they will also have to deal with a brand new curse which will be much harder to break free from.
The new curse is set by the series’ new villain Lady Tremaine (played by Gabrielle Anwar). “As often is the case on Once Upon A Time, there’s more than meets the eye to what we know about the character. Lady Tremaine doesn’t like Cinderella very much and she’s got an agenda. But there is something broiling beneath that’s personal and painful that is driving all of this,” says executive producer Adam Horowitz to EW.
“She’s somebody who wants to get to the top and will use any means necessary. So why it’s important for her to be royal, why it’s important for her to crush everyone else, is the story of the year. In true Once Upon A Time fashion, evil isn’t born, it’s made, and we’ll see that with her as well,” added executive producer Edward Kitsis.
As expected, the new curse has created a Storybrooke-esque town called Hyperion Heights in Seattle, Washington (aka the Land Without Magic). But don’t consider this town Storybrooke 2.0. Lady Tremaine has thrown in a twist. “We’re going to see in Hyperion Heights that the role Lady Tremaine has taken is very similar in terms of getting to the top, in terms of being a developer, who is this character who is trying to push out the fairy tale characters who are living in Hyperion Heights, gentrifying the neighborhood and bringing other people in,” says executive producer David H. Goodman.
Horowitz: “We’re in a city now. Hyperion Heights is part of Seattle the way Brooklyn is part of New York. It’s more densely populated and it’s filled with fairy tale characters and non-fairy tale characters and that’s another interaction and vibe that we didn’t really have in Storybrooke, where it was all the cursed people.”
And the Tremaine twist is: “Lady Tremaine learned the lesson that Regina didn’t, which is don’t keep them all together where one day they can find themselves, push them the hell out! You push them the hell out and you gentrify the neighborhood and you bring in a cold press juicer and they can’t afford it anymore, then you won’t worry about the Pied Piper finding, you know, Alice,” added Kitsis.
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Goodman: “[Lady Tremaine] is sort of Regina-prime and she’s trying to figure out a way to scatter these fairy tale characters to the wind so they can’t be together, because as we’ve always seen, when these characters get together, they always figure out how to beat the bad guy. Not giving anything away what the curse is, but she’s learning and standing on the backs of these other curses that have come before her to be as effective a villain as possible.”
But wait… Lady Tremaine has the power. Lady Tremaine is separating the fairy tale characters. So is it official that she cast the new curse?
Kitsis: “We said very clearly in the pilot of Once Upon A Time that Regina cast the curse. What you’ll see this season is we don’t necessarily say that in the premiere.”
So, who cast the new curse?
Once Upon A Time returns Friday, October 6 at 8pm/7c on ABC.
H/T: EW
Midnight, Texas: “Bad Moon Rising” Sneak Peeks
Angels, vampires, psychics, witches, assassins, racist biker gangs, ghost grandmas and a talking cat! Welcome to Midnight, Texas.
The first episode of the supernatural mystery aired earlier this week. TV Guide interviewed showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen to discuss what’s going to happen next.
Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Bobo took the fall for Aubrey’s murder! That’s not right, what’s next for him?
Monica Owusu-Breen: That storyline gets resolved in the second episode. It appears to be resolved in the second episode, I should say. We wrote a pilot and it was with the intention with the murder mystery guiding the entire series. When the pilot was shot, the network came to me and said, “Murder mysteries are done in a lot of shows. Can this be a supernatural show, with supernatural villains coming in and out of this world?” [NBC wanted] to really hit that.
So like every show, we’re sort of trying to figure out what we really are. So I went off and thought about it, and thought if I couldn’t do a supernatural show in a town like Midnight, I should hand in my Writers Guild card. So what begins as a murder mystery, you’ll see in Episode 2 opens up a bigger mystery and a bigger obstacle for the Midnighters and for Manfred (Francois Arnaud) specifically.
So the murder mystery won’t be the main thread of the season?
Owusu-Breen: No, that’s Bobo’s (Dylan Bruce) story. Every character has their own story, and the murder mystery and the fallout from that is Bobo’s story more than it is the story of the town.
Manfred is our window into this world, but soon he’ll have to be more proactive in the show. What drives him later throughout the series?
Owusu-Breen: I think what’s interesting about Manfred is that he’s a guy who’s used to running from things. I mean he grew up in gypsy caravan and he’s traveled the world, and whenever there were problems he and his grandma would leave. So the idea of committing to home and committing to a community is one sort of obstacle for our character Manfred who is not used to being alone. But I don’t think humans were meant to be alone, I don’t think we function well alone. For Manfred too, it’s about finding that community and place, where he is willing to take charge, and to lead, and to fight and to risk his own safety for this group of people who he will grow to feel a part of.
Okay, now we have to talk about my favorite character. There are so many supernatural characters, and you’re introducing all these different types of beings, and then, out of nowhere, we get a talking cat!
Owusu-Breen: Mr. Snuggly!!! I will describe it — because this show is wackadoo. I love wacky, I know I love it, I hope we find an audience who is as enamored with this crazy universe as me. When I read the books, I remember Mr. Snuggly was just always around, and then midway through the books or three-quarters through the books, he starts talking. But by that point he had been around often enough and the world had gotten nutty enough it was like, of course the cat talks. it kind of made sense in that weird Charlaine-inspired supernatural universe that of course a witch would have a familiar, and of course that familiar would have a voice. It’s a polarizing figure [laughs] but it makes us laugh.
Here are four sneak peeks from episode two titled “Bad Moon Rising”:
Midnight, Texas airs Mondays at 10pm/9c on NBC.
Script Page from Legion Season 2 Premiere Released
A script page from the second season premiere of FX’s Legion has been released online. It features some dialogue between Lenny Busker (Aubrey Plaza) and Oliver Bird (Jemaine Clement).
Executive producer Noah Hawley spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the script page.
Lenny and Oliver are being used by this character, Amahl Farouk. He wears their faces from time to time. It’s his way of hiding himself. I had this thought of, ‘What does Freddy Krueger do during the day?’ I thought it was interesting, the idea of the downtime of these characters. They’re not being used and so what is reality like for them? They’re being placated, that they’re in some place beautiful that may not actually be a physical space, it may be a mental space, like an astral plane. They have everything they need, they’re by the pool, it’s beautiful, but at a certain point, there’s part of them that realizes that they’re just trapped in this reality they don’t have any control over.
Check out the script page below:
Legion will return in 2018.
H/T: EW
Empire and Star to Crossover
The stars have aligned and Empire and Star will collide! Taraji P. Henson’s Cookie and Queen Latifah’s Carlotta will come face-to-face for the very first time.
FOX announced that the crossover will take place on Wednesday, September 27, beginning with Empire‘s Season 4 premiere at 8/7c and concluding with Star‘s Season 2 premiere at 9/8c.
FOX confirmed Latifah will bring her Star diva over to Empire and Empire‘s Jussie Smollett (Jamal) will appear on Star.
FOX also released the official synopsis for the Empire season premiere.
On the brink of Empire Entertainment’s 20th anniversary, Lucious is making his first public appearance after the explosion in Las Vegas, while all members of the Lyon family, as well as Lucious’ nurse, Claudia (guest star Demi Moore), have their own interests in Lucious regaining his physical and mental faculties.
H/T: TVLine
DCTV Casting Scoop: Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
There has been an incredible amount of casting news announced for our favorite DC/CW superhero shows. The following is a round up of all the important casting news that has been announced recently.
- Arrow
Manu Bennett (Slade Wilson) will recur during Season 6. “I can report that Manu Bennett is back to being a part of the show and I think we will see him multiple times this year, which is awesome,” star Stephen Amell announced during Heroes & Villains FanFest.
Michael Emerson is joining Season 6 in the recurring role of… Well that isn’t known quite yet. But Stephen Amell is totally on board with this announcement.
Arrow premieres October 12.
- The Flash
Britne Oldford will reprise her Season 1 role as villainous metahuman Peek-a-Boo in the season 4 premiere of The Flash. Details on what brings Peek-a-Boo back are being kept under wraps.
Neil Sandilands will play the villainous metahuman known as Clifford Devoe aka “The Thinker”. Devoe is “a megamind who embarks on a season-long battle” with the Scarlet Speedster, per the official description. He is “a true genius” who has “devised an intricate plan to fix all that he deems wrong with humanity.”
Kim Engelbrecht will play Devoe’s partner-in-crime, the DC Comics character The Mechanic. A true believer and a highly intelligent engineer who designs devices for The Thinker to help him implement his plan.
Danny Trejo has been cast as Earth-19 bounty hunter, Gypsy’s imposing father, Breacher.
The Flash premieres October 10.
- Supergirl
Odette Annable is joining as a series regular. She will play the new Big Bad “Worldkiller” Reign.
Supergirl premieres October 9.
- DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
Tala Ashe has joined the cast as Zari Adrianna Tomaz, a Muslim-American computer nerd with a wry, combative attitude who hails from the year 2030.
Billy Zane will play politician and showman P.T. Barnum, who founded Barnum & Bailey Circus (aka “The Greatest Show on Earth”).
Tracy Ifeachor will play Season 3 Big Bad Kuasa. Kuasa is the sister of Mari McCabe, a.k.a. Megalyn E.K.’s version of Vixen. So that means Kuasa is also the granddaughter of Maisie Richardson Sellers’ version of Vixen, Amaya.
Showrunner Marc Guggenheim announced during Comic-Con that the show has had “really good conversations” with Matt Ryan to reprise his role as Constantine on Legends, but for now, the actor is busy with other projects.
Legends of Tomorrow premieres October 10.
Premiere Date Set for Scandal‘s Final Season
ABC has (finally) unveiled its premiere plan for the 2017-18 TV season. So that means the season premiere of Scandal‘s swan song has been set!
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The Shondaland TGIT block will start with a two-hour season premiere for Grey’s Anatomy, followed by How To Get Away With Murder on September 28, with Scandal joining the lineup the following week for its slightly abbreviated final season.
So that means Scandal‘s 18 episode final season will premiere on October 5, 2017.
H/T: TVLine
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 103
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland’s episode 103, “Forget Me Not”, continued two important and major messages from Once Upon A Time. In the flashbacks we meet (or merely see for OUAT fans) Robin Hood and we find out that Will Scarlet was once a member of the Merry Men. In these scenes we could see that Robin was already the thief that steals from the rich to give to the poor. Will convinces him to go to the Forbidden Fortress (Maleficent’s castle) to steal a chest of gold. It is a shame we didn’t get to see Kristin Bauer (The actress who plays Maleficent on the main show), but it is nice we got to hear her voice on the scene where the Merry Man were celebrating the theft. This scene makes Robin aware that Will stole something other than gold, he stole a magic mirror. And here is where he warns Will: “All magic comes with a price”, and unfortunately, Will will have to pay it later in the season.
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Aside from this, we see, also in flashbacks, that “Evil isn’t born, it’s made” (a message that will also be looming over for the next 2 episodes). We meet Anastasia and after the scene that Will talks to her but we don’t see her face, I felt like it wasn’t hard to guess who she was. I don’t think it was exactly obvious, but it wasn’t that difficult to figure it out. Anastasia, and Will’s lost love, is the Red Queen. We see that then she was nice and sweet. In the end of the episode they use the mirror Will stole and open a portal, ready to go to Wonderland. Before I continue, I would like to address this matter. Many people say that the writers made it, at first, super hard to travel between worlds and it became more and easy throughout the seasons. That may be true sometimes, but this isn’t the case, since this mirror (like some other portals we see throughout the show) was made to take people to one specific land (Wonderland in this case). Will and Anastasia could not have used that looking glass to go anywhere else.
Back to the present now, I found in this episode a lot easter eggs to other stories/movies. When the Red Queen is looking for monsters that are fearful enough to force Alice to make a wish, she mentions two that might have been a little overlooked and/or ignored, but not by me. First she mentions the Mome Rath which is taken from the original animated film of Alice in Wonderland, but only the name. She says that it is a very dangerous creature with teeth like needles that cut through almost anything, but in the movie they are harmless flower-like creatures (as you can see in the image below). The Queen also mentions the Sarlacc. This one was taken from Star Wars and in these films, this monster is very alike what Anastasia said: a creature able to digest someone through the course of a thousand years. But the creature that Jafar and the Red Queen pick is the Bandersnatch. This one was featured in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) and it is also alike the one we meet here, expect for the fact that in the films it looks more like a dog, while in this show it is more like a boar.
Still with other movies mythology, we meet Grendel which can be a reference to the movie Beowulf, although in this show this beast is made more human. Here, Grendel is an ogre-like man who is stuck in the past and can’t move on from his wife’s death. It is explained that he stole the “Forget Me Knot”, a knot that allows people to see into the past, from the Red Queen and she was the one who gave him that horrible appearance. Grendel helps Alice and Will when the Bandersnatch comes after them and together they manage to kill it, since Cyrus had tricked Jafar and the Queen to thinking it would force Alice to make a wish, when he knew she wouldn’t because he had taught her a lot about these creatures.
With the knot in their hands, Alice and Will finally find out that the Rabbit was the one who knew where Cyrus’ bottle was, and that he is working for the Red Queen.
Aside from Wonderland, we also are shown Underland, a place “ruled” by the Caterpillar and filled with thieves and hunters, that is to say, Will’s enemies. Jafar visits this place short after he kills Grendel, to find out more about Alice’s Knave.
This episode was cool and, as I said before, this show is getting better and better. I really don’t know why so many Oncers didn’t watch it, since it is very truthful to the main show. I will give it a 7.8/10.
Stay tuned for my next review of episode 104 “The Serpent”.