In the season finale of Freeform’s Shadowhunters, Jace (Dominic Sherwood) and the Lightwoods discovered that their tutor Hodge Starkweather (Jon Cor), had betrayed them and stolen the Mortal Cup to give to Valentine Morgenstern (Alan Van Sprang).
Hodge had been a member of The Circle, a group of Shadowhunters that had rebelled against the Clave, believing that their government was wrong in wanting peace with the Downworlders. After the Uprising, Maryse (Nicola Correia Damude) and Robert Lightwood (Paulino Nunes), as well as Hodge were among those who turned themselves in. All three were exiled to the New York Institute as punishment, however it was only Hodge who was cursed to remain confined in the Shadowhunter stronghold.
He was born to the Starkweather family in Idris and one of his ancestors is warlock Tessa Gray (who’s mother was born Adele Starkweather). The family had been known to be very cruel to Downworlders and in The Dark Artifices series (a prequel to The Mortal Instruments) Tessa’s mother had been switched soon after birth with a sickly mundane child by the faeries as punishment for her family’s actions. The Starkweathers had once ran the York Institute but by the 20th century they had become impoverished. With this background, its not surprising that Hodge had jumped at the chance to be a part of Valentine’s inner circle when they studied together at the Shadowhunter Academy.
Having been banished to the New York Institute with the Lightwoods, he became the tutor to Robert and Maryse’s children. In the series he was their weapons instructor and had taught Jace everything that he knew. He was also forbidden to talk about The Circle, where if he did a mark that was placed on his skin would burn intensely. We found out last week that he had been the one to tell Valentine about Jace, Clary (Katherine McNamara), and Magnus (Harry Shum Jr.) finding Ragnor Fell and then he had knocked Lydia out after her cancelled wedding to steal the Mortal Cup. During the attack of the Forsaken on the Institute, he had taken a ring that allowed him to communicate with the rogue Shadowhunter in secret. Hodge then negotiated for his freedom because he was done with being a prisoner.
He meets Valentine on his boat and gives him the cup, where he watches new Shadowhunters being made. While the other man does remove the curse as promised, he was not welcome to rejoin The Circle. Valentine valued loyalty and explained that Hodge was a traitor. The Lightwoods’ tutor had not only betrayed him after the Uprising but now doublecrossed the Clave as well. He had served his purpose and was no longer useful. Ouch. Still, he is super pissed that Valentine is abandoning him since he’s about to be hunted a hunted man.
Hodge leaves but is soon found by a vengeful Jace, who is too late to stop him from giving Valentine the cup. The two fight and the younger Shadowhunter manages to chop of his former tutor’s hand in rage. Jace nearly kills Hodge but is stopped by Alec (Matthew Daddario) and Luke (Isaiah Mustafa). Soon though, Jace forces Hodge to take him to Valentine’s hideout (which has disappeared).
We next see Hodge at the Institute where he is being taken away by other Shadowhunters and is likely going to be taken to Idris for imprisonment. I can’t help but sympathize for his character because he isn’t evil or crazy, he just made a lot of really bad life decisions and now must pay the consequences. Was it unfair that Maryse and Robert negotiated with the Clave so that Hodge got the worse punishment? Yes. Did it suck that he was stuck inside the Institute? Sure. But he also did a lot of horrible things as part of The Circle and betrayed Clary, Jace and the Lightwood siblings for his own selfish reasons.
Still, I’m going to miss you Hot Hodge. Hopefully we’ll see you in season 2!
You can catch Shadowhunters on Freeform Tuesdays 9/8 Central.
The highly anticipated teaser trailer to Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyhas finally hit the web today and I have two words: MON MOTHMA.
Official synopsis:
Rogue One takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and will be a departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the Star Wars universe. It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential Star Wars feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an innovative director and I’m so excited to be working with him and the extraordinary ensemble cast he’s selected for Rogue One.-Kathleen Kennedy
Veteran ILM visual effects supervisor John Knoll, who shares a long history with the Star Wars movies, dating back to the mid-1990s, originated the idea for the movie. Allison Shearmur (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Cinderella), John Knoll, Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knight Rises, Fast & Furious 6) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds) are executive producers. Kiri Hart and John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) are co-producers.
To create the lived-in, realistic feel of Rogue One, Edwards chose Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty, Foxcatcher) to be his director of photography and Neil Corbould (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan) to be his special effects supervisor. Star Wars and Lucasfilm veteran Doug Chiang (Star Wars: Episodes I-II, Forrest Gump) and Neil Lamont (supervising art director for the Harry Potter series, Edge of Tomorrow) will be the production designers. Additional crew members will include stunt coordinator Rob Inch (World War Z, Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger), creature effects supervisor Neal Scanlan (Prometheus) and co-costume designers Dave Crossman (costume supervisor for the Harry Potter series, Saving Private Ryan) and Glyn Dillon (costume concept artist for Kingsman: The Secret Service, Jupiter Ascending).
Rogue One is the first stand alone Star Wars film and the stellar cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, and Alan Tudyk.
THE MAGICIANS -- "Thirty-Nine Graves"" Episode 112 -- Pictured: (l-r) Hale Appleman as Eliot, Summer Bishil as Margo -- (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
The Magicians
Season 1, Episode 12: “Thirty-Nine Graves”
Air Date: April 4, 2016
Because it’s The Magicians, we can always count on Murphy’s Law to put a hitch into any well laid plan. Except the squad only had fragments of plan that at the very best had a small chance of working perfectly. It didn’t of course.
Reeling from last week’s gruesome threesome, essentially everyone is pissed off except for Penny (Arjun Gupta) who has become the unlikely voice of reason and it’s just brilliant. To make matters even crazier, he invites Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) for a little revenge sex to get back at Quentin (Jason Ralph). OH YEEEEES. I’m kind of digging the two of them together.
Penny tells them to put aside their crap and focus on the fact that they need to get to the Neitherlands and find the fountain to Fillory because The Beast is coming. Everyone (except the traveler) bottles their emotions again to be to journey to world in between the worlds via the button since Penny isn’t able to bring people with him yet. However, as soon as they get there, trouble starts as Quentin is pushed back into the Earth fountain after Eve and her goons arrive.
Q is back at Brakebills while the rest of the team find their way to the library. The familiar Librarian (Mageina Tova) greets them and says that they are late. Interestingly enough she calls Margo (Summer Bishil), Janet (she is Janet in the books!) and when Margo protests that her her name is Margo, the other woman says yea this time. We see what you did there writers! Wink wink. Penny spends his time trying to find books that will help him master traveling, when the librarian comes by and chats. She tells him that if he survives long enough, he will be able to master the skills though she has such a sad look on her face its like she already read his book and knows what’s going to happen. But sorry no spoilers.
Eliot (Hale Appleman) in the meantime has found Mike’s book and is still super upset about everything. In a fit of anger he ends up burning the book, which gets them permanently banned from all the libraries and cast back topside. Uh oh. Just as they are about to be cornered by mercenaries, their savior arrives in the form of Josh Hoberman. Josh was one of the Physical Kids in the book series and had been a part of the group with Eliot, Janet (Margo), Alice and Quentin. It’s so nice that he’s finally made an appearance.
On the show it turns out that he was a part of the senior class of 2016 that mysteriously vanished two years ago and no one knew what had happened to them. Josh explains that they went to Fillory for spring break. Victoria (the person trapped by The Beast in his dungeon), was a traveler like Penny and had found the magical world herself. She invited Josh and their other classmates for what was supposedly a fun and crazy trip. However, The Beast found them and killed almost everyone. Victoria managed to transport Josh to the Neitherlands and went back for the others but got captured. In his view, he’s only been there for a few weeks but back on Earth it’s been two years since most of his class disappeared without a trace. Penny then says that they are there to help rescue Victoria but that they don’t know where the Fillory fountain was. Amazingly enough, Josh knows exactly where it is and their actual problem is getting passed the mercenaries who want to kill them.
Alice ends up with the solution and she uses her phosphomancy to bend the light around them so that they appear invisible as long as they stick close to her. It almost works without any issues except that Eliot got stoned by eating Josh’s psychodelic carrots and lingered too far behind. Before one of the mercs get to him though, Margo shoots the guy. Hell yes she brought a gun! Battle magic is all great but a pistol works just fine too. They all jump into the Fillory fountain and Penny almost doesn’t make it because Eve is blocking his way. Forced into action, the traveler winds up killing her with a wound to the chest. He follows the rest into the fountain right before the other mercenaries arrive.
Meanwhile, Quentin has managed to dose Dean Fogg’s tea with a dollop of truth serum to find out what the heck is going on and boy do we find out. He asks the dean who Eliza really is and learns that she is in fact Jane Chatwin, but she is also still quite dead. This has a huge impact because Jane has been playing with time magic. We discover that Q has given Dean Fogg the truth serum twenty-seven times but the elder man is strong enough of a magic user to know that he is in a time loop he is just unable to do anything about it. Jane has been resetting the time loop over and over again and changing the circumstances in hopes that the outcome would be different. Unfortunately it always ends up with Q dying (he has died 39 times). Unfortunately there are no do-overs as Jane isn’t there to reset events. This is their last chance to get it right.
It all makes sense now why the Librarian knew who Penny was and kept saying that he was late and always asks the same question. This also explains why she knew they were all coming and greeted Margo as Janet (this time!). In addition, Q finds out that Jane altered Julia’s circumstances in this round. In all the other instances she was at Brakebills with the rest of them, but this time she wanted to see if being out of the school would make Jules become a better and stronger magician. It might have just worked out in their favor after all because Q reunites with her and explains the whole story.
Jules, who had just summoned the goddess with Kady (Jade Tailor), Richard (Mackenzie Astin) and the rest of Free Trader Beowulf has finally figured out that the purpose of magic was to fix things and essentially help people. She and Kady first had to meet with the servant of the goddess and they him offered 3 gifts – flowers, honey, and their faith (although they had to work a little bit on Kady’s faith). Still, the servant accepted their tithes and gave them the summoning spell. The goddess then granted all of them their requests and sent them on missions. Jules tells Q that she was told she would discover a whole new kind of magic and as crazy as it sounds she thinks they are going to find it in Fillory and so she agrees to go with him.
The two apologize to each other for all the screwed up things they’ve done and work together to find another way into the mystical land that they both imagined since childhood. Jules gets an idea from something that Richard and the others performed and says that they can use an object tied to the past to bring them back to a specific date. Speaking of Richard, Julia and him hook up before they did the summoning spell. But he does give her his Brakebills alumni key which allows her to go with Q to the school to find an object that they could use. They find an old essay where in some students had wanted to go back in time to stop Hitler except it didn’t work out because the fuhrer was actually good at battle magic and killed them all. Q connects that the time frame would work though because Jane also found a portal back into Fillory two days after that. So they take the portal in Margo’s room to a pub in England, then sit on a park bench and perform the time spell and it works! They jump back to the 1940s and follow Jane into a telephone booth where the portal appears and then enter right after she does. Boy are they lucky that it stayed open.
So against all odds the whole squad manages to get to Fillory and now a new chapter in their misadventures begins. It’s a cool moment for Q and Jules to go through together though after all the crap that’s happened between them. Could this be a new beginning for both of their characters? Now though they gotta get that god killing blade and deal with The Beast! Despite the multitude of crazy and screwed up events that happened to all of them in the process, they finally made it into Fillory.
Next week will be the season finale and I can only imagine what kind of cliffhanger we’re going to get and then that long, cold, and lonely wait until next year. But I’m going to try and not think about it for now.
Hyrule Warriors launched on the Wii U back in August of 2014. Now the fine folks over at Koei Techmo have decided to take that game and smash it down onto the small Nintendo handheld. The real question: is it worth the double dip on the Nintendo 3DS if you already own it for Wii U?
When I first laid eyes on Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U, I must admit that I was a little bit skeptical. Why would they take the framework of Dynasty Warriors and slap The Legend of Zelda skin on it? It seemed like cheap gimmick to fill the void of games on the system. I was never a huge fan of the Dynasty Warriors series, but I have always loved The Legend of Zelda, so I decided to give it a try. That is when I realized how naïve I really was. Before we get into the 3DS specifics, let’s remember what it was like on the Wii U.
The game focuses around our hero Link as he single-handedly takes on any entire army of thousands to save the kingdom of Hyrule. The game is all about time and resource management as you try to take on many objectives at once. You may be defeating a boss enemy, but at the same time you are told that you must go protect a certain Keep before it falls, having you run all the way to the other side of the map. While things get pretty hectic, it actually keeps you on your toes and makes the game move at a brisk pace (although some individual missions can take over 30 minutes to complete).
Part of the fun of Hyrule Warriors is that it ties together nearly every universe of every major home console Zelda, including mainstays such as Link, Zelda, and Impa, as well as side characters like Agitha the bug collector from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Darunia the Goron from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game also features brand new characters created specifically for this game, like the sorceresses Lana and Cia, and the much discussed newcomer, Linkle.
The story has an interesting way of bringing these characters together. The evil Sorceress Cia has decided that she wants to bring back the Demon King Gannon, but in order to do so she much rip a hole in time. This causes the Zelda Universes to converge, bringing heroes from all over the timeline into one place, all fighting for the same goal. Stop Cia, defeat Gannon, and save the world! Simple, right?
The story in the 3DS version is mostly unchanged. The biggest difference is that they have added the Linkle storyline that goes parallel with the original game content. While Linkle’s story isn’t that great, her combat skills are amazing. She is far from the sword brandishing hero with a similar name. Linkle actual wields dual crossbows, and it is fantastic. She even has a special move, bringing the camera behind her shoulder, giving you an upclose perspective as you lay waste to your enemies.
A special prolog has also been added that takes place in the Wind Waker world. It comes with the assortment of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker characters that have been added to this edition. The characters include: Toon Link, Tetra, King Daphnes, and the Skull Kid (of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask fame). This contrasts the Linkle Storyline, as the Linkle story only backtracks previous areas that you have already completed. While the new characters can be added to the Wii U version through DLC, this special level and story content can only be found on Hyrule Warriors Legends on the Nintendo 3DS.
Now for the big question: how does it run on the Nintendo 3DS? I must say, I am just as surprised as you are to announce that it runs awesome on the New Nintendo 3DS. If you have an old model 3DS, do not bother with this game, as it runs very poorly. Nintendo should have made this game a New Nintendo 3DS exclusive, like Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. For those with the New model, it runs fantastic. The frame rate is solid, and has no right to run as smoothly as it does on this handheld.
As for graphics, it looks fine. It follows a similar look as Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3Ds, with the thick black outline around your character. The game does feature some pop-in with enemies and environments, but the amount of enemies and chaos on the screen at one time is still very impressive. If you are use to the Wii U version, you will notice that special moves and explosions no longer have the same amount of flair, but I feel that it is forgivable when running on this system. One final note, if you do enjoy playing your games in 3D, you will notice a slight frame rate drop.
While many may feel that this game is more inclined for home console play, let me just say that Koei Techmo shatters those expectation. They have found a great way to make the transition to handheld. As I had mentioned earlier, some of the more intense missions can go well beyond 30 minutes, however Hyrule Warriors Legends allows for a special save feature. So if you are riding the bus to work in the morning, you can save your game and boot it up later in the day, picking up right where you left off in the battle, never missing a beat. The bite sized Adventure Mode also better suites the handheld versions. The game also allows character-switching through the use of the touch screen, and adds the items of the ocarina to allow fast travel across the map. Honestly, if Hyrule Warriors became a handheld exclusive in the future, I think I would be fine with that.
So, is it worth the double dip? I absolutely think so. First, if you have a New Nintendo 3DS and do not own Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U, I feel that this is a must buy. If you already own the game on Wii U, then the decision is really up to you. If you loved the original, and want more characters and content, then this is also a must buy. If you only slightly enjoyed the original, but want to check out the new character, you can purchase them as DLC later on down the road (although you can add them to the Wii U version now if you purchase it on the Nintendo 3DS).
So here we are in Week 2 of the ballroom madness, and already, Season 22 is off to a fascinating start. This week was “Latin Night”, which brought with it, a lot of interesting choices, some which made more sense than others. Lets get right to the action, and to our first elimination of the season, shall we? We only have 2 hours before Len has to be in bed. Here we go!
JODIE / KEO:
Keo still hasn’t managed to watch “Full House”, so I’m guessing he still has no idea who his partner is. In any case, they did the Samba, and their costumes were gold and shimmery goodness. Len called the dance “hot”, while Bruno yelled something about “shining Goddess, emerging from the flames!!!” When he said that last part, he practically knocked Len over with his flailing arm movements. Horny Carrie Ann called Jodie “a wonderful piece of clay to work with.” Riiiiiight. Calm down, lady. Get back in your cage. Scores were 7/7/7.
MARLA / TONY:
They did the Argentine Tango. During rehearsals, they showed what a loon Marla is with her over-the-top healthy lifestyle, and Tony’s hilarious reactions to her eating things like hemp, seeds, and PH water. She also doesn’t wear deodorant because of the chemicals (poor Tony), and was in weird yoga poses over and over again during rehearsal footage. The dance, to me, seemed like it was in slow motion or something. Len called it “clean and polished”, which is very unlike his old man, wrinkly ball-sac. Scores were 7/6/7, and grumpy Len was responsible for the 6, of course.
GIRALDO / EDYTA:
Most confusing dance of the night. I don’t even know where to begin with this trainwreck of a routine. What on earth was happening here? So Giraldo was supposed to be Donald Trump. First of all, why? How does that have anything at all to do with Latin night? Edyta was supposed to be Melania, Trump’s wife. And then, for no reason whatsoever, they were supposed to be in Mexico, because that seems like a logical place for Trump to be. I guess they were trying to make a joke out of the whole “build a wall” thing, and keeping the Mexicans out, and all that. But literally, it made zero sense. He was President Trump, but his awful wig and his very real mustache made him look a lot more like a creepy 70’s porn star. Plus, his impression of Trump was terrible, even worse than his bad dancing, which was pretty bad. The background of the dance floor looked like it was puked on by someone who has a very tacky idea of what Mexico probably looks like. Palm trees, sombreros, bongos, and some sort of carnival thing happening behind them. Nothing about this was even Trump-like, NOR was it Latin! It was just mass chaos, and again, Giraldo walked around the dance floor, barely moving at all and smiling his creepy open-mouth game-show host smile. Horny Carrie Ann said “You did NOT make dance great again.” Bruno said: “the content – I am not sure what it was.” Me neither, Bruno. Tom Bergeron had the line of the night with his observation to Giraldo about his Trump impression: “Your hands are too big.” Scores were horrifying at 5/4/4. OUCH.
PAIGE / ALAN:
So Mark hurt his back during rehearsals and slipped a disc, leaving him unable to dance indefinitely. Pro dancer Alan stepped in and partnered with Paige for this week, with only a few hours notice until the live airing. I have to say he did an amazing job, and so did she. They did a Salsa, and with hardly any practice together, there were a lot of lifts in this routine, and they got them all beautifully. This was a great dance all the way around. Len agreed, calling it “the best dance so far of the season.” Bruno yelled “You were unleashed with organic explosion!”, whatever that means. Horny Carrie Ann’s comment made even less sense and went on longer: “Yeah! Ho! You just like, wow! Like, you, like, showed us all the soo-soo-sissy-soo-woo-woo ……. Yeah!!!” What the fucking fuck? That is literally what she said. Calm down, lady. Take your medicine. Scores were high at 8/8/8.
ANTONIO / SHARNA:
They did the Rumba, which is a very sexy and romantic dance, very seductive. The judges seemed to be mixed on their reviews, and all over the place with their comments. Bruno said “You are blessed with all the right equipment.” Wow, Bruno, THAT’S subtle. Then he hit Len again with his arm movements, and Len made a grumpy face because it was past his bedtime and nobody has read him a bedtime story yet. Len thought the dance needed “a little more finesse”, sort of like his urine stream late at night. Scores were 6/6/7.
KIM / SASHA:
So apparently, Kim is a big Gloria Estefan fan, and they did “Conga” for their Salsa. Sasha surprised Kim during rehearsals with a Skype visit from Gloria, and Kim screamed like a maniac with excitement. Their dance was energetic and fun. Carrie Ann said “you light up the stage!” Len thought it had good promise and potential, unlike his sex drive. Bruno yelled something about shaking that tooshie “like the best!” The best what? Backstage, Erin Andrews referred to Kim as “Tootie” several times, which I enjoyed immensely. Scores were 7/6/6.
NYLE / HEAVENS TO MURGATROYD!!!
They did the Rumba, and let me just say once again for anyone who is still unaware, THIS MAN CANNOT HEAR A THING. HE IS COMPLETELY DEAF, AND HE IS DANCING IN COMPLETE SILENCE. And yet, his first two dances have both been absolutely stunning and beautiful and extremely rhythmic. Also, just a sidenote, he himself is stunning and beautiful. Anyway, they did the Rumba, and his parents, who are also deaf, showed up at the rehearsal to watch. Len did not like it because he was grumpy since nobody brought him his favorite cereal. “It’s all too hectic and full of attack!”, like his bladder control issues. Carrie Ann thought it was stunning. Judges took off points for illegal lifts. Scores were 7/6/7, which I found to be way too low.
MISCHA / ARTEN:
This chick is annoying as hell. All she does is whine and complain, and her voice sounds like cheese bring grated and then the grater being dragged across a chalkboard. She was going on and on about how she cant hear the music right, and how its soooooo hard with the live band, and how this and that was wrong , and , and ……… THE GUY THAT WENT RIGHT BEFORE YOU CANT HEAR A THING AND HE WAS BRILLIANT AND HASNT COMPLAINED ONCE, SO MAYBE CHILL OUT, WOMAN!!! Bruno said it didn’t fit to the music, then added “if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.” (That’s what she said!) Scores were awful at 5/5/5.
VON / WITNEY:
They did the Cha-cha, and their rehearsals consisted of him farting over and over , and her fining him $100 per fart, and $500 each time he is late to rehearsal. They give the money to charity, but its an entertaining thing to watch. Bergeron was in their dance as a vendor selling “Tom’s Tacos”, and quipping about the cameo: “This is what happens when you miss a production meeting.” Len compared the dance itself to a taco in one of the worst similes I’ve ever heard: “It was like a taco. Tasty in places, but some funny bits going on.” What? That doesn’t describe a taco at ALL. Scores were 7/6/7.
WANYA / LINDSAY:
They did the Salsa, and this guy moves so well on the dance floor, its crazy. But I still don’t understand why his name is Wanya. What kind of name is that? Len said “I’m full of praise”, to which Tom replied: “That’s good, because earlier, the audience thought you were full of something else.” Bruno said something about A to Z that made no sense. Scores were 8/8/8.
DOUG / KARINA:
They did the Paso Doble, which was a bullfight scene, and Flutie used his own son’s battle with autism to help him out emotionally to get into the fighting character. It seemed to work, and he did quite well with this one. I loved the music choice and the energy of this dance. Bruno called him Sparticus, Carrrie Ann said “Flutie is in the game!”, and Len said it had “attack and purpose!”, unlike his ………. well ….. you know. Scores were 7/6/7.
GINGER / VAL:
They did a Samba, and I will be honest here and tell you that by the time I got to this part on my DVR, I could barely stay awake anymore, so I have no notes about this dance written down. I’m sure it was very lovely, and I recall Bruno saying that Ginger Zee “brings the feel good factor!” That’s all I got folks. Scores were 7/7/7, and Len can finally go to sleep.
FIRST ELIMINATION:
So the first person eliminated from Season 22 is Donald Trump …. i.e. …. Giraldo Rivera as Donald Trump, if he was Latin, in Mexico, with a mustache, for no reason. Goodbye Giraldo. Now you can do more of your newsman thing and reporting thing on Fox “News.” (Giggle giggle. Its funny every time.)
NEXT WEEK:
Wanya realizes he has a girly name and cries in the corner. Tootie comforts him, until Erin Andrews points out that her TV name was “Tootie.” Then they both cry. Len takes a 14 hour nap on the dance floor.
And discuss why that one death still makes no sense.
I cannot warn you enough: this post is absolutely littered with spoilers. I’m pretty sure these spoilers are making spoiler babies like rabbits, so if you haven’t caught up through the The 100’s most recent episode, 3×09 “Stealing Fire”, stay away.
We lost one of the best tonight on The 100 and while I’m not surprised it happened (everyone saw that coming once he was cast in American Gods), I’m still distraught. We’re talking ugly tears. But it got me thinking about the manner in which some of the main characters have died and what it has meant for the show and story as a whole. I want to discuss not only the reason for a character’s death, but also the manner in which they died and how it affects both surrounding characters and us viewers.
Wells Jaha: I didn’t see Well’s death coming. At all. I was new to the world of The 100, like everyone else, and this death set the tone for the show. Much like Ned Stark’s death in Game of Thrones, it told us as viewers that anyone was fair game, even at the hands of a child. The trust Wells had for people not named Bellamy was too high and he overestimated his position of power. As the son of the chancellor, Wells was a golden boy, but also a symbol of his father’s leadership. Wells was innocence, naivete. He was the hope that life on the ground wasn’t all barbarism and pain. He clung to rules and order and hoped it would see him through. He was Piggy in Lord of the Flies and he died for it. Now, even his own father doesn’t remember him or what he stood for.
Finn Collins: Wells may have signaled a darkness in the show that we haven’t seen in a CW affair…ever, but Finn’s death solidified the notion that no one is safe, even pretty boy Jon Snow 2.0. Here’s the thing about Finn: he’s the embodiment of who we think we are versus who we really are. When shit hits the fan, we, as humans, all like to believe we’d be a hero, leading our friends and family to safety, doing what is necessary, but the fact of the matter is: most of us aren’t. Finn wanted to believe he was Clarke’s hero. He even tricked himself into thinking as much after he massacred Tondc and then said to Clarke, “I found you.” Catch that? Finn was so wrapped up in his hero’s journey, he thought that by killing the innocents, he was responsible for finding (and thereby saving) Clarke.
Of course, we know that’s so far from the truth it’s asinine, but in that moment, Finn truly believed in what he was doing, no matter how sick and twisted it was from an outside perspective. Once he realized that he wasn’t the hero he first imagined, that he had gone back on everything he once stood for in the name of glory, he gave himself up. Finn’s death was about Finn’s actions, plain and simple. Sure, the end result taught us a lot about Clarke’s need to protect her own and Lexa’s forgiveness, but at the end of the day, his death was in his hands.
Lincoln kom Trikru: I don’t even want to write about this one because I’m still in mourning. I know happiness is a foreign concept on The 100 but I had hoped that if any couple survived it would be Octavia and Lincoln. Lincoln, first and foremost, has been the negotiator between Skaikru and Grounders. He is the entire reason why Skaikru is even still alive at this point because he’s always seen it as his duty to protect people. Not his people. People. So when it came time to escape with Octavia and let others die or turn himself in to save them, of course he chose the latter.
At first I was angry that Lincoln didn’t try to defend himself, that he didn’t at least take Pike out with him to make the job easier for Octavia, Kane and co. later on, but his track record of violence is actually pretty low comparatively. Lincoln knows that any act of aggression means the death of those he loves. And after spending too much time with Pike, he also trusts that monster to be a man of his word (he has no reason to lie to Lincoln), so he comes quietly, assuring safety for the Grounders locked in the cells. Lincoln made that decision for himself, to sacrifice his life for the lives of others and even though it was difficult to watch his death, and even harder to watch Octavia’s reaction, we know that he acted within his character’s morals.
Lexa kom Trikru: I didn’t forget about my boo, Lexa. In fact, her death was the reason for this article. There have been dozens and dozens of articles posted about the outrage over her death, and I’ll be honest, after evaluating other major deaths in the series, we should be outraged. I wanted to give the showrunners the benefit of the doubt because I do love this show but when comparing the way the other major deaths in the show fall in line with the character’s actions, Lexa’s death is beyond out of character.
Lexa’s death falls more in line with Wells’, a catalyst for other characters, not because of her own actions and that’s why it made fans so angry. I never expected Lexa to make it through season 3, that much was telegraphed from the beginning. Much like Lincoln, the actor’s casting in another major show is a huge red flag signaling her character’s fate on TV. And while I didn’t expect her to die a warrior’s death on the battlefield, the manner in which her death occurred is troubling.
Lexa’s death was intended to do a few things: 1. Progress the AI 2.0 plot and show the AI to viewers 2. Create conflict with the recently quiet Ice Nation and 3. Character development for Titus. That’s right, Lexa’s death centered not on Lexa’s actions, but on Titus’ anger and ensuing guilt. We’re left to face his inner turmoil over his pulling the trigger instead of honoring who Lexa was a character. The manner of her death devolved her entirely into a plot device, ignoring the strong person fans came to adore. I’ve already explained why Lexa was unique as a leader and as I’ve said, I never expected a peacekeeper such as her to survive long in the unforgiving world of The 100, but I did expect her to be treated as better than a host for a bit of technology. Lexa may have accepted her death, and some might point to her trust in Clarke as a reason for her death, but unlike most of the other main characters’ death, Lexa had no hand in deciding her fate. Such a sad thing may happen in the real world, but in media where writers dictate the fate of a character, that reasoning is no longer valid.
SHADOW HUNTERS - "Malec" - On the eve of Alec and Lydia’s wedding relationships are being examined in “Malec,” an all-new episode of “Shadowhunters,” airing TUESDAY, MARCH 29 (9:00 – 10:00 p.m., EST) on Freeform, the new name for ABC Family. (Freeform/John Medland)
ADAM KENNETH WILSON, KATHERINE MCNAMARA
On this week’s episode of Shadowhunters we finally meet the warlock that created the powerful potion responsible for Jocelyn’s current sleep-induced state.
Tessa, Ragnor, and Catarina!
Amidst playing wedding planner for the upcoming Lightwood-Branwell nuptials, Izzy (Emeraude Toubia) narrows the search down to twenty powerful warlocks capable of performing the kind of magic on Clary’s (Katherine McNamara) mom. Hodge (Jon Cor) narrows it done further to three candidates, one of which is Ragnor Fell (Adam Kenneth Wilson) with the other two being Tessa Gray and Catarina Loss (we get a pic of them both!). Magnus (who is invited to the Institute by Jace) explains that the other man was the former High Warlock of London and one of his dearest friends. He also adds that Ragnor had been an instructor at the Shadowhunter Academy in Idris during the 90s when Jocelyn (Maxim Roy) still lived there. Magnus (Harry Shum Jr.) realizes that his friend must have been the one who made the potion because the man hasn’t been responding to any of his fire messages since Valentine began hunting warlocks and likely has been holed up in his secret country house just outside of London. Magnus insists that he has to accompany Clary and Jace (Dominic Sherwood) since he’s the only one Ragnor trusts.
The three portal to England where the reclusive warlock has put up a strong ward around his house in the form of a wall of green fire. Apparently only those with a pure heart and intent can cross through. Jace and Magnus vanish in the flames and Clary is left to enter the Ragnor’s house alone. The home kind of reminded me of a fancy hoarder’s place. Clary notices that a painting of the horned warlock seemed off and pulls him out of the 2D world into reality.
We see you Ragnor!
Ragnor admits that has been expecting her and that she has her mother’s talent. During their exchange the man keeps talking to an empty room, which has us wondering if he’s a little crazy. Clary asks if he made the potion for Jocelyn to which he answers yes at her mother’s request. Ragnor asks her what the antidote and her friends are worth and she answers that she’ll do anything for them. Unfortunately though, he needs the Book of The White (an ancient book of warlock spells) to create a cure for the sleeping potion. He had actually asked Jocelyn to hide the book so that Valentine (Alan Van Sprang) would never find it. Make that another super powerful item that she had to hide from her ex-husband!
Ragnor goes to find something that might help them when he gets attacked by a shax demon and soon dies after. The demon must have followed them through the wards but the better question is how did it know to go there in the first place. Magnus creates a portal for Clary and Jace to head back to the Institute while he’ll take Ragnor and the contents inside of the man’s house to his place in New York to figure out the clue.
Shadowhunters speeds up the former High Warlock of London’s appearance in the narrative. In the book series, Clary comes to his home in Idris in City of Glass (book 3) where he had already been killed and Magnus was there in his place. Ragnor in the novels was also green skinned with white hair, looking to be around his thirties (though he was even older than Magnus).
Sometime in 1872, Charlotte Branwell had also once employed him when she was head of the London Institute to monitor the Herondale family (upon the request of Will Herondale who ran away from home to the Institute believing he was cursed by a demon). He had discovered that they had lost their home in Wales due to Edmund Herondale’s gambling problem. At some point he lost track of the family but then Charlotte called upon his services again six years later when it was found that they were now living at Ravenscar Manor in York. The property was owned by Mortmain, the main villain in Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices (prequel to The Mortal Instruments series).
Back on Shadowhunters we discover at the very end of the episode that it had been Hodge Starkweather who betrayed Clary, Jace and Magnus and revealed their mission to Valentine. Say it ain’t so Hot Hodge! He thinks Valentine can remove his curse of being bound to remain inside the Institute by delivering Jocelyn and The Mortal Cup (which he stole from Lydia).
Ragnor was truly gone too soon but hopefully we’ll see more of him in flashbacks. I would love to have more scenes of the two warlocks together (plus Tessa and Catarina too).
With only one episode left before the first season is over, Shadowhunters has been a fun adaptation of a beloved book series. The changes made have definitely been intriguing and I can’t wait to see where they take the story next. With the show renewed, maybe we’ll even get to meet Sebastian Verlac in season 2!
You can catch Shadowhunters Tuesdays on Freeform at 9/8 central.
I’ve been playing this game called SUPERHOT and I don’t like it.
Actually, I hate it.
I’ve never loathed a game as much as I loathe SUPERHOT.
Okay, that may not be entirely true. There are definitely worse games. SUPERHOT isn’t even a bad game. In fact, it’s a pretty good game with solid controls and a decent premise: an FPS (first-person shooter) game where you control time with your movement.
But this game…does things to me. It makes me think and do things I never thought possible and for that, it must pay.
We gamers can be an angry bunch. Visit any video game forum and you’ll learn that fact quickly. We’re stereotyped as a group of fat dudes who throw their controllers at the TV over a cheating 12-year-old. Now, I won’t put myself on a pedestal and say I am not a fat dude nor am I someone who’s never raged at a video game. I’ve had my moments of frustration and screamed that something was “bullshit” or blamed a death on lag or any number of things us gamers do. But most of the time I can keep my emotions in check, turn off the game, and go about my business. (Usually by playing another, more calming game.) I’ve never broken a controller in anger or smashed a keyboard or flamed at a stranger on the internet.
But this game, this SUPERHOT, makes me want to eat a baby one leg at a time. With its mother watching, wailing in the background.
It’s such a simple game, an FPS with minimal graphics. Time only moves when you do, so you can see when enemies shoot and, theoretically, you can dodge when the bullet is rocketing toward your piehole. It’s the creator’s Matrix fantasy programmed into a game, then sectioned off into levels based on your character’s “software.” Like most FPS games, you run these levels, each one increasing in difficulty, as games are wont to do. You die, of course, but for the most part, it’s relatively easy. Sometimes, you pivot too late and there’s a dude behind you, blowing out your pixelated brains, but hey, you’re a smart gamer. You learn. Next time you turn sooner and pop him in his dumb face.
The story is pretty basic as well, you’re an office drone who’s given a program called SUPERHOT that is technically off-limits. It’s nothing too exciting and it tries too hard to be intelligent to make much of an impact. Even though the narrative is only 2.5 hours long, it feels like days, dragging on and on because if you get stuck on a level, there is no going back and leveling, no learning of more techniques. Instead, the game becomes this tedious machine of killing red guys over and over until you have memorized their patterns and become numb to your own death sequence.
And maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s the metaphor the developers are striving toward but I hate it. I hate that after doing the same goddamn level 304 times, on the 305th time, that third dude who always has a pistol, suddenly has a shotgun and now I have to fucking start over because I have bullet holes in the shape of a Jackson Pollock covering my face.
Never, in my life, have I rage quit a game as hard as SUPERHOT. I nearly ate my keyboard on the final level. Some keys may still be missing and I’m still on edge thinking about the BULLSHIT hit box and DAMMIT that dude wasn’t supposed to be at that corner yet.
And this is from someone who plays League of Legends. For fun.
The game, for all its frustration, does have a neat concept. It’s not a concept that’s worth $25 for 3 hours of story, but a solid, well done concept, nevertheless. Once you actually beat the main story, you open up a challenge mode and an endless mode, where you test your mettle against those red dudes for even more exciting anger. The game offers the ability to upload your replays to Killstagram as a way to spread word about the game, but also to show off how awesome the game looks when you aren’t playing in slow-motion. In fact, based on my replays, you might actually think I’m good at the game (I’m not).
Look, the first hour or so of the game is good, wholesome murdering fun. You’ll feel like a rock star the way you take down faceless enemies while watching back the replay in real time. And the game handles well with its minimalist nature. I never suffered any problems with graphics and I didn’t mind the simplicity in design. However, there isn’t nearly enough content to warrant the price tag or a large chunk of my time. After beating the game I had little interest in going back to complete challenges or to give the endless mode the old college try. I did it simply for completion’s sake.
If you’re a fan of shooters, give this unique FPS a try, but maybe wait until it goes on sale to make sure you’ve got your money’s worth.
6/10
SUPERHOT was reviewed on the PC with a code supplied by the developer.
THE MAGICIANS -- "Remedial Battle Magic" Episode 111 -- Pictured: Jason Ralph as Quentin -- (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
The Magicians
Season 1, Episode 11: “Remedial Battle Magic”
Air Date: March 28, 2016
Time is running out for Quentin (Jason Ralph) and the squad this week on The Magicians as The Beast draws ever closer. The villain purposely targets Penny (Arjun Gupta) and all the travelers by being psychically super loud to drive them insane. Meanwhile Julia (Stella Maeve) and the folks at Free Trader Beowulf try to find a way to summon a god.
Through the Martin Chatwin pages that Penny got from the Neitherlands, Q determines that there is a weapon that they could use that would be powerful enough to kill The Beast, whom they believe to be a transformed Christopher Plover. Plover had apparently begun to learn how to change himself so that he could follow Martin into Fillory. In desperation, Martin sought the same man who created the Virgo Blade and asked for another one that could kill the author. Q explains that this weapon could still be somewhere in Fillory because it had never been used. Still, that doesn’t solve their immediate problem of The Beast trying to kill them.
Margo (Summer Bishil), Eliot (Hale Appleman), and Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) vote to make a deal with The Beast by going to the Neitherlands and giving the button to the mercenaries with Penny and Q disagreeing. In order to determine what the right course of action is, they cast a probability spell to try out different scenarios. Unfortunately in seven out of eight tries they all end up dead next week. The only time that they didn’t immediately get killed was when they all went to Fillory and the result was some mysterious whiteout.
THE MAGICIANS — “Remedial Battle Magic” Episode 111 — Pictured: Summer Bishil as Margo — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
Frustrated, Penny decides to try and figure it out on his own when The Beast reaches out telepathically and gives him a terrible ultimatum, come to Fillory now or wait until he is completely mad because it’s going to get uncomfortably loud in his mind. We find out that the travelers are specifically being targeted because the monster wants all roads to his domain on lockdown. Both Joe and Stanley end up killing themselves and Penny overdoses in an attempt to drown out the voices.
Sunderland ends up giving the traveler a kind of disruption patch placed at the nape of his neck that temporarily disrupts the magic flowing into his mind and thus quieting the voices. Penny, who is so used to only relying on himself changes his mind and decides to join the squad again.
Earlier, Q, Alice, Margo and Eliot figured that they needed to learn some real battle magic before going to Fillory since they’d also have to deal with the mercenaries at the Neitherlands. Q and Alice asked Penny to cast a locator spell to find out where Kady (Jade Tailor) was since she actually knew how to properly perform these incantations. They track her down at Julia’s apartment and the former Brakebills student explains that it takes years to learn it properly and that they have to be mentally and emotionally clear to do it. However, she does give them a spell that hedges used to get around that but it’s not a pleasant experience.
THE MAGICIANS — “Remedial Battle Magic” Episode 111 — Pictured: Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
This cheat turns out to be a spell that temporarily bottles their emotions so that they can practice battle magic without all the baggage. They can only do this for a short amount of time though and then they will have to drink their emotions back and it will hit them tenfold.
Before heading out, Quentin and Kady both uncomfortably try to ask the other how Julia and Penny are doing. Kady says that Jules is good and that they are working on something that can help a lot of people. Meanwhile, Q says that Penny is the same, just moodier. This is a weirdly touching moment between two people who’ve never really been alone together. You can sympathize for both characters who have people they care about but can’t talk to because of circumstances beyond their control.
Alice and Penny opt to try and learn the battle spells without the shortcut (feeling that the aftereffects were too crazy) while Q, Eliot, and Margo continue with it. In an attempt to cope with their concentrated emotions, the trio drown their sorrows with alcohol and it leads to a crazy threesome (you read that right!) to which Q wakes up the next morning to see Alice staring at them. Awkward. This scene happens in the book as well though I quite like this version better. While it was still a monumentally f’d up thing for Q to do with Alice as his girlfriend, we do see that they were all dealing with the stress of fighting for their lives. But it does show us how ultimately some people operate better than others while under pressure. Poor Q just seriously screwed this one up.
THE MAGICIANS — “Remedial Battle Magic” Episode 111 — Pictured: Jade Tailor as Kady Orloff-Diaz — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
Outside of Brakebills, Julia and Kady learn that the Free Trader Beowulf have been trying to find the gods for a long time. Their leads have never panned out to anything, but this time they have an ace up their sleeves with Julia. Richard reveals that the prayer he had given her back when they first met had never worked for anyone except her, noting that she is somehow a chosen one. Julia and Kady then seek out older children of the gods in hopes that one of them will know how to contact one. They first meet a blood junky vampire who gives them information on a lamia. When they finally track down the lamia, she appears in the form of Hannah (Kady’s mom) and tells both women that the gods are dead and have abandoned them all.
Back at her apartment, everyone else is asleep when she hears her name being whispered. Julia follows the sound to the kitchen where early morning sun rays are coming in through the window. She extends her hands in supplication, when first water starts pouring out of them and then silver coins. When she looks up, a beautiful woman stands in front of her. It’s obviously a goddess, one that Julia seems to be drawn to. The goddess gives instructions to find one of her servants in the docks. She calls Julia daughter before the hedge witch wakes up from the dream.
This episode expanded the universe of The Magicians even more as we saw The Beast’s power extend out to reach all travelers but audiences were also introduced to the real existence of powerful deities. Still with Q’s monumental fail it shows us that humans can act just as monstrous as the creatures they fear. Now poor Alice will have to deal with a broken heart as well. Our band of miscreant magicians are holding on to their lives and sanity by a very thin thread, will going to Fillory save them or break them? Either way, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
If you’ve used the Internet in the last week or so you’ve probably come away with one salient fact: that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a wretched, terrible, godawful piece of filmmaking and any opinion outside of that is outrageous and wrong.
Like so many films before it, this sequel to Director Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel has managed to find that sweet spot in the online film community that demands pure hatred and nothing else. The weeks to come will surely deliver to us a litany of articles and YouTube vlogs tallying up “Everything Wrong With Batman v Superman” and the pile on mentality will continue to grow until the ever-lasting memory of the film is only of what it didn’t get right and that Snyder should never work again.
But let’s pause for a moment and take a breath because this isn’t going to be one of those articles.
As a life-long fan of both Superman and Batman as characters I was enthusiastically excited for this movie. I genuinely enjoyed what Synder did with Man of Steel and honestly wasn’t bother by the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman even though the Internet wanted me to think that it was the worst thing to happen since September 11, 2001. This was going to be a chance to see two of my favorite childhood heroes thrown together on the big screen for the first time with appearances by other members of the Justice League tossed in for good measure – what’s not to be excited about?!
The trailers for the film did little to dampen my excitement (more on things that should have been left out of them later) and the poster artwork got my anticipation tingling, but all along the way the Internet kept telling me, “It’s going to suck!”
What were these people seeing that I wasn’t seeing? Am I wildly out of touch? Or are these people online time travelers who had already seen the movie and just weren’t being honest with me?
Whatever the answers to those questions are, there is no doubt that for some mysterious reason a large segment of media critics and the online film community wanted to hate this movie before they ever even saw the opening credits roll. Perhaps its appealing to take potshots at a massive studio project that is banking on this film to kick start an entire series of films about these characters or maybe its just fun to have a common enemy. But whichever way you slice it, there are plenty of reasons why Batman v Superman isn’t the glorious disaster that the mob mentality would have you believe.
Do I think the film is perfect? Absolutely not. It is overly long, plays a little stiff, and tries to cover a bit too much ground rather than telling a tightly focused story. But those complaints have been well documented elsewhere. Instead, I want to focus on the positive things about this project that hundreds of people spent years bringing together to the best of their ability.
First and foremost, let’s talk about this cast. Returning from Man of Steel is Henry Cavill who grows even more impressive as the stoic Superman unsure about his place in the world after being severely questioned about his part in that first film’s climax. Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, and Diane Lane join him as the returning team and all bring a sense of comfort to their respective roles but its the new castmembers who really take the ball and run with it.
Obviously the most prominent newbie here is Ben Affleck, who as I mentioned before, faced a barrage of hatred when he landed the part. But guess what. Affleck is great as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He plays the character with a fiery determination and seeing him in action leaves no doubt that this is the most physically intimidating version of the character to ever hit the big screen. He is wily, brilliant, and I personally can’t wait to see more him as the character.
In an equally major debut we have Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor who has been one of the most divisive elements about the film. I’ll be honest and say that I’m not really a fan of Eisenberg’s previous work but I think his depiction of Luthor here is absolutely perfect. Brilliant, self-absorbed, and just the right amount of deranged, this is the version of Luthor I’ve wanted to see in a movie for a very long time. I can see how some viewers could find the performance to be over-the-top or strange but consider this former Eisenberg hater a changed man.
Throw in a wonderful Jeremy Irons as Alfred, a steely Holly Hunter as a concerned U.S. Senator, and Scoot McNairy as a wounded citizen waging a war on Superman’s god-like status and you’ve got a pretty remarkable supporting cast of characters all moving around a very complex and compelling canvas of story.
Oh…and did I forget to mention Miss Scene Stealer 2016? I have a special place in my heart for Gal Gadot and her portrayal of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. Her role is a small one but it works on both a story and character level. Her debut in the midst of battle got a particularly uproarious response from the crowd I was watching the movie with and dammit she deserved every scream of it.
In addition to the remarkable cast the movie also delivers on the comic book style action that Synder has really mastered throughout his years as a filmmaker. Say what you want about his work with story and subtlety, the man undeniably delivers when it comes to action. From a rollicking Batmobile chase to the epic title match between our two main characters, the action scenes are relentless and inventive. Toss in Wonder Woman and Doomsday for the big climax and you’ve got enough geek action awesomeness for the price of your ticket and then some.
One of the things that’s been bugging me most about the flogging that this movie has taken is that it leaves the impression that this is a “dumb” film. Far from it. Remember the days when a comic book/superhero movie was comprised of the hero having some kind of conflict with his main lady while a new villain had an evil ploy that needed to be stopped? Those days are long gone my friends and there is no better example of that than the complexity of the story presented here.
I love the notion of the world grappling with how to handle the sudden appearance of a super-powered being from outer space. Most movies of this nature seem to show the people of the world accepting it with a shrug but the screenplay here really digs into the question of how people would react to this new paradigm and everyone from panicked villagers in Africa to a deranged billionaire in Metropolis have a role to play in how that narrative plays out. It’s a serious and sometimes somber way to look at superheroes and this obviously makes it lack the lighter touch of the Marvel films. I love the Marvel films too but I don’t need every superhero movie to be laugh out loud funny.
What I really didn’t expect from this movie though was how much I was going to be surprised. Even though I’m annoyed that the joy of Wonder Woman and Doomsday was spoiled in the trailers there is still plenty packed in there to make you say, “Oh shit!” And that’s all I’ll say about that for those who have yet to see it.
I also have to throw out some major kudos for the technical aspects of this film under Snyder’s direction. Visually and audibly the film is a knockout. Beautiful cinematography, costumes, special effects, and art direction make every scene interesting to look at and very often composed in a breathtaking way by Snyder. I personally can’t stop thinking about the way he captured Martha Wayne’s pearls being snapped by her killer’s gun during the opening moments of the film. We’ve seen that scene play out before in countless other iterations of Batman but never has it had as much visual impact as it does here.
With all this being said I think I’ve at least made the argument that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is not the full-fledged disaster that many people are making it out to be. We live in a world where Rotten Tomatoes deem something to be either “Fresh” or “Rotten”, and while that given number is interesting it leaves out something important: the middle ground. Just because a movie isn’t an A+ doesn’t mean it is automatically an F. We seem to have reached a point in popular culture where everything must be one or the other but I like to think there’s still room a good old fashioned mixed bag that everyone can agree has some seriously awesome attributes and maybe a few missteps. I give this movie a solid B and I feel pretty damn satisfied with that.
But for those lingering haters out there I have one last thing to say…
This is what truly terrible Batman and Superman movies look like:
We are back with the Dancing With the Stars premiere episode of Season 22 (yes – twenty-two!!!), and all of the glitz, glamour, and yes, even everyone’s favorite old-man grumpy judge, Len Goodman, are back once again!!! Goodman, who took last season off to take a long, extended nap and watch a “Murder She Wrote” marathon, has returned to the ballroom once again, to give his very special style of judging to the panel. The crazy Bruno Tonioli and the always Horny Carrie Ann Inaba are also back, as is the lovely co-host Erin Andrews. And, of course, the man who keeps this 3-ring circus all together and who remains my TV-host crush forevermore, Tom Bergeron. This season seems to have a lot of interesting characters, some great backstories that will make people get out the tissues and start with the waterworks early on, and some really good potential dancers. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get started ……..
KIM FIELDS / SASHA FARBER:
Most of us know Kim Fields from the classic and somewhat lame TV sitcom “The Facts of Life”, where she played Tootie. Others know her from the more recent “Living Single”. And some are saying: “Who the hell is this person?” They did a Cha-cha, and both worse red shimmery outfits. It was a very good dance for the first time ever, and the first couple of the night. Bruno said: “You can blow my sax and whistle anytime!” Not sure if he was talking to Kim or Sasha there on that one. Awk-ward!!! Tom Bergeron responded with the witty: “… and we’re off!” Scores were 7/6/7.
PAIGE VANZANT / MARK BALLAS:
Paige is a Pro Fighter for the UFC, and that’s really all I know about her, because that is what it said on my TV screen. They did the Foxtrot, and Mark was in the weirdest suit jacket of all time, not sure what costumes department was thinking with that choice. He looked like a florist shop vomited all over him. She moves very well. Horny Carrie Ann couldn’t control herself: “What you put out was fantastic!” Calm down lady. Len thought they did a terrific job, and seemed to be on happy pills with the first few dancers of the night. No worries though. His normal grumpy old-man self would emerge soon enough. Scores were 7/7/7.
DOUG FLUTIE / KARINA SMIRNOFF:
Flutie is an NFL Quarterback Legend, most famous for his time with New England, so they did Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”, which is the song that Boston sports fan play at Fenway Park during Red Sox games. We can tell already from rehearsal footage that Flutie is a perfectionist, telling Karina: “I hate not being good at something.” Well, you’re gonna do lots of hating on this show then, because you kind of cant dance. The man has no rhythm. But a great attitude. Len said: “It wasnt exactly a diamond performance”, referring to Neil Diamonds name and making a sad attempt at humor. Carrie Ann pointed out that America loves an underdog. Scores were super low and embarassing at 5/5/5. Yikes!!!
JODIE SWEETIN / KEO MOTSEPE:
She is from both “Full House”, and now “Fuller House.” As someone who found that show to be insanely stupid, I can only tell you that she played someone named Stephanie Tanner. Also, just a sidenote, Im guessing that Keo had absolutely not a clue who this person was or had never sat through an episode of “Full House.” I could be wrong, but this strikes me as a show that white people watch. (Not all white people – just ones that arent me.) Also, some guys find her to be hot. Whatever. She seemed okay, but a bit annoying to me. They did a Tango, and both wore purple. She also moved well, but the judges were obsessed with her oddly moving head. Len: “Strange things were happening with your head.” Bruno called it “alluring!”, and scores were 7/6/7.
GIRALDO RIVERA / EDYTA TRABUNSKIYA:
I think we all know who Giraldo is, unfortunately. TV host /reporter / Fox “News” Correspondant (Im sorry – I have to put the word news in quotes when it comes before the word “Fox.”) He is 72 years old. Edyta is one of the original pro-dancers on the show, who is making a reappearance this season. Their dance was the … oh never mind. It doesn’t matter. Edyta danced and Giraldo WALKED across the dance floor, back and forth, with a creepy game-show host smile across his creepy, porn moustache the whole time. Then he smiled with his mouth wide open like Guy Smiley from “Sesame Street”, as he received his commentary from the judges, which was quite brutal (and accurate.) Bruno said: “You were starring, you were not dancing. Maybe you better dance next time. ” Len: “For you, dancing is a work in progress. Youre not there yet.” Backstage, when Erin asked him what he thought of the comments, his response made even less sense than his dancing. “They say with a dancing bear, you dont ask how well he dances – it’s that he dances at all.” Erin: “What?” Exactly. I think this man is on some serious qualudes or something, maybe laughing gas. Maybe it’s whatever they feed them over there at Fox “News.” (giggle) He kept laughing like a lunatic for no reason. Scores were harsh at 5/4/4. WOW!!! I’m not sure I recall the last time someone received a FOUR, never mind TWO of them!
MARLA MAPLES /TONY DOVOLANI:
So, Marla Maples is listed as an Actor, but she is an “Actor” in the same way that Fox News is “news.” Really, she is one of Donald Trump’s many ex-wives, and that is her claim to fame. She is annoying in voice and personality pretty much right away. They do a Quickstep to “Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend”, of course, because lets play off the fact that all she cares about is money. The dance was very good, I will say. She definitely got into that character very easily. Carrie Ann said it was “fun!” Len said it had “vim, vigor, and vitality!” Vim??? Who uses the word vim??? I think its time for Len’s other V-word – Viagra. Bruno made a terrible pun that he should be kicked off the show for with: “Forget about the Donald. Ballroom is your Trump card!” Boo!!!! Scores were 7/7/7.
WANYA MOMS / LINDSAY ARNOLD:
First of all, Im hoping that I was somehow smoking crack or something when I wrote down this dude’s name, and that perhaps I wrote it entirely wrong. If not, then that means his name is actually Wanya Moms, and what on earth kind of name is that??? Anyway, he was in Boyz 2 Men, or still is (are they still a thing?), and they did the Cha-cha. It was energetic and fun, and they danced to one of his own songs. Len said “there was more packed into that than in Bruno’s makeup bag!” Ooooh, another joke from Len! Horny Carrie Ann stood up and danced weirdly and made noises like “Da-amm!!! Twinkletoes!!! Mmmmm!!!!!! Yeah!!!!” No idea what she was talking about, but she really needs to get laid soon. Scores were high at 8/7/8, and this dude can dance.
GINGER ZEE / VAL CHMERKOVSKY:
She is the Chief Meteorologist for “Good Morning America”, and also a new mom. She was not shy in rehearsals, telling Val: “Sorry if I leak on you. Im breastfeeding, and milk is gonna be everywhere.” Alrighty then. Thanks for sharing. During rehearsals, she brings her newborn baby, and Val seems to be slightly uncomfortable around infants, which is hilarious to watch. They dance a Jive, and it is really good. Bruno makes another lame pun: “The weather forecast is pretty good!” Carrie Ann says “you lit up the joint!” And Len observed: “It was frisky, risky, and fast and furious!” Unlike his bladder. Scores were high at 8/7/8.
MISCHA BARTON / ARTEM CHIGVINTSEV:
She is an actress, from The “OC”, and they danced the Tango. I know little about her, but I do know this. She was walking across that dance floor. I saw zero dancing happening. Not that I should talk. Im the worst dancer on planet earth. Actually, no. Giraldo is probably worse. Anyway, she walked. Len finally let the grumpy man out completely: “You were just walking! That wasnt a dance! It was a WALK! Its not in my nature to be nasty though.” Riiiight. And it’s not in my nature to be sarcastic. Scores were low at 5/5/6.
NYLE DIMARCO /HEAVENS TO MURGATROYD!!!!
He is a deaf model, and winner of “Americas Next Top Model.” Also, he is the hottest, most gorgeous, physically attractive, piece of man-candy I have ever seen. WOW!!!! On top of that, it was pretty damn impressive how GOOD his dancing was. Giraldo and Mischa couldn’t walk on the damn beat, and this guy CANT HEAR A DAMN THING and he was killing it out there. He was fantastic. Their dance was sexy, hot, and flowing. This guy is someone to watch. The judges were impressed. Bruno: “Shut up! Are you for real? I have to touch you in case you are a fantasy!” Then he walked up and scared the crap out of the poor man and literally touched him on his shoulder. I am willing to be that Bruno was hoping to touch him in other places too, but he would have gotten fired. And sued. Horny Carrie Ann practically wet hear seat with more comments of screeching and screaming nonsense sounds and words: “It was, like , HOT!!!! and then, yeah, and then, like, DAMN!!!!, and then, I was like, you are in the pocket, and then , like, Wow!!! Oh my!” What the fuck are you talking about, woman? Go take a cold shower. Scores were 8/7/8.
ANTONIO BROWN / SHARNA BURGESS:
He is considered the Best Wide Receiver in the NFL, and plays for the Steelers. He likes to say “Booming!” a lot. He has catchphrases and seems like a cool dude. They did a Quickstep, and he can seriously move. It was great. Bruno said something about him keeping his frame “erect” – uh-huh Bruno. I’ll bet something else was erect too underneath that judge’s table. Horny Carrie Ann referred to him as a “Beast!”, and she was fantasizing about his beast-like frame all over her. She flipped out, stood up, screamed, and went totally insane with more nonsense words. Tom Bergeron begged: “Decaf – try it.” Len did not like it because he is old and grumpy and out of prune juice. Scores were 8/6/7. The 6 was from Len, who was just upset because he missed a new episode of “Wheel of Fortune.”
VON MILLER / WHITNEY CARSON:
Another NFL player, this one the MVP for Superbowl 50, for the Denver Broncos. They did a Foxtrot, and it was really good. He is immensely tall, and Whitney is short, so it will be a challenge on the dance floor. Carrie Ann called them “soft and silky”, and Bruno said “hip hop and mighty hot.” Whatever that means. Len fell asleep in his Cream of Wheat. Scores were 8/6/7. Again, the 6 came from the old man.
Nobody got kicked off this week, since it was the premiere week, so next week we will have the first eliminations of the season. Also next week: Ginger Zee spills breastmilk all over the dance floor, and Giraldo slips in it during his Cha-Cha , ending up with his highest scores of the season. The show sends Keo home with a video of “Full House” to watch, so he can familirize himself with his partner more and her work. 7 minutes into episode one, he is heard sobbing and screaming: “What the fuck is this shit?” Len falls asleep at the judges table and drools all over Bergeron’s cue cards.
By 11 years old, I was fully enthralled with the world of Pokemon. From the video games to the cartoon, I couldn’t get enough. All I wanted in life was to be the best that no one ever was. Then, imagine the pure excitement coursing through my body when Pokemon Stadium was released. Finally! I could experience the battles in 3D as they appeared on the show. Now imagine my disappointment at actually playing Pokemon Stadium and realizing what a mediocre (*editor’s note: at best!) game it turned out to be.
Well, here we are again, only this time I’m pushing 30 with an 8 year old that shares my obsession for Pokemon, and the new Pokken Tournament advertises itself as a true Pokemon fighting game. Has it finally been accomplished or will this game leave me feeling like I’m blasting off again? Find out as we travel across the land searching far and wide… (*editor’s note: I see what you’re doing but come on… it’s a review. Be more professional.)
Pokken Tournament is the latest attempt at bringing everyone’s favorite pocket monsters (that’s right, Digimon, I said it) to 3D gaming and away from its RPG roots. To bring this fighter to life, The Pokemon Company has decided to choose Bandai Namco as its starter type and co-developer. The result is a game that feels like a “best of” fighting game, taking cues from Bandai Namco’s own Tekken Franchise, sprinkling in some Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom, while wrapping it all up in a Pokemon skin. What, at first, feels like a game with an identity crisis finally clicks and is one of the deepest, accessible, and fun fighting games I’ve ever played.
Battle Trainers (that’s you) start each match by picking one of 16 “battle” pokemon that you’ll be directly controlling. Next players select a “support team” of two pokemon from 14 possible support teams totaling in over 40 pokemon making an appearance in this game. These “support teams” act very much like the assists you would find in the aforementioned Marvel vs Capcom franchise, popping into matches to either attack your enemy, debuff them or buff you. The final step, before we get to live our fantasies of what is essentially pokemon dog fighting, is selecting a “cheer” type. Guiding you through this experience is Nia, a veteran Battle Trainer, and she’ll cheer you on granting you various benefits in-between rounds.
Matches begin on a 3D plane in the “Field Phase”, where gameplay feels similar to the Tekken franchise, using ranged attacks to keep your opponent at bay or rushing them down to land melee attacks. When a strong attack is landed, it switches to “Duel Phase”, where pokemon battle on a 2D plane until a lethal combo or throw is landed, sending you back into “Field Phase.” The constant switching back and forth between “phases” is Pokken Tournament’s most unique feature and one that adds extra depth. Often times I found myself preferring to keep my distance and using ranged attacks in “Field Phase” but taking a rush down approach in “Dual Phase.”
While the pokemon are busy pimp smacking each other into a visit to the Poke center, two different meters are building. Your “support gauge”, which once full allows you to summon your pre-selected assist pokemon, and your “synergy gauge.” Activate the “synergy gauge” and your pokemon enters a super state allowing it to land more powerful attacks and giving the player the option to activate one more time for a signature synergy attack. If landed, these attacks result in some incredible attacks and animations. Watching Pikachi Libre climb the top rope of a wrestling ring, pump his fist as he screams “PI-KA-CHU” is the purest form of glee I’ve felt in a video game in a long time.
Speaking of Pikachu Libre, the roster of “Battle” pokemon is made up of a mix of favorites from across the different generations. After playing as every single one, I found it represented a great variety of play types and fighting archetypes. Every single pokemon was fun to play as and I can’t imagine a player not finding one that suits his style. On top of playing well, each pokemon looks exactly like their cartoon counterpart.
Pokken Tournament as a whole, is a very pretty game, with an art direction that looks like it fits in the cartoon universe. While not as crisp or clean as say Street Fighter V or even Tekken 6, the game does a great job of pushing the technical boundaries of the Wii U without sacrificing performance. Even when playing on the Wii U Gamepad, I found it to be a very pleasant experience. It does, however, make me long for the day when we can see Pokemon rendered on truly powerful hardware.
A knock that could be made against Pokken Tournament is that there are a lot of mechanics going on in this game (*editor’s note: Thanks for pointing that out, we didn’t notice the 800 gauges mentioned earlier). Thankfully, the game recommends players start in the training mode, which not only teaches beginners the many systems at play but also teaches them the fundamentals of fighting games. My son was quoting the “attack triangle” of block beating normal, normal beating grab, and grab beating block, to me while we battled. Even with all of the deep mechanics, it is still possible for someone to pick up a controller, button mash and have fun even if that doesn’t translate into success. This is exactly what fighting games should be striving for.
Multiplayer is handed expertly both locally and online. Locally one player uses the gamepad so that the perspective in “Field Phase” is always over their shoulder and the second player uses a pro controller and the TV. The biggest tests of an online fighter are that matches were found quickly and the net code resulted in no noticeable lag. Pokken Tournament passes both with flying colors, a feat that is much more impressive when you consider Nintendo’s relatively young online network.
The biggest surprise to me was the single player experience of Pokken Tournament. Bandai Namco have translated the normal “journey” one takes in the main series Pokemon games into a fighting campaign. As a new trainer you start in the lowest of five “leagues”, with ranking matches. This is the games equivalent of walking around the world battling random trainers to level up. Once you achieve a high enough rank, you enter into an 8-player tournament, which feels very much like battling the trainers in a gym. Once victorious, you have a promotion match against that league’s champion to move on to the next league, which again feels very much like battling a gym leader to earn a badge. They’ve someone how made the concepts of “Battle Trainers” and these leagues feel very much like they belong in the Pokemon universe.
Pokken Tournament is not a perfect fighting game by any means, which fairly complex mechanics and visuals that don’t meet the bar set by their modern peers. What it is though, is a near perfect Pokemon fighting game, that’s fun, deep and has more charm than it has any right to. Also, it has 100% more Pikachu in a wrestling outfit than any other fighting game out there and, at the end of the day, isn’t that all we really need?
Final Score: 8.9/10
Pokken Tournament was reviewed on the Nintendo Wii U.
SHADOW HUNTERS - "Blood Calls to Blood" - With the help of a new ally, Clary and Jace attempt to rescue Jocelyn in "Blood Calls to Blood," an all-new episode of "Shadowhunters," airing TUESDAY, MARCH 22 (9:00-10:00 p.m. EDT) on Freeform. (Freeform/John Medland)
EMERAUDE TOUBIA, MIMI KUZYK, STEPHEN R. HART
This week’s episode of Shadowhunters introduces us to a new character on the show, the intimidating Inquisitor. We first meet her during her sudden arrival at the New York Institute with guards and a Silent Brother in two with the Mortal Sword.
But who exactly is the Inquisitor? This office is the second highest position in the Clave (the Shadowhunter government), with only the Consul being above it. Currently Imogen Herondale (Mimi Kuzyk) holds the role where she works as the chief investigator of the nephilim, making certain that the Covenant and the Accords are upheld.
She appears to be very cold and stern when confronting Lydia Branwell (Stephanie Bennett) that she needs to do her job as the acting head of the New York Institute and prosecute Isabelle (Emeraude Toubia). During the trial, both she and the Silent Brother were legally able to use the Mortal Sword to force a truthful testimony from the participants. Even when Lydia decided to withdraw her charges against Izzy, the Inquisitor decreed that unless the Mortal Cup was returned to the Clave, Miss Lightwood would be stripped of her runes and exiled.
Imogen had been born Imogen Whitelaw and married Marcus Herondale. Marcus is a descendant of warlock Tessa Gray and Shadowhunter Will Herondale. They had one son together, Stephen, who became a member of the Circle and had been killed during one of their raids. She had always been against her son joining Valentine’s (Alan Van Sprang) group and had blamed him for his death. Her hatred for the rogue Shadowhunter clearly has not diminished after the Uprising and now believes that Clary (Katherine McNamara) and Jace (Dominic Sherwood) would somehow deliver the cup to him. This anger towards Valentine made her think that torturing Meliorn (Jade Hassoune) was justifiable in order to determine if the Seelies were in league with Valentine. She was also distrustful of the Lightwoods because Maryse (Nicola Damude) and Robert (Paulino Nunes) had once been a part of the Circle themselves.
It’s interesting though that while nephilim should not allow themselves to be ruled by their emotions, Imogen’s own hatred towards Valentine is preventing her from seeing the wrongfulness of torturing a downworlder without real evidence of a crime. While she and the Clave can justify that it is for the greater good of preventing another uprising, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You should listen to Isabelle’s speech Madame Inquisitor. Still, her character is embodies the rigidity of the Clave and their adherence to the law.
Thankfully Clary and Jace were able to return to the Institute with Jocelyn’s body and deliver the cup safely to Lydia, this certainly won’t be the last time we’ll see Imogen. She plays an important role in the Shadowhunter world and if the show follows the novels, the Inquisitor will have a connection to Jace that will eventually be revealed.
You can catch Shadowhunters on Freeform Tuesdays 9/8 Central.
Don’t worry; this is a spoiler-free discussion of Daredevil and TV shows in general.
Like most everyone on the planet (except for Rob), I binge-watched Daredevil’s second season over the weekend. I’m not really one for binge-watching TV shows, mostly because I have other things to do and, if it’s a show I like, I prefer to give the show my full attention. Buuuuuuuut I caved when it came to Daredevil because 1. I loved the first season and 2. I didn’t want to be spoiled on Twitter or Facebook. (A major death had been spoiled for me last season, so I didn’t want a repeat this time around.)
After going through the series so quickly, ultimately I’m left with the opinion that I mostly enjoyed Netflix’s most recent venture into the Marvel realm. Daredevil still boasts the best choreographed fight scenes on television, but the slower scenes felt subpar when compared to season one and the other Marvel series on Netflix, Jessica Jones. Elektra felt pigeon-holed into something uncomfortable, Daredevil was an asshole, scenes were dragged on for too long, and so on and so on. Sitting alone on my couch with a tub of cheese puffs, I was incredibly vocal about my dislike for some of the decisions made for the show. Yet, despite my reservations and growing annoyance, an odd thing happened: I kept watching. I mean, I’d already started, all the episodes were there, why not give the show the benefit of the doubt and see it through to the end?
Instead of focusing on the things that bothered me about the show, instead of having a week or more to break down inconsistencies and flawed character development, I simply plowed onward; a luxury not afforded to network TV and the poor shows I rail on week to week. If you follow any of my TV show articles (ahem, like the ones about Legends of Tomorrow), you’ll know that I can be a very critical person, especially when it comes to the media I consume. Heck, I gave up on Constantine after two episodes because I didn’t feel like the story was up to snuff and I didn’t care about the main character. Unfortunately for the show and fanbase, I wasn’t the only one who quit. Legends made it to six episodes before I threw in the towel and decided if I wanted to finish, I’d wait for the entire season to air.
As viewers, there is so much for us to watch, available right at our fingertips, why wait ten, fifteen, twenty weeks for a show to finish when Netflix gives me the entire thing all at once? Even if it’s bad or not “as good”, I can still finish and wash my hands of it. As a reviewer, it’s my job to pick apart every minute of TV I watch because I have to wait another seven days until I can scratch that itch again. If a show starts to lull, I dump it in favor of one that excites me every week, one that ticks all my boxes, and probably stars someone like OH, I dunno, Hayley Atwell. (Hey, boo.)
I don’t think this trend is relegated to just television, either. I remember when I first picked up the Ms. Marvel reboot by G. Willow Wilson and how critical I was of its introduction. “WHAT. THE. YOU FINALLY GIVE A YOUNG MUSLIM GIRL A LEAD ROLE AND HER SUPERPOWER TURNS HER INTO A BLONDE WHITE GIRL. SOMEONE GET ME THE PRESIDENT.” Of course, that wasn’t actually the case with Ms. Marvel but with the way comic book issues are written, one month apart, I had to wait 2 months for the big “I love me as me” reveal. If I wasn’t the giant Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel fangirl that I am, I might not have stuck with the series. (And that’d be a damn shame because Ms. Marvel is one of the best series right now.)
My point is, I was way more critical about the comics I bought individual issues for than the ones I bought in trade paperback. In TV land, I sang from the rooftops about how good Daredevil season one and Jessica Jones were, and I rushed through Amazon’s Transparent, a show I might not have finished on cable, but my goodness am I HORRIBLE when it comes to judging Arrow and The Flash on a weekly basis. (Obviously DD and JJ are vastly superior to Arrow and Flash, but I could be a smidgen more forgiving than I am.)
And that’s the thing: it’s wholly unfair for me to compare a finished season of Daredevil to a half-finished season of Arrow. I’ve seen the payoff for Daredevil but six months have gone by and I still don’t know who’s in that damn Arrow grave. I shouldn’t compare the two, but alas, I still do, and almost always, the show I binged comes out on top.
This bias towards binged media is why I’m so afraid that cable companies might move to the Netflix/Amazon approach and release all episodes simultaneously. If, for instance, The CW had dropped all of Arrow season 4 on our laps, would I have criticized the stupid grave storytelling device (I really hate that stupid grave) and how there aren’t any consequences for Team Arrow’s actions? Maybe, but probably not, because I would have been too focused on speeding through the episodes so I could write a review on the series as a whole, and more importantly, so I could avoid spoilers.
It’s not that I don’t want all my media dropped on my doorstep instantaneously. I am definitely too impatient for all that. If given the choice between having my media all at once or waiting for weeks through arbitrary network breaks, I will always alwaysalways choose the former. My problem comes from the fact that if we’re given the media all at once, it seems we’re less critical of the media we consume, we’re less passionate about its arrival and thus it’s ongoing status. We consume, we give it 15 minutes, and then we move on. And that’s a depressing thought to me that there might not be a time where we’re all eagerly speculating what happens in the season finale of a beloved TV show. If we aren’t even enjoying the media we consume and instead speed through it to get the gist, avoid spoilers, tweet, and move on, what’s even the point of watching at all?
THE MAGICIANS -- "Homecoming" Episode 110 -- Pictured: Arjun Gupta as Penny -- (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
The Magicians
Season 1, Episode 10: “Homecoming”
Air Date: March 21, 2016
When we last left Brakebills, Penny had vanished after touching the magical button they had found at Christopher Plover’s home in England. In tonight’s episode we discovered that he had gone into the Neitherlands, a sort of stopover between the worlds.
The traveler meets a native named Eve who explains that each fountain leads to a different dimension. She casually asks him which one he came from and he says Earth. Eve then inquires if he’s got any fancy magical items, since she’s seen them all, capes, rings, and even some dude in a sleigh being pulled by reindeers. Penny’s mind is blown when he realizes that she’s talking about Santa Clause and admits that he doesn’t have anything crazy like that, just a button. Eve is creepily insistent on seeing the button and that raises a red flag in his mind. Still, he slowly takes it from his pocket to show her when she makes a grab for his hand. Her expression instantly changes into a hostile one and her fellow goons appear. Eve quickly throws a fireball at him but he luckily vanishes to a different place before getting burned. Unfortunately Penny realizes that he’s in trouble upon seeing hundreds of fountains in the Neitherlands without any idea how to get back to his.
THE MAGICIANS — “Homecoming” Episode 110 — Pictured: (l-r) Hale Appleman as Eliot, Summer Bishil as Margo, Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice, Jason Ralph as Quentin — (Photo by: Jeff Weddell/Syfy)
In desperation, he astral projects into Quentin’s dream where we find Alice dressed as Daenerys Targaryen and Julia is wearing Princess Leia’s gold bikini (they make out). Penny of course has lots to say about Q’s fantasy but also admits that he needs help. Unfortunately the other magician doesn’t really know anything about the Neitherlands because it wasn’t in the Fillory books. Q asks him why he can’t just travel back but it seems that Penny can’t aim properly yet and could end up dead trying. Help him Quentin, you’re his only hope!
Q consults Margo and Eliot to see if they’ve heard anything about the Neitherlands but it’s Alice who has the answer to their problems. She admits that she may have a way to ask another a traveler about this place. Throughout the whole scene Eliot though is super high as he self medicates to deal with the continued pain of losing Mike so horribly.
“Are my eyes open or closed right now?” Eliot asks them.
The lovebirds head to Alice’s contact who turn out to be her eccentric parents. When they arrive outside of her childhood home in suburban Chicago, she is clearly agitated and tells him to let her do the talking. We soon find out though because her mom and dad are highly selfish and self-centered beings with little regard for her. They are having a Roman style orgy when Q and Alice enter the house. They quickly meet Mr. Quinn who is currently obsessed with historical magic. Alice goes to find her mom who is taking a bath and they have an extremely unpleasant conversation. She can’t understand why her mother doesn’t want to find out what happened to her brother Charlie, while Stephanie thinks her daughter is being extremely rude and insolent that she can’t be allowed to grieve in her own way. This explains why Alice ran away to Brakebills in the first place. Her mother ends the conversation and refuses to say anything else.
THE MAGICIANS — “Homecoming” Episode 110 — Pictured: (l-r) Arjun Gupta as Penny, Katie Findlay as Eve — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
In Alice’s room, Quentin finally gets how crazy her parents are and is amazed that she’s the awesome person she is after living in this environment. She explains that her mother was having an affair with a traveler that nearly ended her parent’s marriage. Her father had threatened to kill himself if she continued it and so the subject had become a touchy with Stephanie. Alice manages to swallow her pride and apologize to her mom in order to ask her about her boyfriend. Stephanie says that it’s actually not a big deal and that now Joe (the traveler from another world) is a regular partner for both herself and her husband. Joe’s body parts can morph fyi.
Penny in the meantime falls into one of the libraries of the Neitherlands and meets a member of The Order. They are the keepers of the greatest repository of knowledge. Weirdly enough she seems to knows him because she calls Penny by his real name (William) and says that he asks the same questions every time. Has Penny been here before? But when? We already know that time doesn’t work the same way there (where six hours in the Neitherlands is six weeks in Earth) but maybe it is even more complicated. This mysterious woman leads him to a section of books with the squads’ stories and makes photocopies from Martin Chatwin’s volume. She tells him that each individual’s entire life is recorded in a book in their collection, but that he shouldn’t look at his own because people hardly ever like how their own stories end. He also finds out that Eve and her cohorts had once been custodial staff that worked for The Order but became unhappy with the arrangement and now were employed by The Beast. He gets ejected from the library moments later.
Back in Earth, Alice and Q find out from Joe that the only way to get their friend back was to perform a ritual that would essentially shine a light on the right fountain in the Neitherlands allowing Penny to find it. The catch? It’s a sex spell and both performers will have to climax at the same time for it to work. Poor Q finds out that Alice hasn’t necessarily had her orgasms as frequently as he’s thought. The two go through their insecurities as a new couple still figuring each other out, though eventually manage to succeed in their mission to rescue Penny. Sex spell completed.
THE MAGICIANS — “Homecoming” Episode 110 — Pictured: (l-r) Summer Bishil as Margo, Hale Appleman as Eliot — (Photo by: Jeff Weddell/Syfy)
Another couple that has experienced trouble in their relationship this episode are bffs Margo and Eliot. Turns out Margo had participated in an unprotected ritual in Ibiza with her ex boyfriend and he had begun sucking her life force to put it inside a golem (golems in Jewish mysticism are beings created from inanimate matter). Instead of supporting her as a friend, Eliot does cocaine lines with the Margolem. Pissed off, the real Margo tells him to go home and that she’ll deal with the situation herself. The rift between these two makes me sad. Eliot realizes though that he hadn’t really been a good friend and buys her favorite sweets as peace offering. Except hilariously he gives it to the golem who kisses him.
Meanwhile, Julia joins Richard’s support group, Free Trader Beowulf, and meets other magicians who all seem to be in the outskirts of magical society. Amazingly enough, Kady turns out to be one of the members and she and Jules come face to face after Richard calls a meeting for a new project he’s working on. The two women must master twelve spells to level up before they can join the rest of the group. Kady is forced to explain that she had to leave Brakebills because they had found out that she had been working for Marina. They have a heart to heart and Julia says that she feels awful about what happened to Hannah but the older woman said she loved her daughter. After they finally complete their task, they demand to know what Richard and the others are working on. He agrees to let them in on the project and explains that they are experimenting with time magic, which had actually worked as Julia and Kady both experienced déjà vu. He confesses that he had been a drug addict and had killed his own kid by locking him inside their car while he was high. Both women are shocked because this type of magic was supposed to be impossible since it required massive amounts of energy to perform it. Richard counters and says that there is away to tap into an unlimited source of energy and that they were working to summon a god for that.
How far past the magical no no line will they be crossing? It’s also nice to see that both Kady and Julia seem to be trying to get past their history since they are both on the fringes of the magic world now. That this group is about giving people second chances is great but do they really know what they’re doing? We’ll see how this all plays out.
THE MAGICIANS — “Homecoming” Episode 110 — Pictured: (l-r) Stella Maeve as Julia, Mackenzie Astin as Richard — (Photo by: Jeff Weddell/Syfy)
While the last two episodes have been really dark, this week’s tone had changed to exploring the varying relationships between the different main characters. Alice and Q as a new couple are still learning to open up and trust each other. Eliot and Margo have to learn to work on friendship during hard times and not just when things were fun and inconsequential. Kady and Julia are beginning to accept their circumstances and finding that they may just be able to work together.
Enjoy the down time guys, I’m sure it’s not going to last long.
Later this month, two of America’s most iconic comic book characters come face to face on the big screen for the very first time in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And while we don’t know exactly what makes these two classic heroes come to blows, we know we’re in for a little rockem’, sockem’ goodness when the Dark Knight Detective tries to hold his own against the Last Son of Krypton.
But before this proverbial battle of the titans commences it’s important to look back at the foes each of them has vanquished in previous big screen adaptations. Not counting the respective film serials that both characters featured in during the 1940s, Batman has appeared in 8 live action feature films with Superman close behind with 6. Some of these films featured multiple villains (not including henchmen) for our heroes to handle, so the question remains: which of these baddies is the ultimate antagonist before Batman and Superman tussle with each other?
Let’s count it down!
22. Ross Webster
Played by: Robert Vaughn
Appeared In:Superman III (1983)
Evil Plot: Use the world’s greatest supercomputer to control the world economy and rake in all the money.
Iconic Line: “I ask you to kill Superman, and you’re telling me you couldn’t even do that one, simple thing.”
Let’s get one things straight: Ross Webster is merely a substitute for Lex Luthor when they couldn’t get Gene Hackman to sign on the dotted line for this film. Sure, his epic computer can launch missiles and shoot Kryptonite lasers to keep Superman at bay, but there’s no substitute for the real thing when it comes to enigmatic billionaires seeking world domination.
21. Nuclear Man
Played by: Mark Pillow
Appeared In:Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Evil Plot: To kill Superman.
Iconic Line: “Destroy Superman.”
In all honesty, every single thing about Superman IV is a disaster and by all accounts Nuclear Man in all of his shitty glory should have been at the very bottom of this list, but he gets points for not just being another billionaire who wants to take over the world. Instead, he’s simply created by a billionaire who wants to take over the world. It’s truly a fine distinction. Plus, he’s got some wicked nails that can give Superman the flu when scratched by them. Vicious indeed
20. Mr. Freeze
Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Appeared In:Batman & Robin (1997)
Evil Plot: To freeze a bunch of shit and steal diamonds to freeze more shit to steal money to use to cure his frozen wife’s illness.
Iconic Line: “You’re not sending me to the cooler!”
It’s tempting to blame The Governator for how terrible this character came across in this equally terrible movie, but in reality not even Meryl Streep could have done that godawful screenplay justice. With immortal lines like, “Let’s kick some ice!” it’s impossible to take this villain seriously and the less we talk about it the better.
19. Two-Face
Played by: Tommy Lee Jones
Appeared In:Batman Forever (1995)
Evil Plot: Good old fashioned revenge on Batman.
Iconic Line: “You could say we’re of two minds on the subject.”
Tommy Lee Jones is a genius when it comes to acting but something went very, very wrong here. Perhaps Director Joel Schumacher lead him astray or maybe he thought anything was fine when it comes to a comic book movie, but no matter which way you slice it, Jones is so painfully over-the-top here that its hard to watch. And even if the performance wasn’t a factor it’s hard to imagine anyone being intimidated by a villain with a half neon pink face.
18. Poison Ivy
Played by: Uma Thurman
Appeared In:Batman & Robin (1997)
Evil Plot: To overrun the Earth with mutated plants and share that hellscape Earth with Mr. Freeze because humans are too mean to plants. Duh.
Iconic Line: “Men, the most absurd of God’s creatures. We give you life… and we can take it away just as easily.”
Like Mr. Freeze, this big screen debut of the Poison Ivy character was destined for failure due to one of the worst screenplays of all time. Uma Thurman vamps it up to the best of her ability though and there’s something stupidly endearing about it, but when it comes to being a worthwhile villain to Batman, she isn’t nearly up to snuff.
17. Gus Gorman
Played by: Richard Pryor
Appeared In:Superman III (1983)
Evil Plot: Help Ross Webster build a supercomputer that will make him rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Iconic Line: “I don’t want to go to jail because there are robbers and rapers and rapers who rape robbers.”
So obviously the villains from the later Christopher Reeves’ Superman films are terrible but what gives Gus Gorman a slight edge is: 1. He’s played by Richard Fucking Pryor! and 2. He creates a synthetic Kryptonite that turns the Man of Steel evil and prompts the most bizarre fight in a Superman movie ever – Superman vs. Himself!
16. Lex Luthor
Played By: Kevin Spacey
Appeared In:Superman Returns (2006)
Evil Plot: Use Kryptonian crystals to build a new continent on Earth AKA the ultimate real estate deal.
Iconic Line: “Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes and don’t share their power with mankind. No, I don’t want to be a god. I just want to bring fire to the people. And… I want my cut.”
The Superman Returns iteration of the Lex Luthor character is clearly meant to be a loving homage to Gene Hackman’s classic portrayal of Superman’s arch nemesis, but it all comes across a little too hammy to be truly menacing. Although if more villains had Parker Posey as their Girl Friday I’d be more inclined to give them a boost on this list.
15. The Riddler
Played By: Jim Carrey
Appeared in:Batman Forever (1995)
Evil Plot: Take revenge on Bruce Wayne for firing him and stealing the knowledge of everyone in Gotham City. No big deal.
Iconic Line: “Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of the big, black bat?”
As evidenced by this list, the villains of the Joel Schumacher-directed Batman films didn’t exactly get it right but the one who almost works is Jim Carrey’s interpretation of The Riddler. Both brilliant and deranged, this character has some serious potential as a foe to Batman and this particular screenplay gave us a nice taste of that but ultimately the overdose of comedy tossed in dilutes the threat and makes the character closer to camp than a truly formidable villain.
14. Talia Al Ghul
Played By: Marion Cotillard
Appeared In:The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Evil Plot: Complete her father’s work by destroying Gotham City.
Iconic Line: “You see, it’s the slow knife… the knife that takes its time, the knife that waits years without forgetting, then slips quietly between the bones… that’s the knife that cuts deepest.”
The films of Christopher Nolan’s epic Dark Knight Trilogy are absolutely jam-packed with villains of every variety and they each carry with them a gravitas not seen in the previous Batman films. And while Marion Cotillard is one of my favorite actresses working today, her character of Talia Al Ghul comes in a little too late in the picture to be truly memorable.
13. Scarecrow
Played By: Cillian Murphy
Appeared In:Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Evil Plot: Creating fear in victims to reign supreme in Gotham’s underworld.
Iconic Line: “Would you like to see my mask?”
Although Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow never really gets to take center stage as the main villain in any of the films in The Dark Knight Trilogy, that doesn’t mean he didn’t make an impact. That horrific mask and the things he can do with that gas of his are the stuff of nightmares, but at the end of the day we can’t forget that in Batman Begins he is ultimately defeated by Katie Holmes with a taser. Not exactly the stuff of legend.
12. Ra’s Al Ghul
Played By: Liam Neeson
Appeared In:Batman Begins (2005)
Evil Plot: Destroy Gotham City so that it can start from scratch to be less corrupt and terrible.
Iconic Line: “Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself.”
Oh, Christopher Nolan got our asses good on this one. Batman Begins was promoted with the notion of Ra’s Al Ghul being played by Ken Watanabe who is killed early on in the film when Bruce Wayne completes his training with the League of Shadows. But imagine our surprise when we learn that Bruce’s mentor (the guy who basically teaches him everything he knows) is the real Ra’s Al Ghul! Liam Neeson turns on the evil real nice once he finally gets the chance but as with his daughter, the third act reveal doesn’t give us a ton of quality time with him, which is a shame.
11. General Zod
Played By: Michael Shannon
Appeared In:Man of Steel (2013)
Evil Plot: Remake Earth into a New Krypton.
Iconic Line: “I WILL FIND HIM!!”
While Michael Shannon’s Zod can’t really compete with the character’s first depiction on the big screen, he gets the chance to unleash the biggest can of whupass that we’ve ever seen in a superhero movie. Some people were repelled by the insane level of destruction and mayhem caused by Zod’s battle with Superman, but my inner child relished every single second of it. And who better to play a hot tempered zealot than Michael Shannon who absolutely nails the part?
10. The Villains of Batman: The Movie!
Played By: Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, and Lee Meriwether
Appeared In:Batman: The Movie (1966)
Evil Plot: Hold dehydrated members of the United Nations Security Council ransom for boatloads of money.
Iconic Line: “How was I to know they’d have a can of shark-repellent Batspray handy?” – The Penguin
Ok so I’m cheating a little bit by clumping this four together into one but honestly – how can someone compare them against each other? It’s hard enough comparing them with everyone else on this list! This film version of the popular 60s television series certainly isn’t as serious as the Batman/Superman films that followed it but these colorful renditions of the characters are iconic and rightfully kick off the Top Ten of this list.
9. Catwoman
Played By: Anne Hathaway
Appeared In:The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Evil Plot: Honestly, she’s just living her life.
Iconic Line: “There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you’re all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us”
I’m not gonna lie, I debated with myself long and hard about whether or not to even include Anne Hathaway’s rendition of Catwoman/Selina Kyle on this list. Is she really a villain? I mean sure, she steals a lot of shit and runs with some shady characters but in the end she ends up fighting alongside Batman against Bane and Talia Al Ghul! So even though she’s not a tried and true villain to the core, when she is “bad” she’s a delight to watch.
8. Bane
Played By: Tom Hardy
Appeared In:The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Evil Plot: Help Talia complete her father’s work of destroying Gotham City.
Iconic Line: “We will destroy Gotham and then, when it is done and Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die.”
We may not be able to understand 90% of what he says but Tom Hardy’s Bane is a terrifying antagonist for Batman. Built like a brick house and showing no signs of remorse for anything, we actually believe at times that this will be the guy who finally defeats Batman. And actually he does so by breaking Batman’s back and resigning him to months of torture and pain in a pit somewhere in Asia. Not too shabby for a lesser known bad guy.
7. The Penguin
Played By: Danny DeVito
Appeared In:Batman Returns (1992)
Evil Plot: Rule over Gotham by running for Mayor and then when that fails – destroy the city with rocket launching penguins.
Iconic Line: “You don’t really think you’ll win, do you?”
Danny DeVito’s portrayal of The Penguin is pure Tim Burton and a glowing example of the uniqueness that he brought to the series. Grotesque, witty, and at times sympathetic, The Penguin is a sort of miracle of oddity at a time when superhero movies were pretty straight-laced.
6. Two-Face
Played By: Aaron Eckhart
Appeared In:The Dark Knight (2008)
Evil Plot: Taking justice into his own hands and seeking revenge on Batman and Gordon.
Iconic Line: “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
When it comes to dramatic falls from grace the story of Harvey Dent is practically Shakespearean. Sworn to defend justice no matter what and then pushed to darkness by the very man responsible for killing his fiance, Dent is a fully fleshed out and fascinating character in the hands of Christopher Nolan. If anything, it’s just a shame we didn’t get to see more of him.
5. Lex Luthor
Played By: Gene Hackman
Appeared In:Superman (1978), Superman II (1980), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Evil Plot: World dominating real estate schemes.
Iconic Line: “There’s a strong streak of good in you, Superman. But then nobody’s perfect… almost nobody.”
Gene Hackman is an acting legend and his portrayal of Superman’s arch rival is memorable for it’s incredible wit and ambitious schemes. Many consider this to be the definitive depiction of Luthor but I actually tend to prefer Michael Rosenbaum’s version on TV’s Smallville. That being said though, I can’t resist cracking a smile anytime Hackman’s Luthor appears on screen in these flicks.
4. General Zod
Played By: Terrence Stamp
Appeared In:Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980)
Evil Plot: Conquer the world with brute strength.
Iconic Line: “Kneel before Zod!”
The Christopher Reeve Superman films aren’t really known for having physically formidable enemies for Supes to grapple with, but the one great exception to that is of course, the definitive General Zod played by Terrence Stamp. This guy doesn’t suffer fools and oozes with evil in every single thing he does. In all of the people on this list there is almost no one that I would fear more.
3. Catwoman
Played By: Michelle Pfeiffer
Appeared In:Batman Returns (1992)
Evil Plot: Aid The Penguin in framing Batman as a bad guy.
Iconic Line: “Meow.”
Has a sexier character than Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman ever existed? No. The answer is definitely no. From the costume to the attitude and her skills with a whip she is an absolutely perfect foil to Batman who I wish had gotten a chance to appear in one of the sequels if not her own spinoff.
2. The Joker
Played By: Jack Nicholson
Appeared In:Batman (1989)
Evil Plot: A good old fashioned crime spree while conquering the Gotham mob world.
Iconic Line: “Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
Jack Nicholson is a national treasure and the pairing of him and the role of The Joker is easily one of most perfect casting coups of all time. His portrayal is charming, funny, scary, and perfect. I mean hell, this is the guy who killed Batman’s parents – how could he not be one of the best? In fact, I never thought we’d see a better villain for Batman on movie screens until another Joker came along…
1. The Joker
Played By: Heath Ledger
Appeared In:The Dark Knight (2008)
Evil Plot: Causing pure chaos.
Iconic Line: “Why so serious?”
A lot of characters on this list are iconic but Ledger’s version of The Joker is something even more than that. It has transcended to a place of such prominence in our popular culture that he now exists as something more than just the character on the screen. And although Ledger tragically passed before the full impact of his portrayal could be felt, the memory of that performance will exist as long as movies exist.
And now that this is out of the way let’s see how Batman and Superman do against each other? Oh and don’t forget a new Lex Luthor and Doomsday on top of that!
SHADOW HUNTERS - "This World Inverted" - Clary finds herself is a strange reality in “This World Inverted,” an all-new episode of “Shadowhunters,” airing TUESDAY, MARCH 15 (9:00 – 10:00 p.m., EST) on Freeform, the new name for ABC Family. (Freeform/John Medland)
MAXIM ROY, ALAN VAN SPRANG
This week’s episode of Shadowhunters was all about inter-dimensional travel as Clary and Jace head to an alternate world to find a portal that will lead them to Valentine.
Meliorn grants the budding Shadowhunter a favor for rescuing him by explaining that her portal shard necklace had actually come from another timeline. The seelie takes Clace to a remote location (that only his people know as they serve as their guardians) where Clary can enter another dimension to find the portal. This other world is different though as the Shadowhunters had won the war against demons many centuries ago and their culture faded as there was no longer a need for them. Downworlders in the meantime fully assimilated with the mundanes to remain anonymous.
It was a lot of fun to see the characters have different lives but still have their core personalities intact.
The Morgensterns
In this world, Valentine never went crazy. He is still married to Jocelyn and is very much an important figure in Clary’s life. He appears to be the head of the New York Institute and works closely with Isabelle where they’ve developed a super high-speed internet service. He ends up throwing a Mad Hatter party at the Institute, which is a nice nod to how in the main timeline he’s pretty nuts. Also it is so good to see Jocelyn again!
Hodge and Luke
We briefly see Hodge and Luke via a commercial advertising Magnus Bane’s psychic readings on television while the Morgensterns are having breakfast. Hodge has become the owner of a dojo, while Luke had given up being a police officer and opened his own bookstore. In The Mortal Instruments book series, the werewolf had been a bookseller.
Magnus
Clary quickly realizes that she needs Magnus’ help to find the portal in the alternate dimension. When she eventually locates him, he dresses quite conservatively in comparison to the flamboyant warlock that she knew. He confesses that his powers have gone dormant after not using them for so long. Still, he promises to help her and even takes a potion that is supposed to jumpstart his abilities. When he finally makes it to the Institute, he is true to his word and helps Clary and real Jace (who had followed her into the alternate dimension after he and Meliorn were attacked in the forest by a demon) find the portal. He activates it and sends them through before closing it forever to protect his world.
Alec
We first see Alec in this episode hanging out with Izzy and Simon outside Java Jace (you read that right!). The elder Lightwood sibling has been planning the anniversary party at the Institute and is the one who allows Magnus to come in even though he’s not on the guest list. Their personalities are somewhat reversed in this world where Alec is doing the chasing and I love it.
Simon and Izzy
Sizzy is full on in this reality but Izzy is the lovable dork (love the Star Wars shirt) while Simon is the cool dude in a band. What’s also nice is that she’s still incredibly smart but her demeanor is completely different from the Isabelle we know. This version is a little awkward with a crush on Valentine but still with a heart of gold. Meanwhile Simon is still BFF’s with Clary but clearly has an aversion for blood. He’s wearing trendier clothes and ends up asking Izzy to move in with him. Awww!!!
Jace
Alternate Jace runs the coffee truck and is still head over heels for Clary. But when a demon shows up he freaks out and she’s the one who has to defend him, which was so adorable. Never having any Shadowhunter training, Clary tries to comfort the trembling Jace who has never seen a demonic creature before. Also, he was super nervous meeting Valentine, I mean Mr. Morgenstern for the first time.
This was a peek at what Clary’s life could have been like had certain events turned out differently. Still, she’s grown so much already from the girl who new nothing about the shadow world to one that fought a demon as soon as she saw it. With Alec and Jace’s weakened parabatai bond, Izzy being charged with treason, and Clace finding Michael Wayland at Valentine’s hideout, next week is going to be a charged episode.
You can catch Shadowhunters on Freeform Tuesdays 9/8 Central.
THE MAGICIANS -- "The Writing Room" Episode 109 -- Pictured: (l-r) Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice, Hale Appleman as Eliot, Sibyl Gregory as Beatrix -- (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
The Magicians
Season 1, Episode 9: “The Writing Room”
Air Date: March 14, 2016
In this week’s crazy episode of The Magicians, we discover that renowned Fillory author Christopher Plover isn’t the lovable grandpa Quentin thought he was. We also discover Jane and Martin Chatwin’s backstory that shows us an even darker side of magic.
After the insane events from last week, Quentin (Jason Ralph) and Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) use a locator spell to find Fillory and Further book six and it leads them to Penny (Arjun Gupta). Confronted, the traveller finally admits that he did take Q’s book, read it and then threw it in the trash because he got bored. Furious that Eliza/Jane (Esme Bianco) had given him the answers and it had slipped through his fingers, he begins to badger Penny into remembering what the book had contained. In annoyance, the other magician finally says that Christopher Plover (Charles Shaughnessy) hadn’t written the last book. The author had been actually Jane Chatwin who wanted to tell what really took place. Penny also remembers that Jane (young Jane is played by Rose Liston) had managed to catch some mythical talking creature (that changed from dog to pig to ferret?) that would grant her any wish. She wanted a key into Fillory so that Martin (Nicholas Croucher) could go back any time he wanted, which it provided in the form of a magic button.
Since they now believed that Fillory was a real place, Q theorized that the button could still be in Plover’s house because book five ended with Martin never finding it. He thinks that Penny and him should go check it out but Alice decides that she wants to come along too. Eliot comes as well as he desperately needs a distraction after his tragic ending with Mike/The Beast last week. Penny travels to England instantaneously while Alice, Q, and Eliot go via a portal to Eliot and Margo’s favorite British pub. They all end up on a tour of Plover’s abode where Quentin geeks out hardcore (we’re talking excited selfies level).
THE MAGICIANS — “The Writing Room” Episode 109 — Pictured: (l-r) Arjun Gupta as Penny, Jason Ralph as Quentin — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
The four return to the house in the evening after it’s closed down to hunt for the button. They discover that the ghosts of Plover’s sister Prudence and the children she murdered were haunting the house. Alice and Eliot are first brought into the young girl’s bedroom where Prudence kills her via a poisoned cup of tea while the two magicians are tied up during the entire encounter. Meanwhile Q and Penny are following the boy and end up being separated. Prudence takes the traveller to the Quiet Room (aka her torture chamber) while Q finds himself spying on Martin Chatwin and Christopher Plover (Charles Shaughnessy). Penny had explained that they were in some kind of ghostly memory of the house where they were reliving the children’ horrific deaths.
Quentin discovers that his childhood hero was in fact a pedophile who was drugging Jane while he took sexually indecent pictures of Martin. I could not get the thought out of my head that Maxwell Sheffield (Shaughnessy played him on the 90’s sitcom The Nanny) became a dirty old man, childhood ruined. Plover had also began trying to do magic in order to find a way into Fillory so that he and Martin could “be together.” Eewww. Q also sees the Chatwin siblings give the housekeeper’s son the magic button to hide and then shortly after is killed by Prudence and buried in the Quiet Room.
The group heads to the cellar to look for the button but is stopped by Prudence. Ever so resourceful, Quentin baits the ghost by showing her a scandalous image of Plover and adds that he planted copies of these all over the house for the tourists to find. It distracts her while they try to find the young boy’s body. Thankfully they manage to find the button, but before they leave Alice is insistent that they go back and help the children whose souls are trapped in the house. Still dealing with his broken heart, an angry Eliot snaps at Alice that life was unfair so why would death be any different? Q tells him to STFU and tries to placate his ladylove and get her to realize there isn’t anything they could do for the kids. Apparently there were spells that could prevent these murderous groundhog days from happening yet they couldn’t release them from it. Bummer.
THE MAGICIANS — “The Writing Room” Episode 109 — Pictured: (l-r) Stella Maeve as Julia, Yaani King as Kiera — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
Back at Brakebills, Penny touches the button and vanishes.
Julia in the meantime has had a much different, but still difficult episode as she goes with Richard to visit a friend of his who is completely catatonic. He tells her that she can use magic for good and through the inception spell she enters Kiera’s mind. Inside, she is first put through a test and is trapped within a box. Once she frees herself, Julia is in a park where Kiera is waiting for her. The other woman explains that she’s been working on a spell that she first started while her body was still functioning. When it failed, she finished it in this created place. Julia’s task was to write and remember everything so that she could take it back to Richard. Through Kiera she also discovers that you don’t have to go to Brakebills to do good magic (Kiera went to MIT). She then tells Julia that she wants to die and so Richard injects her with a drug so that she can pass on peacefully.
This week’s episode shows audiences yet another dark side of magic as Quentin had to confront the reality that his childhood idol was an evil man that drugged and sexually abused children as he used them and magic to get into Fillory. On the flipside, Julia’s experience shows us that there are still good people out there who use magic in a positive light (as far as we know at least, watch Kiera’s spell be something horrific). Still, as our magicians get ever so closer to Fillory, the world as they know will certainly get even more disturbing. In fact I’m counting on it.
While the pilot started a little slow, The Magicians has definitely found it’s rhythm of dark humor in an un-fairytale like magical world. This book to TV adaptation is working and it’s working well. The writing continues to be good as we are taken further down the rabbit hole and the cast brings depth to their roles that makes their characters feel like real people.
Final thoughts: where are the rest of my ladies at? I need more Kady, Margo and Marina please.
This article contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 9 of ‘The Magicians’- “The Writing Room”
Quentin’s childhood shattered before his eyes on Monday night’s episode of The Magicians.
After last week’s run-in with the Beast, Quentin with the help of Alice tracks down his copy of Fillory and Further: Book 6 or in this case, what’s left of it – Penny’s recollection. Penny reveals that he took the transcript of the book and tossed it after he finished reading it because he spilled beer on some of the pages.
When Quentin questions Penny about the book, it’s revealed that Jane Chatwin, the heroine of the Fillory books, was able to procure a button for her brother Martin that would allow him to travel to Fillory, because the Fillory gods Umber and Amber kept leaving him behind on Earth.
Believing the button must be at Christopher Plover’s estate in England, where Chatwin children stayed while Plover wrote the books of their adventures, Quentin, Alice, Penny, along with an emotionally distraught Eliot, take a trip across the pond.
The group breaks into Plover’s estate at night only to find the horrors of the haunted house go much deeper than the hauntings that repeated the endless traumas that occurred within its walls. Quentin witnesses first hand that his childhood hero, Christopher Plover, molested a young Martin Chatwin during his stay at the Plover estate.
The Workprint caught up with showrunner Sera Gamble to discuss the major revelation, what it means for Quentin moving forward, and other lingering questions from the first season.
Last week we saw the Beast use Mike to get around Brakebills. Can the same be said for Jane? Is Jane Chatwin really dead?
Yes, that is really Jane Chatwin and we really did kill her in the episode.
Who or what was the younger version Quentin encountered in the premiere?
When we first start to get to know Jane, we get to know the Jane of the Fillory and Further books played by Rose Liston. This is sort of the heroine of the books and she’s the character that has existed on the page for generations of readers. She has been very alive in Quentin’s mind because he’s such a fan of the books. This is the sort of form she takes when Quentin starts to contact Fillory.
What was the discussion in the writer’s room like on approaching this episode?
We knew we were building to the reveal of the relationship between Christopher Plover and the Chatwin children, especially Martin, in this episode from the very beginning. It is something that is mentioned in the novels. A bunch of plot doesn’t technically turn on that revelation, but it is something that really leaps off the page when you’re reading the books. It struck me that it was incredibly useful in terms of insight into The Beast. It also reigned true in a really uncomfortable way. Anyone who has loved children’s books has had that moment when you hear an author might not have been behaving so well in real life.
This is something that was really interested to me about the books and it was part of the reason that John [McNamara] and I wanted to do the show. Uncomfortably rooted in psychological truth. We talked about that in the writer’s room the first week of working on the season. It was something we knew we would have to work our way towards.
What does the reveal of Plover being a pedophile mean for Quentin and the others? Many of their worlds were shaped by Fillory and Further.
It sort of mirrors adulthood where some of the things you held dear when you were a child, you don’t get to carry them into adulthood. That’s one of the themes certainly this season on the show. This is the most pointed example of that.
Is the reason Umber and Amber keep leaving Martin Chatwin behind due to the trauma Plover put him through?
That is the horrible thing that Martin is contemplating. If he used to be accepted by Fillory and by Umber and Amber and now he isn’t, that is a reasonable conclusion for him to draw. It is a horrific conclusion. It’s awful that a child would be going through something like that and would go on to conclude that it had polluted them and made them less worthy. But that again, following the thread of the metaphor felt like it rang completely psychologically true to us that Martin would take it personally and feel like it was in some horrible way his fault that he “wasn’t good enough for Fillory anymore.”
Prudence is a character that wasn’t in the books. Why was Prudence willing to go so far to cover-up Plover actions, even after death?
She’s not in the books. We invented her in order to tell the story. We basically were like, “How are we going to tell Quentin and everyone about what really happened with Christopher Plover and Martin?” We landed on the idea that we would go to Plover’s estate. It dovetailed nicely with the search for the button and once we were there it was like, “Okay, this house needs to be a haunted house. It’s a haunted house episode.”
Haunted house episodes need some ghosts and you know they are the horror show mirror of Jane and Martin. There’s a strong thread of telling stories about siblings and talking about the relationship between Jane and Martin and what was good and unfortunate about it. The fact that Jane was a little bit in the dark as a child about what was going with her brother.
Conversations like that just sort of evolving in the writer’s room in the morning with coffee or in the evening with a cocktail. We ended up getting to a point where we sort of talking about what would be the really twisted, horrific adult version of a relationship like that. What would be one where the one sibling was protecting the other to a truly horrifying and evil extent.
It really is the difference between who we all were as children when we were reading these book and we thought of magic and far away lands as a perfect fantasy world that were only good, wonderful, and fantastic. And now Quentin is in a position where he has to wrap his head around an adult, real life version of understanding what Fillory is. There is no such thing as a place that is only good where you can truly escape. You can’t really escape the stuff inside you and the most monstrous stuff on the show that you see is the stuff that human beings do to one another.
From here Quentin has to kind of figure out what Fillory is really. The childish illusions have been left behind forcibly and now he has to figure out what is magic and what is Fillory really.
It appears Plover was trying to find a way into Fillory in order to escape this world and be with Martin. Was there more to Plover looking into getting to Fillory?
In Plover’s mind the main problem with his interactions with Martin is that people don’t understand. I don’t know that he considers himself to be a terrible person so much as someone in a very particular situation, one that could be solved by going somewhere where no one could judge them, which is the single most horrifying thing he could be saying to Martin who is holding out hope that there is this one place that he can escape to and be safe. Now there is this man who is encroaching, leaving him no place to hide.
What brought about Julia’s journey into entering Keira’s mind?
We’re interested in moving Julia to the next place. For a long time this season she has been very angry that she was not able to go to Brakebills and that a formal magic education was denied to her. In her mind it was really unfair. She can’t wrap her mind around it.
One of the important things we wanted to do was start to introduce her to people who have found another way. Richard is a really interesting magician who is doing progressive interesting things with his magic, but he was trained at Brakebills. Kiera, who [Julia] meets in this episode, is an incredibly powerful, quite brilliant magician who is completely self-educated to give Julia in essence a role model. Someone who can show her that she could really get beyond Brakebills, that there is surely more than one way to become and expert in your field.
We all know its true. College is awesome. It certainly makes it easier to get a hold of the nuances of what you want to study, but there are brilliant people all over the world that figured it out on their own. That seemed key to us in bringing Julia to kind of the next place in her development. It was to give her the opportunity to start to let go of the idea that she will never be a master magician because she didn’t get into Brakebills.
The importance of it wasn’t the spell that she as working on with Keira, but moving past needing Brakebills in her life?
The spell is important too because in essence they are using a version of the spell she used to get into Quentin’s mind in episode four. It’s a direct mirror to one of the worst things she did as a hedgewitch. It’s right up there with standing by and not being able to save Hannah being the other heinous thing hanging over her head. She is genuinely very remorseful for what she did to Quentin and she says so in her way. Richard is offering her and opportunity to use the same spells she used for morally questionable reasons to do some good.
Has Julia found her redemption in helping Kiera die or is her road to self-forgiveness still laid out in front of her?
Julia will be circling this stuff in many ways as she gains experience and moves to new heights as a magician. This is a new door for her to walk through and its one where she will get to meet the types of magicians that hang out with Richard. People who have much higher aims than the hedge witches who were hanging out with Marina and Pete. These are people who are more ambitious, who are better magicians frankly, and whose aims are more mature and genuinely altruistic. That’s sort of like a new world and a really exciting one for Julia. One that challenges her in a good way.
Eliot has taken big emotional hit with last week’s revelation that the Beast was controlling Mike. He lashes out at Alice and the others at the end of tonight’s episode. How will this affect his relationships with the others?
It’s key with what is going on with him and something that we continue to explore in the next several episodes. The fact that Margo was out-of-town when this happened is another thing that is weighing on him that you’ll see in upcoming episodes. It’s a bit of a perfect storm for their relationship that they have been fighting, that she left, and this unfortunate timing that this terrible thing happened to and with Eliot while she was gone. He is someone who has always coped not by sitting down and chatting about his feelings, but by partying and trying to drum up a good time for everyone. He pushes things away harder and harder and faster and faster. We’ll see how that unravels for him.
In a previous episode we learned that one’s connection with magic grows around the hardships in one’s life. With everyone suffering in their own ways, what does this mean for the group moving forward? Can we expect their magical abilities to grow?
These things work the best when they mirror true about how humans are in the real world. If you took magic out of the story, what would be true? If these were young artists, scientists, or athletes and you put them through something that forces them to grow uncomfortably and to face themselves in a new way, of course that will come out in their work. That will enable them to reach for things that they were unaware of, that was outside their experience. It’s just a metaphor that we brought down to the idea of magic. The idea that who you are as a human and the expansion of your soul directly correlates with the kind of magic you can do. They’re focused and the mission is becoming more and more important to them. They understand the menace of the Beast on a level they didn’t before.
In the first episode the Beast knew who Quentin was. With four episodes left will viewers learn about the connection between the two?
We will answer the question of why and how he knew who Quentin was in the pilot. It will all become clear. We will definitely reveal it.
The episode ends with Penny touching the button and transporting to what the viewer can assume is Fillory. Can we expect to see what happens to Penny next week?
Next week you will see exactly where the button took him. We will pick him up right after his disappearance.
I wanted to title this review with something about what an absolute master of style J.J. Abrams has become over the past twenty years. I’ve been a fan since Felicity, which is still, to date, my favorite television show (the finale is unmatched, in my mind). Fringe is the last television show that had me gripped from beginning to end. You might not be promised perfection when you sit down in front of a J.J. Abrams property, but you can be sure he’ll deliver a story full of passion, imagination, and creativity.
I planned to sit down and write that story, and in many ways, 10 Cloverfield Lane delivers on those promises and more, without encountering some common pitfalls. It’s got a little something for everyone—great character studies, intriguing world-building, scenes that smack of classic horror, and of course, science fiction.
Instead, my headline is about John Goodman because goddamn. That man is a national treasure. His performance in this only highlights what should have been clear for decades–that his talent is effortless, and extends far beyond the majority of roles he’s been given.
In 10 Cloverfield Lane, we meet Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as she’s leaving her fiancée and driving…somewhere. After being hit by another car and spinning off the road, she wakes up injured, half-naked, and chained to a bed in a bunker that makes Room look like the Plaza.
Enter Howard (John Goodman), who claims that he not only saved her life by pulling her from the wreck of her car, but that he continues to save her by keeping her with him underground. There’s been an attack, you see—alien, nuclear, chemical, he’s not sure—and the air outside is toxic. Everyone is dead. Everything is gone.
Michelle finds all of this a tad hard to believe. When she figures out she’s not the sole “guest” underground, she appeals to the other man’s good senses only to learn that he helped Howard build his shelter. Not only that, but he came of his own free will after witnessing the “attack” with his own two eyes.
It’s hard to know what do believe, who to trust, and how much of the truth is finding its way into that bunker which is exactly what the filmmakers want. 10 Cloverfield Lane is fraught with tension (assisted by a nice score) and built on the solid support that can only be provided by an idea with good legs. The performances are authentic, especially John Goodman’s, and I jumped and clapped a hand over my mouth on more than one occasion. The filmmakers pay attention to every last detail that creates a creepy, uncertain, dangerous atmosphere and it pays off in spades.
I can’t reveal more of the plot without giving you pieces that are so much more delicious to discover first hand. If you have any desire to see the movie, I would urge you to see it this weekend before spoilers are all over the Internet. There’s something so fun about discovering the truth about Howard, and falling all the way down the rabbit hole, right along with the main character.
If you’re a fan of J.J. Abrams (like me) then the ending won’t come as any great surprise but that’s not to say that it’s at all expected, either. I especially love the vague feeling that we’re not done with these characters, or this world, that feels so visceral and real.
Note: I watched Cloverfield (2008), which was also produced by J.J. Abrams, but after numerous discussions with the fella, we haven’t come to an agreement as to whether they’re connected (other than the name). I kind of feel like Abrams has a plan— that he’s weaving a tapestry, if you will—and “Cloverfield” is his own secret project name. If so, I can’t wait until he’s added enough threads for all of us to see the big picture.
I suppose only time will tell. And maybe that’s the best part.
What’s up, guys and gals! Welcome to the Workprint Gamescast!
Listen to Rob, Jen, Bilal, and the gang talk about the latest in video games news, what they’re playing, and all other manner of nerdy habits.
THIS WEEK ON THE PODCAST: Rob is back from the brink of death! He’s joined by Jen and Bilal as they recount recent feelings of buyer’s remorse when it comes to video games. Also… the usual stuff!
Other things covered:
TV/Movies
Fuller House, House of Cards, Zootopia, The 100
Games
The Division, Fire Emblem: Birthright, Stardew Valley, Fallout 4, Smite, Halo 5, Rocket League, Rocket League, Puzzles and Dragons Mario Edition, Persona 4 Golden
Want to watch our shenanigans live? Check out the Workprint Twitch channel. Our gamescast goes live every Wednesday at 8:30 PM EST.
Spoilers through the most recent episode of The 100, Season 3, Episode 8: “Terms and Conditions”.
If there’s one thing to be learned from watching The 100, it’s that not everyone can lead. Many of the characters think they are capable of the job and we as fans may wish such a position of power for them, but much like the real world, that isn’t the case for the majority and it only makes the situations more dire.
In the first season we’re treated to the growth of both Bellamy and Clarke as leaders, but right now in the story, neither has earned that title and nor should they based on their exploits.
In my Defense of Bellamy article I stated that Bellamy isn’t a leader. Like his sister, he’s much better suited to the soldier role. We like to view Bellamy as a leader because of the strides he’s made since season one, the respect he commands from the delinquents, and his relationship with Clarke, but at the end of the day, Bellamy is more comfortable with taking orders than giving them. When he’s backed into a wall, sure, he can dole out some leadership, but he’s like a good non-commissioned officer (NCO), and once the situation settles, he falls back into ranks.
And I mentioned in my article about Lexa that Clarke is on her way to becoming a leader, following in Lexa’s footsteps, but that she still hasn’t found her place. Lexa is the embodiment of a good leader, one willing to change and adapt for the sake of her people. Whether or not her people agree is another matter entirely but she sees herself in Clarke and helps to steer her in the right direction. Given recent events, whether Clarke stays on that course is another matter entirely.
Instead, it is Pike leading the charge for the Arkadians, and it’s turned out to be a disaster for Skaikru. Pike is not a bad person. I’ll say that again because it’s so important to drive home: Pike is not a bad person. Pike has never concealed his true intentions from Arkadia. What you see is what you get with Pike, a man who is trying to keep his people alive the only way he knows how: violence.
In fact, he’s awfully similar to someone we saw in season one: Kane. Kane recognizes Pike’s poor decision-making because Kane has made those exact decisions. Kane was willing to float Abby because he claimed he was bound by the law; he believed he was protecting his people. Kane spear-headed the Culling that led to the unnecessary death of 300 Arkadians because the numbers showed that everyone would die if he didn’t. Kane was so steeped in the hierarchy of command, so sucked into the “us versus them” mentality that he couldn’t see the harm he was doing until he was faced with the massacre of all the people he strove to protect. Kane wasn’t a bad person, he was simply a flawed leader, one without proper experience to guide him.
Let us pause for a moment and admire the beauty that is Kane’s beard. He’s much more handsome now, no?
And that’s why Kane couldn’t just kill Pike in last night’s episode, “Terms and Conditions.” When Pike quotes the law as reason, when he uses his people as a motivator for his actions, when defaults to numbers instead of humanity, Kane only hears a younger version of himself and the guilt piles up. Kane feels responsible for giving Pike power, for letting Bellamy’s mental state reach the breaking point, and for not being a better example to his people when it comes to Grounder relations. His experience tells him that if he outright sends Pike to his death, he teaches Bellamy and the other Pike supporters only one thing: they were right to not trust him. But if Kane could steal Pike away, show him what Grounders are really like, show him Lexa and Indra and Nyko, then maybe he could have the peace everyone so desperately desires. That’s not say that the stubborn Pike would concede, but in Kane’s mind, it’s worth a shot.
Pike, on the other hand, guided by months of pure instinct, does what Kane so desperately tries to avoid: by sentencing Kane to death for treason, he turns Kane into a martyr, and judging from previews for episodes forever away, it’s going to lead to his downfall. You see, as we saw so clearly in last night’s episode, that’s the difference between Kane and Pike: Kane knows how to move his pieces five steps ahead and Pike is the epitome of being unable to “see the forest for the trees.” It doesn’t make Pike a bad person because we know his intentions are good, we’ve seen the exact intentions play out in Kane, but right now, it only makes him a bad leader. Without Lexa leading the Grounders, the people of Arkadia need Kane more than ever.
Mark Pedowitz, President of The CW Network, has announced the early renewals of 11 of its primetime series for the 2016-2017 season. The CW has picked up all 10 series currently on the schedule plus Reign, which airs next month, for next season.
The shows returning to The CW for the 2016-2017 season will be Jane the Virgin, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Flash, iZombie, Arrow, Supernatural, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The 100, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, and Reign.
“The CW has become home to some of the most critically-acclaimed shows on broadcast television, with a wide array of fantastic scripted series across the week, ranging from musical comedy, to superhero action, to gritty sci-fi dramas,” said Pedowitz. “As we continue to further our strategy of more year-round original programming, picking up these 11 series for the 2016-2017 season puts us in a great position of having proven, high-quality shows to launch in the fall as well as midseason and summer of 2017.”
No premiere dates and episode order information was made available at the time of the announcement.
Blizzard’s popular card game, Hearthstone, has a brand new expansion headed its way which will change the landscape of the game in a drastic manner.
Titled Whispers of the Old Gods, the newest expansion will bring 134 new cards along with the legendary power of C’Thun, N’Zoth, Yogg-Saron, and Y’Shaarj. New player don’t have to fret about obtaining gold to get the new cards as Blizzard will be giving everyone three Whispers of the Old Gods card packs. Included in the first pack opened will be the legendary C’Thun, and his loyal servant, Beckoner of Evil.
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The god cards will include a new mechanic allowing them to grow stronger as you play their followers, no matter where the god card is – whether it be in play, your hand, or deck.
Alongside the release of Whispers of the Old Gods will be the release of Standard and Wild modes. Standard, the new rank system, will only allow cards from the recent two expansions to be used. All previous expansions will only be able to be played in the Wild mode where players can use and combination of cards. More details between Standard and Wild mode can be found on the Hearthstone website.
Much like the previous expansion, The Grand Tournament, Blizzard is allowing players to pre-order 50 packs of Whispers of the Old Gods for $49.99. Those that pre-order will also receive a custom card back.
Whispers of the Old Gods will be available by late April/early May 2016.
Syfy’s time traveling thriller 12 Monkeys is set to return on April 18 with its second season. The series’ first season left off with a dramatic change to the status quo as Dr. Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull) was sent off to the future, 2043, by James Cole (Aaron Stanford) after suffering a gunshot wound. Cole and Ramse (Kirk Acevedo) find themselves stuck in the past, as their relationship is on the rocks after the events of Tokyo. In the future, Jones is dealing with a new threat in the form of 12 hooded figures who have come for the time machine, but a wounded Railly appears as they are about to take it. It’s safe to say, things are not looking well for Team Splinter with how events left off.
The Workprint was invited to visit the set of 12 Monkeys last November for a chance to peek behind the curtain of the upcoming season and talk with the showrunner, Terry Matalas, and cast members: Aaron Stanford, Amanda Schull, Kirk Acevedo, Emily Hampshire, Todd Stashwick, and Barbara Sukowa.
The Emerson Hotel
The base of operations will be changing this season. Gone is the book store that Railly found herself in last year during present day, but replacing it is a much richer and grander experience – The Emerson Hotel.
Matalas told us, “With the bookshop gone, we knew we wanted another location for them to gather. We thought what would be cool would be a hotel, that we will first see in episode two. They have a permanent suite in that they bought out way back in the 1940s and they have had it for a hundred years. When they first find this hotel suite, it will have all these relics and information from adventures they haven’t had yet because they are time travelers bouncing through time. It is kind of like the Grand Budapest Hotel throughout the century. What’s fun about that is it kind of mirrors what happens to a lot of these great hotels in New York or other big cities in the 1940s where it was the place you wanted to be, but in 2016 it has ATMs, hookers, and crack. It shows off the passage of time and the deterioration that happens throughout. It’s pretty spectacular place.”
Jennifer Goines will be the one to lead Cole to the Time Traveler suite in the Emerson Hotel.
When Cole first arrives, he will find passports from the 1960s, information on the Berlin Wall, dossiers from the 70s from this police thing. “They are all these little hints,” Matalas tells us. “Some of the things we really loved to do on this show is to get ahead of all the stories really, really early. We can drop all the easter eggs of all the things to come from the first episode.”According to Matalas, the first episode will even tease the second season’s finale.
Eagled-eyed viewers will be able to spot a Back to the Future easter egg in the lobby of the Emerson Hotel.
What to expect from Time and Time Traveling in Season 2
How is the series handling the timeline when changes occur? Is the previous timeline erased?The answer is both yes and no. “There are consequences for doing that. Not everything changes. Somethings are for lack of a better word, constant,” Matalas said.”People who are tangled to that change, sometimes time will change around them. Specifically if you’re a part of this mission, you’ve got Jones’ injections, and you kind of act outside of time. This season will deal with the consequences of that happening.”
There will be a big passage of time that occurs. The future this season will be 2044, not 2043. Season two will start off in 2043, but will actually jump through the passage of time quite a bit this season. The story will also jump back a century with the cast traveling as far back as the 1940s.
Cole will not be the only time traveler this season. Also, you shouldn’t expect time traveling together to lead to comfortable situations.”They are not all getting along,” Matalas shares. “If you have seen our show you’ll know there are some serious personal issues between our characters by the finale. At the top of the season, it is pretty significant between Cole and Cassie. They are going to be worlds apart, but are still on the same journey and mission.”
Season two of 12 Monkeys will finally find us learning how time works. This will be especially tough for Jones who will learn that she needs to throw away all she knows about time from quantum physics and look at it a different way. Time, what time wants, how it works, and how time and human beings may work together, is a big part of this season.
Schull shared that the time travelers this season will be headed to the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.
The Army of the 12 Monkeys
The 12 hooded figures that we saw at the end of last season have a name – The Messengers. Within the first fifteen minutes of the new season, we’ll see what their plans are for the time machine. It’ll be the beginning of taking a look at their agenda.
Matalas on the new threat this season: “This season the plague is still something that happened in history, but the threat is much bigger than the plague. Last season we teased that the Army of the 12 Monkeys, they seem to have access, to be connected to time travel as well. They seem to know things about the future. They have a villain, The Witness, who runs the organization and knows how this all will play out. But it also seems like his goal wasn’t just the plague. This season we are going to find out what that was. We’re going to find out what the Army of the 12 Monkeys wants to do with time. It’s pretty big.”
Death
There will be a major death in season two that someone won’t be able to come back from.
Emily: We filmed a scene where a major character died yesterday. Died for reals.
Amanda: Time travel can’t help this character. There are a few rules that can’t be broken with time travel, certain people, and causality. It definitely has its parameters.
Jennifer Goines
Expect to see many different versions of Jennifer Goines this season. “We will actually see a sane Jennifer this season at one point,” Emily Hampshire shared with reporters. “I can’t tell you how that happens, how long it lasts, or why, but that it will happen this year. Also there is a lot more of Old Jennifer this season that we touched on last year, but this year she plays a really big part in the show.”
Emily on new interactions: “I get to have a scene with Jones. How would Jennifer Goines and Jones get together? I can’t tell you, but it happens. Also we revisit some relationships from last year that didn’t work out so well. Amanda and I have a bunch of stuff together this season and I can’t tell you anything that happens in it, but it includes one of her favorite scenes of the season.”
Season 2 Agenda: “I think Jennifer’s thing in season one was a lot of dealing with other people saying she was crazy and dealing with trying to find out who she was in the world outside of the mental institution. This season there is a lot of Jennifer finding out that her crazy might not be crazy and she might be a lot more connected to things ands stuff I can’t say.”
James Cole
Aaron Stanford told reporters that we’ll find Cole looking for redemption this season and how traveling through different time periods changes his character.
“He comes from a very hard life. I think he’s sort of been beaten down by that life and he’s lost a portion of his humanity. He’s looking for some form of redemption. He’s ready to taken any life he needs to take as well as give his own life, if necessary. I think that his own doesn’t have a lot of value to him at the start. As he experiences different time periods, different realities, different people like Cassie, it changes him, and he begins to value life and see that there is something to it and it changes him fundamentally but by the end of season one he has this newfound compassion and that’s where it starts off for season two.”
Dr. Cassandra Railly
According to Schull, Railly is much more aware of the risks and how they needed to be tackled in order to accomplish the mission. “This year she lives in a world where the risks are much more imminent and present. She is much more savvy on how to approach things and takes on more of a physical approach.”
Railly’s goals still remain the same as she adapts to her new surroundings. She is still a doctor and her quest from the moment she met Cole is to eradicate this virus.“Once she gets to 2044 she realizes all the different factors that play into this particular danger and this threat,” Schull told reporters. “She has to kind of eliminate all the threats which makes it a much more challenging mission overall. She tackles all of those things in 2044 and has to do them in ways she could never have imagined herself doing in season one.”
Jones
Sukowa stated that Jones will find herself very much conflicted in season two. “On one hand she wants to pursue her mission, on the other she has all these new relationships so she really has to decide her allies, where she’s going to go, what’s going to serve her mission that is her main trajectory.”
More backstory on Jones is coming. “I’m not sure what to say about her husband, but I think the real thing that broke her was the death of her daughter and that is something that fuels her mission. But also she has shut down a lot through that. I think she is one of those people who has changed completely from a young person to an older person. I think we will learn a little more why that is and understand it more. But she does it, so interesting things are happening with her.”
Ramse
Kirk Acevedo’s Ramse will remain more or less the same according to the actor.”He knows who he is. He knows what will make him content. When you discover that, you’re not going to change as much. The other characters are always in flux. Oh there’s a virus. This guys from the future. For me it’s not that difficult to play.”
Acevedo on the tumultuous relationship between Cole and Ramse – “There’s still tension between the two. Brothers fight. Brothers also kill each other.”
Deacon
Todd Stashwick’s Deacon will be seeing much more develop this season after being made a series regular. Stashwick revealed that Deacon’s interactions with the rest of Team Splinter will change his outlook on his actions.
“We pretty much pick up right where season one ended where Cassie is stuck in the future and that immediately creates a dynamic with myself who is stuck in the facility with Jones and Cassie, and Deacon has to go, ‘Well am I with the Blue Man Group or am I with the people who I see bit more humanity in?’ The irony that Deacon is looking for humanity.”
“I think initially Deacon was an opportunist. I think couldn’t have cared less about what the gray faced people wanted to do. It was just going to get him a chance to get himself into the facility. Once he crossed into that threshold and realized it was time travel and meeting Railly has a profound effect on who he is and his point of view. He certainly had a way of doing things before and suddenly as he gets deeper in and really starts developing other relationships he didn’t have before, his priorities shift. His methodology might shift. I’m not saying they declaw him, but we might see his soft, fuzzy belly. You will get to see a lot more aspects of a guy who was just a sarcastic bastard in season one. Still a sociopath, but a sociopath with more emotional options. We will reveal glimpses as to why the way he is and what led him to be this. As much as they are showing backgrounds of Jones we didn’t see before, we are also peeking behind the curtain of Deacon as well.”
“I am Amanda Schull”
A fun tidbit to come out of the set visit was Emily Hampshire’s story about her big speech at the end of season one. Hampshire, who had a fear of speaking in front of giant crowds, shared this story.
Emily: So I, Emily Hampshire, am nervous to give big speeches. Very, very, very nervous. Like super anxiety, breakout in hives. And Amanda being a really good person and just being Amanda, was being perceptive and noticed that I was really freaking out about doing this thing. She told me her mom used to say to her that “You’re Amanda Schull, you can do anything.” And I thought that was the most amazing. So behind stage, before I went out, I was like “You are Amanda Schull, you can do anything!”
Amanda: Not the point of that story.
Emily: It gave me confidence and I went out and did it. I was really nervous about doing that scene, but I just went out and was feeling like I was Amanda Schull. And so I did it like that.
Theme of Season 2
Matalas opened up a little bit about what viewers can expect from the overall theme in Season 2 of 12 Monkeys.
“The main theme of this season, when you walk away is, there are many endings and the right one is the one you choose. The other one I can’t say. There is quite a bit going on this season. Last season was about in a lot of ways, fatherhood. It was Jennifer Goines dealing with how her father hated her. How Ramse was a father and didn’t know how the mission afflicted with that. Cole witnessing the death of this father.This season is all about mothers and motherhood and what that means – from our villains to our heroes.”
12 Monkeys returns for Season 2 on Syfy on April 18 at 9 PM.
Yesterday, Marvel gave a big reveal to fans: a clip of Spider-man, in costume, in a new Captain America: Civil War trailer. I haven’t watched the trailer because I imagine it’s much of what we’ve already seen with a snippet at the end including Spider-man delivering some tongue-in-cheek comment and I’ll admit: I am not a fan. Spider-man’s debut has been a long awaited event in the MCU and I am of the mindset that such an introduction would have been best served in the movie itself. Can’t we keep anything a secret anymore?
With the way we are saturated with news week after week, month after month, it feels like our favorite franchises are slowly being torn to bits. I don’t want to watch a new Civil War trailer because I feel like I’ve already seen the film based on previous trailers. Heck, I only watched the one Deadpool trailer and I felt like going into the movie I’d already seen the opening moments. Granted, with good films, spoilers and lengthy trailers won’t make much of a difference in the end, but with so much anticipation and the NEED to know more about a movie, show, or game months or years in advance, doesn’t that ruin the love of the thing? At least a little bit?
As a Captain Marvel fangirl, I find myself checking up on the status of her solo film fairly often, mostly to my sadness. Months ago, I read an article over at The Mary Sue about an interview with Marvel head honcho, Kevin Feige wherein Feige admits that Marvel isn’t even close to casting Captain Marvel. When you think about it, that admission isn’t unsurprising. The film isn’t even set to release until the late 2018. They have almost three years before it hits theaters, so what’s my problem?
The problem lies in the fact that we’ve known about Captain Marvel and all of Marvel’s phase three plans for over a year now and as fans we’ve slowly been suckling at the Marvel teet for more information. Not to mention fans have been clamoring and speculating about a Captain Marvel film for so much longer that it feels like we should know already. (I only take responsibility for about half of the internet screaming for a Carol Danvers film.)
The internet has ruined us and I’m afraid that with it, it will slowly begin to deteriorate its favorite fandoms. We’re so hungry for more information about these fandoms that we don’t care what it is as long as its something. The above mentioned Captain America: Civil War has already leaked a plethora of set photos, as well as a death spoiler, and there are probably other things I’ve missed because I’ve tried desperately to avoid spoilers.
Game of Thrones, one of the biggest shows on television, can no longer keep actor appearances a secret, which is a pretty big deal when one of its lead characters has been pronounced dead, over and over again. This poor character’s stab wounds have been poked and prodded at so much that actors and writers have basically had to come out and say, “You got us! We lied. Now, please, stop ruining our story with your nosiness.”
Goodness knows I’ve participated in far too much speculation, combing over new Game of Thrones trailers for clues about story line progression or confirmation about whether certain characters are alive or dead. And if my guesses are right–who cares? I don’t get an award. I just get to smugly say, “I saw that coming” and my friends roll their eyes. I fully recognize I am part of the problem, but why? Why do they turn my hobbies into downright obsession?
Studios and those in charge of marketing are taking note of the internet’s need for more, more, more. Film logo and poster design releases have become a big deal, 10-second teaser trailer are an infuriating development, leaving entertainment sites (*ahem* people like me) to critique this paltry gift for weeks until the next morsel arrives. When you look close enough, it becomes a sad realization that we, as fans, can no longer simply enjoy a fandom, waiting with eager anticipation for the arrival of the final product.
I have no doubt that this trend is the reason why video games are now being released unfinished–why studios would rather release a broken game than wait for it to be fixed. I’ve already talked about my frustrations with early access games and where this leaves gamers. According to studios, both for movie and games, it’s up to them to make as much money as possible in the opening weeks, otherwise, the release is a bust. Fans might forget the hype they once had and then where would they be? Or, they could release the game that-should-have-been a year later and fans will applaud their dedication. (I’m looking at you, Bilal.) Because that’s what it’s all about in the end–the hype levels, the twitter trends, the hashtags, the drooling over the hum of theme music.
I love speculation as much as the next person and I think I’ve made it plain that when it comes to fandoms, I take obsession to a whole new level, but at what point does a need for information become too much? At what point do we as fans become so impatient we ruin the things we love?
And I swear if anyone mutters anything about “ethics in journalism”, I’ll have my own “For the Watch” moment.
The gloves have come off in the newest trailer for Captain America: Civil War.
Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in twocamps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.
Some of the best moments from the trailer:
Black Panther on foot chasing down Bucky who happens to be on a motorcycle
Tony Stark’s watch which transforms into an Iron Man glove.
Bucky attempting to fire a gun at Tony’s face.
Black Widow kicking ass like she always does.
Scarlet Witch bringing The Vision to his knees.
Hawkeye firing an arrow with Ant-Man riding it, who then jumps onto Tony’s Iron Man suit.
Crossbones sending Cap flying with a punch
Tony and Cap going at it hand to hand to shield.
Spider-Man’s debut!
Tony calling Spider-Man underoos.
What did you think of the trailer? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
SHADOWHUNTERS - "Bad Blood" - Alec and Clary are forced to make some hard decisions in “Bad Blood,” an all-new episode of “Shadowhunters,” airing Tuesday, March 1st at 9:00 – 10:00 p.m., EST/PST on Freeform, the new name for ABC Family. (Freeform/John Medland)
STEPHANIE BENNETT
When we are first introduced to Lydia Branwell in episode 8 of Shadowhunters, Isabelle Lightwood pointedly asks the Clave’s representative whether Clary is her cousin? Lydia responds icily that they are linked very distantly.
So you may wonder just how exactly are they related? The clue comes in when Lydia is chatting with Alec during their examination of the Forsaken body to which she mentions that Henry Branwell was her ancestor. He had famously helped create portals within institutes along with warlock Magnus Bane. Henry is actually Clary’s many times over great grandfather.
We first met the character in Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel, the first novel of The Infernal Devices series, a prequel to The Mortal Instruments set in 1878 London. He was married to Charlotte Fairchild who was the head of the London Institute. There they had lived with Will Herondale, Jem Carstairs, Gideon Lightwood, Jessamyn Lovelace and eventually Gabriel Lightwood and Cecily Herondale as well. Warlock Tessa Gray had taken sanctuary with the London nephilim after she was rescued from downworld kidnappers the Dark Sisters.
When Charlotte eventually became consul, their children had taken on the Fairchild name and Henry’s branch of the Branwell line ended. Still, his mark on his descendants are still visible as the Fairchilds’ trademark red hair had come from Henry. In addition Clary’s mom Jocelyn may have been named after him (his full name was Henry Jocelyn Branwell).
Lydia as a new character created for the Shadowhunters TV series, may be from another part of the Branwell family as Henry seemed to have been an only child to Buford Branwell and an unknown woman. She was originally brought into the show as a means to embody Idris and the Clave at the New York Institute.
Shadowhunters have long inter-mingled bloodlines so that most nephilm are connected somewhere along their family trees. Both Lydia and Clary share similar characteristics as they are both dedicated in accomplishing their goals and doing what they believe is right. The two are also strong-willed women who come from ancient lineages and are still forging their own paths. Unfortunately they just happen to have different approaches on the hunt for Valentine.
Lydia is determined to follow orders from the Clave because she had already lost the love of her life after not being able to do to what was needed. Clary in the meantime believes that the Clave’s tactics were only creating more friction in the shadow world and causing them to unnecessarily fight against the Downworlders instead of working together to defeat a common enemy.
With the crazy turn of events in this week’s episode, the two relatives find themselves even further at odds when Jace, Clary, Isabelle, Simon, along with Luke, his pack, and the New York vampire clan ambush Alec and other Shadowhunters escorting Meliorn to be interrogated by the Silent Brothers. Not to mention that Lydia finds out from the Seelie that her sort of cousin has the Mortal Cup and hadn’t turned it over to the Clave.
It’s not the ideal circumstance for long lost relatives to reunite under. But undoubtedly whenever these two finally do meet face to face, it’s going to be explosive.
You can catch Shadowhunters on Freeform Tuesdays 9/8 Central.
Click HERE to catch up on all things Shadowhunters.
With the upcoming premiere of season six of Game of Thrones, The Workprint and HBO have teamed up to give away a copy of Game of Thrones: Season 5 on DVD.
The contest begins on March 8, 2016 and will run till March 16, 2016 at 12:00 AM. Entry is open to US and Canadian residents only.
Game of Thrones fifth season DVD set contains the following extra materials:
DVD:
Anatomy of an Episode: Mother’s Mercy – From the early stages of the writer’s room to the final visual effects, see what went into creating “Mother’s Mercy,” the Emmy-winning episode fans will be talking about for years to come.
The Real History Behind Game of Thrones – Watch historians, along with George R.R. Martin, explore the interweaving inspirations of the actual players in the era known as “The Wars of the Roses” and other historical events in this two-part series.
Audio Commentaries – Twelve audio commentaries with cast and crew including David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Kit Harington, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, Maisie Williams, Natalie Dormer, Gwendoline Christie and more.
Deleted Scenes – Four deleted scenes.
A Day in the Life – Three countries, hundreds of cast & crew, one epic day. Get an inside look at the production process of Season 5.
New Characters/New Locations – Explore the new societies, cultures and locations of Season 5.
Season 5 begins with a power vacuum that protagonists across Westeros and Essos look to fill. At Castle Black, Jon Snow struggles to balance the demands of the Night’s Watch with those of newly-arrived Stannis Baratheon, who styles himself the rightful king of Westeros. Meanwhile, Cersei scrabbles to hold on to power in King’s Landing amidst the Tyrells and the rise of a religious group led by the enigmatic High Sparrow, while Jaime embarks on a secret mission. Across the Narrow Sea, Arya seeks an old friend while a fugitive Tyrion finds a new cause. And as danger mounts in Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen finds that her tenuous hold on the city requires some hard sacrifices. This season features some of the most explosive scenes yet, as the promise that “winter is coming” becomes more ominous than ever before.
Game of Thrones: The Complete Fifth Season will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on March 15, 2016.
THE MAGICIANS -- "The Strangled Heart" Episode 108 -- Pictured: (l-r) Anne Dudek as Professor Pearl Sunderland, Jason Ralph as Quentin -- (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
The Magicians
Season 1, Episode 8: “The Strangled Heart”
Air Date: March 7, 2016
Back from Brakebills South, the lives of Quentin, Alice, and Penny are changed forever as they begin their second year of schooling only to face a villain from their past. Meanwhile Julia finds magical guidance in an unexpected place.
After their time spent as foxes in the wild, Alice and Quentin return to upstate New York an awkward mess. Alice feels that they need to spend some time apart to figure out if their feelings are real or if it’s just residual animal magnetism. Reluctantly Quentin agrees but goes out of his way to make sure that he ends up in the same study group as her anyways (fyi Penny is the third member of their mandatory study clique). Stalker alert.
Poor Penny is still reeling from having his heart broken after Kady is forced to leave Brakebills for good. She had left after Professor Mayakovsky told her that her mother had passed away and that she was free from Marina but unfortunately the faculty had found out that she had been stealing for her. Showing some empathy, he suggests that she should leave the school because she deserved better than their punishment but that she should also consider that Penny still needs the education (because of his abilities) before asking him to join her. In the end, Kady loved the traveller too much to put his life in danger and decides to disappear alone. Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of her!
THE MAGICIANS — “The Strangled Heart” Episode 108 — Pictured: Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
While Q and P are outside trying to perform a complicated spell for their new class, Mike (Eliot’s alumni boyfriend) suddenly attacks them. Penny rushes at their attacker and ends up getting stabbed by a wicked blade. In last week’s episode we knew something was up with Eliot’s boy toy as a moth came flying into his apartment and Mike’s eyes turned inhumanly blue.
Quentin is sure this has something to do with The Beast but Dean Fogg isn’t quite sold on it. As Penny’s wound begins to spread we find out that it’s cursed injury. Vines begin to grow out of the cut and Q realizes that the weapon was from Fillory because Jane had been attacked with a blade with the same outcome. In book she managed to survive after a doll that she had been carrying was used as a sacrifice. Thinking it was like voodoo, Alice and Quentin make a mini Penny and burn it but to no avail.
Just as the situation seems hopeless, Eliza suddenly appears in the dean’s office and is told by Henry to fix the situation and then to get the hell away from Brakebills. She meets Quentin and explains to him that the doll didn’t work because it wasn’t something that meant anything to Penny. The curse would only accept something that was precious to him as a worthy sacrifice instead of his heart. Alice and Q raid the traveller’s room hoping to find something that actually mattered to him and stumble upon the wrapper of the candy bar that Kady had gave to Penny in Brakebills South. It was the last thing she left him (aside the forgive me note). They burn it and thankfully Penny is saved.
THE MAGICIANS — “The Strangled Heart” Episode 108 — Pictured: Rick Worthy as Dean Fogg — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
The most shocking moments of this week’s episode though had to be when Eliza went to chat with Mike and we discovered that she was in fact grown up Jane Chatwin. She immediate says that she can see through his little disguise and we learn that The Beast is most definitely controlling poor Mike. Eliza/Jane angrily says that his plan didn’t work and that Penny and Quentin are both fine and that he can’t hide in Fillory forever. Apparently no matter how many doors he tried to close there would always be a way to get in. Poor Eliza, he had actually been waiting for her to come so that he could kill her (via squeezing her so hard her head explodes). He very nearly murders Dean Fogg as well who was outside the room when Eliot comes to the rescue and is forced to kill the man he has fallen in love with. I want to give him a giant hug.
Quentin comes to the dean’s office after being freaked out about Eliza’s death and the older man says they’re all probably doomed. Great.
Back in the outside world, Julia has been checked into a rehab center where she’s decided to give up magic for good. Unexpectedly Marina suddenly shows up and apologizes for how out of hand the situation got. She had said that she was only defending herself from thievery but that she had actually liked Julia. They ended things as best as it could be expected with Marina saying that as long as Jules didn’t get in her way, she’d leave her alone and end their blood feud. However in a turn of events, the ex-hedge witch meets Richard, a chaplain and Brakebills alum who viewed magic not as a drug, but as a gift left to humans by gods. Julia isn’t really buying it but he gives her something to try out. In the aftermath of the incantation, she tells him that it was a completely different experience where she didn’t feel like she was casting anything but was being cast upon instead and it terrified her. Richard laughs and explains that it wasn’t a spell but a prayer to a local deity. He then lays out that she has a choice on whether she wants to be like the hedge magicians who deal with magic like drugs, or try a different way and approach it as a tool. Julia then asks him if he’s willing to get something into Brakebills for her (likely a note for Q).
MAGICIANS — “The Strangled Heart” Episode 108 — Pictured: Stella Maeve as Julia — (Photo by: Carole Segal/Syfy)
This episode was filled with so much heartache for Penny and Eliot who both have not had it easy and in their own ways have put up a front to hide their pain and loneliness. Those two deserve happiness after everything they’ve gone through already. Still, there were some breakthroughs as Alice and Quentin finally realized that their feelings for each other were real after The Beast’s return. There were also so many great little moments between the fearsome threesome (Alice, Q, and Penny) that show how slowly they are learning to trust and depend on one another because they are all inextricably bound.
The Beast was really clever though to target someone outside of the school but still with access. He sought out Eliot and gained his trust in order to be close to the trio as both Q and Alice were Physical Kids. He then waited for Eliza to come to him in order to eliminate her as the only one who seemed to know who he really was and what he wants, although she did tell Quentin that he just wanted control of Fillory and all it’s doors. Now our heroes are in even greater danger and are nowhere near ready to face him alone. It’s going to take all their cunning and ingenuity to triumph over this powerful villain.
Final thoughts:
RIP poor bunny who’s was used as a delivery method for the cursed blade
Penny calling Quentin a stalker lol
Marina apologizing, who would have thought?
Penny’s indecent proposal to Professor Sunderland and she was totally thinking about it, it’s ok we don’t blame you
Eliot worrying over what to wear to please Mike was so adorable and his expression after having to kill his boyfriend gave me too many sad feels
Alice and Quentin getting together in the end, FINALLY
Dean Fogg teaching himself magic again, bravo!!!
What is the Fairy Godmother from Once Upon a Time doing in Brakebills? Is she consulting?
If Quentin only knew who Eliza really was his mind would have been blown
