The Flash - 'The Wrath of Savitar'

"I feel like my skillset is being underutilised."

Okay, so I've got a bit backed up on my reviews, so forgive me if this goes astray, or ends up being a bit quick and dirty.

So, Barry and Iris announce their engagement, to Joe's chagrin as he'd always expected at least a courtesy permission-asking. Barry, meanwhile, is getting snippy about how no-one else is pulling their weight to save Iris, especially when Savitar beats up Wally while being invisible to Barry and it turns out Wally has been seeing Savitar for a while, which to Barry is the equivalent of stabbing Iris yourself. Barry basically reminds everyone that he makes the plans, and amazingly no-one laughs. Mind you, you know who's not pulling her weight? Jesse. The speedster who stands around while the action is on. It's almost as if the writers wanted her around later, but didn't know what to do with her in this episode at all.

Julian returns from a trip and is welcomed back with a hearty cranial electroding, as Barry insists that they need to speak to Savitar again. It doesn't go so well, because it turns out that Savitar doesn't give a rat's ass about anything they can do, so basically they're reduced to shouting threats down a phone line. Savitar poo-poos these efforts and starts throwing images of Wally's mother at him, because he's cheap that way, while Barry finds another speed-proof casket, but with no Stone in it. Caitlin admits to Julian that she stole a piece of the Philosopher's Stone, and when Barry finds out he basically accuses her of putting arsenic in Iris' tea. Once more, Barry Allen should not be allowed to harangue someone for making a dumbass call unchecked, because fucking Flashpoint, dude. Are you going overboard, Barry? Why don't we ask Sara Diggle what she thinks(1)?

"This was not the plan!"

Wally persuades Cisco to vibe him into the future, since he's going to have to make the rescue run and because Barry is being such a dick. Taking a hint from his mentor there, as soon as he realises that Barry proposed so suddenly and spontaneously not from love, but to change the future, he tells everyone and Barris implodes. Then he steals the Philosopher's Stone fragment to lob into the Speed Force, just to show everyone. At the same time, the rest of the team realise that Savitar is in the Speed Force, waiting for all of the Stone to set him free. This does not end well for Wally, who is sucked into the Speed Force to counterbalance Savitar's escape.

Bummer.

Oh, but Barry accepts Caitlin's apology, despite the fact that taking the piece of the Stone was the one thing that kept them from walking into Savitar's trap weeks ago. Jackass.

As much as I enjoy The Flash, there does seem to be a traditional part where Barry goes... well, crazy, and basically I feel that his friends should be quicker to move in when he starts making plans, cutting back his coffee privileges and hiding the glassboard markers until he calms down and accepts that his genius lies in crime scene analysis, domino mask-making and running very fast.

(1) Not letting it go.

Supergirl - 'Exodus'

"What? No. You're being emotional."

It's all hands on deck as the DEO faces the fallout from the exposure of the alien registry(1), so of course Alex, Maggie, James, Mon-el and Winn are going down the pub.

While they're there, Cadmus make their move, kidnapping aliens across the county, including a raid on the bar in which they abduct Lyra. Kara wants to use her alias to put out a warning to the alien population, since the DEO can't do anything official, but Snapper Carr insists on two independent sources and all she has is Supergirl. She sets up an interview between Snapper and the Girl of Steel, but again he won't take her uncorroborated word. Lena instead urges her to blog her article, and with added moral support from Mon-el she does.

Meanwhile, J'onn disguises himself as Jeremiah to test Alex's loyalties and deems her compromised, removing her from duty, so she and Maggie track the abduction squads themselves and Alex sneaks into a Cadmus warehouse.  At the same time, Lena locates the same site for Kara, prompting her PA to contact Lillian and summon some heavies to put the frighteners on her. Their look of absolute consternation when the boss's daughter accidentally falls off the balcony is even more priceless than their shock when Supergirl catches her. Alex discovers that Cadmus is loading the captive aliens onto a ship, intending to send them off to be someone else's problem, despite the fact that many of them are refugees, and persuades Jeremiah to do the right thing and help her stop the ship. When Lillian tries to stop them she claims to have mines hidden around the base, and when the shi won't stop its countdown she detonates them, because you do not fuck with Alex Danvers.

 

"Please ensure your seat backs are in the upright position and your shackle
chains are tucked behind the seat cushion."

Alex tries to stop the ship from within, while Hank Henshaw subdues Jeremiah. Kara arrives in time to stop the ship reaching hyperspace launch altitude, but Jeremiah is still missing. Alex confronts J'onn, who admits that he, like Jeremiah, was acting to protect her, but he admits that he doesn't need to and promises to stop(2). Kara is fired for blogging her article, a breach of her contract with CatCo, and Carr reads her the riot act on journalistic responsibility.

"One wrong statistic about the stock market and suddenly we're in the Great Depression. One misattributed quote from a candidate and you put a fascist in the White House(3). The rules are there for a reason. To make sure you get the story right. That's not luck; that's being a good reporter."

I like this speech, because it's right, and shows that Kara may have a sound moral compass but she relies too much on her intentions, rather than on the potential consequences of her actions.

And then Mon-el comes around with potstickers(4) and sympathy. Kara explains that Supergirl is what she does, but Kara is who she is. She retracts part of this and apparently considers Mon-el a substitute for a career, but I'm going to assume unless proved otherwise that this was just sweet nothings rather than a sincere statement.

Ladies and gents, it's Terri 'Lois Lan' Hatcher and Kevin 'Hercules' Sorbo.

Finally, a ship moves into orbit as its occupants get all jazzed on yellow sunlight, and with all the highnessing going on, I'm pretty sure it's a Daxamite royal vessel, so that's happened. Also, I'm wondering if Mon-el is less bodyguard to a prince and more, you know, the prince.

I don't know where they're going with Kara's career, but hopefully not the dole queue or 'homemaker'. Possibly L-Corp is going to go media, or she'll become a full-time news blogger on a DEO half-salary. I continue to be dissatisfied with her drama arc, not helped by a frankly cursory appearance by James/Guardian, essentially to give Winn a hearty 'well done, my son!'

(1) This is all kind of familiar from Agents of SHIELD's Inhuman Register…

(2) Did I mention how much I like the evolving father-daughter dynamics in this series recently?

(3) Supergirl; not political at all.

(4) Oh, they're gyoza. I always wondered.

Agents of SHIELD - 'Deals with Our Devils'

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

In the wake of last week's explosion, Coulson, Fitz and Robbie have disappeared, while Eli is manifesting and manipulating carbon from nowhere to escape SHIELD custody. Director Mace is understandably shaken.

May suggests that Eli must have hired the Chinese to get the Darkhold for him and Mack is keen to pursue that angle at once, but Mace want to know what they are dealing with before he loses anyone else(1). He tries to call in Simmons, but she is examining the perpetually cocooned husband of Senator Hatesinhumans in a black site somewhere and gets bagged and dragged as soon as she manages to break some of it off him. Radcliffe refuses to even try to read the Darkhold, recognising that it is too much for a human mind to contain.

We then flash back to find the Coulson, Fitz and Robbie have been translated to some other phase of existence and are drifting further from the light, into… something bad. Robbie believes it is Hell, and apparently so does the Rider, which escapes from his body and drives Mack to seek out the Chinese gangsters who might be responsible. Robbie hitches a ride with Daisy in his car, while Fitz seemingly manages to communicate with Ada, prompting her to volunteer to read the book, since her mind can't be affected in the same way.

 

"Magic, bitches."

Robbie catches up with Mack and makes a new deal with the Rider: Come back to him, give him revenge on Eli, and he will be the vessel for all of the Rider's revenges. He vanishes, and Ada creates a magical portal through which Fitz and Coulson are able to escape just as Simmons returns to base. Later, Ada is seen creating a magical brain, because apparently no-one thought that resetting her brain after she learned the terrible secrets of the universe might be a major benefit of getting the robot to read the Notcronomicon.

I'm deeply concerned that Simmons may have been brainwashed or implanted with some sort of control technology, since she didn't follow up 'Fitz, you're alive' with 'you'll never believe what happened to me today.' I'd like FitzSimmons to catch a break, but they just look so adorably woobie when things go wrong that I can't see it happening. And speaking of things going wrong, Mace's reaction to the crisis – recover, regroup, reposition – made me like him a lot more; he's a good balance between the man of action and the considered strategist, and I hope he doesn't turn out to be evil.

(1) "We sharpen the axe, then we cut the tree."

"My axe is plenty sharp; and also a shotgun."

Star Wars Rebels - 'Double Agent Droid'

"You could not even draw a bow and arrow, let alone hit a small songbird."

Ah, the great battles of wits: Holmes vs. Moriarty, Aristotle vs. Mashy Spike Plate, and now Chopper vs. AP-5.

Our favourite antisocial grumblebots are on a mission. Chaperoned by Wedge, they are to infiltrate an Imperial data store and steal security codes for the Rebel assault on Lothal. Things get off to a rough start, however, as the two droids snipe at one another over who is in charge of the mission. On arrival, Chopper's presence is flagged by an ISB surveillance team operating from a listening ship. The team's controller identifies the droid and, in order to locate the Rebel base, launches an electronic counterattack when Chopper tries to slice(1) the base mainframe, seizing control of his systems.

AP-5 locates Chopper and is immediately struck by his sudden display of manners and protocol, especially of Imperial protocol. Unfortunately, no-one listens when he tries to tell them that something is wrong with the astromech, at least not until they are all sealed in the Ghost's airlock with the ISB using Chopper to try to extract the Rebel base location from the ship's computer. AP-5 is sent to manually override the internal locks and gets knocked into space by Chopper, but manages to let the others out of the airlock before the controller can space them. Zeb incapacitates Chopper with obvious glee, and Hera uses the connection to send a surge signal which nearly fries Chopper and causes the listening ship to explode(3).

"We did purchase the 'not explode' upgrade for the engines, right?"

'Double Agent Droid' is a rare showcase for the information war that is usually limited to 'astromech plugs into a wall, computer shows pictures', and it makes sense that this would be seen under Grand Admiral Thrawn's watch. The controller(4) is a meticulous, detail-oriented plotter; too meticulous, as it turns out, as his determination to secure complete information prevents him gaining even a partial win before his ship explodes because reasons(5). Also, a neat little visual extra is that he has the same sort of cyborg implant as Lando Calrissian's ADC, Lobot.

Also, AP-5 and Chopper do an 'anything you can do' bit, which is just adorable, as is AP-5's utter dejection when the crew rescue him from drifting in the perfect stillness of space and drag him back into their messy world.

(1) The Extended Universe term for hack; I don't know if it's still used in canon post Swexit(2).

(2) My own term for the separation of the main continuity from the EU.

(3) Another health and safety triumph for the Imperial Core of Engineers'.

(4) He and his ship have names, or at least serial numbers, but they aren't really used in the episode.

(5) My theory is that the server room cooling system sinks heat into the fuel tanks.

Legion - 'Chapter 5'

"For identification purposes, I am not Iron Man."

I'm starting to think that, when it comes to Legion, the phrase 'and this is where it gets really weird' is going to rapidly lose all meaning.

David and the field team return to Summerland with the injured, but not dead, Kerry, who needs some time to heal before Cary can reabsorb her and so take most of her injuries on himself. Meanwhile, David insists that he's going to go to Division 3 and get his sister back, and Syd that she's going with him. Melanie cautions that he's not ready, but it is apparent that really she wants him to bring her husband back from the astral plane before risking his life. David, however, is a changed man, determined and in control, able to communicate telepathically at will and to create a full-sensory environment in which he and Syd can consummate their relationship.

Influenced by Lenny, David goes to D3 without any backup, even abandoning Syd, despite a promise that if he gets lost, they will get lost together. Melanie leads her troops, such as they are, to support him, fearing what D3 might do with David in their power, only to find that he has torn the building apart, fused the D3 commandos with the ground, taken his sister and left. Syd realises that he would head for his childhood home, and they arrive as David – driven by Lenny – is questioning Amy to learn that he was adopted(1). As the team travel, Cary contacts them to say that he believes that David is schizophrenic, and that the break in his mind is the result of another personality existing alongside his own; a malevolent, parasitical entity using David's own powers to alter his memories and mask its existence.

"Clearly some people got hurt."

As David spirals out of control and one of Melanie's agents opens fire on him, Syd has him move with her to his artificial space. The respite is short lived, however, as the Yellow Eyed Devil manifests, and Syd finds herself back in group therapy at Clockwork, along with David and all of the other members of the Summerlands group, and it is her turn to talk.

There's a scene in 'Chapter 5' that encapsulates a lot of how the series as a whole rolls. David and Syd are in a lift; they exchange suggestive asides and the lift doors open on a close-up of Syd's face, screaming in ecstasy, which is a disconcerting way to introduce your fan service (and I don't think that's an accident.) David asks if this is her first time and she says no, and begins to tell a story. He was one of her mother's boyfriends. She was sixteen. Too much was drunk. The show takes us by the hand and leads us towards a narrative that is grimly familiar, but this is another bait and switch; there is no tale of abuse. Syd, young and curious, switched into her drunk mother's body to experiment, only for them to switch back during the act.

Okay, more pinstripe than Reservoir Dogs, but still, apparently the hair is not
a sign of evil; brain Lenny is just bad news.

"Who teaches us to be normal when we're one of a kind?" Syd asks rhetorically. Their world is weirder than we think and creepy in whole new ways, but also Syd retains her agency in a way she would not if she were a victim; especially not given that her powers give her a contact aversion which we culturally perceive as most likely a result of trauma. Legion plays with our minds, and it doesn't need David's godlike power to do it, but for all that it fucks with its characters, so far it hasn't done it by making an otherwise powerful woman helpless(2).

Legion is dark and weird, and given to performing the kind of 360-degree spin we see here, with the formerly nervous and disoriented David becoming suave and confident, only to end the episode more lost than ever.

(1) She claims not to know who his real parents were, even while being tormented by reservoir Dogs Lenny/Benny/who the hell knows, so we're still open for Professor Xavier.

(2) Another reason to be glad that Kerry survived her brush with the refrigerator.

Emerald City - 'Everybody Lies'

Guess who's coming to dinner.

This week on Emerald City, people being shitty to one another. Surprise!

Eamonn is actually surprisingly pleasant to the captive Lucas, whom he knows as Roan, a good friend who disappeared. Lucas lacks Eamonn's conviction that he must have been loyal, and manages to run down a guard who witnessed him apparently bugging out and turning on his own. Convinced that he is scum, Lucas hands himself in.

The Munja'kin chief hands Dorothy over to West, in exchange for the promised – but never delivered – release of his wife from the Prison of the Abject. West wants to know why Dorothy killed East and for whom she acted, and using her mother's image to get close steals some of Dorothy's memories. She becomes convinced that East was going to warn her against Glinda's machinations and becomes even more paranoid than usual. At the same time she embraces Tip as her new favourite and sick burns her former top maid. When Tip helps Dorothy to escape, the former favourite tries to stop them, but Tip is able to pin the blame for the escape on her rival.

Jack accompanies his new mistress and her father, the King of Ev, to the Emerald City, where the Wizard is seeking to secure a supply of weapons to use against the Beast Forever. Anna and Elizabeth publicly dispute the nature of the Beast, however, damaging his credibility as the leading authority on the subject. The Wizard tries to deal privately with Ev, but realises that the King is quite senile and that Langwidere blames the Emerald City for abandoning Ev to the Beast last time. Riding high, she tells Jack that she bought him to be her friend. Touched by her confession that she actually has no better idea how to make friends, he agrees to pal around the Festival of the Beast with her. Langwidere gets harassed by lunks and Jack flattens them – on account of how he's literally metal AF – which turns out, in one of the series' most predictable moves, to really rev Langwidere's engine.

 

"Why would I make my own friends; I have people for that."

There is one interesting note in this sequence, which is that when Langwidere kisses Jack, he tells her 'friends don't do that.' This statement is incorrect in an insidiously toxic fashion, but is a not unreasonable takeaway from his recent smooch-related fall.

Finally, Dorothy reaches the Wizard and finds him listening to Pink Floyd on a gramophone. She asks if he knows her mother, and he responds: "Dorothy? You've come home."

I kind of don't know what I make of Emerald City. It's… interesting, without being involving, if that even makes sense. The ideas are good, the aesthetic is kind of unique, but like the original Tin Woodman it lacks a heart. Large chunks of the action are predictable, and consequently lacking in emotional punch, and there's a lot of expository dialogue. The whole thing is actually kind of stagey. Unless next week's episode inspires me greatly, I shall probably keep watching, but stop reviewing, at least episode by episode.

Person of Interest - 'Truth be Told'

It's that woman again.

The past comes back to haunt Reese this week, as a former colleague and an old sin reappear in his life. But let's talk about more important things, like the new opening. Now that the Machine is running again, Finch's familiar monologue about the Government's system is back, but intercut with the competing voice of Greer, telling us that we wanted this, for Samaritan to come along and rid us of the burden of making decisions for ourselves.

'Truth be Told' is an oddly retro number of the week affair, with Reese taking on an identity within a defence contractor to look into the life of Alex Duncan, a man who has been snooping in secure files. The Machine has picked this up because his actions have caught the attention of the CIA, putting him at risk, and the man leading the team that comes after him is Terrance Beale, Reese's former boss and thus one of the few people left on Earth who could identify him. Reese rescues his man, but Beale recognises his tradecraft and comes after them.

"I was in The Thing, you know."

Reese learns that Duncan is looking for the truth behind the death of his brother, who was killed amid accusations of selling arms to insurgents. He and Beale both affirm that his brother was an innocent man who died a hero, serving his country, concealing the fact that he was corrupt, and that it was Reese who shot him for it. Beale agrees to leave Duncan alone, and to leave Reese out of his report, showing the kind of integrity that tends to get members of the establishment murdered by Samaritan assets a couple of episodes down the line, which would be sad because he's Keith David and therefore pretty awesome.

Oh, and this ended.

Meanwhile, Root and Finch identify shipments of electronics being misdelivered to an unoccupied address and then rerouted to their destination, and determine that they are being detoured in order to infect them with Samaritan's pernicious malware. Root runs the malware on an isolated machine and finds that its purpose is essentially to turn any electronic device into an extension of Samaritan's web, funnelling any and all data back to the metaphorical spider(1).

There's a definite sense of endgame to Person of Interest, even in a formula episode like this one. I can't imagine that the makers were expecting a renewal, even going into production on Season 5. Reese's alias is given relatively little workout compared to a face like John Rooney, Assets, and while the flashback reintroduces Kara Stanton and reminds us of Reese's past, it's the coming conflict that looms. For my money, the series is still missing Taraji P. Henson, and this is especially glaring here because Fusco doesn't make a single appearance in the episode, skewing us away from crime drama to the show's latterly dominant espionage hat. Ultimately, I find the Samaritan War interesting, but I liked the crime aspects better, and felt that the moral quandary raised by the Machine was murkier without the looming threat of Samaritan. Nothing makes a protagonist look more just than the presence of a diabolical villain, after all.

(1) Although that's not how spider webs work. Maybe more like an ant lion's burrow, or a whirlpool.