I am incredibly grateful to Game of Thrones for this adventure I have found myself sucked into for some years now. I am grateful for all the emotions it brought me since day one, bitter and sweet alike. I am grateful for all the laughs, all the tears, all the jokes and gags, every single bit of it, I really am grateful and appreciative of it all. It's been just... wonderful.
That said, I am feeling robbed and betrayed right about now. This ending is arguably one of the worst series finales in the history of television and trust me I realize how bold of a statement that is. The terrible violations the characters have suffered this season, the lack of proper resolution to many of the plots and narratives developed over seasons worth of buildup, the seeking of shock value at the expense of quality writing... that and much much more solidified this as an absolute disappointment of a finale, as opposed to the marvel wrap it could've given this cultural phenomenon.
This episode does have its positives, as always the score, acting and cinematography are perfectly performed but I just do not think it's nearly enough to compensate for how lackluster the writing has been, as much as I wish they did. Oh well, sad as it may be, I'll just hold on to the good stuff and hope that GRRM's book, once finished, will tackle the ending in a more coherent, more respectful and more meaningful way. It's been real y'all...
P.S: I'll leave this here lest some people jump me again. This comment is a representation of my own personal opinion, I am entitled to one just as all of you are. If you enjoyed this season and felt this finale delivered what you were looking for then more power to you mate, but that doesn't nullify my opinion nor does it make yours any valid. If you want to discuss or challenge my views, I'd be more than happy to engage you on that basis but if all you have to offer are petty remarks then please keep them to yourself.
When Stormfront is speaking German, it's actually pretty good, but with strong accents. She's saying: "Do you remember that day, Frederick, Cloe put her arms out the car window. We found the perfect spot by the river in the shade of an apple tree. It was the first time Cloe ate fresh apples."
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING COMMENT IS RATED S FOR "SAPPY AS HELL". PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
We all know a bad series finale can ruin the entire show, which is why I've been feeling on edge all week. I just wanted a satisfying ending for my team. And, for the most part, I got one.
I started crying as soon as they said the team would never be all in the same room again. And then Deke made a sacrifice to stay in the altered timeline! It made me so emotional, but it was also funny (the way Sousa tried to be all heroic only for Deke to just… go full Deke on him). He’s gonna be just fine. I almost dread to think what SHIELD looks like under his leadership, but I'm sure it's equal parts hilarious and insane.
Fitz guiding Jemma to get her to remember was lovely. Iain and Elizabeth brought their A game, as always. I’ve missed that good old Caestridge magic.
The way they brought the whole thing full circle to the season 6 finale… Genius. The logistics of time travel made my head hurt, though. It’s way too complex for me.
”- Nice flying there.
- That used to be all I did.”
Yeah, like a million years ago. That line got a smile out of me. The season 1 nostalgia is real. Everybody gives the pre-Winter Soldier episodes so much flack, but I really enjoyed those early case-of-the-week shenanigans.
Daisy and Bitch Boy’s showdown paired with Cavalry dropping from the ceiling made me SCREAM. When Daisy blew up those Chronicom ships... Avengers? I don't know them. I only know one superhero and her name is Daisy freaking Johnson. The movies wish they had her. For a minute I really thought she was dead and my heart stopped. I wouldn't put it past the writers to kill her off. The Whedons have never met a surprise death scene they didn't like. But she’s okay! And Kora saved her! I’m fine (* narrator voice * she was not fine).
So like I predicted FitzSimmons had a child. A very blonde, very cute child. Her little voice made me tear up even more, if that’s even possible. That adorable accent!
I'm glad we didn't see the actual goodbye because that would've been too much for me. But I also don't fully understand why they decided to break up the band in the end other than because Enoch and Fitz told them they would. Even though they're still in each other's lives at the end, after 7 seasons of watching them become a family it hurts to see that they're all separated. It's just not the same.
During the last 10 minutes of the episode all the remaining self-control I had went out the window. The waterworks were flowing. Especially when Daisy was the last one left in the room, it really felt like we were watching the character as much as we were watching Chloe herself get hit with the realization that it's over. That broke me. Also, I don't buy for a second that they only do the futuristic Zoom thing once a year. Sure, maybe not all together, but Daisy and Jemma definitely talk like three times a week and they all 100% have a group chat going on that consists mostly of cute videos of Alya and Daisy sending memes (May never says anything but she reads every single message and Coulson uses the wrong emojis all the time). This is what I choose to believe. And none of it contradicts what's been said in canon, so I'm sticking by it. But aside from that minor gripe about the frequency of their communication, I really liked the ending. FitzSimmons are happy with their daughter, May is teaching (which oddly suits her) at a new SHIELD academy named after Coulson and Flint is one of her students, Daisy is in space with Sousa and Kora, Mack and YoYo are still in the field, Coulson and Lola are reunited (the real OTP of this show), even Davis is back! All my babies are okay! That’s all I wanted!
Well, not true. All I wanted was for this show to never end. But it did, as all good things must. And it did so on its own terms, despite everything working against it.
Now comes the truly sappy part.
7 seasons. 136 episodes. And it all ends here.
In October 2014, I was a 16-year-old casual Marvel fan who stumbled upon this show by chance one Saturday afternoon and pressed play on the pilot episode without thinking too much of it. It’s been nearly 6 years since that fateful day and out of all my shows I’ve been watching this one the longest and the most consistently by far. It’s been such a steady presence in my life that I still can’t fully comprehend that there’s not going to be any more episodes to look forward to. Agents of SHIELD has taken root in my heart and ingrained itself in me more deeply than any other piece of media has ever done, which makes this goodbye all the more difficult for me.
Now, I am not going to claim that this show was perfect. But at its best, Agents of SHIELD was an absolute non-stop thrill ride filled with awe-inspiring CGI (especially for a network show!) and exciting fight scenes, jaw-dropping plot twists and well-crafted intrigues, laugh-out-loud humor and heart-wrenching angst, brilliant acting and skillful writing. And most importantly, it had a group of amazing characters at its center, characters who got under my skin and never left, whose adventures I followed with bated breath, whose joy and laughter and pain and tears I felt and shared time and time again. For those characters, for everything I got to experience with them and through them, for all the ways they have enriched my life, I am truly, deeply grateful. I can only say, from the bottom of my heart: thank you.
Thank you for Phil Coulson, the dad to outdad all dads, who gave his life to the cause more than once; whose unwavering belief in his team and everything they stood for was a foundation that the entire show rested on; and whose cheesy one-liners never failed to get a smile from me.
Thank you for Melinda May, our Cavalry, whose many demons never managed to consume her heart; who fashioned her jagged edges into a weapon to protect the people she cared about; who went through hell and unspeakable trauma and came out the other side fighting, always fighting the good fight.
Thank you for Leo Fitz, the man who loved a woman so much that he jumped through a hole in the universe to find her; whose brilliant mind saved the day too many times to count; who suffered so much but always stood for what he believed in, no matter the cost.
Thank you for Jemma Simmons, the girl with two PhDs and a million questions who looked to the stars and yearned for an adventure; who survived being stranded on an alien planet and traveled farther than she ever could’ve imagined; who never backed down, never gave up, never surrendered, even in the face of the most insurmountable odds.
Thank you for my darling Daisy Johnson, a lonely girl without a home or a name who dreamt of a family and built herself one; who went from a hacktivist living in a van to an earth-quaking superhero; who carried the weight of the world on her shoulders but refused to let it break her; who had a blazing fire burning within that nothing, no matter how painful or horrible, could ever snuff out.
Thank you for Mack, YoYo and Deke, who joined the team a little further down the line and became invaluable members of SHIELD. Thank you for Bobbi, Hunter and Lincoln, who I was sad to say goodbye to. Thank you for Ward, who all of us loved to hate. Thank you for every single character, whether main, recurring or guest, for every hero and villain, ally and enemy, everyone who contributed to making Agents of SHIELD what it was.
To my favorite cast, especially my OGs Clark, Ming, Chloe, Lil and Iain, who brought these characters to life and blessed us with their talent every week, and to everyone who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the best show possible: you guys absolutely rock. I wish all of you the best of luck and many, many more successful projects in the future.
Goodbye, my favorite team. I’ll miss you like hell.
If you’re still reading this, thank you for sticking by me while I went through 5 stages of grief in roughly 1,200 words. I feel like I need to stare at the ceiling for a while until the void that this show left inside of me feels a little less cold and overwhelming.
Everyone out here complaining about the ending. I’m just really upset my dude died his hair that hideous red color
‘But it is not about me. I can’t lash out like some raging, entitled maniac. That’s a white man’s luxury’ - Stan Edgar -
Top 3 best cold opens EVER!
you are.... my fire
the one... desire
believe.... when I say
I want it that way!
No joke, this single episode is the best Star Wars I've seen since the throne room sequence in Return of the Jedi. I can't think of anything else that comes close except maybe the ending of Rogue One.
And here I thought the last episode was terrific. This was a near-flawless ribbon on the top of so many different arcs. And it's only the season's midway point.
Cotyar goes down a hero by destroying an infected Agatha King (taking "that asshole" Nguyen with him), Errinwright gets double-teamed by Sorrento and Anna and finally locked away, Mao is captured by Jim and forcibly knelt before Avasarala, Prax finally finds his daughter Mei, safe and sound, and Bobbie confronts a hybrid and finally gets over her PTSD of being defeated by one on Ganymede. Even Jim and Naomi made up and got back together after a risky tip of their hand to Fred Johnson paid off. And then a fucking jellyfish swam out of Venus' atmosphere... It's almost too much to process right away.
So much got packed into this hour yet it all flowed perfectly from one plot line to the other, interweaving where it made sense, and pushing the whole narrative forward in a believable way. This is how you make hard scifi.
The SyFy Channel is positively stupid for giving up on this exceptional piece of television. They really should be forced to change their network's name on account of it deliberately creating confusion for viewers.
[7.7/10] I love me some gray areas in my Star Wars. Don’t get me wrong, the light side vs. dark side stuff. But as I’ve grown older, I appreciate stories, including Star Wars stories, that acknowledge our communities and our choices are rarely that simple.
So I like the fact that the Nightsisters (or at least some kind of presumably related witches’ coven) are presented as a counterpoint to the Jedi, not the villains of the piece. This flashback serves a number of purposes. It gives us some of that vaunted backstory, to help us understand where Osha and Mae and Sol and others are coming from. It fills in the gaps of the events that loom so large in the histories of our twin protagonists, letting the audience see them (or most of them) after being tantalized by only being told about them so far.
But most of all, it establishes a different, but no less valid alternative to the force-users we know. We’ve seen the Jedi. We’ve seen the Sith. We’ve seen the Nightsisters who, while sometimes sympathetic (hello Fallen Order fans!), also seem to be harnessing some kind of black magic. We’ve seen the Bendu, who’s more neutral than gray. And we’ve even seen the more passive and meditative Bardottans. (Aka, the species Jar Jar’s girlfriend is from -- no I’m not joking.)
But we’ve never seen anything quite like this coven led by Osha and Mae’s mother, Mother Aniseya. I love that they have a different take on the Force. The coven thinks the Jedi view the Force as a power to be wielded, whereas they view it more as a thread, a tapestry between peoples and events, that can be tugged and pulled to cause changes amid that weaving. Their perspective on the Force is a collectivist one, where their connection to it is given strength by the multitude, in contrast to the Jedi’s view on attachments. And they don’t view the Force as directing fate, but rather as providing for choices -- one of the core ideas of the franchise.
That is all neat! One of the best parts of The Last Jedi is the notion that the Force does not belong to the Jedi. It is, instead, something that flows through all peoples. Exploring that there may be different religions out there, different means of reaching and interpreting it, adds depth ot he world and adds complication to the binary. It’s nearly never a bad thing to add that kind of complexity and ecumenical spirit to your universe.
More or less. One of the other things I appreciate is that the Coven and the jedi view one another with suspicion, even though they’re mutually respectful at first. The coven sees the Jedi as arrogant, too focused on power, too individualistic. The Jedi view the Coven as dark, as corrupting, as dangerous. I’m always a fan of shows that don’t present one perspective, but rather explore how the different vantage points affect the different views groups may have of one another. (Shades of Deep Space Nine from the other major star-bound franchise!)
This is all to say that the Coven is different than what we’re used to, but no less valid. The Jedi as we see them here are different than what we’re used to, but not invalid. And their twin approaches, alike in dignity, come through in the fulcrum between the Coven and the Order: Mea and Osha.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room with those two. The young actress (actresses?) who play the earlier version of the twins aren’t very good. That's no sin. Giving a convincing performance as an adult with years of experience remains startlingly difficult. But the reality is that, though these young actors are giving it their all, there is a put on, stagey quality to the performance that can take you out of the moment. I dearly hope the fandom is kind to them nonetheless. It’s tough being a young performer, especially in a high profile role. But despite a nice moment from Osha when she realizes the gravity of what she’s lost, a lot of the acting from the kiddos is apt to take the viewer out of the moment.
Thankfully, the writing helps make up for it. Not for nothing, given Lucasfilm’s current ownership, much of this feels like the first act of a film from the Disney Renaissance. Osha could be your classic Disney princess. She loves her family and wants to do good and be righteous, but she has this yearning for something different, beyond the garden gate. The episode lays it on a little thick in places, but it’s a venerable story beat for a reason. There’s something compelling about someone trying to make the best of a family situation that doesn’t quite fit them but yearning adventure out past the horizon. (I mean, hey, it worked for Luke Sykwalker.) Osha is roughly one “I want” song from joining the little mermaid and company.
What I like about it, though, is that you feel for all sides of this situation. You feel for Osha. She wants to have an existence separate from her twin. She doesn’t feel like she fits in with the Coven. She doesn’t want to disappoint her moms or her sister. But she doesn’t want to lie. She doesn’t want to deny herself. She doesn’t want to give up this thing inside her telling her she wants more, or at least different.
You feel for Mae. She admittedly, has signs of being the “evil” twin. (Though I guess they both seem to use their force powers to freeze that translucent butterfly? I’ll admit, it was confusing who was who there at points.) She feels at home in the Coven. She loves the immediate family and the wider one. She has power and ease, and the confidence that comes from feeling that you’re where you ought to be. In the end, she does a terrible thing, but she’s an eight-year-old lashing out at an unfortunate situation. In the larger than life confines of fiction, it’s an easy thing for me to forgive.
You feel for Mother Aniseya. She is trying to protect her people. She wants to raise her daughters in her own proud tradition. But she also wants them to find their own path to it. But, from the vantage point of being a little older and a little wiser, she knows that what you want can change. What makes sense in the exuberance of youth can fall out of favor when it makes contact with the knots and tangles of that great ethereal thread. Wanting to protect your child, to instill your values in theme, while respecting their autonomy as young people is an impossible balance. Aniseya handles it with understanding and grace.
Heck, you even understand Mother Koril, who is the more strict and belligerent parental figure here. The cultural conditions are mostly implied, but it’s easy to intuit how the Coven has been marginalized, diminished, possibly by Force. The girls represent their future, and it seems to have required a great deal of her and her partner to make that happen. Why wouldn’t she do anything to protect her girls, and mistrust the Jedi who would deign to take their future away from her and her family?
And you also feel for Sol. The Acolyte already conveyed a very fatherly vibe between him and Osha,but this episode cements it. I have my qualms about what happens to the young woman, but Sol seems searnest when he tells her that she could be a great Jedi, when he imparts that courage means pursuing honestly what you want, when he embraces her in the throes of tragedy and wants to take her on as a surrogate child. The estranged relationship between them in the present is counterbalanced by this fraught but touching connection between them in the past.
Of course, that past is no less slippery. For one thing, there’s still much that's alluded to that we don’t quite see. Presumably there was some conflict between the Jedi and the Coven that Osha wasn’t privy to, which we’ll see down the line. Presumably, it’s part of what spurred Mae to take the actions she did. Presumably it’s why there’s great regret among the Jedi who survived the encounter. And that's before you get into the fact that apparently Mother Aniseya channeled some forbidden magic, or at least did something controversial, to bring the twins’ lives into being. There’s plenty of lore and intrigue yet.
But for now, at least, we have two cultures at odds with one another, in ways that question and complicate our sympathies. This is Star Wars. We know who the Jedi are. We’re apt to side with them, to see them as Osha does, as peacekeepers and heroes of the galaxy. (Even if we’ve seen their ossification and dissolution over the course of the Prequels.) When Osha wants to be a Jedi, and her witch family tells her to lie, to deny herself what she wants in the same of something she’s uncertain about, it’s easy to see Indara and company as rescuers.
And yet, it’s also hard not to see this different means of reaching the Force, that is apparently all but outlawed, and not have serious qualms about the equivalent of religious persecution. The notion that the Coven is allowed to exist, but forbidden from passing on their knowledge to children is startling. It’s clear that there remains animosity between the Coven and the Jedi, born of mutual mistrust, with ostensible peacemakers and instigators. And it’s hard to think of Republic law allowing the Jedi to test and, with some permission, take children away to be taught in their fashion, without thinking of real life colonial schools, and so-called “residential schools” in the United States, that have a checkered history at best.
So while the show makes things a little too blunt with Mae and Osha standing across from one another on a broken bridge, you get the reasons behind the actions and anguish between these two young girls, between their various parents, between Jedi and the Coven. This is not black and white, good and evil, light and dark. This is something more muddled and uncertain than that. And it portends deeper and more interesting things as the mythos of Star Wars evolves before our eyes.
(Speculative spoilers: My bet is that Mae’s master is one of her moms, probably Mother Koril. THough I guess it being the comparatively peaceful and forgiving Aniseya would be a bigger twist. The law of conservation of characters suggests it’s one of them, unless it’s secretly Master Vernestra or something. But one of the moms would be the bigger emotional gut punch, so I presume and hope it’s one of them.)
tessa thompson come collect your emmy
The emotional breakdown that Maeve goes through after cutting her finger with Jean was one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful scenes this show has ever had, I couldn’t stop tearing up
Michael Burnam on truth serum gas is my everything...
oh lord, he's coming (bi buck)
Big day for bisexuals :heartpulse::purple_heart::blue_heart:
Moving to ABC was the best thing to happen to this show and I can't wait to see how the rest of this season turns out
ENDING IMO
I think , once they prevent the deaths and time-travel from being invented, Jonas'(Split Reality 1) and Martha's(Split Reality 2) universes(realities) are annihilated, the Scientist's "Original reality" splits/branches again, to form another "3rd" Split Reality which is the one shown in the end.
Since "Endings are beginnings and beginnings are endings or everything is predetermined and past/future can't be changed", this would make the most sense without breaking the show's rule because if the Scientist didn't try to invent time Travel, there wouldn't be 2 split realities and with that no Jonas or Martha coming to change the past, and if they didn't come, he would invent time Travel, a Paradox.
So the original reality still exists alongside the new 3rd reality. However Jonas and Martha are erased from existence since their universes no longer exist.
Hannah deciding to name the unborn child 'Jonas' was also a nice way to spare us a completely sad ending.
But hey who knows! The series is open for multiple interpretations.
im not seeing anyone making death threats to writers or crying and downvoting because Sinclair died, but its ok, he wasnt gay so he is unimportant and it doesent matter if he dies
i love Miller and i loved Lexa, but Lexa died to move the plot foward not because the writers thought "oh lets kill Lexa because she is gay haha so funny"
how many main characters have died? more than 10 for sure, so why we only focus on the gay one? gay characters are unkillable? for me they are the same as any character i dont make distinctions and neither the writers
The date sabotage was really stupid. I also really hope O gets shit because she totally used her identity in this woke ass school to get ahead. Fuck her.
Every episode with Ruth Wilson just affirms what a perfect casting choice she was.
Lots covered this episode with some powerful moments. When Mrs Coulter realised it was Lyra in the machine. Just wow.
Brilliant. Just freaking brilliant. I don't know what they're smoking in the writers' room, but someone really needs to ensure that they never run out of it. Ever. Not only was this one crazy stupid bonkers in the usual very good way, but it also did an amazing job of revisiting earlier episodes from this season and tying it all together with the current outing while, at the same time, giving some hilarious alternative endings to what we've seen before. Did I mention that this was brilliant?
A solid outing until that insanely stupid final twist. I imagine that Liv's thought process went something like this: "While I'm breaking all sorts of laws, I should probably sit here wearing headphones and listening to music so that I can't hear my roommate, who is a lawyer for the city, when she comes home. And I should make sure that my laptop screen is facing the door to my room in order to make it as easy as possible for my roommate, who is a lawyer for the city, to immediately see that I'm breaking all sorts of laws when she walks into my room and surprises me. Because being surprised by my roommate, who is a lawyer for the city, is something that will work out well for me when I'm breaking all sorts of laws."
A nice ending to an otherwise uneven season. The christmas special can't get here fast enough.
The Good:
1) Bill's agonizing realization of what she's become.
2) The Doctor's confession to Missie & The Master
3) Missie & The Master at the lift
4) "I'm THE doctor..."
The Bad
1) The resolution of Bill's story. Felt like a Dues Ex Machina rather than clever storytelling
2) The out-of-order intro. It's lazy writing IMO.
I had to look up the origin of "red handed" because they really had me going there. You can feel at peace knowing it has nothing to do with Native Americans.
Joke's on you, John! I laughed so hard.
[7.9/10] So I’m going to level with you here. I love Star Wars when it’s spiritual. I love Star Wars when it’s personal. I love Star Wars when it’s focused on epochal and individual events that reverberate over the course of generations. I love Star Wars when it asks big questions about what we are and what we choose to be.
But heaven help me, I also love Star Wars when it’s full of badass lightsaber fights.
There’s a lot of important events in “night”, the fifth episode of The Acolyte. We find out the identity of Mae’s master. Major characters die. There’s a big switcheroo. Mae and Osha communicate to one another for the first time in the series.
But the part I’m still buzzing on is the kickass fights we get throughout.
Suffice it to say, I know showing bad guys as uber-competent and cool can be problematic, but holy hell, watching Darth Dentum just casually slice and dice his way through the Jedi collective sent to subdue his pupil is awing. I don’t know if it’s quite to Vader hallway fight levels. But still, the way he short-circuits opponents’ lightsabers, the way he uses his vambrace and helmet to block fearsome attacks, the way he uses the Force to skewer two Jedi at the same time, is all badass as hell. Sometimes, villains need to be fearsome, and the quasi-Sith here fits the bill with the hack and slash routine alone.
But his isn’t the only fight with juice here! I love the stand-off between Mae and Jecki. It is not focused on lightsabers, but doesn’t lose any of the intensity. Mae’s resourcefulness matched with Jedcki’s determination to conduct the arrest in honor of her Order makes for a pitched battle between them. The way each uses their environment, and each has a more physical confrontation than the weapons-based combat outside works to add balance and variety to the pugilism in the episode.
Then, we get a standoff between Sol and the darksider. And while the other fights can thrive on craft and coolness alone,this one comes with more character and meaning. This is Osha’s master versus Mae’s master, a battle between the angel on one twin’s shoulder and the devil on the other’s. The standoff in the tree-lined clearing (cleared a little more with the bad guy’s blade) comes with the weight of a conflict between two philosophies. There’s still plenty of coolness in the choreography, with the Sith in particular having a certain balletic grace matched with a wilder style, but there’s also a deeper meaning to the fight.
Part of that comes from the bad guy getting his helmet slashed to reveal it’s Qimir behind the mask. I generally like that. As I mentioned in the last episode, it’s kind of close to the “Darth Jar Jar” theory the internet got hyped up for a while. The reveal that the seeming clown is secretly a machiavellian antagonist has power on its own, and the twist that Mae’s ostensible ally and confidante was also her master comes with a certain impact.
Manny Jacinto does a good job in the role. His line read of the purple prose at the end isn’t great, but as someone who knows him mainly as Jason Mandoza from The Good Place, he is unexpectedly convincing as a steady state badass feigning goofiness to catch his foes off-guard. The way he taunts and throws barbs at Sol in particular lands with a certain sting, and Jacinto sells it like gangbusters.
There’s also the fact that he freakin’ kills people, and not just the Star Wars equivalent of nameless redshirts! We’ve spent time with Yord and Jecki. We have a sense of who they are, and reason to care about them. So as much as it sucks to lose them (or at least lose Jecki, who gets a pre-mortem compliment from Qimir for her courage), the Jedi’s nemesis cutting them down is bracing and meaningful in a way that mowing down randos wouldn’t be. It adds to the list of people that Sol has to avenge.
Only, vengeance is not the Jedi way! What I love about Qimir’s attacks on Sol is that, true to the themes his character embodies, he uses the Jedi’s rules and precepts against them! His goal is to win, sure, but also to try to prove that the Jedi are hypocrites, that their rules are a limitation, and that when push comes to shove, they’ll break them anyway. So he baits Sol by holding Mae hostage and then tweaks him for attacking while his back is turned. He provokes an anger in the stoic Jedi Master that requires Osha to have to stop him from killing. He uses an unarmed state to check how committed Sol is to his principles given the blood on Qimir’s hands.
That is interesting! Frankly, it’s more of a Star Trek sort of thing than a Star Wars one. What do you do when the bad guy isn’t just testing your prowess in battle or the capabilities of your technology, but probing the fault lines of your moral code. I love that sort of thing.
I particularly appreciate Qimir’s pitch -- I just want to be left alone and be free to practice my ways and pass them down. It’s an interesting thought experiment for tolerance. Have the Jedi forged enemies like Qimir with an overly restrictive view of the Force, who may possess it, and how they may use it? Or are those kinds of structures necessary because people like Qimir would wield such powers recklessly and dangerously in ways that leave piles of dead bodies in their wake? In line with “Destiny”, there aren’t easy answers to those questions, and I like that.
Hell, the most powerful exchange in the episode comes when the good guys challenge Qimir for killing a young padawan, and the Sith responds with, “He brought her here.” Who do you blame the death on: the callous killer who claims he must slay anyone who knows his identity so he can practice his ways without being hunted down, or the ostensible noble master who nevertheless brings a veritable child into battle? Or do you blame both? Again, the moral gray area stuff is superb.
I like that split perspective in the confrontation between Mae and Osha as well. Both think the other has been brainwashed. Osha sees the person who killed her family, who always had a mean streak, taken under the tutelage of a false master. Mae sees someone who abandoned her family, who was compelled to give up the love and connection that the Coven represents, and wants to forgive and embrace her anyway. The dialogue is a little blunt, but true to that description, it hits hard.
The other material here is solid, if more mixed. The show set it up in the last episode, so I can't complain too hard, but Osha neutralizing Qimir, even temporarily, with the giant bugs plays as a little convenient in terms of holding off a powerful Sith. The pacing and editing here is a little off, with scenes that cut off at odd times, and several moments where the cinematography/score made me think we were about to let the credits roll, and instead things just kept on going. And the whole switcheroo seems a bit implausible, even if I’m still willing to go.
But this episode makes me think of Revenge of the Sith. Anakin famously declares, “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!” And it’s amusing, because it’s such a blunt and artless announcement of his perspective. But “Night” is that pronouncement taken seriously! Without defending the Sith exactly, the writers examine why someone might see the Jedi that way, even if they’re the bad guy. It brings a depth to the light/dark duality we haven't really seen on the screen before, and I am here for it.
Or I would be, if I weren’t too busy being distracted by the badass lightsaber fights.
It's only natural for people who watch the show for the murder part of the story to find it boring but don't be fooled, it's nothing of the sort. It's a heavy hitting past of vilolence passed down generations of a family, it's a character study, it's dealing with your own demons as one covers a murder in one's hometown, not the other way around.
It's the best show on TV right now, imo!
I was mortified the entire time... mission accomplished. Nate's accent gradually changing and Spooner being "Naked and (un)Afraid" - HILARIOUS!
Another winning parody episode, this time, a mash up of every stupid reality tv show out there.
Reality TV is indeed TERRIFYING! L-O-freaking-L!
This episode is another instant classic.
"Hey are you a swinger?"
Morton and Ava putting a shut down on the co-workers dating right when Gregory and Janine were going to kiss again. I like the drama.
"Before, when it had no effect on me, I was disengaged." - Ava never disappoints.
- "Now let’s have a clean race." -"Clean? Girl I knew you in college."
Mr Johnson knowing Ava would use "6969" as a password is hilarious.
- "Please tell me you didn't use it." -"Used it? Baby, I abused it."
Not the whole staff dealing with injuries from that little park relay. :laughing:
There are a few eye rolling moments, but this episode is mostly... riveting.bahdum tching lol
Jokes aside... of all the DC shows, Legends of Tomorrow still has the winning formula with their satirical elixir. Sure, each episode is a hit or miss, but they manage to weld it all together, like a well oiled machine.
Ok, I'll stop, no need to hammer the point home.
I hate mid-seasons, I forgot a lot of the plot and the storyline