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jedi_of_urthAlso, baseball season has started so any shows that have been put on the back burner are likely to stay there.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x15
I mostly liked this episode, even though most everything I’m going to say about is going to be tangential points that barely reflect anything I feel about the actual episode. Because, ho boy have I got ship related thoughts.
On a less ship note, I think I now definitely ship Amaya/Mick more than Amaya/Nate (and the show hasn’t given much material for Amaya/Zari that really grabbed me even though I kept expecting it to). They are so much more interesting together; she’s totally ogling him in his bathrobe at the beginning; she believes in him in a way no one else would; and as much as he seems pretty checked out of everyone else he still responds to her.
But now my big one, because I kind of feel like the writers have to know how much Rip/Sara hints they’re playing at; and yet clearly don’t respect my ship because there is no way on Earth that Rip Hunter doesn’t go along on a mission to pull Sara out of Hell. I have to conclude that Ava simply didn’t tell him and grabbed Gary on her way out the door and Rip’s going to have a major freakout when he actually hears what’s going on. But my reason for thinking the writers are either building towards something Rip/Sara or are subconsciously reeling from not being able to go that direction; because Ava and Constantine are basically embodiments of the two sides of Rip’s personality.
Constantine is a broken, abrasive, angry, asshole; who drinks hard, is extra British, wanders around in a long coat and a bad attitude; knowingly puts his own missions above others’ good; and 100% sees every dark side that Sara has. Ava is the time agent; the might be hero who mostly doesn’t mind not being recognized for it; the one who knows the rules and regs, but does know when to bend them for a greater cause; the good, safe soul you can build a home and future with; the one who believes in Sara with blind faith. Every single word out of Ava’s mouth that pulls Sara back to the land of the living? Those are Rip’s words, we’ve heard him say those things to her before; but from Rip they never sound naïve, because he’s seen the monster in her, and told her she wasn’t one anyway.
Of course they share a taste in damaged women (even if only one of them realizes Sara is damaged), they’re both Rip Hunter in different outfits.
Basically
John: We share a taste in damaged women.
Rip (somewhere): hey don’t talk about my future wife that way, she’s the greatest.
Ava: Sara isn’t damaged.
Rip: You have met Sara, right?
The X-Files 11x05
I...kind of think I’ll like this one better on rewatch. I liked it okay as it went on and the story took shape, but a lot of the early stuff I wasn’t feeling as much as I would knowing how things shape up. Like, Scully’s very emotional talk to William’s body was undercut at the time because I couldn’t believe it was actually going to be William at this point in the season, after all they clearly weren’t going to bring William back as a corpse, so I thought it was kind of cheap since it must have just been to keep William in mind for the audience. But since it does have relevance to the characters going forward, I think on rewatch I’d be more transported by the performance.
This was a weird episode since it starts off a creature feature, but turns out to be a conspiracy episode, which turns out to be a mytharc episode. I think on reflection I like the unpredictability, that they would reintroduce William in what looks to be a creature or psychic powers episode. One thing I do wish is that we got more of a sense of Scully and Mulder’s lives in the 15 unseen years (besides the second movie), were they always so distracted by thoughts of William or did they have their own lives? It’s not that I don’t think they would have thought of him regularly, but I feel like the limited times we get to see the show means they have to have William come up without establishing other facets of their lives.
I do have one questions, if William’s adoption was supposed to hide him from the conspiracy people, how did they know Jackson was one the experiment babies? If I’m willing to do the work for the writers, his recent symptoms may have tipped some watchlist and they came to bring him in or eliminate the evidence, but that isn’t actually put in the text.
I miss Skinner being part of the team. I know he went through phases back in the day of being drawn to the other forces for various reasons, but I wish they hadn’t gone down that road with him again. I just really wanted him to awkwardly hug Mulder when the truth came out, but that doesn’t work right now and I would rather it did.
Also...the more I think about it the more I think I didn’t complain enough about the s10 finale being turned into a vision. There was way too much in that episode that didn’t involve Scully for that to work; if we assume that Mulder is the father (contrary to present explanation), at least the stuff that involved Mulder could be explained through his connection to Scully and William. I seem to recall there was also stuff with the new kids (that we’ve barely seen this season) and probably Skinner away from Mulder and Scully so...it was a regular episode rather than making sense as a vision.
The X-Files 11x06
I seem to be constantly saying that I don’t know how to feel about these episodes, but I don’t know how to feel about this one. It has this weird sense of being very old school TXF, without being something I really remember them doing in the old days. The conspiracy here is so...banal and grounded without even hinting that it’s something supernatural (although it could be used for that if the plot turned towards it). Maybe they did have more episodes like that back in the day and I just found them forgettable (as discussed, my memory of the old episodes is spotty to bad) but they marry it with some character material this time.
But then the Skinner stuff feels almost left over from another time too (either old school or maybe just last season), because while there’s some lip-service paid to what Skinner’s present plot, there’s no real sense of it being a factor. The whole idea of him living this spartan life with so little attachment or connection, there’s something in that that I doubt will get explored. What I did consider noteworthy in light of the present plot, is that when Mulder runs off Skinner just tells Scully to go after him; because he knows that their place is with each other, and whatever scheme Cancerman thinks he has, no one is breaking up the band at this point.
However, something that’s been nagging at me the last few episodes and I’ve finally had take on solid thought to point out: remember how last season they brought up a lot of concerns about Mulder mental state? What happened to that plot line? Because that was actually a really interesting reevaluation of the character that seemed like some really important consideration. Did they have that in mind (I rather doubt it) when Mulder and Scully were talking about retirement a couple episodes ago? That he’d managed to find some solid ground and channel his problems into the x-files, but what happens when they don’t have that? Does he go back to being the crazy guy in the forest that Scully couldn’t be with?
The X-Files 11x07
Well I do know how I felt about that one, I didn’t like it. It probably wasn’t all bad, but it was boring and annoying badly done.
One point of observation, I don’t believe Mulder would have anything in his house connected to any computer much less the internet that absolutely didn’t need to be (to be fair they did mostly have to send drones, but also no way does he not know how to get himself home without a map); and while Scully probably isn’t quite as paranoid, I don’t see her in a smart house to this extent either, or just accepting electronics she doesn’t know where they came from. The woman has been abducted way too many times to get in a car whose destination could be hacked. For that matter, why didn’t Mulder pick her up for their date and take her home in the first place?
Also, it had always been my headcanon that what is presently Mulder’s house was much further out of DC than implied here (I don’t think it’s very realistic to think he lives in the country just half an hour out of the city), and even when they were living together Scully had an apartment in the city that she could stay at if she was tired after a long shift at the hospital or the weather was too bad to drive back out to the house; then when she moved out of the house she just moved into her apartment. Now, that was some indeterminate amount of time ago, so she could have since gotten a better place than my hypothetical backup apartment, but this is just not the kind of place I would have seen her in even beyond the omnipresence of smart devices. They noted how sparse Skinner’s apartment was last time, but her place isn’t much more homey.
The X-Files 11x08
I liked that one better than the last one, but it was still pretty meh. And I really don’t have much character analysis to do on this one.
This one got off to a bad start with me, because Mulder is the profiler of these two, not Scully, a fact the episode even mentions in passing that Mulder used to work in violent crimes (does not mention that it was as a profiler, so either they only remembered half of the facts or only included half of them, in fact doesn’t Mulder a degree of Oxford in psychology?); and Scully’s profile is pretty generic anyway. But about 2/3 of the way through the episode, when Mulder started up with the theorizing that would sound crazy to any normal person but the show treats as if people wouldn’t think he sounded nuts, it occurred to me that the point must bethat psych profiles are only moderately more fair than blaming the devil. However the message this could have been (to be cautious because psychology in this regard is sort of a pseudo-science that can start just as many witch-hunts as accusing witches) is somewhat undercut by everyone treating Mulder’s theory as perfectly reasonable instead of anyone pointing out that his idea doesn’t make sense. You never have someone say “Agent Mulder...witches aren’t real,” after calmly taking Scully super generic profile at face value, thus highlighting that while we’ve changed the way we talk about these things, it’s all just the same kind of blind accusations.
...I know what I’m trying to say on that subject, but I don’t think I’m saying it all that well.
The X-Files 11x09
I’d gotten it in my head somehow that there was going to be some form of lead in to the finale with this one. Not a two-parter exactly, but connective tissue (pun not entirely intended, but not avoided either). And I’m not sure there isn’t as the plot of this was barely relevant (aside from the fact that it took a lot of time focused on the baddies of the week) but most of the focus was on Mulder and Scully’s relationship and just having them be with each other. It seemed an awful lot like Scully was proposing (wording fully intended) something there at the end, that will I assume figures into the finale.
As you may have suspected (or might have if I’d posted this a week ago), much of the rush through this season has been so I could watch the finale the night it came out, and I think I’ll just go do that. I expect to have thoughts...and maybe tears because I’ve realized I’m not ready to let go again. But I think I’ll even talk about that element when I do some closing thoughts.
The X-Files 11x10
...So, about 45 minutes ago I wrote that I expected to be reduced to tears because I didn’t want to think about the fact that the show was probably ending for good again or least very long hiatus. Well, I have to give it to the show that my reaction is not tears but “huh?”
Let’s be clear, from the start of the episode it feels a lot like last season’s finale, so if this all gets retconned again I think I’ll be less surprised this time. Granted it wasn’t as world-shifting as last season, but enough pieces go off balance to make me aware it could happen. Mainly I mean on...an outlooking scale, if they come back they have to deal with conspiracy pundit man and Kersh being out for blood. And to a lesser extent the fact that Mulder just killed a bunch of people some of which were supposedly powerful in this new world order (I can picture that just being ignored, but I can also see it being retconned out like last finale). On most of the smaller scales I’m less expecting it than you might think.
Because I don’t believe for a second that Skinner is dead even if this does stand. I was basically expecting it to turn out that the gun was empty, which was a narrative reason why Cancerman didn’t shoot Skinner while he was down; Skinner was knocked out, maybe a couple broken bones, he’s fine. And I wondered all season if Scully knew from her vision of last finale that Monica was working for Cancerman why they didn’t do anything with that; and I do believe they would kill her off so pointlessly since she hasn’t really had a point in the revival. And even before the end straight up revealed William/Jackson was alive, I was shaking my head, because he and CSM fell in the water, I was not going to believe that until I saw the bodies; William is too important to the mythos and Cockroach-man has survived so much worse.
But the ending after that, I can’t help feeling a bit like William is somehow providing a happy vision as they bleed to death or something. Because there is no way Scully is that okay that quickly with the news that William was not what she thought he was. Though it is doubly weird because hasn’t it always been pretty clear there was some other force at work in William’s creation? Like, Scully couldn’t have kids but was suddenly pregnant, there were all kinds of forces convinced the kid was going to be some kind of all powerful force, and then he certainly did have superpowers. I’m pretty sure they investigated cases while she was pregnant and after William was born into ways Scully’s system might have been tampered with the create William. I knew she’d be disgusted to find out Cancerman was the father, but that doesn’t make him less hers, hell it barely makes him less Mulder’s; it doesn’t change the way she loved him, when she had him or when she had to give him up or all the time she’s missed him. He wouldn’t just suddenly be some unimportant thing to her.
Given time, I can maybe see her opinion changing. That William basically being a rape-baby of her mortal enemy, conceived in a way she did not consent to, his differences not the product of things she had already been through but there by design; yes she had wanted kids at the time, but she would not have ever agreed to this. And it’s not like she raised William for the last 17 years; she loved the idea of William far longer than she knew anything about him as a living, breathing person. But the truth and trying to make sense of all that it means should still hurt her, should maybe still destroy her after so long with that idea; she should not be okay so soon after the truth comes out.
And when did she find out she’s pregnant again? And doesn’t she have questions about this miracle pregnancy after everything she went through during the first one and even more so now with what she learned?
I may still need to do a season wrap-up, but I need to process my confusion for a bit.
I do feel the need to write some post season (possibly/probably end of series again) TXF thoughts, how I felt about the revival in general and this season in specific, and to clean up some thoughts I had along the way.
My struggle with feelings
Now that it’s been a couple days and the reality that the show is probably over again has sunk in I feel...sad. You may have noticed that there were very few episodes I outright liked this season, or last, and I always marathoned the seasons because I went in with the understanding that I didn’t want to watch this show week to week, it couldn’t hold my attention that way back when that was the way we watched TV. But even though I’m mostly bitching about the show, I still kind of love it.
I know the plot doesn’t make one gods-damned lick of sense; I know the characters are stuck in perpetual limbo because Chris Carter refuses to just let them be together or even have a conversation like normal people; I know we’ll never get answers or this illusive truth that is supposedly out there; and I know these actors have better things to do with their time than be tied to this ghost of a show that came back to us.
But...I don’t want it to be over for good. Back when it ended the first time I was barely paying attention; I was busy with life and school, and pissed off at the series for what it had become without Mulder, and I had watched probably less than half of the last season, and I remember being more pissed off by the old finale than sad that it was going away. And I never really came back to it until the revival. I saw IWTB when it came out, and was content enough to check in my old buddies even if the plot was basically shit. But the revival brought something back that I hadn’t known I was missing. I may be hate-watching it half the time, but I love the characters so damn much that it feels like it used to. Like I know it’s a train crash, but I want to ride that train as long it will keep going.
Which is why I’m probably about to embark on another TXF re/watch (I only made it halfway through s2 when I started doing one after s10). This time it’s not on Netflix though, so I’ll have to find some other way. I think I copied them off a friend ages ago.
We need to talk about Cancerman
So I have found out that the flashbacks we saw to go with the revelation this season did happen back in the day. It would have been s7, and I was watching most every episode at that time, so I probably saw it, which is probably why I kind of remembered it maybe happening. But since they had to pick out just a few moments there wasn’t enough for my shoddy memory to fully latch on to even enough to be sure if it was old footage much less if I saw it. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but knowing it was something that happened, I feel less like my brain is being messed with.
What I do remember from the old days was that I never believed William was definitively Mulder’s child to begin with. I know a lot of people have been complaining to have that retconned, but this is a rare instance where I agree with people complaining that it’s problematic before I look to people complaining that it’s a continuity problem. And it is problematic as hell, I don’t want to completely ignore that fact, even though I’m going to (now that I’m sure it happened) defend it as a continuity piece.
Because I remember a lot of times when the show danced around the question of whether the unborn baby was or even could be Mulder’s. And then, the way I recall it, people just kind of decided one day that William was Mulder’s kid, with no real evidence aside from the fact that he was the only person Scully had slept with in years and they had been trying to have a kid together. But not really explaining the fact that William was a miracle baby no matter who the father was and all the other shit that I half remember happening around them when dealing with the that kid in the womb and out of it.
I don’t remember anything like a genetic test happening (though as previously discussed my memory of especially the last season is very spotty and all of it hasn’t been recalled in years), and even if it had I can see the wiggle room in that. Even if the result weren’t faked (which these people would certainly have the power to do), I could see a false positive considering Mulder would be William’s half brother under these circumstances (which again, ew, but I’m only allowing it from a continuity stand point not a moral or non-disgusting one).
And I’m actually willing to throw CC a bone on this one, because I want to take issue with the fact that it took them so long to figure this out, and if it was always meant to be true it’s clearly only coming out at this point because of the cancelation and revival. But, I don’t think it seems out of character they didn’t figure it out before. Because they gave him up; they didn’t forget, but they let him go even in their hearts; they lived with the memory and the idea of William for 17 years but they didn’t look for him or for any more answers about him until events necessitated it. The believed that he was their son and it was enough, and the –idea- of William was always their son, because they wanted to believe it.
Now, I may feel differently if I ever make it through a full rewatch, but that’s where I stand on the issue: gross and wrong and should have been treated with more care especially in the current climate; but not a continuity problem.
That said, the characters (mainly Scully but also Mulder) don’t have enough time living with the truth for me to buy the way it’s written in what little time we get. But I guess that’s what fic is for.
It all comes back to shipping
In what little fandom look I’ve done about this season, I seem to be one of the few who’s okay with the lack of super demonstrable ship stuff. Sure I would like it if they were making out on the regular, we got more confirmed sex action, that the writers would just let them live together (which I’m pretty sure they’re doing after Scully’s place gets wrecked). and we had more of them running into each other’s arms during and after stressful stuff; but...I still kind of like the way they were here. They’re clearly just together and it’s just not that big a deal most of the time. They’ve been together for somewhere between 15-25 years (because who thinks that even during their separation per-s10 they weren’t still hooking up on the semi-regular?), they’re an old married couple and it’s old news that they’re together at this point. I wish the writers would treat it that way in more ways than an excuse to not write the big stuff, but it’s something I can hold on to when it’s all we get.
We see them dating, we know they slept together in one episode and can figure it happened more often, they talk about their future together, and some of the mistakes of the past. If we can’t fundamentally change the way they’re written after all this time and just be honest about what they are to each other, I’ll take them being in a good place and comfortable with how they are.
That said, the barely metaphorical divorce metaphor of s10 had a reason. It gave a perspective on Mulder’s character that I found really engaging at the time, it was something I really liked about s10. But them still being apart here doesn’t have the same weight, nor does the show really deal with their road back to each other (which had been well started last season to be fair). The show mostly ignores the reason why they were split up in the first place, yet doesn’t write them together...except that they basically are. And it’s not terrible in my book, but I do wish it could have been more.
If this is their “happy ending” it’s an iffy one. It’s not well done by any stretch, but it is a new beginning and they’re standing facing it together, like they always do. And I guess that’s maybe the best I was hoping for, to make part of me wish we could see their futures even if a part of me is perfectly happy that they won’t be at the mercy of the writers for that future.
And yes, I’ve ended up deciding that for tori_reviews I am going to do TXF for a while, if you want to come with me.
Agents of SHIELD 5x14
I liked that one for the Fitz plot, because I love pain; the other plot annoyed me because they brought back the Russian but still haven’t dealt with the stuff I want dealt with from last season.
I did notice as the plot went on that Fitz’s stutter was back and getting progressively worse. At first, it just being there a bit seemed like a reaction to fatigue and stress; and then as it settled in I started thinking they might being playing it up a bit for the sake of contrasting Fitz and The Doctor or possibly that part of Fitz’s manifesting fear was the weakened state he was in in s2. But the end result works well, especially since Simmons points out that this was the way he was when his mind wasn’t quite right (and I like that he has told her at some point about how he used to do that...or that was head-Simmons that he’s talking to again, either way it’s a reminder that Fitz’s brain has been messed with a lot over time).
Part of the reason I wonder if it’s head-Simmons is because she’s quicker to forgive what Fitz did that I feel is right. Fitz knows what he did was terrible and wrong, so even head-Simmons wouldn’t entirely tell him he did a good job, but she’s pretty willing to try and find the optimism in it. Simmons might do the same, but the doubt is in my mind partly since as much as I want to think he told Simmons about seeing her when she was gone I don’t believe we saw them do it so it could go either way. And look, if Fitz had snapped out of it and still insisted that Skye had to do this to protect them but at least set up a better medical facility, hell, let Jemma the actual doctor of the two of them perform the surgery with some better pin relief it still would have been pretty dark but would have given it at least a level of caring.
But as said, I love pain, so this is my jam. It’s dark and twisted and mean (and I probably am less affected because Skye’s the one being mistreated and all I want to do is deal with Fitz and Simmons’ pain), though all I can think it the end is “...so we’ve sealed the rift and we’re not going to deal with the fact that May’s greatest fear is Coulson dying again?”
Because I am way past ready to get back to the Philinda plot the writers seem to refuse to come back to. I’m hoping she’ll just go off book and rescue his ass next week and they’ll finally say any of the 20,000 things they should be saying to each other at this point. Air the dirty laundry guys, it’s way past time to do so.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x16
I want to say I liked the episode, because there were definitely parts that worked for me and yet...I can’t think that I actually liked any of the plotlines without a good deal of reservation.
I feel like 30 seconds into the Ava plot they should have been storming into Rip’s office for why so many pieces didn’t work. I can’t figure out why Amaya couldn’t come back and be the one to train Mick since she wasn’t actually doing anything most of the episode and he and Zari clearly don’t work so well together. And the other plot insisted on involving the Darhks who I’m really tired of; also it could not be more obvious that they just want the Legends to wield the totems in the final fight, so of course Kuasa had to die for poorly explained motivations and reasons.
Also I’m just tired of Ava. The novelty of her being a stand in for Rip in Sara’s life was pretty much over last episode when there was no narrative reason not to have Rip involved and they gave Ava all the lines that should have been his to call Sara out of the darkness. This is where the fact I could never see her as anything but a stand-in for Rip becomes a huge problem when you want me to care about her character and arc apart from standing in for Rip. Also, somewhere in the last couple episodes they crossed the line into overuse with Gary, I guess I’m just over the whole Time Bureau thing.
Plus this is the first time they’ve been to the moderate distance future in ages and I would have very much appreciated some comment. Like was the world still destroyed by Savage? How about the Thanagarians? Gods I miss Rip.
Arrow 6x16
My gut reaction is to say that I liked that one, even if some pieces are kind of weirdly handled. I didn’t get what I wanted from Roy’s return (in complicating relations with the other team), but as a way to write Thea off the show again this isn’t bad (I’d rather have Thea around, but that’s clearly not what they’re doing these days).
I kind of love that Nyssa has stayed married to Oliver all this time just to mess with him and Felicity. It wasn’t like Oliver wanted anything from their marriage, in fact it was useful to her more often than it was to him, even when he called her in for reinforcements in the s5 finale I’m certain he appealed to her as a friend instead of a husband; and it wasn’t like Nyssa was looking to marry anyone else. Some of it implies that she really likes picking on Felicity with this maybe even more than Oliver, which is a little weird, but amuses me.
Some time ago, probably a few seasons ago, I saw someone suggest that Oliver is his most true self when he’s in the Arrow suit, hood down, mask off; visibly Oliver but in the Arrow suit, and this episode sort of seems to think along the same lines. I don’t know that I agree, because we have never seen Oliver happier or more content than when he stops being the Arrow after s3 and the start of this season; and since s5 proposed that the suit was his outlet for the monster inside I’m not sure the writers have even tried to convey that on a regular basis. If they can stick to this interpretation, I may be able to get behind it, but they hadn’t earned this conclusion to date.
That said, Oliver does need to be honest with John about what the future looks like. If it was still supposed to be temporary, then what the end goal? I know it sounds bad to say he doesn’t trust John to be able to handle Diaz alone, but does Oliver trust himself to do it alone if he had to? Because I don’t know that he does; although they both could if they had to, as long as they had Felicity because neither of them are any good without her at this point. I think John’s being a bit of a baby about wanting to be the Green Arrow when Oliver actually is an archer; but he does deserve honesty about what they’re doing at this point.
I am glad that Thea and Roy found a way to stick together. It’s not real clear if Roy is officially alive again or if he has to be on the run if he is, but I’m okay with this. At least for now, and I only need to be okay with this for now, this is their mission, not their lives. And they get to hang out with Nyssa, I like Nyssa and I think they can all be fairly good for each other.
Agents of SHIELD 5x15
This season just keeps getting worse. This was a really bad episode, except maybe for the last ten minutes or so. Anything to do with Hale and Hydra is just not good. Sure there’s something in the idea of exploring a Hydra who thinks they’re the good guys, and that in the face of a bigger threat there might be cause to join forces; but that doesn’t justify spending half the episode on backstory that’s pure crap. It is good to see Talbot again...that’s something.
The last ten minutes or so, dealing with what’s going on with Fitz was something I really like however. Again, I do like pain and angst, and there is a ton of potential in them trying to use Fitz’s dark side for good and how easily that could screw a lot of things up (starting with Fitz himself). Though I wish they would pay more than lip service to the fact that May has the same difficulties. Granted that may be the point, that she would only think such a thing because of her own experience, but they’re not really exploring that.
I’m not so keen on the characters starting to think of themselves as immortal because they survive in a future they’re supposedly trying to change. In fact, if they want to test that theory, try doing something to prevent that future. Sure, getting suicidal in an effort to change the future is probably a bit extreme, but we could start with Fitz getting a vasectomy. Not fair perhaps, but beginning evidence that the future can be changed. Though I do love Fitz’s reaction to the news that Deke is their grandson, that was fun.
Also, Skye remains the worst choice to lead anything. She’s terrible at it. She a complete asshole, gives up at the drop of a hat (Mack keeps threatening to quit, but he’s still trying), doesn’t remember how to fight or think without her powers apparently, has basically no critical thinking skills, and is a complete dumbass. If this is leadership by the writers’ estimation, I’m concerned for the writing team is like.
After this episode I’m sort of tempted to hold back on the next few episodes and marathon them close to the end of the season. I really didn’t like this episode.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x15
I mostly liked this episode, even though most everything I’m going to say about is going to be tangential points that barely reflect anything I feel about the actual episode. Because, ho boy have I got ship related thoughts.
On a less ship note, I think I now definitely ship Amaya/Mick more than Amaya/Nate (and the show hasn’t given much material for Amaya/Zari that really grabbed me even though I kept expecting it to). They are so much more interesting together; she’s totally ogling him in his bathrobe at the beginning; she believes in him in a way no one else would; and as much as he seems pretty checked out of everyone else he still responds to her.
But now my big one, because I kind of feel like the writers have to know how much Rip/Sara hints they’re playing at; and yet clearly don’t respect my ship because there is no way on Earth that Rip Hunter doesn’t go along on a mission to pull Sara out of Hell. I have to conclude that Ava simply didn’t tell him and grabbed Gary on her way out the door and Rip’s going to have a major freakout when he actually hears what’s going on. But my reason for thinking the writers are either building towards something Rip/Sara or are subconsciously reeling from not being able to go that direction; because Ava and Constantine are basically embodiments of the two sides of Rip’s personality.
Constantine is a broken, abrasive, angry, asshole; who drinks hard, is extra British, wanders around in a long coat and a bad attitude; knowingly puts his own missions above others’ good; and 100% sees every dark side that Sara has. Ava is the time agent; the might be hero who mostly doesn’t mind not being recognized for it; the one who knows the rules and regs, but does know when to bend them for a greater cause; the good, safe soul you can build a home and future with; the one who believes in Sara with blind faith. Every single word out of Ava’s mouth that pulls Sara back to the land of the living? Those are Rip’s words, we’ve heard him say those things to her before; but from Rip they never sound naïve, because he’s seen the monster in her, and told her she wasn’t one anyway.
Of course they share a taste in damaged women (even if only one of them realizes Sara is damaged), they’re both Rip Hunter in different outfits.
Basically
John: We share a taste in damaged women.
Rip (somewhere): hey don’t talk about my future wife that way, she’s the greatest.
Ava: Sara isn’t damaged.
Rip: You have met Sara, right?
The X-Files 11x05
I...kind of think I’ll like this one better on rewatch. I liked it okay as it went on and the story took shape, but a lot of the early stuff I wasn’t feeling as much as I would knowing how things shape up. Like, Scully’s very emotional talk to William’s body was undercut at the time because I couldn’t believe it was actually going to be William at this point in the season, after all they clearly weren’t going to bring William back as a corpse, so I thought it was kind of cheap since it must have just been to keep William in mind for the audience. But since it does have relevance to the characters going forward, I think on rewatch I’d be more transported by the performance.
This was a weird episode since it starts off a creature feature, but turns out to be a conspiracy episode, which turns out to be a mytharc episode. I think on reflection I like the unpredictability, that they would reintroduce William in what looks to be a creature or psychic powers episode. One thing I do wish is that we got more of a sense of Scully and Mulder’s lives in the 15 unseen years (besides the second movie), were they always so distracted by thoughts of William or did they have their own lives? It’s not that I don’t think they would have thought of him regularly, but I feel like the limited times we get to see the show means they have to have William come up without establishing other facets of their lives.
I do have one questions, if William’s adoption was supposed to hide him from the conspiracy people, how did they know Jackson was one the experiment babies? If I’m willing to do the work for the writers, his recent symptoms may have tipped some watchlist and they came to bring him in or eliminate the evidence, but that isn’t actually put in the text.
I miss Skinner being part of the team. I know he went through phases back in the day of being drawn to the other forces for various reasons, but I wish they hadn’t gone down that road with him again. I just really wanted him to awkwardly hug Mulder when the truth came out, but that doesn’t work right now and I would rather it did.
Also...the more I think about it the more I think I didn’t complain enough about the s10 finale being turned into a vision. There was way too much in that episode that didn’t involve Scully for that to work; if we assume that Mulder is the father (contrary to present explanation), at least the stuff that involved Mulder could be explained through his connection to Scully and William. I seem to recall there was also stuff with the new kids (that we’ve barely seen this season) and probably Skinner away from Mulder and Scully so...it was a regular episode rather than making sense as a vision.
The X-Files 11x06
I seem to be constantly saying that I don’t know how to feel about these episodes, but I don’t know how to feel about this one. It has this weird sense of being very old school TXF, without being something I really remember them doing in the old days. The conspiracy here is so...banal and grounded without even hinting that it’s something supernatural (although it could be used for that if the plot turned towards it). Maybe they did have more episodes like that back in the day and I just found them forgettable (as discussed, my memory of the old episodes is spotty to bad) but they marry it with some character material this time.
But then the Skinner stuff feels almost left over from another time too (either old school or maybe just last season), because while there’s some lip-service paid to what Skinner’s present plot, there’s no real sense of it being a factor. The whole idea of him living this spartan life with so little attachment or connection, there’s something in that that I doubt will get explored. What I did consider noteworthy in light of the present plot, is that when Mulder runs off Skinner just tells Scully to go after him; because he knows that their place is with each other, and whatever scheme Cancerman thinks he has, no one is breaking up the band at this point.
However, something that’s been nagging at me the last few episodes and I’ve finally had take on solid thought to point out: remember how last season they brought up a lot of concerns about Mulder mental state? What happened to that plot line? Because that was actually a really interesting reevaluation of the character that seemed like some really important consideration. Did they have that in mind (I rather doubt it) when Mulder and Scully were talking about retirement a couple episodes ago? That he’d managed to find some solid ground and channel his problems into the x-files, but what happens when they don’t have that? Does he go back to being the crazy guy in the forest that Scully couldn’t be with?
The X-Files 11x07
Well I do know how I felt about that one, I didn’t like it. It probably wasn’t all bad, but it was boring and annoying badly done.
One point of observation, I don’t believe Mulder would have anything in his house connected to any computer much less the internet that absolutely didn’t need to be (to be fair they did mostly have to send drones, but also no way does he not know how to get himself home without a map); and while Scully probably isn’t quite as paranoid, I don’t see her in a smart house to this extent either, or just accepting electronics she doesn’t know where they came from. The woman has been abducted way too many times to get in a car whose destination could be hacked. For that matter, why didn’t Mulder pick her up for their date and take her home in the first place?
Also, it had always been my headcanon that what is presently Mulder’s house was much further out of DC than implied here (I don’t think it’s very realistic to think he lives in the country just half an hour out of the city), and even when they were living together Scully had an apartment in the city that she could stay at if she was tired after a long shift at the hospital or the weather was too bad to drive back out to the house; then when she moved out of the house she just moved into her apartment. Now, that was some indeterminate amount of time ago, so she could have since gotten a better place than my hypothetical backup apartment, but this is just not the kind of place I would have seen her in even beyond the omnipresence of smart devices. They noted how sparse Skinner’s apartment was last time, but her place isn’t much more homey.
The X-Files 11x08
I liked that one better than the last one, but it was still pretty meh. And I really don’t have much character analysis to do on this one.
This one got off to a bad start with me, because Mulder is the profiler of these two, not Scully, a fact the episode even mentions in passing that Mulder used to work in violent crimes (does not mention that it was as a profiler, so either they only remembered half of the facts or only included half of them, in fact doesn’t Mulder a degree of Oxford in psychology?); and Scully’s profile is pretty generic anyway. But about 2/3 of the way through the episode, when Mulder started up with the theorizing that would sound crazy to any normal person but the show treats as if people wouldn’t think he sounded nuts, it occurred to me that the point must bethat psych profiles are only moderately more fair than blaming the devil. However the message this could have been (to be cautious because psychology in this regard is sort of a pseudo-science that can start just as many witch-hunts as accusing witches) is somewhat undercut by everyone treating Mulder’s theory as perfectly reasonable instead of anyone pointing out that his idea doesn’t make sense. You never have someone say “Agent Mulder...witches aren’t real,” after calmly taking Scully super generic profile at face value, thus highlighting that while we’ve changed the way we talk about these things, it’s all just the same kind of blind accusations.
...I know what I’m trying to say on that subject, but I don’t think I’m saying it all that well.
The X-Files 11x09
I’d gotten it in my head somehow that there was going to be some form of lead in to the finale with this one. Not a two-parter exactly, but connective tissue (pun not entirely intended, but not avoided either). And I’m not sure there isn’t as the plot of this was barely relevant (aside from the fact that it took a lot of time focused on the baddies of the week) but most of the focus was on Mulder and Scully’s relationship and just having them be with each other. It seemed an awful lot like Scully was proposing (wording fully intended) something there at the end, that will I assume figures into the finale.
As you may have suspected (or might have if I’d posted this a week ago), much of the rush through this season has been so I could watch the finale the night it came out, and I think I’ll just go do that. I expect to have thoughts...and maybe tears because I’ve realized I’m not ready to let go again. But I think I’ll even talk about that element when I do some closing thoughts.
The X-Files 11x10
...So, about 45 minutes ago I wrote that I expected to be reduced to tears because I didn’t want to think about the fact that the show was probably ending for good again or least very long hiatus. Well, I have to give it to the show that my reaction is not tears but “huh?”
Let’s be clear, from the start of the episode it feels a lot like last season’s finale, so if this all gets retconned again I think I’ll be less surprised this time. Granted it wasn’t as world-shifting as last season, but enough pieces go off balance to make me aware it could happen. Mainly I mean on...an outlooking scale, if they come back they have to deal with conspiracy pundit man and Kersh being out for blood. And to a lesser extent the fact that Mulder just killed a bunch of people some of which were supposedly powerful in this new world order (I can picture that just being ignored, but I can also see it being retconned out like last finale). On most of the smaller scales I’m less expecting it than you might think.
Because I don’t believe for a second that Skinner is dead even if this does stand. I was basically expecting it to turn out that the gun was empty, which was a narrative reason why Cancerman didn’t shoot Skinner while he was down; Skinner was knocked out, maybe a couple broken bones, he’s fine. And I wondered all season if Scully knew from her vision of last finale that Monica was working for Cancerman why they didn’t do anything with that; and I do believe they would kill her off so pointlessly since she hasn’t really had a point in the revival. And even before the end straight up revealed William/Jackson was alive, I was shaking my head, because he and CSM fell in the water, I was not going to believe that until I saw the bodies; William is too important to the mythos and Cockroach-man has survived so much worse.
But the ending after that, I can’t help feeling a bit like William is somehow providing a happy vision as they bleed to death or something. Because there is no way Scully is that okay that quickly with the news that William was not what she thought he was. Though it is doubly weird because hasn’t it always been pretty clear there was some other force at work in William’s creation? Like, Scully couldn’t have kids but was suddenly pregnant, there were all kinds of forces convinced the kid was going to be some kind of all powerful force, and then he certainly did have superpowers. I’m pretty sure they investigated cases while she was pregnant and after William was born into ways Scully’s system might have been tampered with the create William. I knew she’d be disgusted to find out Cancerman was the father, but that doesn’t make him less hers, hell it barely makes him less Mulder’s; it doesn’t change the way she loved him, when she had him or when she had to give him up or all the time she’s missed him. He wouldn’t just suddenly be some unimportant thing to her.
Given time, I can maybe see her opinion changing. That William basically being a rape-baby of her mortal enemy, conceived in a way she did not consent to, his differences not the product of things she had already been through but there by design; yes she had wanted kids at the time, but she would not have ever agreed to this. And it’s not like she raised William for the last 17 years; she loved the idea of William far longer than she knew anything about him as a living, breathing person. But the truth and trying to make sense of all that it means should still hurt her, should maybe still destroy her after so long with that idea; she should not be okay so soon after the truth comes out.
And when did she find out she’s pregnant again? And doesn’t she have questions about this miracle pregnancy after everything she went through during the first one and even more so now with what she learned?
I may still need to do a season wrap-up, but I need to process my confusion for a bit.
I do feel the need to write some post season (possibly/probably end of series again) TXF thoughts, how I felt about the revival in general and this season in specific, and to clean up some thoughts I had along the way.
My struggle with feelings
Now that it’s been a couple days and the reality that the show is probably over again has sunk in I feel...sad. You may have noticed that there were very few episodes I outright liked this season, or last, and I always marathoned the seasons because I went in with the understanding that I didn’t want to watch this show week to week, it couldn’t hold my attention that way back when that was the way we watched TV. But even though I’m mostly bitching about the show, I still kind of love it.
I know the plot doesn’t make one gods-damned lick of sense; I know the characters are stuck in perpetual limbo because Chris Carter refuses to just let them be together or even have a conversation like normal people; I know we’ll never get answers or this illusive truth that is supposedly out there; and I know these actors have better things to do with their time than be tied to this ghost of a show that came back to us.
But...I don’t want it to be over for good. Back when it ended the first time I was barely paying attention; I was busy with life and school, and pissed off at the series for what it had become without Mulder, and I had watched probably less than half of the last season, and I remember being more pissed off by the old finale than sad that it was going away. And I never really came back to it until the revival. I saw IWTB when it came out, and was content enough to check in my old buddies even if the plot was basically shit. But the revival brought something back that I hadn’t known I was missing. I may be hate-watching it half the time, but I love the characters so damn much that it feels like it used to. Like I know it’s a train crash, but I want to ride that train as long it will keep going.
Which is why I’m probably about to embark on another TXF re/watch (I only made it halfway through s2 when I started doing one after s10). This time it’s not on Netflix though, so I’ll have to find some other way. I think I copied them off a friend ages ago.
We need to talk about Cancerman
So I have found out that the flashbacks we saw to go with the revelation this season did happen back in the day. It would have been s7, and I was watching most every episode at that time, so I probably saw it, which is probably why I kind of remembered it maybe happening. But since they had to pick out just a few moments there wasn’t enough for my shoddy memory to fully latch on to even enough to be sure if it was old footage much less if I saw it. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but knowing it was something that happened, I feel less like my brain is being messed with.
What I do remember from the old days was that I never believed William was definitively Mulder’s child to begin with. I know a lot of people have been complaining to have that retconned, but this is a rare instance where I agree with people complaining that it’s problematic before I look to people complaining that it’s a continuity problem. And it is problematic as hell, I don’t want to completely ignore that fact, even though I’m going to (now that I’m sure it happened) defend it as a continuity piece.
Because I remember a lot of times when the show danced around the question of whether the unborn baby was or even could be Mulder’s. And then, the way I recall it, people just kind of decided one day that William was Mulder’s kid, with no real evidence aside from the fact that he was the only person Scully had slept with in years and they had been trying to have a kid together. But not really explaining the fact that William was a miracle baby no matter who the father was and all the other shit that I half remember happening around them when dealing with the that kid in the womb and out of it.
I don’t remember anything like a genetic test happening (though as previously discussed my memory of especially the last season is very spotty and all of it hasn’t been recalled in years), and even if it had I can see the wiggle room in that. Even if the result weren’t faked (which these people would certainly have the power to do), I could see a false positive considering Mulder would be William’s half brother under these circumstances (which again, ew, but I’m only allowing it from a continuity stand point not a moral or non-disgusting one).
And I’m actually willing to throw CC a bone on this one, because I want to take issue with the fact that it took them so long to figure this out, and if it was always meant to be true it’s clearly only coming out at this point because of the cancelation and revival. But, I don’t think it seems out of character they didn’t figure it out before. Because they gave him up; they didn’t forget, but they let him go even in their hearts; they lived with the memory and the idea of William for 17 years but they didn’t look for him or for any more answers about him until events necessitated it. The believed that he was their son and it was enough, and the –idea- of William was always their son, because they wanted to believe it.
Now, I may feel differently if I ever make it through a full rewatch, but that’s where I stand on the issue: gross and wrong and should have been treated with more care especially in the current climate; but not a continuity problem.
That said, the characters (mainly Scully but also Mulder) don’t have enough time living with the truth for me to buy the way it’s written in what little time we get. But I guess that’s what fic is for.
It all comes back to shipping
In what little fandom look I’ve done about this season, I seem to be one of the few who’s okay with the lack of super demonstrable ship stuff. Sure I would like it if they were making out on the regular, we got more confirmed sex action, that the writers would just let them live together (which I’m pretty sure they’re doing after Scully’s place gets wrecked). and we had more of them running into each other’s arms during and after stressful stuff; but...I still kind of like the way they were here. They’re clearly just together and it’s just not that big a deal most of the time. They’ve been together for somewhere between 15-25 years (because who thinks that even during their separation per-s10 they weren’t still hooking up on the semi-regular?), they’re an old married couple and it’s old news that they’re together at this point. I wish the writers would treat it that way in more ways than an excuse to not write the big stuff, but it’s something I can hold on to when it’s all we get.
We see them dating, we know they slept together in one episode and can figure it happened more often, they talk about their future together, and some of the mistakes of the past. If we can’t fundamentally change the way they’re written after all this time and just be honest about what they are to each other, I’ll take them being in a good place and comfortable with how they are.
That said, the barely metaphorical divorce metaphor of s10 had a reason. It gave a perspective on Mulder’s character that I found really engaging at the time, it was something I really liked about s10. But them still being apart here doesn’t have the same weight, nor does the show really deal with their road back to each other (which had been well started last season to be fair). The show mostly ignores the reason why they were split up in the first place, yet doesn’t write them together...except that they basically are. And it’s not terrible in my book, but I do wish it could have been more.
If this is their “happy ending” it’s an iffy one. It’s not well done by any stretch, but it is a new beginning and they’re standing facing it together, like they always do. And I guess that’s maybe the best I was hoping for, to make part of me wish we could see their futures even if a part of me is perfectly happy that they won’t be at the mercy of the writers for that future.
And yes, I’ve ended up deciding that for tori_reviews I am going to do TXF for a while, if you want to come with me.
Agents of SHIELD 5x14
I liked that one for the Fitz plot, because I love pain; the other plot annoyed me because they brought back the Russian but still haven’t dealt with the stuff I want dealt with from last season.
I did notice as the plot went on that Fitz’s stutter was back and getting progressively worse. At first, it just being there a bit seemed like a reaction to fatigue and stress; and then as it settled in I started thinking they might being playing it up a bit for the sake of contrasting Fitz and The Doctor or possibly that part of Fitz’s manifesting fear was the weakened state he was in in s2. But the end result works well, especially since Simmons points out that this was the way he was when his mind wasn’t quite right (and I like that he has told her at some point about how he used to do that...or that was head-Simmons that he’s talking to again, either way it’s a reminder that Fitz’s brain has been messed with a lot over time).
Part of the reason I wonder if it’s head-Simmons is because she’s quicker to forgive what Fitz did that I feel is right. Fitz knows what he did was terrible and wrong, so even head-Simmons wouldn’t entirely tell him he did a good job, but she’s pretty willing to try and find the optimism in it. Simmons might do the same, but the doubt is in my mind partly since as much as I want to think he told Simmons about seeing her when she was gone I don’t believe we saw them do it so it could go either way. And look, if Fitz had snapped out of it and still insisted that Skye had to do this to protect them but at least set up a better medical facility, hell, let Jemma the actual doctor of the two of them perform the surgery with some better pin relief it still would have been pretty dark but would have given it at least a level of caring.
But as said, I love pain, so this is my jam. It’s dark and twisted and mean (and I probably am less affected because Skye’s the one being mistreated and all I want to do is deal with Fitz and Simmons’ pain), though all I can think it the end is “...so we’ve sealed the rift and we’re not going to deal with the fact that May’s greatest fear is Coulson dying again?”
Because I am way past ready to get back to the Philinda plot the writers seem to refuse to come back to. I’m hoping she’ll just go off book and rescue his ass next week and they’ll finally say any of the 20,000 things they should be saying to each other at this point. Air the dirty laundry guys, it’s way past time to do so.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x16
I want to say I liked the episode, because there were definitely parts that worked for me and yet...I can’t think that I actually liked any of the plotlines without a good deal of reservation.
I feel like 30 seconds into the Ava plot they should have been storming into Rip’s office for why so many pieces didn’t work. I can’t figure out why Amaya couldn’t come back and be the one to train Mick since she wasn’t actually doing anything most of the episode and he and Zari clearly don’t work so well together. And the other plot insisted on involving the Darhks who I’m really tired of; also it could not be more obvious that they just want the Legends to wield the totems in the final fight, so of course Kuasa had to die for poorly explained motivations and reasons.
Also I’m just tired of Ava. The novelty of her being a stand in for Rip in Sara’s life was pretty much over last episode when there was no narrative reason not to have Rip involved and they gave Ava all the lines that should have been his to call Sara out of the darkness. This is where the fact I could never see her as anything but a stand-in for Rip becomes a huge problem when you want me to care about her character and arc apart from standing in for Rip. Also, somewhere in the last couple episodes they crossed the line into overuse with Gary, I guess I’m just over the whole Time Bureau thing.
Plus this is the first time they’ve been to the moderate distance future in ages and I would have very much appreciated some comment. Like was the world still destroyed by Savage? How about the Thanagarians? Gods I miss Rip.
Arrow 6x16
My gut reaction is to say that I liked that one, even if some pieces are kind of weirdly handled. I didn’t get what I wanted from Roy’s return (in complicating relations with the other team), but as a way to write Thea off the show again this isn’t bad (I’d rather have Thea around, but that’s clearly not what they’re doing these days).
I kind of love that Nyssa has stayed married to Oliver all this time just to mess with him and Felicity. It wasn’t like Oliver wanted anything from their marriage, in fact it was useful to her more often than it was to him, even when he called her in for reinforcements in the s5 finale I’m certain he appealed to her as a friend instead of a husband; and it wasn’t like Nyssa was looking to marry anyone else. Some of it implies that she really likes picking on Felicity with this maybe even more than Oliver, which is a little weird, but amuses me.
Some time ago, probably a few seasons ago, I saw someone suggest that Oliver is his most true self when he’s in the Arrow suit, hood down, mask off; visibly Oliver but in the Arrow suit, and this episode sort of seems to think along the same lines. I don’t know that I agree, because we have never seen Oliver happier or more content than when he stops being the Arrow after s3 and the start of this season; and since s5 proposed that the suit was his outlet for the monster inside I’m not sure the writers have even tried to convey that on a regular basis. If they can stick to this interpretation, I may be able to get behind it, but they hadn’t earned this conclusion to date.
That said, Oliver does need to be honest with John about what the future looks like. If it was still supposed to be temporary, then what the end goal? I know it sounds bad to say he doesn’t trust John to be able to handle Diaz alone, but does Oliver trust himself to do it alone if he had to? Because I don’t know that he does; although they both could if they had to, as long as they had Felicity because neither of them are any good without her at this point. I think John’s being a bit of a baby about wanting to be the Green Arrow when Oliver actually is an archer; but he does deserve honesty about what they’re doing at this point.
I am glad that Thea and Roy found a way to stick together. It’s not real clear if Roy is officially alive again or if he has to be on the run if he is, but I’m okay with this. At least for now, and I only need to be okay with this for now, this is their mission, not their lives. And they get to hang out with Nyssa, I like Nyssa and I think they can all be fairly good for each other.
Agents of SHIELD 5x15
This season just keeps getting worse. This was a really bad episode, except maybe for the last ten minutes or so. Anything to do with Hale and Hydra is just not good. Sure there’s something in the idea of exploring a Hydra who thinks they’re the good guys, and that in the face of a bigger threat there might be cause to join forces; but that doesn’t justify spending half the episode on backstory that’s pure crap. It is good to see Talbot again...that’s something.
The last ten minutes or so, dealing with what’s going on with Fitz was something I really like however. Again, I do like pain and angst, and there is a ton of potential in them trying to use Fitz’s dark side for good and how easily that could screw a lot of things up (starting with Fitz himself). Though I wish they would pay more than lip service to the fact that May has the same difficulties. Granted that may be the point, that she would only think such a thing because of her own experience, but they’re not really exploring that.
I’m not so keen on the characters starting to think of themselves as immortal because they survive in a future they’re supposedly trying to change. In fact, if they want to test that theory, try doing something to prevent that future. Sure, getting suicidal in an effort to change the future is probably a bit extreme, but we could start with Fitz getting a vasectomy. Not fair perhaps, but beginning evidence that the future can be changed. Though I do love Fitz’s reaction to the news that Deke is their grandson, that was fun.
Also, Skye remains the worst choice to lead anything. She’s terrible at it. She a complete asshole, gives up at the drop of a hat (Mack keeps threatening to quit, but he’s still trying), doesn’t remember how to fight or think without her powers apparently, has basically no critical thinking skills, and is a complete dumbass. If this is leadership by the writers’ estimation, I’m concerned for the writing team is like.
After this episode I’m sort of tempted to hold back on the next few episodes and marathon them close to the end of the season. I really didn’t like this episode.
