Month: March 2014

Episode  22,  De-Void

Summary:

If you haven’t already watched the first three seasons its time now.  It’s an amazingly well done show. Go watch Season 1, Season 2, and the first half of Season 3. They are well worth seeing.

De-Void starts with a tense stand off between Styles’ dad and Mr. Argent. It’s all a setup up though with evil Styles using team teen wolf to protect him when the Oni show up.

Some strange crap happens and Kira’s mom end sup being disarmed by evil Styles, only to have him gut himself with her last blade, releasing a horde of evil flies. One of which goes into Isaac via his IV (he’s in a hospital bed).

Scott meanwhile has taken Kira back to his house to “spend the night” because she doesn’t want to go home yet. He was going to sleep in the chair, but Kira has to tell him three times that she doesn’t want him to sleep in the chair.

In a parallel bedroom Isaac slips into Allison’s room. Of course they start kissing, and I don’t know if Isaac is himself, or something darker after the fly crawled into him.

Evil fly infection #2 – one flies into Derek’s open sword wound he got when he was fighting the Oni.

Evil fly infection #3 – one of the twins has a fly enter him through his eyeball. Gross.

Evil fly infection #4 – the other twin is driving around with Lydia who gets pulled to Styles who is lying in a parking lot. When they get out to look at his body one of the flies enters him through his ear. Not as gross as the eye.

Dr. Deaton paralyzes Styles but everyone is still dancing to Evil Styles’s tune. While the others plot about how to deal with Evil Styles Scott’s mom falls for a few tears and Evil Styles lays some heavy guilt trip on her. Apparently she has some dark secret in the past, or at least something she feels ashamed of.

 

Team teen wolf trusts Peter, and they use Scott to enter Styles’ mind only to find themselves trapped inside. Lydia encourages Scott to use his mental/physical strength to break free, and he is able to get out of the restraints holding him to the bed. But it doesn’t help Lydia or Scott for long. As soon as he tries to lead her out of the room the door slams shut and Lydia is left behind, seeing bits and pieces of images that Styles has of her before meeting the toothy nightmare thing.

On the other side of the door Scott is kissing a memory Allison who is encouraging him to be quiet, to ignore the other sounds. While Scott is being played Lydia is suffering, her real body bleeding as the toothy thing closes on her. Peter just manages to save her, screaming at her and using his wolf powers to tell her to fight it.

Scott escapes just in time, realizing that he was being “delayed” by a memory Allison. The two of them escape into a large white room to find Toothy Creepy thing and Styles playing a game of Go on a large stump.

While Lydia and Scott are exploring Styles’s brain Kira and Allison are trying to keep the twins and Isaac from killing each other.

Inside Styles Scott is able to use his wolf roar to break Styles away from the game of go for just a moment, which also breaks the control the flies have over the others. For how long we don’t know.

Apparently Peter was helping Lydia only if she will tell Peter who is daughter is.

Styles meantime does appear to be free after vomiting up the Evil thingy in an awesome display of vomitous. Only once the thing takes shape it is Styles under all the bandages. What the hell is going on? Who is the good Styles?

Evil fly deeds –

Isaac chains Allison to the bed and takes her weapons, intent on killing the twins.

Derek goes to the Argent house with his mothers claws, and is very angry, attacking Mr. Argent and tying him to a chair before he pours lighter fluid over him and waves a lighter in front of him.

The twins are driven to fight each other only to have Isaac taze them with the weapons he stole from Allison’s room.

Things I loved about this episode…

• Kira having to tell Scott three times she doesn’t want him to sleep in the chair.
• To Lydia – “Four rights make a circle.”
• Mr. Argent breaking free of his bonds and getting a gun to Derek’s head. (Of course Derek “loses” the fight, he loses every fight.)

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

• Isaac spending the night in Allison’s room. She shouldn’t be porking anyone but Scott.

I’m one week out from having my back surgery.

On the one hand I’m a little anxious, and on the other I can’t wait to get rid of the burning in my leg.

This is what I’m going for or at least very close to it.

These people are complete ass hats.

There basic argument is that anyone who ever needed help is a taker, but they don’t want to raise the minimum wage or do something about the people who actually need the earned income credit which is really just a subsidy for businesses.

How do you get to sit there and say that anyone just wants to take. People are just trying to survive.

Businesses get 154 Billion in tax subsidies. Those are successful businesses  who are paying less taxes than they have in the last 50 or 60 years. Yet we want to cut food stamps to veterans and poor people?

And there is a huge swath of middle america willing to vote against their own best interests. Every dollar of aid stimulates local businesses. We, the working class spend every dollar we get, we have to, we don’t have a choice. But give a tax dollar back to a m/billionaire and they stick it in the bank. It doesn’t help us grow, and they prob aren’t ever going to pay a cent of taxes on future growth.

I just don’t get how people making less than 100 or 200 K can watch these shows and not realize you are part of the “takers” as far as these people are concerned.

Episode 13, Alone

Summary:

Alone starts with a flashback to a lone survivor working his way through the woods, sad, and alone, resting wherever and whenever he can. Then Daryl and Glenn find him and pull him into the group and things jump back to current time, with everyone spread out and lost from each other.

Right after Glenn and Daryl take in Bob the episode cuts over to Maggie and team, stuck in the fog and surrounded by walkers. The three of them have formed a loose circle and are doing their best to hold their own but are overrun. A short brutal fight for survival takes place, and the three of them barely make it out alive.

Daryl is teaching Beth how to track and they sneak up on a walker but Beth steps on a trap? She’s hurt and Daryl is forced to support some of her weight. Good Guy Daryl (GGD) gives her a piggy back, making him both a hero, and  lucky. Beth is a cutie. And Daryl ends up holding hands with her! For just a moment it looks like she is going to rest her head on his shoulder too.

Maggie and team make it out of the fog and find one of the signs for Terminus. Sasha doesn’t want to go, but Maggie is convinced that Glenn would head for safety as well. In the end they head out for what they hope is safety.

Daryl and Beth flee into a church/funeral home. Inside they find walkers who were dressed and made up to look more “normal”. If I was Daryl or Beth I wouldn’t be so calm around a body until I put a hole in its head for good measure – just to be sure.

When Daryl and Beth find some food in the funeral home he tells her they will take some and leave the rest because it looks like someone has been tending to the place. Daryl secures the place and then relaxes, listening to Beth sing.

Meanwhile Maggie has left Sasha and team, not wanting them to risk their lives for her and her search for Glenn.  I appreciate Maggie’s desire not to have others risk themselves, but really? Going out on your own? While she’s walking on the tracks she is attacked by a single walker and knocks it down, cutting it open. The question is – was she doing it to look for eaten friends and family or so she could use its gore to hide herself as she walked? Nope, she was just looking for paint.

Back at the church Daryl and Beth are about to eat when a dog interrupts them, momentarily bringing them to the door. That night as they are eating Beth writes a thank you note, telling Daryl she wants to make sure whomever house they are in knows they appreciate what they found in the church. Daryl isn’t so sure she should write the note, he is willing to stick around, maybe stay there. Beth asks him what changed his mind, and she looks at him and realizes that it is her. Just when you think it is going to be a happy moment they hear the dog again but when Daryl opens the door walkers are there, busting their way in.

Daryl fights a total awesome fight, downing at least a dozen walkers as he buys Beth time to escape. When he makes it out of the house and onto the road he told her to meet him on he finds her pack, and then a late model car speeding off. Someone stole Beth!!!

Maggie is walking the tracks and leaving bloody notes behind for Sasha and Bob. Sasha wants to stop but Bob wants to keep moving. He doesn’t want to leave her alone, remembering how bad it was when he was all by himself. Bob won’t give up on following Maggie, but Sasha wants to stop when they reach the first few buildings they find. Then Bob tries something new, kissing Sasha, trying to get her to come with him. She watches him walk away and then heads into town. Amazingly, as Sasha is looking out a window she sees Maggie lying on the ground, but she triggers a walker storm by dropping the window from the building.

Sasha and Maggie go back to back to kick some walker ass. If I were Sasha I would be pissed at Maggie. She shouldn’t have run off, it is not good team dynamics. At least Maggie apologizes, even if Sasha doesn’t seem all that mad.

Daryl is forced to track the car as far as he can, exhausting himself as he tries to keep pace with a car. He is on the ground, not paying attention when some new characters enter. Joe and his raiding team invite Daryl to join them, and at least for the moment, it looks like he is going to take them up on it.

The last scene of the episode is of Maggie, Bob, and Sasha getting back together.

Things I loved about this episode…

• Daryl, Glenn, and Beth have joined up.
• Daryl and Beth having a bonding moment. It would be nice if Daryl had someone.
• Daryl not wanting to take all the supplies in the church because it looks like someone has been tending to the place. GGD didn’t want to take everything from someone else.
• Maggie taking a zombies head off with a road sign.

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

• Beth and Daryl were just a little too relaxed around those bodies. For all they knew they were going to start biting. put a hole in their heads first, then relax.
• Beth being stolen just as she and Daryl’s relationship was starting to heat up.
• Why in the world would Sasha head off on her own in that world? It makes no sense. Being alone means dying the first time there is trouble or you get sick.
• No one seems to worry about zombie blood in their mouths or eyes.

Watch Season 1 Instantly:

Watch Season 2 Instantly:

Watch Season 3 Instantly:

Okay, so I am only up to episode 5 (out of the available 7) at the moment.

My quick thoughts are that no one in this is free of some guilt, the characters are all flawed in different ways, which makes the show interesting, and kicks up a lot of mud when you think about who might be behind it.

Who do I think is behind the murders? I think it has to be someone we’ve seen on the screen a good bit, otherwise it might feel a bit contrived. If they showed their captain, or a major city politician more than once or twice it would open the field so to speak. So who do I think did it?

I’m going hedge and put some % against the likely characters.

10% goes to  Det. Rustin Cohle – Why such a low number? My trite answer is it is too telegraphed. He’s clearly the focus for the new investigation. I just can’t see it being him. If they pin it on Matthew McConaughey’s character I’ll be very disappointed.

50% goes to Det. Martin Hart – Of the two main characters I find Woody Harrelson’s the more insidious. He can live two lives at the same time and showed how controlling he was when he attacked his girlfriends new boy after seeing them at the bar together. While he plays “good cop” he is also the one who blew Reggie Ledoux’s head off before the man could see him or speak to him.  And I feel like there is something wrong with his family too. They show you his little girl all innocent and sweet in episode 5 and then jump to her being a rebellious teen who is having sex with two guys at once. What did he do to his daughter? When he lashed out at her was that the same response his old fling got?

10% goes to Reverend Billy Lee Tuttle’s – First of all he played such a small part in two episodes so far I would feel cheated if they made Jay O. Sanders’ character the murderer. I feel like he was thrown in just to be a red herring, and if they pin it on him it will feel contrived, nothing other than his crazy anti-christian rhetoric says anything about being unstable or having homicidal thoughts.

10% goes to demonic forces – Maybe the dream catching wooden things are actually there to try and stop some dark force from killing again? If this is it they better do it right or people are going to be up in arms. But I can’t really see this being it either, this is a series, and while they will have different casts very year, I think starting off with a supernatural ending really hurts them in the long run.

20% goes to a hard right turn out of the middle of nowhere – Maybe the chief of police is behind it as well as the town counsel. Again, I think this is hard to pull off and still keep your audience happy.

This is one of those movies that snuck up on me. I never saw any advertisements for it when it was in theaters and I found it completely by accident online.  The combination of slapstick, gore, and just a hint of true love makes this a winner this Saturday morning.

 

Yesterday Bartcop passed away.

You will be sorely missed.

Bart’s Last Post:

Since you’re reading this, I’m either gone or I’m too sick to get to my computer.
I’d like to thank everyone for reading, especially the pillars who allowed me to quit working at that little car lot and turn my rage on the illegal Bush thugs full time.

But I have a favor to ask and it’s a big one. I left Mrs Bart with a mortgage that she can’t handle by herself.

When the doctors told me I wasn’t going to reach old age, my first thoughts were worry about Mrs Bart and how she was going to make it without me and my income.

You know me, I’m a gambler to the end, so when Bartcop Manor flooded in 2004, I/we gambled that I’d live long enough to get the house paid off, or at least paid down to where she could see the end of the payments. Since you’re reading this, it means I lost that gamble.

So I’m asking you this hueueuege favor – would you keep your subscription going?

I know it’s a lot to ask, but the thought of her having to sell Casa de Bart for a loss and move into some smaller place is something too sad to think about.

If you’re thinking it makes no sense to keep the subscription going, what if you kept it going long enough to read thru the back pages one more time?

I hope your last memory of me isn’t one of “greedy bastard,” but I’ve got this problem (or used to have 🙂 that I don’t know how to fix.