Falling Skies S02E09

Weeee! Political plotting!

So Charleston is pretty much what I expected, a dictatorship run by John Locke. Arthur Manchester, I mean. But first things first:

Line count Dai: 1 (one)

And even worse, Anthony is absent alltogether. This episode – which I thought was quite awesome, all things considered – was a great chance to show where characters stand, even if it’s only by actions rather than words. Even Crazy Lee, who had no lines or scenes of relevance until now, got to show her loyalties. And I sure hope they extend her role a bit, now that the Berzerkers are officially down to her, Pope and Lyle.

Anyway. The 2nd Mass settles in and encounters the first unpleasant details. Weaver, while re-united with his daughter, learns that the military has to take orders from the self-proclaimed “Majority Leader” of the civilians and that there are no plans to continue the fight. Once more, Locke finds himself in a weird place far from normal civilization and really likes the prospect of keeping it that way. Weaver, however, doesn’t find it too appealing and supports his daughter, who isn’t comfortable with the Charleston government/dictator refusing to send scouts out for the other kids, including her boyfriend, that she got seperated from on the way.

In regards to that attitude – kudos to Pope, who never even bothered to talk things through with anyone from Charleston and went straight for the heavy guns, realizing before anyone else that Charleston was more about “pretending the world is fine” and less about “shooting aliens”. It took his former brother-in-arms Tector the 2nd Up (archievement “full name”) and most of the episode to realize he sided with the wrong guys. (Fun fact: In Stargate Atlantis, Ladon Radim also turned against the military leader of the Genii and became an ally to Atlantis. Talk about weirdly specific type casting.)

After Pope spent the last few episodes suspiciously agreeable, he finally returns to his loose cannon ways – not only by trying to steal guns, which seems to be his favorite hobby besides shooting aliens, but also by not doing what people, specifically Arthur Manchester, expect him to do: turn on Tom. “If anyone brings him down, it’s gonna be me” certainly opens a door for becoming a Batman villain in the future; with the right radiation-related accident, it’s basically set in stone.

Tom “on/off gullible” Mason, on the other hand, seems intrigued by his former mentor’s plan to elect a government (“just a formality”) and become the founding father of a new democracy. While he picks up some weird vibes, it takes a de-harnessed boy to show up with a message for him to make him act on it. However, the one to pull off things with style are the generals, who swiftly turn this conflict of interests into a coup and arrest Arthur Manchester instead of “the entire 2nd Mass”.

And now, the dreaded sub arc I danced around and avoided to mention so far: Hal and Maggie are back to square one. While Hal claims something about “everything changed”, nothing really changed. Maggie is back in “I’m not the right person, nice try though” mode.  That is all I have to say about it.

I personally also found it a bit weird that Anne went ballistic on the Charleston doctor for pointing out that she is a pedeatrician. Because, y’know, Miss Glass, you are a pedeatrician. Sure, you also sorta filled in as a combat medic, how you put it, but it doesn’t change the fact that a heart surgeon likely has considerably more experience at being, well, a surgeon. Also, Lourdes obviously lost all her rage and fatalism over night, as she’s back to being the eager pre-med school girl, looking forward to learn more about medicine. Hey, girl, there’s a trenchcoat made from overlord skin waiting for you!

All in all, we now have a military dictatorship in Charleston. Besides declaring martial law, this works in favor of the 2nd Mass as they can continue with their plan to meet Red Eye outside the city and talk about “new developments” in the skitter rebellion. And damn, the preview for the season finale looks promising!

 

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Being Late on Lost #3

So I’m at S04E09 and finally figured out why people call Sawyer a redneck. He played horseshoes with Hurley, which makes them both rednecks. This was one of the biggest mysteries to me and yay, finally I have an answer! Not really a satisfying one, but whatever.

I’m also not annoyed by Hurley’s “duuuuuuuuude”-ing anymore. I’m annoyed by Desmond’s Hulk Hogan-like “brothaaaa”-ing and think there should be a big, dramatic catchphrase stand off between Hurley and Desmond.

Charlie is dead and turned out to be the lesser evil, after all. Now it’s Clare and the damn crying baby going on my nerves again.

A more uplifting side effect of watching is that Jin and Sun very much remind me of my Korean best friend in kindergarden and elementary school. (Or, more accurately, my friend’s parents.) It makes me feel old sometimes, but I’m fine with being old, so no harm done.

Being Late On Lost #2

Somehow, I have watched all episodes from S01E12 to S02E08 in the last 2 days, which proved to be perfect distraction from rl shit hitting the fan. Observations:

Holy shit, do I hate Clare, Claire or whatsherface. The only known way to make a pregnant character more annoying is advancing her to a young mother character and it’s driving me crazy. I watched a lot Australian reality TV at some point in my life (and expect no-one will ever ask why) and became somewhat fond of an Aussie accent. Until now. Now I’m in blind rage as soon as that annoying bitch starts yelling about “OMAIGAWD THAY WANNA HERT MAI BAYBAY!!!1”. And yes, I can in fact hear the “1”.

Now, is there anything in the world that could be more annoying than that? Yes. There is. Charlie. Who I can totally see in a re-make of Mr. Babysitter and that is one of the worst things that could possibly happen in Hollywood.

Speaking of annoying. Somewhere in late season 1, I swore that I will drown a puppy for each time Hurley says “dude”. I’m so out of imaginary puppies by now, they are literally extinct. I had to move on and drown imaginary cats and I’m quite confident to erase the entire imaginary animal life of this planet before I’m through season 2.

Other notable observations: Meanwhile, 3 people that were all not Jack rolled down a hill. I fear for his job. I still haven’t figured out why people refer to Sawyer as “redneck”. As far as I was informed, rednecks don’t wear suits or work as con men.

Being Late On Lost

Until 3 days ago, I was the only living person with a TV who had never seen a single episode of Lost. When it started airing, I didn’t have the time or interest, and when I had the time later, I didn’t have the motivation to catch up on a running show in the middle of season 4 or something. Then I just never bothered again. Until 3 days ago, when several factors came together.

1. I was through with Alcatraz; 13 hours lifetime I spent wondering why I watch a 1 season-cancelled show instead of Lost or Battlestar Galactica.

2. A friend warned me that BSG was pretty horrible for people with our taste.

3. I am notoriously bored, especially in summer.

Now, I have consumed the first 11 episodes of Lost and learned two things about a hugely popular piece of TV history that escaped me for years. First of all, and this may be shocking to some, I learned that Jack and Sawyer are two different people. I had been fairly sure that Sawyer is Jack’s last name. Now, I know how to keep them apart: Jack’s job on the show is to roll down hills and Sawyer’s job is to provide fan service for the estrogen brigade. Easy as pie. The second thing I learned is more confirming something I already knew about myself: I freaking hate pregnant characters, they are annoying as hell and I’m glad that blond chick was kidnapped. I hope she stays lost, pardon the pun.