Lost Girl, Jan 26 - End of a Line

And so, last night’s episode has given us a depressing new development – Hale died. But first – a word about “End of a Line” in general.

As always, this episode featured three plot lines. The smallest one featured Mr. Trick trying to bond with Vex. Yes, the episode explains why – Vex’s father (a Mesmer?) was one of Mr. Trick’s generals during the latter’s reign as the Blood King, and now Mr. Trick wants to rekindle his relationship with Vex himself. It also includes the last seed relating to the late Una Mens’ power, and Mr. Trick is relatively sure that Vex is the key to recovering it. Vex disagrees and quickly leaves his interlocutor, clearly not Mr. Trick’s new friend. Odds are, this discussion is going to haunt both men in the future episodes.

Then we have the two main plotlines: Hale invites Kenzi’s mother and cousin to visit while he proposes to Kenzi, and Bo & Tamsin team-up with Dyson and Acacia, Tamsin’s bounty hunter friend and possible guru, to stop an outbreak of revenants. 

Acacia is an interesting character, and not just because she has acquired a new hand ala Lindsey McDonald from AtS. She does her best to come off selfish, or at least self-reliant, but she does appear to be genuinely caring for Tamsin, even if the latter is less than impressed by Acacia’s clever plot to get her to kill Rainer before it is too late. 

Rainer...he wasn’t in this episode, which is a pity for him – not only Bo has began to get over her crush on him, especially after the whole revenant outbreak, which Rainer/the Wanderer may have masterminded (or Acacia had set the whole thing up, as it was said earlier), he and the Wanderer-Tamsin’s-Boss are two different people, according to Tamsin. This means, that there may be more than one Wanderer...or Rainer has set Bo up and not just to kill the Una Mens.

The other main development with Tamsin is that she just may be in love with Dyson...who is a good-lucking man (werewolf?) and who is currently single, since Bo is with Rainer and Kenzi (remember the first episode of S4?) was with Hale. That said, since Bo has began getting over Rainer this situation will not make her happy, not really. Lauren, of course, is another story altogether, but she is not in this episode, so let us leave her out for now.

Finally, there are Kenzi and Hale. Firstly, we get to meet Kenzi’s mother and cousin for the first time. They are ambiguous characters, to say the least: on one hand, they appear to be mainly seeking their own gain (not unlike Kenzi, actually), but on the other, they do appear to be aware of what is going on around them (just not with the Fae), and Kenzi’s mother did appear to connect with her – at least for a time. Kenzi’s stepfather, whom we have not met yet, however, is another story altogether – clearly Kenzi dislikes him to an unusual extent and as long as he does not go, Kenzi shall not come.

This also explains Kenzi’s relationship with Bo – Bo is Kenzi’s surrogate family, or at least a big sister, and when Bo isn’t there, Kenzi begins to have issues...she really needs a good therapist.

This brings us to Hale. He has proposed to Kenzi, and she was going to accept, but unexpectedly she decided that she was going to make Hale wait and procrastinated. Consequently, “the druid” from the beginning of S4, who acquired invulnerability (or part-time immortality) from an herb that Kenzi got him, got in, beat Kenzi up (in her defense, this was a very surprising ambush) and killed Hale using that magical herb. So, now Kenzi is desolate, Bo, who could not save Hale due to shortness of available chi, is little better, and Hale is dead.

Let us be fair. Unless K.C. Collins, who is playing Hale, is leaving the show, Hale is likely to be brought back from the dead, if not Bo-style, (as Dyson was in S3), then in some other way. Maybe Lauren will get in touch with her inner Frankenstein and reanimate Hale thusly – after all, this episode was in large part about revenants – Fae version of zombies...

Speaking of revenants – they are zombies. Period. Usually, a revenant differs from a zombie by being better preserved, being actually more nimble than during their life, and generally resembling their previous, living selves, save from the mortal wound that actually killed them – unlike zombies, who begin to decompose all over as soon as they’re dead (or undead)...which was what we saw in this episode. Seriously, why not call a zombie a zombie and be done with it?

So: Bo has begun to get over Rainer; Tamsin decided to rekindle her thing with Dyson; Acacia’s back, as is “the Druid”; Mr. Trick’s attempt befriend Vex has appeared to have failed; and Hale’s dead, leaving Kenzi broken-hearted. In short, this is one of the better episodes of LG, and there is no Disney, either.

Lost Girl, Waves - Jan 19

And so, Rainer has been freed from his train, somehow and other, and has helped Bo to destroy the Una Mens. Wait, what?

Last week’s episode, “Waves”, was not the most successful episode of LG up to date and not just because of direct allusions to Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid” movies; the reasons are more multifold. 

First, let us speak of the plotlines. There are two, as the norm in S4. In one Bo and Rainer reminiscence on their initial interactions on the train; in the other, Kenzi, Dyson and Lauren work to figure out just who is stealing legs from people. 

Yes, that is correct – legs. Borrowing from “The Little Mermaid”, albeit from the original, written by Hans Andersen, LG has created a family of mermaids that steal legs from people and graft them onto themselves. They have power over water and their tears crystallize into salt, but tap water tends to kill them instead. So far it makes sense and really, the only flaw with this plot line was Kenzi’s (Ksenia Solo’s) clothing of choice: she was probably going for sexy, but ended up looking scrawny instead – but even that is fully countered by the part when Kenzi realizes that BO isn’t going to call; her BFF has appeared to have moved on in favor of Rainer. In addition, Kenzi, Dyson and Lauren showed that they can work as a team and work very efficiently too, especially when confronted by more powerful enemies, such as the merfolk.

Onto Bo and Rainer and their Una Mens’ killing. Let us give Bo credit – she tried to her way out of this confrontation. But the Una Mens summoned their monk minions and attacked Bo personally, so Bo had eventually to pull out a sword out of (insert noun of your choice here) and kill them instead, regardless of their final curse. The catch? Mr. Trick came over to her before the confrontation and warned Bo about killing the Una Mens, that their death will result in their power getting transferred to the last seed (conveniently stolen from Mr. Trick earlier in this season and no earlier), which will then become extremely powerful! And so it happened, and the seed became powerful, and someone currently unknown has reached out for it...

One of the problems is in the continuity of this episode. In part this is intended – a large part of this episode is taken by the flashbacks of Bo meeting Rainer, of Bo talking to Mr. Trick about the Una Mens, but in some parts it was clearly a goof, like the whole sword angle of Bo’s or that somehow Mr. Trick knew about what was going to happen in the future, even though Rainer is the one with foresight...

And the second problem is Disney. Showcase has tried to assimilate Disney into their shows before – their own spin on “Beauty and the Beast” TV series can witness to that...as well as to the lack of success of such attempts. Showcase’s “Beauty and the Beast” is rather emotionless, bland and cliché – and so was “Waves”. Despite the actors’ overall attempt to liven the episode, it did not work: “Waves” remained as cold as LG’s merfolk supposedly are, and only when, in the final quarter of the ep did the script move away from Disney, did LG return to its own.

So: Showcase should stay away from Disney – otherwise this will result in a situation that will not benefit either of the parties.

S.H.I.E.L.D., Jan 14 - Seeds

In this episode of “Agents”, we got to visit Fitz & Simmons’ old alma mater, the Academy, where they became the young prodigies that they are now. Sadly, the circumstances could have been better, since someone in the Academy was messing with ice and the titular team has to figure out as to just who. They, or primarily – Fitz & Simmons – succeed: it is an outsider student Donnie with the help of another student, namely Seth.

Donnie is interesting, in a minor sort of way: odds are that he is going to become an anti-Fitz of some sort, since he had a chance to befriend Fitz, but instead tricked and used Fitz and generally didn’t try to re-establish friendly contact before getting shipped to the Sandbox after Seth died, their invention broke down, and he developed ice powers of some sort by the end of the episode – a reference to Mr. Freeze™ from DC comics, perhaps?

Fitz & Simmons, on the other hand, have also evolved little since the previous episode, where they were shown to be much more confident and independent thinkers than their counterparts working in agent Hand’s Hub. They do manage to figure out how to get to Donnie and Seth, but not in time, as the dastardly duo of students try to stop their impromptu weather machine, but fail: Seth dies and Donnie develops ice powers.

The main focus, conversely, belongs to Coulson, May and Skye – Ward was in this episode, but he actually was more of a background character for once, though he did suggest that Fitz tries to befriend Donnie, causing Skye and Simmons to suggest that he does have a heart. That is not a bad personal development either.

Speaking of personal and of May, she confessed to Coulson about her relationship (such as it is) with Ward. Coulson is quite even-tempered about it – in part because May and Ward are competent grownups and so should deal with this relationship if it goes south without too much ado. (Of course, considering that this would make a very poor story development one should not bet on this.)

But in part because we got a major plot development about Skye: she is a survivor from a tiny village that was rescued by an S.H.I.E.L.D. team...that got progressively killed off as time went by. That is why she was sent from one orphanage to another until she ended up living in a van. 

Now, normally, Coulson would probably keep this a secret from Skye, but after personal experiences in this area (i.e. his own secret that he learned the hard way in the previous episode) he told Skye the truth instead – and Skye accepted this. Rather than crawling into a van, or her personal room to cry, she has embraced it, and accepted S.H.I.E.L.D. to be her family and home. 

(This is wonderful news, but remember that Skye is an idealist at heart, and if S.H.I.E.L.D. somehow disappoints her, the fallout can be nasty.)

Also, Coulson is getting out of the funk that he was since the last episode. May be onto something in this episode.

So: Fitz & Simmons reconnect to their past with mixed results, Coulson starts to come to terms with his own situation, Skye finally learns the truth about her past, and May and Ward soldier on. Oh, and one last thing: the crooked businessman behind Seth and Donnie’s failed experiment, Ian Quinn, is in the cahoots with the Clairvoyant, as he tells it to agent Coulson in the last scene of this episode. The Centipede may be gone, but we just might have been introduced to its’ replacement in this episode.

Lost Girl, Destiny's Child - Jan 12

Last night’s episode of LG was very important both by introducing new plot developments and by introducing new Fae, period. Let us start with them.

Huginn and Muninn, aka thought and memory, were the ravens of Odin, the king god of the Vikings, and were basically though and memory made flesh. Naturally, when Mr. Trick, after doing several tricks with his own – and other Fae – memories had bad experiences, when he encountered just one of the ravens...pardon me, crows. 

WTF? As Kenzi could say – “Ворон – это не муж вороны. Это две разные птицы.” “Raven isn’t the husband of crow. It is two different birds.” Symbolically, however, they are similar, and since they played a relatively minor role in this episode, let us just accept that they are crow Fae, rather than raven, and let it slide.

The Leviathan, however, is harder to swallow. In this episode, she plays the role of a caretaker of the dead, perhaps even a goddess of the dead, similar to the Vikings’ Hel or the Slavs’ Baba Yaga Bony Leg, but Baba Yaga had been already depicted in LG S2 episode, so this character had to be named after the ultimate sea monster from the Old Testament and beyond, a formidable creature to be sure, but one having nothing to do with kingdoms of dead... Michelle Lovretta, it should be noted, is really fast and loose with identifying new Fae species, so this is no surprise. 

The oriental Fae, the Lou-dann, that Mr. Trick came over for help, is actually an independent creation of LG, making one wonder why Mr. Trick did not advise Bo going to them for help with her memory problem – the physical pain and nosebleed side effects were nasty, but their methods do work. (I am guessing because they would derail the entire plot line of Bo’s quest for her lost memories, so instead they were kept on the wall like Chekov’s gun that would fire only when it is supposed to.)

Back to the Norse. The Wanderer, whose actual name is Rainer, was also an Einherjar – a heroic human warrior who died and was taken to the Vikings’ heaven Valhalla by Valkyries, like Tamsin. Only Mr. Trick, being the Blood King at that time, interfered with this process, for Rainer was his enemy and a defiant rebel against his rule. As a result, Rainer became the Wanderer (until the end of this episode, when Bo broke the curse off screen) and Tamsin became Tamsin from S3. Naturally, this raises questions – what will become of Tamsin now, will she return to her old roots or will Kenzi change her even more?

Let me rephrase this. After her run-in with the Blood King, Tamsin changed from a traditional Valkyrie (a caretaker of the dead) into the character we met in S3. But since her return in this season, she has been changing as a character, and now she may be forced to make a choice – to return to her roots or to follow Kenzi’s philosophy of following her own destiny...or perhaps those options are not mutually exclusive. We will have to see.

The others, of course, will also have to make a choice in the next few episodes: Bo, being a romantic at her heart, declared herself to be on team Rainer, who is apparently Mr. Trick’s mortal enemy – and so far the audience’s sympathies are not with Mr. Trick...but that does not mean that Bo’s friends’ are not. Plus there is the jealousy factor – Bo cannot help but arouse sexual feelings in almost everyone around her (because she is a succubus, which is what her kind does). Dyson and Lauren have finally pulled their mutual dislike and distrust of each other aside to save Bo from the crows’ and the appearance of a new rival will not go easy with them, potential or not. And it is unlikely that Bo will go platonic with Rainer – that is more Kenzi’s style, when you think about it.

Kenzi, incidentally, continues to grow into her own – she continues to take charge of Tamsin (well, Tamsin lets her take charge, let’s be honest) and though she worked behind the scenes, she was important...yet again, this was a separate plotline (Kenzi and Tamsin) from the main one. LG is really continuing with those separate story lines in S4, it seems, as well as playing not-with-a-full-cast all the time. Vex, for example, and Hale were not even in this episode without any voiced reason. Ah well, LG is still successful, so this tactic obviously works.

So: Bo introduces a new twist into the show, Dyson and Lauren have learned to work together, Mr. Trick has to confront his past in the latest big showdown since the Garuda, Kenzi and Tamsin bond... and several new Fae appear in this episode as well. This is very cool, actually!

S.H.I.E.L.D., Jan 7 - The Magical Place

And so, “Agents” are back! Their latest episode, “The Magical Place”, was worth the wait. True, their reference to 36 hours that passed in their world seem almost mocking, considering that in our universe we had to wait for the new year to see it, but it paid off.

First of all, the biggest fixture was Coulson. We learn more about his biography than we have ever before. He was the son of a single mother who died from grief when he died in the battle of New York (i.e. the first Avengers movie). He was also dead for days and had been rebuilt using some unbelievable machinery that is not even shown. He also wanted to die during his rebuilding and had to be brainwashed, or at least manipulated by S.H.I.E.L.D. into believing that he stayed in Tahiti in order for him to recover mentally as well as physically. Obviously, this just may backfire into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s collected face now that Coulson knows the truth, but Coulson in many ways is like Homer’s Odysseus, who kept loyal to his Penelope no matter what – only Coulson is loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. instead.

And his team reciprocates this fully – but it may not be just them. After all, to both Hill and Fury, Coulson was obviously important to bring him back, and while their methods were questionable, their motives probably were not – something to think about in the future. Coulson’s team’s loyalty, of course, is evident now, in this episode, as they work around the clock and partially against agent Hand’s wishes in rescuing him.

As always, the Fitz and Simmons duo are together, but they are showing greater independent thinking – they are thinking less by the book and more from their personal experience, as do agents Ward and May. In May’s case it was to let Skye go out into the field, away from Hand’s more stifling atmosphere and command methods, while Ward resolved to some tougher ways in interrogating Van Chet. (I am not sure if the man will reappear in the following episodes - considering that Poe is either dead or incapacitated, and Raina is arrested, someone must take up the mantle of lesser evil!) Fitz and Simmons, of course, are just being more independent-minded – last time that agent Hand was involved in “The Hub”; they were much more willing to go with what she says.

Also, it should be noted that Ward and May have finally resolved to verbal communication - clearly, they have drifted apart (at least as characters, maybe not as a couple) not to understand each other with just glances. A minor detail, but it may be important.

If the main characters are clearly evolving as, well, characters, so does the main story plotline – but in more unexpected ways. For one thing, as it was said above, Poe is probably dead and Raina was arrested, plus the Centipede itself was disabled and defeated by S.H.I.E.L.D., so the mysterious Clairvoyant has to find new flunkies, or go back to his/hers day job...considering that he got “the Hooded Hero”, Mike Peterson, under his control at the end of the episode...yeah, the Clairvoyant just doesn’t need the Centipede anymore.

So: the titular team is back together, they have risen to the challenge and emerged changed for the better, but so has the final villain too, and the show isn’t through with Mike Peterson yet. The next episodes will be interesting ones indeed!