Now, what about ‘C&D’? In this week’s episode, ‘Lotus-Eaters’,
they actually get to do heroic deeds…to an unusual extent, but let us tone down
the excitement a bit and try to go about it slowly.
Firstly, the episode’s title. Initially, the lotus-eaters were
featured in…the ‘Odyssey’, yes Homer’s ‘Odyssey’, though in modern adaptations
of this classic they tend to be overlooked in favor of bigger, showier
encounters – the Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, etc. (And
James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ is something else – maybe the lotus-eaters are featured
there…if you want to sieve through all of these words to encounter whether or
not the lotus-eaters are there…good luck. Also, you will be wasting your life.
Where were we?)
Right, Homer’s lotus-eaters. Odysseus encountered them very
early in his odyssey: a bunch of people who just spent their time eating sweet
lotus and nothing else. This is a throw-back/reference to Hesiod’s golden age,
when humanity had nothing to worry about but just lived peacefully and
placidly, with about as much personality as an average modern pencil or a
bookmark have.
Eventually, they faded away and the silver age began – Hesiod’s
version, but this is not important right now. What is important is that just
like Hesiod’s golden age humans; the lotus-eaters were devoid of personalities,
(while even the Sirens had some sort of a character in the initial novel) and
cared only about eating their lotus.
Another note: in the modern times, ‘lotus’ is referred to a
relative of the water lilies, but in Homer’s epic? It was a magical, mythical
plant that appears to be more similar to real life jujube and its’ cousins
instead. So what about ‘C&D’?
Both Dy and Ivan Hess succumbed to their version of lotus,
which, in the ‘Odyssey’ gave its’ consumers perfect memory in exchange for a
complete memory loss and energy drain – the lotus-eaters didn’t do anything but
ate their lotus, and when Odysseus’ crewmembers did the same thing, they joined
the lotus-eaters in their sloth. (Inactivity, not animal). Odysseus, for his
part, usually wasn’t slothful, (especially if given a choice), nor was he
particularly mild, meek, or politically correct – he had the rest of his
crewmen capture their afflicted fellows, tie them onto their benches and to
their oars, and set sail to his next adventure. Harsh, but so’s Odysseus.
And so’s Ty, when he got Dy to snap out of it, from getting
her lotus – listening to her father’s voice. He used some tough love to achieve
that, and then Dy used the same technique on Ivan Hess, nevermind that he does
not look anything like an Ivan. As it was discussed at other times, for a
presumably politically correct and progressive show, ‘C&D’s’ approach to
racial issues is certainly clichéd, and not in an astute way. However, it
works, at least to a point – Dy and Ty have reunited the good doctor with his
daughter, so one superhero mission accomplished, and that is speaking
literally. ‘The Lotus-Eaters’ were all about Ty and Dy being super-heroic, traipsing
around an exploding rig while fighting insane oil rig workers, so there!
…The other side is that ‘The Lotus-Eaters’ featured only Ty and Dy from the main cast and only the Hesses from the recurring cast.
Considering that earlier in the summer 2018, when ‘C&D’ were just getting
started, there was an online featurette that featured many more people,
including father Delgado of whom almost nothing was seen in the entire ‘C&D’
series so far, this is kind of sad. Also worrisome, as AoS also began to play ‘musical
chairs’ with its cast as its’ seasons wore on, its’ popularity has fallen, as
had its’ numbers, including the number of the viewers. Considering that ‘C&D’
already very low numbers, (lower than those of ‘Reverie’), this is not good.
And yes, in part it might be because the first half of ‘C&D’ was more of a
prequel as the titular characters settled into their world and began to grow as
people; Dy in particular, as she realized that before she’d met Ty, she was a
very bad person herself, but now she’s genuinely changing, so good luck to her!
…Anything else? Well, now
the action is speeding up in ‘C&D’ – Ty is up to confronting the Corrupt
Cop in the next episode. Good for him. Now, obviously, ‘C&D’ are
compensating for the initial episodes of inactivity, but it is still debatable,
if this strategy, from slow to fast, well, fast, is a good one, especially when
you got just 10 episodes in your initial season to work around in. Oh well, you
have to deal the hand you have been given, with ‘C&D’ or otherwise.
That is it for this week’s episode of ‘C&D’; I will see
you all soon!
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