krimimimi

Thanks for that!

Like @Wouter and @sjohnson said, we haven't really come to know Moss pre-wipe that made him One. I feel like this ep gave us more data points as to who Two, Three, and even Four and Six were. We've seen Two, Three and Four pre-wipe before (the season 2 ep where they reset), and we have enough history, old acquaintances and actually relevant (ie non-horse feeding) flashbacks for Six. I feel like we have almost none of that for One and little for Five, up to and including AU versions. Yeah, we got some version of AU Corso/Moss, but the fact we can't seem to tell which of the two of them it even was should tell us we didn't learn much (or at least: enough) from his presence. AU Raza didn't have two blink drives, just the one that the prime universe's Raza liberated. And the AU Marauder just had FTL capabilities, but not its own BD. It doesn't seem like she bonded with the number folks pre-wipe though, and post wipe they are definitely different people. The problem either way is regardless of how useful she can be or how much they might be capable of liking her, they would have to not space her long enough to determine these things, which they didn't seem inclined to do in the prime universe, and I'd suspect even less so in the AU. Also, given Varrick has been shown to be a good guy of less than pure character, I could picture him going to bat for her only if someone else does (Moss, maybe), but not without someone else for "cover," because he's at risk of blowing his own cover. Speaking of why she didn't get spaced, did we ever see the actual vote on that? (I haven't rewatched season one, and it's been too long.) I feel like One and Five always assumed he'd have voted to save her, but I'm not as sure Moss (the guy actually doing the voting at the time) would have. I always suspected she was so sure Boone was going to space her, but his saying so in the flashback doesn't mean that's how he was going to actually vote. Or even that they voted at all, really. That just felt like one of those things show runners like to put a twist on - it doesn't happen until it actually does. @Black Knight, I really like your take on the relationships between Two and One vs. Three, and particularly how her position vis a vis Six made the video evidence of his death harder for him to take. (I hadn't thought about it from his standpoint.) Also, I appreciate your POV that she is the new and improved One/ moral compass.

We cross posted. Heh. Interesting, because I assumed that was proof they meant to kill Varrick, but you're right about the sequence of the waking and Android being in kill-9 mode. I'll need to rethink that.

So I, too, am guessing AU Jace/Derrick Moss on the AU Marauder. Mixed feelings on that one.* But. One and Corso are both dead. And the guy who could be on that ship, if we run with that, is either AU Corso or AU Moss. There is no AU One. I figure AU Corso would be too much of a "been there, done that," and don't really see an organic way to integrate him into the crew anyhow, or a good "why" for it either. They could have him reoccur as a villain, I guess, but it seems a bit pointless to me, and the seasons seem too short for that. But what might be interesting instead is if that's AU Moss. If that's the case, the dude is seriously evil enough that he was willing to nuke the miners just to get rid of AU Portia (so he's definitely not a good guy :-/), but unlike Corso, maybe he could still be "saved"? (I agree there's no saving Corso (AU or ours).) And given the Raza's crew's redemption struggle, that could prove a goal they might be interested in pursuing, and not too OOC. AU Moss also offers a couple of benefits storywise. He can provide insights into the workings of the Corps, without being too knowledgeable (as AU), which could help with the upcoming battle, and be generally more competent than One, having not been wiped. It makes the story with the murder of Moss's wife relevant again. And it answers the question I immediately had - why would you switch universes? How would it put whomever at an advantage? But if you're AU Moss, you know you can be charged with things like bombing the miners, so no "get out of jail free card" like with One in the beginning of this season, and as with our crew last season, AU Moss probably wouldn't have the memories/contacts to survive as AU Corso or as a wanted criminal on the run, and if you thought your wife might still be alive here... Well, I find the motivation somewhat compelling, and could picture it, which helps me a lot, and the possibilities for the story intriguing, for which I am thankful. Nevertheless, I was still a bit sorry they didn't just shoot him, whichever one he is (heh), because as a running gag, it had something. Otoh, as a meta statement, it has something, too - keep shooting him until they get it "right." Too good, too evil, just right. (Once again, fully accepting that mileage varies on what "right" may be. Also, in light of the Raza's crew's wiped status, I personally don't hold their past crimes against them, which makes a difference, but that's a seriously tricky moral issue IRL. (Think: punishment or lack thereof for mentally ill 'criminals.') But that makes any rehabilitation of AU Moss difficult for the story, because he clearly is the guy who pushed that button. ) I really hope it wasn't AU Emily on the ship, because I thought Five's/JL's performances as different characters when they were doing the flashbacks/memories in season one were some of the weakest sauce in the show, next to One's/MB's. I don't think the actress has the range for it, and I'd prefer they play to their strengths. As the AU Android said (or more appropriately: the writers had her say), basically anyone on the AU Marauder other than AU Corso/Moss would be "redundant." I think the show runners have been kind of straight forward with their twists and hints (in part, no doubt, because the small handful of eps they have to get things done limits how much they can twist things around), so imma taking that as a pretty clear wink through the fourth wall. (Along the lines of "lack of twists," I also took this ep as final confirmation that the "him/he" Portia and Ryo were discussing killing in that fragment from season one was in fact Jones/Varrick.) Worst case, if the person on board is AU Moss, in this story 'rehabilitation' can always take the form of wiping him and hoping to regain One, but like I said above, I can't see the narrative advantage to that (and really hope they don't). I'm thinking Moss as "Corso" on our Raza saved Emily in our universe, but their clearly more damaged AU Moss or AU Corso (if the switch never happened) voted to space her. So the fact they have the drive means she was there, the scene with AU Android at the end lets us know that Portia has/had skills (probably did the mods on Android, given she's thankful), and she or maybe AU Emily hooked it up successfully. Otoh, looking at that, I realize we never saw just how damaged our universe's version of Moss was. We only got to know him as One. And his plan always sounded really stupid/cracktastic, so maybe that's because it wasn't his plan we were seeing/hearing about, but simpletonOne's assumptions about it. Ooo, this makes me happier. That was always a weak point for me, and it would be nice to see it fixed. (So, he didn't join the Raza to just kill Boone, but did so to get closer to the truth about who hired him, and schemes and stuff that hopefully made sense at the time. And probably then kill him, sure.) This is not a thing. Wait, no, you can watch too much SyFy, but not too much sci-fi. * Dead horse:

Honestly, that's what I see, too, but I assumed it was what they are going for. Some people are like that. Too stunted to have a meaningful relationship, but totally capable of being possessive or jealous, heck, even caring for people in much the same limited and egotistical way a three year old might. But that doesn't mean they don't have physical needs or desires. And I consider it even more true to type that such a character would seek to fulfill those needs outside his or her circle of "necessary" people, as with Dutch and Alvin, as opposed to her continuing to boink D'avin, which was liable to get messy. So help me out here, guys. When Jelco busts Johnny, why exactly? Breaking and entering, sure, but he literally said show me the warrant, and Johnny actually has one for traitorous engineer lady. So he has a warrant to retrieve her, and there she was. (That he didn't know that before breaking in is beside the point. They can't prove it.). So if a warrant were sufficient to justify the B&E, as Jelco's question implies, then why isn't his? The snooping he accused Johnny of, Johnny never actually got around to doing, and just because traitorous engineer lady says he was gonna, doesn't make it so. On the contrary, she's been discredited on various fronts, and Johnny is a member of the RAC in good standing. So, huh?

1) Heh. Prolly not, or it wouldn't have been canceled. *sigh* 2) Interesting point. Been thinking about that, and have decided I disagree. While I don't think it's *always* the case, I do believe that *sometimes* having someone considered "reliable" making predictive statements (doesn't have to he a psychic - could even be a financial advisor ;-)), even if those are thoroughly ill-defined, will change the course of action. For example, characters who might not otherwise engage in a preemptive strike could then consider such action "justified," which would change the typical parameters of their behavior, thereby permitting such action. While watching, I immediately felt that the probability that Four would betray the others had increased, simply by having had Milo tell him that *someone* would. (Assuming that we both consider Milo's statements sufficiently cryptic. They certainly weren't all that specific.) 3) I think changing the accepted "facts" of a situation (for example via prophecy) frequently changes how people decide to behave. While the choice remains theirs, if those "facts" are sufficiently altered, they may not have been left with much perceived choice at all. Good point. I think neither Raza nor Seers would last long if the corporations decided to *seriously* pursue them, so the trick is to remain largely off their radar. But as long as stopping them doesn't become a real priority, there's probably no reason they shouldn't both be able to continue as they have.

The Grunwald, iirc. I think the parents aren't so much missing due to budget cuts as stuck in a cellar somewhere. (That's my head canon and I'm sticking to it.) Wouldn't it be nice if the girls discovered them this ep? At this point, I'd honestly prefer hanging out with the moms (especially if it involved drinking copious quantities of wine to ... well... cope) to what has become of the Liars: sad shadows of their former glorious selves. Except Aria. She's pretty much unchanged. (That's not exactly a good thing, though.)

Good grief, that was awful! It felt like rotten fanfic written by a fourteen year old girl. Or at least, how I imagine that stuff must play out, because I wouldn't normally subject myself to this (/ that) kind of garbage. A music video? Complete with stupid wedding trappings and baby and happily ever after crap? (Only slightly pulled out of that kamikaze nosedive by having Dutch go stone cold pyscho, but holy crap, that was embarrassing.) The ongoing, never ending, ubiquitous Dutch worship deepens. ("Please, woman I met an hour ago, who just tried to kill me, btdubs, move in and spend your life with me.") At this point I half think they're trolling us. Johnny continues to keep stupid, and worse: boring secrets. Not one, not two, but three sets of sex(-ish) scenes. That dragged on forever. (Only vaguely helped by Sabine's sliming. I think it would help more if I thought she was actually dead.) You are doing something wrong when your sex scenes annoy me and leave me wondering if you are just trying to distract from the fact that you ran out of actual story to tell. The whole Scarback cutting crap bothers me a lot. I can't believe they styled a religion/ "thing" around it for the show. So I greatly appreciated that they at least (finally) gave it a probable purpose, but I really have to wonder if there wasn't a better way to do this. Or, y'know, a dozen. But on the good side, Pree remains lovely, inside and out. (I prefer him as is, and not in flashbacks to stylish dictator, in part because the clean shaven scalp suits him so much better than the hair they showed in the "warlord" picture (/shallow), but mostly because I agree with @Snarkette that some stories are better in your mind/ undefined.) And I did like them acknowledging the "d'wanting" on screen, which is pretty much how I read Dutch's reactions. I don't see her actually wanting any of the men we've seen her with yet. Sex, sure. The people themselves in the context of a (romantic) relationship? Not so much. But that's subjective, and even having Pree say it doesn't make it so. Other than that, Dutch has a nice voice (that I'd still rather have not heard). And Johnny is thankfully emerging from his role as Dutch's supporting choir. But that's just not enough. So that'd be, what, maybe a 2/10? Imho, ymmv.

As with the B5 example you gave above, the mark of a good storyteller is *how* you deal with the BTS stuff. She could have fallen in lurve with a space prince and gone off to a happily ever after, but they went with something that made a lot of viewers take note instead. As a show runner, you can't change the RL stuff, but you can decide how to let it chew into your show (a few actress' pregnancies immediately spring to mind. *shudder*).

I think you're right about the writing (and of course the acting). But the scripts really did One no favors, despite giving him the hero treatment. (Somehow that only made it worse.) Given he was the only actor with a double (physical*) role, I'd assume this death was planned, too. I really hope that he stays dead, though, and not just for mean ol' meanie reasons. Star Trek TOS had a bad habit of killing off anyone we'd never seen before (BFD) while the heroes were blessed with some serious plot armor. ST TNG did something pretty remarkable when they killed off a member of their core crew mid season one, and particularly for no good reason, just proving life is nasty, brutish and meanly short. "Dark Matter" throws up all kinds of problems for viewers with its murderous "heroes." Even good guy One was shooting corporation people in the pilot who were "just doing their jobs." (Of course the job description was "murderous asshole," but still...) If you want to make that somehow okay for the majority of viewers to still root for them, then it helps if they aren't just murderers, but rather that life is universally cheap in their world. We need to know that it really is "us or them," or they are no better than the psychopaths they (mostly) used to be, and I think a lot of viewers could have problems rooting for a merry band of psychos. Morally grey characters are something else, though. One's death makes the stakes more real and, at least for me, serves to legitimize (to some extent) their lethal actions. Something along the lines of: they live in a kill or be killed world; if I'd like to see them survive to return next week, then I will have to accept that they'll leave some bodies in their wake. Otherwise I may as well watch the A-team, where all the bad guys miraculously survive. * If we count the Numbers vs. original flavor characters, flashbacks etc. pretty much everyone has at least a double role, but MBD was the only one where that involved a separate physical being.

Johnny gave Pawter an assist in rescuing herself from the rapey hill-folk that apparently captured her last week. Pree's (hi, Pree!) got a still and a new waitress for D'avin to flirt with. Turin told Dutch that they traced Khlyen's message transmission to a school for gifted poor kids. Dutch requested a warrant to get them there to investigate further, and (conveniently) received one immediately, how 'bout that, which involved transporting the next batch of kids (henceforth 2.0) there. Synchronicitous babysitting ftw! On arrival, they find the kids (henceforth 1.0) that are already supposed to be there are MIA, along with their minder. Delle Seyah Kendry pops up out of nowhere, demanding to know what they are doing there so far ahead of schedule. The group smells trouble and tries to do a tactical retreat to Lucy with the kids while Dutch and D.S.K. hate flirt and investigate ... stuff ... further, and Pawter and Johnny examine the children's learning pods (presumably illegal, and apparently unintentionally lethal, as it transpires). The evil governess is spotted, chasing happens, and Delle Seyah's bodyguard goes the way of all red shirts. The original student group 1.0 is declared toast. Governess McEvil demands D.S.K. surrender herself or "the truth will be revealed." Only then does Dutch twig to the fact that D.S.K.'s program is uber secret and probably illegal, and pressures her into playing bait, but only after shooting her for good measure. (The crowd cheered.) Dutch tells D.S.K. about Khlyen's transmission, who in turn shares that they've been in regular contact, pay off surely to follow. Lucy & P&J&D'avin, in stages, figure out the transmission probably fried the kids 1.0. Nanny McEvil is revealed to have been a hologram, dead and a hero who tried to save some/one of the kids and was killed for her troubles, now for added pathos! And then the kids 2.0 are used to take D'avin out by luring him into a trap. At which point the older brother of one of the kids 2.0, a presumably dead member of students 1.0, is revealed as alive and behind the whole thing, in a move surprising to no one but the characters, and tries to hijack Lucy to make their getaway, turning off life support to the others in the station for bad measure. Muwahahaha! Johnny saves the day by wielding guilt + 10 like an adept and talks Olan (the older brother) down. Dutch saves the day by gratuitously snogging D.S.K., or maybe by reinstating life support, whichever, possibly both. Elsewhere, D'avin tells Pawter Johnny snores like a wookie. Brotherly teasing ensues. Johnny likes Pawter. Or maybe Lucy. Possibly both. And Dutch talks D.S.K. into agreeing to let her take Olan to the Scarbacks (hi, Alvis, in your self-proclaimed 'sexy' robes!), where they're going to try to get the transmission out of his brain and maybe let him chill. Expect to see him again. Elsewhere, Fancy is a murderous bad-ass who steals a ship with Khlyen to go on a road trip to visit Jaqobis!world, because who wouldn't want to see the source of the pretty? Or maybe they just want to know why the green goo can resist D'avin's winsome smile... (And at that, snark aside, I should say how much I really like that the actor actually has a few wrinkles and looks like a human. Rare thing indeed. More please. Less plastic, more people.)

I think you mean Jake and not Olan, the older brother? I would have liked that, too, but unfortunately, I don't think that was the story they told. Delle Seyah Kendry said that a new group of students wasn't expected yet, which was unusual and concerning enough for her to rush to the station. So I figured Olan had sent out a faked warrant to have his brother brought to him and included the other "little people" as natural cover. Which worked, in as much as the Killjoys and Delle Seyah didn't immediately figure out what was going on. At the least, if Jake had always been intended as a candidate for the school, I thought it was odd that the other children were shown to solve puzzles and know things (like hearing frequencies), whereas the only apparently "smart" thing Jake did was not hanging around with his BSC brother, but going to seek help. Which was unquestionably useful, but not demonstratively smart as with the others. On the contrary, the writers had him kicking things and dropping stuff (too dumb to hide?). While it would have been nice to show that intelligence takes many forms, that offered us a clue that something was off, beyond just the narrative focus (we saw Jake being picked up, but not the others, say), which is decent story-telling.

Given the short seasons, I'm fine with some accelerated or truncated storylines, so the primary focus remains on the interactions between our characters (including the new additions) and not a *lot* of time spent on others, like Android's new friends, or Three's old team. (Though I *do* like that they spend a chunk of their budget on people instead of effects. That generally makes a more interesting story for me.) I suspect there was some truth in Tanner seeing a form of redemption in raising Boone. And if that's the case, I bet there would also be a kind of relief in seeing Three was apparently still criminal even without any memory of Tanner. With no memories of Tanner or Boone's parents, Three, on the surface, still seems to be pretty much the same old Boone, as we saw last week. What a relief it could be to think you apparently didn't cause that. What Tanner will have missed is that lack of memories of something isn't the same as its lack of influence, because that is still there, even if diminished: the reality Three currently finds himself in is partly so because of Tanner. Three is a wanted criminal with the options of a wanted criminal available to him. That definitely limits his choices and will drive some decisions. Not remembering Tanner's contribution to that doesn't change many of its effects. The Raza's crew may have woken with no memories, but the situations they are responding to (at least initially) are created entirely from those other, unknown lives. (Sort of like Scott Bakula's character on "Quantum Leap" - "Oh boy.") Somewhat perversely, I'm also fine with not completely understanding Tanner's motivations, because it puts us in the same boat as Three. (But it would be problematic for me if they took advantage of that too often.) The crew will on occasion find themselves in situations where, with a very imperfect understanding of everyone's roles, they will need to make decisions that could cost them or others their lives. How they navigate that will be what determines what kind of people they're becoming. The crew remains handicapped, now also by their own choices to not regain their memories (at least for the moment), when dealing with people they used to know. But the flip side of that is they are no longer behaving quite predictably in terms of their past behavior, and that will cause some problems for those other people as well. This illustrated that quite nicely. (Another example recently was Six shooting his friend and colleague in 2x01. They don't have the emotional ties to their past experiences to weight their decisions, even if they have the knowledge of those lives. We were friends / We were family.) Last week, Three found that rocket ship in his lockbox that we see his mother hand him in the beginning of this episode, so I do believe the old Boone remembered his past and was at least somewhat aware of the problematic nature of his relationship with Tanner. By the time he would have been able to act on that, he may well have been too far gone (Stockholm Syndrome) or in too deep to want to, but otoh, he did save that toy as one of his few possessions. We also don't know the truth of how he was left by them for dead. I loved that he didn't try to chase answers he was never going to get from Tanner or his crew. Three could ask all he wanted, he would never be able to trust their answers, and I hate when shows pretend otherwise. Finally, I kind of like their new simplified world view. They seem to be interested in pursuing a form of justice - for One, or here for Boone's parents. That in a system with a death penalty (Four was to be executed, iirc, for patricide/treasonous acts) that justice, particularly when executed by criminals, can be deadly should come as no surprise.

Best of both worlds: Shour Harvey. :-)

Hoping Mona clued Caleb in on the sitch and he's the one driving around in a Wrollins mask. (It would be so nice to move past the triangle and be plot relevant again.) Or I'll accept Lucas as option 2, as a nice callback to the days when he was her minion. But Caleb and Mona were always so good and snarky together on their SaveHanna! missions. Miss that. And that would probably be a decent idea if Noelkahn* weren't simultaneously gaslighting them with calls that freak them out and, when coupled with the police photos, apparently cause them to ramp up the stupid. ((Wo)Man the shovels! Felonious shoveling, ho!) If they ever actually checked that people were dead, this wouldn't be a thing. I keep hoping that clip is an excerpt from someone's nightmare or flashback, and they aren't stupid enough to revisit the grave. But then they still don't wear gloves seven seasons in, so... * or possibly Wren (hope never dies *sigh*), but Noelkahn makes more sense atm as part of TeamJenna...