weyrbunny

Danny's son was the one wearing the blue Rayburn House shirt while watching from the bushes. (He's wearing the same neck chain when he shows up in the Keys West at the end.) It made sense to me that Danny would give his son a shirt from the family business. John and Kevin left together, as Kate87 said, so it couldn't have been Kevin wearing the shirt. The cop already following the Rayburn siblings is an interesting thought, though. I figured using the Rayburn House van with the giant logo for drug transfer or whatever would come back to bite them. But again, the DEA seemed to forget about the the idea of photo surveillance. ETA: Updated, alexvillage.

Same here. Not once did I have the compulsion to binge-watch Bloodline late into the night, like I do with many series these days. I watched it very gradually by my standards, which tells you I didn’t find all of it compelling. But now, I can’t stop thinking about the characters and the ending…and I want more! I did enjoy the narrative puzzle that was the family history. Some of the visual storytelling was excellent, too. It was the soap-opera subplots that others have mentioned (the sister’s love life, etc.) where my attention waned. It wasn’t just about lingering childhood resentment. Danny learning now that all 3 of his siblings had lied to the police to cover up his beating made fresh his anger and sense of betrayal. But also, one sibling after another “wronged” Danny again in the present: John lied to him, saying it was the Dad who wanted him to leave, when John (and Meg and Kevin) in fact made the decision, Meg drew up the Dad’s will, which cut out Danny, Kevin attacked Danny after the Dad was hospitalized. Each of these events mirrored the events after Sara’s death, by the way. It was ep. 6, I think, when I realized that the 3 siblings had subtly but systematically recreated the sins of the past, and that Danny knew this and would be out for blood. None of this excuses Danny’s psychopathy, of course. Ben Mendelsohn truly was riveting here. I’ve been a fan of his since Animal Kingdom, but after Bloodline, he’s an actor I’ll watch in anything. Like Kyle Chandler. Yeah, it annoyed me that the DEA surveillance apparently didn't include photos or you know, simply following the criminals on a regular basis. Danny kept meeting with the others criminals—they could've just taken his photo.

BBC America finally announced the premiere date for Season 3: April 29th at 10pm (Season 3 trailer). A first episode synopsis is already posted too, but *WARNING* it's lengthy and gives some things away.

Yep, that does sound like something I would complain about. I remember liking the humor on Young Justice, though. Wally and Robin in particular had some really good lines, IIRC. But yeah, other times we were definitely laughing at Young Justice, not with it. Seriously, how many times did Superboy’s shirt “accidentally” get ripped off to expose his perfectly sculpted abs? I finished the series today, actually. Originally, my intention was just to catch up with Toonami, but I quickly discovered that Kill la Kill is not a show I want to think about for 6 months while it airs weekly. What it lacks in originality it tries to make up for in ecchi-ness and VOLUME!! So loud and noisy…so much shrieking. And so much Need Moar Lens Flare meme used to . I’m not sure I’d recommend Kill la Kill, but if you find anime like Excel Saga fun, you’ll probably like it. Two notes: The second half is better than the first. I was reminded of Eureka 7, which spent like 30 episodes rehashing lame teen clichés before suddenly getting to the point. (And once Eureka 7’s storytelling had a focus, it was awesome!) Kill la Kill is similar in that its second arc refocuses on the themes introduced in the pilot, and so it suddenly has a larger purpose and much more interesting subtext. The second half even manages to give relevance—dare I say logic—to some of the weird crap in the first half. The sub is better than the dub. I couldn’t take the yelling anymore, so I switched to subtitles and lowered the volume after about 10 eps. A good decision, it turned out, because the Japanese voice acting has noticeably better line delivery and nuance, IMO. The shouting and shrieking is still monotonous, but at least it’s funnier. PS. Deep thoughts about Kill la Kill ep 16 from Mecha-Guignol. (Major spoilers, obv.)

I watched eps 1-16 of Kill la Kill this week. No surprise—I don’t care for it. On occasion, something so unbelievably ridiculous will happen onscreen I’ll laugh, but otherwise it’s just a monotonous onslaught of noise, both auditory and visual. The storytelling makes something like Fairy Tale look realistic and emotionally complex by comparison, too. At this point, I’m just using it as background noise while I dust. Though…I did notice today that the second arc/cour seems to be minimally better than the first, mainly because the fashion/fascism analogy is addressed directly. But I doubt Kill la Kill can do enough in its remaining eps to reverse my opinion. **UPDATE: The second half of Kill la Kill is definitely better than the first. And, the subtitled version is definitely better than the dubbed. Kill la Kill just strikes me as garish but ultimately average ecchi. It in no way lives up to the hype, but it's not terrible. Oh god, not that bullshit show again. Too bad Toonami didn’t acquire Tokyo Ghoul instead—I keep seeing/hearing how amazing its direction by Shuhei Morita is. (Split-depth GIFs of Tokyo Ghoul seem to be on the rise, too.) It’s on Hulu and Funi, at least.

Drat!! I've been too busy to watch Durarara!!x2. Thanks for the reminder. (It's on Crunchyroll, FYI.) Looks like D!!x2 will have 39 episodes total, split into 3 cours, so I've got like a year to catch up, at least. And I haven't kept up with the DVDs, but Season 1 is available on Hulu as well as Crunchyroll, both dubbed and subbed.

Hmm…I remember the doctor having ordered abortion supplies, which set Reid and Drake off after her. If they were only asking for her help, I stand corrected. I still think their “Him?” reaction was funny. ---- I see Reid’s ending as a variation on the classic Shane ending: the injured gunfighter rides off into the sunset and it’s up to the audience to decide whether he lives or dies. (Modern examples include Cowboy Bebop and the Ryan Gosling movie .) I think the ambiguity or mystery is whether he will die, not is he already dead or having a coma hallucination or whatever. And there’s a lot in the finale to suggest that Reid is not long for this world: the headaches, ringing ears, staggering, almost falling. (Was he so unsteady on his feet during eps. 3.6 and 3.7? I don’t think so.) The obituary amplifies the ambiguity of course, for the obvious reasons, and because the words are antithetical to the happy beach scene. You could take the beach scene as uplifting, since it shows Reid finding peace in life rather than death. But I can’t forget how S3 is peppered with drowning imagery and shipwreck horror and River of Forgetfulness references and “going to the sea” as a final destination/death metaphor. Water has been ominous, and listening to the obituary while Reid stands in the ocean does not make it less so. Agreed. It also occurred to me that the final scene of Reid at peace could be another instance of Ripper Street subverting the ton of death foreshadowing, just as they did with ep. 3.4’s cliffhanger. I was indifferent to True Detective, having seen more interesting and more poetic debates on existentialism and nihilism in anime. So I much prefer Ripper Street. Their endings and themes are kinda similar, I guess.

Welcome, @julzzy! Opine away. I was annoyed they went for the soap opera of a pregnancy at all. Just because Susan is in a position of strength in a “man’s business” doesn’t mean she’s less of a woman or that we need reminding that she is one. But I do think Susan changing her mind was about more than just personal selfishness. She originally objected to contraception and abortion at the Obsidian clinic because it was illegal and she was trying to go straight, not because she was against their practice. After realizing she couldn’t succeed without her former ruthlessness and criminality, she could agree to them as a return to her “do bad to do good” agenda. If she just wanted an abortion for herself, she could’ve traveled to the Netherlands or wherever else they were offered safely, I think. BTW, in ep. 3.7, Susan says “It seems I must choose my prison” when talking about her pregnancy. Total foreshadowing for the finale and its choose-your-own-end motif. Yeah, it was great that she didn’t hesitate for a second! It was also funny that Reid and Drake arrived all set to accuse the doctor, but then quickly had to change gears like, “Wait, that guy did it? Oh, we’ll arrest him instead.” I’m glad you were surprised. I realized it within a scene or two after noticing that the actor’s voice was an unusual register. Heh—Jackson just became a single parent like Reid, didn’t he? (Even if Susan doesn’t hang because she’s pregnant, she still goes to prison for attempted murder, I think.) Maybe Jackson could take a parenting class at the clinic, too.

Well, that clinches it. Series 3 has been so excellently written, with so many good twists, it is far and away my favorite season. Ep. 3.8 - The Peace of Edmund Reid This was a fitting finale, in that every hallmark of the show was on display: smart policing and quiet, insightful character moments interspersed with gory death and torture, capped with a chilling twist. Heck, the fistfight even paralleled the boxing match in the Series 2 finale. (This fight was more Wild West saloon brawl imagery though, in keeping with S3.) I did re-watch 3.8, and I did appreciate it more the second time. The first time…well, it was hard not to be frustrated by Susan’s subjugation. Jeez, she was suddenly the trifecta of traditional gender roles: wife, daughter, mother. But on closer watch, I realized that Susan was always acting in-character and that her silence was about survival. Plus, she had a significant amount of agency at the end, agency which she literally and figuratively passed on to the doctor and the councilwoman. I found it very telling that Susan chose two women professionals to continue her legacy. It was actually Reid’s line about “choosing your conclusion” that reframed Susan’s actions for me. Reid did it, Susan did it, and I think the show did it—chose their own end, I mean. (Yep, very meta.) I liked how Reid didn’t react as expected. His “fingerprinting works! Oh right, murder…” facial expressions were classic, too. I don’t believe Susan missed on purpose though, nor did I believe Reid when he said it. It contradicts too much of what Susan has said and done, and a last-minute whitewashing of events would smack of the show chickening out, which it better not’ve done, dammit! Instead, I saw it as Reid giving Susan any reason to turn witness. There have been so many scenes in S3 of Reid manipulating or interrogating people—this conversation followed that template: he told Susan what she needed to hear to get her to turn on another criminal. The older brother betraying his younger brother in ep. 3.5 makes sense now as a precursor, BTW. The symmetry of a father going into the cage, where before there had been a daughter, still makes me smile. Neat bit about the Stanhope, as well. I loved Drake describing Susan as “dark and sharp as a midsummer shadow.” Beautiful image, and one last obsidian reference.

Hansel & Gretel strikes me as the best-written episode that I’ve watched so far. Not my favorite—that’s still The Dancing Princesses. But not once did Hansel & Gretel feel like it was struggling to fill the hour, unlike other episodes have. Scenes make sense for the story also, and the characters even ask logical questions. Not all episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre concern themselves with such things, so the change was nice. Joan Collins was also a great Wicked Stepmother. Her performance makes you realize that the recent trend to humanize and flesh out fairy tale villains—Maleficent, Snow White & the Huntsman, etc.—is rendering the characters bland and just as stereotypical. Collin’s Stepmother is neither. She manages to be human and villainous at the same time seemingly with ease, and more importantly, with personality. The acting is very naturalistic here and not just from Collins. Ricky Schroder and Bridgette Andersen, who play the kids, are really good as well. The ‘White Pidgeon of Doom’ cracked me up, though.

Watched a few more... Aladdin & His Wonderful Lamp is most noteworthy because it was directed by Tim Burton between Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice. The bits of macabre humor and some of the quirky, spooky visuals make it easy to see Burton’s influence, I think—it’s more of his “funny, with skeletons.” But I wasn’t charmed by Aladdin, because the production has never seemed more distractingly sloppy. And for all the obvious, quirky humor, it wasn't funny. Well, OK, I laughed at the genie’s “May I scare him?” thanks to James Earl Jones’ line delivery. But that was it. Some of the acting is truly terrible, too. Robert Carradine and Valerie Bertinelli were miscast, I guess: they’re both too jokey and too sincere. James Earl Jones and Leonard Nimoy at least went full-on, over-the-top camp in their performances. It was also distracting that multiple actors were caked in bronzer and glitter to look Middle Eastern. It was the 80’s equivalent of Cheeto-tanning Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia, I guess. I liked that the sultan was massaged by a woman painted/camouflaged to blend in with his chair, at least. It was also nice to see Ray Sharkey. Made me want to look up Wiseguy.

I forgot to mention about Beauty & the Beast that I cracked up when someone offscreen clearly threw/pushed geese into the shot. And I enjoyed Snow White, too. Vincent Price rolling his eyes as the magic mirror was kinda perfect. I also liked that they styled Elizabeth McGovern like Disney’s Snow White, just because the rest of the episode was so…naughty. Nice subversion of a classic!

I don't get the critical reverence for The Grand Budapest Hotel. Watched it recently, and it was...fine. But it's not even in my top 5 favorite Wes Anderson films. So it's about standing up to Facism, so it's darker and (marginally) less whimsical than his prior films--portions of the film are actually boring. And I don't think I've ever been bored by an Anderson film before. Ralph Fiennes' performance was very entertaining, at least.

I think Series 3 was planned as the final one--I remember reading somewhere that the Amazon deal was for one season only. (FYI, Ripper Street was cancelled after Series 2 but was saved by a deal with Amazon.) I suppose nothing's official until it airs in 2015 on BBC/BBC America, of course. Oh, hell...I just realized that S3's arc is totally meta: the show rose from the dead and was saved; Mathilda and Reid both figuratively rose from the dead and were saved. That explains a lot, really. I'd noticed the reinvigorated storytelling and acting of course, and figured it reflected the show making the most of its second chance. S3's story could've been planned before the cancellation, but somehow I doubt that much meta is a coincidence. I've seen 3.8 just to take it in, but I need to watch it again before commenting. I can't stop thinking about the phrase "fearful symmetry"...

I’ve watched a couple anime this month… First up was Patema Inverted, which I loved!! It’s a 2013 film about two cultures with opposite gravity, so when people interact they are always upside down and in danger of falling away from each other. Two teens from these cultures of course meet and explore the mystery of their worlds. The plot and characters are simplistic, but it’s hardly noticeable because Patema Inverted is impossibly beautiful and cleverly told. The sky and landscapes rival 5 Centimeters Per Second, the current standard for scenery porn—even the architecture is so stunning it’s worth basking in. (Only I do that? Eh, you’re missing out.) And, since gravity literally and figuratively represents perspective, the animation frequently switches to upside-down or vertiginous angles. (BTW, notice the slight yin-yang of the arms in the linked poster? It’s a recurring image/theme.) The direction of these complex scenes is simply great, the visual storytelling is sublime and one of the plot twists is just…neat. Oh, and it gets even better with a second viewing—many more clues to the mysteries are evident on re-watch. I also zipped through I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying. It’s a short-form romantic comedy about newlyweds that makes fun of stuff like the husband being an otaku blogger and the wife being a drinker who can’t cook. It's non-stop social commentary, showing the couple build emotional intelligence as they learn about each other and how to be grown-ups. More importantly though, it’s really funny. Each 3-4 min. episode is so packed with laugh-out-loud moments, I often have to rewind because I’m still laughing at one joke when another one flies by. Anyway, Series 1 is free on CrunchyRoll (at least for now) and you can watch all 13 eps. in an hour. (Series 2 has been ordered.) I’m now continuing on my Yoko Kanno kick with Kids on the Slope. I watched a handful of episodes when it first aired in 2012, but then, IDK, got too busy or it didn’t live up to the hype or something. But, I’m really enjoying it now.

Ep. 3.7 - Live Free, Live True A heartbreaking episode, but with the breadth of women’s issues not just brought to the forefront, but all explored simultaneously, it was almost too much to take in at once. There just wasn’t room for much subtlety, with a return of the heavy-handed history lessons in a couple conversations even (e.g., the doctor's diatribes on abortion and contraception). The murderer, though, and the variation on the why women kill theme, were heartbreaking. I have also never been more conflicted about Susan. I can’t remember the last time I saw a female villain with this much nuance and complexity, and ep. 3.7 added to it at every opportunity. If the show can sustain this through the finale, Susan might be the new standard against which I gauge female antagonists. But, I frequently stop myself from rooting for her with reminders that her body count is now huge, and that she’s been a pimp from the beginning. The journalist’s exposition was a big mistake, IMO, because it completely forecasted the ending cliffhanger. The episode was already an exploration of parent/child relationships, so the arrival of you-know-who would’ve fit in anyway. Reid’s single-parent, childcare problems were hysterical, though. After Jackson yelled, “REID! YOUR CHILD’S LOOSE!!” I couldn’t stop laughing. There were several patterns within the larger theme. One was women looking for allies/partners in men: Rose in Drake, the doctor in her mentor, for example. Until the last act, the women were unsuccessful. My take was that George’s advice to Mary then acted as catalyst for Drake, Reid and Havelock to reexamine their actions, to become these allies. The husband, the father, the lover—it was a bit too diagrammatic (again, little subtlety), but at least it was progressive. And hopeful. Susan found only patronization and threats from her male business associates, of course, and so she smartly didn’t wait for them to change or offer acceptance and simply took what she was owed. I do hope this wasn't the seed for her downfall, though.

Ep. 3.6 – The Incontrovertible Truth It’s hard not to resent this one as filler or a reset that squanders the drama and momentum of the last two cliffhangers. Fortunately, the show had the sense to frequently acknowledge that the convenient return to business-as-usual is miraculous and mostly a façade…or “carnival mask,” to use Jackson’s phrase. Much of 3.6 is also thematically significant for Susan’s story, so even though she isn’t present, she’s never long from your thoughts. I saw this as another rumination on why women kill, on how their desires can be at odds with the moral double standards placed on women. I of course kept thinking back to Susan’s defining statement in 3.4: “I have brought him to his end. You believe a woman must become a man to own such an act. How little you have learnt.” I also noticed a great deal throughout the episode about memory loss—“no memory…then oblivion”—which made the parallels between Lady Vera’s case and Reid’s circumstances evident. Actually, the whole investigation, especially the forensics, was all necessary preamble for solving the season-long arc, really. So this, it turns out, is a crucial episode. But I was still impatient throughout. Reid’s subtle manipulations of Jackson and Drake were almost nostalgic. I kept thinking, though, how it was like he was already corrupting them by degrees. I like the latest duckling, Constable Grace, well enough, but his scenes reemphasize how underutilized DS Flight was in Series 2. I kinda wish Flight had been able to return, just so the character and actor (Damien Molony) could’ve been better served. That wouldn’t make sense within the story, of course. Heh—this is technically a bottle episode, but I’ll probably remember it as “The Toe Episode.” The last image of Reid with his feet off the ground after leaning backwards in the chair was incredibly provocative, BTW. There was of course the callback to the opening image of the Sergeant’s foot, but it also made me think of a hypnic jerk, where a sense of falling causes you to jolt awake. (Yes, that chair thing from Inception.) It would be outstanding if Reid’s small jolt in the chair was symbolic of an awakening. It would also fit with the following scene of Jackson “re-awakening” the case by retrieving the gun for fingerprint analysis.

Ep. 3.5 – Heavy Boots After the brilliant intensity of last episode, 3.5’s beginning (with song) seemed awkward and surreal, stylistically…off. I soon realized that was the point, and then I couldn’t stop noticing how the episode's style reflected the characters’ grief and unsteadiness. The swirling and swinging camera movements, atypical angles, long takes, blurriness, even absence of music in some scenes all contributed to the sense that this was a world waiting for death. (As did the drunkenness, of course.) The other interesting visual storytelling choice? All the images of bodies lying or sleeping. Or dead or dying. And these images evoked Reid—what else? The arrangements of sleeping bodies—Rose and Drake, Jackson and the pig dressed as Reid, the dying man and his girlfriend, even Drake slumped awkwardly in a chair—all take on a second meaning. Jackson’s line at the end about wanting to “rest his head” punctuates the theme too, I think. Speaking of Jackson, this is the second episode in a row where he uses his gun to bully someone. It was just to get a seat in the pub this time, but last time he technically robbed the journalist. Reid uses his hands, but Jackson uses his gun…how Wild West, I suppose. I’m starting to wonder if all the drowning imagery and ocean/river references in S3 are leading somewhere. Or maybe it's all just carrying over from the specter of Mathilda’s death on a ship. Episode 3.5 was actually really well-written: it managed to integrate a history lesson without sacrificing character moments or subplots in a way that chunks of Series 2 didn’t. I was never totally convinced that an older brother would betray his kid brother like that, though.

I was referring more to Drake enabling Reid’s brutality and corruption. Certainly Drake had his own motivation to find the girl, but in the scene where Reid threatens to drown the Artful Dodger kid, for example, Drake mostly stood there looking uncomfortable. Reid does offer assurances that he won’t murder the kid “yet”, but he’s still torturing him, and Drake doesn’t intervene. I suppose it would be hypocritical for Drake to object to torture here after he helped cover up the murder before, but still…I’ve noticed that Drake does step in when it’s Abbeline or Jackson. The role reversal is interesting, of course: Drake used to be the physical one, the blunt instrument during an interrogation (or boxing match), and now that falls to Reid because Drake isn’t willing to serve that role anymore. IIRC, it’s why Drake tried to distance himself from Whitechapel and Reid. I still wish Ripper Street had been bold enough to do it. (If The 100 can, so can they.) It fit perfectly in that moment of storytelling and would've been genuinely surprising. Well okay, with that much foreshadowing, the surprise would've been the defiance of TV conventions. Reid’s absences in eps 3.3 and 3.5 are almost like they’re testing your theory, anyway.

The more I think about it, the more I see the logic of the AV Club's reading of why Korra didn't fight in the Avatar state: because using the Avatar state is overpowering an opponent through force and aggression rather than reaching understanding or compromise. Kuvira and Korra actually debated this idea at an earlier point--I can't recall which episode--with Kuvira comparing her unity-through-force actions to the Avatar's prior victories. This then gives even more credence to the idea that Kuvira and Korra are mirrors. The fight scenes still could've been more creative, though. Refusing to concede on that... Vanity Fair also has the article "How a Nickelodeon Cartoon Became One of the Most Powerful, Subversive Shows of 2014." It's too hyperbolic, but the overview of the show's history and the perspective on Korra and Asami is interesting.

So, the look Korra gave Mako after he supportively said “I’ve got your back, and I always will” actually meant “Phew, ‘cause I’m gonna date your ex-girlfriend?” Hahaha! That’s outstanding. The Avatar state really was noticeably missing from the fights, and it even seemed odd that Korra focused on airbending for so long—I thought of water/icebending immediately, but they saved it as a last resort, almost. Frankly, the fighting here just wasn’t as creative or commonsensical as I’d hoped for, excepting the confined-space Korra vs. Kuvira. Otherwise...the windshield was the only thing not made from metal—melt that firebenders and lavabender!! I can respect how the show wouldn’t want to repeat the elaborate Avatar fights from prior season finales, though. LoK has always seemed conscientious about not repeating itself or A:TLA, unless ironically. I can also see the psychology/rationale behind Korra embracing airbending over other elements more as she’s matured. But I’m really wondering now about the analysis I’ve seen elsewhere about how Korra doesn’t trust the Avatar state after the fight with Zaheer. Oh, well. At least I loved Lin, Suyin and Bolin toppling that building. I also laughed when the mecha face-palmed itself thanks to Meelo. And Mako’s lightning bending made me realize how much it and even firebending have been missing from S4! The slight callback to Into the Inferno was appreciated... I forgot to mention earlier that I really like the sound made by the spirit cannon. It reminded me of the sonic blast weapons in Attack of the Clones, of all things. Nice invocation of the toxic jungle from Nausicaa in the finale, too. The Kuvira/Korra mirror image part irked me though, because it seemed like a wasted opportunity to bring up the far more provocative Kuvira-as-Dark-Avatar imagery, for continuity if nothing else. And then Korra said the mirror theme out loud to the point of over-explaining it, which only added to the irk. I was also instantly against caging giant badger moles in a zoo. It’s too similar to killer whales being kept by Sea World in tanks equivalent in size to goldfish bowls. Badger moles could dig/earthbend their way out whenever they wanted, at least. This is my overall opinion of Book 4, I think. The emotional depth and themes were excellent, but they really needed 20 episodes or so, like A:TLA used to have. The trombone player in the wedding band was Tahno, that jerkbender from S1, wasn’t he? BTW, with Zhu Li dipping Varrick at the wedding, I inferred that she would be the dominant one in that relationship, taking a page from Secretary. Heh—it makes perfect sense that Varrick was taken away by circus people.

My exact reaction. And I think we found out why Suyin took the twins with her on the assassination mission--I was impressed by their skills as well. (If they had a detailed fight scene last series, I've forgotten.) Maybe Lin is where Mako learned that face. She did at least mentioned "greatness" again as her goal/motivation this time, which ties in with her earlier behavior. I felt bad for Bolin several times. I know he's the comic relief, but...good thing he's largely oblivious to the derision/verbal abuse of those around him. For the first time, I'm hoping he doesn't end up with the Beifongs as in-laws--Bataar Sr. can attest to how rough they are. On a related note, my favorite line this ep was Toph's “I can feel your enraged breathing from here.” Yeah, I'm familiar...

Wasn't the problem that Love Machine got loose, in a Stuxnet parallel? But yeah, the US failed at even basic planning... Another bad sign: the fate of the world depends on a party-guest's ability to do math in his head.

Ep. 3.4 – Your Father. My Friend. Holy Hell, that was…that was a damn good cliffhanger. And for about 3 minutes, I was really proud of Ripper Street for fearlessly pulling the trigger and not copping out on all the foreshadowing. And then of course they undid it, because there are still 4 eps to go. Oh well, it was a great plot twist regardless, and I can see how it raises the character conflicts to Shakespearian-tragedy levels now. It seemed odd that Drake receded into the background here after his lengthy, brilliant monologues in 3.3. Mostly, it made Drake look like Reid’s enabler. And the poor Sergeant—Reid used him as an enabler too by practically demanding that oath of fealty. At least the Chief Inspector stood his ground against Reid for a time. I’m liking him more and more because of it. I snickered at the slo-mo walking with shotguns. It was like something out of…IDK, The Untouchables? I’ve realized that I don’t know Mathilda’s age at the time of the shipwreck. I thought she was a small child, based probably on how Reid spoke about her, but with I’mNotAlice being 15 or 16 yrs old, that would make Mathilda closer to 9, I guess. It’s also possible that the show realized they needed to age up the character in order to show the, um, child endangerment in this episode. BTW, the child actor who plays Tommen Baratheon on Game of Thrones guests in ep 4 as an Artful Dodger. (Or possibly, he was also a Mad Hatter reference since the looking glass comes into play again.) Anyway, if Tommen ever turns evil, they’ve chosen the right actor for the job. When Susan said that she had “become stone” I finally made the connection to Obsidian: she has hardened and blackened just like the rock.

Series 3 really is crazy-good so far. It’s been reinvigorated by its near-death, I think, going for broke in both story and acting. I guess they believed Susan—she turned it around on them after all, clearing Capshaw by saying that Buckley, the witness, was lying and that Capshaw was Alice’s rescuer instead. And they just don’t have evidence yet to arrest Capshaw for the train heist. They had a witness description, but not ID. He’s still a bit of an exposition fairy—that’s a trope, not a slur—only present to deliver information or push the plot forward, but I do appreciate the character a lot more now than in earlier seasons. The actor manages to imbue his few scenes with so much feeling. Heh. Their crime recreation brought back fond memories of the “Fuck” scene from The Wire. (NSFW obv.)