sluggish neko

The implausibility of Dutch jumping into space didn't bother me because nanites in sci-fi is like a healing spell. It fixes all. What I found interesting was how D'avin was all NOOOO, Dutch is dead! She jumped out the airlock! and John is like chill, she's strong, she'll be fine. Typical D'avin-- throwing melodramatic fits about being tortured by nanites, killing his squad, and getting his memory erased because of some grand conspiracy. I'm obviously poking fun here, but I'm slowly warming up to his character. I still don't think the actor is up to carrying the weight of his backstory, but I like that he tries. The rapport growing between him and John also helps. As does the constant display of abs. So, when is John going to make an honest ship out of Lucy?

Oh pendulum crime reconstruction effect, how I missed you! It felt almost nostalgic to see Will back at work doing something competent other than angsting over Hannibal and getting shot, beaten, drugged, etc. That whole scene where Will investigated the house in the dark was horror movie creepy, especially with the ghostly appearance of the bodies wherever Will shined the flashlight, and also beautifully shot. When Will was drinking alone with the phone in his hand, I fully expected him to drunk dial Hannibal.

Huzzah! The ladies and Stephen get their agency back! The last team-up between Strange and Norrell finally showed that true bond of friendship underneath the rivalry that was missing from their original meeting. Maybe it was an issue of time and pacing, but the closeness between Strange and Norrell when they were pupil and mentor was never fully established so when they broke up, it didn't have much of an impact. Also, it didn't help that Norrell (with an assist from Lascelles) went into full jerkass mode soon after. In this final episode, Norrell had lots of great moments. Norrell praising Strange's book, promising to help Arabella if Jonathan couldn't, urging Strange not to give up... I can almost forget how awful he's been in the last few episodes. And Strange shows the affection and respect he's always had for Norrell. How great was it that they reconcile after Jonathan laughs at Norrell's rain spell and it's that very rain that transports them to Lost Hope to save Arabella? What Vinculus said to Childermass as the Black Tower vanished was haunting: "They are the spell. They're the spell the Raven King has spun and that is all they've ever been. He's spinning it now." The Raven King is a mysterious unknown and the information Strange & Norrell had from books was spotty and inaccurate. They weren't even sure of his name. If that's the case, did the Raven King really kill a Fairy in the past? In the picture they showed of him, the Fairy lurking near the Raven King looked exactly like the Gentleman in the green suit. I wonder... could it be that the Raven King created Strange & Norrell and set events in motion... all to defeat and kill the Gentleman Fairy... that very same Fairy who plagued him? Then all of this was just one great spell woven to ensnare and kill a Fairy. And now that their job is done, the magicians returned to what they've always been. Pure magic. Well, that's my interpretation anyway. One of many, I'm sure. I would totally watch the hell out of a show starring Childermass... as long as they retain the services of Enzo Cilenti and his seductive line readings.

What Elliot said to that Steel Mountain employee (Bill Carter I think his name was?) was so very mean. The poor man was about to cry. I hope he went home and hugged his fluffy kitty. He looked happy with his cat on the facebook photos Elliot dug up. Wow, Elliot's mom must have been a nasty piece of work. I feel like I'm watching a cryptic foreign film whenever Tyrell and his wife show up. Is she like a Swedish Lady Macbeth? How creepy was it when Tyrell just waltzed into the bathroom while the woman was using the toilet and just stood there? It seemed like he and his wife had some kind of plan. I just have no idea what it was. I noticed that when Mr. Robot interacts with people, Elliot fades into the background and when Elliot is the one talking with people, Mr. Robot is the one that fades. I'm going with the theory that they're two sides of the same person. Meaning whenever Mr. Robot picks things up or talks to people, it's actually Elliot doing it in reality.

See what happens when Amy Acker & Amanda Schull leave? Suddenly, Harvey's back in therapy and all that maturity he showed handling the divorce case and Donna-- poof! like it never happened. His Donna abandonment issues are back, now mixed with a raging mother complex. Even worse, he's talking to that stupid psychiatrist again. The English accent doesn't fool me. Her dialogue is awful. Really? Equating Donna and Harvey's mother? Right, because what this show needs is Freudian headshrinking. Whatevs. And btw lady, you don't need to be married to value family highly. I see Mike has picked up Rachel's habit of gossiping. While you're at it, why not speak up and tell everyone at work that Harvey's having panic attacks? It's not like the law firm is a real workplace anyway. With Rachel telling Louis that his plan will make Jack hate him forever and Louis hiding from Jessica behind a shelf and Tanner throwing insults about Harvey's mother, it's more like a childrens' playground. At least Jessica's around to supervise. On the plus side, Gretchen is still awesome.

I didn't like Amy Acker on Angel, but I do like her on POI. She's good in Much Ado About Nothing too. So I was happy to see her in this episode. And Amanda Schull! She's way better on 12 Monkeys, which is also a better show. Awww, Harvey is growing up. Good job! Louis, unfortunately, is still stuck in grade school. Oh wells. I, too, am tired of the Harvey/Donna back and forth. They've both been terrible to each other and at this point, together or not-- I really don't care. And since we're hating on people (always fun!)... Rachel is the worst for telling Louis about his sister's cheating husband. That's unprofessional! And a violation of a client's privacy. Who does she think she is? The town gossip? She should have told Louis to ask his sister about it. And Louis really needs to quit meddling in things he doesn't understand. Same goes for Mike. Before he got all righteous when he's on moral shakey ground himself (which you all have rightly blasted him for), he should have checked with the clients to see if they were happy with the offer. Aren't they whom he claims to be working for? Ugh. They all deserve teeth-rattling slaps from Jessica.

Alana saying, "Buona sera" before she shot the guard was a nice little callback to the first episode when Hannibal greeted his victims with a "Bonsoir" in Paris. So... is Hannibal's promise to Alana to save Will continuous? Will Hannibal always save Will or is this a one-time-use-only sort of thing? I'm just curious if Hannibal still has plans to eat Will. I like how in that last scene in Will's house, Will is on the bed and Hannibal is sitting on a chair with a notebook on his lap. It's like the early days of their relationship in Hannibal's office. Was Hannibal trying to recreate the magic? Poor Hannibal. Will's break-up speech was definitive. Sawing open your objection of affection's head with the intent of eating his brain tends to be a deal-breaker.

I thought they were going the affair route with Karen. When she shut her bedroom door and locked it, I thought, Good thinking girl. Lots of sexual assault going on in this episode and Pete is awful... then she had to go and pull out her stomach sack. So yeah, they got me... does this mean she's a sentient synth working with Leo's group on the inside or part of something else? And Leo, I thought he'd be smarter to let a teen trick him so easily. Why offer the option of a bag? Just take the frikkin' phone! Teens can't live without their phones. Plus, you can hack a phone. Gah! At least we got some new info about him from Dr. Millican. I'm guessin' that shared memory of the car sinking in water is how the real Leo died. Niska did look cool escaping with her nail gun even if her original intent made no sense. She's on the run for killing a human. Her response: go beat down more humans where she can be captured on camera. Riiiiiight. With her history in the brothel and her predilection for violence, maybe she's modeled after Pris from Blade Runner? As for the Joe/Anita scene that I hoped we wouldn't have to see... I just finished Aziz Ansari's new book and I had the misfortune of learning what a tenga was. Assuming Joe thinks Anita is simply a human shaped machine, he's using one exceptionally expensive tenga.

I liked how Vinculus (the human book) said how meaning was written on his skin like it is with Stephen and Stephen goes on to describe how the color of his skin defines his role in English society. The transition from magical prophecy and fate to actual racial prejudice was well done. Bertie Carvel sells Strange's desperation and grief really well. Someone give him an award! When Strange found out that the Fairy can't (or won't) bring Arabella back, his plea to see her again was oh so sad. I really felt for him. I was so glad he found his way to Lost Hope and discovered the truth so quickly. Toward the end, Strange-- in his shadowy black tower, with his disheveled hair, and his flock of ravens-- seems like a strong candidate for Raven King. Actually I'm a bit jealous of the batty cat lady. Sometimes I wish I can be a cat and I'm perfectly sane. More specifically, if I could choose between being a lonely, aging, ailing woman trapped in a decaying apartment or being an active, fuzzy cat that can run around Venice chasing rats and pigeons, I'd choose cat. I mean, I'd have whiskers! and a tail! And now I have to go hug a certain striped kitty staring at me...

Both groups of girls. Although Darlene and Trenton didn't interact very much, I liked the smaller moments where Trenton is trying on Darlene's scarf while keeping on her hijab and Darlene letting her wear that scarf and Trenton doing her morning prayers while Darlene quietly watches. I'm also not a fan of Darlene mostly because I feel like she's trying too hard to be some Hollywood version of a cool, rebellious hackergurl. Just look at her clothes and hair! I hope she starts to be more of an actual person over time. At least for now, her ex(?)-boyfriend connects fsociety with the other blackmailing plot involving Angela and Ollie. Shayla and Angela-- Granimal has already covered what made their scenes great. I assumed the girl-on-girl make-out session was to balance out that explicit guy-on-guy action with Tyrell in corporate spy mode on a previous episode.

The fish is Keith David. The creator confirmed it on twitter. I couldn't quite remember the actor's name. My yell was more like "hey, it's the black guy who's addicted to encouraging white people on Community!" I liked seeing girls' night out on Mr. Robot. This definitely passes the Bechdel test now, yeah?

The Christopher Walken Fairy has a really nasty habit of stealing people's wives. If Norrell had a wife (though he'd need a heart for that and I don't think Norrell has one-- isn't that stated in the prophecy?), she'd probably end up in his Lost Hope harem too. Poor Jonathan, so easily tricked and heartbroken. I kept hoping he'd realize that the dead Arabella was fake, especially when the spell he used to raise the dead soldiers failed. And the real Arabella, so easily brainwashed! At least one woman can still fight. So glad Honeyfoot and Segudus are on the case. When the three gathered together to decipher her fairytales, I figured Lady Pole was speaking to the fairy world version of Stephen and that the other two couldn't see him. After all, last we saw Stephen at the asylum, he was firmly against it. Then later in the scene, the homeless prophet was able to grab Stephen. Maybe I was wrong? The scene where Jonathan greets Childermass as an equal and a magician was wonderful. I was glad to see it after suffering through the awfulness of Lascelles repeatedly calling him a servant and Norrell, snob that he is, ignoring Childermass's counsel. You don't disrespect Childermass! Or rather, that's what I imagined Strange was yelling about when he stormed through the mirror into Norrell's study... Now, uh, back to work on my Team Childermass sign.

Claudia and Myka dressed up as Killjoys in the style of Dutch would be something to see... I'm sure someone's already working on a Killjoys/Warehouse 13 crossover fanfic. Please show, listen to John and keep all three in a sibling-like relationship. They're starting to work pretty well as a three person team. The only part where it felt contrived was when they tried to manufacture closeness between Dutch and Davin during that scene where she orders him to watch the girls and he argues with her about it and then suddenly she's telling him about her backstory growing up in some royal concubine orphanage. It doesn't ring true. She's the boss and he's the rookie. I'd expect her to emphasize that. It makes more sense for them to relate to each other because of their shared skill of killing people (something John can't easily do). Also liked how their mission of the week tied into Dutch's past and the politics of the world.

What Laura really needs is a therapist and to divorce her douchebag creep husband. Her son is a creep-in-the-making (happens when you have a perv as a role model) and her daughter is nothing more than a stereotype of disaffected obnoxious teen. I can't wait for Leo to rescue Mia from this quasi-Lifetime movie that she's trapped in. I'm more interested in Leo's rebel Synths and for a moment, I thought the show would focus more on Niska trying to pass as human and what that meant for her... but she really needs to suppress her "Kill All Humans" instinct. The humanness of the Synths really muddies the tech A.I. themes of this show. I'd believe it more if the Synths were modeled on or made from actual people. That would explain their diversity in appearance and complicate the ethics of exploiting them as mindless manual workers and tools. It would also better explain Niska's meltdown in the brothel.

Yeah, especially with LL Cool J so very clearly ogling her from the sidelines. I dropped in and checked this show out because hey! it's Annie from Community! She blew Will Arnett out of the water. Chrissie Teigen's title as Colorful Commentator cracks me up. So "colorful" is what they're going with to describe what comes out of her mouth, huh?

And Bedelia would be the Road Runner. The first time Hannibal goes to kill her, she vanishes. This second time, she essentially sticks her tongue out at him and escapes again. *meep meep* Gillain Anderson once described the dynamic between Will and Bedelia as mistress and wife. Bedelia definitely has the better deal. She gets to go on the European travel vacation that Will missed out on, spend a lot of time taking luxurious baths while taunting the Devil, and get high for an alibi. Will gets falsely imprisoned, stabbed, thrown off a train, shot...etc. I can see why a certain angsty someone would be jealous. I guess Will getting thrown off the train last time was so he can have matching facial injuries with Hannibal. It's a nice effect for the lovely museum reunion scene... but seriously, couldn't they have done it another way? Falling off a moving train is dangerous, yo. I can't fathom how Will walked away from that... then again, if he is Wile E. Coyote, I've answered my own question, haven't I?

This is what I heard after Mr. Robot walks out the door: Elliot says, "Did you hear that? I can't believe it. Is it really happening? Fsociety's finally over. Everything good from the otherwise neat reality I created over the years... I'll never slip up like that again. I'm going to be more normal now." And then it cuts to something out of the USA brand blue sky shows like White Collar. Ha! Seeing Elliot standing there with Starbucks coffee all peppy about his boss's party-- that's a weird trip... but not as weird as the show Tyrell is in. It's like American Psycho meets 50 Shades or something? Now that the E-Corp CTO is connected to Elliot's father's leukemia, Elliot has a strong motive to frame him, which points more to the Elliot = Mr. Robot theory. The way people seem to ignore Mr. Robot even when he's speaking very loudly strongly suggest that he's not real. I was happy to see the brief appearance of Spangler from Rubicon-- especially after all the comparisons this show gets to Rubicon. I was so sad when it was canceled.

Yo Harvey, Gretchen is more than just "all right", she's the SHIT. (Well, in the vernacular of the show-- is it me or do they overuse "shit" on the show this season?) Besides, Harvey needs an ace on his side especially with Donna leaving him for Louis and Mike leaving him for Zane and his panic attacks returning. Though Harvey must really be losing it if he thinks-- even for a second-- that his loyal puppy Mike would abandon him. I'm still not warming up to the psychiatrist, but I'm glad someone finally called Harvey out on the enormous power imbalance between him and Donna. Even pairing Rachel with the awesomeness that is Jessica doesn't make her interesting. I don't know if it's the writing or the actress. I've always found her character bland and ill-defined. Other than being Mike's love interest, who is she really?

The Dr. Millican and Vera storyline highlights the main problem I have with this series: that the Synths look too human. Millican clearly knows how to tinker with Synths as seen when he worked on Odi. He even mentions being one of the original designers when he's studying Vera going about her work. They're machines right? Couldn't he just have turned it off when Vera got too controlling? The way he sneaked past her while she was "charging"-- he seemed to treat her as a sleeping human guard. He should have just pulled the plug and taken out the battery. That's what I do with machines that aren't cooperating. Hopefully, he figures out a way to tinker with her programming in the next episode. The teen daughter didn't seem to have a problem shutting off the school janitor to hack around his programming.

Suffering through one ep of Dark Matter was enough for me. Compared to the wooden acting I saw there, the human action figure who plays D'avin is turning in an Emmy performance. And speaking of D'avin, he was actually tolerable this ep. He and Johnny had a nice sibling moment when he passed the Killjoy test-- though I'm convinced Aaron Ashmore plays well off anyone. The D'avin and Doctor shrink pairing works better than when he's jammed in between Dutch and John. I really liked that last scene of Dutch and John having an honest talk. Their relationship has such a lived-in, long-term feel. They know how to read each other well and maturely talk things out. And though Dutch didn't reveal anything about her oh-so-mysterious-and-yet-somewhat-generic-assassin-past, you can see John trusts her enough to let her keep her personal matters private. Yay! for another mission where Dutch gets another fantastic hairstyle and dress. Liked how N'oa ditched her assy husband with flair.

I did! Tyrell looked so lonely standing behind the column with his sad little "Well, I thought I'd ask." He looked like he thought he found a friend and then got rejected. Gah, I hate unreliable narrators. Everything is suspect. I already can't figure out if those men in suits that Elliot keeps seeing are real or not. I can accept that Mr. Robot may not be real, but not the whole fsociety group. When Darlene was waiting while Elliot brought his dog to Shayla, it seemed that Shayla glanced in her direction. Or not. This will drive me nuts so for now, I'll choose to believe it's all real until it's not. That listen-to-my-CD hacker was chatting with someone in Chinese. My Mandarin is rusty (feel free to correct) but it looked like he responded to someone with the handle "White Rose" who said that they have no time to waste and that this was for leverage. Mr. Robot mentioned working with the Dark Army on some eastern China server when he was describing their grand plan. I wonder if this is related somehow.

Shiiiiiit, that fight was brutal. Hannibal got thrown through glass repeatedly for emphasis! And go Jack, making good use of those museum torture implements. Those Jack/Hannibal fights are always amazing. Considering how mad Jack got when Hannibal brought up the idea of Jack helping Bella die, is that confirmation that Jack did mercy kill her? I kept wondering about that in the last episode. Snails, fireflies, Chiyo, Will... *snore* This season has been so disjointed and dream-like, I can't even tell if Chiyo throwing Will off the train is real or a dream. The night and the train looked so fake and then there was the slo-mo backflip and then the appearance of the stag-wendigo-Hannibal thingy. The physics of it all looked so off compared to the raw beatdown Hannibal took.

I don't how I feel about Harvey paying part of Donna's salary... it's sweet that he thinks she's worth more but it also adds to this icky aspect of Harvey owning Donna. This way, she's a bit like a kept woman. It gets worse with Louis and Harvey squabbling over who gets to keep her like she's some kind of awesome toy or tool. I'm all for a Harvey/Donna ship-- I would just like them to be on more equal ground. She needs to leave the two boys to their stupid pissing contests and go work for Jessica where she can learn to slap the tastes out of mouths. Though I'm sure Donna's fully capable of doing that herself already. Oh Louis, after years of working with Harvey, you should know not to take his irritable, rude behavior personally. Mike working with Rachel's father has potential to be interesting. Harvey's new secretary needs to stay. Gretchen > Rachel.

Yes, exactly! Like that Synth Tech with the disabled wife who has a cute male synth giving her massages. She looked really happy. (I'm assuming she's disabled because he carried her away after the massage. I could be wrong.) What bothered me was the husband talking about the posh model on display at the store. Why was the blond one posh? Is Anita cheaper cause she's Asian? Yeah, yeah, I know she probably had more functionality or whatever and race isn't the issue here. Still, it rankled. I was also annoyed at how unique all the Synths are. Isn't it more cost-efficient to make them look the same? Like the way Cylons are made in BSG. I'm nitpicking, I know. I still enjoy the overall look of the show.

NOOooo! Not Childermass! Norrell better find a way to save him. At least the bullet didn't hit Childermass in the face. Gah, as if putting Childermass in danger wasn't enough, Norell intercepting the letters between Jonathan and Arabella was low. Does he not understand the concept of spying? You're supposed to read the letter and then send it on so that no one suspects anything is wrong-- not throw them carelessly in your drawer! Ugh! What a little snot! How is he so immune to Childermass's disapproving glare? It's sad to see Jonathan lose some of his twinkle after what he went through in the war. That shot of him riding away from the burning windmill was lovely. I'm not sure if Jonathan performing his zombie spell in a windmill or if the windmill on fire was symbolic of anything, but it was picturesque. And whether true or not, the scene the Creepy Faerie showed Stephen of his mother on the slave ship was horrific and heartbreaking.