spritz

It was a really good final season, except for the finale. I was extremely disappointed with the finale. The finale was, what is the word I'm looking for, too esoteric. It was all pyscho drama, psychobabble. We already knew that Elliot had mental issues and that he had an alter ego, the Christian Slater character. The whole Mastermind element didn't add anything to the narrative for me. It just jumbled things up. Anyway, I was impressed with the performance of Carly Chaikin the entire final season.

This explanation has nothing to do with the show. But I'm sure you have heard the joke. Sharks don't eat lawyers out of professional curtesy. It may be another reason why Smurf explicitly told J that Baz was his father. Mia is only person outside the family that J feels he can trust to any degree. But if and when J finds out that Mia was the one who killed his father, it might screw up J's relationship with his only ally outside the family. That may be Smurf's intention.

A similar thought occurred to me. Why don't the Codys just earn their income legitimately? I assume they could make a living from the potential legitimate rents from their many real estate properties. But I guess being criminal is in their blood. Committing crimes is their occupation. That may be true. I don't really like any of the characters. I can't say that I root for any of them. At times, especially this season, I want the Codys to fail and get caught. Yet I find their story and the show to be compelling anyway. Deran and J are probably the two thoughtful Codys. But what they did to that woman showed that even they are fundamentally coldhearted criminals. Maybe the loose ends will come back and bite the Codys. I don't know how far ahead the writers are thinking. The writers could be setting up plot points for the future. One of the loose ends may lead to the ultimate undoing of the Codys at some point in the future whenever that occurs.

I was surprised there were so few commercial breaks for this finale. Only 1.5 hours for 2 episodes. It was as though SyFy wanted to do away with this show as quickly as possible, since the show won't be back on the channel. The finale was a good conclusion, for now at least. I found it annoying at first, but Drummer's and Ashford's accents kind of grew on me. Some of the lingo that the Belters use, like Bossman, is amusing.

Elizabeth is beyond redemption at this point. She needs to be taken down one way or another. However, she does deserve some sympathy for having to put up with Paige's temper tantrum. Philip is not much better. Perhaps it is fitting that Philip has faced the wrath of capitalism. Philip's business and livelihood apparently have gone down the toilet. Because of all the lives and families that he has destroyed, it is only appropriate that he wind up broke and on the run. Capitalism gets its revenge. It was kind of funny that Tatiana's wig fell off. In all the times that Elizabeth and Philip had engaged in energetic activity while wearing a wig, like Philip having rigorous sex with Martha, their wigs remained firmly intact.

The finale was a letdown. But it was a fantastic series nevertheless. When Hickey mentioned to Crozier about the drinks they had earlier, it was funny that Crozier reminded Hickey that Hickey was holding dog turd on his hand. I don't know if it was meant to be ironic, but Hickey held his severed tongue on his hand when he offered it to Tuunbaq. Both items presumably were extremely unappetizing. The kid at the end may not have been Crozier's biological child. Since only two years had past, maybe it was his adopted child who was orphaned.

I don't know what the SWAT van runs on, gas or whatever. But the SWAT van reminded me of the armored personnel carriers in the movie Damnation Alley. Anybody remember that movie? It was a movie about a bunch of people travelling cross country in a post apocalyptic world -- not a zombie apocalypse but a post nuclear war world.

Nick and Morgan had good chemistry. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the scenes of those two interacting with one another. I thought the show had a good thing going with those two. It's too bad Nick never got to finish reading the book that Morgan gave him. I remember when Nick was first introduced to the audience. I couldn't tell if the character was a guy or a girl. I think the show needs at least one of the original characters, one of the remaining Clarks, to see it through to the finale whenever that is. Someone to remind us of the journey from the beginning to whenever it ends. I wish it would have been Nick. I am not enamored with the character, but I thought he was interesting enough that he should be a foundation character for the rest of the series. If all of the originals are eliminated, what are we left with? TWD lite?

It didn't surprise me that Sophia, the hockey player's wife, is having an affair. It's funny how almost every American character or Russian defector in the show has marital/infidelity issues, divorce/dysfunctional family issues, or are womanizers. Almost no one except Philip and Elizabeth are portrayed as having a relatively stable marriage or family.

After all the build up about the quest to find William, it wound up being nothing more than one of the biggest letdowns ever on tv. Scully experienced heartbreak and pain during all that time without William. And she gave that emotional speech to William's body in "Ghouli", regretting and apologizing for not being part of his life. And Scully supposedly had a psychic connection with William. But we are now to believe that Scully could just turn on a dime and didn't give a crap anymore. It is a shame it had to end this way, if this was indeed the series finale.

As satire, this episode wasn't too bad. No need to overthink the story. It was fun to watch Mulder and Scully have to deal with a common but frustrating task of talking to an interactive automated phone service. "You can say things like make a payment, re-order items... Returns! ... Returns! ... Returns!"

The waterboarding and all those other scenes in the cubicle were funny stuff. The trio's encounter with the alien was hilarious as well. "You're free to explore Uranus all you want. ... Good luck and good riddance." The alien must have been a comedian on his home planet.

About those shopping bags, makes one wonder if they went on some shopping spree. If they did spend time shopping, then they probably deserved to get eliminated. I am curious how much time Phil and the production people actually spent sorting out who came in last. It was a photo finish, but did the photo show which lady stepped on the mat first? From what I remember, the photo showed which woman's head/upper body was ahead of the other as they reached the mat. Was it the first to cross some imaginary line -- like crossing the plane of the end zone in an NFL game for a touchdown -- or was it the first foot on the mat that determined the winner?

Since this series began, I have found the MOTW stories so much more compelling than the mytharc -- although during the early seasons, the mytharc was interesting enough. I thought that maybe CC would come up with something new and fresh with the mytharc after so much time had past. From what was shown in the season premiere, that wasn't the case imo. Fortunately, according to what other posters have written, the remaining episodes till the finale will be MOTW stories. X files had, in general, done a decent job with MOTW stories.

By calling it quits, Gillian Anderson probably did CC and the franchise a great service. The mytharc had run its course a long time ago. The show has gone stale. It looks old and tired. It is time to wrap things up. If CC thinks this show is still fresh and compelling, he would be delusional. Maybe GA's leaving will force CC to give the show a semblance of a dignified conclusion. For the remainder of this season, I hope the series sticks to MOTW stories until the finale.