S07.E11: Etherea

[CooperTV]

Quote

 

Where in the universe is Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley)?

 

Original airdate 8/12/2020

 

[quarks]

This Bellamy as Luke Skywalker appearance had better include a lightsaber duel.

[ParadoxLost]

I forgot this was on for the first half hour.

I'm not really interested in watching someone climb a mountain that long unless it ends with a sword fight with Inigo Montoya.

I can't believe that Bellamy got brainwashed to the point of betraying Clarke to the Shepherd based on those circumstances.  I mean I believe it.  Because this show.  But I can't believe it.  I mean he's so far gone he doesn't even give Echo, Clarke, and Octavia a chance to say anything about these people first.  Their history means nothing.  They should have at least dropped his frozen ass into one of those contraptions first.

Edited August 13, 2020 by ParadoxLost

[quarks]

I can just picture the conversation now:

Bob Morley: I need a long break. I'm physically exhausted.

JR: Sure! Enjoy your break!

[Break]

JR: And now that you're back, how about filming a nearly complete episode with bonus rock climbing for most of it?

Bob Morley: This is the last season, right? Please tell me this is the last season.

Anyway:

1. Was anyone else shocked when Bellamy just happened to arrive in a place that looked suspiciously like Vancouver? Or when he tried to climb a relatively short cliff of sheer rock that looked remarkably like a location shot previously used on Once Upon a Time? And then entered a cave entrance that I'm pretty sure we've previously seen on both this show and Arrow?

2. All this said, I am kinda strangely comforted to learn that so many planets look just like Vancouver, especially since for awhile there I was worried that they would all look like California. 

3. That was a really brutal leg setting, Bellamy. Did you learn that in Earth Skills?

4. ....and literally just as I think that, Bellamy answers that question with a decided Yes, Pike Was Not Entirely Useless After All.

Though I gotta admit, I can't quite bring myself to believe that the sap from trees on a different planet would also have antiseptic properties.

5. "Sometimes, Bellamy Blake, irony is amusing. This is not one of those times." Glad to see you acknowledging your shortcomings, show.

6. Also, show, please stop teasing a potential Bellamy/Echo/Clarke threesome that we all know is not coming.

7. These aliens really didn't like putting their circle stone things in convenient locations, did they?

8. I know this show has always had a lot of in common with Game of Thrones and to a lesser extent Arrow (including sharing directors and the occasional cast member) but the whole climbing the cliff bit and the swinging former/potential enemy from the rope bit felt, how can I put this, not all that creative, though I guess it was nice to also throw in some borrowing from The Princess Bride there. I suppose we should all just be grateful that it didn't end with a) a duel, b) anyone taking off their shirts and announcing that the removal of shirts is traditional. Still. 

9. I dunno. I realize we were supposed to believe that Bellamy went through a lot of trauma and then had some sort of hallucination in Cave Number 2 and then lived even after skydiving off a cliff, and I also know that people in real life have been brainwashed/broken in somewhat similar time periods. And yeah, we saw Bellamy fall under Pike's influence fairly quickly back in season 3. And yes, I get that this fits with the overall theme this season of following leaders with unquestioned conviction - it's the main thing tying the Sanctum and Bardo plots together. (Arguably the only thing tying the Sanctum and Bardo plots together at this point, but I digress.)

But I can't help feeling that post-season 4 Bellamy would not and should not have snapped this quickly.

Especially since that "leap of faith" really wasn't any such thing - he could logically infer that since Cadogan had been in that cave (thus the abandoned picture) and made it back to Bardo, Not to mention that Bellamy could and should have figured out that if anyone should be worshiped, it would be the glowy figure thingies. Or that Bellamy has always been good at noticing small things and noticing when people are getting manipulated.

And especially since the other guy was the one who experienced actual physical trauma, and who should have had a lot more doubts - especially when Bellamy turned out to be right that the Shepherd was not going to be sending people out after them. And especially after Bellamy found the picture. 

I know this show likes to shock us, and this was definitely supposed to be one of those shocking twists, but - those sorts of twists work better when they are properly set up and feel right for the character - such as Diyoza sacrificing herself for Hope last episode. Absolutely believable, since the show set up that Diyoza felt the need to atone and also didn't want her daughter going down a dark path. 

We haven't had that setup here. What we have had is several episodes telling us that Bellamy will do pretty much anything to save Octavia, and although that took a couple of bumps during seasons 5 and 6, those seasons gave us several more episodes telling us that Bellamy will do pretty much anything to save his friends.

Not to mention several episodes just this season showing Hope, Diyoza, Octavia and Echo all facing pretty much the identical brainwashing - just with less mountain climbing - and resisting it.

So, yeah, I'm not buying this, show, and the problem is, unlike with Echo, I'm clearly supposed to be buying it. And that's a problem.

On the bright side, no EvilHeda OR Hope this episode. So it wasn't all bad. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

At least it's nice to see the character again, even if he's become Sheep Bellamy (Baaa).

The production design did a good job at making him look so ragged/filthy compared to the rest of the sparkling clean OG.

Maybe I need to rewatch because did the shepard/con man actually DO all those things and write about them, or was it some weird long con VR program designed to sway folks?

Seriously, the OG team needs a win.

 

[quarks]

I'm seeing some fan speculation that Cave Number Two might have had some neurotoxins or whatever, which might have contributed to Shepherd Bellamy. Which kinda works for me, but does bring up the huge plothole that Bill Cadogan was not all that stable before making his Cliff Climbing Experience.

My own speculation is that this episode is mostly about why everyone should take along a nice Kindle or Nook or whatever on every outer space expedition so that if things go wrong and you are stuck in a cave, you will not be reduced to reading the words of a conman and get brainwashed into thinking he's Your Shepherd but will have lots of alternative reading to amuse you.

(I swear, Amazon did not pay me to write this post.)

[ParadoxLost]

1 hour ago, quarks said:

\

We haven't had that setup here. What we have had is several episodes telling us that Bellamy will do pretty much anything to save Octavia, and although that took a couple of bumps during seasons 5 and 6, those seasons gave us several more episodes telling us that Bellamy will do pretty much anything to save his friends.

The frustrating thing is that it wasn't that hard to make it believable.  We have slaughtering the Grounders when he was aligned with Pike and betraying Clarke by making Madi Commander in the bunker because Octavia and Spacekru were more important to him to point to.  Its just that these circumstances don't make me believe it.  Had they done the whole episode the same to reveal that the leap of faith ended up with him in the mind probe chair with some elements that made him believe he was saving Clarke, Octavia, and Echo by betraying that she didn't have the flame in her head then I would have gone along.  Probably.   Maybe.  At least better than wondering if a cave had neurotoxins.

This kind of feels like they made Bellamy turn easily so he's more culpable for whatever comes next than if it had been harder to bring him into the cult.  Having Hope, Diyoza, Octavia, and Echo all resist a more concerted effort to indoctrinate them isn't really helping.  Even Gabriel turned and then turned back immediately once Clarke showed up.

[thuganomics85]

Bellamy lives?!  Wow, totally did not see that coming!  Not at all!  I thought for sure they were going to off their second-billed star off screen and without fanfare.  What a twist! [/sarcasm.]

Admittedly, even if this season wasn't subjected to Echo's over-the-top Bellamy obsession, I'm not sure I ever really cared enough about the Bellamy character to fully be down for an episode almost devoted entirely to him isolated from everyone else (with the exception of a new character.)  So, I probably wasn't going to be wild about this episode no matter what, but again, that's just my bias view; a.k.a. someone who could probably watch an entire episode of Murphy just snarking on everything that has happened this season from the sidelines and still get an A-grade from me; and I'm sure it worked more for those that were invested in Bellamy's fate and whereabouts.

Credit where credit is due, I did think they did a reasonable enough of a job of showing the turmoil and hardship he faced, and why he was broken down at the end.  But even then, I'm still finding it a bit hard to believe that he would see Clarke, Echo, and Octavia; a.k.a. the three people he cares about the most; and still betray them at the end.  Had it been some of the other members of the group that he had more of a mixed relationship with, I could see him sticking with the Shepard Kool-Aid.  But those three?  Nah, I don't buy Bellamy turning on them like that.  Of course, I doubt it will last for much longer, but we'll see what kind of damage this causes.

Granted, part of my issue once again is that I just don't find Bill charismatic enough to earn that sort of loyalty.  Again, I truly don't want to hate on John Pyper-Ferguson, because he can be very good in other types of roles.  But he really just doesn't fit here.  I continue to imagine how different things would be if it was Anders instead and it was Neal McDonough's charisma (and piercing blue eyes!) that was leading this glorified cult.  I would that way more believable!

It's telling that my favorite part was while everyone else was freaking out over Hope killing Anders and wondering what was going to happen next, Gabriel was just off taking advantage of all the free food.  Every now and then, Gabriel is actually the most relatable out of all of these characters!

[quarks]

28 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

 Had they done the whole episode the same to reveal that the leap of faith ended up with him in the mind probe chair with some elements that made him believe he was saving Clarke, Octavia, and Echo by betraying that she didn't have the flame in her head then I would have gone along.  Probably.   Maybe.  At least better than wondering if a cave had neurotoxins.

That would have worked quite well - in fact, I would have bought this, completely, if Bellamy's new found semi-faith in Cadogan had led him to go along with the mind-probing, assuming that the mind-probing would only be about the recent trip and/or his new faith in Cadogan - with the mind-probing then revealing to Cadogan and everyone else that WHOOPS CLARKE DOESN'T HAVE THE FLAME AFTER ALL and in fact the Flame is no longer with us, and our best hope of finding out the next step is to gather the three remaining people who have had the Flame in their skulls at least once (EvilHeda, Madi and Clarke) and mind thingy all of them.  Or if Cadogan had said to Bellamy, "And now that you trust me at least a little, and you've seen Cave Two With The Glowy Things for yourself and therefore know something is whacked, please tell me everything you know about the Flame. Everything. It's vital for the safety of all of your friends, including Clarke."

Instead, it looks like they are going for some sort of reverse of last season - after Bellamy, the Heart, used his Head to save the heart of Clarke, the Head, now they will have Clarke, the Head, use her heart to save the head of Bellamy, the Heart. And, of course, this goes along with this season's False Religious Leaders and Their Followers theme. Which is all great....but I think needed more buildup to work. 

[ParadoxLost]

9 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Granted, part of my issue once again is that I just don't find Bill charismatic enough to earn that sort of loyalty.  Again, I truly don't want to hate on John Pyper-Ferguson, because he can be very good in other types of roles.  But he really just doesn't fit here.  I continue to imagine how different things would be if it was Anders instead and it was Neal McDonough's charisma (and piercing blue eyes!) that was leading this glorified cult.  I would that way more believable!

While I was bored with the backdoor pilot, I decided it would have been better if Becca had gone on a Grey's Anatomy binge towards the end of the world and created an AI McDreamy aka "the Shepherd" who started a cult.

Edited August 13, 2020 by ParadoxLost

[ParadoxLost]

I'm still vaguely suspicious that Clarke thinking not having the flame in her head anymore matters is a total misdirect.

Because no one does, right? If that matters and the flame doesn't exist anymore then they can't really move the plot along.

I'm kind of expecting that once having it in her head was enough.

Or am I totally missing something.  My memory of prior seasons is kind of crappy.  And there were a ton of episodes that explained the flame that I wasn't particularly interested in.

[Bizabra]

Where did Bellamy and cult follower get those furry clothing? And how are they making zippers?

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by Bizabra

[AudienceofOne]

Zzzzzzzz

[CooperTV]

8 hours ago, Bizabra said:

Where did Bellamy and cult follower get those furry clothing? And how are they making zippers?

 

It's shown how Bellamy's doing some sewing work on furs in the first cave at the beginning of the Enemy Mine episode. I'm assuming the zippers are from the Bardoan's clothes, since the parka hoods have the same material.

Cave!Cadogan seemed to be a representation of an alien mind of some sort, I think. I mean, the glowy cave things and the green portal do exist, after all, as does the "last war"/The Key BS. I'm just confused why the alien AI or whatever looks like Cadogan in the projections. Did Cadogan rig it somehow in the past? Does he even capable of doing such a thing, seeing as his entire cult only know how to Google translate the alien writings? Why would anyone become a religious zealot after witnessing some weird alien tech (they know to be an alien tech) at work?

And the last but not the least, are the writers stupid?

ETA: Reddit thinks it was all a simulation. Oh my.

Edited August 13, 2020 by CooperTV

[ottoDbusdriver]

There are only 6 episodes left, so let's introduce yet another planet and waste an entire episode climbing a mountain all so we could bring Bellamy back.  What will Echo do now since her quest for revenge for Bellamy's death was the only thing keeping her going ?

I'm still not quite sure why the peak of the mountain was glowing green all the time -- that would imply that the portal was always open, but that's just not the case on any of the other planets.

I'm starting to the think that the aliens that created the spheres were just sadistic dicks -- in a addition to making the code to open the portal incredibly complex let's put one sphere way up high on a nearly unclimbable mountain, and let's stick another in the digestion system of a huge animal, and let's put the exit point of one of the portals at the bottom of a lake.

[quarks]

4 hours ago, CooperTV said:

ETA: Reddit thinks it was all a simulation. Oh my.

I do think it's interesting that the reactions to Bellamy's betrayal have ranged from "Sorry, not enough buildup to buy this," to "some sort of alien neurotoxin, right?" to "simulation," to "Cadogan was manipulating him in the second cave," to "alien mind control," to "hey, another person pretending to go along with Cadogan, just like Echo!" to "Yeah, no." I feel there's even more skepticism about this than there was about his "death," which says something. So either we're all sensing something and a "HA HA YOU DIDN'T REALLY THINK THAT BELLAMY WOULD WILLINGLY BETRAY OCTAVIA, ECHO AND CLARKE, DID YOU" is popping up next episode, or we're all wrong. If the second....writers, you have a bit of a problem. Not with the plot twist so much, but with selling it.

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

I'm starting to the think that the aliens that created the spheres were just sadistic dicks -- in a addition to making the code to open the portal incredibly complex let's put one sphere way up high on a nearly unclimbable mountain, and let's stick another in the digestion system of a huge animal, and let's put the exit point of one of the portals at the bottom of a lake.

I had the same thought. I mean, sure, in a couple of cases - the lake, for instance - I guess you could argue that the surrounding geology had changed since the aliens put the sphere things there - but frankly this is at least three portals, arguably four, placed in the least convenient/most dangerous places possible. 

[Lady Calypso]

Maybe it's because I couldn't care less about Bellamy, but I found this episode utterly boring. It barely picked up around the time when Bellamy saw his mom in what I assume is a simulated dream or something equally as stupid, rather than Bellamy falling in line with The Shepherd or whatever. Also, the Etherea planet stuff was...meh, in general. Ok, I liked how they got back to actual wilderness and survival stuff, rather than them living in a palace or some fancy modern building, but I really could have done with only half the episode being about Bellamy and The Conductor.

I was convinced that Bellamy would find poor missing Gaia on Etherea so I'm disappointed that we got him making a bromance with this other guy who probably won't matter much outside of this episode. Poor Murphy loses his bromance to Mountain Men Alliance! 

The only marginally interesting part was the end where Octavia, Echo and Clarke find out Bellamy's alive and he turns on them. Good to know that Bellamy continues his trend in being a traitorous idiot every odd season that this show has! Seasons 1, 3, 5 and now 7 have him turning on people! And it only took a few months to break Bellamy! It seems like Bardo and Etherea run on the same timeline; it doesn't seem like one planet moves faster than the other, mostly because it sounds like it had only been a few months on Etherea for Bellamy and it was three months for Bardo that passed since his "death". Which is why I assume Bellamy and his buddy kept their memories when going through the Anomaly.

2 minutes ago, quarks said:

I do think it's interesting that the reactions to Bellamy's betrayal have ranged from "Sorry, not enough buildup to buy this," to "some sort of alien neurotoxin, right?" to "simulation," to "Cadogan was manipulating him in the second cave," to "alien mind control," to "hey, another person pretending to go along with Cadogan, just like Echo!" to "Yeah, no." I feel there's even more skepticism about this than there was about his "death," which says something. So either we're all sensing something and a "HA HA YOU DIDN'T REALLY THINK THAT BELLAMY WOULD WILLINGLY BETRAY OCTAVIA, ECHO AND CLARKE, DID YOU" is popping up next episode, or we're all wrong. If the second....writers, you have a bit of a problem. Not with the plot twist so much, but with selling it.

Honestly? Since they already went with the whole "Echo pretended to be brainwashed by the Disciples THIS WHOLE TIME!", they'll go the "Bellamy ACTUALLY IS brainwashed!" route. Again, it's 100% in character for Bellamy to turn on his loved ones, especially when he believes that he's doing it to save people (usually, it's not the case). 

[CooperTV]

33 minutes ago, quarks said:

If the second....writers, you have a bit of a problem. Not with the plot twist so much, but with selling it.

The writers seem to have a bit of a problem with critical thinking, planning, story pacing, character progression and other inconsequential things of that nature.

The entire season is a filler that has been going nowhere since the first episode. It's fair to say that the show is in such a state since season 4, sure. But it becomes super weird when nothing changes for ten  episodes (to the point that every single episode description looks the same: stuff happens in Sanctum, Clarke meets a new foe, Octavia finds a new ally), and then suddenly there's somehow a "twist" episode. And it's set up so badly people now have millions of explanations and excuses and none of them seem to be what the show wanted them to see.

I'm not even angry the writers randomly turned Bellamy into a brainwashed religious believer. I mean it's moronic decision on their part but it'd happened before. I'm wondering about the main goal here. We know for a fact Bob had very (and I mean, very) limited time on set during the filming. And now they introduce this huge story-line with no proper character set-up and no possibly satisfying pay-off, and for what? 

[ottoDbusdriver]

2 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Maybe it's because I couldn't care less about Bellamy, but I found this episode utterly boring. 

Agreed.  It was a snoozefest.

[CooperTV]

I'd watch that show, if you know what I mean.

The best “Ennemies to Lovers” dynamic on TV

[ParadoxLost]

8 hours ago, quarks said:

I do think it's interesting that the reactions to Bellamy's betrayal have ranged from "Sorry, not enough buildup to buy this," to "some sort of alien neurotoxin, right?" to "simulation," to "Cadogan was manipulating him in the second cave," to "alien mind control," to "hey, another person pretending to go along with Cadogan, just like Echo!" to "Yeah, no." I feel there's even more skepticism about this than there was about his "death," which says something. So either we're all sensing something and a "HA HA YOU DIDN'T REALLY THINK THAT BELLAMY WOULD WILLINGLY BETRAY OCTAVIA, ECHO AND CLARKE, DID YOU" is popping up next episode, or we're all wrong. If the second....writers, you have a bit of a problem. Not with the plot twist so much, but with selling it.

I'll put the speculation I've been seeing in spoiler tags since I'm not totally sure if its wishful thinking or if its rooted in a rumor or spoiler that might have some truth to it.

Spoiler

I've been seeing speculation that whether Bellamy is really brainwashed into the cult or faking it basically won't matter because its a means to an end and as a result short lived,  The theory is that they needed a reason that Bellamy would be monitoring Clarke getting mind probed and that during the mind probe Bellamy would see / hear Clarke's radio calls to him during the six years he was in space.

And the tiny Bellearke shipper in me is going "weeeeee"

And the larger part of me that is seriously annoyed at the lack of character interaction/moments and at the separate plot lines/planets everyone is scattered over is going "yeah, lets do that.  I'll ignore that the writers didn't get there in a believable way for a few scenes that I want to watch a second time".

Frankly, I kind of think this has to happen.  Clarke would resist the mind probe in a way that would try to get Bellamy back and if I don't think he would have turned with what they've done so far, so no way do I think he's going to make it through torturing Clarke without turning back to her side.

 

[SourK]

See? You let the Bardos live, you get another flashback. I hope Diyoza's ghost is proud of itself.

(Also, I thought the color grading in this one was kind of unusually good? And it was unusually easy to see what was happening in dark scenes?)

19 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

Had they done the whole episode the same to reveal that the leap of faith ended up with him in the mind probe chair with some elements that made him believe he was saving Clarke, Octavia, and Echo by betraying that she didn't have the flame in her head then I would have gone along.  Probably.   Maybe. 

I think that could have worked. I also think it could have worked to just tell the story in chronological order and check in with Bellamy climbing the mountain a little bit each episode so it felt like it took a really long time and was a big event for the character, rather than something that went by all in a rush. Same with a lot of the other flashbacks.

On paper, it probably looks good to pack all of these stories into individual episodes, but as I watch it, I feel no suspense or investment in what's happening. It's just exposition.

19 hours ago, quarks said:

I would have bought this, completely, if Bellamy's new found semi-faith in Cadogan had led him to go along with the mind-probing, assuming that the mind-probing would only be about the recent trip and/or his new faith in Cadogan - with the mind-probing then revealing to Cadogan and everyone else that WHOOPS CLARKE DOESN'T HAVE THE FLAME AFTER ALL and in fact the Flame is no longer with us...

I also think that could have worked -- or any circumstance where someone just asked Bellamy a question and he accidentally outed Clarke's lie without necessarily knowing he was doing it, or betraying anyone on purpose. Like, I don't know what the point is of having it be a betrayal. I don't seriously believe he's going to stay on the opposite side from everyone else.

18 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

Or am I totally missing something.  My memory of prior seasons is kind of crappy.  And there were a ton of episodes that explained the flame that I wasn't particularly interested in.

I don't think I ever totally understood what they wanted it for. At one point, I thought they wanted Becca's memories to solve the sphere puzzle? But it seems like Monty Jr. can solve it by speaking Korean, so...

Also I don't remember why anyone wants to solve the sphere puzzle anymore. Are they trying to fight the aliens?

9 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I was convinced that Bellamy would find poor missing Gaia on Etherea so I'm disappointed that we got him making a bromance with this other guy who probably won't matter much outside of this episode. 

OMG I forgot about Gaia. But, yeah, dude, if anyone should have climbed Faith Mountain with Bellamy and talked about religion or whatever, that would be the person. Also, if anyone were going to tell the truth about what happened to the flame and make the story pivot, it seems like the ex-flamekeeper who's ripe for converting to another religion would be that person, too. Missed opportunity.

[tennisgurl]

This is one of the reasons that I am getting so annoyed with all of the characters all separated and in disparate locations, spending one episode with one group or person and then spending the next episode with a totally different group or person, it just kills the momentum of every plot. So last week we see Diyoza die due to Hopes stupidity, but instead of follow up to that emotional moment, we stop to watch Bellamy on the hiking trip from Hell, and while I love Bellamy and am happy to see him again (even if he has became a brainwashed pod person) its just so jarring. 

I am betting that this whole thing was a big simulation or something to brainwash Bellamy, I dont even know if he left the compound or not. I know that people really can be pushed to the edge or broken or brainwashed in these circumstances, and they did at least do a decent job showing him struggling and losing hope and especially sending him those visions of his mother, but I just dont buy that he would so totally join the Bardo people that he would betray the people closest to him, at least not in this way, not now. I can see maybe the Bellamy of seasons past falling for it, especially after a few particularly traumatic incidents, but not now, not this way. I think I could have bought it better if they played more into his desire to protect his sister and his people, or got him to think that this was the best way to protect them, or made him think something horrible happened to them and that it was his fault or because he was gone, that I could more easily buy. But this way? I guess I will reserve judgement, but I am not feeling this. Especially because, again, we only have a few episodes left and I dont want to spend so much of our last time with one of the main characters as some brainwashed cult drone. 

It doesn't help that I still cant buy anyone following Bill as this charismatic cult leader where his people have such blind devotion to him. I did crack up at Bellamy looking at a picture of Bill and being like "This guy is your cult leader? This guy?" because thats literally what I say every time Bill is on screen! He doesn't look like a guy who can sway even strong minds to give themselves to him, he looks like a middle school substitute teacher who the kids throw paper airplanes at when his back is turned! 

As much as I love Bellamy, and have missed him, this was pretty boring. I also hope that our characters can get a win soon, I hate that everyone is constantly being manipulated and beat by every loser bad guy they come across. The show has been bleak plenty of time (a whole lot bleaker than this) but those usually at least made sense as a consequence of characters actions and the crappy situations they ended up in. This time, they have to make people act stupid and out of character or give the bad guys upper hands out of nowhere, or contrive to screw them over every time they almost get a win. Half of the problems this season seem to be less about characters and more about the writers wanting to keep the conflicts going, you can just see the writers hands all over it instead of it feeling organic. 

That mountain sure looked familiar, did I just see Oliver Queen falling down it in the background? 

Gabrielle just ignoring all of this crap to enjoy the free buffet might have been my favorite part of the episode. 

[ketose]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:10 PM, quarks said:

I'm seeing some fan speculation that Cave Number Two might have had some neurotoxins or whatever, which might have contributed to Shepherd Bellamy. Which kinda works for me, but does bring up the huge plothole that Bill Cadogan was not all that stable before making his Cliff Climbing Experience.

My own speculation is that this episode is mostly about why everyone should take along a nice Kindle or Nook or whatever on every outer space expedition so that if things go wrong and you are stuck in a cave, you will not be reduced to reading the words of a conman and get brainwashed into thinking he's Your Shepherd but will have lots of alternative reading to amuse you.

(I swear, Amazon did not pay me to write this post.)

Will he be using it on intergalactic wifi? Actually, finding a charger might be a problem, too.

 

On 8/13/2020 at 8:03 AM, ottoDbusdriver said:

There are only 6 episodes left, so let's introduce yet another planet and waste an entire episode climbing a mountain all so we could bring Bellamy back.  What will Echo do now since her quest for revenge for Bellamy's death was the only thing keeping her going ?

I'm still not quite sure why the peak of the mountain was glowing green all the time -- that would imply that the portal was always open, but that's just not the case on any of the other planets.

I'm starting to the think that the aliens that created the spheres were just sadistic dicks -- in a addition to making the code to open the portal incredibly complex let's put one sphere way up high on a nearly unclimbable mountain, and let's stick another in the digestion system of a huge animal, and let's put the exit point of one of the portals at the bottom of a lake.

This planet sucks. Etherea sounds too much like the planet He-Man comes from.

Isn't that forest in Sanctum (the anomaly) glowing all the time, too?

The aliens probably weren't thinking of dumber aliens finding them. Imagine someone leaving a chainsaw for cavemen. It might be awesome at some point, but not before a lot of people get dismembered. The suits are also pretty important and should be used at all times. They also probably don't break as often when JR isn't writing their travelogue.

Is the flame destroyed? I mean, obviously it's not, but I can't remember when it was presumably destroyed. This is getting like the last season of Deep Space Nine, where there was the war plot parallel to the mysticism part and they never really met up. One just finished before the other one.

[quarks]

1 hour ago, ketose said:

Will he be using it on intergalactic wifi? Actually, finding a charger might be a problem, too.

 

This planet sucks. Etherea sounds too much like the planet He-Man comes from.

Isn't that forest in Sanctum (the anomaly) glowing all the time, too?

The aliens probably weren't thinking of dumber aliens finding them. Imagine someone leaving a chainsaw for cavemen. It might be awesome at some point, but not before a lot of people get dismembered. The suits are also pretty important and should be used at all times. They also probably don't break as often when JR isn't writing their travelogue.

Is the flame destroyed? I mean, obviously it's not, but I can't remember when it was presumably destroyed. This is getting like the last season of Deep Space Nine, where there was the war plot parallel to the mysticism part and they never really met up. One just finished before the other one.

As far as a charger goes, this is why Amazon sells those portable solar charger things! Just make sure you're on a relatively sunny planet with your religious nutcase person and you're set!

(Ok, ok, yes, I know what this sounds like, but really Amazon is not paying me to write these posts.)

And yeah...I thought the reason Bellamy knew he had to go to the glowy thing on top of the mountain was that it was the same sort of always glowing glowy thing that he had seen in Sanctum, although frankly my memories of season 6 are a bit hazy so I might be entirely wrong about this.

I thought the flame was destroyed at the end of the last season as part of a - sadly failed - effort to kill EvilHeda for once and for all, but again, see my comments about hazy memories of season 6.  I think Clarke and Gaia buried what was left at it at the beginning of this season, along with Abby's ring?

[paulvdb]

7 hours ago, quarks said:

As far as a charger goes, this is why Amazon sells those portable solar charger things! Just make sure you're on a relatively sunny planet with your religious nutcase person and you're set!

So not very useful if you're stuck in a cave during a month-long snow storm. Although I suppose those light-creatures in the cave might charge it.

[Taryn74]

10 hours ago, paulvdb said:

So not very useful if you're stuck in a cave during a month-long snow storm. Although I suppose those light-creatures in the cave might charge it.

"You wanna plug what into where?" *slaps across face*