S01.E09: Isolation

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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Nicky follows a lead that brings her, Henry and Evan to a quiet town in Canada; Zhilan joins forces with Kerwin Tan; Jin and Mei-Li find themselves at a crossroads.

Promo:

Original air date: 6/23/21

[HerkyJerky]

Those were some helluva good batteries in that tape recorder!😮

[thuganomics85]

It's always exciting when Canada finally gets to play Canada instead of various northern U.S. States.  It was the role it was born to play!

So, Nicky's quest involves her going up to the Great White North to find her long lost aunt.  After dealing with both a very determined wolf and various characters played by recognizable American Indian actors (Nathaniel Arcand!  Lorne Cardinal!), she ends up finding her cabin and... she's already dead.  Although apparently someone was around to bury her, it seems.  Oh, and Nicky also finds still working tape recorder and numerous amounts of tapes.  Progress?

Also both Henry and Evan tagged along, wanting to be both Nicky's protectors and chaperones, but they are clearly not needed for either one of those positions (they do succeed as her drivers though!)  At least they had some fun bonding time, even if it did end with some obligatory "We're totally not gay, people!" yucks over sleeping in the van together.

Looks like Althea is going to break her NDA in order to protect her harasser's next potential target.  I'm sure there will be some fallout there, but I'm glad Ryan was supportive and it looks like Dennis will thankfully be there for her as well.

Glad Mei-Li and Jin are back on better terms.

Looks like Zhilan and Tan/Ludi Lin are off to find the next magical weapons.  Well, after they quit getting hot and heavy with each other while staring at the weapons they currently have in their possession, because they're freaky like that! 

[Camera One]

I was intrigued to find out more about Nicky's aunt, so I was a tad disappointed that she was dead.  Hopefully that was just a fake tombstone.  

Nicky's mom gave her an entire box of letters, so I thought we would spend at least an episode exploring that.  But nope, only the final letter and the red panda figurine.  But now we have a whole box of tapes.  Will that information be exhausted in 15 minutes next episode?  Probably, considering the aunt gave absolutely no useful information in her departing message. 

If she came to those super vague generalizations like "Don't carry your burdens alone!", then why didn't she immediately seek out her sister or even her friend the carver?  Oh right, people were after her and she wouldn't want to put her family in danger, which is the exact same predicament Nicky will no doubt face, so great advice.

The writing for this episode was still a tad disjointed with clunky dialogue.  I had to rewind to catch what was being said a few times.  Green fringe coat?  

Does that rich guy's son know for a fact which weapon is at the Myamnar archeological site?  I thought he was just suspicious but then later I heard him mention an axe?  Zhilan's motivation of getting the weapons so she would never be betrayed again is so weak.  You have no friends, so no one will betray you.  Now go get a life.

Gavin got punched and he didn't even get a bruise?  Or did the Writers forget that ridiculous fight happened?  That was needed because... kung fu?  Of course Nicky is a better outdoorsman than Gavin, and she can splint her own leg too.  Gavin and Henry should couple off since Nicky clearly doesn't need them.

I like Shi-fu, but she appeared rather randomly in this one to give Nicky someone to talk to.

I liked the subplot we got with Althea and Ryan.  I hope this show continues to stay grounded like that.  It was also nice they didn't forget that the dad was mad at the mom.

Edited June 24, 2021 by Camera One

[Trini]

Ha! What did I say?

On 6/8/2021 at 10:11 PM, Trini said:

The 'love' triangle is going on a trip together? I feel annoyed already. Let me guess; either Evan and his girlfriend have already broken up by then, or they will by the end of this episode.

Never change CW. (Actually, maybe be less predictable.)

Anyway, the road trip turned out better than I thought. More thoughts later.

[paigow]

There is only one weapon left that is in an unknown location... this cannot be a multi season arc.

[tv echo]

In that dark nighttime scene, when Evan and Henry were lying next to each other out in the woods, I swear that Evan looked 10-20 years older than Henry.  Evan could've passed for a guy in his 30's, while Henry could've passed for a high school guy.

I know that Evan, Henry and Nicky are all supposed to be in their 20's, but I think that part of the 'ick'  factor in the Evan-Nicky relationship (aside from the lack of chemistry) is that he often looks a lot older than she does, while she can pass for a teenager. It's like looking at a teacher with a student when they're together.*

(* I looked up the actors' ages. Gavin Stenhouse is 35. Eddie Liu is 27. Olivia Liang is 28. So in real life their ages are not that far apart. Also, just fyi, Shannon Dang is 29, and Jon Prasida is 24.)

Nicky, Nicky, Nicky. Being driven can be both good and bad. It's good in helping a person reach worthy goals, like a career or justice or whatever. But it's also bad in making a person thoughtless and selfish. Whenever she needs their help, then she's all for getting Henry and Evan involved. But when she doesn't need their help or thinks they'll stand in her way, she abandons them without a word.

Again, I was more interested in Althea's B storyline.

Edited June 24, 2021 by tv echo

[possibilities]

That was some serious wolf slander there. Wolves do not act like that AT ALL. It was so unwolflike that I thought the show had dipped into magical realism and the wolf was going to turn out to be a shapeshifted version of the Aunt, or maybe Nicky would be revealed to be hallucinating.

 

[HerkyJerky]

12 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Looks like Althea is going to break her NDA in order to protect her harasser's next potential target. 

Does anybody else think this may be a set-up by the journalist to get Althea talking?

[tennisgurl]

2 hours ago, possibilities said:

It was so unwolflike that I thought the show had dipped into magical realism and the wolf was going to turn out to be a shapeshifted version of the Aunt, or maybe Nicky would be revealed to be hallucinating.

I totally thought that it would be revealed that the wolf was a hallucination or was possibly some kind of spirit guide or her aunts ghost leading her to the cabin, and it would be ambiguous about if something magical was happening or not, but I guess it was just a normal, but weird, wolf. Why was he wandering around all alone? Was he kicked out of his pack for being so un-wolf like? 

Nicky and her love triangle take a road trip to a place where I am sure that no actor on a CW show has ever been...Canada! So many shows are set in other places but filmed in Canada, its fun to see Canada actually being Canada. The episode had some silly and contrived moments, like the pointless bar fight that existed just to have a fight scene, or how Nicky can instantly find the very specific red panda location that she is looking for (Canada is pretty small right?) with one quick Google search, but it was mostly a good episode. I knew that we would find out that Evan and his girlfriend had broken up, that it would be awkward but not hostile between the guys, even as they admit to both being interested in Nicky, and Nicky would run off to do her own thing eventually. 

I was hoping to meet her aunt one day so it sucks that she's apparently dead, but its also fully possible that she faked her death and left that grave in case anyone came to find her. She did at least leave a tape behind with some information, I guess her being alive would mean that Nicky would have a little too much information. 

The subplot with Althea and Ryan were fun, and I am glad they had more follow up with Jin being mad at Mei-Li. I like that it wasn't all forgotten in just an episode, but that they have now seemingly made up after a bit more time. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I was really hoping that Nicky would get to spend some time with her aunt so I was a bit disappointed that she was already dead.

My favorite part of the episode was Henry trying not to bop along with the song on the radio and Evan telling him that he already saw him doing it.

I kept waiting for Zhilan to get fed up and just murder that guy.

I'm so glad that Althea finally told Dennis what happened. Holding in a secret like that from someone you love can be really painful and stressful. Dennis seemed pretty supportive based on the few seconds that we saw. I hope that we don't see next week that he guilt tripped her with "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" or any other nonsense like that.

[possibilities]

I do wonder why she didn't tell him sooner, though.

I like the idea that the aunt faked her death. Seriously: who could have buried her, if she was so careful that no one knew where she was?

I also wondered why the guy who gave Nicky directions was estranged from his son. Did they explain that and I missed it?

I like Ryan. 

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

33 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I do wonder why she didn't tell him sooner, though.

Probably because trauma, shame, and victim blaming are all real things and it's hard to work through them on your own. Lots of sexual assault survivors keep what happened to them a secret for years. Some never tell anyone what happened to them.

[paigow]

4 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I kept waiting for Zhilan to get fed up and just murder that guy.  give him another scar

 

[Camera One]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I like the idea that the aunt faked her death. Seriously: who could have buried her, if she was so careful that no one knew where she was?

I'm guessing the Shi-fu.  

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I also wondered why the guy who gave Nicky directions was estranged from his son. Did they explain that and I missed it?

I think that was just clunky setup.  They could have skipped the son and have the bar owner tell Nicky that the carver is reclusive and lives in the woods outside of town.

[emma675]

20 hours ago, HerkyJerky said:

Does anybody else think this may be a set-up by the journalist to get Althea talking?

I thought it was either a set up by the reporter or by Althea's old boss/company to push her into breaking the NDA for some reason. I am glad Althea finally told Dennis, although I wish we had gotten to hear that conversation. 

[possibilities]

I understand about not telling anyone, but Althea has already told a bunch of people, AND signed an NDA, without telling her fiance. It makes it look like she doesn't trust him. She almost went public via the reporter, and she still didn't tell him. It's like the people writing the parents and their "you kept a secret from me!" story are on a different show than the people writing Althea's marriage.