S03.E03: Oh Elayne...

[Cranberry]

Quote

With the Cession Marshal on their heels, the unit splits up; Tally, Abigail and Adil meet an ally.

Original air date: July 5, 2022

[GaT]

Wow, this show had such a good premise to begin with, how did it turn into such crap?

[william0102]

Well, now the president is dead. I hope M survived. We all know the Camarilla did it, but what was up with the mushrooms? Is there some kind of witch bomb that involves mushrooms? Because there's no way they aren't blaming it on the witches. I'm not gonna comment on how the witches thought they secure the WH in less than 12 hours. Especially since it seemed M thought it was the camera crew that did it. Could have used a quick scene of some witches on the lawn talking about barriers or wards, but this episode had other issues with what did and didn't make the final cut.

I enjoyed most of it. I was surprised when mining Camarilla lady reset Hearst's nose, I had got the impression that they were using her for her money/ resources. And was not at all surprised that Hearst decided he deserved witch vocal cords to combat witches. Hypocrite.

Scylla totally did get her and Nicta caught, though I mean nothing was holding Nicta back from leaving. It might have been better if they had split up even more for real once they reached the Cession. It's too bad that we won't get a season of Scylla getting in with the rest of the unit, would have made the reunion/hey you're being held prisoner scene more impactful. I liked it anyway though. It made sense Tally was the one to ask, and I've always bought Scylla's feelings for Raelle; the only weirdness was Abigail willingly hugging Scylla, but I can overlook that.

I'm sad Quartermain was kidnapped, but she's the lady for the job if you need someone to be behind enemy lines. I did see a quick shot of her being held prisoner in the season promo, and I've been excited for the kind of badass stuff she's going to get up to. Little less excited now, what with Hearst getting powers, but I hope she beats the crap out of him.

I don't know if I believe Khalida really left just for Alder. And how did the singer lady die? She was still alive when Abi, Adil and Tally were caught. I doubt Adler had enough mojo/energy to do the job. So were the Camarilla there too? And the mycelium has Alder's part of the seed, maybe Khalida's, and supposedly Tally has whomever's singer lady had stolen. That's not bad considering the unit/witches just keep losing left and right.

[Joana]

What a weird, confusing and ultimately frustrating episode. It seems like they're throwing in a bunch of random stuff and I'm not sure it will all make sense it in the end. Was it even Alder? Who the hell was Elayne? Why did Khalida suddenly do a 180?

I really hate seeing literally all the good guys acting so incompetently. The bickering between Scylla and Nicte was so annoying and you just knew it was eventually going to get them into trouble. Also, why are the witches so powerless against these Marshall guys?

Wade was literally going on a suicide mission and I can't even feel sorry for her. Again, ridiculous she only had a few soldiers to guard her. 

What exactly is Tally's "gift" supposed to accomplish?

This fugitive thing is not working out for me as well as I thought it would. I preferred the show when it was set in Fort Salem and now I hope it goes back to its roots again before it's too late. 

[Cranberry]

I don't think the show is bad -- it's more coherent and interesting than many teen fantasy shows. My main issue with it is that it's trying to cram too much plot and world-building into too little time, and the writers don't have time to delve into all the cool stuff. We shouldn't have to rely on After the Storm or other interviews to understand what's going on. Some of this is due to quick rewrites when Taylor had her car accident (I'm sure she was initially supposed to be in this episode, for example), but the show's always been like this -- I appreciate that they don't toss tons of clunky exposition at us, but they take "show, don't tell" too far sometimes.

I thought last week's episode was a lot better than this one, though. Last week's had a more straightforward plot and it didn't feel like anyone was holding the idiot ball. This week, Scylla and Nicte knew better than to make tons of noise fighting and get themselves caught. I'll give the others a pass as they were basically under a spell (and I really enjoyed Elayne's songs and seeing Tally and Abigail have fun for the first time in ages!), but they stuck around that roadhouse longer than they should have. ( @Joana, as far as I can tell, Elayne was just a witch -- a dodger -- who went around collecting songs and using them to make a living charming tips out of crowds at her shows. I appreciate the hustle.)

I enjoyed New Alder chowing down on those nachos. They looked delicious. Her hair looked great, too.

I still don't trust Khalida, but I don't know if her 180 is due to her being shifty or the writers having to accelerate the plot because this is the final season. She definitely knows more about the union of earth and sky than she's letting on, though.

Speaking of After the Storm:

[william0102]

3 hours ago, Joana said:

What a weird, confusing and ultimately frustrating episode. It seems like they're throwing in a bunch of random stuff and I'm not sure it will all make sense it in the end. Was it even Alder? Who the hell was Elayne? Why did Khalida suddenly do a 180?

Wade was literally going on a suicide mission and I can't even feel sorry for her. Again, ridiculous she only had a few soldiers to guard her. 

What exactly is Tally's "gift" supposed to accomplish?

This episode really did get chopped up because of Taylor's car accident. I don't think it was a bunch of random stuff thrown at the wall, I think it was plotlines seriously smashed together to make episode length. I doubt the president would have gone yolo in one ep. I would bet her speech/death would have been the midseason finale. So what would have been 3 eps got condensed to 1. For some reason I think Khalida would be acting shady either way, but I think we're supposed to be thinking she has mostly changed her mind. This episode she called Abigail her sister. I doubt the show would have tossed out that term lightly.  

Cranberry already covered who Elayne was, but Alder was basically "the Mother" (part mycellium)/ Alder. It was in the After the Storm that Cranberry linked to. I had assumed it was Alder's consciousness brought to "life" thanks to the mycellium and Raelle. Turns out I had it flipped- it was Alder's body, but the mycellium was in control/had Alder's memories.

They get no pass from me on Tally's powers. Maybe a little in how sped up they have to be because of the cancellation, but not otherwise. Tally's sight can help her see future events. I'm sure it's going to be how they figure out how to beat the Camarilla. But otherwise, it's a truly useless power until Tally really gets a power up. She can see a couple days into the future, but she has to be in it. We know from last season, and this ep, that she can see the essence/echo of work. Which honestly, would be a hell of a lot more useful than the sight, but we're not focusing on that for some reason. Someone this ep said the Bellweather unit is the most powerful unit the army has, but they are literally one of the most inexperienced units. They need to focus on Abigail being so tactically sound, and use Tally's sight (the echo/essence part), because that could help them with being on the run. Yet the show isn't.

1 hour ago, Cranberry said:

I don't think the show is bad -- it's more coherent and interesting than many teen fantasy shows. My main issue with it is that it's trying to cram too much plot and world-building into too little time, and the writers don't have time to delve into all the cool stuff. We shouldn't have to rely on After the Storm or other interviews to understand what's going on. Some of this is due to quick rewrites when Taylor had her car accident (I'm sure she was initially supposed to be in this episode, for example), but the show's always been like this -- I appreciate that they don't toss tons of clunky exposition at us, but they take "show, don't tell" too far sometimes.

I really think this show would have benefited better being on Netflix or a web exclusive- the episodes could have run a few minutes longer. This show needs those extra minutes to explain lore. We did get more lore/things explained a bit better in season 2, but there was no way they could ever fully flesh out the lore after they got the cancellation, and that's a shame. This really is one of the better teen fantasy shows, and we know the people making it actually have the details to back it up, it just gets shoved into little videos because of tv time constraints.

That said, I also don't think Netflix would have ever made the show, so I will take those After the Storm videos and be happy that the show is using social media to the fullest extent it can. Honestly, I don't mind the whole "showing", because it's usually magic they are showing us, and I like it when we get to see magic. And the show is giving us the lore, but yeah, I can see how a good chunk of the audience will never see the After the Storms- I know I wouldn't have even know they existed if it hadn't been for Cranberry. I always forget to sub to stuff on YT, and I try to avoid Twitter for my sanity. So thanks again Cranberry, I appreciate all you do.

[Cranberry]

Valerie Anne over on Autostraddle pointed out that in the bus scene: "Shouldn’t the Marshall be able to see Nicte's real face? Or is she wearing a mask on a mask and he only saw past the first one?" 

It's even more complicated than that, isn't it, because her "real" face is actually a younger/undamaged version of her actual face (as she showed Tally last episode), so on the bus she was wearing a mask on a mask on a mask, haha. It's almost certainly because of actor availability, but thinking about it does take you out of the story.

[TiffanyNichelle]

I'm worn out of how the witches keep losing over and over and how there's no real joy left in the show. I need them to get a win somewhere.

[Joana]

11 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

I'm worn out of how the witches keep losing over and over and how there's no real joy left in the show. I need them to get a win somewhere.

A million times this. The biggest pet peeve of mine is when a show enters a period when the good guys just can't win (until some deus ex machina happens and they somehow do). The other is when characters act like absolute morons for no other reason than that the plot requires it.

This show currently has both. Hopefully that changes. 

[Noneofyourbusiness]

On 7/10/2022 at 7:47 PM, TiffanyNichelle said:

I'm worn out of how the witches keep losing over and over and how there's no real joy left in the show. I need them to get a win somewhere.

They already did recently, when they destroyed the chemical plant.

On 7/9/2022 at 2:48 AM, Cranberry said:

Valerie Anne over on Autostraddle pointed out that in the bus scene: "Shouldn’t the Marshall be able to see Nicte's real face? Or is she wearing a mask on a mask and he only saw past the first one?"

The faces must be multi-layered. We do see her putting other faces on while wearing her Kandyse McClure face or the brushed up version of her original face. Not a problem.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Noneofyourbusiness