S03.E08: Petra's Favorite Pen

[Cranberry]

Quote

The unit races to rescue a captured ally; Alder and Tally journey to retrieve the First Song.

Original air date: August 9, 2022

[Cranberry]

Dammit, not Lupe Cortez!

I gotta say, that windstrike thing they do really seems to vary in power depending on what the plot requires. Most of the time it seems to toss people around a little, and now all of a sudden it almost instantly kills witches?

Loved Raelle stepping in to save Scylla without having to lift a finger (although what was with the big bad "slaughterhouse" base being in a very unsecure-looking school?), and also loved the (completely unexpected) proposal at the end of the episode. Apparently the ring thing was not scripted:

It's weird, though... the plot is ramping up, but (most of) the big moments have fallen flat for me. Lupe dying, Alder getting trapped, Tally giving up her sight, Nicte stepping in with her bats, young witches being killed, Abigail summoning a hailstorm... these moments just didn't have any weight. I don't know if it's because the plot feels so rushed (Scylla had apparently been captured since "last week" when this episode started, and Tally had apparently been in bed for days when it ended) or because they don't have the budget to make these things look really good, but it's disappointing. I'm still enjoying the show, but I wish it felt more exciting and meaningful.

[william0102]

The pacing for this episode was... very off. We went from Anacostia exiting the diner (the same day the last episode ended on), to a scene where one of the elite soldiers that captured Scylla has been wandering around for about a week. Then by the end of the episode it had already been another week? But also, there had to be time for Alder and Tally to travel to Germany (where the mycellium can't get thru the mountains because of the ice). So this whole episode took place over the course of two and a half weeks at the least amount of time? Lame.

Also contributing to the off pacing was the descriptors we had already been given of "the slaughterhouse". Last week, the elite squad said it's somewhere no witches come back from, they hyped it up again this episode right before the unit left, and then it's a school- with swings. I just... They had their very scary looking football stadium where the Camarilla army was... why not use that set? We already had 3 times jumps this episode, it could have worked and explained why the Cession Army couldn't help much better than "we can't cross the line".  Umm yes, you can cross the line when you are being occupied and killed. You have a literal army, that you hid from the other council members, exactly for this purpose. 

The other thing throwing off the pacing, the stupid Anacostia and Nicte scenes. Why have them play out that way?  Why not have Anacostia making the pardon offer? She's smart she could have tried that against Nicte and it would have been more effective than angrily trying to guilt Nicte into joining. All the characters were hit with the stupid stick this week. But these scenes could have gone better, they still could have had the whole Anacostia driving past the balloon thing, not knowing if Nicte was about to kill her or send her army of bats to look for the marshal, end the episode with that balloon popping and us not knowing the outcome? Is this a rushed attempt at rehabing Nicte? I mean Nicte kills indiscriminately... but I don't blame her what she's become- I blame Alder.

And for the third time this episode, another character hit with the stupid stick... Alder is a steward, Alder should not have been left at the cave in. So they are still two songs short, and supposedly don't know the other location of the body, but Alder did. Tally no longer has her sight to get to the last body. Supposedly, and reasonably, Alder is trapped unless she teleported herself out of that cave to somewhere nearby. Which we've seen her do, so she just straight up left Tally to die of frostbite? Unless Alder stayed at the cave to take back Tally's sight, this was a very dumb decision on the writers' part. And even then, it still is stupid imo, because I don't care about surprises at this point. They are arguably worse off than when they started. But hey, the time we did waste about Tally trying to power up her sight, was so worth it. And I'm gonna be super surprised when Alder shows up at the cabin, or wherever, with some random that she's transferred the other last witch's powers to.

This was a really disappointing episode, especially since last week's had so much unity across all the different witches. Two badass parts though, Raelle rescuing Scylla with a bluff and her reputation, and Petra exploding the stupid general man's heart. Good for her. I love it when the silent and rule following types get to show that they do what it takes to be where they are. The Camarilla, that general specifically, walked themselves into this trap. I'd like to see her using those news crews to her advantage in the next episode. Would have liked to see some follow up on Council member who sold out her other council members follow up. Too much to ask for apparently. I would have traded the stupid stand off where the soldiers died for no reason for that scene though. And yes, it was stupid for Abigail to just stand there and watch them all die when she could have summoned that storm at any time.

I hate episodes where the plot calls for characters to be stupid, especially since we just saw Abigail try to save the marshals last week. If it had only been to move along the story that might have been fine. But Alder's was just for another surprise, as was Anacostia and Nicte's. They were all choices on the show's part, not Abigail so much because we had to use that school set apparently? Although completely bs on the council woman just staying they can't cross the line. Completely effin dumb. Tally's was plot related to an extent, but that just gave us all the wasted time in the first half of the season. Neither of which were good decisions, imo, on the show's part.  But the Alder and Anacostia/Nicte ones are worse. I think this was my least favorite episode of the season so far, excluding the two badass moments.

Edited August 10, 2022 by william0102
I can't type, it's not new lol.

[Cranberry]

It's Ashley's turn for the goodbye interview:

I like seeing how much all the actors truly cared about this show, but I do miss the world-building info we used to get from After the Storm. I wish these were separate interviews.

[william0102]

okay, i cried over that bts

[PurpleTentacle]

Time to make fun of americans trying their hand at german geography: The Harz isn't in northern germany. It's pretty firmly in middle germany. It's even part of the "Mittelgebirge" (middle mountain range). The "middle" coming from it being in the middle of germany. Northern germany doesn't have mountains. But I guess if you squint, it could be northern germany, so I could let that slide.

But then they did a really big dumb, that had me rolling on the floor laughing: They say the mycelium can't reach there, because of the glaciers and there is a witch in permafrost, who has been there for thousands of years. I can't even with that. The highest mountain in the Harz is the Brocken with 1141,2m above sea level. That's not enough to have glaciers and hasn't been since the last ice age.

This is the Brocken:

Do you see any ice? (all the dead trees are from the heat brought on by climate change, not from the cold)

If you want glaciers in germany, you've got to go with the Alps. No idea why they didn't just do that. Seems like they tried to be fancy and failed extremely hard in process.

[PurpleTentacle]

On 8/10/2022 at 5:10 PM, william0102 said:

And for the third time this episode, another character hit with the stupid stick... Alder is a steward, Alder should not have been left at the cave in. So they are still two songs short, and supposedly don't know the other location of the body, but Alder did. Tally no longer has her sight to get to the last body. Supposedly, and reasonably, Alder is trapped unless she teleported herself out of that cave to somewhere nearby. Which we've seen her do, so she just straight up left Tally to die of frostbite? Unless Alder stayed at the cave to take back Tally's sight, this was a very dumb decision on the writers' part.

They did explain that the mycelium doesn't reach there because of the glacier. So no teleporting for her. Why a glacier being there in the first place is stupid: see rant above.

On 8/10/2022 at 5:10 PM, william0102 said:

But hey, the time we did waste about Tally trying to power up her sight, was so worth it. And I'm gonna be super surprised when Alder shows up at the cabin, or wherever, with some random that she's transferred the other last witch's powers to.

Ugh yeah, that is annoying. I get that they had to nerf that power eventually, since it's way too OP, but did they have to do it in the same season they developed it? That's just annoying. At least let her do some cool shit with it first.

[GaT]

Only 2 more episodes, right? RIGHT?????

[Joana]

Ugh, I had such high hopes after last week and THIS is what we get? Seriously, show?!

I'm just hoping the gang are playing the long game with Petra (in fact, I'm pretty sure they are), otherwise it's sheer nonsense. Abigail is way more hardcore than this. One dead soldier and she's ready to give it all up? COME ON. 

You just know Alder is coming back next week or in the finale, so zero suspense about that. And all time spent on Tally's gift was for nothing. Awesome.

The less said about the "Slaughterhouse", the better. Scylla and Raelle are sweet, but I'm not watching this show for the romance, so I wish they'd scale it back a bit. 

But what really made me want bang my head against the wall are Anacostia's dealings with Nicte. It's stupid. It's idiotic. It doesn't make any sense. They're both dead if the Camarilla wins, so it makes absolute sense for them to join forces. LIKE THEY ALREADY HAVE IN THE PAST! Moreover, Anacostia worked together with Scylla while this was still Spree and it was awesome, so there's just no room for hostility between her and Nicte. FIX IT!

Also, isn't Khalida like really powerful? You'd think she'd come in handy in the times of war.