The Messengers - General Discussion

[Free]

 

This show is awful! Just awful. The episode where the Devil just has story time was ridiculous. Why did he take so long to come out with the pertinent info? It's like he knew he was on a tv show and had to draw it out. Lead with Rose is a demon bitch.

 

 

The Devil's plan makes no sense. If he hadn't shown up like a creepy creep who creeps, he would have had a much better chance of working with Angels. I still don't understand why he was helping the Horsemen become Horsemen. It all seems to be a lot of work. Why go through making them, just to then aide in tearing them down? It's not like there isn't unspeakable evil in the world already.

 

His motivations makes no sense no matter which side he's supposedly on.  He supposedly needed to align with the Messengers, but he chose to antagonize them from the beginning until 3/4 Horsemen seals broke.  On the other side, you have the Horsemen who don't take him seriously for obvious reasons and have been plotting behind his back.  It was a contrived way to drag out a reveal that had no impact whatsoever, Rose before then was a bland plot exposition dump that lead them from one plot point to another, so the deception falls flat in terms of execution.

 

 

This show would be so much better if the Horsemen weren't evil. They weren't evil in the Bible. I thought that they were just a necessary part of the Apocalypse. I'd prefer if they were zealots of a kind, intent on going through with this because they believed it was God's will. So much more interesting than mustache twirling villains.

 

Exactly, they lack any character traits that differentiated them from one another, they're all the same mustache twirling villains that could easily be interchangeable with one another.

[Free]

ETA: So basically it all boils down to color changing rocks, oh I mean "Genesis element".  The villains are still all cartoon caricatures with no individuality or actual character traits of their own whatsoever.   The Devil's plans still make no sense, Rose is supposedly portrayed as a mastermind when it's just her taking advantage of stupid characters.  Another pointless plot twist, it was always going to be either one of them so it didn't matter who, same with the 7th Messenger reveal.  Oh and more hammered in references with the Devil spelling everything out this time around.  "sibling rivalry", "like Cain and Abel", etc.  The show takes characters from plot point to another but without any reason to care

Edited July 11, 2015 by Free

[ottoDbusdriver]

Since it's been a full month since the last episode, here's a quick recap:

• Rose is the Horseman of Death
• Joshua was brought back from the dead by Lucifer
• Vera and Allan are kidnapped by some guys, and Vera is trapped unconscious in the trunk of a car about to be wrecked in a junkyard.
• Shapeshifter Angel got all her money back from Lucifer
• Team Angelwings is supposed to be chasing these Plowman Brothers who are supposed to be the Horseman of Famine because of drone technology via something called SmartRain.  Why not ?
• Raul got a letter from the DEA saying all charges were being dropped against him
• TeenHulk is still wanted for murder and escaping from lockup, so they aren't all in the clear, but no one is apparently looking for him even though there should be a nation-wide manhunt.

 

As the car crusher crushes the car with Vera in it, Spirit Vera tries to get the crane operator to stop by distracting him -- but then mysteriously jumps back into her body, the car crusher "accidentally" pops the trunk and Vera escapes.  I thought Vera's spirit had to return to her body for her to wake up in her body, but in this case that didn't happen at all.  Because later on at the power plant, she almost dies until she finally finds her body and jumps back into it.  I wish they would just be consistent with the rules they lay out in the show.

 

Shapeshifter Angel has the best solution -- kill both Plowman Brothers, that way neither can become the final horseman.  They really should listen to her more often.

 

There are 4 horseman and 7 seals -- so if each horseman breaks a seal, who's going to break the other 3 seals ?  Just curious.

 

How many characters can say "He's right" in one group conversation ?  They can't all be right.

 

Erin suddenly gets all sanctimonious about killing the Plowman brothers -- umm, they are trying to stop the destruction of the human race.  Pay attention Erin, and stay with the program.  But she's going to have dinner with one of them to learn all their secrets under the guise of being a blogger.

 

Vera finds the abandoned power plant where the Horseman are testing the Evilium in the meteorite, and finds that when her spirit comes close to the Evilium, it stops glowing red and turns blue.  Apparently the Evilium heals Vera when it turns blue.  So she's got that going for her.

 

Joshua, with Lucifer's help, breaks into Vincent Plowman's office and gets into his computer -- and discovers the problem with SmartRain in that it kills all seeds that aren't proprietary Plowman-branded seeds.  I hope they destroy this SmartRain program quickly before Monsanto, Cargill or ADM get their mitts on it.  And Joshua finds a photo of Rose with Vincent Plowman so we know which one is the Horseman (or do we ?)

 

Shapeshifter Angel and TeenHulk show up at the abandoned power plant, while Vera is used as a guinea pig because the Horsemen are threatening to kill Allan.  And because Vera is present during the processing of the Evilium/Genesis element it doesn't blow up and kill everyone in the room.

 

Shapeshifter Angel and TeenHulk get the drop on a security guard -- and make him talk about what's going on.  Later, they free Allan and Vera by Shapeshifter Angel pretending to be the Horseman of War.

 

Erin conveniently eavesdrops on the emergency Plowman brothers board meeting about the devastating effects of their SmartRain program and how its all tied to the IPO making shitloads of money.  But Mark Plowman is having second thoughts, so Vincent forces him out of the company.  Ah, capitalism at its finest.

 

Oh Erin, STFU and just let Raul kill Vincent Plowman.  He's evil and will continue doing evil shit no matter what, regardless of your threat to dump Raul.  But Mark Plowman kills his brother anyway and that turns Mark into the 4th Horseman (you have got to be kidding me) even though Mark was the good brother with a conscious.  But then they retcon it all by introducing how Rose convinced him to be evil.  Sure, whatever.

 

And then the whole group heads back from California to Houston to hang out at the Last Supper bar -- on the same day as the events that just occurred.  Seriously ?  They would have had to drive or take the train -- and its at least 18-24 hours, yet somehow they got back to Texas within a couple of hours.  Those are 'Revolution' level travel shenanigans.  Shapeshifter Angel is still having memory issues from using her power -- I think she forgot how to act.  

 

And the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are all in play and they have a viable sample of Evilium -- and yet none of them seem worried about that fact that the world will be ending shortly.  Is SmartRain still going to be deployed ?  Because that would be bad.

 

Rose demonstrates the power of the Evilium by incinerating a few lab techs for shits and giggles with just a single tiny drop.  And they are going to use the drones and a computer virus to release it somehow and unlock the 5th seal. 

 

To close the episode, Joshua has another vision -- of an airplane in peril and the 7th messenger incarcerated.

[Free]

 

And the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are all in play and they have a viable sample of Evilium -- and yet none of them seem worried about that fact that the world will be ending shortly.  Is SmartRain still going to be deployed ?  Because that would be bad.

 

Sadly it's been like this with each Horsemen/seal breaking, but there's no tension or feeling of impending doom, just get characters to the next plot point.

 

 

I thought Vera's spirit had to return to her body for her to wake up in her body, but in this case that didn't happen at all.

 

Must be the ability of plot convenience.

 

 

I wish they would just be consistent with the rules they lay out in the show.

 

Same here, it's just plot convenience after plot convenience of characters getting bailed out.

 

 

And then the whole group heads back from California to Houston to hang out at the Last Supper bar -- on the same day as the events that just occurred.  Seriously ?  They would have had to drive or take the train -- and its at least 18-24 hours, yet somehow they got back to Texas within a couple of hours.  Those are 'Revolution' level travel shenanigans.

 

This is like Revolution, it's the same repetitive mess and it even has JD Pardo in it.  Characters try to find the next Horsemen, they get in trouble and quickly get out of it, characters fail at stopping them from breaking the seal, then they sulk at The Last Supper, etc.

 

ETA: So Joshua has another vision of an ex-Messenger's grave, some pointless baby daddy drama while the world might end soon, while Eliza leaves her special scrapbook and then gets upset when the Devil obviously steals it and gets her dumbass self killed off when she messes up, the Devil once again and tries and fails to be threatening at all, etc.  By far the most uneventful apocalypse ever, most of the characters don't seem like they care and the rest try to care but lacks any tension whatsoever when they're just going/finding the next plot point.

Edited July 18, 2015 by Free

[ottoDbusdriver]

It's really weird in the previouslies when they show Rose helping out the other Messengers when we've known for several episodes now that she's a Horseman.  And the couple that adopted Vera's son via Lucifer seem to be prominent as well. 

 

And via cellphone video, we find out that the 7th messenger died on a plane when the meteor impacted, and he woke up and became Electro and shocked everyone and the plane, including injuring a Federal Air Marshal.  I'm curious how they found that video on the Internet -- did they Google 'Messenger' ?  It's not like they could use facial recognition from Joshua's vision.

 

And it just so happens that Zahir, the last Messenger, is being held in a high-risk facility right outside of Houston -- how convenient ?

 

Ohhhhhhh noooooooo -- if the 4 Horseman break the 5th seal, millions could die.  Does Joshua really mean like how the Horseman of Pestilence might have killed a 100 people or so at that HMO ?  But millions, I don't think so.

 

Joshua has a vision of a gravestone in the middle of nowhere with the name 'Christoper Dayton' and the dates 1909-1945 on it, followed by storm clouds roiling and a nuclear weapon detonating, followed by a vision of a woman with an upside-down face (did they really blow the CGI budget on this ?) lighting candles at a church that says 'Who can like the beast' and 'And who can fight against it'.  The lip-sync of this woman with the upside-down face is just terrible.

 

Joshua explains his vision -- and claims that the woman with the upside-down face is the Anti-Christ.  Seriously ?  I think he's interpreting that part of the vision way wrong, maybe she's just Tom Tucker's daughter </FamilyGuy>.  I'm starting to think that Joshua is just making shit up.

 

Team Angelwings splits up -- one team to go after the last messenger, and Joshua to go dig up Christoper Dayton.

 

TeenHulk is still macking on Nadia.  Amy is still making scary drawings.  Erin thinks everyone is going to die. Shapeshifter Angel gets a tattoo on her wrist to help her remember.  Sure, whatever.

 

Joshua finds the gravestone and Eliza coincidentally shows up for a chat.  She tells him that Christopher was her healer, and she just happened to be leaving flowers.  Whatever.

 

And Eliza's team 5th seal was the Trinity A-bomb blast -- oh come on, that didn't kill anyone, how could that be the 5th seal ?  Eliza tells Joshua that Lucifer can't kill, only tempt others to kill for him.  Why exactly ?  He's Lucifer dammit. And for some reason the Anti-Christ is more powerful than Lucifer because she can do things Lucifer can't. 

 

Eliza drops off her book o' important Messenger stuff at the base of Christopher's gravestone and leaves it there while she goes for a walk with Joshua, and is shocked that someone stole her precious book (turns out it was Lucifer -- could she really not see that coming a mile away ?).  Oh, that Lucifer !!  While browsing through the book, he spots Amy's picture.

 

And the grand plan to liberate the last messenger is to stake out a detainment facility in the middle of nowhere -- and a car full of people just randomly hanging nearby won't set off any alarms.

 

All of a sudden a black van shows up at the detainment facility -- and the security guys just waves them in.  So, did they kill the actual guy ?  How did they manage to get a vehicle that would be allowed in ? Without being searched/inspected ?

 

Vera goes for a spirit-walk in the detainment facility -- and of course the first cell she checks contains the last Messenger.  The Last Messenger looks non to happy to be served dinner through a straw, but he is able to see spirit-walker Vera.  And they just violated their own rules again -- Vera instantly snaps back to her body without spirit walking back to the van.  If they are going to set rules for the Messengers, they should at least stick to those rules.

 

Here's my problem with Shapeshifter Angel -- not only can she shapeshift her body, but also clothes and accessories.  In this case, a radio earpiece and a gun and holster, and she uses the gun to knock out the first guard they encounter while using the classic 'fake prisoner transfer' from Star Wars.  And that one guard is the only security into the facility.  WTF ?  Did Shapeshifter Angel also shapeshift the security card from this poor bastard ? WTF ?  They really left a lot of, you know, plot out of this episode.

 

Shapeshifter Angel unshapeshifts and can only speak Chinese and has no memory of where she is -- so she runs off right into some heavily armed security guys, and Shapeshifter Angel and Raul get captured.  Never saw that coming. </sarcasm>  That was such a shitty plan based on the assumption of really poor security in a high-risk detainment facility.  And despite the fact the facility has been infiltrated, no one thinks to check the front access area.

 

Meanwhile, back at Raul's house, Amy is sharpening crayons.  Nadia wants to entertain Amy, but Amy only wants to draw.  Probably some more disturbing drawings because Amy is some kind of seer/pseudo-Messenger.  Whatever.

 

Vera takes another spirit walk to talk to the Last Messenger (Zahir) -- and convinces him he's not crazy.

 

Lucifer pays a visit to Raul's house under the guise of Houston cop.  Lucifer notices Amy's drawings.  Seriously, has no one explained what Lucifer looks like to everyone associated with Team Angelwings ?  How does Nadia not know what this guy looks like by now ?

 

During this critical mission at the detainment facility, Teenhulk decides this is the time to talk to Erin about dating Nadia.  Really dude ?

 

Hold on -- Zahir was already on his way from Africa to L.A. to expose the Plowman brothers about SmartRain and was flying across the country when the meteor wave hit him.  Why was he after the Plowman brothers ?

 

Meanwhile, within minutes of being apprehended, the security guys have ran Raul's prints, determined who he is, and have started beating him for information.  Teenhulk breaks down the door to the room and distracts the agent allowing Raul to beat him up with his head and legs.  Then they breakout Shapeshifter Angel.  Where are all the other security guys in this place ? 

 

Eliza gives Joshua a pep talk, tells him to read his scriptures for the answers, blah, blah, blah, lake of fire, kill the Anti-Christ.

Joshua returns to Raul's house and confronts Lucifer to GTFO, but Amy tells them she has to show them her drawing -- and, big surprise, she drew the lake of fire on the wall.

 

They finally make it outside the detainment facility and an alarm finally goes off -- about bloody time.  Raul kills a security guard, last Messenger/Electro shorts out the electric fence, TeenHulk bends the gate open, Electro shocks the cars and the security guards touching them, and they drive away.  But not before TeenHulk gets shot in the back.  I'm surprised he's the only one that got shot -- the security guards are such terrible shots.  But it's no big deal, Erin heals TeenHulk, no big whoop.

 

Raul tells Nadia that he is her father.  Yawn.

 

Lucifer has a chat with Eliza at a bus stop -- he wants her to help him, but she won't so she runs away and flags down a car for a ride.  A car driven by the wife of the couple that have Vera's son.  Eliza gets in and the husband puts a plastic bag over Eliza's head and looks like they are going to murder her.

 

The Horseman of Pestilence lays out a lovely lunch on a picnic table and fires up a laptop with some sort of program tracking airplanes -- and sets in motion a plan to start crashing planes. Whatever.

 

ETA: This is the penultimate episode of the series since it has already been canceled -- and they are introducing new enemies with the Anti-Christ when they already have 4 Horseman and Lucifer to deal with.  I guess they assumed it would get renewed -- talk about putting the cart before the Horseman.

Edited July 18, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[Free]

 

And it just so happens that Zahir, the last Messenger, is being held in a high-risk facility right outside of Houston -- how convenient ?

 

And to add to that, Raul just so happens to know a guy who knows the coordinates/exact locations.  It just comes so easily for them to find people they're looking for.

 

 

ETA: This is the penultimate episode of the series since it has already been canceled -- and they are introducing new enemies with the Anti-Christ when they already have 4 Horseman and Lucifer to deal with.  I guess they assumed it would get renewed -- talk about putting the cart before the Horseman.

 

I guess they realized the Devil and the Horsemen weren't going to cut it, so they tried to add someone else.  This series has already been struggling to keep itself going for the long run.  It's a cycle of the characters just traveling around to get to the next plot point (next Horseman, next Messenger, etc.).  No mythology has been fully established beyond getting characters from plot point to another.  They split up, get into trouble, easily get out of trouble through some contrivance, etc.

 

 

Raul tells Nadia that he is her father.  Yawn.

 

Yup, dumping a useless revelation right in the penultimate episode.

 

 

I'm starting to think that Joshua is just making shit up.

 

He is, just like the writers that use him as a plot device to send characters from one place to another.

 

 

And Eliza's team 5th seal was the Trinity A-bomb blast -- oh come on, that didn't kill anyone, how could that be the 5th seal ?  Eliza tells Joshua that Lucifer can't kill, only tempt others to kill for him.  Why exactly ?  He's Lucifer dammit. And for some reason the Anti-Christ is more powerful than Lucifer because she can do things Lucifer can't.

 

The writers have undermined this character in every single way: no one is taking him seriously, he doesn't have much to do tbh, the Messengers all have super powers while he's just lame, the Horsemen have completely done their own thing, Rose has been the evil mastermind who could actually tempt people, they just introduced a new villain in the 11th hour, etc.

 

ETA: So the finale basically sums up all the problems in this series: exposition dumps, characters just pushed around plot point to plot point, plot conveniences, characters constantly getting captured just to get free again, failing to kill anyone only to fail until the very end, the Horsemen all act the same way as cartoon villains that would've been more appropriate on a Nick/Disney live action show,  etc.

 

The climax ended up being anti-climatic, so they just needed to have faith and not do anything, even though they were already there throughout the series when they were running around chasing the next plot point Horsemen, Messengers, etc.  Oh and the forced cliffhanger only could've worked had they actually set up any mythology instead of having characters running around finding the next plot point.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Free

[ottoDbusdriver]

So, Amy is the anti-Christ and Vera's son Michael is an archangel.  Seriously show ?

 

Joshua has a vision -- drones attacking the Houston airport, of a motel where Michael is with this parents, and all the Messengers burning in the Hellfire.

 

Joshua picks up a fire poker and seriously considers killing Amy, but changes his mind once Erin shows up.

 

The 4 Horseman are being all evil and stuff, while Pestilence is busy hacking the airport security firewalls from a picnic table near the airport.

 

Lucifer supplies Vera with the GPS coordinates of the drone launch site, unfortunately the coordinates he gives her puts the drone launch site somewhere in Northern Ontario, Canada, northwest of Lake Superior.  Come on show, at least try and fake it and get the coordinates within Texas.

 

Rose shows up after Nadia and Amy leave, makes some stupid statement about 'you know what they say, the family that stays together, dies together'.  I don't know anyone who says that, and Rose zaps Joshua and Erin with red rays.

 

Allan picks up Vera's ex-boyfriend (and Michael's father) and they go tearing at high speeds through the streets of Houston.

Five of the Messengers get captured at the Drone launch site, but new Messenger/Electro zaps a couple of security guards and then blasts a power pole with a transformer that causes the power pole to fall on top of Electro.  You would think that Electro would watch out for crap like that.

 

Shapeshifter Angel gets the drop on Pestilence, but then he fires red rays at her as well and knocks her down.  I don't get why she didn't just fire from the ground.

 

Lucifer gets all outraged at the Horsemen for going against God -- so why was Lucifer helping them in the early episodes ?  And all 4 Horseman gang up and actually inflict a little pain on Lucifer.

 

Wow -- that Genesis element moves quickly.  Minutes after being deploye and releasing the Genesis element, huge clouds form over the drone launch site and over the motel near the airport.  Big red thunder clouds.

 

Joshua makes a big impassioned speech about his faith being renewed, and they all huddle and make up a new plan while being held at gunpoint -- and none of the security guards or Rose says or does anything until after they break from the huddle.  And as the Messengers run towards ... something that might stop the Drones ... the security guards open fire and start shooting them.  Except these guards are just terrible shots and slowly take their time to shoot down each Messenger one at a time.

 

Somehow the Drones are nuclear (according to the display in front of Pestilence) and the SmartRain containing the Genesis element is deployed.  Hold on -- if they are just deploying it now, what turned the skies red previously ?

 

And God intervenes with a big lightning bolt from above that somehow stops the drones and the clouds part and the skies clear, as Lucifer looks from under a trailer and says "I knew you we're watching".  And the rain burns up the Horsemen and heals all 7 messengers.

 

Oh yeah, at some point Lucifer picked up Erin's husband from Arizona, brought him to Houston and tried to get him to set the Sunbowl Motel on fire (and kill Vera's son and adoptive parents) so his family would be safe.  And now that it's raining and will put out the fire he started. Whatever.

 

And the rain heals Vera's ex-boyfriend (he was in a wheelchair).  The 7 Messengers finally wake up and celebrate that they finally defeated the Horsemen -- only they really didn't do anything.

 

And as Rose proceeds to die, she tells Vera that this is only the beginning before the bodies of the 4 Horsemen all turn to dust and rise up into the air.

 

So, the adoptive parents died in the fire, but Vera's son Michael survived. Sure, whatever, happy ending.

 

Two weeks later, all the Messengers and their pals are gathered at the Last Supper.  And they all appear to have happy endings, except isn't Peter/Teenhulk still wanted for both murder and escaping from jail ?  How was that plot point just dropped ?  Joshua tells Vera that he thinks Amy is the anti-Christ and must be dealt with, but Vera says his vision must be wrong.

 

As Amy and Michael play catch outside the bar, the ball flies past Amy and is stopped by Lucifer, and as Lucifer presents the ball to Amy he says "Here you go my child".  And the camera cuts to a view of Amy, and her face is upside down and she says "Thank You Father".  Dun-dun-dun-dun !!!

[Free]

So, Amy is the anti-Christ and Vera's son Michael is an archangel.  Seriously show ?

 

Yup, a contrivance to try and drag the series out even further.

 

And the rain heals Vera's ex-boyfriend (he was in a wheelchair).  The 7 Messengers finally wake up and celebrate that they finally defeated the Horsemen -- only they really didn't do anything.

 

Yup for all their abilities, all of the plot points they're pushed to, etc.  They've accomplished nothing throughout the series, they were bailed out by a Deus Ex Machina at the very end.

 

Two weeks later, all the Messengers and their pals are gathered at the Last Supper.

 

Still feels like all the other times they've been there celebrating.

 

Lucifer gets all outraged at the Horsemen for going against God -- so why was Lucifer helping them in the early episodes ?  And all 4 Horseman gang up and actually inflict a little pain on Lucifer.

 

What was his point to begin with?  The Horsemen were the actual villains, Rose basically did what he should've been doing all this time.

 

Shapeshifter Angel gets the drop on Pestilence, but then he fires red rays at her as well and knocks her down.  I don't get why she didn't just fire from the ground.

 

Yet another failed chance, these people have super abilities and yet they're not using it when it should've been the most important.  They're all just captured and bailed out by plot convenience.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Free