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S01.E07: Empire of Light


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Steve blames OA (I feel ridiculous calling her that) and stabs her because his parents want him in reform school? Mm...kay. I would have been on the phone to the insurance company to stop payment on that check before the van left the gas station. This ep was mostly narrative filler. I didn't need the smart kid (name?) to rehash everything we've learned until now.

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On 12/20/2016 at 7:48 PM, numbnut said:

Steve blames OA (I feel ridiculous calling her that) and stabs her because his parents want him in reform school? Mm...kay. I would have been on the phone to the insurance company to stop payment on that check before the van left the gas station. This ep was mostly narrative filler. I didn't need the smart kid (name?) to rehash everything we've learned until now.

French's monologue was painfully long and bad but I did agree with him that Prairie treats her parents like shit.  

Steve stabbing her was so awkward but I assume necessary so we can see the blood reverse back in next ep when they dance.  But he was so contrite about the throat punch it didn't make sense to have him stab her.   Or even be mad at her. 

They act like $50k is $5m.   

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On 21/12/2016 at 4:48 AM, numbnut said:

Steve blames OA (I feel ridiculous calling her that) and stabs her because his parents want him in reform school? Mm...kay. I would have been on the phone to the insurance company to stop payment on that check before the van left the gas station. This ep was mostly narrative filler. I didn't need the smart kid (name?) to rehash everything we've learned until now.

Well i think,its clear at this point that Steve might have some mentall illness. This kind of violence ,especially towards someone who has been so good to him,is completely crazy. I mean his parents are shit for sure but he does need help. 

Edited by theOAfc
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3 hours ago, theOAfc said:
On 12/20/2016 at 6:48 PM, numbnut said:

Steve blames OA (I feel ridiculous calling her that) and stabs her because his parents want him in reform school? Mm...kay.

Well i think,its clear at this point that Steve might have some mentall illness. This kind of violence ,especially towards someone who has been so good to him,is completely crazy. I mean his parents are shit for sure but he does need help. 

He certainly has anger issues but it's weird that his anger is immediately directed at Prairie and not at his parents. I could understand him having misdirected anger at someone in the vicinity of the incident. I don't see him as mentally ill...

Spoiler

...and the series doesn't go down that road -- he seems emotionally stable in the last episode, as his issues with anger, his parents and reform school conveniently vanish.

I have the same problem with all of Marling's movies so far -- in the second half, someone will do something out of character just to advance the story. While she has intriguing story premises, I don't think character development is her strong suit.

Edited by numbnut
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I haven't watched the last ep yet but I also didn't take it Steve was mentally ill.  I thought he was just a small town kid who's bored and using drugs and bullying as poor ways to deal with feelings when he has no real friends or role models.  I thought that was what BBA finally figured out about him.  Though if the blood on Prairie (slightly less awkward to type than OA) doesn't go away next ep, I might change my mind about the pencil stab being just a very awkward writing choice.  

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2 hours ago, numbnut said:

He certainly has anger issues but it's weird that his anger is immediately directed at Prairie and not at his parents. I could understand him having misdirected anger at someone in the vicinity of the incident. I don't see him as mentally ill...

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...and the series doesn't go down that road -- he seems emotionally stable in the last episode, as his issues with anger, his parents and reform school conveniently vanish.

I have the same problem with all of Marling's movies so far -- in the second half, someone will do something out of character just to advance the story. While she has intriguing story premises, I don't think character development is her strong suit.

I think looking at it overall,Steve has certainly not changed much,he hasnt developed much and his attack to Prarie showed that. I feel like Prarie is the one he chanelled his anger to,because she was the first one to show real care and love towards him by trying to understand him. Its like when we hurt the ones we love the most,like when kids say hurtful stuff to their parents even though their parents are not the cause of their pain. Id like to think that Steve connects to her as if she is an older sister which is why he hurt her even though she wasnt the one he was really angry at.

 

To me Steve appears to have a mental illness,because of how the script conveniently forgets his anger issues and then remembers it. Like you said one episode he looks totally fine and suddenly the next he is physically hurting people. So to me this doesnt look much like a teen who is just in a constant state of being angry but more like a mild bipolar situation. 

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On 12/20/2016 at 8:48 PM, numbnut said:

 I would have been on the phone to the insurance company to stop payment on that check before the van left the gas station. 

She said it was a cashier's check, can you stop payment on those?

It being a cashier's check might also cancel out the thought I had earlier in the episode, when she was saying how she wanted to keep the physical piece of paper of the check - well, nowadays, there's an app for that. When you deposit a check through a banking app, you keep the actual paper check, and never give it to the bank. But, I don't know if you can do that with a cashier's check (and there may also be a limit on the amount you can deposit that way). 

Steve stabbing OA didn't make any sense to me, but this show went off the rails as soon as it turned out the big reveal was that a weird hissing lizard dance has magic powers (no matter who does it, apparently). I'm also still deeply bothered by how many real chances at escape they blew in favor of their "movements".

Also, OA's answer to her mother seemed deliberately misleading. "I did it to myself because I'm the original angel" would obviously make her mother think that she stayed wherever she was all those seven years by choice, as part of a cult type thing, rather than being kept in a cage. 

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1 hour ago, LeGrandElephant said:

She said it was a cashier's check, can you stop payment on those?

Whoever issued the check could stop payment in case of fraud, couldn't they?

1 hour ago, LeGrandElephant said:

Also, OA's answer to her mother seemed deliberately misleading. "I did it to myself because I'm the original angel" would obviously make her mother think that she stayed wherever she was all those seven years by choice, as part of a cult type thing, rather than being kept in a cage. 

I'm still scratching my head about the "original angel" premise. If she's the original angel, who was the older lady with half a wing?

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58 minutes ago, numbnut said:

Whoever issued the check could stop payment in case of fraud, couldn't they?

I don't know. Isn't there some type of check that is just like cash, and anyone can cash it, and if you lose it you're out the money? Isn't that what a cashier's check is? I'm not sure. 

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On 2/13/2017 at 0:21 PM, LakeGal said:

Prairie's mother was so worried what people would think of the photo of her.  Yet she slaps her in a crowded restaurant in front of people.  Now that is something people will all remember. 

To be fair, I think her mother lost her patience when Prairie started talking about angels and just slapped her out of frustration, without thinking.

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